10 Comic Book Villains Who Became Heroes

Seeing the smug billionare face of Lex Luthor as he deals with superheroes is a permanently interesting affair. This is only amplified when Luthor is a good guy, because literally nobody ever seems to believe he has good intentions – which is admittedly pretty fair, when you look at his track record.

While he’s unlikely to have many of the Justice League over to his birthday parties, upon becoming a hero Luthor does some legitimately good work. He builds an entirely new watchtower, and recruits the incredibly powerful Shazam – which, when added to his genuinely good intentions, is a pretty substantial superhero resume in of itself. The JLU allow him in with all the excitement of a kid who has had to bring his dorky younger brother to a party, but the fact he gets in serves as proof for how hard Luthor is trying.

Although he’s inhuman levels of smug about it, Lex Luthor actually is a pretty incredibly effective superhero, when it comes down to it – and much to the suffering of Superman.