10 Most Twisted Comic Book Heroes

Superheroes sure have made change in the past few decades, haven't they?

When the idea of Superman was conceived back in the 1930s, the character's creators (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) weren't really trying to create a character with immense depth. They mostly just wanted to explore the idea of one man doing all these impossible yet incredible things. Super strength, super speed, flying, eye laser beams, freeze breath - pretty much anything that the writers could come up with at the time. But the medium has evolved since then.

The days of corny one-liners, silly storylines and goofy costumes have passed. Recently, writers have opted to explore the darker sides of superheroes. Sure, there are still people out there who look to Superman as a great hero, but readers today are more drawn to characters with internal conflict and moral debates.

What if they used their powers unethically? What if they performed questionable acts of violence? What if they were actually just villains pretending to be a hero? We all now know how twisted a person can become when given a sliver of power, but just how far can they step over the edge?

The Punisher has all the makings of a great hero - he just so rarely utilizes them.

After witnessing his entire family getting gunned down by mobsters in Central Park, he decides to put the law into his own hands. He doesn't let the law assess criminals; he instead acts as judge, jury and executioner. Sometimes too much.

So far, he's acted as the executioner for several crime families residing in the New York area, including the Gnucci and Costa Families. He's also tried to lay waste to many working superheroes, most notably Spider-Man, where Punisher made his first appearance.

This character is so unhinged that Marvel made two comic series where he single-handedly takes on the entire Marvel Universe. In Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, he decides that all heroes deserve to die after an Avengers fight causes the death of his family. In Marvel Universe vs. Punisher, he takes on the likes of Spider-Man, Deadpool and even Hulk as ravenous, flesh-eating creatures in a post-apocalyptic world.

Everyone tries to find the good in him, telling him the reason he does what he does is because he wants to make the world a better place. He doesn't; it's all about the punishment. He wants his war on crime. The Punisher is a reminder of what one man can be capable of when he loses everything he ever cared about.