History Main / VindicatedByHistory

[[folder:Other]]

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daughters_of_Edward_Darley_Boit The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit,]]'' painted by John Singer Sargent, was originally disliked by critics for being too big, having too much empty space in it, and having the subjects scattered about randomly. Now it is considered one of Sargent's better works, and features in several plays, poems, and mystery novels.

* The Impressionists (Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir, Édouard Manet, etc.) were ridiculed at first (at their first joint exposition, the public came ''en masse'' to ''mock their work''; the name of the movement was even originally coined by a sarcastic CausticCritic), even though they were more successful later on. Today, well let's say that many of the world's most expensive paintings are by them...

** Also, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Madame_X Portrait of Madame X,]]'' when originally exhibited, caused a great deal of scandal in the art circle. Sargent was forced to leave Paris as a result. The painting would become one of his and the era's most iconic pieces.

* Creator/ArtemisiaGentileschi one of the few truly relevant Baroque female painters, was for a long while looked down and seen as dependent on the fame of her father. Then the Feminist Movement came by. What's that you say, a 1600s ''woman'' painter that focuses on pictures on women and whose masterpiece depicts the biblical Judith[[note]]the one who lends her name to the apocryphal Book of Judith, not the one who Esau married[[/note]] ''violently decapitating'' King Holofernes a.k.a. in a position of strength? There's also speculation that King Holofernes was painted in the image of Agostino Tassi, a man that had raped her and who had failed to be punished by the courts due to the values of the day.

* The "Goat Format" of ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' was very controversial during its original run. Coming after the first banlists wiped out many of the strong generic cards, many were angry to see the power level of the game be significantly turned down. They also disdained the fact that many decks shifted to [[PaddedSumoGameplay very slow control-based strategies]], particularly the infamous and format-naming Goat Control, where the attack-blocking Thousand-Eyes Restrict reigned supreme. However, retrospectives of the format tended to be rather good--as PowerCreep kicked back into overdrive, many began to ''praise'' Goat Format as a period where games came down largely to strategy and moment-to-moment decisions rather than players racing their way to their win condition in a handful of turns. It also became nostalgically viewed as the time when "classic" ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' was at its best, as the banlist had reduced ComplacentGamingSyndrome and made the meta far more diverse than just Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Consequently, fans began holding "Goat Format" duels that attempted to duplicate the era, which blossomed into being the most successful unofficial format of the game's history.

* At the same time the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' series was running and had all of the Marvel publicity machine behind it, a small Crisis Crossover event called ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}'' was being published. It was largely ignored by Marvel and by readers, due to the lack of involvement from big name characters. The event also led to short-lived books for ''Comicbook/{{Nova}}'' and the ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', which were both cancelled due to low sales. Their plots were finished out via ''Comicbook/TheThanosImperative'', and they were all lumped together as the [=DnA=] Marvel Cosmic era. An era which is well-regarded but nevers sold well. While readers ignored these books at the time, the fact that the post-''Annihilation'' ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' run was such a huge influence on the mega hit [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy movie]] has since led to many people discovering the series for the first time. The series became much easier to obtain as Marvel caught onto the new popularity and reprinted the Cosmic stuff, which did in fact find sale success.

** While it didn't sell very well at the time, Don [=McGregor=]'s ''Jungle Action'' run ended up having a major impact on the character. It was the first series to actually do serious WorldBuilding for Wakanda and to flesh out T'Challa's supporting cast. It also introduced [[Comicbook/{{Killmonger}} Erik Killmonger]], who would later become one of the Panther's most prominent and popular foes. It was also one of the first mainstream comics to have a self-contained, multi-issue arc, with some critics calling the "Panther's Rage" storyline Marvel's first graphic novel.
* ComicBook/DeKiekeboes was considered a mere curiosity in its early run and you had to be a hardcore comic book fan to have even heard about it. After ''J. Hoste NV'' (the publisher of the comic book series) crashed the series got owned by ''De Standaard''. They originally did not have a lot of enthusiasm for selling the comic and for a long time it was one of their lowest selling properties (often it would be the very final story in ''MEGA'', their comic book compilation). Its sales however continued rising and rising, to the point that nowadays it may rival ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske in popularity.

