The DCU
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Comic Books
Comic Books
- Batman:
- Batman is a classic and well-known anti-hero who has had a significant influence on comic book anti-heroes, frequently acting as a foil to idealists like Superman. Batman displayed the traits of the modern anti-hero since his debut in Detective Comics, 1939. However, Batman's status as an anti-hero ultimately depends on who's writing or portraying him; many have leaned towards a more traditional idea of heroism. For example, while Frank Miller's fits this trope like a glove, it's really hard to describe Adam West's Batman as an anti-hero.
- Jason Todd, the Red Hood. In Red Hood and the Outlaws, he states that he's become Lighter and Softer in recent years, noting that he no longer enjoys killing people, even criminals.
- In the story Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Batgirl is the protector of Gotham. Her methods are questionable at best (she took over Gotham and rules the place with an iron fist), and she is kinda jerkass, but her only goal is protecting people, saving innocents and stopping criminals.
- Huntress, the Helena Bertinelli version, was easily one of the most violent and willing-to-kill "heroes" in the DCU. She was, in a sense, Batman's Batman; if Batman is the paradigmatic dark, grim-and-gritty DC hero, Huntress was the one who was too dark for Batman. Interestingly, Arrow made Huntress an out-and-out villainess with very little change to her basic personality.
- DC Comics introduced a slew of Anti Heroes to "replace" their traditional heroic characters during the Dark Age (the Eradicator for Superman, Jean Paul Valley for Batman, Artemis for Wonder Woman, and Dark Flash for The Flash), though whether they were supposed to emphasize how good the originals were in comparison or a cynical attempt to get with the Darker and Edgier trend of the '90s depends on how charitable you are. The only one with any staying power was Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, but he was never really an Anti-Hero to begin with. Kyle was brought in to replace Hal Jordan, who had become the supervillain Parallax — he didn't need to be dark and edgy.
- Green Lantern: Most heroes regard the Red Lanterns as violent jerkasses at best (and to be fair, most of Red Lanterns are blood-thirsty and evil). However, inhabitants of worlds saved by Guy Gardner's Red Lantern squad consider them saviors and freedom fighters.
- John Constantine, Hellblazer. This is one of the reasons why he was Exiled from Continuity in the first place.
- Tommy Monaghan, the protagonist of Hitman (1993) is exactly the popular definition of an anti-hero. A jerkass, selfish, amoral, professional assassin with superpowers, he nonetheless manages to do good things, whether because he's getting paid to do so, or because somewhere down there he really wants to do something good.
- Jonah Hex, who has been around since 1971.
- Say his name, comic fans: Lobo. Definitely The Lancer on the spacefaring L.E.G.I.O.N. team, and in Young Justice as the de-aged Slobo.
- Milestone Comics: A good majority of Milestone heroes, save for Icon and Static, have tendencies to do immoral things but are still for the most part good guys.
- The Blood Syndicate are probably the biggest examples. Most of the members aren't exactly nice people and are willing to kill people to achieve their goals.
- Hardware: At the start, Curtis Metcalf wants to stop Alva's evil influence on his life and the world at large, but he has no care for how much collateral damage he causes or lives he takes in the process and even outright states he's no hero, just out for revenge. He becomes a more Pragmatic Hero later with influence from his moral teammates. His whole character was mockingly summed up by a friend out of disgust.
Barraki: Let me see if I got this right. You built a secret underground lab and outfitted yourself for a high-tech war. You've destroyed millions of dollars in property. You've killed people. Ended their lives without any visible remorse. And you did all this because your boss wouldn't give you a raise? How many people's lives are you willing to destroy for this? What's it worth, you arrogant, selfish, bastard? - The Superboy (New 52) version of Superboy is one of the Nominal Hero kind. This version of Superboy has no interest in heroics beyond what it takes to survive/gain his freedom. Between the first and second issues, he kills many of his captors by reflex and feels no remorse or guilt, tortures a group of soldiers who hold him at gunpoint, and flat out threatens to kill anyone who stands in his way. Issue #4 seems to be steering him towards being a Knight in Sour Armor.
- Supergirl:
- Supergirl was briefly an anti-hero during the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline. She was short-tempered, irrational, mad and more than a little bratty... and even so, she wanted to use her powers to protect and help innocent people and punish evildoers.Supergirl: So it took the Red Ring of Rage for me to finally find acceptance. So what? This planet will live. And I pummel anyone who says otherwise.
- In Bizarrogirl, the eponymous character is a backwards bad-tempered loony but she wants to do the right thing.
- Supergirl was briefly an anti-hero during the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline. She was short-tempered, irrational, mad and more than a little bratty... and even so, she wanted to use her powers to protect and help innocent people and punish evildoers.
- Superman. At least, the original Golden Age Man of Steel. Superman didn't become the big boy scout we know and love until World War II, or possibly even The '50s. Back in The '30s, Superman was an anti-hero, fighting for truth and justice but was more like Batman, terrifying criminals and threatening to kill them. While he never actually killed anyone, he would more often than not avert Save the Villain — in Superman #2 (1939), Superman just stands and watches a villain die slowly from a poisonous gas. As in, stood in the same room with the dying man as he begs for help.Villain: Help me!... The pain... I-I'm choking... I can't breathe!
