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Decomposite Character / The DCU

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The DCU

Decomposite Character in this franchise.
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    Comic Books 

Comic Books

  • The Icemaiden/Ice situation from Justice League International. Icemaiden originally debuted in the Super Friends tie-in comic book as a blue-skinned heroine from Norway, and years later, officially joined the DC Universe via a guest appearance in the Infinity, Inc. series. Her real name was also revealed to be Sigrid Nansen in the Who's Who in the DC Universe guidebook. The character finally came to prominence when she was made part of the Justice League International, where she was renamed "Ice" and given a new design that lacked the blue skin. The writers, unaware of her civilian name, also rechristened her Tora Olafsdotter. Subsequent writers explained this discrepancy by establishing that Sigrid was actually a separate character and Tora's predecessor. After Ice was killed off, Sigrid joined the Justice League as her replacement.
  • Due to the popularity of the old Adventures of Superman radio show and the 50s live-action series, the character of Inspector Bill Henderson was eventually brought over to the comics. When subsequent adaptations like Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Superman: The Animated Series reimagined Henderson as a black man, the Supergirl comic book series responded by introducing a second version of the character named Inspector Mike Henderson, who more closely resembled his modern media incarnations.
  • New 52:
    • Cyborg-Superman, as it's not Hank Henshaw, who's shown to still be fully human. However, it lapses with Composite Character, as Cyborg-Superman turned out to be Superman's uncle and Supergirl's father, Zor-El.
    • Lobo was split into two characters: the most familiar face, with the pre-New 52 appearance, is said to be an imposter, while an all-new different looking character showed up claiming to be the real Lobo (although many fans wish it to be the other way round). Following DC Rebirth, the "classic" Lobo is now being treated as the main one again.
    • The Flash (2011) finally reintroduced Wally West in 2014 as a half-black teenage delinquent with a different backstory and no connection to his former True Companions (who are still adults). DC Rebirth began with the original Wally West returning after having been lost in the Speed Force, revealing that the younger Wally is the original's cousin. (Their shared name is explained as them having both been named after their great-grandfather.) The younger Wally currently uses the Kid Flash identity (and eventually starts going by "Wallace,” and later, “Ace,” in his civilian identity), while the original Wally shares the Flash codename with Barry Allen. Later issues revealed his supposed past as the older Wally's cousin is in fact a fabrication when he sees explicit evidence in the Flash Museum of the 25th Century that he never existed in the pre-Flashpoint universe.
    • Likewise, while Maxima was originally an adult villainess (later Anti-Hero) with an attraction to powerful men like Superman, the New 52 instead revamped her as a heroic teenage lesbian with a crush on Supergirl. The Superwoman series later retconned the name "Maxima" into a royal title, and introduced an older, more traditional version of Maxima as a heterosexual villainess who kidnapped the teen Maxima and tried to take the name for herself. Unlike the above two Author's Saving Throws this Maxima was never treated as the "real" one.
    • Similarly, the New 52 introduced a modernized take on the Top named Turbine, with the original Top later appearing as a completely separate character who just happens to have similar powers and the same first name ("Roscoe").
    • The version of The Question is a faceless immortal who doesn't even know his own identity, and appears to have no connection to the New 52 Vic Sage, a government agent in New Suicide Squad.
    • Eddie Walker/Loose Cannon, who was basically a blue Hulk, was one of the main characters created in the Bloodlines crossover. In the New 52 universe, a version of Loose Cannon appeared in Teen Titans as a random villain, but his real name was unrevealed. A few years later, a version of Eddie Walker was a major character in the New 52 Bloodlines miniseries, which didn't use codenames. Since Eddie only gained his hulking blue form during the miniseries, they can't be the same guy, and in fact the Titans Loose Cannon has slightly different powers.
    • Following Arrow all but saying that John Diggle is the Arrowverse counterpart to John Stewart, the Dig who was introduced in the New 52 Green Arrow comic is sort of a retroactive decomposite.
