History CharacterizationMarchesOn / TheDCU

** The Comicbook/{{New 52}} has also characterized young Superman similarly as his early incarnation.

* Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} was far more of a dirtbag in his earliest appearances, in sharp contrast to his eventual AntiVillain status. One of his earliest appearances had him kidnapping Cyborg's love interest in order to lure the Teen Titans into a trap, something that would seem at odds with his NeverHurtAnInnocent guidelines that would be established in later issues, and recreate the Doom Patrol's way of dying - a traumatic event for Changeling - ForTheEvulz. This can be explained by the creative differences between George Perez, who saw Slade as a ruthless villain whose "code" was only a personal justification, and Marv Wolfman, who did not see him as a villain but as an honorable victim of circumstance. Thus when Perez left the title, Deathstroke's more noble characterization took hold. However, Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}} eventually restored Deathstroke to his original characterization in ''ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} (Rebirth)''.
* The ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' foe [[Characters/TeenTitansCheshire Cheshire]] also started off with ''some'' standards before later comics made her into the completely vile figure she's known as today. She used to avoid CollateralDamage during her assassinations (for instance, she left a witness BoundAndGagged and even assured the man that she had no intention of harming him), and [[EvenEvilHasStandards even turned the tables on some racist South Africans who had hired her to kill a black civil rights worker]]. [[MoralEventHorizon Then she went and nuked an entire country, and hasn't looked back since...]] In an interesting case, ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' portrayed Cheshire closer to her original comic book depiction. She steered clear of killing innocents, had some PetTheDog moments, and even had genuine affection for her younger sister, Artemis. This caused some fans who were more familiar with Cheshire's vile phase to claim she was being written horribly OutOfCharacter.

** In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, Sinestro was very generic and banal in his evil; his conquest of his planet (seen in flashback) involved him sitting on a throne, demanding tribute in the form of money and jewels in exchange for his services as protector and killing anyone who called out on what a selfish lout he was. It wasn't until 1991's Emerald Dawn II, that Sinestro's past was completely reworked to make him a UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler-esque control-freak who conquered his homeworld "to protect it" as the driving force behind the evil he did.

* Franchise/WonderWoman was the only one of the characters who would go on to become DC's big three to start out with a no kill rule, and in the UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks became the only one of the three ''not'' to have a strict no killing rule.

* Terra as originally written in ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' has become this over the years. In the original ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' comics from the 1980s she was canonically "psychopathic" and "evil". She had no ulterior motive for being TheMole or hating the Titans, besides just being cruel and hating "goody-two-shoes" people. WordOfGod is that Terra's AgeGapRomance with Deathstroke was there to make her seem even more gross. Terra's original interpretation, however, has caused a lot of ValuesDissonance, especially with people criticizing the SlutShaming factor to her relationship with Deathstroke and noting how Terra is vilified while Deathstroke often gets treated far more positively. As a result, since the 2000s DC has made an emphasis to portray her as a less one-dimensional character, being a troubled youth who fell in love with an older man who ended up emotionally manipulating her (or even, in some comics, drugging her). She's still evil ForTheEvulz, but she's a more morally ambiguous character.

* [[GodOfEvil Trigon]] in his first appearance in the first ''New ComicBook/TeenTitans'' story arc, was somewhat different from how he'd later be portrayed. Here he was presented as more of a GalacticConqueror who happened to be a demon, ruling an interstellar empire from his capital on an actual planet and commanding mundane armies, and when the Titans faced him directly he came across as a powerful foe, but not insurmountably so. From ''ComicBook/TheTerrorOfTrigon'' onward, he'd be presented explicitly as DC's premier SatanicArchetype, a SealedEvilInACan whose escape onto Earth ''immediately'' triggered HellOnEarth, and who is a PhysicalGod who is so powerful as to be entirely undefeatable by mundane means. This depiction has been pretty consistent ever since.

* Franchise/WonderWoman was the only one of the characters who would go on to become DC's big three to start out with a no kill rule, and in the UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks became the only one of the three ''not'' to have a strict no killing rule.

* Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} was far more of a dirtbag in his earliest appearances, in sharp contrast to his eventual AntiVillain status. One of his earliest appearances had him kidnapping Cyborg's love interest in order to lure the Teen Titans into a trap, something that would seem at odds with his NeverHurtAnInnocent guidelines that would be established in later issues, and recreate the Doom Patrol's way of dying - a traumatic event for Changeling - ForTheEvulz. This can be explained by the creative differences between George Perez, who saw Slade as a ruthless villain whose "code" was only a personal justification, and Marv Wolfman, who did not see him as a villain but as an honorable victim of circumstance. Thus when Perez left the title, Deathstroke's more noble characterization took hold. However, Creator/ChristopherPriest eventually restored Deathstroke to his original characterization in ''ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} (Rebirth)''.

** It's kind of a shock to see how Guy Gardner was originally a pretty mellow character before (in a convoluted series of events) he received brain damage that manifested itself in the form of the arrogant, violent, unstable, and often childish personality that the character is best known for. DC has since tried to sweep this under the rug by {{retcon}}ning the brain damage thing altogether. Some flashbacks imply that Guy has always been, as he puts it, "the crazy one." Likewise, those who are most familiar with the mostly-stoic Marine in the Franchise/{{DCAU}} version of John Stewart, which has since been incorporated into the comics, may be surprised at how, well, [[JiveTurkey funky]] he is in his early comics appearances.

* Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} was far more of a dirtbag in his earliest appearances, in sharp contrast to his eventual AntiVillain status. One of his earliest appearances had him kidnapping Cyborg's love interest in order to lure the Teen Titans into a trap, something that would seem at odds with his NeverHurtAnInnocent guidelines that would be established in later issues, and recreate the Doom Patrol's way of dying - a traumatic event for Changeling - ForTheEvulz. This can be explained by the creative differences between George Perez, who saw Slade as a ruthless villain whose "code" was only a personal justification, and Marv Wolfman, who did not see him as a villain but as an honorable victim of circumstance. Thus when Perez left the title, Deathstroke's more noble characterization took hold. However, Creator/ChristopherPriest eventually restored Deathstroke to his original characterization in ''ComicBook/DeathstrokeRebirth''.

* The ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' foe Cheshire also started off with ''some'' standards before later comics made her into the completely vile figure she's known as today. She used to avoid CollateralDamage during her assassinations (for instance, she left a witness BoundAndGagged and even assured the man that she had no intention of harming him), and [[EvenEvilHasStandards even turned the tables on some racist South Africans who had hired her to kill a black civil rights worker]]. [[MoralEventHorizon Then she went and nuked an entire country, and hasn't looked back since…]] In an interesting case, ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' portrayed Cheshire closer to her original comic book depiction. She steered clear of killing innocents, had some PetTheDog moments, and even had genuine affection for her younger sister, Artemis. This caused some fans who were more familiar with Cheshire's vile phase to claim she was being written horribly OutOfCharacter.

* When she was first introduced in ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'', Monstress was basically a female [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Ben Grimm]], in both speech patterns and attitude. Once she joined the team, the writers decided it was more interesting if this hulking monster was an upbeat fashionista who called everyone "dear" or "sweetie".

