10 Comic Book Villains Who Became Heroes

Sweet action-hero moves aside, the coolest thing about Black Widow has to be the way Marvel took an overused type of character, and made it something entirely new.

Because you’ve seen characters a little like Black Widow around a million times before – that of a highly-trained, emotionally reserved soviet spy, willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their mission. The thing that makes Black Widow different? She’s a hero now. While her character type has seen a lot of use inside and outside of comics, they’re almost exclusively villainous, which is what sets Natasha Romanova apart.

In fact, arguably the only thing more interesting than seeing her as a hero is seeing the process that takes Black Widow from an enemy of the Avengers to one of their most loyal members. Though she’ll never be a girl scout, it’s impressive to see how far Natasha has come since her days of black bobs and fishnet shirts.