    • Superboy Kon-el the 90s Civvie Spandex rocking clone of Supes from The Death of Superman (see below) was reintroduced in the New 52 as a Darker and Edgier character with Clone Angst who made subsequent appearances in Superman and Teen Titans comics as well his own series. However the 90s version of Kon-el returned in Young Justice (2019) having been alive all this time marooned in an alternate reality making the New 52 Kon-el a different character. All Superboys are decomposite characters taking after the original Superboy series which about the adventures of a younger Superman in Smallville. Besides Kon-el, there’s also Superboy-Prime originally a good kid in the real world who became Superboy before turning evil and the DC Rebirth Superboy who’s the Half-Human Hybrid son of Supes and Lois, much like Jason from Superman Returns.
    • Similarly, pre-Flashpoint, the most recent Kid Flash had been Bart Allen, the grandson of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash. The New 52 Teen Titans relaunch used Bart as Kid Flash and implied that he might still have some relation to Barry, only for it to eventually be revealed that he was really an amnesiac teenage criminal from the 30th century named Bar Torr. The real Bart Allen eventually returned from the Speed Force at the end of Flash War, with it being explained that he had been trapped in another dimension following a battle with Mirror Master. He currently operates under his original costumed identity of Impulse due to the aforementioned Ace West now using the Kid Flash name and costume.
  • Earth One
    • Superman: Earth One sees Lex Luthor's main traits divided between the Luthor couple, Dr. Lex Luthor and his wife Alexandra. Moves into Gender Flip with Lex dying and Alexandra taking up his name as well as his traditional role as Superman's nemesis.
    • Similar to the above, in Batman: Earth One, Harvey Dent and his sister, Jessica, become disfigured. As with Lex Luthor, Harvey died and it's Jessica who serves as this setting's Two-Face.
    • Green Lantern: Earth One:
      • Abin Sur is already long dead by the time Hal Jordan finds him and obtains his power ring, with Kilowog instead being the one to provide Hal with exposition on the Green Lantern Corps and how the power ring works.
      • Sinestro eventually becomes affiliated with the Yellow Lanterns, but is no longer the founder, a role now filled by the last Guardian.
  • Superman:
    • Ursa and Faora combine this with Canon Immigrant. In the 1978 film, Faora was introduced as a Kryptonian villainess renamed Ursa; its sequel featured her more heavily, but pretty much eliminated the hatred of men that's Faora's defining trait. Faora appeared in Action Comics #471 (May 1977). As Superman was filmed between 1977 and 1978, it is not possible to specify which one was created first. Faora continued to appear in the comics, but later Ursa was introduced as a separate character. (Confusingly, Man of Steel would then re-composite them, giving Faora's name to a character who's basically Ursa.) In the Ruby Spears animated series, the trio of Kryptonians is made up of Zod, Ursa and... Faora.
    • The Death of Superman's third act, Reign of the Supermen!, features the titular four Supermen as pretenders to the dead Superman's legacy, each representing one aspect of his personality. The Cyborg Superman (a psychotic dead astronaut in an indestructible robotic body) represents Superman's sheer power and strength, though he lacks his moral compass; Superboy (a teenage clone of Superman) represents his free spirit and his humble origins; the Eradicator (a brutal crime-fighting Kryptonian artificial intelligence) represents his alien nature; and Steel (a brilliant engineer who resolves to fight crime with a suit of Powered Armor) represents his idealism and courage. To drive the point home, each of the Supermen takes on one of Superman's nicknames: the Cyborg Superman is "The Man of Tomorrow", Superboy is "The Metropolis Kid", the Eradicator is "The Last Son of Krypton", and Steel is "The Man of Steel."
    • In DC: The New Frontier, Steel is split into two separate characters: John Wilson, who becomes the hammer-wielding vigilante John Henry after his family is killed by the Ku Klux Klan, and John Henry Irons, a young child who is implied to one day follow in Wilson's footsteps (suggesting that this continuity's Steel will be a Legacy Character of sorts).
  • The character of Batwoman a.k.a. Kathy Kane, who was introduced in pre-Crisis DC continuity as a vigilante inspired by Batman, and his sometime love interest. The post-Crisis version of Batwoman was first introduced in 52: now called Kate Kane, the new Batwoman was Batman's cousin and a lesbian. Then, a few years later, the character of Katherine Webb Kane was introduced in Batman Incorporated: Bruce Wayne's former love interest, who years ago had served a stint as Batwoman.
