The Greatest Personality Flaw of Each Hero

[Lightning Rider]

Wonder Woman can get so caught up in her mission and truth, she doesn't realize some aren't ready or are unwilling to confront their flaws.

That's a good one.

Not really. Dick basically raised Damian when Bruce was dead, also despite not wanting to Dick took on the Batman mantle. He's led several teams over the years and has been several times the undisputed leader in a team of superpowered heroes. And sure he didn't seem to bother with building trust and relationships with the Outsiders when he was with them, but Dick was also severely depressed and emotionally devastated during his Outsider days.

Dick's greatest personality flaw in my opinion is that he holds himself to a stupidly high standard. He tries to match an idealized version of Bruce, and never can. This leads to feelings of inadequacy and Dick feeling like an impostor.

Good points; when I explore why I worded it that way, I think it has to do with his romantic relationships. But I might be wrong on that also.

The imposter syndrome thing is real for him but I feel like he's moved past it. But comics are cyclical anyway.

[DrNewGod]

The Spectre's is easiest in my mind. He has a direct line to the Almighty and therefore his judgment is divine. None can question him, for he is part of the Presence which is supreme in his perfection.

He needs a human host to humble him and provide fear of the Almighty. We're mortal. We fear God. We're the leash he puts on his attack dog he calls the Spectre. We keep him in line and answering to the Presence who prefers to keep a level of abstraction between him and us to allow plausible deniability that he involves himself in our actions. He puts that level of abstraction in a green cloak and makes it thrive on punishing those it seems wicked, and even then the criteria for who will be on his butcher's block are known only to The Spectre and Presence alone for none else deserve to know the mysterious ways in which they move. Ours is to fear and repent, terror matched only by zealous fervor. He may be reasoned with, for doing so still provides him the final judgement, but never questioned.


It's arrogance, full stop.


I may have thought a lot on this and put a pitch together a while back. Maybe. I'll never tell.

Nice. It almost sounds like the way Butcher treated angels in his Dresden books, vastly powerful, but utterly shorn of agency.

[Gaius]

Wonder Woman - Compassion leads her to try to be friends with people who don't deserve it or abuse it (Barbara Minerva, Circe, Superman, Batman, etc).

[Timothy Hunter]

I disagree, Red Robin's biggest personality flaw is not calling himself Fuddrucker's instead of Red Robin.

Underrated comment.

[The True Detective]

Wonder Woman - Compassion leads her to try to be friends with people who don't deserve it or abuse it (Barbara Minerva, Circe, Superman, Batman, etc).

That doesn't sound like a real character flaw to me, as someone who doesn't read her comics so far Wonder Woman's "flaws" mentioned in the thread so far don't seem like actual flaws. Kind of like of someone telling a potential employer during a job interview their flaws are they work too hard and are too nice.

[manwhohaseverything]

Superman: has too many identites..lies constantly to himself and others.Creates this dumb "perfect" persona that can be percieved as fake even if there are version that doesn't feel it.
Batman: exploits weaknesses while being obsessed with control and has no concept of true strength or honor of any kind.
Wonder woman:Nothing..she is too good to know what it's like being a man.
Captain marvel:His idealism and principals can easily cause him to be naive.
Flash:Too melodramatic.
Dick grayson:Just perfect..no need to change.

[The World]

Batman (Golden Age): Ultimately just human going up against all matter of supernatural phenomenon
Batman (modern age): Corporate heiress trying to delusionaly tells himself he's the victim of his story. More brutal to low level mooks than he is to Two Face or Harley Quinn really shows deep down he's just an elite beating down on the little guy to satisfy his victim complex. Satisfies slight tinge of guilt by giving a fraction of his vast wealth to charities he knows will accomplish nothing in the end.

Wonder Woman (Golden Age): Doesn't realize her mission was impossible to begin with
Wonder Woman (Modern Age): Like all American comic book characters that hail from super societies she has a poorly guised superiority complex she confuses with the concept of compassion. Her modern writers constantly tear down old concepts to give her newer "cooler" ones. Increasingly vapid because of it.

Blue Beetle (Jaimie Reyes): An introvert in a world that believes introverted nature is either a sign of weakness, mental illness or both.

Superman (Golden Age): The strongest man in the world with a belief that might makes right. Low boiling point.
Superman (Bronze Age): Superpowered introvert. Idealizes a world he never really knew, frustrated at times with the world that adopted
Superman (Modern Age): Adoptive parents voided him of his own personality. Never really develops into his own person, down to moving his whole family into a farm when he grew up.

