History AlternativeCharacterInterpretation / ComicBooks

** In his review of ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] paints a chilling picture of Spidey as an irresponsible hypocrite who suffers from a severe case of AesopAmnesia, hurts his friends and love ones under the guise of "something more important came up as Spider-Man" and making excuses for himself, never taking the time to make any long term plans in life (he has no life insurance for starters) and never made any plans to help his family if the very real possibility of him getting killed in action were to occur. (In fairness, Linkara does bring up that a huge part of the problem stems from how the writers and [[ExecutiveMeddling Marvel editorial]] seem to adamantly refuse to [[NotAllowedToGrowUp let Peter Parker grow up and act his age]], and part of his rant is his own personal jaded perspective.)

* ''Blog/TheComicsCurmudgeon'' loves playing this trope with print comics characters. For example, Marmaduke is a carnivorous hellhound, ComcStrip/MaryWorth is a meddlesome she-devil, ComicStrip/BeetleBailey is [[HoYay in love with Sgt. Snorkel]], and ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus is a bunch of fundamentalist {{Stepford Smiler}}s.

* ComicBook/{{Marmaduke}} [[http://marmadukeexplained.blogspot.com/ is an asshole]]. Or is he just a big dog that was not properly trained by his owners?

* ''Winnie the Pooh'' newspaper comics run on alternative interpretation of eloved Disney character. However, fans are divided whenever they potray Pooh as well-meaning idiot who doesn't realize things he says are rude or a complete asshole.

** Reggie Mantle's jerkassery has become something of an InformedAttribute over the years, as his character has definitely softened and become more sympathetic while characters (including ''himself'') still describe him as "Rotten Reggie". It's gotten to the point where many readers consider Reggie to be the everyman who represents teens as a whole instead of the JerkAss [[TheProudElite Proud Elite]], and think of Archie as a milquetoast goodie-goodie who borders on being a CanonSue instead of the everyman he's meant to be.

** The various interpretations of Batman are the inspiration behind [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rL1Jjp1dMY8/Sw3vRWrzweI/AAAAAAAAAxs/fMIxw0lZLo8/s1600/batman-alignment.jpg this image]] merging Batman with TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons CharacterAlignment.

** This is {{Lampshaded}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' [[TakeThat that was directed at]] the show's {{Hatedom}}. In it, Bat-Mite lectures a group of fanboys about how many character shifts Batman has gone through since the GoldenAge, and sums it all up by saying a Batman who goes on sci-fi adventures and cracks jokes is ''just as valid'' and true to the source material as a Batman who's [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries a grim vigilante]] [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga that slinks through alleyways while angrily screaming into the night]].

** Is Elly Patterson a long-suffering mother who never receives due praise for holding her home and family together, or does she deliberately make things more difficult for herself because she has a martyr complex? Are her children completely uncontrollable brats, or is she too self-absorbed and caught up in [[{{Wangst}} self-pity]] to tend to their emotional needs? Is she a complete ControlFreak, a pillar of negativity and hatred imposing her twisted vision of what's 'good, true and right' on everyone around her? Or is she the OnlySaneMan and a true gift to her community? Did she raise her family well, or cause them to turn out as nasty and self-centered as she? SympatheticSue, or VillainProtagonist?

** [[spoiler:There's the question on if Carmine Falcone truly knew about Alberto's actions. While Batman suspects he does and it seems like he made sure Sofia wouldn't see Alberto shoot at the Riddler, some of the murders aimed at members of Falcone's family and Alberto's cold behavior to his father raise doubts as to this.]]

** Gordon spent a good portion of the story during his feet when Harvey discovers a connection between Thomas Wayne and Carmine Falcone (which turned out to be Thomas saving Falcone's life after Falcone's father swung by Wayne Manor). Was it due to a lack of evidence, because he feared Harvey was going off the deep end already, because (much like what was implied in ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'') he knew Bruce was Batman (which would explain some of Bruce's behavior) and didn't want to expose him?

** ComicBook/SteveTrevor's inability to tell Di and Wondy apart in the Golden Age causes readers to tend to think he may have been putting on a front and being willfully obtuse out of respect for her attempts to keep her ids separate ''or'' that he has face blindness. Diana didn't wear a mask, and only sometimes donned glasses as "Diana Prince", it wasn't much of a disguise even for the Golden Age.

--> If Clark wanted to, he could use his superspeed and squish me into the cement. But I know how he thinks. Even more than the Kryptonite, he's got one big weakness. Deep down, Clark's essentially a good person...and deep down, I'm ''not''.

