Damian Wayne has been this for a while. From the beginning, readers couldn't stand his snide attitude, cruelty and arrogance, and the massive amounts of lenience that he seemed to get for things that some fans found unforgivablenote such as attempting to murder Tim Drake but Grant Morrison kept using him in their stories. When he eventually became the Robin to Dick Grayson's Batman, many fans complained; however, he won many naysayers over with him as the "dark, snarky" Robin to Dick's comparatively lighter Batman (helped by perceived Character Development where he stopped treating the rest of the Batfamily so horribly as before) and allowing Bruce to be written as a struggling father. When his long-delayed death finally occurred, he'd developed enough of a fanbase that many were actually saddened by his death, so he was brought back to life the following year. While Morrison hasn't written the character in some time, Damian's detractors still maintain that he has been too Easily Forgiven for his past villainous behaviour, still frequently acts like an evil Jerkass with no more consequences than a slap on the wrist or some light snarking back, and is also still being shilled as the only "real" son of Batman at the expense of his adopted family, mostly due to Aesop Amnesia. A series of events that took place in Teen Titans (Rebirth) when he led the Teen Titans would see this treatment dropped as his teammates weren't as forgiving to him as the Bat-Family.
Jason Todd's characterization since coming back from the dead changes depending on the writer, which makes it seem like DC is throwing it all at the wall to see what sticks. The attempt at darkening him has him do things that no other Bat-character could get away with, such as casually killing (emphasis on the casual) and using guns (Peter Tomasi did however write him as going for leg shots in front of Batman), while having the negative personality aspects of Damian, but none of the charm or character development, nor the excuse of being a child raised in a murderous cult. He's often been inserted into events where his presence adds nothing to the story The fact that he's been written by disliked writer Scott Lobdell, who has often miswritten other characters to buoy Jason, for so long has fans begging for anyone new to take over.
Harper Row. She was created because of the post-New 52 veto on Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, but since they've come back she's been shilled as basically better than either of them as well as the 'uber Robin'. This includes things like being more determined than Steph (who's famously the biggest Determinator in the franchise in terms of never quitting despite horrible odds) and central to every part of Cass' character development to the point where her whole motivation is now based on Harper. We're frequently told how great she is without any evidence and nobody ever calls her out on any of her frequent Jerkass-ness. And she's also an uber tech genius that surpasses Tim Drake (the tech guy in the Bat-fam) somehow despite debuting with basic skills based on electronics. Oh, and she becomes an Instant Expert and is able to pull of advanced acrobatics and fighting despite barely being trained. Even in Detective Comics (Rebirth), a series that's basically the Batman Ensemble Darkhorses in a team book, Harper got more focus than Cassandra Cain for the first two story arcs, and Harper's not even in the main cast.
There's also the amount of focus she gets. Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal were both advertised to feature the return of Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain, respectively (the second was also about the Robins). While they do get their origins and appear, Harper also gets extensive focus, even overshadowing the two in many people's eyes. It's basically advertising that your comic will feature the return of a fan-favourite character... and it does, but more heavily features your own original character that people don't like.
Tim Drake for James Tynion IV, something he even partially admitted to. Detective Comics (Rebirth) made him the most beloved of the Batfamily, which is usually attributed to Dick and/or Alfred. He can hack his way into Kryptonian technology, which has repeatedly been stated to be lightyears ahead of Earth technology, with only limited assistance. He's also acting as the fulcrum of everything that happens in the comic in one way or another. His Titans of Tomorrow counterpart effortlessly defeated Doomsday, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Damian at the same time, and take on Batman and even Superman when he is supposed to be the worst fighter out of all the Robins. And who defeated him? Tim himself. He even managed to get away with his deeds and even proclaimed as a hero even after trying to assassinate Superboy many times without explanation, threatening to murder the Titans, trying to kill Batwoman, etc. Even some Tim fans can't stand the way he is written.
Earth 2 has a Pet quartet: Val-Zod, Thomas Wayne, Red Tornado Lois, and Jimmy Olsen. Though they were introduced in the well-liked Robinson run, it was under the pen of Tom Taylor that they became outright hated. The entire premise of the book was that it was a world where the Trinity were Killed Off for Real and the book would instead focus on the ex-JSA Ensemble Darkhorses, so bringing in Suspiciously Similar Substitutes to the two most overexposed members of the Trinity and their supporting cast went over like a lead balloon. And that's before they started grabbing character focus and arcs like crazy, even taking a disproportionate amount of cover space, while the original main characters were weakened, Demoted to Extra, or just plain forgotten. The result was one of the most unique books in DC's library at the time being reduced in the eyes of readers to a second-rate knockoff of Injustice: Gods Among Usnote or, given the story featured heavy presence from Darkseid and Apokolips, a forerunner to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, with an appropriate crater in the sales. Fans consider them incredibly boring and completely redundant, and often theorize that Taylor is being ordered by editorial mandate to use more recognizable characters (which would explain why Robinson quit).