  • Based on the notion that all Hanna-Barbera Beyond comics belong in the same verse, Dick Dastardly was decomposed into Richard D'Astardlieu, a pianist-turned-racer; and Richard Atcherly, a Lieutenant Colonel flying for the U.S. Air Force. Muttley was decomposed into D'Astardlieu's dog sidekick and a radioactive mix-up of Captain Dudley Muller and his pet dog.
  • Batman: White Knight establishes that the original jester-costumed Harley Quinn that originated in Batman: The Animated Series and the Darker and Edgier New 52 version of Harley are actually two separate people, with the former being the latter's predecessor. To further differentiate the two, New 52 Harley's real name is revealed to be Marian Drews rather than Harleen Quinzel.
  • Hawkman received this treatment following the publication of Hawkworld. Any pre-Hawkworld appearances of Katar Hol, the Silver Age Hawkman, were retconned to have been either the Golden Age Hawkman Carter Hall (who was said to have come out of retirement to assist the Justice League), or Fel Andar, a Thanagarian spy pretending to be Hall’s non-existent son. Likewise, the pre-Hawkworld appearances of Shayera Thal, the Silver Age Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, were retroactively declared to have been either the Golden Age Hawkgirl Shiera Sanders Hall, or Sharon Parker, a human woman that Andar had brainwashed into serving as his wife and superhero partner.
  • Up until 1983, Black Canary was believed to be one character who used to be in the Justice Society of America, but later joined the Justice League of America. During 1983's JLA/JSA crossover, it was revealed that the Canary in the JLA was the daughter of the JSA's Canary.
  • In DC Comics Bombshells, the Wonder Girl identity is shared by Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark, Yuki and Yuri Katsura, and Emily Sung, who collectively make up a group of Magical Girl Warriors known as the Wonder Girls.
  • The Elseworld comic Batman: Masques is a The Phantom of the Opera pastiche in which two characters take the role of the Phantom. Harvey Dent is the scarred figure obsessed with a beautiful opera singer (dancer in this version), and Bruce Wayne is the one who has an Elaborate Underground Base beneath the opera house. Both of them wear masks. Batman’s protective and un-disfigured role in the story is actually closer to Raoul (Christine the opera singer’s Love Interest) than the Phantom.
  • The original Silver Age Suicide Squad comics starred Rick Flag, the Sole Survivor of a flying squadron that had been wiped out by Japanese forces back during World War 2. Decades later, the character resurfaced as a member of the Forgotten Heroes in the pages of Action Comics, where it was revealed that the Suicide Squad had disbanded following a disastrous encounter with a yeti in Cambodia. Post-Crisis, Flag's backstory was retold in Secret Origins #14, but with a few major changes: The man who led the original Suicide Squad, survived the yeti attack and subsequently joined the Forgotten Heroes was now retroactively declared Rick Flag Jr., while his previous history as a guilt-ridden World War 2 pilot was instead given to Rick Flag Sr., his deceased father.
  • The Arkham Knight identity from Batman: Arkham Knight made its debut in Detective Comics #1000, though Word of God already confirmed that it wouldn't be Jason Todd. The comics character was also revealed to be a case of Samus Is a Girl three issues later, as the comics Knight turned out to be Jeremiah Arkham's daughter, Astrid. Ironically, she's a Composite Character of both the Arkham Knight and Lady Arkham from Batman: The Telltale Series — and is still this as Astrid has nothing to do with Vicki Vale, either, who was subjected to Adaptational Villainy and being Related in the Adaptation to the Arkhams in Telltale as Lady Arkham.
  • The Sandman (1989) and Hellblazer divide the traditional depiction of Satan into two distinct characters: Lucifer Morningstar (Fallen Angel with a tragic grandeur) and the First of the Fallen (utter bastard who deceives and corrupts mortals for his own pleasure - and is rather easy to swindle).
  • Wonder Woman:
