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* While [[The Joker]] was (save for a stretch during [[The Fifties]] and [[The Sixties]]) always portrayed as a total psychopath, it is generally considered that he crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] in 1988 when, within a few months, he crippled Batgirl for life and beat the second, still-teenaged Robin (Jason Todd) to death with a crowbar, changing his portrayal permanently into a [[Complete Monster]].
* The title character of the ''[[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]]'' comics [[Kick the Dog|punted dogs]] as a hobby (naturally), establishing him quite firmly as an epic [[Deadpan Snarker]] and [[Sociopathic Hero]] that was as amusing and [[Badass]] as those tropes suggest. This continued all the way until the Basanos arc, where in a rather impressive twist the Basanos actually mortally injured him... only for Lucifer to reveal that he had manipulated [[Token Mini-Moe]] Elaine from the start and trick her into dying in his place. He might have redeemed himself later on (bringing Elaine [[Back From the Dead]] helped) but the [[Word of God|writer]] mentioned that he considered Lucifer's destruction of The Mansions of The Silence Lucifer's point of no return, destroying ''billions'' of souls ''because he was impatient''.
** An argument somewhat undermined by the facts that 1) said writer made The Mansions of The Silence look pretty hellish, making the destruction of all those souls almost a [[Mercy Kill]]; and 2) Lucifer's "impatience" allowed him to arrive just in time to rescue his...friends?...from a murderous undead god.
** And 3) It's mentioned you cannot destroy souls. All of the Mansions of the Silence's prisoners will eventually reform. This hardly makes it pleasant, though.
* While the man who would eventually become the Saint of Killers from ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' had already a staggering kill record to his name (among other heinous actions), he was nonetheless a decent human being (at least [[Even Evil Has Standards|compared to most of his murderous peers)]], and for a time lived a life devoid of killing people. However, he finally crossed over when, in the course of [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|brutally avenging]] the peaceful life that he lost, he cold-bloodedly [[Shoot the Hostage|killed an innocent]] for the first time in his life, damning himself to Hell in the process. What came afterwards (including the Ratwater genocide) was merely a formality, as it's arguable that he was too far gone by then. Of course, even this is arguable since the series [[Big Bad]], [[Rage Against the Heavens|God]], is still considered worse. In fact, the Saint of Killers gets a happy ending by ''killing'' God and taking his throne, finally able to rest.
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** From the same series, [[The Man Behind the Man|Haazen]] crosses the horizon when we learn exactly why he warped the Covenant into [[Knight Templar|knights templar]], orchestrated the deaths of hundreds of people, and ruined Zayne's life- purely out of jealousy for Barrison Draay, who he already killed years ago. That [[Start of Darkness]] made Haazen a pathetic, strangely tragic figure - but it also prevented anyone from sympathizing with the present Haazen again.
** Issues 45 and 46 are this for Chantique. Before it was obvious that she wasn't exactly the most stable individual, but these issues showed just how [[Complete Monster|depraved]] she really is. She mindrapes Zayne by showing him 1000 years of pain and suffering, forces him to fight the slave he befriended, mocks him when the slave commits suicide, and she keeps him alive just so that he can drive Jarael away. And it works, with Zayne failing to realize that he was deceived until it was too late. And she does it all to get revenge on Jarael. Those two issues singlehandendly propelled her from [[Dark Action Girl]] to [[Complete Monster]].
*** Also, the little surprise she prepared for her father Demagol. Just these words:
{{quote|'''Demagol:''' "Where are the children? You said they were out here."
'''Jarael:'''"You didn't pay attention. I said they were IN the courtyard" }}
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* In ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', Superboy-Prime was presented as a confused teenager with powers he couldn't control lashing out at people who didn't understand him... until he lost it and killed some [[C-List Fodder]], whereupon he turned into a near-demonic [[Card-Carrying Villain]], excusing his actions by claiming to be "better than those losers".
** For [[Atop the Fourth Wall|'90s Kid,]] it was the moment in ''Countdown'' when he killed the pregnant Lana Lang on an alternate Earth. The end of ''Legion of Three Worlds'' and especially Prime's ''Adventure Comics'' crossover with ''Blackest Night'' gave him [[Character Development]] (regret for many of his actions and realizing that he was just a tool for DC writers to use).
** In one of the ''Infinite Crisis'' lead-ups, ''Villains United'', Alexander Luthor (under the guise of the regular Lex) orders part of his Secret Society of Villains to retrieve a number of people for unknown reasons, chief amongst them the heroes Lady Quark and Pariah (who fought along side him during the [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|original Crisis]]). Alex mocks and '''kills''' Pariah and later uses Lady Quark to power his dimensional tuning fork. Again, they were '''all''' heroes who tried to save the Multiverse together. And in the actual ''Infinite Crisis'', he just kept on going with his despicable manipulations of everyone, including Golden Age Superman.
