When we think of the term superhero, we think of a character who is altruistic, willing
to sacrifice themselves at all costs for the greater good.
Unfortunately, the reality of it is that there’s a slew of superheroes out there who don’t
fall into that category, and while that doesn’t make us love them any less, there are a few
that, if we crossed paths with them in real life, we probably wouldn’t be overly inclined
to trust them.
That’s how many of their peers feel, too, so today, we’re taking a closer look at
those heroes with our list of the top 10 superheroes who shouldn’t be trusted.
10 Nick Fury
Two words - Original Sin.
That’s the title of the story event in which Marvel fans everywhere were shocked to discover
that Nick Fury wasn’t as noble as we all thought.
Let’s backtrack a second though.
Nick Fury, at least the more contemporary version of the character, is largely associated
with espionage.
The director of SHIELD, there’s a certain level of secrecy constantly surrounding his
work; an image that was further perpetuated by his appearance in the MCU.
Original Sin saw Nick Fury as the man responsible for the murder of Uatu the Watcher, and had
taken his eyes, becoming his replacement, ‘the Unseen’.
The story arc is continuously panned by fans for being one of Marvel’s most disliked
events in recent history.
9 Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch often finds herself on lists like these, in which she’s stated as untrustworthy
because of her history.
Sure, she’s had her struggles with mental health in the comics, and sure, she killed
a bunch of Avengers once because she was having a severe mental breakdown, and yes, she did
alter the fabric of reality and removed almost all of the mutant population’s powers.
All facts.
And all reasons for other heroes to be wary of her at times.
That being said, she’s also one of the most powerful members of the Avengers, and has
proven herself to be a valuable ally.
So she still finds herself on our list because of her history, but of course, take that with
a grain of salt.
And, let’s not forget - the MCU version of the character saw herself locked away in
Avengers tower thanks to Tony Stark, who didn’t trust that she could control her powers, and
therefore, during Captain America: Civil War, was better off kept away than allowed out
and about in public.
8 Quicksilver
Unlike his twin sister, Quicksilver is in complete control of his powers, and is mental
stable.
He’s just a bit of an a$$hole.
Known for being rather selfish at times, Quicksilver takes after his father Magneto more than Scarlet
Witch does.
This is something that really took shape between 1991 and 1993 when Quicksilver was a mainstay
in X-Factor.
His personality began to take shape as a character who was easily irritated and very arrogant,
which writer Peter David would justify as a natural consequence of his powers.
To Quicksilver, the rest of the world is moving in slow motion, which gets on his nerves,
causing him to feel impatient and develop a superiority complex.
Of course, this has resulted in him usually acting out of his best interests, or the interests
of his sister, who often is one of the only individuals that Pietro cares unconditionally
for.
7 Eric O’Grady
Eric O’Grady is the worst.
The character, who was first introduced in Irredeemable ant-Man issue 1 in 2006.
And irredeemable he was; O’Grady’s most defining traits were his immoral attitudes
and behaviours.
The character, who had gotten the Ant-Man suit off of the corpse of his dead ‘friend’,
would go on to hit on his dead friend’s ex girlfriend, and get her pregnant.
He maimed a SHIELD agent with his suit’s jets, burning half of his face resulting in
making him deaf and blind on that side of his head.
He would save women he found attractive, solely so he could take them out on dates afterwards,
and if he didn’t get an invitation back to theirs for sex, he would shrink down and
follow them into their apartments, peeping on them.
He once peeped on Carol Danvers that way.
To add insult to injury, he would constantly renounce his sh*tty ways and claim he was
working on becoming a proper hero, but never really followed through on his vows to change.
Overall, when you’ve got a superhero who uses their power to take advantage of others,
that’s definitely an individual who can’t be trusted.
6 Wally West
Spoilers abound friends - we’ll be discussing events from the 2018 Heroes in Crisis story
arc by Tom King at this number.
Good?
Good.
Heroes in Crisis was Tom King’s attempt at addressing mental health issues within
the superhero community.
In it, there’s a shooting at Sanctuary, a rehabilitation center for superheroes that
was put together by DC’s holy trinity of Batman, Wonder woman and the man of steel.
The whole story is a murder mystery, and, towards the end, we discover that neither
Harley Quinn or Booster Gold, the prime suspects, are responsible.
But rather, it was Wally West, who caused the shooting thanks to his own psychological
breakdown, having been dealing with the PTSD of his entire family being wiped from existence,
and discovering the files of others at Sanctuary.
He was overwhelmed, and in an attempt to cover up his actions, he ran into the future, murdered
his future self, and brought the corpse back to make it look like he was also a victim
of the shooting.
Eventually, the truth comes out, and Wally is locked up in a Justice League prison.
While we understand why he did what he did, the character has become quite unreliable
because of it; wonder how long it’s going to take Batman to get over this and be nice
to him again (remember how long it took him to get over Hal Jordan as Parallax?
YEARS, PEOPLE.