The Flash: Barry Allen, the second Flash. Barry pulled a Heroic Sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths (a crossover from the 1980s) and this led to his sidekick, Wally West, taking up the mantle of the Flash in The Flash (1987). Fast forward to the late 2000s, and people who grew up with Barry are Running the Asylum, including Geoff Johns, who has actually said that Barry is his favorite character. So, Barry returns and succeeds Wally in being the protagonist of The Flash 2010. Then Flashpoint happens, and in The Flash (2011), Wally is rebooted out of existence, along with his wife and children, and Barry is established as being the only Flash.
Even in Justice League: Doom, an animated adaption of a JLA storyline wherein the Flash was Wally, the Flash is Barry. The plot would be no different if the Flash was classic Wally (in contrast to switching Kyle out for Hal, which at least made sense with the villainous counterpart they used).
Between 2011 and 2016, the other Flashes were completely different characters with only a few similarities with their pre-New 52 counterparts, while Barry's character remains mostly intact. That alone speaks volumes about the favoritism to Barry.
To show how deep this attitude goes, Michael Cray is a story about the eponymous Cray hunting down the evilWild Storm versions of the Justice League. In an universe where even Wonder Woman is a murderous cultist, Barry Allen (a full-fledged Serial Killer in this continuity) is depicted as a mentally ill Tragic Villain who gets an Alas, Poor Villain death scene, leaving Cray rattled and questioning his place in the world.
Unfortunately, this favoritism towards Barry Allen also bled into other Flash-related Media during the 2010s. Whenever the Flash appeared, it was always Barry, whereas the other members of the Flash Family either did not exist or were little more than extras at best. This was especially prevalent in movies & tv shows. The CW Flash was entirely focused on Barry Allen, with the accomplishments and storylines of Wally West adapted for Barry; the DCEU Flash was also only Barry Allen without any of his supporting cast; and the same applies to the DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
One particular example that serves as a microcosm to this excessive favoritism has to be with how the DC Animated adaptation of Teen Titans: The Judas Contract handled the character of Kid Flash. In the Original Titans, Wally West's Kid Flash was a key member of the team, And it appeared that the DC Animated movies were finally going to have Wally make his first appearance. However, this turned out to not be the case, as the producers stated that the Kid Flash in the animated movie was in fact a young Barry Allen. note The problem with this is that it makes no sense on several levels. 1) Barry Allen was never Kid Flash at any point in his career in the comics or in any other adaptation, so it comes rather out of nowhere; 2) Prior DC Animated movies established that Barry's Flash never knew Batman even existed until Justice League: War... yet he was friends with and on the same team as Robin during his younger days; and 3) it just serves as another example of DC making unnecesarry continuity errors for the sake of erasing Wally West from existence. Fans unsurprisingly were not happy.
The backlash for this has gotten so bad that even the creators themselves have reacted. Geoff Johns, who as said considers Barry his favorite, became The Atoner for how this favoritism affected Wally (a character he was also a big fan of and never intended for him to be shafted as he was) and pushed to have him restored, which would ultimately happen in DC Rebirth, while Josh Williamson ended up dedicating much of his Flash run to calling Barry out on how much of a self-concerned jackass he comes off as thanks to the favouritism.
Dwayne McDuffie had John Stewart, though this was largely part of self-fulfilling prophecy; some fans didn't like Stewart for the way he leapfrogged Kyle Rayner (who was previously established in the DCAU via Superman: TAS) and longtime comic GL Hal Jordan to be the Green Lantern in Justice League . This led to McDuffie (a black creator who was quite vocal about racism within the TV and comic industry, and who had inherited Stewart on the cartoon from the previous showrunner) making some comments equating hatred of Stewart as racism, which led to the widespread notion that Stewart was McDuffie's pet character. Fast forward a couple of years when McDuffie took over the Justice League of America comic and he was told to use John instead of Hal as the Justice League of America's Green Lantern on orders from above (partly because Hal was being given his own JLA team). Sadly for McDuffie, fandom took the change badly, not helped in the least by the fact that Hal's JLA spin-off was delayed and reduced to a mini-series when it became apparent that James Robinson's artist was never going to get the book done on time. This lead to Hal returning to the title until his book was ready, followed by John's reinstatement just long enough for him to be bounced again and replaced with Hal until he was quickly replaced with Jade when they needed a book to focus on her Brightest Day storyline. The entire process was made progressively worse and worse by Executive Meddling, in case you couldn't tell. And when McDuffie had the gall to describe this and the other creative difficulties on his forum (without assigning blame or complaining), DC responded by firing him.
