Worst Character Derailments

Some characters have proper character development, where they go through things that make sense to the overall character. Others, on the other hand, end up being written so badly that they become unrecognizable. It can result in the character being damaged beyond repair and hated by the audience. Here is a web page explaining this trope: [URL="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDerailment"]https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDerailment[/URL]

Some examples: Cyclops in X-Men, circa 2003-2016. Also, Felicity Smoak from Arrow.

I'd vote Hank Pym (Ant-Man Giant Man, Goliath, Yellow Jacket). He's never recovered from a singular attempt at injecting some drama into him.

[center]Definitely, my choice would be...

[B][U][SIZE=5]Charmander[/SIZE][/U][/B]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/khH3vyV.gif[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/UUwYAgm.gif[/img]

In the beginning, he was a nice guy. But once he evolved, he became a real jerk! :([/center]

I’m going to clarify and qualify some of my answers.

[B]Magneto[/B] in [U]Grant Morrison’s X-Men[/U] run: This one comes down entirely to how over the top Morrison went with playing him as the villain again, and for trying to kill him off as well. Conceptually, it wasn’t bad, but sometimes Morrison slips into these near-parody level portrayals that over-reach. I’d call this the biggest one in Marvel simply because of how lightning [I]quick[/I] Marvel was to undo this thing that was seemingly impossible to undo.

[B]Wally West[/B] in [U]Heroes in Crisis[/U]: There’s a lot of characters I think the derailing argument could be applied to, including Cassandra Cain and Hal Jordan. But Hal can at least claim to have had someone try to derail him with some ambition and skill, and Cass wasn’t as high profile as Wally. Like Cass, though, there was a clear stubborn insistence on wrecking Wally even after he emerged from limbo; it’s hard not to think of Wally being revealed as the killer in Heroes in Crisis as not being some kind fo power play or statement by DC’s upper echelons against the very Rebirth initiative they’re started with him.

[B][I]All[/I] the new main character for the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy[/B] in [U]Star Wars: The Last Jedi[/U]: There’s a lot of variance here in where they got derailed and how, but I’d say the cumulative effect is behind the Sequel Trilogy failing to maintain performance across all three films, dividing an initially united fanbase, and generally sapping the popularity of all the new heroes, particularly considering their popularity was actually beyond expectations when The Force Awakens came out. Rian Johnson scraped away Rey’s personality to pimp her out to try and sell Kylo Ren as a romantic male lead instead of as the loathsome villain he was in substance, for which he denigrated and misinterpreted Finn so Kylo could replace him in the ensemble dynamic, and whom Johnson apparently thought was too similar to Poe, who he misjudged as a completely different character as well.

Luke got derailed as well, but he also died in TLJ. TLJ took a series that had people excited for a female main character and black male lead, and turned it into a series where you had to be willing to practice prejudice against them in favor of a Neo-Nazi School a shooter and patricide instead.

TROS should have just ignored everything from TLJ.

Anytime, they push NC in the background and insist on him being some religious commentator and pacifist or the friend and confidant only and denying his whole past in the leaders seat.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/YHenq0P.jpg?1[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/XuMVFN4.png[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/m3ynrE9.jpg?2[/img]

[QUOTE=DrNewGod;5726261]I'd vote Hank Pym (Ant-Man Giant Man, Goliath, Yellow Jacket). He's never recovered from a singular attempt at injecting some drama into him.[/QUOTE]
^^^thats a good one.

Me I’ll submit the current state of Marvel’s mutants.

Can we say [B]Frankencastle[/B]?

Tim Drake having his entire supporting cast either killed off or written out in the mid-2000s to make him another bat-orphan and mini-Bruce. DC never understood that what made him a good character was his relative normalcy and how he was different from Bruce. The character has never recovered and should be retired at this point. The only value he has as a character at this point is as Stephanie Brown's love interest. Take that away and all he is is a waste of space.

Hank McCoy: I don't know when this thing with him acting like he's god and it always blowing up in his face really started. Him bringing the 05 into the present was one thing, now he's doing something horrible all the time and it always goes wrong and he never learns. People love to hate him now.

Vision and the Scarlett Witch: They were one of Marvel's premiere couples until Byrne got ahold of them and took out his anger at Wanda having "married a toaster." Neither character was ever as compelling afterwards, and that led to all of Wanda's psychotic episodes.

Magneto. After Claremont spent 50 issues building up his redemption, only for all the editors and later writers to throw it all out the window to bring him back to being a mustache-twirling villain. Now the one thing he's known for is being wildly inconsistent, a good guy one story, a bad guy the next. One of the worst examples of comics 'reverting to the status quo' and preventing any real character growth.

Supergirl/Linda Danvers in Rein in Hell. Suddenly blonde, suddenly an angel again, suddenly insane? It's like this appearance was designed to excuse never bringing her back.

Magik under Louise Simonsen. It seems like a minor thing, but her characterization for the last 30 years has been based on a serious mistake. Simonsen forgot that Magik did not kill Belasco in her origin story and even had her state that she killed him in one issue. Simonsen wrote the character as someone who routinely kills because she forgot what happened in the most pivotal moment in Illyana's life. It's like if someone thought Luke had killed Vader in Return of the Jedi and every appearance Luke ever had afterwards was based on that misconception. Later writers have based their characterizations of Magik more on Simonsen's version than on Claremont's version despite Simonsen's version being one giant mistake.