What DC Character Has Changed The Most From Their Debut?

[Godlike13]

I don't know, still shooting things with guns. Core aspect seems still there more or less. Not sure id call him changed more so then modernized.

[DrNewGod]

I don't know, still shooting things with guns. Core aspect seems still there more or less. Not sure id call him changed more so then modernized.

In attitude and goals, he's changed a lot.

[Vampire Savior]

I think the answer is easily Hal Jordan. No other character in DC that I'm aware of has gone from a cornerstone hero to a hardcore irredeemable villain. And then turned into the Spectre. I guess the next closest would be Wally West, who is another who has been hugely change from how he started, but he still hasn't gone through as big a change as Hal Jordan did. I think that Hal Jordan has been put back closer to how he started makes people overlook this somewhat, but it still happened.

[docmidnite]

I think the answer is easily Hal Jordan. No other character in DC that I'm aware of has gone from a cornerstone hero to a hardcore irredeemable villain. And then turned into the Spectre. I guess the next closest would be Wally West, who is another who has been hugely change from how he started, but he still hasn't gone through as big a change as Hal Jordan did. I think that Hal Jordan has been put back closer to how he started makes people overlook this somewhat, but it still happened.

But we're talking about currently not the just the 9 and a half years Hal went between those 2 temporary phases out of his entire 62 years of existence. Hal's been back to his more original self for the last 15 years and counting. The time Hal spent between those 2 temporary phases is miniscule compared to O'Neil's revamp of Ollie into a liberal SJW hero over the last 40+ years since the late 60's.

[Frontier]

In many ways I'd really have to go with the Martian Manhunter. Originally he was a Martian, unwillingly teleported to Earth, who had no way to get back home. So he set himself up as a superhero on Earth, with a secret identity as a seemingly human police detective. And had a touch of melancholy because he yearned for home.

Now, that's fine in self-contained stories. But once he joined the Justice League of America, and was friends with Superman and Green Lantern (who can travel through space), it just didn't hold together too well.

So they kept changing his origin. The White Martians had conquered the Green Martians in a war, and he be killed if he went back. He was teleported through time as well as space, and in this new time the Martians had all left Mars. Or died off. His evil twin bother destroyed the Martian race with a telepathic fire plague, just as J'onn was being pulled away. Or... we could go on at some length, couldn't we? And once he accumulated so many conflicting origins, writers came along and thought, "Hey, I'll just think of a new one!" (In this he somewhat resembles poor Donn Troy.)

And his powers kept shifting, at least in power level. It's one thing to say a humanoid alien can shapeshift into various human forms of roughly the same size and shape. It's another to decide he can shapeshift into anything, from a cat to a huge Lovecraftian monster. (I'm not saying "it's impossible," I'm saying it changes the tone of the character a great deal.) It's one thing to say he has telepathy, so he doesn't have a problem not knowing Earth languages. It's another to use him as the telepathic core of the whole JLA, no matter how far they're separated, and - have I seen this? - having him telepathically influence the whole planet. I mean, power inflation is a thing, but he's got so many powers to start with that it gets a little difficult to describe the core of the character.

Oh, yeah, and it turns out that his true form is this weird Gumby-like creature, and he only took on the form we were familiar with since 1955 to put humans at ease. (Which raises the question of why he went for green and hairless, when he could have just put people at ease by looking like a human being.)

In the past 15 or 20 years he's been given so many backstories that I have little idea, when I see him in the JLA, exactly who he is supposed to be.

I always just use "the last Green Martian who is the pensive, stalwart, center of the League with some serious telepathic and shapeshifting powers" as my baseline and it works for the most part. But that's just me...

[SuperX]

Conner Kent, who started as the metropolis kid, SB, Karl grummett, kon-el.

Human clone changed into the closests thing to a kryptonian, but with tactile telekinesis, now he is a hybrid with both actual DNA types and all supermans powers.

Went from cool cocky kid to mature and almost emo kid

[Midnight_v]

The Creeper.


I'm not even sure where or... what he is right now.

Probably Solomon Grundy as well. . .

[DrNewGod]

The Creeper.


I'm not even sure where or... what he is right now.

Probably Solomon Grundy as well. . .

Can't speak to The Creeper, but yah, Solomon Grundy has careened all over the place.

[Flash Gordon]

Superman, 100%

It's been subtle, but the "modern" character has little to nothing in common with his roots.

[krazijoe]

Jessica Cruz. In a short time she's gone from being agoraphobic or just about afraid of everything to becoming a cult hero badass.

[gorosaurus]

Yes, the Creeper went from hero to villain- he is an actual demon now and sided with the bad guys in Doomsday clock. Also seems to have green skin in The Unkillables.
So he went from cool Ditko created hero to cheap Joker knockoff.