10 Times Comic Book Villains Became Heroes (In A Big Way)
6. Venom
It's hard to think of a character who's experienced more of a transformation over the last decade than Venom. I'm not talking about his status as an antihero here either, as that was largely cemented during the 1990s when Venom-fever gripped Marvel's readership. What I'm referring to is actually the history of the symbiotes at large, and the epic expansion of the character's mythology.
Starting with Rick Remender and Tony Moore's run on Venom in 2011, Spider-Man's most famous symbiote has undergone a steady but exciting transformation. Remender's book restored the symbiote to the status of antihero by giving it to Flash Thompson, who wielded it as a part of an off-the-books government black ops program.
As Flash strays more and more into heroism, he eventually finds himself joining the Guardians of the Galaxy. In that series, from Brian Bendis and Valerio Schiti, it's revealed how the symbiotes are actually an alien species known as the Klyntar, and that they're inherently noble beings.
The history of the symbiotes has been expanded even further thanks to Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman's barnstorming stint on Venom, with the end result being not just the redemption of Eddie Brock, but of the symbiotes as a whole as well.