RPing an Ex-Nineties Anti Hero Atoning For His Misdeeds

[Leliel]

Note: This is for Mutants and Masterminds 3E. Not that it has much bearing, I just thought you ought to know

So, here we have Arlen Pagiel, the Barghest (and yes, he is a partial port of the WoD character of the same real name). Descendant of a family that accepted demonic blood for power, he was just a normal-if nerdy and shy-guy, oblivious to his heritage until his lover was horribly murdered by a vampiric supervillain. Driven by rage and sorrow, he turned to the occult and the arcane to avenge her upon all creatures of the night, awakening his bloodline and inherent sorcery in the process. As the Houndmaster of Hell, he set out to destroy all those who used the night to cover their crimes and monstrosity...

...Until he actually managed to kill the actual vampire who set him on that path. Along with his mind-controlled slaves. And his completely innocent son. And an unlucky shopkeeper. Admittedly, it wasn't his fault, not completely, but he did summon Amon, the Demon Prince of Wrath, so he really should have known better.

It's at that point that he finally realized that "hero" was not a label that applied to him.

By the time the game begins, he's willingly turned himself in and is only allowed out of prison as part of his community service and for good behavior. He really, really wants to make up for all the innocents he's callously put in danger and his "shoot first, immolate second, ask questions never" mentality.

So, how would you play a hero who was originally more like the Punisher, but grew beyond that and became a true-if flawed-hero?

EDIT: You know, that first paragraph was incredibly condescending no matter how much I tried to make it seem more like an explanation. I'm just going to delete it and apologize to everyone.

[Kyuu Himura]

That depends of your view of redemption and how a penitent is supposed to act. He could be a really grim and really gritty guy, being quiet the whole time and trying to put distance between himself and the people around him, afraid that the evil that he knows dwells within his heart may hurt them...
Or he can put a smile on his face, try his hardest to be the nice guy, to get in touch with the world so he can understand what is it he is fighting for, so he can know what kind of person does he want to become and how far is that from who he was and, probably, still is.

So... what I'm really trying to say is, you can be Angel from Joss Whedon or Himura Kenshin from Nobuhiro Watsuki xD
anyway, that's just two possible models, I recomend you take traits from both, penitent-type characters are awesome in my opinion, redemption is a powerful motivation for a man to take a stand and fight the good fight.

[Ravens_cry]

Wow, congratulations, you got me intrigued. This would be also be an interesting way to play a paladin, in my opinion.