** Superboy-Prime. When the character was reintroduced to the DCU in 2004's ''Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis'' event, Prime's character was written to be that of a former, now embittered ex-fan of DC's current continuity. He was disillusioned with how much all the characters had changed since his youth. It was psychologically damaging for him, being trapped in other universe(s), while knowing his old world and all his loved ones were killed. For a long while, fans only hitched on the "Fanboy strawman" aspect of his character (not helped by Lewis Lovhaug interpreting him as a whiny brat). The character was greatly mishandled during ''Comicbook/CountdownToFinalCrisis.'' Revelations eventually came of how toxic the comics fanbase could be, in addition to the rising popularity of isekai stories. Opinions on Prime started to soften and become sympathetic. All the way to the point where many fans were legitimately excited to see his return in ''ComicBook/Shazam2018'' and ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'', where he [[spoiler:finally chose to accept responsibility for his actions, redeem himself, and get a second chance in his world that was denied to him before]].

* Creator/DouglasAdams said of the initial reaction to ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' that "Bats heard it. The odd dog barked."

* Wrestling/{{Sting}}'s "Insane Icon" (aka. "Joker" Sting) persona was hotly controversial in the midst of its run, but you are willing to see a lot more love for it today. At the time it was largely viewed as TNA being TNA; giving an iconic wrestler a bizarre and ill-fitting gimmick in an attempt to capitalise on [[Film/TheDarkKnight a recent popular film]], with confusing results. Now however, the gimmick is increasingly praised for its creativity and depth of character; mixing the grounded backstories and WorkedShoot aspects of popular wrestlers at the time with a classic PartsUnknown-style character to great effect. The gimmick is also praised for giving Sting, who has played a white-meat babyface for most of his career, the opportunity to try something completely different and hone his promo skills; and now that the stigma associated with TNA has largely faded, people are willing to admit that [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct he did a great job in the role]]. In the years since we have seen psychological horror-inspired acts such as [[Wrestling/MattHardy The BROKEN Universe]], [[Wrestling/BrayWyatt The Fiend]] and Wrestling/{{Danhausen}} all become incredibly over, and so you are now willing to see a lot of fans view Joker Sting as ahead of its time and a genuine bright spot in TNA's early-2010's AudienceAlienatingEra.

* In the '30s, the Chrysler Airflow shocked automotive consumers, who regarded its radically streamlined styling as ugly and looking like an amorphous blob. The car was a flop that caused Chrysler to recoil from such styling going forward; until the mid-'50s, its cars were noted as very plain-looking. Engineers at other automakers, however, noted the aerodynamic benefits of the Airflow's styling, which was imitated to far greater success by the likes of Peugeot, GM, and Toyota over the course of the late '30s and '40s. Nowadays, the Airflow is remembered as a car that was ahead of its time, and a symbol of ArtDeco automotive engineering.

* Creator/ArtemisiaGentileschi one of the few truly relevant Baroque female painters, was for a long while looked down and seen as dependent on the fame of her father. Then the Feminist Movement came by. What's that you say, a 1600s ''woman'' painter that focuses on pictures on women and whose masterpiece depicts the biblical Judith[[note]]the one who lends her name to the apocryphal Book of Judith, not [[NamesTheSame the one who Esau married]][[/note]] ''violently decapitating'' King Holofernes a.k.a. in a position of strength? There's also speculation that King Holofernes was painted in the image of Agostino Tassi, a man that had raped her and who had failed to be punished by the courts due to the values of the day.