One could argue that the Green Lantern has been a source of shilling the creator's pet since the 90s. Start with Kyle Rayner replacing Hal Jordan and the writers trying to shill him to win over the fan base disgusted by Hal's Face–Heel Turn in Emerald Twilight. Fast forward 10 years, and a number of those fans are now writers/editors for DC, and they promptly retcon the heel turn and restore Hal to being GL Numero Uno — and now must shill him to the fan base who grew up with Kyle and are upset with him getting booted down — and John Stewart as described above.
Interestingly, a few writers did make Kyle work for his place in the DC Universe. A number of writers, like Grant Morrison, had characters like Wally West look down on the rookie Lantern for just being there and made to bust his chops to earn his place in the greater scheme of things.
Geoff Johns' Hal Jordan can come off as this at times. He's the Greatest of Green Lanterns, and constantly told so, even though the bulk of his accomplishments are only achieved through dumb luck; he can be as much a Jerkass as Guy Gardner, yet rarely be called on it, because the Parallax fiasco was retconned into being him possessed by a giant bug, that was apparently inhabiting him for years without any real change to his personality until he went nuts; his record is now spotless and he's somehow so important to the Universe that he's been able to sample the entire Emotional Spectrum, just because he's Hal Jordan. However, it's also worth noting that he was written with realistic flaws - his relationship with Carol Ferris was perpetually in limbo because of his self-admitted commitment issues, and just because he sampled most of the Emotional Spectrum didn't make him very good at it (he was basically useless with Hope, he could form constructs with Rage but was otherwise totally out of control, he never mastered Fear as Sinestro delighted in pointing out, his brief experience with Orange wasn't any more helpful, and he never tried Compassion or Love). Kyle, by contrast, was the one who mastered the entire spectrum and Hal stated that while he was the greatest Green Lantern, Kyle was the greatest Lantern full stop. Equally, while he ended up leading the Green Lantern Corps, it was very apparent that he wasn't good at the kind of technical leadership and organisation such a position required, with even Sinestro pointing out that he'd lost his edge, and he happily abdicated the position to John Stewart.
There was a period when Magog, of all characters, was one of these. Originally created by Alex Ross and Mark Waid as a scathing deconstruction of the '90s Anti-Hero archetype for their Kingdom Come book, Magog would find a new lease on life a decade later when he was imported into Justice Society of America by Geoff Johns as part of an effort to focus the book on a new generation of Legacy Character types. At first this introduction seemed quite promising, as the young not-yet-Magog was introduced as a polite and respectful soldier who worked and played well with his teammates. This character would become Magog through the year-long 'Thy Kingdom Come' story arc, during which he was promoted to main character status to play off the story's villain Gog. Fine and dandy. But after that storyline came to a close and Geoff Johns left the book, Magog would remain a main character under new writer Bill Willingham (something that did not sit well with many fans who had favorites of their own among the many newly introduced characters, none of which were featured as prominently as Magog). This might have still worked out if the character had remained likable, but under Willingham's pen he quickly degenerated into a disagreeable, contrarian Jerkass who seemed to delight in pissing off both his teammates and readers. While a small fandom for the character persisted (very small, if the sales of his brief solo series were anything to go by), Magog very quickly acquired a much larger Hatedom, one that was not at all shy about voicing their distaste for the character. DC listened to the complaints, first by having old-school heroes Power Girl and Alan Scott clean Magog's clock, and later killing him off in an almost needlessly gory fashion to placate the fans. Even after nearly a decade the character has not recovered from this damage, and since the New 52 he has been reinvented as an outright villain.
Superman: Superboy-Prime. Originally an unexpected hero from the original Crisis, he was later grabbed by writers and re-tooled into a brainless, self-entitled brat who went on super-powered temper tantrums against comic heroes for not being who he wanted them to be. Essentially he was a rather mean-spirited Take That!to comic book readers. Naturally, writers didn't seem to like Prime that much, making him a pathetic joke who only seemed to get more and more pitiful every time he showed up, but he was continuously brought back over and over again for major events, despite the fans growing more and more fed up with the joke every appearance. One particularly eye-rolling moment in a Prime story showed us a comic-book shop in the "real world" where the fans were laughing about how "Hilarious" they found the character. He finally achieved redemption when fighting the Darkest Knight, Wonder Woman have successfully appealed to his better nature, and resisted the Darkest Knight's temptations of a world all of his own... and was rewarded with a chance to do it right this time.
