My co-worker just asked me this question, and I realized that I really don’t know the answer:
How many superheroes have become supervillains? I could think of Dark Phoenix, although I’m not sure she actually counts, and surely Supes has gone mad at least once in his long comic run, but I couldn’t think of any other examples.
And I don’t mean temporary villain-hood; I mean a (at least semi-) permanent switch. Mystique is an example going the other way - worked with the Hellfire Club, then worked with the X-men for a while.
Why would you say that to a man who has at his disposal a flying horse? That’s just asking for horse manure to be dumped on you from hundreds of feet up.
Hm. RealityChuck, I honestly hadn’t considered him. But then, Ozymandius is rather a prime example of “the villain is the hero of his own story”, isn’t he.
The first Hawk and Captain Atom both took the identity of Monarch, attempting to become tyrants. Hawk eventually renamed himself Extant and attempted to remake the history of universe in his image.
Hal Jordan did a long period as Parallax, though he then died and became the Spectre, and is now alive as a Green Lantern again.
Maxwell Lord, before it was changed to his being evil all along, went from the man behind the Justice League to the villain Lord Havoc.
Batgirl went insane and evil for a period…now she’s back…sort of.
Raven fell under her father’s influence and turned evil, and was killed for it. She’s been good since she came back to life.
Jericho, another former(?) Titan went evil…and died for it… Came back to life good, again.
Both the Swamp Thing and Aquaman, though mostly heros, have bumped heads with the status quo over the mistreatment of nature and the oceans respectively. Green Arrow has occasionally been so anti-establishment that he almost qualifies as a “grudging hero”, only barely on the right side of the line.