    • In The Golden Age of Comic Books, there would occasionally be flashbacks to Wonder Woman as a teenager or younger, as "Wonder Girl". In The Silver Age of Comic Books a story called The Impossible Day featured Wonder Woman teaming up with her past selves. The Impossible Day was explicitly stated to simply be a joke that had no bearing on any other stories being told by DC, but The Impossible Day spawned several sequels known as The Impossible Tales that continued to feature Wonder Woman interacting with Wonder Girl. These eventually grew into a series called Wonder Woman Family. The problem? The disclaimer that these ''Wonder Woman Family'' stories were not in continuity stopped appearing, as did reminders that Wonder Girl was Wonder Woman in the past. Thus Wonder Girl appeared in the present of the main DC Comics setting, joining with "other" side kicks to form The "Teen Titans". Editorial caught onto this mistake too late, so this main setting Wonder Girl was established to be "Donna Troy", the adopted sister of Wonder Woman Diana, following in Diana's foot steps. As this was established "Donna" also decided to stop wearing Diana's old clothes, so the Wonder Girl Diana and Wonder Girl Donna could more easily be told apart. Diana's Wonder Girl stories were reprinted to remind people that yes, she had been Wonder Girl before Donna.
    • The Post-Crisis revamp Wonder Woman (1987) removed Diana's trusted older Amazon doctor friend Althea from Vol 1 (because none of the Amazons in this continuity appear any older than 25) and replaced her with Epione, who maintains Althea's role as the royal family's physician who is more mature and serene than Diana and Carrisa, who maintains Althea's role as an Amazon surgeon who is Diana's friend with a brash willingness to speak against authority.
    • While versions of Diana and Donna Troy continued to exist in Wonder Woman volume 2, the Cosmic Retcon established that neither of them had ever been "Wonder Girl" in the Post Crisis continuity. There was a new Wonder Girl who was a Fangirl of both Diana and Donna, however, in the form of Diana's great aunt Cassie Sandsmark.
    • Pre-Crisis, the Earth-2 version of Wonder Woman fought in World War 2 and was a member of the Justice Society of America. This no longer worked Post-Crisis, so the John Byrne run later had Diana's mother Hippolyta temporarily don the Wonder Woman identity and travel back in time to World War 2, where she eventually joined the JSA. Earth-2 Wonder Woman’s role as the mother of the Infinity, Inc. member Fury, meanwhile, was given to a new character named Helena Kosmatos.
    • In Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed Steve Trevor is reimagined as a married couple named Steve and Trevor, since the one-shot had enough going on without needing to introduce a love interest for Diana.
    • Wonder Woman (Infinite Frontier) establishes Donna Troy as the first Wonder Girl in this continuity, with Young Diana never being called such, but Donna is then called on to save two additional Wonder Girls, Cassie Sandsmark and Yara Flor, in Wonder Girl (Infinite Frontier). All three Wonder Girls would then attempt to join up with Diana in the Dawn of DC comic book.
  • Starman: James Robinson's series kept the idea of David Knight taking his father's role as Starman but not being great at it from his introduction in the previous volume (which is specifically referenced in one story), but transferred the idea that David had felt distant from Ted and spent years trying to get as far away from the Starman legacy as possible to his previously unmentioned brother Jack.
  • In Batman Beyond, Derek Powers' right-hand man Mr. Fixx is the one who killed Terry McGinnis' father. In the comic book continuation, it was revealed that Mr. Fixx actually had a few grunts that helped him ransack the McGinnis home, and that it was one of them (albeit still under Fixx's orders) who shot Warren McGinnis. That same grunt (coincidentally Jake Chill, related to Joe Chill, a.k.a. the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents) felt remorse for his actions and turned into The Atoner as an armored Vigilante, even becoming an ally to Terry/Batman.
  • Dr. Langstrom did not turn into Man-Bat in Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham. That honor instead goes to Batman himself, who transform into a bat creature when he fights Ra's al Ghul.
  • The Tangent Comics continuity had the premise of recycling the names of established characters for new ones who had very little in common with their namesakes. Consequently, this resulted in a few cases of the codename and civilian name of an established DC character belonging to two different individuals in the Tangent universe.
    • Harvey Dent is the real name of the Tangent universe's Superman (here a bald, black man with psychic powers, with the universe's counterpart to the Atom having more in common with Superman as we know him). The regular Harvey Dent's traditional codename Two-Face is mentioned in the Tangent Superman's one-shot as one of the villains he's fought (and said to have the codename for being a master of disguise rather than his face being partially disfigured).
