Most Depressing DC Character

[Robotman]

The Doom Patrol characters are pretty damn depressing.

[SJNeal]

Depressing to whom? The readers, or the characters themselves?

Seeing Harley-frickin'-Quinn's face plastered everywhere gets me pretty depressed, but I doubt anyone would label the character herself as "depressed".

[Lightning Rider]

Bruce is pretty depressing. He doesn't always have to be and I enjoy when he isn't, but all things considered, his history is full of trauma.

His parents' death is a recurring theme with no healthy resolution.
He displays OCD tendencies and dysfunction in his closest relationships.
He's lost his biological son once, his adopted son Jason (and worse, seen him come back as a villain), lost Tim, and saw Barbara crippled.
His most memorable story (TDKR) is about a broken old man with nothing left to lose living in a society that has criminalized him.
Love and happiness forever elude him.
Gotham's levels of crime and the terror of the Joker seem permanently destined to haunt him.

They've given us very little reason to want to be Bruce, once the thrill of springing some tactical plan or kicking a bunch of spooked ass in an alleyway is stripped away.

[CryNotWolf]

Bruce is pretty depressing. He doesn't always have to be and I enjoy when he isn't, but all things considered, his history is full of trauma.

His parents' death is a recurring theme with no healthy resolution.
He displays OCD tendencies and dysfunction in his closest relationships.
He's lost his biological son once, his adopted son Jason (and worse, seen him come back as a villain), lost Tim, and saw Barbara crippled.
His most memorable story (TDKR) is about a broken old man with nothing left to lose living in a society that has criminalized him.
Love and happiness forever elude him.
Gotham's levels of crime and the terror of the Joker seem permanently destined to haunt him.

They've given us very little reason to want to be Bruce, once the thrill of springing some tactical plan or kicking a bunch of spooked ass in an alleyway is stripped away.

It's worth noting that Grant Morrison has gone on record saying that he never wants to write Batman again because of how depressed it made him.

[TheSupernaut]

Rebirth Wally West and Donna Troy are my picks.

[silly]

Depressing to whom? The readers, or the characters themselves?

Seeing Harley-frickin'-Quinn's face plastered everywhere gets me pretty depressed, but I doubt anyone would label the character herself as "depressed".

glad i'm not the only one.

[BatmanJones]

Being depressing is Darkseid's superpower. I'm surprised no one's mentioned him yet. The Anti-Life Equation is existential depression.

[Red obin]

Currently, Stephanie Brown...

Yeah, I'm enjoying the direction but it goes completely against her character.
One year later Tim- especially in TT. He lost his dad, best friend and girl friend in a couple of real world years which in comics is just a few months.

[Lightning Rider]

Being depressing is Darkseid's superpower. I'm surprised no one's mentioned him yet. The Anti-Life Equation is existential depression.

Good call. Few things seem worse than living under his reign.

[Slaughter]

Good one.

My pick is Pariah. Granted he hasn't shown up in many years (to my knowledge) but man was dude was depressing every single time he showed up in a book.

Pariah saw the entire multiverse die, universe by universe. Hundreds, thousands, hundred thousands... who knows?... worlds dying, civilizations falling, so many dead I would need a sheat of paper the size of the Milky Way to try and understand so much destruction. There was no breather, no ceasing. He saw a world die, then the next. Over and over. While thinking this destruction was his fault.

"No... mine is not the hand which slays worlds. I can do nothing more than cry."

[Lightning Rider]

It's worth noting that Grant Morrison has gone on record saying that he never wants to write Batman again because of how depressed it made him.

Kind of surprising to me given that he describes Bruce as needing to be at peace with himself and mentally stable to do what he does.

[FishyZombie]

Harvey Dent, hands down. Because there's a great guy in there somewhere, buried under all that tragedy, delusion and trauma.

[Carabas]

Kind of surprising to me given that he describes Bruce as needing to be at peace with himself and mentally stable to do what he does.

I'm guessing that towards the end of his run he figured out editorial is never going to stand for that?

[numberthirty]

So, does "DC" IP during it's "Vertigo" era count?

[DanMad1977]

Does Morpheus count? I almost got depressed while reading Sandman