* Creator/JerrySiegelAndJoeShuster, Creator/JackKirby, Creator/WilliamMoultonMarston, and Creator/StanLee amongst others are names known in the comics industry and even by a surprising amount of non-readers. Nowadays, they are given proper dues for the characters they helped bring to life, even if harsh battles are still fought over these characters in terms of rights and royalties. One particular name however has taken a much longer time to get the recognition it deserves: Creator/BillFinger the co-creator of, and an early writer for ComicBook/{{Batman}}. He was the one who many would argue gave the Dark Knight more of his iconic features than his much more famous and outspoken partner, Bob Kane. Starting in 2016, DC Comics finally gave Bill Finger his much overdue credit by having his name appear next to Bob Kane's in any new Batman-related media.

* The Eiffel Tower in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}, built for the Exposition Universelle in 1889, was similarly hated when it was first built, especially among the city's art community, who regarded it as an eyesore and a symbol of industrial modernity thrust into the heart of a city synonymous with artistry and {{romanticism|VersusEnlightenment}}. Creator/GuyDeMaupassant frequently ate lunch at the Eiffel Tower's restaurant, specifically because it was the only place in the city where he couldn't see it, and he and forty-six other Parisian artists and writers attached their names to a "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel". Others, however, embraced it as a symbol of avant-garde modernity, and its MundaneUtility as a broadcast tower saved it from the wrecking ball in 1909 when Gustave Eiffel's lease expired. Nowadays? It is arguably ''the'' symbol of Paris, such that we even have [[EiffelTowerEffect a trope named after it]].

** ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'': ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s origin story (wherein she was born in a floating space city which survived Krypton's destruction thanks to a forcefield dome) was panned for decades as confusing, campy and in need of [[ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity several tweaks]] to be workable. When she was killed off and replaced, though, her substitutes' backstories -involving parallel pocket dimensions, artificial lifeforms, Satanists who turn out to be "Earthborn" angels, genetically engineered Brainiac's unwitting pawns who believe to be Superman's daughter...- made Kara Zor-El's origin look positively simple and ridiculously easy to understand. When Kara was brought back, her [[ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004 modern]] [[ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton origin]] storylines tried to do away with the most convoluted elements, but they became quickly dated and subjected to several retcons. Eventually, her first appearance was retconned back into canon (with the addition of some modern tweaks such like Kara being older than Superman) because it was decided it was her simplest and best origin.

* Some major crossovers, universally panned at first, have gone on to garner popularity. In particular, ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story arcs ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'' and ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' have been reappraised as good, despite being initially being panned. Part of this is due to the stories working slightly better when read all at once in a trade collectible, rather than one at a time over a period of months/years. Many of these were written before writing for trades became a thing.
* Both ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' were given huge boosts while ''ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar'' and ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' were largely treated as filler events. However, both ''Sinestro Corps'' and ''World War Hulk'' are now considered to be classics, whereas Countdown and Civil War are seen as two of the worst big events of the 00s.

* ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' was incredibly hard to follow back when it was released, due to the series' "channel flipping" method of storytelling, the ScheduleSlip that affected the essential tie-in Superman Beyond 3D, and significant Executive Meddling (particularly in regards to ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis''). Now that the series has been collected properly and the readership has had time to properly digest its contents, it's much more well regarded. A number of readers consider it a modern classic. It is still regarded as divisive, just not ''reviled''. It was reevaluated by a popular theory that it is a commentary on the state of superheroes and storytelling.