Danny Chase from New Titans was universally loathed by fans within a few issues of his first appearance. He was a Cousin Oliver (he even looked like the original Cousin Oliver) introduced to make the team seem younger, as he was only in his early teens while everyone else was pushing 20. Despite his age, he constantly argued with the other members of the team, criticized them, was supposed to be a genius superspy teenager with telekinetic powers, but then went crazy with fear whenever an actual fight took place. And when Dick was distraught at the death of Jason Todd, Danny said it was no big deal because Jason 'knew the risks'. In a series about costumed superheroes with codenames, whose fans presumably enjoy reading about costumed superheroes with codenames, having a character who continually goes on about how lame costumes and codenames are and how he's too cool for a costume or codename probably isn't going to go down too well. It also hurt that Marv Wolfman had no idea how to write a telekinetic to complement the Titans' diverse power set. Chase's powers were mainly shown to be (at best) extremely limited: at best he could levitate himself (but only while sitting Indian-style) and throw small objects around at bad guys to annoy them. Jean Grey he wasn't; this combined with his wussy behavior during combat, made him practically useless in battle. The only people who didn't seem to grasp how loathed this character was was writer Marv Wolfman who, to this day, still insists it was the readers' fault for not "getting the character," and weirdly enough Linkara, who calls Danny his favorite superhero ever.
Mirage is a downplayed example of this trope. While she remains an incredibly unpopular character for raping Nightwing while disguised as Starfire (to the point of laughing at the thought of his relationship being ruined and never being directly punished for it), she remained a prominent character in New Titans and was one of the last remaining members of the Team Titans after the rest were erased. She's never received any major roles since New Titans was canceled, yet somehow she keeps reappearing in various Titan titles. She was revealed to have rejoined the team during 52, was part of the Titans who amassed to beat Superboy-Prime's Legion of Doom, and shockingly reappeared over a decade later in Dark Nights: Death Metal exactly as she looked before Flashpoint rewrote the DCU. Even though her roles have been minor, Titan fans are still very much annoyed at how she keeps reappearing as it gives the idea that someone is still trying to make her a thing.
Deathstroke was also Wolfman's Creator's Pet for most of his run. When George Perez left The New Teen Titans, Wolfman had free reign over Deathstroke's character, and it seemed that he had no objectivity where he was concerned. In a very jarring, sudden turn of events, Deathstroke became a Karma Houdini for his actions, his earlier characterization forgotten and now established as an Anti-Villain who bore the Titans no ill willnote When Perez was still on the title, Deathstroke blamed the Titans for his son's death and took very clear, visible pleasure in setting them up to be betrayed and murdered) turned Anti-Hero, being Easily Forgiven and becoming a father-figure and friend of the Titans, including his biggest victims Nightwing, Changeling, and his own son Jericho who was rendered mute because of him. Wolfman has also stated repeatedly that he never saw Deathstroke as a villain, but as a victim of circumstance stuck in a bad situation, whose actions (including sleeping with a teenage girl) weren't truly his fault.
He was Brad Meltzer's Creator's Pet as well, although ironically Meltzer went in the opposite direction from Wolfman. Instead of attempting to canonly apply the Draco in Leather Pants treatment to him, Meltzer made Deathstroke an unabashed villain who was just so good at what he did, being both an invincible fighter and unparalleled Diabolical Mastermind. This was best shown in the notorious scene of Identity Crisis (2004) where Deathstroke singlehandedly curb-stomps the entire Justice League. Meltzer was clearly a tad too enamored with Deathstroke as a villain.
The second Wonder Girl, Cassie Sandsmark, was felt to be this after she became team leader in Teen Titans volume 3. While talked up as a leader by the writers, Cassie didn't really do all that much and more page time was often given to her acting obnoxiously condescending or being a Jerkass to her boyfriend. Fans also felt insulted when Felicia Henderson brought Beast Boy back to the team: Rather than give him his leader role back, Henderson had Cassie continue to be leader while lacking any character development, while the older and more experienced Gar was demoted to obnoxious comic relief and treated as if he were younger.
at the expense of his adopted family, mostly due to Aesop Amnesia. A series of events that took place in Teen Titans (Rebirth) when he led the Teen Titans would see this treatment dropped as his teammates weren't as forgiving to him as the Bat-Family.