How would YOU explain characters being OOC?

[lalalei2001]

We've had everything from 'the heroes were replaced by AU versions of themselves' to 'the heroes were replaced by Skrulls,' so how would you go about explain Marvel heroes and villains' sometimes out-of-character behavior?

I'd go with the 'a villain was conducting experiments and tainted everyone's water' route.

[Tiamatty]

Different writers focusing on different aspects of the characters in order to make for what they feel will be the best stories they can tell?

[Frontier]

Immortus manipulating people into acting like idiots or more akin to villains to prevent a disastrous future ?

[gurkle]

It's really not that hard if the writer cares to address it.

"Hawkeye, you were so against killing you didn't even want your wife letting her rapist fall to her death! Why are you now OK with killing?"
"I changed my mind about killing because I died in Avengers Disassembled and that changed my outlook on life blah blah blah."

A lot of behavior can be justified just as characters changing their minds as they get older, and then changing back when their new ideas don't work out so well. I do prefer to see writers try to acknowledge the change as a change, instead of just ignoring what other writers did.

[Sighphi]

bad writers and editors not caring.

[LordMikel]

"It was Monday, I hadn't had my coffee yet."

[yet another]

http://www.kleefeldoncomics.com/2016...-morphing.html

[Xelossik]

Remender had perfect solution for this:
"You weren't yourself after..."
simple and it works

[jazzflower92]

They were taking stupid pills.

[Raye]

It's really not that hard if the writer cares to address it.

"Hawkeye, you were so against killing you didn't even want your wife letting her rapist fall to her death! Why are you now OK with killing?"
"I changed my mind about killing because I died in Avengers Disassembled and that changed my outlook on life blah blah blah."

A lot of behavior can be justified just as characters changing their minds as they get older, and then changing back when their new ideas don't work out so well. I do prefer to see writers try to acknowledge the change as a change, instead of just ignoring what other writers did.

Pretty much my thoughts as well. People just change their minds sometimes, it happens. But yeah, a little explanation as to why they changed their minds is good. And could potentially lead to interesting stories.

[Fordel]

People don't change, but shit can change people.

With how much stress and trauma heroes go through, it's a small wonder they aren't all utter basket-cases.

[JKtheMac]

So often these so called out of character moments are actually people not happy that their own idealised version of the character is being underemphasised in favour of the writers one. That version is usually based on a different part of cannon. So the way I deal with it is consider which element of the character they are emphasising and use it to inform what the writer is saying about the character and events.

It would be totally off putting if every time a character was used the writer tried to square the circle of their entire existence (Not pointing fingers but some writers do this with their darlings and it is painful in the extreme.)

[JKtheMac]

It's really not that hard if the writer cares to address it.

"Hawkeye, you were so against killing you didn't even want your wife letting her rapist fall to her death! Why are you now OK with killing?"
"I changed my mind about killing because I died in Avengers Disassembled and that changed my outlook on life blah blah blah."

A lot of behavior can be justified just as characters changing their minds as they get older, and then changing back when their new ideas don't work out so well. I do prefer to see writers try to acknowledge the change as a change, instead of just ignoring what other writers did.

Please Please No!

This is the kind of thing fans can do in their head. Whenever a writer does it I start to worry they are just fans that have been promoted beyond their skill set. If there is story in the contradiction then tell the story, if not, let it lie. If you address everything superficially there are less interesting strands for future writers to pick up on and address properly.

Take the controversial issue over Bobby being gay. If they had written a special explaining every contradiction in cannon we would have absolutely nothing to explore. Instead, regardless how we feel about the issue there are lots of questions to be answered and questions are great story fodder.

[Mike82]

Drugs or PTSD. Or maybe a character is getting into acting and they're stuck in character.

[CraigTheCylon]

Mosaic.

It works.