Wally’s got a long road ahead.)
Thing is, this isn’t the first time Wally has lost the trust of other heroes, but this
is definitely by far the biggest instance that’s proven he’s untrustworthy.
5 Zatanna
Zatanna may not have been responsible for a mass shooting of superheroes, but she did
cover up a rape, and tampered with the memories of others.
Identity Crisis is a story arc that came out in 2004, and is somewhat of a murder mystery
itself; it begins with the death of Sue Dibny, the wife of the Elongated Man, and over the
course o the story, it’s revealed that Doctor Light once raped her at the JLA satellite
headquarters.
Zatanna, along with Atom, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen agreed to mind
wipe both of them, which practically lobotomized Doctor Light, turning him into an ineffectual
buffoon.
It’s also revealed that another mind wipe had occurred with their knowledge, with Zatanna
mind wiping the members of the Secret Society of Super Villains.
When Batman finds out all of this, he is NOT cool with it, and we learn that Batman had
his mind wiped as well after objecting to this ‘solution’.
Green Arrow, when confessing to Bruce, also implies that this mind wipe trick has been
used in other cases.
Now, to be fair, other heroes were also in cahoots with her, so she didn’t act alone,
but she was the one who pulled the trigger, so to speak.
And, fun fact - this story arc was a pivotal point in Batman’s history, because from
here on out, he became notoriously more paranoid, largely shaping some of the character’s
behaviour that we’re familiar with today.
Can you blame him?
4 Eros
Starfox aka Eros is another character on this list whose history of sexual harassment and
treatment of those he saves makes him an unreliable individual.
In 2005, he was put on trial for sexual assault, accused of using his powers to seduce a woman
who was happily married.
Jennifer Walters aka She Hulk is his defense lawyer, with her firm having been contracted
by Starfox’s father.
Through the course of the story, Jennifer begins to suspect that Eros has used his powers
on her, too, and he’s banned from the courtroom when he begins to use his abilities to alter
the witnesses’ testimonies.
Starfox’s father teleports him back home to Titan, where he receives another trial,
and The Living Tribunal, whose clearly been watching this like it’s some sort of fascinating
soap opera, intervenes and brings Jennifer on as the prosecuting attorney.
It’s later revealed that Starfox used his powers on She-Hulk to influence her relationship
and marriage to John Jameson.
3 Namor
Namor is another case of a character who always has his own best interest at heart.
But that shouldn’t be surprising; it’s been a defining characteristic for Namor since
his earliest appearances in the Golden Age.
Debuting in 1939, Namor was initially an antagonist created to fight against the then android
Human Torch in a clash of fire versus water.
But while he began as a villain, during World War 2, he would join up with the Invaders,
a team that consisted of himself, the Human Torch and Captain America.
Largely credited as being comics first real anti-hero, Namor often works towards his own
personal goals and the goals of Atlantis, which he rules over.
In bigger Marvel universe-wide conflicts, he often chooses the side that is most beneficial
for him.
Not to say that he isn’t altruistic, but dude just knows what he wants.
2 Sentry
Sentry is a character who, in the story he was introduced in, was established as an unreliable
character right from the get go.
And that’s not because of any sort of selfish or immoral reason; it’s because he has an
evil alter ego living inside of him with enough power to be a massive threat to the whole
marvel universe.
This alter ego, known as the Void, is so strong that Sentry himself agree to have his mind
wiped, along with the minds of the rest of the universe, to forget that he ever existed.
In 2000, in Sentry issue 1, we learn that Robert Reynolds, his civilian alias, begins
to remember being a superhero, and remembers his interactions with other heroes.
It’s later revealed in the series that he worked with Reed richards and Victor Von Doom
to alter everyone’s memories as an attempt to keep the Void at bay and prevent it from
harming anyone else.
It’s the ultimate sacrifice, but unfortunately, his memory comes back, and so does the Void.
1 Hank Pym
If you’re a fan of our channel, you’ve probably heard me discuss Hank Pym on numerous
occasions.
The character, despite being one of Marvel’s oldest and a founding member of the Avengers,
has had a long history of being impacted by poor mental health, and thus has created some
of the biggest controversies over the years.
Even those unfamiliar with Hank’s history have likely heard of ‘Hank Pym Wife Beater’
at some point in time.
It’s also commonly believed that this history is why Scott Lang was chosen to helm Ant-Man
in the MCU.
We could be here all day listing off the things Hank has done that makes him an unreliable
superhero; he’s responsible for creating Ultron, he became schizophrenic and attacked
a foe who had surrendered, he tried to get out of being court martialed by concocting
a scheme that could’ve put the lives of the Avengers in danger, then beat Janet when
she objected to it.
There’s so much more than that, too.
And, most recently, Ultron took over his body, essentially used him as a flesh suit, and
messed with the heroes of the 616 yet again.
Hank feels like a character who has been in a vulnerable position for decades, and is
always taken advantage of, causing more trouble than good.
We feel for you, Pym, we really do.