** [[MindScrew Maybe he never killed anyone.]] No really, In the real world (Earth-Prime) its been implied that the DC team controls ''everything!'' So who's to say that they couldn't just write everything Superboy's done away? If they wanted to, they could simply teleport him back here, bring back everyone he killed and reset the mind of all the DC characters that hate him. Prime's not even the real threat to DC, its the [[BiggerBad Writers]].

* Some people believe that [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death]] is a bitch. Sure, she is supposed to be kind, but there are hints of wanton cruelty and schadenfreude underneath it. Particularly striking is the scene in ''Endless Nights'' where she [[spoiler:casually strolls through a time-frozen party, telling everyone how they really died and watching them do so, including the children.]] Sure, it may have been an {{homage}} to ''[[spoiler:[[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe The Masque of the Red Death]]]]''; but it did seem unnecessarily vindictive to do it in that way, especially considering her expression the whole time.

* The Tara Markov version of Terra from ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''. A sociopath who could not be helped, or a [[StepfordSmiler broken]] little girl who got mixed up with the wrong people and let her emotions get the better of her? Did she truly think the Teen Titans were her friends, even a little bit? Did she have feelings for Garfield? [spoiler:[[DeathIsCheap Terra 2]]]], and her Black Lantern version, seems to have supported the alternate views. Also, was she [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoisted by her own petard]] by accident, or did she [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] with the intention of doing so? Was she evil at heart, or did she just hate the hypocritical "goody two-shoes" nature of the Titans? Was her death fueled by drugs[[note]]Just prior to ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', there was a one-shot published that seemed to insinuate that Terra's psychotic behavior was the result of being drugged by Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} (ala his kidnapping and brainwashing of [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl 2000}} Cassandra Cain]]).[[/note]], contaminated drinking water, or was it natural? This is also another instance where the ambiguity only came later. Terra's evilness was the whole point of her character, and the narration during her death says, in no uncertain terms, that no one taught her to hate but herself. Due to ValuesDissonance, her original interpretation of "She's evil and canonically psychopathic just because" has been changed over the years in order to give her a FreudianExcuse and more depth. The "She was troubled and abused by Deathstroke" interpretation appears in the 2003 ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' cartoon, ''WesternAnimation/'' film, and most post-2000s comic references to her character.

* ''Franchise/ArchieComics'':

* [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Terra]]. A sociopath who could not be helped, or a [[StepfordSmiler broken]] little girl who got mixed up with the wrong people and let her emotions get the better of her? Did she truly think the Teen Titans were her friends, even a little bit? Did she have feelings for Garfield? [[spoiler:[[DeathIsCheap Terra 2]], and her Black Lantern version, seems to have supported the alternate views]]. Also, was she [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoisted by her own petard]] by accident, or did she commit suicide with the intention of doing so? Was she evil at heart, or did she just hate the hypocritical "goody two-shoes" nature of the Titans? Was her death fueled by drugs, contaminated drinking water, or was it natural?
** This is also another instance where the ambiguity only came later. Terra's evilness was the whole point of her character, and the narration during her death says, in no uncertain terms, that no one taught her to hate but herself.
*** Just prior to ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', there was a one-shot published that seemed to insinuate that Terra's psychotic behavior was the result of being drugged by Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} (ala his kidnapping and brainwashing of [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl 2000}} Cassandra Cain]]).

** There's a [[http://tailsteak.com/arbuckle/ similar series]] more along with Davis's comment which simply removes Garfield's thought bubbles. Yes, Jon is even more pathetic than he looks.

** [[spoiler:Did Sofia really love Sal Maroni or was she just using him. Depending on one reads it, it makes her killing Alberto in ''ComicBook/DarkVictory'' not just killing him for not being like Carmine, but also revenge for the one Holiday killing that is definitively Alberto's.]]

** Another way of looking at Superboy-Prime: He grew up in a world where all these people were fictional characters. Deep down, he still doesn't see them as real. If he kills them all and then creates a world where he didn't, he hasn't ''really'' killed anyone, any more than GeoffJohns has. To him, the whole thing is no different from playing Grand Theft Auto, he's not killing anyone because nobody's really alive. And so long as nobody's getting hurt, isn't it much more fun to play the villain than the hero? After all, EvilIsCool.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher. Older comics tend to portray him as being just a jaded, cynical man who wants to make absolutely, positively sure that the criminals he stops aren't going to wind up in a CardboardPrison to break out again and commit crimes like the one that killed his family. Some newer interpretations paint him closer to a SerialKiller who's using the death of his family as an excuse to vent his bloodlust; these see his actions as more like bloody murder than vigilantism. The second interpretation [[LoveItOrHateIt greatly pleases some fans and infuriates others to no end]].

