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

4. Starro

Starro Justice League No Justice
DC Comics / Francis Manapul

DC fans have had the pleasure of reading several great Justice League comics since DC Rebirth hit the stands in 2016, including an overlooked effort from Christopher Priest and Pete Woods, but one of the standouts has been the prelude to Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV's main Justice League comic: 2018's Justice League: No Justice.

Again co-authored by Snyder and Tynion, but this time joined by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Francis Manapul, No Justice saw the traditional Justice League split off into different teams courtesy of Braniac, who has recruited the heroes to take on the Omega Titans who have spilled into the universe following the fragmentation of the Source Wall.

The teams are comprised of mostly heroes, but a few villains make the cut as well, among them the Justice League's first ever adversary, Starro.

As readers will know, Starro is a starfish shaped alien with terrifying mind control powers who's wreaked havoc across the galaxy for untold years. However, in No Justice, a talk with Martian Manhunter and Starfire leads him to have a change of heart. He uses his immense telepathic abilities to calm a number of shrunken planets held in captivity, before taking on the Omega Titan himself.

Sadly, Starro dies in the attempt, sacrificing himself so that the other heroes could evacuate the planet the Titan was destroying. Starro does live on, however, in the form of Jarro, a spore Batman saved that grew up wanting to be the best Robin ever. And yes, it's just as wonderful as it sounds.

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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.