    • Jason Blood in the standard DC Universe is the host of the demon Etrigan, the two being bound into one being by Merlin's magic. In the Tales of the Green Lantern one-shot, consisting of this universe's Green Lantern telling three possible origin stories, the third story "Know Evil" establishes Etrigan as a member of a group of occultists called the Dark Circle and Jason Blood as a pirate who was cursed to carry around the enchanted lantern capable of raising the dead before he got the current Green Lantern to agree to take his place.
    • The name Jade is used for an agent with the power to turn the tattoos on her body into living dragons, with the standard Jade's civilian name Jennifer-Lynn Hayden given to a woman trying to stage a resistance against Superman in the Tangent universe's Fully Absorbed Finale crossover with the standard DC Universe titled Superman's Reign.
  • The Ame-Comi Girls continuity has certain attributes of the Green Lantern Hal Jordan split between the interpretations of Jade and Carol Ferris. Jade takes Hal's role as a Green Lantern stationed in Sector 2814, while Carol Ferris is given an origin of becoming Star Sapphire after she was given her power-enabling artifact by a dying Zamaron, lifted from Hal Jordan's traditional origin of becoming Green Lantern because he was given the power ring of his predecessor Abin Sur shortly before Abin Sur died.
  • In The Superman Monster, Kal-El doesn't survive his rocket's journey to Earth, with this continuity's Superman instead being a wholly artificial Frankenstein's Monster created by Vicktor Luthor using the secrets of Kryptonian science he learned from the rocket's hologram of Jor-El.
  • Batman: Castle of the Bat consists of a retelling of Frankenstein with Bruce Wayne playing the part of Victor Frankenstein. The monster is his father Thomas Wayne, who is the one who takes up the Batman persona here.
  • The New Golden Age establishes that the original, unnamed Aquaman from the 1940s was not Arthur Curry, but rather a separate character who served as his predecessor. Additionally, the kid at the end DC: The New Frontier wearing a jersey with the name "Irons" was actually the uncle of the better known John Henry Irons.
  • Batman: In Darkest Knight, which had the premise of Bruce Wayne succeeding Abin Sur as Green Lantern instead of Hal Jordan, had the Red Hood apprehended without becoming the Joker, but the void left from that is filled when Sinestro becomes a cackling maniac and starts wearing a purple suit with coattails after using his ring to absorb Joe Chill's mind.
  • Earth 2:
    • Wesley Dodds in this continuity is the leader of a whole squad of Sandmen instead of being just one Sandman.
    • There are four Batmen in this continuity, with Thomas Wayne (who survived the shooting and let the public believe he died with his wife Martha) becoming the second Batman after his son Bruce died, Dick Grayson becoming the third Batman after Thomas Wayne sacrificed himself to save Dick's life during the events of Convergence and the legacy coming full circle when Bruce's daughter and Thomas's granddaughter Helena Wayne becomes the fourth Batman by the end of Earth 2: Society.
    • Dick Grayson never became Robin in this continuity, with Bruce Wayne's daughter Helena Wayne being the first Robin before she took up the identity of the Huntress. By the end of Earth 2: Society, Dick Grayson's son John becomes the second Robin as the sidekick to Helena Wayne's Batman.
    • Barbara Gordon is Dick Grayson's wife, but ends up a casualty not long after her introduction. Her identity as Oracle ends up becoming Dick Grayson's new codename after he passes the mantle of Batman onto Helena Wayne.
  • Batman '66: "The Joker Sees Red/Batman Hunts the Dead" introduces the Red Hood into the continuity of the 1960s television series, but rather than being the Joker's identity before he became the Joker, he is a separate criminal desiring revenge against the Clown Prince of Crime and ultimately turns out to be an alter ego assumed by Professor Overbeck when he donned his brain regulator after it had been corrupted by the Joker's insanity.
  • Superman & Batman: Generations manages to make its interpretation of Lex Luthor both this and a Composite Character by establishing that the Ultra-Humanite had been impersonating Luthor all these years after stealing Luthor's body and having Luthor's brain later put into a robotic body powered by kryptonite, having him become this continuity's Metallo in place of John Corben.
  • Superman Smashes the Klan features the comic book debut of Atom Man from the 1950 Atom Man vs. Superman movie serial, though this version of the character is a Nazi superhuman rather than Lex Luthor.