* The Riddler: InsufferableGenius who's obsessed with proving his superiority over Batman, or a seriously ill criminal whose compulsion to tell the truth is what drives him to leave riddles?

* SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}: a ChaoticNeutral HeroicComedicSociopath who tries to be a better person? Or a ChaoticEvil VillainProtagonist who can't change anything about himself?

* Speaking of Franchise/{{Batman}}, there's his main enemy, SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker. Though he started off dark and creepy, he spent most of the '40s, '50s, and '60s as a [[VillainousHarlequin mostly harmless lawbreaking jester.]] Then, after Batman was remade into the dark and brooding hero he was originally, the Joker returns to his [[MonsterClown homicidal maniac]] origins; then we get to "The Killing Joke," in which he shoots Barbara Gordon (formerly Batgirl) through the spine, and then kidnaps and tortures Commissioner Gordon more or less for the hell of it. And then there was "Death in the Family" and countless other stories in which the Joker gets crazier as time goes on. Even in the movies, he has changed from one appearance to the next. TheMovie of the 1966 series portrayed him as the madman crook. Creator/JackNicholson, famous creepy maniac, portrayed him as a former gangster turned creepy maniac making the best of his deformities by incorporating them into a costume. ''Film/TheDarkKnight'''s Creator/HeathLedger appeared to be a suicidal nihilist out for nothing more thought out than causing chaos.

* Comic book characters in general are subject to this since they tend to go through multiple writers over the years and, in the case of a character that has been around at least a decade, may need to be updated to occupy the same relative position against new cultural norms or alternately they aren't updated and what was once a trendy character becomes a character with a distinctive set of affectations.
** An example of the latter would be ComicBook/JimmyOlsen wearing a sweater vest and a bowtie. At one point this made him normal and a conformist. At times the look has been dropped to make Jimmy current but then its brought back to make him look like an ironic hipster (as seen in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'') or just odd.

** Jughead has been interpreted as {{asexual}} by many, or as being in love with Archie but hiding it. The latter got especially popular when Kevin appeared and he and Jughead got along easy. Him being ace is AscendedFanon as of the ''ComicBook/ArchieComics2015'' reboot.

* ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}: A mutant tyrant that has no desire but to kill everyone he deems inferior to him? A misguided man with [[PhysicalGod incredible powers]] and a broken heart still using a creed that should've died out 5,000 years ago? [[VisionaryVillain A villain who wants to destroy society so that it can start over with strong leadership so that they can avert the ''real'' Apocalypse together?]]
* The Trust from ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'' can be regarded as [[AccidentalHero inadvertent heroes]]. Sure, they've [[spoiler:controlled all the crime in the country since before it was founded]]. But, by [[spoiler:keeping the kingdoms of Europe from dividing America up into lots of tiny territories]], they have made America remarkably free of war compared to Europe, and they have allowed it to act as the Arsenal of Democracy in both World Wars. True, they only did that great thing because [[spoiler: a united America is easier to exploit]]. But in the long run, the freedom from the devastation of war probably more than makes up for [[spoiler:all the stuff they've stolen.]]
* Comic book characters in general are subject to this since they tend to go through multiple writers over the years and, in the case of a character that has been around at least a decade, may need to be updated to occupy the same relative position against new cultural norms or alternately they aren't updated and what was once a trendy character becomes a character with a distinctive set of affectations.
** An example of the latter would be ComicBook/JimmyOlsen wearing a sweater vest and a bowtie. At one point this made him normal and a conformist. At times the look has been dropped to make Jimmy current but then its brought back to make him look like an ironic hipster (as seen in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'') or just odd.
* ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'':
** Is Wa'at Alaaf [[UndyingLoyalty truly loyal]] to Iznogoud, or does he serves him and helps him only because he knows his whole situation depends from him? Especially ambiguous in that some of the books contradict each others on that point.
** Conversely, it's left ambiguous in later books if Iznogoud does care to some extent about Wa'at or just sees him as a pawn. A scene in ''Who Killed the Caliph'' especially stands out, as it features Iznogoud being horrified when he realizes Wa'at is about to get beheaded and immediatly rushing to save him.

* ''Blog/TheComicsCurmudgeon'' loves playing this trope with print comics characters. For example, Marmaduke is a carnivorous hellhound, ComcStrip/MaryWorth is a meddlesome she-devil, ComicStrip/BeetleBailey is [[HoYay in love with Sgt. Snorkel]], and ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus is a bunch of fundamentalist {{Stepford Smiler}}s.

