Deconstructed Character Archetype / The DCU

The DCU

Deconstructed Character Archetype in this franchise.

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Comic Books

• Astro City: The story of Atomicus thoroughly demolishes Lois Lane's approach at being an Intrepid Reporter through the girlfriend of Atomicus's civilian identity, who is so driven to reveal that the meek reporter she's partners with is the superhero that she does all of the typical Silver Age crazy stunts... which confuses, unnerves and frightens Atomicus so much that when she finally reveals his identity, he totally calls it quits with humanity, tells her how much she sucks as a human being, and leaves the planet, swearing to never return.
• Batman: In the late 80s, your standard Hollywood action heroes tended to be Cowboy Cops, Military Mavericks, or Mighty Whitey American Ninjas (sometimes a combination of the three). Doug Moench created The Night Scourge (Maxwell Cort) to show how unhinged these archetypes would most likely be if played realistically.
• Green Arrow: Oliver Queen deconstructs the Nominal Hero. Oliver was a spoiled rich kid who was stranded on an island and forced to learn how to survive by himself. Eventually, his experience changed him, and Oliver decided to use his skills for good as a superhero, Green Arrow. However, despite being genuine in doing good as a hero, Oliver is also a very selfish man, and you can also argue that despite being a hero, he isn't a very good person himself, showing that his experience on the island hasn't completely broken him of his selfish habits. As a result of his selfishness and thoughtlessness, Oliver's personal and professional lives are a wreck because of his behavior and actions. Oliver is constantly cheating on his longtime girlfriend, Black Canary (Dinah Lance), neglecting his sidekick and ward Speedy I/Arsenal/Red Arrow I (Roy Harper), abandoning his biological son Green Arrow II (Connor Hawke) at birth, and lying to Connor that he did not know he was his son when they met and Connor became his sidekick. Oliver also, at times, doesn't have a great relationship with his superhero colleagues because of his smug tendencies and boorish behavior. Eventually, Oliver realized how harmful his behavior was to his loved ones and colleagues and eventually started cleaning up his act; he stopped cheating on his girlfriend and worked to be a better boyfriend to Black Canary, who eventually believed he had changed and married him. Oliver worked to be a better father figure to Roy and Connor, who eventually reconnected and forgave him. He also worked on being a better superhero and building a better relationship with his friends and colleagues. But things went crashing down in the "Cry for Justice" & "Rise and Fall" storylines, where Oliver murders Prometheus for destroying Star City and causing the death of his adopted granddaughter, Lian Harper. His family washes their hands off him, with his wife returning her wedding ring and declaring their marriage over and Roy and Connor telling him they are through with him. It's implied that Oliver killing Prometheus is the last straw for his family, and his mistreatment of them is the main reason they leave him. This ultimately shows that being a superhero for selfish reasons and not being a good person will ultimately destroy the hero's personal life, and the hero needs to work on being both a better person and a better hero so he can have a good social life or else the hero selfish actions will catch up to him. Oliver himself accepted that his selfish actions destroyed his relationship with his family and believes they’re better off without him. He decides to work on being a better person and a better hero all by himself as he works as a solo hero in Star City.
• Kingdom Come and What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?
  • Magog and The Elite are this for '90s Anti-Hero. They're badass, they're pragmatic, they're willing to Shoot the Dog and kill enemies who are too dangerous to live... and are almost indistinguishable from those bad guys, up to and including their degree of collateral damage. But they take it in different directions.
    • The Elite lord over others and view themselves as the sole power (being expies of The Authority) and they don't feel any remorse for their actions (though Coldcast does a Heel–Face Turn and joins the JLA for a while and Manchester Black ends up realizing that Superman is a true hero and wipes away the memory of him being Clark Kent from the world before committing suicide).
    • Magog meanwhile shows us how this lifestyle affects the Anti-Hero psychologically. He is a broken man the next time Superman encounters him (trying desperately to put the remains of a farmhouse back together and breaking down when it falls apart in his hands) and bitterly declares himself the real 'Man of Tomorrow', gesturing at the ruins all around him. When Superman replies that he must be proud, Magog snaps into a complete breakdown, blasting Superman (completely ineffectively), before falling to his knees and revealing his horrible guilt for his actions leading to Kansas' destruction: "Kill me. Lock me away. Just make the ghosts go away." Notably, he is the one prisoner at the Gulag there of his own will, having knocked on the door, waited patiently, and asked for a cell. Fortunately, he does redeem himself, spending the battle of the prison trying to save people, and and even becomes Dean at WW's new school.
• Superman
  • The Black Ring: This story is one for Lex Luthor. He claims he wants to save humanity from Superman and other superheroes who are keeping mankind back. Some of the other villains don't seem to buy it. Through the entire arc it is shown that Luthor does not have humanity's best interests at heart despite his lofty goals; he is only after power and has an intense dislike for authority other than his own but insists, even to himself, that he is the hero of the story. Yet he allows people to get killed as pawns, shoots an employee so that he can't be used against him as a hostage and whenever anyone turns their back on him he flips out. He does not believe that Superman empathizes with humanity at all and it is possible he's projecting this trait on Superman. Darkseid says he only wants to rule others and be "the biggest fish". Brainiac outright states that he is doing it for power and mocks his lack of introspection. Even Superman is surprised that Luthor's first act as a physical god is to come after him. Only the Joker believed he had any real potential to do good and feared this as Joker needs to believe that life is pain and has no meaning. Superman and Mr Mind attempt to reason with him by appealing to his desire to do good but his need to destroy Superman destroys his chances to do any real good as he promised himself he would. All this underscores just how much of a wasted opportunity Lex Luthor's life was. Mr Mind's parting words are more than apt: "I'll leave you to your tragedy."