** Likewise, while it didn't sell very well at the time, Don [=McGregor=]'s ''Jungle Action'' run ended up having a major impact on the character. It was the first series to actually do serious WorldBuilding for Wakanda and to flesh out T'Challa's supporting cast. It also introduced [[Comicbook/{{Killmonger}} Erik Killmonger]], who would later become one of the Panther's most prominent and popular foes. It was also one of the first mainstream comics to have a self-contained, multi-issue arc, with some critics calling the "Panther's Rage" storyline Marvel's first graphic novel.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' has the Reboot/"Postboot" era. It was the first full-on reboot that the Legion of Super-Heroes received, presenting a new world where the heroes were just starting out. The KudzuPlot that eventually became the prior "Preboot" Legion was done away with. The characters were now teenagers again, and much of the stories were about characters and their personal drama rather than large space epics (mostly, that would come later). Because of this, some fans decried them as the "Archie Legion". The era gained a reputation for being a teen drama in space until the [=DnA=] run, which saw a DarkerAndEdgier take as the characters faced an invading army. While the [=DnA=] stuff is still praised, the "Archie" era has also since been reevaluated due to the pushback against DarkerAndEdgier storytelling with superheroes. The reboot that followed the Postboot Legion, the "Threeboot", revelled in this in particular and has been reevaluated in a ''negative'' light. People became more fond of the character work done with the Legion, and there is a general appreciation for how the reboot updated the characters for the modern age.

** Speaking of Cole, he got another dose of vindication in 2021 when he got paired with Pat [=McAfee=] in the ''Wrestling/WWESmackDown'' commentary booth. Cole and [=McAfee=]'s incredible synergy gave Cole the much-needed tremendous uptick in quality that he needed to improve his reputation with the fans. It only got better in 2022 when Vince was forced into retirement and Wrestling/TripleH became the head of creative, as another major increase in Cole's commentary quality thanks to the far more easygoing style of management that Hunter had allowed the majority to realize that yes, Cole ''really'' is held back a lot by Vince's constant micromanagement.

* WWE's Wrestling/{{ECW}} (nicknamed by fans as WWECW), was correctly deemed a complete bastardization of the original ECW in its heyday. After it ended, many fans came to remember it as a decent show that often had better writing than ''RAW'' and ''[=SmackDown=]'' that helped elevate several young wrestlers and introduced them to the wider WWE audience, such as Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, Wrestling/JohnMorrison, Wrestling/TheMiz, and most notable of all, Wrestling/CMPunk. Most fans just wished it hadn't been called ECW.

* Wrestling/{{Goldust}} was named the worst gimmick of 1995 by Wrestling Observer, but is today looked back upon as one of the greatest gimmicks of all time[[note]]That "award" was somewhat justified, Goldust had only made his debut in October and the gimmick hadn't evolved past "sexual deviant that keeps making unwanted advances towards [[Wrestling/ScottHall Razor Ramon]]". Given Vince [=McManhon's=] past history (and wrestling history in general) everyone assumed this was just another insensitive homophobic angle that was gonna make everyone look like trash and draw no money, and it "won" in a rout[[/note]].

* Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Lita}}: In 2005, word got out about the two having an affair, cheating on Edge's second wife and Wrestling/MattHardy respectively. This and Hardy's reaction which got him fired over it caused a lot of [[XPacHeat fan backlash]] towards both of them at the time, which Wrestling/{{WWE}} decided to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot make into an angle]] (first involving Lita's storyline husband Wrestling/{{Kane}}, then rehiring Matt) to take advantage of the situation. This especially lingered on with Lita to the point it played a hand in her decision to retire toward the end of 2006, receiving a less-than-admirable sendoff from the company on the way out. In the years since then, Edge has entered a [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections nepotistic]] [[SickeninglySweethearts romance]] storyline with Wrestling/VickieGuerrero for about a year or so which worked to the point that if Lita had returned to take Edge back it would've been a '''HeelFaceTurn''' less than two years later. Hardy has increasingly gone JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope as a career-midcarder, and began excusing his brother and friends' every mistake while taking '''four years''' to clearly define that his legit heat with Edge was over. Edge has become a modern day legend through great feuds and matches with the likes of Wrestling/TheUndertaker, Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/CMPunk, Wrestling/JeffHardy, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/TripleH, Wrestling/{{Batista}}, Wrestling/RandyOrton, so on and so forth, still being the generally all-around awesome guy backstage (seriously, even Cena has the rare dirt sheet article or shoot interview saying he's treated someone like crap. Edge? NOTHING outside the love triangle scandal. In fact, Curt Hawkins and Wrestling/ZackRyder still praise him on Twitter a fair deal for helping them in their formative WWE years, and Hawkins has had a subtle nod to Edge's "Easy Bein' Sleazy" shirt as the logo on his ring jacket). The WWE Women's/Divas Division has plummeted into 2/3-minute snooze-fests on ''Raw'' and ''[=SmackDown=]'', and took such disrespect at ''[=WrestleMania XXV=]'' that Lita and Wrestling/TrishStratus refused to be among the returnees for that night's show because they saw it coming.