* Is ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} just a wuss who's occupying space until [[SpotlightStealingSquad Wolverine can save the day]], or is he the MarvelComics equivalent of Franchise/{{Batman}} with EyeBeams? Is his behavior since Creator/JossWhedon's run a case of finally getting rid of BadassDecay and living up the the reputation of leader he was supposed to be or did he simply [[TookALevelInJerkass take a level in jerkass]]? In a post AVX Marvel world, is he a tarnished hero seeking redemption, or just a big damn bigot who doesn't care who he hurts anymore?

** The Punisher presents a special problem: The arguments for his being in the moral right (killing some people to save many) require him to live in a world where his logic is true. Unfortunately, he lives in [[MarvelComics a world]] where other ways of solving things constantly show up. Naturally, he seems a little crazy.

** Deadpool may be emoting the three freudian archetypes of the mind; Superego, Ego and ID. His white caption box is the most sensible one, and thus the Superego. The more out of touch yellow caption box is Ego, a less sensible one. His chaotic, random persona word balloons and occasional change to his POV are the ID, the no before or after thought.
** Or maybye, as ''Uncanny ComicBook/XForce X-Force'' writer Rick Remender suggests, Wade is a SadClown who just wants to be loved?

* Doom from Franchise/MarvelUniverse has been portrayed as anything from a noble villain to pure evil, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on who was writing the story at the time.]]

* ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}} and its spin-off series ''Incorruptible'':

* ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' stomps on this frequently, so much so that the eponymous character doesn't even know the answer himself. Is he the last thin line between the CrapsackWorld he hates and {{Eldritch Abomination}}'s behind his blood-spattered walls, or is he just an overdramatic artist prone to schizophrenic fugue states? Or is Johnny just a figment of Squee's imagination, a product of his obviously neglected childhood?

* ComicBook/LexLuthor: Pure evil? A hero striving to show the human race that it has some worth when set against the impossible, unreachable ideal that is Superman, rejecting no act that would prove his point as worth it to the greater good? A tragic figure who's actions are ruled by obsession based in deep insecurities unearthed by Superman's mere presence? A titan of industry and politics driven mad by a world that truly can't appreciate his genius nor see the threat Superman poses? A futurist who believes in the advancement of mankind no matter what the cost, sometimes resulting in him [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans doing TRULY horrifying stuff for the "greater good"]]? A petty dick who'll stoop to any level of crime, including stealing forty cakes, which is as many as four tens AndThatsTerrible? A secular humanist who believes that Superman holding humanity back from it's true potential?

** The Plutonian - Narcissistic or insecure? [[BrokenAce Sad and lonely man]] because [[BlessedWithSuck his powers drive others away in fear]] or PsychopathicManchild because his powers lead him to drive himself away? Fed up with humans and their ungrateful attitude or just throwing a nuclear tantrum because he wants the whole universe to love him?
** Max Damage - [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Always just wanted to have a normal life]] or using his power as a FreudianExcuse? When the shock of Plutonian slaughtering innocent people causes him to make a HeelFaceTurn, he decides that he must be as [[TitleDrop incorruptible]] as the Plutonian was always thought to be. Was that because he was always secretly a {{Cape}} at heart but never considered actually doing it with Plutonian around? Or was it completely sudden and caused entirely by the sudden realization that ''somebody'' needed to be the incorruptible shining star? Or, like he offers, is he just doing the opposite of his long time enemy?
** Survivor - is his JerkAss attitude a way he always wanted to act, but couldn't, because somebody had to take care of his reckless brother or is he trying to act like his brother, hoping to win Kaidan's heart?
** Qubit - WideEyedIdealist trying to find the way to stop Plutonian without killing him? Deluded? Just incapable of breaking his technical pacifism? Is he in love with him?

** [[spoiler: Gilda snapped from Harvey's transformation into Two-Face and became delusional and thinking she started the Holiday murders and the truth is Alberto really ''did'' commit all the murders.]] [[http://graphicontent.blogspot.com/2005/02/who-was-holiday.html People who support this theory point out]] [[spoiler: there's no switch in M.O., which given Batman is doing forensic tests in one issue, would been noticeable, and there aren't two murders on New Year's, which should've happened if Gilda quit, and someone else picked it up and Alberto would have no idea about another murder. Additionally, Gilda was in ICU during the Thanksgiving murder and a wheelchair in Christmas and the murders on Mother's Day, Independence Day, and Carmine Falcone's birthday were about covering up Holiday's identity, and even Alberto had motives the early murders as they're all people who'd turned on his father or could turn, and/or failed him. Also, despite Gilda saying she'd read Harvey's files, she reacts with surprise that he brought his files home with him.]]