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

7. Riddler

Gotham City Sirens Riddler
DC Comics / Guillem March

Here we have one of the coolest reinventions of a Batman character seen to date, but one that was sadly short lived.

The Riddler is one of the Dark Knight's oldest ever adversaries, and while it's true he works better as a villain than as a hero, he's been the subject of countless stories with him in that role. It was with that in mind that, in the wake of Infinite Crisis, the Riddler legitimately reformed.

After being bopped on the head by Shining Knight, Eddie Nashton effectively had a bit of a personality reset. His love for Riddles disappeared - as did much of his memory of his time as a career criminal - but he still felt that need to prove his intellect to all. Not seeing much value in crime anymore, Edward then becomes a private investigator in Gotham, solving all kinds of cases as a celebrity detective - he was even hired by Batman and Nightwing on two separate occasions!

Honestly, 'Detective Riddler' as a concept was absolutely genius and we have Paul Dini to thank for it. Unfortunately, as is the nature of superhero comics, the status quo soon resumed and Eddie went back to being the same old Riddler as before. Booooo.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.