*** Speaking of ''Villains United'', Deathstroke gets his moment when he guns down a pregnant Cheshire for selling the Secret Six out to The Society. Keep in mind that the Society was Deathstroke's ''own'' team; he was simply [[Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves|rewarding her as a traitor deserves]]. To be fair to Deathstroke, he didn't know she was pregnant at the time.
* Everyone's favorite [[Magnificent Bastard]], [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Dr. Doom]], has plenty of possible [[Moral Event Horizon]] moments, but he is just ''so'' [[Affably Evil]] that his writers are continually forced to quietly retcon each of them thanks to the outrage of the Marvel readers.
** In the prologue to the "Unthinkable" story arc in ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', He approaches his [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]], Valeria, and promises to abandon [[Mad Scientist|Mad Science]] and be with her forever if she'll love him. Eventually, she accepts -- and Doom immediately casts a spell that skins her alive and makes the skin into a new suit of leather armor. This was all a [[Xanatos Gambit]] by Doom, who made a [[Deal with the Devil]] for unstoppable magical power in exchange for abandoning science -- and winning the love of a pure soul and damning said soul to Hell. Please note: Doom didn't even have to break his [[Noble Demon|code of honor]] by lying; everything he told Valeria was [[Literal Genie|technically true.]] Writer Mark Waid stated that the purpose of the story and the rest of the arc was to [[Deconstruction|deconstruct]] Dr. Doom's "nobility".
** Later in the same arc, Doom possessed Reed and Sue Richards' daughter Valerie and kidnapped their son Franklin, imprisoning him in a Hell dimension. Again, in a deconstruction of Doom's supposed 'nobility' and 'honor', Doom, holding Val and showing Franklin in Hell, promised to 'set your child free' if the Four surrendered to him. They did so - and Doom put down ''only'' Val, leaving Franklin in Hell.
** They also tried to do everything with making Doom's former master, Marquiz of Death crossing it one time after another, by doing things like {{spoiler|killing whole universes, murdering Thing's aunt, offering Reed that if he let him kill Franklin, he will spare Earth, Mind Raping Johnny, tempting Reed with chance to save unknown number of alternate Earths by killing him when he was weak, and saying that making Sue choose which one of her children he would kill is a pretty good idea.}} However, there's actually no point in it with this character - fans [[The Scrappy|hate him]] anyway.
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* In the DC miniseries ''[[Identity Crisis]]'' the previously bumbling and mediocre villain Dr. Light is revealed to have raped the Elongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny on the JLA Satellite years earlier. What he was doing there in the first place isn't revealed, nor was it the first time he'd done it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst thing that happened to Sue in the book.
* The Purple Man started out as a low-grade ''[[Daredevil]]'' villain. Then came ''Alias'' (not to be confused with the TV show), in which he humiliated, abused, and tortured Jessica Jones in pretty much every non-rape way available. But he does rape people as well. Just in case there was any doubt he's a total scum bag. He kidnapped women and raped them ''[[Forced to Watch|in front of her]]'' as a way to mock her for being an ineffective superhero. Just in case there's any doubt that he's a [[Complete Monster]]''.
* [[Spider-Man]] villain [[Norman Osborn|Green Goblin]] very famously crossed it when he killed Spidey's girlfriend Gwen Stacy.
* [[The Sandman|Doctor Destiny's Diner of Death]]. JLA Villain John Dee may have [[Kick the Dog|kicked the dog]] when he shot a woman who had been nice to him, but the real proof that he had turned irrevocably evil came next issue. Sure, he would routinely plot to drive the whole world insane back in the silver age, but what he does to those six people over a 24-hour period will keep you awake for days. And the fact that he let the rest of the world tumble into madness at the same time shows that he went for both the macroscopic and microscopic level of sadism. Arguably the cruelest thing he did to those six people was to briefly give them back their minds in the middle of his sick game. When one of his victims demanded to know why he was torturing them, this was his response:
{{quote|'''John Dee:''' ''Because I can.''}}
** This is useful in showing Dream's moral compass: he doesn't care that much, just wanting his stuff back and returning Dee to Arkham. It's also evidence of how the Sandman is not your typical comic. Dream doesn't have a heroic spaz attack, he doesn't beat up Dee, he doesn't even punish him. When it's all over, he gives Dee back the power to sleep. Dee once again becomes an old, addled man in an asylum. He may not have been redeemed, but he's not a [[Complete Monster]] either, even though even your most depraved [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] seldom hold a candle to what he did.
* In ''[[Irredeemable]]'' pretty much the very first thing we see [[Face Heel Turn|former]] [[The Cape (trope)|Cape]] the Plutonian do is incinerate a little girl's mother, baby brother and father in front of her eyes before, it's implied, murdering her off panel. And that's not even the first atrocity he's committed; we learn that he's just destroyed an entire city and murdered a large portion of the population with in it. And horribly murdered more than a few of his old friends (of whom the father was one). He shows no signs of slowing down in later issues, apparently having decided to become the biggest [[Complete Monster]] there is. {{spoiler|Including the complete annihilation of Singapore.}}
** Well, not quite Complete annihilation. He did leave 10 alive.
*** For that matter, the reason he did it makes it even worse. He wanted to become absolute ruler of the world, and Singapore's ambassador wasn't completely honest as to why they agreed with him.
