Times Superheroes Broke Their Own Rules

Every superhero has a code—it's what sets them apart from the villains they face. But no matter how noble they might be, living up to those ideals isn't always easy, and if a character fights crime long enough, they're bound to cross some crucial lines eventually. Sometime it happen because of outside interference or control; other times, it's a sacrifice made in service of the greater good. It's happened countless times in the comics over the years, but you don't have to dig through decades of back issues to track these incidents down...you just need our mint-condition, lenticular foil cover guide to the times superheroes broke their own rules.

There was a considerable amount of fan outcry in Man of Steel when Superman decided to kill Zod. After all, Superman is known as the hero who always finds a better way. Interestingly, though, this is one area in which director Zack Snyder was not only true to the comics, but arguably did a better job of portraying the death of Zod.

In John Byrne's Superman #22, the Supergirl of another dimension brings in our Superman to help deal with their dimension's Zod and his two Kryptonian compatriots, who'd been on a horrific murer spree, ultimately wiping out all life on Earth. Their powers had already been sapped by golden Kryptonite, so they weren't actually a threat anymore, but Superman wasted no time executing all of them with their dimension's green Kryptonite (which conveniently didn't affect Superman himself). It was a really, really dark moment for a typically squeaky-clean hero, and it came back to haunt him years later in JLA #35, in which the Spectre, whose job is to punish men for the evil in their souls, points out that even Superman isn't above committing cold-blooded murder.

Wonder Woman, like most of the Justice League, typically avoids taking lives. She's rarely in a position where she has to: she has strength and endurance much like Superman, along with a bevy of magical accessories that includes a lasso that can force people into telling the truth. She never really has to kill out of self-defense—but one time, she committed murder to save the world.

Maxwell Lord once worked with the Justice League, but was secretly plotting to control the group for his own evil ends. He was secretly worried about how metahumans could be a threat to humanity, a fear that was crystallized when Mongul destroyed Coast City, killing Lord's mother. In Wonder Woman #219, Lord used telepathic powers he gained from an alien invasion to control Superman's mind, making Superman attack and kill on command. Wonder Woman put her Lasso of Truth around Lord and asked what it would take to free Superman, to which Lord offered an honest response: "Kill me." Taking him at his word, she snapped his neck. Wonder Woman's actions caused a temporary rift with Superman and Batman, but they eventually found common ground again.

He's more morally gray than most, but Daredevil typically refuses to kill. This is understandable because Daredevil, who is lawyer Matt Murdock by day, knows the dangers of being a one-man justice system—but he still once made an exception for his nemesis Bullseye.

As comics readers know, Bullseye has tormented Daredevil for years. He killed Daredevil's former lover Elektra, and even though she later came back to life, the sting never really went away. Later, he killed Matt's girlfriend Karen Page, and that death was actually permanent. Over the years, Daredevil became more brutal towards Bullseye; at one point, our blind protagonist actually carved a bullseye into his enemy's head. Bullseye eventually committed mass murder, leaving Daredevil feeling responsible for not just killing the guy years ago—so he impaled his old foe in an ironic homage to Elektra's death.

After all that, Bullseye was later revealed to have barely survived (it's the comics!), which was a particularly weird retcon considering Daredevil tried to exhume Bullseye's corpse after the murder.

As a group, the X-Men are surprisingly mixed about killing people. Some characters, such as Wolverine, do it with abandon, while others, such as Rogue and Colossus, become reluctant killers. Nightcrawler has always been a moral center of the group—he's gentle, lighthearted, and extremely Catholic: basically, the last guy you'd expect to kill anyone. Surprisingly, though, Nightcrawler's X-Men adventure started with him killing his own brother.

In the X-Men Annual #4, it's revealed that Xavier discovered Nightcrawler on a busy night. As X-Men fans know, the blue mutant was being chased by villagers intent on killing him because they blamed him for the murder of some local children—murders actually committed by Nightcrawler's brother Stefan. Nightcrawler knew he had to stop his brother, and ended up killing Stefan in the fight. Due to Nightcrawler's demonic appearance, the villagers thought he was behind these gruesome killings, and they would have killed him if Professor X hadn't come to his rescue. Nonetheless, this incident marks one time when the action of the purest and most devout X-Man ended in death.

Charles Xavier spent decades as one of Marvel's most powerful heroes—so powerful that he was traditionally forced to keep his powers in check much more than the average mutant. An immensely powerful telepath and the most powerful mind on Earth, he could read every secret of every person's mind, casually control their bodies, and threaten countless lives if he ever lost control. For the most part, he used wisdom and restraint—but he once made an exception for Magneto, completely wiping the villain's brain.

The incident occurred in X-Men #25, part of the "Fatal Attractions" storyline. Magneto had returned to his villainous ways, leading world leaders to activate the "Magneto Protocols," covering the globe in a forcefield to nullify his powers. Angered, he used a super-powered EMP to wipe out power around the world, killing countless people, and when Xavier and the X-Men traveled to his space base to stop him, Magneto tore all the metal from Wolverine's body.

Finally deciding Magneto was a deadly threat to the entire world, Xavier completely wiped his brain, turning the villain into a vegetable with a weird sense of fashion. Obviously, Magneto would eventually regain his faculties and threaten the world again, but this episode illustrated that Xavier was willing to bend and break his moral code in order to incapacitate his enemies.