DC Comics has created storylines that have destroyed the reputation of heroes, oftentimes with no apparent reason other than shock value. A character assassination typically refers to a case where creators put a hero in a storyline that ignores most of what fans love about them and turns them into something they are not, often turning them into a villain or having them make decisions that damage the goodwill they have built up over the years. An example from Marvel Comics was when Scarlet Witch was turned into a villain, murdering her own teammates in Avengers Disassembled and then rewriting the world in House of M, making her more of a villain than a hero. It takes a long time to rehabilitate these characters.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Here is a look at seven DC Comics heroes who were victims of character assassinations in comics, and whether they were ever rehabilitated or not.
7) Roy Harper
Roy Harper was one of several sidekick heroes to members of the Justice League. While sidekicks like Dick Grayson, Wally West, Donna Troy, and more went on to have great careers as heroes in their own right, Roy Harper struggled to make anything of himself thanks to a terrible character assassination in DC Comics. This first happened in the controversial storyline where Roy ended up addicted to drugs, and Green Arrow kicked him to the curb and abandoned him.
However, Roy Harper ended up recovering slightly years later, became Red Arrow, and then even got into the Justice League. DC responded by slamming him back down to Earth in the Cry for Justice storyline. In this Justice League storyline, Roy got his arm ripped off, and his daughter died. It led to him being addicted to drugs again, all his friends turned their backs on him (like Green Arrow tears before), and he joined Deathstroke as a villain. it took the New 52 to erase that, but Roy has never really recovered.
6) Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman has often been showcased as the ultimate of good, similar to Superman. She has been shown in storylines, mostly in recent years, where she has no problem killing people since she is a warrior, but that wasn’t how she was for years. She has always been someone who would find a way to solve problems without killing, but that all changed in one swift moment.
When Wonder Woman murdered Maxwell Lord when she realized he would never free Superman from his hypnotic control, it was a shocking moment. When Batman and Superman turned their backs on her for it, it was crushing, and it began a slow downturn for the hero. This led to stories like Injustice, where Wonder Woman was even worse than Superman, willing to kill anyone, destroying what made her special to begin with.
5) Batman (from Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman)
Batman has always lived by a code, and he has followed that for most of his career. That has been dismissed in the new Absolute Batman series, which shows what Batman could have been like if he were more ruthless. That works well since it is supposed to be a reimagination. However, in the Frank Miller series All-Star Batman, while it is an Elseworlds story, it was shown as the same characters from the mainline DC.
This Batman has become a joke, and he remains one of the most hated versions of Batman ever put in a comic book. In fact, after this story, a lot of people started to fall out of love with the hero who has always been DC’s most popular hero. His arrogance, the way he treated a teenage Robin, and the ridiculous dialogue and language destroyed Batman in a way that almost no other story has come close to.
4) Zatanna
To be honest, this was a moment where the entire Justice League suffered from a character assassination, but Zatanna took it the hardest. When someone has magical powers in comics, they have lines they should not cross, or else they become a villain, and someone like Doctor Strange is so disliked in comics because he crosses that line way too often.
Zatanna has been someone who mostly doesn’t cross that line, and even though she became wealthy with her magic shows, she often doesn’t use her real magic and prefers illusions to play fair with the audience. However, in Identity Crisis, she crossed the line when she erased Batman’s memories of their action against Doctor Light. Zatanna was the one who cast the spell, and it made her look terrible, something she struggled to recover from after that storyline.
3) Maxwell Lord
So many people know Maxwell Lord as a villain and someone that no one should trust. However, this wasn’t how he was originally in DC Comics. Lord used to be a fantastic character, a flawed good guy who did questionable things, but often had the greater good in mind when doing so. However, the second that he pulled out a gun and shot Blue Beetle in the head, murdering the long-time hero, he never recovered.
What is so bad is that Maxwell Lord went from a flawed character to a generic villain that had no redeeming qualities. When he hypnotized Superman and sent him to kill Batman and Wonder Woman, it was a huge moment that ended with Wonder Woman snapping his neck and killing him. This was not only a character assassination, but it was a character killer, turning him from a conflicted man into just another bad guy who no one cared about when he died.
2) Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan was one of DC Comics’ original heroes. Along with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman, he helped form the Justice League and was the most loyal and upright member of the Green Lantern Corps in history. Sometimes, DC has heroes die, and Flash sacrificed his life to save the universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths, passing on the torch to Wally West. Hal Jordan didn’t get so lucky.
Hal Jordan watched his entire hometown being destroyed, and he lost his mind. Parallax took over, and Hal Jordan became the most powerful and vengeful villain in DC Comics. He set out to kill all his old friends, and everything that made him special instantly died. He did sacrifice himself to save the world in the end, but it was too late. Geoff Johns tried to rehabilitate him years later, but Hal Jordan has never been the same since Parallax.
1) Wally West
When Flash sacrificed himself to save the world in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wally West took his place, and Kid Flash became the main Flash. This was huge because Wally quickly became the most popular version of Flash for an entire generation of fans. He wasn’t a new character either, like Kyle Rayner when he replaced Hal Jordan. Wally had been Kid Flash for years and was a beloved DC Comics character.
However, DC did Wally wrong in the New 52 because the company wiped him out of existence and replaced him with Wallace West. By the time Wally came back, it was a huge moment for fans who grew up loving him as Flash. Then, Heroes in Crisis happened. While that should have been a brilliant story about trauma and how it affects heroes, when Wally straight-up committed murder and then framed Harley Quinn and Booster Gold, it was the biggest character assassination in DC Comics history.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Prime Video -
Image Courtesy of A-1 Pictures