  • Hank Henshaw is a deconstructive case study of characters who show up to be cool, more cynical replacements/contrasts of older characters and heroic figures. He shows up after Superman dies and makes efforts into being a hero with unscrupulous and brutal ways, but in no way does this make Hank any better than his predecessor. In fact, his three competitors, Superboy, the Eradicator, and Steel, all fit the deconstructive mold, but Hank is the best example as he tends to be the most adamant in his declaration of being Superman's successor, except that his actions only end up bringing in more distrust towards others who knew of Superman personally and more cynicism in the long term. Finally, and unsurprisingly, he's actually a villain.
  • The Superman Adventures "Old Wounds" shows what would happen if there really was such a thing as an Animal Superhero — Krypto has Superman's powers, but none of his intellect to help control them or deal with all the excess sensory stimulation. This results in mass destruction.
• Tales from the Dark Multiverse: The Infinite Crisis storyline deconstructs the Knight Templar through Ted Kord. In this timeline, Ted kills Maxwell Lord and takes control of Checkmate, putting an end to several major events before they happen, even managing to recruit the Secret Six. But all that influence comes with an "ends-justify-the-means" mentality that alienates him from his fellow heroes, including his best friend Booster Gold. That mentality then plays him directly in Brother Eye's clutches, and the story ends with Ted integrating OMAC technology into himself and becoming a glorified puppet for the system.
• Teen Titans: Deathstroke Is a deconstruction of the Anti-Hero, Anti-Villain, and Noble Demon. Slade Wilson was once a mercenary with a code of honor. He took a job to take out the Teen Titans because he blamed them for the death of his son. Eventually, after he is defeated, he accepts that the Titans are not at fault for his son's death, gives up his vendetta against him, and even becomes an ally. However, his good characteristics eventually get deconstructed, and he shows himself as selfish and toxic. He finally gives up his code of honor and embraces becoming a villain. In his previous appearance, he shows himself to be more of a dirtbag than he let on when he kidnapped Cyborg's love interest to lure the Teen Titans into a trap, something that would seem at odds with his never hurt the innocent guidelines that would be established in later issues, and recreate the Doom Patrol's way of dying — a traumatic event for Changeling just to be cruel. Later, it was revealed that he wasn't much of a good father and husband; he was neglectful and abusive to his two sons and led a double life that led to one of his sons being wounded and losing his voice. Eventually, after losing both his sons and ex-wife, he kidnapped and drugged his last remaining child, Rose, into being his apprentice; he embraced being a villain and even destroyed a city. Ultimately, Slade Wilson shows that, with every good intention and personality trait he has, he's just too much of a toxic, cruel, and selfish person ever to be a good person. His best friend William Wintergreen says it best.
  Wintergreen: Much as you or I, or say, the "Justice League" would like to pretend otherwise..." mercenary," "anti-hero," and such...the "villain" label is the best fit, I'm afraid.
• Teen Titans: Earth One: Elinore Stone is a deconstruction of The Sociopathic Mad Scientist. On paper, she's a brilliant woman who is trying to revolutionize the world and is just ruthless enough to see things through to the end. In reality, she is a short-sighted, unapologetic bitch, and it burns a bridge with everyone she knows. Even people loyal to her abandon her and people she's loyal to use her as an excuse to make a Fall Guy.
• Watchmen: The comic book as a whole is a deconstruction of various Super Hero archetypes and tropes. Alan Moore wrote the characters of Rorschach and the Comedian as sociopathic jerks, deconstructing the Batman-style Anti-Hero and the Captain Patriotic. Ironically enough, he ended up popularizing the former, which led to the rise of the '90s Anti-Hero.
  • Rorschach is one for Steve Ditko's characters like Mr. A and The Question, and to a lesser extent, Batman. Rorschach subscribes explicitly to an Objectivist viewpoint - Black-and-White Morality, atheism, and that anyone who holds such a viewpoint can act as judge, jury and executioner. As Moore points out, this kind of person can only maintain their worldview by indulging in Psychological Projection, paranoia, Hypocrisy and a certain level of denial. He pretends to be uncompromising despite compromising his stated values all the time, and he's a terrible human being for it: Rorschach despises rapists and kills them without remorse, but his patriotism and admiration for the Comedian's persona causes him to overlook the rape of Silk Spectre I, Sally Jupiter, who Rorschach considers to be a whore, leading him to dismiss the crime as a "temporary moral lapse" of an otherwise upstanding American citizen. He also decries Ozymandias' plan to wipe out New York City while he previously praised President Truman dropping nuclear bombs on Japan as it ended a world war. Rorschach's unshaking belief in his own worth over society's norms leaves him living as a hobo, impossible to employ, sleeping in the street, eating trash and breaking into his friends' houses to eat cold beans stolen from the fridge. His most advanced gadget is a Batman-like zipline pistol he just stole from his partner Nite Owl II.
• Wonder Woman: Barbara Minerva is a deconstruction of the Adventure Archaeologist. Instead of being portrayed as a heroic adventurer, Barbara is a manipulative, greedy, murderous thief. She cares for no one but herself and has no respect for foreign cultures, being only interested in plundering their treasures for her own collection. It is these flaws that result in her being cursed. Notably, Barbara is contrasted with Julia Kapatelis who is much more respectful of foreign cultures than Barbara and most other Adventure Archaeologists.

