10 Times Comic Book Heroes Became Villains (In A Big Way)

If controversy could manifest in a physical form it would be, without a doubt, Secret Empire. For those not in the know, Secret Empire basically revolves around Oh Cap’n My Cap’n revealing himself to be a Hydra agent. This kicks off almost immediately, with the chitauri (you know, those space jerks in the first Avengers film) trying to invade Earth. It’s a bit much for everyone, especially as S.H.I.E.L.D’s planet-wide shield (ingeniously called ‘The Shield’) goes down and causes hell to break loose on Earth.

World leaders panic and Cap’n America is given total control of the American military. This is when he shows his ‘true’ colours, turning The Shield back on (trapping the strongest heroes out in space) and systematically taking over the planet in the name of Hydra. He transforms the world all Orwellian style and imprisons anyone with any form of powers whatsoever. He also has a shady cabinet of guys working with him, and they’re all just generally super-dicks.

Plus, the initial alien invasion thing was kicked off by him stealing a baby Chitauri queen, so that’s pretty nasty. We find out that the Red Skull changed Steve Roger’s memories via some sentient Cosmic Cube, but the ‘original’ Cap’n comes back to save the day. He locks Cap’n Hydra in a maximum security prison, and the day's all saved. The last shot shows you that even with his good intentions he’s a villain though. All because of one cliche evil smirk, so he's definitely a bad dude.