* ''Franchise/TheFlash'':
** Jay Garrick was initially shown as someone willing to kill his enemies, before mellowing into much more typically TheCape, albeit one with a playful personality. After a TimeSkip when his comic was out of publication, he grew up, and nowadays Jay is almost exclusively written as TeamDad to others, who can be quite a hard-ass but is a CoolOldGuy and PapaWolf at his core.
** [[LegacyCharacter Barry Allen]] throughout the Silver Age, while ostensibly a NiceGuy, was a ''huge'' conservative; he butted heads with Green Arrow (the poster child for loudmouth liberal superheroes), would get into fights with hippies, and was very much a traditional man with traditional values. Even his traditional hairstyle was a crew-cut (which was lampshaded and even used by Iris West as source of an AffectionateNickname), his day job was working for the police, and unlike most heroes, he was already engaged when introduced so instead of scouting for girls, he was already settling down. ''None'' of this is retained in his modern interpretations, who tend to stick more apolitical but are indicated to be left-leaning [[note]]likely, as the rest of the Flash Family are fairly left-leaning, with his successor Wally West especially having undergone extensive CharacterDevelopment early in his career that lead to him growing out of the midwestern conservativism Barry had taught him and becoming quite liberal thanks to the influence of Pied Piper, Barry's conservatism has been downplayed and erased to make him more appeasing to the likely left-leaning fanbase[[/note]].
** ComicBook/WallyWest, prior to graduating from Kid Flash to Flash, once actually retired to focus on school work, which is completely at odds with his later characterisation as having always been a huge AscendedFanboy. Likewise, in his youth he was eager to settle down with his girlfriend Frankie Kane, but after they broke up and he became The Flash, he became something of a skirt-chaser, and occasionally made chauvinistic remarks towards women. After a while, this completely disappeared and he was written with a SingleTargetSexuality for his love interest, Linda Park; though this was in-part a reflection of Wally's larger CharacterDevelopment and also just a reflection of how much he loved Linda, he's only depicted as having been a player in his youth rather than someone with misogynistic leanings (especially as he's depicted as being extremely close to his Aunt Iris and a very supportive friend to the women in his life).
** Jesse Quick, when first introduced, was a bubbly, upbeat self-described bookworm and [[AscendedFanboy ascended fangirl]], who was a huge fan of both the JSA and The Flash. When she was [[{{Transplant}} transplanted]] from ''JSA to ''The Flash'' (and later, ''Titans''), she was written as more of a studious and anxious tomboy, a {{Workaholic}} busy-body, and much more hotheaded. A lot of this can be justified though by the fact that early on she suffered a BrokenPedestal moment with Wally[[note]]who lead her on to manipulate her as part of an OperationJealousy gambit to make Impulse take things seriously; he did so because he was desperate and thought he was dying, but even he acknowledged it was a dick move and did his best to make it up to her[[/note]], and then shortly after her father died, saddling her with his company that she wasn't at all qualified to run, making her extremely busy all the time. Later still, she became much more upbeat again when she returned to JSA, due to falling in love with [[ComicBook/{{Hourman}} Rick Tyler]].
** In a case that was ''not'' well-received, Bart Allen went from a character with severe AttentionDeficitOohShiny, upbeat though hot-headed and quick to anger, and a total goofball who was pretty uninterested in anything serious, like relationships. Then he upgraded from Impulse to Kid Flash and suddenly lost the ADHD, became quite angsty, and developed a tendency to make pervy remarks; ''then'' he got a PlotRelevantAgeUp and became The Flash, which lead to even more angsty seriousness. Fans did ''not'' like this, so when he was [[ComicBookDeath killed off and came back]], he was [[CharacterRerailment back to being an immature kid with ADHD]].
** Wallace West, when initially introduced, just went by "Wally"[[note]]he was intended to be the Post-Flashpoint version of Wally West, but fan revolt lead to them going DecompositeCharacter and "revealing" he was actually just Wally's cousin who shared the same name thanks to being named after a mutual grandfather[[/note]] and was initially a delinquent and [[AngryBlackMan Angry Black Kid]] who ''hated'' the Flash. Then suddenly he became a happy teen genius, as the writing team didn't know what to do with him and his earlier characterisation was criticised for being offensively stereotypical. After ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' gave him his superhero origin, he was streamlined into a kid who just wanted love, a WellDoneSonGuy who thought his dad didn't love him, and desperate for an older male parental figure to show him some damn support.
** August Heart/Godspeed, when first introduced was a CowboyCop turned KnightTemplar SerialKiller and EvilFormerFriend to Barry Allen. He wasn't particularly well-liked, so he got retooled into the Flash's TokenEvilTeammate and WildCard. Though this could just be CharacterDevelopment, it happened largely off-screen so instead comes off as just changing plans for him.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''
** In his earliest appearances, while Batman wasn't any more particularly kill-happy than any other heroes, it's kind of shocking to see the archetypal TechnicalPacifist clearly killing off criminals, often using guns. Case in point, a line from a showdown with his first nemesis:
---> '''Batman:''' ''[as he watches the man in question '''burn to death''']'' Death... to Doctor Death!
