Character Derailment/Comic Books: Difference between revisions
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* [[Judd Winick]]'s run on ''[[Green Arrow]]'' and ''Green Arrow/ Black Canary'' derailed quite a few characters.
** Despite having moved on from a [[Dark and Troubled Past|troubled past]] which included alcoholism, rampant womanizing and generally irresponsible behavior and evolving into a loving, responsible father and boyfriend under [[Kevin Smith]]'s pen, Winick wrote Oliver Queen back into the clueless, womanizing, limousine-liberal stereotype many comic fans wrongly saw him as.
*** It is also worth noting that - despite Winick's portrayal of Queen as an unrepentant ladies' man - Oliver Queen [https://web.archive.org/web/20081027074632/http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/4198168.html never cheated on long-term girlfriend Dinah Lance] (aka The Black Canary) before Judd Winick started writing the character. He did father a child with [[Dragon Lady]] Shado, but that was the result of Shado raping him while he was drugged. In Winick's first story arc, Oliver Queen had a one-night stand with the niece of fellow superhero [[Black Lightning]] and later tried to lie about the affair to Dinah Lance. Interestingly enough, the two had never been shown to have officially reestablished themselves as boyfriend/girlfriend until Winick chose to break them apart.
** Dinah Lance (Black Canary), as written by Winick, changed into a [[Shallow Love Interest]] after years of being a confident, independent [[Action Girl]].
** To the astonishment of fans everywhere, the title has actually managed to get ''worse'' since Winick left, highlights of new writer Kreisberg's work including Ollie going [[Darker and Edgier|off the rails]] about how useless nonlethal crimefighting is (despite having dealt with the whole killing thing decades earlier in what's probably his single most famous story and subsequent run), and Dinah's nurturing hero-focused childhood amongst her JSA 'uncles' being [[Retcon|retconned]] into a [[Wangst|Wangsty]] life of ignorant normality until the day she accidentally permanently deafened a friend with her emerging superpower. In order to mirror her incompetent adult use of said superpower, wherein Kreisberg caused her to deafen an innocent bystander in a fight so he could give her a new supervillain. [[Fanon Discontinuity|Reactions have been fairly uniform.]]
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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]{{Dead link}}, 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]].
* 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 (trope)|America]] [http://4thletter.net/2012/01/america-is-now-blood-and-tears-instead-of-milk-and-honey-secret-avengers-21/ condones torture].
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