Character Derailment/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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*** Then you will be happy to know that shortly after Inertia took on the name Kid Zoom, he got killed off. Yep, he is dead as a doornail.

** When the second Aquagirl (Lorena) was introduced in the pages of Aquaman, she was a resourceful [[Plucky Girl]] with brains who learned to adapt fine to the ocean after she lost her entire family and all of her friends. Once she became a Titan? She became derailed into a horny and mouthy Latina stereotype, trying to play homewrecker to Blue Beetle and Traci 13, while serving little other purpose than to hit on boys, argue with [[The Scrappy|Bombshell]], or get seethed at by a jealous Cassie.

** Some argue that Geoff Johns' changes to Raven have stained her character reputation irreparably. These include having her reborn as a teenage girl (after she spent time in limbo as a golden [[Spirit Advisor]]) who only occasionally retained her original speech patterns and personality (while the rest of the time she had a snarky and broody attitude like her animated incarnation), hooking up with Beast Boy, and saddling her back with the position of being the [[~~Distressed~~ Damsel]] that the team must rescue. Later writers like Judd Winick only made these changes even more jarring.

** Some argue that Geoff Johns' changes to Raven have stained her character reputation irreparably. These include having her reborn as a teenage girl (after she spent time in limbo as a golden [[Spirit Advisor]]) who only occasionally retained her original speech patterns and personality (while the rest of the time she had a snarky and broody attitude like her animated incarnation), hooking up with Beast Boy, and saddling her back with the position of being the [[Damsel in Distress]] that the team must rescue. Later writers like Judd Winick only made these changes even more jarring.

*** On the opposite end, Beast Boy fans have become upset that after having received development in his own mini-series, he started on a gradual decay back to being the team goofball to the point where even his own best friend and younger team members were depicted as talking down to him and considering him to be a joke. The same Beast Boy who became ''team leader'' of the Titans and was considered capable (before executive meddling hit, combined with Geoff Johns deciding the team had "too many adults").

* [[Judd Winick]]'s run on ''[[Green Arrow]]'' and ''Green Arrow/ Black Canary'' derailed quite a few characters.

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** Also, it is debatable whether Vladek's post-Holocaust misanthropy is truly a derailment from what he was during it; there is never any question that he loved Anja (his wife during the Holocaust, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|who committed suicide a few decades after it was over]]) far more than Mala (his wife at the time of writing), so it makes sense that he would be far more compassionate towards Anja. Old Vladek also shows resourcefulness, but because it is unnecessary in his time it comes across as simple miserliness. There are also hints from Vladek's [[Alternate Character Interpretation|possibly rose-tinted]] memories of himself that suggest he might have been somewhat domineering and lacking in sympathy even then.

* [[Batman Beyond (comics)|Batman Beyond]]'s 2010 mini series does this to almost every single character in varying degrees, from Terry forgetting he has a girlfriend and picking up the [[Idiot Ball]] - apparently losing about 3 years of experience in the process - to Bruce suddenly deciding that Terry just isn't good enough anymore and constructing bat robots to replace him. This is without getting into all of the logic and continuity fail that is eeeeverywhere, or characterization like Dick's... which probably classifies as character derailment even taking into account the fact that he spent 30-40 years being bitter and alone, because his characterization is so far from the DCAU starting point (whose characterization is different from his comics counterpart in a fairly substantial way) as to be baffling.

* Not a single mention yet of David Reid? Introduced to the [[Justice Society of America]] as the great-grandson of [[Franklin D Roosevelt|FDR]], Reid joined the team as an earnest but dedicated rookie with a solid respect for the team of veteran superheroes. Then along comes Gog, who transforms Reid into Magog after his brief brush with death. The transformation influences Reid into acting brashly and recklessly, but once he sees what Gog's really about he turns on his master, even {{spoiler|severing Gog's head in the climax.}} In the aftermath, he apologizes to Alan Scott and is seen [http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/3/31566/800810-reid_45.jpg without his trademark eye scar], indicating he's earned a fresh start. So what happens after that? He's quickly [[Flanderization|flanderized]] into a caricature of his [[Kingdom Come]] counterpart in every appearance other than his brief miniseries and ultimately killed off by Maxwell Lord in a [[Pandering to the Base|really ugly death scene]].

* Not a single mention yet of David Reid? Introduced to the [[Justice Society of America]] as the great-grandson of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|FDR]], Reid joined the team as an earnest but dedicated rookie with a solid respect for the team of veteran superheroes. Then along comes Gog, who transforms Reid into Magog after his brief brush with death. The transformation influences Reid into acting brashly and recklessly, but once he sees what Gog's really about he turns on his master, even {{spoiler|severing Gog's head in the climax.}} In the aftermath, he apologizes to Alan Scott and is seen [http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/3/31566/800810-reid_45.jpg without his trademark eye scar], indicating he's earned a fresh start. So what happens after that? He's quickly [[Flanderization|flanderized]] into a caricature of his [[Kingdom Come]] counterpart in every appearance other than his brief miniseries and ultimately killed off by Maxwell Lord in a [[Pandering to the Base|really ugly death scene]].

* ''[[JLA: Act of God]]'' does this to just about ''every single character'' bar Batman, who [[Took a Level In Jerkass|takes a huge level in arrogance]].

* ''[[JLA: Act of God]]'' does this to just about ''every single character'' bar Batman, who [[Took a Level in Jerkass|takes a huge level in arrogance]].

* On the X-Men page linked above, it's been noted that Warren Ellis's approach when writing for mainstream comics lately has been "take a look at past few issues featuring character, extrapolate from there as baseline behavior." If you want any further proof that's the case, then behold as [[Lawful Good|Captain]] [[The Cape|America]] [http://4thletter.net/2012/01/america-is-now-blood-and-tears-instead-of-milk-and-honey-secret-avengers-21/ condones torture].