Most Inconsistently Written Batman Character?

[PurpleGlovez]

To be honest I think Bruce is remarkably consistent, except for the a**hole Batman of the early 2000s and the developmentally-stunted child of Snyder's run. Plus, Tom King's abomination. But, y'know... for the most part.

EDIT: Well, Bruce was definitely a better character before every writer became obsessed with doing their best Frank Miller impression. There definitely is a disconnect between pre- and post-Crisis Bruce, even though some like Morrison have tried to mend the gap.

[Godlike13]

Harley Quinn.

[Bat-Meal]

Harley Quinn.

Oh, good point, she is a serious contender.

[Fergus]

Surprise to see Damian cited. In the past few years [since Rebirth began] only Bruce and Harley have been handled by more writers. Damian at last count has had

Glass
Bendis
Tomasi
Tynion
Taylor
Williamson
Percy
Seeley
King
Esposito
Jurgens
Kelly and Lanzing
Higgins
Moreci
Thompson
Snyder
Russell
Rossmo
King
Rob Williams
Orlando
Manupul
Priest

to name those I can easily recall

Out of those Bendis and Glass are the outliers. Everyone else was consistent and in character.

Writers like King had him cry but he was still consistent.

I think when one consider ALL the writers who have handle them and the multitude of titles they have appeared in since Rebirth Bruce and Damian are quite consistent.

The most inconsistent;

It's a toss up between Jason and Harley.

Their characters vary wildly between titles. Jason isn't even consistent under Lobdell his writer for 9 years or so.

[Oberon]

DC seems to love destroying Bette kane's character. Every reboot she loses a little bit of her personality. it's grating.

This is actually a different topic.

Characters who inconsistently appear - years, and years in between most appearances.

[Light of Justice]

Surprise to see Damian cited. In the past few years [since Rebirth began] only Bruce and Harley have been handled by more writers. Damian at last count has had

Glass
Bendis
Tomasi
Tynion
Taylor
Williamson
Percy
Seeley
King
Esposito
Jurgens
Kelly and Lanzing
Higgins
Moreci
Thompson
Snyder
Russell
Rossmo
King
Rob Williams
Orlando
Manupul
Priest

to name those I can easily recall

Out of those Bendis and Glass are the outliers. Everyone else was consistent and in character.

Writers like King had him cry but he was still consistent.

I think when one consider ALL the writers who have handle them and the multitude of titles they have appeared in since Rebirth Bruce and Damian are quite consistent.

The most inconsistent;

It's a toss up between Jason and Harley.

Their characters vary wildly between titles. Jason isn't even consistent under Lobdell his writer for 9 years or so.

I know right, maybe because Glass's writing is considered extreme case of OOC, but we know that there's editorial mandate that forced the change. Also Tony Daniel (tbh Battle for The Cowl is just plain bad for everyone involved). Bendis....yeah we know that he doesn't like Damian. But overall I think Damian's writing is quite consistent. I even had a fight with someone from twitter that say only Tomasi and Gleason who write Damian right (they didn't even mention Morrison). This is the problem when readers only know Damian from Supersons, even though Supersons can be considered kinda OOC (or Damian fans often say "watered down") version of Damian.

Ironically, the most consistent part of Damian's writing is on start of the story writers will regress him to create conflict or "strong impression" and so the writers can write his "development". More ironically, I think the first writer who use that way is Tomasi. Not that I hate Tomasi, but it bugs me when Damian fans only credit him about Damian's characterization.

[Light of Justice]

Harley Quinn.

Wow look at that, we have our winner

[Aahz]

Also Tony Daniel (tbh Battle for The Cowl is just plain bad for everyone involved).

While Battle for The Cowl is pretty bad, at least in Damians case I'm willing to give it a pass since Damian's personality wasn't really established at that point imo. That happend imo afterwards in Batman and Robin.

In most other stuff not written by Morrison (like Resurection of Ras Al Ghul and Streets of Gotham) from that time he was iirc also to some degree ooc, and Morrison had only written a hand full of issues with Damian at this point.

[Restingvoice]

Harley Quinn.

Her randomness is pretty consistent. Everything else on the other hand...

It's a toss-up between Damian and Bruce for me. Bruce especially, during King's run.

He's consistently serious and hyper capable in King's run, and consistently tunnel-visioned to Catwoman. The inconsistent part would be... hrm... his attention to his family, I guess, between King, Glass, Seeley, Snyder, Priest, Tynion, Williamson...

Seeley and Tomasi's Batman are the family man, not perfect, but a family man
Snyder's Batman is a man at work. World safety is prioritized more.
King is too tunnel-visioned to Catwoman that he has to rely on flashbacks or future view

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.

I've seen two modes on Jason's writing in Rebirth. Red Hood and The Outlaws (outlaw, son, mentor, leader) and snarky brother TM.

[Frontier]

I'm kind of surprised no one's mentioned Joker, but I guess the inconsistencies have been established as being a canon character trait.

[Gaius]

Probably doesn't top the list but Bane's probably up there.

[TheCape]

I'm kind of surprised no one's mentioned Joker, but I guess the inconsistencies have been established as being a canon character trait.

Morrison's explanation is probably accepted by most of the fans.

[Vishop]

I'm kind of surprised no one's mentioned Joker, but I guess the inconsistencies have been established as being a canon character trait.

Welp before 2000s Jokerwas humoristic, charismatic, guy with punchlines character but now he is omniscient, he is not unpredictable he hates Batman, he loves Batman, he is now even involved with Batman's origin. I mean he does everything aside from being true Joker. Currently

[Flash Gordon]

Outside of Grant Morrison (who created Damian) and Patrick Gleason on R:SoB, nobody has gotten Damian "right".

[godisawesome]

Across multiple media - Bane, largely because so many seem convinced making him a big strong dude is all that he needs, and even after stuff like Arkham Origins and Dark Knight Rises, someone at WB made the dumb decision to bring back Stupid Bane for that dumb Hush movie.

In terms of respect offered by DC higher ups... Dick Grayson. It often feels like his star waxes and wanes on a wholly arbitrary manner removed from his most financially successful runs, and considering how astoundingly successful he’s been tied and time again, it feels like someone always winds up coming into power who wants to toast him for some stupid reason.