** Also, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Madame_X Portrait of Madame X]]'', when originally exhibited, caused a great deal of scandal in the art circle. Sargent was forced to leave Paris as a result. The painting would become one of his and the era's most iconic pieces.

* [[Wrestling/BellaTwins Nikki Bella]] was the more popular of the Bella Twins for years, but similar to Michelle [=McCool=] above she gained a massive smark hatedom when it became known that she was dating John Cena (Her sister Brie, who dated, and later married, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] -- a wrestler far more beloved by smarks than Cena -- didn't receive nearly as much hatred as Nikki despite being regarded as a worse performer). Things only got worse during her second reign as Diva's Champion, when she surpassed Wrestling/AJLee as the longest reigning Divas champ despite being injured and rarely defended the belt at all during the second half of her reign (with it being widely speculated that the only reason why they didn't strip Nikki of the belt was as a TakeThat to AJ and husband CM Punk, as both had left on very bad terms). By the end of 2015, Nikki had taken time off to have neck surgery and by the time she returned nearly a year later, her in-ring work had improved significantly, she stayed away from the now Women's championship and helped put newcomer Wrestling/{{Carmella}} over, winning back respect from the fans and proving that she wasn't totally undeserving of her Diva's title push.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16640784890A84018500 under discussion]] in TropeTalk.]]]]]]

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16635007200.39977100 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

* Wrestling/{{Goldust}} was named the worst gimmick of 1995 by Wrestling Observer, but is today looked back upon as one of the greatest gimmicks of all time.
* Wrestling/SamoaJoe. Turning Point 2007. Scott Hall no-showed the event and Joe, given a live mic to announce his replacement in the match, used the opportunity to shoot on his frustration of how "superstars" are starting to flood into the promotion and take away the spotlight from the homegrown talent. At the time he was denounced as a whiner. Today, fans who look back on it see it as [[CassandraTruth one of the forewarnings of the major problems TNA had later on]], which would reach its zenith at the start of the Hogan-Bischoff era, where ''everyone'' got shoved down the card to make room for their buddies and ex-WWE and WCW wrestlers. Joe is now seen in a much more sympathetic light, especially as his TNA career slowed down to midcard hell.

* Piero Della Francesca was fairly obscure until the 1920s as well. He is now considered one of the greatest quattrocento artists.

* Creator/JackKirby's ''ComicBook/NewGods'' titles sold poorly (though there is some controversy about just how good or bad the sales figures were at the time, and how much of that was due to a line-wide price hike and format change). Since then, Kirby's work on ''New Gods'', ''Mister Miracle'' and ''The Forever People'' has become widely acclaimed as among his very best, with characters who have been used again and again, in multiple media (e.g. ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', and ''Series/{{Smallville}}''). After all, just try and think of Franchise/TheDCU without one of its biggest, baddest bads, ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}.