Superman: You're only getting a taste of the fate you planned to doom others to! - Wonder Woman:
- The Post-Crisis Wonder Woman revamp paved the way for Diana and all of the Amazons to become Anti-Heroes rather than their previous incarnation as a Perfect Pacifist People by changing their origin from being female refugees from over the centuries who ended up on Paradise Island and chose to take the oaths of fealty and pacifism and go through the conditioning necessary to become Amazons, to a bunch of immortal warrior women from the Bronze Age whose culture has essentially not evolved since then. Di only started to actually verge on becoming an Anti-Hero late in the run when she killed Maxwell Lord.
- The New 52 Wonder Woman revamp took things even further by making Diana a true Anti-Hero whose friends point out she is a bit too eager to kill, turning the Amazons into a society of rapists and murderers, turning Donna Troy into an outright villain, and changing Wonder Girl into a thief with dangerous problems with authority. However, this was seen as too bleak by the fans and retconned in DC Rebirth.
Films
Films
- Constantine (2005): Constantine is rude, unhelpful to most people, asks his friends to put themselves in dangerous situations (and gets three of them killed because of this) and only performs exorcisms and sends half breed demons back to Hell because he wants to buy his way into Heaven.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy:
- The Dark Knight: Batman's unscrupulous methods in make him something of an anti-hero. His intentions are heroic but he is willing to break the law in order to achieve them.
- Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises is an unscrupulous hero who is not only willing to break the law but also stain her hands with the blood of bad guys.
Live-Action TV
Live-Action TV
- Smallville:
- Lex was pragmatic before becoming evil. Then, he had flawed methods but he genuinely wanted to stop his father Lionel and be a good friend to Clark.
- When Lionel Luthor redeems himself, he is still as ruthless and manipulative as he was before.
- By Season 10, both Chloe Sullivan and Tess Mercer have this air to them. Ironically, they're both Mission Control who have been noted to be similar.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- DC Animated Universe:
- Batman from Batman: The Animated Series is the Knight in Sour Armor type. However, it is subverted in a way of his role in most other mediums, as Batman is probably the least anti-heroic member of the Justice League aside from the Flash. Justice Lord Batman was the only member of the the parallel League to see how corrupt his world had become, and normal Batman called Superman out on his ethically questionable handling of Doomsday.
- In other aspects, Batman can also lean towards a Pragmatic Hero on occasion such as when he interrogated a thug in front of his wife and young son. The tendencies for Batman to become Good Is Not Nice, including the interrogation incident previously mentioned, is at least partially what made Dick Grayson give up being Robin and become Nightwing, as detailed in "Old Wounds".
- Another one, yet of those rare, completely uncool examples: detective Harvey Bullock. He despises Batman, works below the board, lies about his accomplishments, has zero respect for people and their privacy, and in the words of Alfred, "looks like an unmade bed". Yet he's also a startlingly skilled fighter and wholeheartedly dedicated to getting rid of Gotham's "scum". He's essentially the kind of cop who would be a huge supporter of Batman's vigilantism if his own ego would let him.
- In Justice League:
- Hawkgirl is Pragmatic, especially in how she killed Kragger by removing his life support and leaving him to fall to his death.
- Aquaman (Arthur) overlaps with this trope and Well-Intentioned Extremist. Due to his insistence on his royal prerogatives and his narrow focus on what's best for Atlantis, he sometimes becomes an opponent of other League members. Despite a couple of friendships with other League members, he sometimes seems to regard his work with the League as a series of Enemy Mine situations.
- In Justice League Unlimited:
- Despite her Adaptational Heroism aspect, Huntress seems a little too 'anti' for the League, especially since her first major appearance involves her trying to murder Mandragora while sleeping in his home. In short, she's half Pragmatic, half {{Nominal|Hero.
- Black Canary (Dinah Lance) is the Good Is Not Nice variety.
- The Question's interrogation techniques are similar to Batman's, but the former is even more ruthless. Plus he had no problem with hunting down and killing Luthor without the League's knowledge if it kept the world safe from Armageddon and the League's reputation as heroes in tact.
- Batman from Batman: The Animated Series is the Knight in Sour Armor type. However, it is subverted in a way of his role in most other mediums, as Batman is probably the least anti-heroic member of the Justice League aside from the Flash. Justice Lord Batman was the only member of the the parallel League to see how corrupt his world had become, and normal Batman called Superman out on his ethically questionable handling of Doomsday.
- In the 2003 version of Teen Titans, Raven may not be the most social person you'd come across, but she is most certainly heroic and on the side of good.
- The new Red X has some baseline heroism, but he's really working for himself. He puts it best himself: he's neither hero nor villain; he's just doing whatever the hell he wants, wherever that happens to fall.
- Doctor Fate in Young Justice (2010). A helmet-based spirit of Order, he has no qualms about forcibly suppressing a host's original mind to stay active, even if the host in question is just a child.
- Also, M'gann becomes this. Yes, M'gann, the Naïve Newcomer and The Cutie—by the second season, she is willing to Mind Rape practically anyone to get information or revenge.
- Pretty much all of the main six characters register on the scale somewhere, though Kid Flash is a Classical Anti-Hero at best.