     Films 

Films

     Live-Action TV 

Live-Action TV

  • Doom Patrol (2019):
  • Gotham:
    • The series's approach to The Joker was to introduce a veritable smorgasbord of characters with his various personality traits, any of whom could potentially become him, including at least one who hints at a Gender Flip, both as a nod to the character famously having a Multiple-Choice Past and to keep everyone guessing.
      • In the first episode we see a stammering comedian in Fish's nightclub, whose features are always hidden by a purple spotlight. This references (one of) Joker's origin(s) from The Killing Joke.
      • Later on, we meet the Red Hood Gang, yet another Killing Joke reference; since anyone who wears the Hood seems to be infected by the same persona, this emphasizes that virtually anyone could become the Clown Prince.
      • Jerome Valeska is a homicidal, grinning lunatic with a menacing laugh, making him a very obvious and probable candidate... but he dies in his second appearance. After he's resurrected in Season 3, his horrifying, stitched-on face is a reference to the nigh-supernatural serial killer Joker from the New 52 comics.

        Jerome's brother Jeremiah is initially introduced as a Good Counterpart, although Jerome himself disputes this. In any case, after his Face–Heel Turn he takes on more of the classical Joker appearance and his assistant Echo becomes distinctly Harley-like. He's also got more of the Joker's scientific ability.
    • Jerome's legions of fans seem to be inspired by the Jokerz from Batman Beyond (or several comparable groups from the comics). However, a point is made that any of them could eventually be Joker as well.
      • Sonny Gilzean takes an instant disliking to Bruce, whom he beats down while giggling hysterically, and the word Bruce chooses to insult him with is "clown".
      • Clyde the Fence is also a disturbingly cheerful guy and his henchmen wear logos that resemble Harley Quinn.
    • Gotham does this as well with Sal Maroni by subjecting him to a type 2 of Death by Adaptation, killing him off before Bruce Wayne ever becomes Batman, meaning that someone else will take his role as the man who makes Harvey Dent Two-Face.
  • Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman:
    • Winslow Schott appears in one episode, but he doesn't use the codename "Toyman". It's instead used by a villain of a later episode.
    • In the comics, the Prankster is Oswald Loomis. In this series, the Prankster is Kyle Griffin. Randall Loomis is introduced as a suspect.
    • In the comics, Lex Luthor the Second is the original Lex Luthor using a new body to cheat death and posing as his own son to keep running LexCorp. In this series, Lex Junior is really his son.
  • Superman & Lois: Jonathan Kent from the comics has been split into twins for this series: Jonathan, the athletic one, and Jordan, the sensitive one. Jordan is the one who inherits Clark's powers, not Jonathan. At least so far.
  • Smallville:
    • When the creators made the controversial decision to kill off Jimmy Olsen in the Season 8 finale, they performed a last second Retcon that established that "Jimmy" had actually been named Henry James Olsen, and that the real Jimmy (the one who would later grow up to be a Daily Planet employee and Superman's pal) was actually his little brother.
    • There were also two separate, completely unrelated versions of Professor Hamilton from the comics. The first was a middle-aged African-American scientist, while the second was a young, Ambiguously Brown guy who joined the cast in the later seasons.

     Video Games 

Video Games

  • Batman: Arkham City: Despite the Maroni family being mentioned in the Arkham City Stories, Sal Maroni's role as the one who made Harvey Dent Two-Face is taken by Carmine Falcone, as Two-Face himself in an audio tape explicitly identifies Falcone was the one who did it.