Dick Grayson: An ultimately good person with some...believable flaws? Infidelity, ego, inferiority complex to the older generations especially Bruce, desperate to be acknowledge as his "own man", sometimes inconsiderate of the feelings of others, inconsistent temperament. Or at least those were flaws he had before the N52 since then they've tried to restructure him as a generic good guy to balance out the endless glut of anti-heroes that flood the industry. He doesn't really have any flaws any more.

Oliver Queen: Massive hypocrite. Prick.

[achilles]

Power Girl is hasty, too aggressive, too prone to leap before looking. She has a huge chip on her shoulder. And she seems to be hiding a bit of uncertainty that very occasionally pops up, more often hidden by an outwardly confident manner. And she may be too loyal to both ideas and people for her own good.

[Jabare]

Jason Todd- extreme recklessness, lack of planning or foresight

[achilles]

Jason Todd- extreme recklessness, lack of planning or foresight

He should get together with Power Girl, maybe they can form a club. Though PG might have to relax that "No kill except that once" rule of hers a bit.

[Guy_McNichts]

That doesn't sound like a real character flaw to me, as someone who doesn't read her comics so far Wonder Woman's "flaws" mentioned in the thread so far don't seem like actual flaws. Kind of like of someone telling a potential employer during a job interview their flaws are they work too hard and are too nice.

Working too hard and being too nice are flaws because they can lead to burn-out and exploitation, which can then lead to alienation, frustration, and disillusionment.

From a storytelling perspective, the purpose of character flaws is to create conflict and tension. A character being an overbearing prick doesn't mean a damn thing if every other character treats them like the greatest human being to ever live.
Batman's flaws can and have just as easily been portrayed as "I'm just too great at everything I do, and all these other nerds can't handle it."

Wonder Woman's flaws have led to conflict. Her intentions have been misinterpreted as zealotry. However compassionate and empathic she is, she can also be very stubborn and pig-headed. Her devotion to her mission has left her with not much of a personal life and few close friends. Breezing in and out of other people's lives bit her in the ass when Vanessa Kapatelis turned into the Silver Swan. In some stories, setbacks and disappointment have led her to double-down, which only made things worse. And she does have limits where she loses her temper.

[The True Detective]

Working too hard and being too nice are flaws because they can lead to burn-out and exploitation, which can then lead to alienation, frustration, and disillusionment.

From a storytelling perspective, the purpose of character flaws is to create conflict and tension. A character being an overbearing prick doesn't mean a damn thing if every other character treats them like the greatest human being to ever live.
Batman's flaws can and have just as easily been portrayed as "I'm just too great at everything I do, and all these other nerds can't handle it."

Wonder Woman's flaws have led to conflict. Her intentions have been misinterpreted as zealotry. However compassionate and empathic she is, she can also be very stubborn and pig-headed. Her devotion to her mission has left her with not much of a personal life and few close friends. Breezing in and out of other people's lives bit her in the ass when Vanessa Kapatelis turned into the Silver Swan. In some stories, setbacks and disappointment have led her to double-down, which only made things worse. And she does have limits where she loses her temper.

The same Batman who is constantly chewed out and seen as an insane coldhearted control freak? That guy is treated as the greatest human to ever live? News to me. I don't know you deflected and brought him up when I was talking about Wonder Woman but cool. There's no comparison between how the 2 and their flaws are treated by other characters.

His flaws are brought up and harped on all the time by everyone who knows him, it's why "Batfamily member goes on a rant on how much of an ******* Bruce is" is a trope at this point. Other heroes very rarely if ever call Wonder Woman out as harshly and often as they do Bruce. Maybe they do in her own books, I wouldn't know but their JL teammates call him out far more than they do her.

[achilles]

That doesn't sound like a real character flaw to me, as someone who doesn't read her comics so far Wonder Woman's "flaws" mentioned in the thread so far don't seem like actual flaws. Kind of like of someone telling a potential employer during a job interview their flaws are they work too hard and are too nice.

That struck me too. Sorry, but "Wonder Woman is too perfect" isn't a flaw.

[Guy_McNichts]

I already know you won't believe me, but I really didn't bring up Batman as an ad hominem. I was just using him as an example of how character flaws are only as good as the writing, and many characters suffer bad writing.

...and I've lost all interest in this topic, so I'll be ignoring this thread from now on.

[mathew101281]

Superman: tends to want to isolate himself or do everything himself even though there are other capable figures around him. This extends even to family members sometimes.

Batman: Has some sociopathic tendencies that he wrestles with.

Wonderwoman: is to idealistic. Struggles with the divergence between a superhero and a warrior.

Green Lantern(Hal): Head strong and cocky.

Dr. Fate: Can be distant and cold

Zatana: Has the need to make everything showy and flashy.

Powergirl: impulsive and temperamental.