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  1. #1
    Astonishing Member Timothy Hunter's Avatar
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    Default Most Inconsistently Written Batman Character?

    It took until the New Fifty Two for Bat writers to correctly write Damian the way Grant Morrison wrote him (*cough* Tony S Daniel *cough*)

    Paul Dini retconned Mr. Freeze to have a tragic backstory, which didn't fit who he had classically been portrayed as in the comics: a crass thug.

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member Jackalope89's Avatar
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    Jason Todd. In his own book, he's quite capable as a tactician and fighter. Outside of it, he's been portrayed as a psychotic villain, broken/angry Robin, a chump, ruthless, a pushover, etc. Say what you will about Lobdell, but Lobdell actually expanded more on him than just "he died, he's angry about it". Honestly, while Morrison normally writes some pretty interesting stuff, he should never write Jason again.

    And same goes for Geoff Johns. Whom I normally like.

  3. #3
    Incredible Member Light of Justice's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    It took until the New Fifty Two for Bat writers to correctly write Damian the way Grant Morrison wrote him (*cough* Tony S Daniel *cough*)

    Paul Dini retconned Mr. Freeze to have a tragic backstory, which didn't fit who he had classically been portrayed as in the comics: a crass thug.
    Oh Damian's case is not that bad. Sure Damian was kinda OOC on Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul and Battle for The Cowl is just plain bad, but there are plenty pre-New52 Damian stories that quite in character, like Street of Gotham, his cameo on Batgirl, Eight Deadly Sins, and many more.

    I don't read all Bat character (like I haven't read Outsider and Batgirl) but for me right now Tim is the most inconsistently written. The poor dude has 3 different codename on 3 different books.
    Last edited by Light of Justice; 11-06-2020 at 11:05 PM.

  4. #4
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    DC seems to love destroying Bette kane's character. Every reboot she loses a little bit of her personality. it's grating.
    "Everything doesn't have to be about fear. There's room in our line of work for hope, too"- Stephanie Brown, Batgirl Vol 3 #5

    "Quit? Like hell I will"- Bette Kane, Beast Boy #3

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    Paul Dini retconned Mr. Freeze to have a tragic backstory, which didn't fit who he had classically been portrayed as in the comics: a crass thug.
    I wouldn't call that inconsistent, the character changed at some point, but since that change they mostly stuck with it.

    And a lot of Batmans villains changed over time. I think if you look at most of his classic villains you will see that they are very differently portrait now, than when they were introduced.

    Of the Batfamily I also think that Jason is at the moment the one who is written most inconsistently written between appearances in different books.

    I think Duke has also a problem, the character can't with a direction for longer than the run of one writer (and with writers changing that frequentl it is hard to tell what actually the definitive take on his personality is).

    Barbaras personality seems also to change depending on the writer.
    Last edited by Aahz; 11-07-2020 at 12:24 AM.

  6. #6
    Astonishing Member LordMikel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aahz View Post
    I wouldn't call that inconsistent, the character changed at some point, but since that change they mostly stuck with it.

    And a lot of Batmans villains changed over time. I think if you look at most of his classic villains you will see that they are very differently portrait now, than when they were introduced.

    Of the Batfamily I also think that Jason is at the moment the one who is written most inconsistently written between appearances in different books.

    I think Duke has also a problem, the character can't with a direction for longer than the run of one writer (and with writers changing that frequentl it is hard to tell what actually the definitive take on his personality is).

    Barbaras personality seems also to change depending on the writer.
    I think Barbara also shifted between being Oracle and returning to being Batgirl.

    We have Oracle, computer savant, who probably has loads of protection for her computer. Then Batgirl of Burnside who gets her laptop stolen at a college party cause she got drunk and it was imperative to get it back. Because of super hero files on it.
    I think restorative nostalgia is the number one issue with comic book fans.
    A fine distinction between two types of Nostalgia:

    Reflective Nostalgia allows us to savor our memories but accepts that they are in the past
    Restorative Nostalgia pushes back against the here and now, keeping us stuck trying to relive our glory days.

  7. #7

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    Damian keeps progressing and regressing. He's nice in Supersons, then he's a sociopath in Teen Titans, then he's a misguided teen in Batman.
    december 21st has passed where are my superpowers?

  8. #8
    Incredible Member Light of Justice's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OopsIdiditagain View Post
    Damian keeps progressing and regressing. He's nice in Supersons, then he's a sociopath in Teen Titans, then he's a misguided teen in Batman.
    Isn't that more like the matter of perspective? Like it makes sense that his teammate saw him as sociopath but Bruce saw his own son as misguided teen. Personally I think that it's not inconsistent writing, but a way to make the story more complex.

  9. #9
    Spectacular Member the1&onlyE.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OopsIdiditagain View Post
    Damian keeps progressing and regressing. He's nice in Supersons, then he's a sociopath in Teen Titans, then he's a misguided teen in Batman.
    I do think Damian is written pretty inconsistent at times, mostly from writers that can't get his personality, but there's a difference between inconsistency because of the writer and because of editorial. Teen Titan's case, for instance, had a lot of editorial interference, they did him "like a sociopath" on purpose to serve an objective. Now however, you see they following another route, so he's a getting the misguided view to fix it.

    Anyway, what I mean is that this whole Teen Titans ordeal is a special case and it needs a different type of analysis.

  10. #10
    Astonishing Member Godzilla2099's Avatar
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    Talia Al Ghul.

    Son of the Demon ties for my favorite Batman Story. Talia was clever, extremely skilled, deadly, but compassionate towards the ones she loved. Not perfect, but made really tough decions

    Or you have the messy version where she's psychotic and drugs her lovers.

    Even the movies flip her character around.

  11. #11
    Astonishing Member Blue22's Avatar
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    It's a toss up between Damian and Bruce for me. Bruce especially, during King's run.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    Paul Dini retconned Mr. Freeze to have a tragic backstory, which didn't fit who he had classically been portrayed as in the comics: a crass thug.
    You know, nobody ever talks about an earlier Len Wein story that portrayed Mr. Freeze in a sympathetic light and trying to cure himself for a two-timing moll he'd fallen in love with. Freeze was as characterized as any other B-lister at the time. Tired of this historical revisionism.

  13. #13
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PurpleGlovez View Post
    You know, nobody ever talks about an earlier Len Wein story that portrayed Mr. Freeze in a sympathetic light and trying to cure himself for a two-timing moll he'd fallen in love with. Freeze was as characterized as any other B-lister at the time. Tired of this historical revisionism.
    Do you happen to have an issue number handy?

  14. #14
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    Batman #308, collected in Tales of the Batman: Len Wein.

    Also, I agree Damian has been flanderized to oblivion and I hate to say it but it started with Tomasi. Tony Daniel is much worse though.

  15. #15
    Mighty Member Bat-Meal's Avatar
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    My pick would be Bruce Wayne. In which case inconsistency is rather inevitable since he's been around for over 80 years and had so many different writers.

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