10 Harmless Comics Villains Who Became Badasses

The Kingmaker is a weird example of a villain who became badass because he was redesigned drastically three times, and only managed to become badass in his third - which totally got rid of the character being both human and Bullseye's dad, and instead went with some straight-up Medusa looking weirdness.

Pryor Cashman goes fully into monster territory with this redesign, feeding off of people's memories and being able to alter them at his will. As a result of this, the Kingmaker is placed in confinement several miles underwater, in a secure facility where his powers can't be used - or, at least not in the way they have been before, as it is suggested that the villain has used his powers in order to create dictators and nightmarish leaders in his past.

While it's perhaps a little over the top to make a character a demon-snake-god with mind powers in order to make them more interesting, it does also admittedly work.