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@karthmin I know there are more negative arcs out there, but the only one I can think of is Grant Ward from Agents of Shield (Spoilers for the first 3 Seasons. I haven’t seen past Season 3.)

For the first half of the first season Grant was the uptight, by-the-rules person of the group that ruined everyone else’s fun. But over the season, he loosened up, learned the power of friendship and whatnot, and confessed his feelings for another team member. Then it turns out HE WAS EVIL ALL ALONG!! It was so shocking because he had already had a minor positive character arc! He sacrificed himself for the other team members! (There was even and episode where they fought an artifact that brought of the worst parts of themselves, and he was just extra cranky.) He couldn’t be evil! But he was.

So he had been evil all along, because his mentor was evil and Grant followed his lead. He genuinely cared about the team,  but “caring is weakness” so he deliberately hurts them to make himself stronger. After his evil mentor dies, he becomes the Big Baddie McEvil, and while I don’t think he actually did anything worse than the other villains, it was worse because it was GRANT! Eventually he dies, but an alien parasite takes over his dead body and goes on to do even more evil things, before eventually also dying after a season.

So Grant started out with an negative mindset, but it got worse over the seasons as he got evil-er. I think his ability grew, because he was a match for the entire team after he left it, and they had been all about equal when he had been on it. After the alien parasite took over his body he got WAY more powerful but I don’t know if that counts. His success rate was the “looks like he is going to win until he doesn’t” that most villains have.