     Western Animation 

Western Animation

  • Ethan Bennett is given Basil Karlo's role as the original Clayface in The Batman. Season Four shows that Karlo does indeed exist and he steals a sample of Ethan's tissue to become Clayface himself.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold:
    • Ted Kord, the Silver Age Blue Beetle, is a Posthumous Character in the series, meaning that while he did exist, it's his successor, Jaime Reyes, who winds up joining the Justice League International instead. For this same reason, his infamous "One punch! One punch!" reaction to Guy Gardner getting knocked out by Batman was given to G'nort of the Green Lantern Corps.
    • The Blue Bowman is reinterpreted as the Injustice Syndicate counterpart to Green Arrow, when in the comics he was merely an alias used by Signalman (who is among the lesser-known Batman villains to make cameo appearances in this cartoon).
    • The Joker's successor in "The Knights of Tomorrow" is loosely based on Joker Junior from Superman & Batman: Generations, the difference being that he is a separate person from the Joker posing as his predecessor's son rather than the original Joker disgusing himself as his own son.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • Aquaman's role as a founding member of the Justice League was given to Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl's arc in the first two seasons also incorporated elements of the story JLA: Tower of Babel, namely Batman's role as a Leaguer who went behind the others' back to devise ways to take their teammates out and whose plans wound up in enemy hands.
    • Hal Jordan is confirmed to exist in the DCAU, but his appearances were limited to an allusion in Superman: The Animated Series and cameos in an episode of Justice League Unlimited and the Justice League vs. The Fatal Five film. As such, his origin story was given to Kyle Rayner, while his roles as the Green Lantern who helped found the Justice League and (thanks to Static Shock) the GL responsible for getting Sinestro booted out of the GLC were given to John Stewart.
    • The Superman: The Animated Series "New Kids in Town" combines this with Composite Character by having Chameleon Boy take Lightning Lad's place among the three members of the Legion of Super-Heroes who go back in time to visit a young Clark Kent, with Lightning Lad reduced to a brief cameo among the other Legionnaires.
    • The DCAU version of the Rudy Jones Parasite died in the penultimate episode of JLU. However, "Epilogue" sees a version of the Parasite that resembles how Ed McGuinness drew Jones◊note  appears in the era of Batman Beyond and the late Dwayne McDuffie confirmed this was a separate person from Jones.
    • For the sake of Adaptational Modesty, Tim Drake's classic Robin costume was given to Dick Grayson's time as Robin with Tim getting a modified red and black suit when he debuts.
  • Young Justice (2010)
    • The show splits the comic's version of Roy Harper into two characters: Roy Harper, whom we meet in the first episode, and the original Roy Harper whom the other was cloned from. The former takes the name "Red Arrow" and has a relationship and child with Cheshire, while the latter loses his arm and takes the name "Arsenal."
    • The Team seemed to adapt the Young Justice team of the comics, but with characters like Dick Grayson, Wally West, and Artemis / Tigress filling in for roles similar to Tim Drake, Bart Allen, and Arrowette, only for Tim, Bart, and Arrowette to actually appear in later seasons.
    • In the comics, the civilian identity of Plasmus was Otto Von Furth. Here, there are two people going by Plasmus (at least in the credits), Anna (who also has gone by Plasma) and Otto, with Anna being a Canon Foreigner.
    • On a team level, there's a faction of the Team this season being led and founded by Nightwing, while Batman starts his own organization called Batman Incorporated. In the comics, the original Outsiders were formed by Batman himself, largely for the same reasons (being dissatisfied with the League), but here it's instead a team taken from Batman (Grant Morrison), which draws from that team with new additions to fit the storytelling similar to Nightwing's Outsiders-esque team. Basically, the idea of the Outsiders was split in two. To further the connections, Nightwing's team has Outsiders founding members Black Lightning, Geo-Force, and Halo, while Batman's has the other founding members Katana and Metamorpho. However, neither team uses the Outsiders name, which is used by Beast Boy as the name of a new public team formed midway through the third season which is otherwise more like the Teen Titans.
    • While Terra is eventually introduced in season 3, her role as a love interest for Beast Boy is transferred to Queen Perdita Vladek, who, like Terra, is a blonde haired royal.
    • The flashback showing Batgirl's paralysis reveals she jumped in the way of a sword used by Orphan, with Joker, the one who originally paralyzed her in the comics, being the intended target.
    • In the original comics, a teenage Clark Kent served as the eventual inspiration for the formation of the Legion Of Superheroes centuries in the future. In the series, it's instead Clark's teenage clone, Conner, that inspired the formation of the Legion.
    • During Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Green Lantern Corps member Tomar-Re perished in battle, with his power ring passing to John Stewart. In the series, John has already been a Green Lantern and a member of the Justice League for years by the time Tomar-Re is killed by the rogue time traveling Kryptonian Lor-Zod, so the ring instead passes to the female Forager that the heroes had encountered on New Genesis.

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