Most Egregious Out of Character Moments

[Jim Kelly]

Have you noticed that quite nearly all the offerings in this thread so far originate from the past twenty-five or so years?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Back in 1972, two successive issues of WONDER WOMAN (original run) managed to give the readers whiplash with all the character changes.

The last issue of the mod Diana Prince, 203 (November-December 1972)--with "Special! Women's Lib Issue" on the cover--had our very liberated Diana (an inspiration to millions) say with a straight face, "In most cases I don't even like women." Written by Samuel R. Delaney, maybe he just didn't understand the character as well as Denny O'Neil and Mike Sekowsky who had written most of the mod run--but O'Neil was the editor on this story, so . . .

Then the first issue of the return of the star-spangled Amazon princess, 204 (January-February 1973), saw Robert Kanigher come back as editor-writer. Despite Diana Prince having been called "Wonder Woman" for the last 25 issues, with no secret identity, Diana is unrecognizable as Wonder Woman when she's hired on as a guide at the U.N.--apparently because she's wearing glasses. And her boss thinks she's a Plain Jane but he "could lose her among all the beautiful girls" he's hiring.

The big irony is that both these ham-fisted issues were trying to satisfy Gloria Steinem's desire to bring back the liberated Wonder Woman she remembered from her childhood (for more on that see the first issue of MS. magazine that came out in July 1972).

[Lightning Rider]

Really?? I loved his Wally West in that DCeased issue where Wally evacuates everyone in Keystone to a different Earth. Where else has he written Wally?

HIC, my friend.

[Hol]

HIC, my friend.

Oh my bad! I read the original post too fast. Thought he said Tom Taylor. Yeah 1000% agreed on Tom King.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Morrison's writing of Connor Hawke during Connor's aborted membership in JLA. For crying out loud, Morrison even boasted in interviews that he was going to ignore Connor's characterization in his own book and write him as though he was just like Ollie.

[Timothy Hunter]

Morrison's writing of Connor Hawke during Connor's aborted membership in JLA. For crying out loud, Morrison even boasted in interviews that he was going to ignore Connor's characterization in his own book and write him as though he was just like Ollie.

What are some examples of this?

[Aahz]

Tom King writing Wally West OR Booster Gold.
The man should NEVER be allowed within a 30ft radius of either character ever again.

I think you can extend that to every character that appeared in HiC.

[M L A]

Would have made more sense if it had been Snapper Carr.

You still have the 'former friend of the JLA betrays them' plot but with someone who could have more logically turned into a super villain.

Imagine getting killed by Snapper Carr lmao

[Robotman]

Superman #247

Superman, the champion of the oppressed, tells poor people to pull up their bootstraps. He stops a cruel farm owner from beating an overworked kid and then chastises the immigrants for not trying hard enough.

[Jim Kelly]

Superman #247

Superman, the champion of the oppressed, tells poor people to pull up their bootstraps. He stops a cruel farm owner from beating an overworked kid and then chastises the immigrants for not trying hard enough.

But you don't put those events in context. Superman is being influenced by the Guardians of the Universe. And he's internally fighting with himself about what's best to do. At this point in the story, he hasn't figured it out. Later he does help the people. And even by the end of the story, he's not entirely convinced of what is the best course of action. The Guardians are smugly satisfied with themselves that they've managed to neuter the Man of Steel, by getting in his head.

This also follows after a number of stories where Superman was questioning his role on Earth. He intentionally gives up some of his power in issue 242, because he's not comfortable with having so much power. It might not be consistent with the Superman of 1968, but it's consistent with the Superman of 1971 who was in upheaval.

It's also consistent with the period in comics generally--where screwed up psychology was a big thing with writers. You could throw a rock and be sure to hit a comic book with some character questioning his purpose.

[Dr. Poison]

Can we just say the New 52 Amazons as a whole?

I can definitely co-sign onto that. It was because of that portrayal of the Amazons being man-hating, baby-trading, sex-pirates that some people dropped Wonder Woman and have never came back. That was some seriously disturbing stuff.

[Lightning Rider]

But you don't put those events in context. Superman is being influenced by the Guardians of the Universe. And he's internally fighting with himself about what's best to do. At this point in the story, he hasn't figured it out. Later he does help the people. And even by the end of the story, he's not entirely convinced of what is the best course of action. The Guardians are smugly satisfied with themselves that they've managed to neuter the Man of Steel, by getting in his head.

This also follows after a number of stories where Superman was questioning his role on Earth. He intentionally gives up some of his power in issue 242, because he's not comfortable with having so much power. It might not be consistent with the Superman of 1968, but it's consistent with the Superman of 1971 who was in upheaval.

It's also consistent with the period in comics generally--where screwed up psychology was a big thing with writers. You could throw a rock and be sure to hit a comic book with some character questioning his purpose.

Yeah, I don't think the dialogue in that story is perfect per se, but he's basically encouraging workers to support one of their own and take the fight to their oppressive boss themselves instead of waiting for him to fix it. I don't like an utterly passive, status-quo supporting Superman, but there is merit to the idea that he must better the world from the bottom up.

[Jim Kelly]

Yeah, I don't think the dialogue in that story is perfect per se, but he's basically encouraging workers to support one of their own and take the fight to their oppressive boss themselves instead of waiting for him to fix it. I don't like an utterly passive, status-quo supporting Superman, but there is merit to the idea that he must better the world from the bottom up.

Given this was the first Superman story that Elliot Maggin ever wrote and only his second comic book script, I thought he did a pretty good job.

[SiegePerilous02]

Morrison's writing of Connor Hawke during Connor's aborted membership in JLA. For crying out loud, Morrison even boasted in interviews that he was going to ignore Connor's characterization in his own book and write him as though he was just like Ollie.

I'm not that familiar with Connor outside of Morrison's JLA, but he didn't come across as just like Ollie there.

[Buried Alien]

But you don't put those events in context. Superman is being influenced by the Guardians of the Universe. And he's internally fighting with himself about what's best to do. At this point in the story, he hasn't figured it out. Later he does help the people. And even by the end of the story, he's not entirely convinced of what is the best course of action. The Guardians are smugly satisfied with themselves that they've managed to neuter the Man of Steel, by getting in his head.

This also follows after a number of stories where Superman was questioning his role on Earth. He intentionally gives up some of his power in issue 242, because he's not comfortable with having so much power. It might not be consistent with the Superman of 1968, but it's consistent with the Superman of 1971 who was in upheaval.

It's also consistent with the period in comics generally--where screwed up psychology was a big thing with writers. You could throw a rock and be sure to hit a comic book with some character questioning his purpose.

Agree with Jim. Superman will happily help out people when they're up against something they can't control (such as the earthquake that destroys this village a few minutes later), but he also knows that humanity must deal with the problems that it can. He's humanity's friend, but not its god.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Holt]

I was so glad when Rucka came back and promptly cleaned up Azzarello's mess with the Amazons.