* Creator/CarlBarks worked anonymously during his active years for Disney. Though his comics were always lucrative, he only received recognition after retiring. Comic book fans noticed that certain WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck comics were better than others, so they tracked him down and discovered who had made all those masterful comic books over the years. Luckily, Barks would live long enough to see this recognition during his lifetime.
* ''ComicBook/EmeraldTwilight'': After 25 years, most of the controversy surrounding the storyline has died down. It is now considered one of the best Franchise/GreenLantern storylines ever made, just for the sheer amount of ShockingMoments present. There is also a somewhat vocal minority of Green Lantern fans that later (primarily following Hal Jordan's resurrection) started to agree with DC's reasoning for making the story (Hal was boring and needed to be replaced). There are readers who view Hal Jordan's time as Parallax as the only time his character had something going for him.
* Some major crossovers, universally panned at first, have gone on to garner popularity. In particular, Franchise/SpiderMan story arcs ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'' and ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' have been reappraised as good, despite being initially being panned. Part of this is due to the stories working slightly better when read all at once in a trade collectible, rather than one at a time over a period of months/years. Many of these were written before WritingForTheTrade became a thing.
* Similarly, both ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' were given huge boosts while ''ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar'' and ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' were largely treated as filler events. However, both ''Sinestro Corps'' and ''World War Hulk'' are now considered to be classics, whereas Countdown and Civil War are seen as two of the worst big events of the 00s.

* ComicBook/FinalCrisis was incredibly hard to follow back when it was released, due to the series' "channel flipping" method of storytelling, the ScheduleSlip that affected the essential tie-in Superman Beyond 3D, and significant Executive Meddling (particularly in regards to ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis). Now that the series has been collected properly and the readership has had time to properly digest its contents, it's much more well regarded. A number of readers consider it a modern classic. It is still regarded as divisive, just not ''reviled''. It was reevaluated by a popular theory that it is a commentary on the state of superheroes and storytelling.
* '' Comicbook/BlackPanther'':
** Creator/ChristopherPriest's run didn't sell well at the time of its original publication. Today, it is regarded as one of the best Marvel books of the 90's. Many fans even argue that Priest has earned MyRealDaddy status over the character at this point. His depiction is often considered to be the definitive take on Black Panther.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** In [[TheEighties the early 1980's]], the books were going through a sales slump that was attributed to the focus on Krypton and to the existence of Silver/Bronze age characters, such as ComicBook/{{Superboy}}, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog, whose comics had been cancelled at the time. It was then decreed that the Krypton stuff had to be excised, banned from continuity and replaced with non-Kryptonian substitutes. Flash-forward fifteen years, and the franchise is going through a slump again. Out of all the one replacements, only Superboy (Kon-El) seemed to have caught on with the fandom or to have been successfully translated to other media. This situation prompted DC to revoke the "Superman is the only Kryptonian survivor" policy and reintroduce the Pre-Crisis versions of the characters. Since then, those characters have been featured in several successful comic storylines as well as animation, live-action series and games. They became more popular than ever.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanBirthright'' came out at the worst possible time, as DC decided to hype it up as a chaser for ''Superman: For Tomorrow'' (a storyline whose sole memorable feature was that Jim Lee was on art duties) and Chuck Austen's run (which was just flat-out bad). Add in the fact that Leniel Yu was on art duties, and many thought it would be yet another attempt to make Superman DarkerAndEdgier. Mark Waid himself grumbled "I felt like I played at Carnegie Hall and nobody showed up." DC waffled on whether it was even canon for a while, and ended up excising it from continuity only a few years later in favor of ''ComicBook/SupermanSecretOrigin''. This demonstrated how little they cared about it. Nowadays, ''Birthright'' seems to be regarded as the ''best'' long-form Superman origin story, due to it managing to modernize the origin. It gave it a sense of weight and maturity, without forgetting its old-school grandeur and optimism. Many consider it a definitive version, due to it working well as a general-purpose origin and bringing back elements lost in the 80s reboot. It had its distinctive feel and a cohesive plotline, rather than serving as a highlight reel of what came before. Nowadays, if you find any "Superman Recommended Reading" list, it is very rare that ''Birthright'' won't be near the top.
** Superboy-Prime. When the character was reintroduced to the DCU in 2004's ''Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis'' event, Prime's character was written to be that of a former, now embittered ex-fan of DC's current continuity. He was disillusioned with how much all the characters had changed since his youth. It was psychologically damaging for him, being trapped in other universe(s), while knowing his old world and all his loved ones were killed. For a long while, fans only hitched on the "Fanboy strawman" aspect of his character (not helped by Lewis Lovhaug interpreting him as a whiny brat). The character was greatly mishandled during ''Comicbook/CountdownToFinalCrisis.'' Revelations eventually came of how toxic the comics fanbase could be, in addition to the rising popularity of isekai stories. Opinions on Prime started to soften and become sympathetic. All the way to the point where many fans were legitimately excited to see his return in ''Shazam'' and ''Comicbook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'', where he [[spoiler:finally chose to accept responsibility for his actions, redeem himself, and get a second chance in his world that was denied to him before]].
* In [[TheNineties early 1990's]], the ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' wasn't a big seller, and several creatives decided that the franchise needed a shake-up. Such as turning Silver Age "relic" Hal Jordan into a villain in order to replace him with a newer and "cooler" character. Several years later, enter Creator/GeoffJohns, who rehabilitates Hal Jordan and makes him the centerpiece of a massively popular, best-selling run.