** So, wait, since The Plutonian crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]], that means he's [[Title Drop|beyond redemption.]]
* [[Marvel]] rogue [[Jekyll and Hyde|Mr. Hyde]] was always a violent, brutal thug of a villain, but his true MEH crossing would have to be when he beat the Avengers' butler Jarvis half to death while Jarvis was tied up and helpless. Hyde did this just to hurt [[Captain America (comics)]], who could only watch as the horrible scene played out.
* Another [[Captain America (comics)]] baddie who fits this trope is the Scarecrow (not to be confused with the ''[[Batman]]'' villain). While he was always a criminal who enjoyed scaring and robbing people, when he's captured by Captain America he goes completely over the edge and becomes a sadistic murderer, impaling innocent people with his pitchfork as a means of trying to draw Cap out to stop him. He gets the attention of [[Ghost Rider]] instead, and ends up impaled on his own pitchfork in the ensuing battle. [[It Got Worse]] when the Scarecrow was revived as an undead zombie with the ability to cause fear in his enemies.
* [[Spider-Man|Spider-Man's]] foe [[Master of Illusion|Mysterio]] was an egotistical, second tier villain with [[Large Ham]] tendencies. Then came [[Kevin Smith]]'s [[Daredevil]] arc "Guardian Devil", where Mysterio {{spoiler|tries to drive Daredevil to madness in a scheme that involved the murders of an innocent teenage girl, her parents, a prostitute, and (indirectly), DD's girlfriend Karen Page. To top it all off, Mysterio planned to push Daredevil over the MEH himself by getting him to kill a baby Mysterio had set up as [[The Antichrist]]. At the end of the arc, Mysterio commits suicide, so we don't know if this new borderline [[Complete Monster]] status would have stuck.}} And let's not forget that in order to implicate {{spoiler|the baby as the Anti-Christ, he impregnated the aforementioned virgin teenage girl while she was doped up to see angels. Fortunately the [[Squick|exact method]] was not specified.}} And his motive for all of this? He was {{spoiler|dying of cancer at the time, and wanted to die fighting a superhero. At the time he came up with the scheme his real nemesis Spiderman was AWOL and he didn't think fighting a clone was satisfactory. So he picked Daredevil instead because Daredevil had stopped one of his insurance fraud schemes in the past. His real goal in the end was to get Daredevil to kill him and give him the death he wanted.}}
** An exquisitely cruel one in the ''[[Wolverine|Old Man Logan]]'' non-canon [[Elseworlds|miniseries]]: he tricks Wolvie into {{spoiler|seeing all the other [[X-Men]] as an invading army of supervillains. Wolvie kills them all.}} You could argue the real MEH crossing is the illusion being lifted {{spoiler|in time for him to see the dying Jubilee saying, "Why?"}}
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* Zsasz has always been a [[Complete Monster]], but what really made him do this was using kidnapped runaways and orphans for gladiator matches and dumping their bodies in the river. You know it's serious when the current [[Tyke Bomb|Robin]] is vomiting over what happened.
** To Clarify: The "Current Robin" is Damien Wayne. A character who, in his first appearance, decapitated two of Batman's rogues, assaulted Alfred, and tried to kill Tim Drake at least three or four times. And while he had mellowed out by that point, he was still pretty unflappable.
* Some time during the X-Men Messiah Complex crossover for Bishop. The major incidents are recounted here allowing you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions. It could be that the whole crossover event is one giant Moral Event Horizon for Bishop.
** He waited until the other adult X-Men were away from the mansion pursuing the new mutant baby, the Marauders, and the Purifiers. He then stole some of Cassandra Nova's nano-sentinels and had them take over the O.N.E. Sentinels and set them against the mansion. The kids had to defend themselves against an attempted genocide. Bishop blamed that on Cable.
** Then he, in secret, made it to Dallas, attacked Forge, stole time travel tech, attacked Cable, and blamed Cable for the attack. The attack on Cable is directly responsible for the Marauders getting baby Hope. The panels imply that had the Marauders not attacked, he would have killed baby Hope right then and there.
** Bishop also lied to the X-Men and blamed Cable for his actions, and tried to murder Cable and the baby again and again on Muir Island. His last attack (just after Cable and Hope time-slid away) nearly killed Professor Xavier. And in the subsequent Cable and X-Force titles, He Got Worse.
* [[Vandal Savage]], being an immortal villain in DC Comics continuity, has had several millennia and hundreds, if not possibly thousands, of opportunities to establish himself as a [[Complete Monster]], with just a few of the examples we know about listed on his character page. Of those listed, however, perhaps his most disturbing MEH-crossing candidate is {{spoiler|setting up his daughter Scandal to be raped because [[I Want Grandkids|he wants an heir]]}}.
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