| abstract
| - The fight's not going so well for our hero. He's wounded and at the end of his strength, and his barely scratched opponent looks down at him and sneers. And then the hero somehow suddenly taps into a massive hidden power source within him and unleashes a can of whoopass on his opponent. It's not exactly the hero any more, though. He's got glowing eyes, some new Facial Markings, different way of talking, some new threads, and a lot less compunction about ripping someone in half. It's his Super-Powered Evil Side. Think of it as the Enemy Within when it's not the enemy, or as Jekyll and super-Hyde. Interestingly, the name notwithstanding, this character isn't necessarily evil- they just seem like it because a superpowerful version of a normal person who has no compunctions about destroying things randomly objectively registers as "evil" on most people's scale. To be technically accurate, this is more of a Superpowered Alter Id -- this personality is the physical manifestation of the character's basic drives, without having to deal with the inconvenience of higher thought process and morality. Although sometimes, this character will actually have traits of actually being evil or even worse. Similarly, this character isn't necessarily super powered either. Often times the liberation from morality make it so the character can go all out. He doesn't need to pull his punches since he's not concerned about killing his opponent, and thus much more of a threat. Keep in mind, of course, that once the Id is out of the subconscious it's not likely to want to go back in. Thus, the hero faces the very real threat of not returning to normal. Generally speaking, though, he's usually safe unless he starts thinking Evil Feels Good. The narrative purpose of having a super-powered evil side is that it provides a way of saving a hero who is otherwise beaten, but without making the hero look disproportionately powerful. It answers the question "why don't they just do that all the time?" with "because then the evil would take over." Additionally, if it leads to a Face Heel Turn, it can serve the same purpose as Good Is Dumb in reverse -- it justifies taking one member of the Five-Man Band or whatever, and making them a match for their entire team while they've given in to evil. The converse of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, since in this case, with great insanity comes great power. One possible variation on this trope makes the Evil Side the original personality. This creates the odd situation of an "Evil" super-powerful monster whose "Good" not-as-powerful personality is dominant for whatever reason. This can sometimes cross over with Beware the Nice Ones and can get into Nightmare Fuel territory. Compare with Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, Jekyll and Hyde and One-Winged Angel. Frequently overlaps with Sealed Evil in a Can and Sealed Badass in a Can. Contrast Heroic Resolve, My Name Is Inigo Montoya, and Helpless Good Side, although that last one sometimes goes hand in hand with this. May be caused by The Corruption. One possible way of Taking A Level In Badass, and in many ways, this is what The Berserker does. Sub-Trope of Enemy Within and Super-Powered Alter Ego Examples of Super-Powered Evil Side include:
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