* [[Wrestling/BellaTwins Nikki Bella]] was the more popular of the Bella Twins for years, but similar to Michelle [=McCool=] above she gained a massive smark hatedom when it became known that she was dating John Cena (Her sister Brie, who dated, and later married, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] -- a wrestler far more beloved by smarks than Cena --didn't receive nearly as much hatred as Nikki despite being regarded as a worse performer). Things only got worse during her second reign as Diva's Champion, when she surpassed Wrestling/AJLee as the longest reigning Divas champ despite being injured and rarely defended the belt at all during the second half of her reign (with it being widely speculated that the only reason why they didn't strip Nikki of the belt was as a TakeThat to AJ and husband CM Punk, as both had left on very bad terms). By the end of 2015, Nikki had taken time off to have neck surgery and by the time she returned nearly a year later, her in-ring work had improved significantly, she stayed away from the now Women's championship and helped put newcomer Wrestling/{{Carmella}} over, winning back respect from the fans and proving that she wasn't totally undeserving of her Diva's title push.

* [[Wrestling/BellaTwins Nikki Bella]] was the more popular of the Bella Twins for years, but similar to Michelle [=McCool=] above she gained a massive smark hatedom when it became known that she was dating John Cena (Her sister Brie, who dated, and later married, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], a wrestler far more beloved by smarks than Cena, didn't receive nearly as much hatred as Nikki despite being regarded as a worse performer). Things only got worse during her second reign as Diva's Champion, when she surpassed Wrestling/AJLee as the longest reigning Divas champ despite being injured and rarely defended the belt at all during the second half of her reign (with it being widely speculated that the only reason why they didn't strip Nikki of the belt was as a TakeThat to AJ and husband CM Punk, as both had left on very bad terms). By the end of 2015, Nikki had taken time off to have neck surgery and by the time she returned nearly a year later, her in-ring work had improved significantly, she stayed away from the now Women's championship and helped put newcomer Wrestling/{{Carmella}} over, winning back respect from the fans and proving that she wasn't totally undeserving of her Diva's title push.

* [[Wrestling/BellaTwins Nikki Bella]] was the more popular of the Bella Twins for years, but like [=McCool=] above she gained a massive smark hatedom when it became known that she was dating John Cena. Things only got worse during her second reign as Diva's Champion, when she surpassed Wrestling/AJLee as the longest reigning Divas champ despite being injured and rarely defended the belt at all during the second half of her reign. By the end of 2015, she had taken time off to have neck surgery and by the time she returned nearly a year later, her in-ring work had improved significantly, she stayed away from the now Women's championship and helped put newcomer Wrestling/{{Carmella}} over, winning back respect from the fans and that she wasn't totally undeserving of her Diva's title push. Brie has been vindicated also, but not to the degree of her sister.