** He also displayed a fondness for puns and cracked jokes during fights, not unlike what Spider-Man would do later. IE, "Have a seat", while smacking villains with a chair, or, while beating the Joker "You may be the JOKER, but I am the KING OF CLUBS!" or "You played your last hand!". Now, he's oh so very much TheStoic.
** And, on more than one occasion, he referred to himself as "Poppa", in the third person, as in "Quiet, or Poppa spank!" or "Right into Poppa's arms!".
** The first Catwoman story depicts Batman deliberately allowing her to escape purely because he thinks she's hot, and then joking about it with Robin. Ever since then, he's been nothing but angsty about his obsession with her.
** ComicBook/TheJoker was originally a sneering, humorless criminal mastermind instead of the cackling lunatic we know today. He was named after the Joker in playing cards, seeing as how he never told a single joke, and never laughed in his initial appearance (though he did smile, rather terrifyingly). ''The Man Who Laughs'' later rewrote the Joker's first story with the current portrayal of the Joker. The Joker wasn't intended to be insane by Finger and Kane. Even during the Silver Age where the Joker became his Clown Prince of Crime version, the Joker was sent to prison when he was defeated instead of an asylum or otherwise remotely treated like a criminal who could get an insanity defense.
** ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} was, like Batman, shown to kill people in her earlier appearances, when she would later become established as a ClassyCatBurglar whose morally-ambiguous or outright heroic nature rested on her scrupulous refusal to kill the innocent. (But not other villains, as Black Mask found out. [[DeathIsCheap Twice]].)
** Selina's whole backstory has changed since she was first created as well. Especially now that she and Batman are more often than not an OfficialCouple after she learned his secret in ComicBook/BatmanHush (that ran from 2002-2003). She used to be a rich socialite as well who robbed because she was bored. Now she's a poor street orphan who robbed to take care of her sister as a way to play up the UptownGirl angle in their relationship.
** ComicBook/{{Robin}} was also shown to use brutal force on crooks in his debut, hitting them with rocks from a sling and shoving them off scaffolding to their deaths. This first origin story also depicted him as ''eight'' years old while doing all these feats (compared to later retcons that would establish him as either ten or twelve).
** Alfred is remembered as the Wayne family's loyal butler, however he was originally written as a CluelessDetective who wasn't quite up to par with the World's Greatest Detective, Batman. Rather than swear revenge, he ended up serving in the Wayne Manor and the Batcave. Nowdays Alfred is just written as TheJeeves. Alfred was also originally overweight and clean shaven, but adopted his iconic thin, mustached appearance after a stay at a health spa. Alfred also didn't become a major character until Denny O'Neil's run in the 70s. Bruce had previously been raised by an uncle.
** Renee Montoya's sexuality is a defining character trait for her under Creator/GregRucka, but when she was originally created for ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' the plan ([[AllThereInTheManual according to background info in the series bible]]) was that she was intended to be driven in her own fight on crime by the memory of her dead ''husband''. It was not until ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'' that she was outed as a lesbian, which would become an integral part of an award-winning arc of that series and several [[ComicBook/FiftyTwo follow]] [[ComicBook/TheQuestion up]] comics. The same source also says that she would butt heads with Batman over his methods, whereas in almost all her appearances Renee admires him and understands why he acts outside the law.
** ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'': When Francis D'Anjou, Nora Fries' new husband, first appeared in ''Batman: Gotham Adventures'' #5, he was a scientist that greatly respected Victor Fries, having read everything he ever wrote, was grateful when Victor rescued him because he was Nora's new husband, and even shows that he knows that Nora still loves Victor and was respectful of her feelings for him. In his next appearance in ''Batman: Gotham Adventures'' #51, Francis is now greatly resentful to Victor and is jealous of Nora for having feelings for him, going so far as to hide all the letters Victor has been sending Nora asking for her to see him one more time. In his final appearance in 'Batman Adventures'' #15, Francis goes as far as to frame Victor for attacking him by having a robot freeze him, hoping to convince Nora to see Victor as a monster. This backfires when Nora refuses to believe Victor was behind the attack, and Nightwing discovers the truth, leading to Francis being arrested and sent to prison, with Nora leaving him.
** Batman's suspicion and hostility towards Superman is a relatively new thing. Prior to the '80s, Bruce and Clark got along just fine. By 1985, however, the two were established as polar opposites who clashed over varying differences.
** When her origin was first established, ComicBook/HarleyQuinn didn't take her profession as a psychiatrist seriously, as her motivation for becoming one is to successfully rehabilitate high-profile Arkham inmates like the Joker and write a tell-all book. In fact, she resorted to SextraCredit to make up for unsatisfying medical school grades. Later writers made her much more passionate about her career, with ''ComicBook/{{Harleen}}'' recontextualizing the school incident as a TeacherStudentRomance in a way that doesn't rely on her grades.