Films

• DC Extended Universe
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Lex Luthor has typically been depicted as an obsessive, sociopathic narcissist with a history of child abuse, but he's always managed to appear relatively sane outside of his villainy. The cinematic version shows how a person with Lex's psyche would barely function. His plan to defame and kill Superman is so complicated that being able to strategize and implement while putting on an act of benevolence is just too much for him to juggle at once.
    • A very obvious deconstruction on the Gene Hackman version of Lex Luthor — Hackman's Luthor was a bit of a showman, always ready with a quip or clever soundbite, and was so repugnant that the Christopher Reeve Ideal Hero Superman could barely tolerate his presence. He freely admitted that causing the death of innocent people is how he "gets his kicks," and is perfectly ready, willing, and able to sink most of California for the sake of profits. Here, we see what a "diseased maniac" such as he would be like: a grating person with delusions of being much smarter than he actually is, who treats the lives of the everyone around him like disposable objects in a petty game fueled with a burning passion worthy of a toddler's temper tantrum.
  • Orm Marius in Aquaman (2018) feels that he is The Unfavorite compared to Arthur, as almost everyone in his inner circle ends up liking Arthur more than him, such as Mera, Vulko and (as Orm rightfully suspects) his own mother Atlanna. But that doesn't mean that Atlanna or Arthur doesn't genuinely love or care for him at all.
  • In SHAZAM! (2019), the wizard Shazam is The Chooser of the One, trying to find a worthy successor for his power. However, his "pure of heart" criteria is so strict and rigid that for decades (if not centuries), he is unable to find someone as he doesn't realize Humans Are Flawed. In addition, his harsh rejection of Sivana, who was only a child at the time, would cause the child to have a Freak Out in a moving car, unintentionally distracting his father and causing a car accident. Sivana would hold a grudge against Shazam well into his adult years and would end up releasing the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • The Suicide Squad deconstructs the Captain Patriotic superhero through Peacemaker. Peacemaker styles himself as a classic example of the archetype, but it becomes immediately clear that he's a delusional, jingoistic Right-Wing Militia Fanatic who values the nebulous concepts of freedom and peace so much he will gleefully kill for them at the drop of a hat. Multiple characters point out the flaws in his reasoning, and Bloodsport suggests at one point that he uses patriotism to disguise that he kills people for the sheer enjoyment of it.
• The Dark Knight: Heath Ledger's Joker is a more realistic version of the Clown Prince of Crime than almost all the others. He is a psychopath who wants to break and corrupt everything and everyone around himself, and is willing to do anything to succeed on it.
  • His peak of terror, while brutal, lasts very shortly. Logically, given he does not have the manpower to pull it for far longer. Being the most wanted man in the city, with his acts having gone from organized crime to terrorism, would not have allowed him to remain hidden for so long (he only achieved it up until then because he was completely anonymous). Not that he cares, it fits with his plans.
  • Given the more realistic setting, a guy pulling the stuff the Joker does would not be able to remain free for a very long time, nor become a mob boss. In the real world, most of what the Joker does would have granted him the death penalty over a thousand times. We never see what happens to him anyway.
• Joker (2019)
  • Arthur Fleck, the man who becomes The Joker, is easily one of the crudest, bitterest deconstructions ever portrayed of what it means to be the Butt-Monkey and The Chew Toy. From the aggressors' perspective it can be very funny, but seeing the context from the opposing side can be quite a invoked Tear Jerker perspective. Bullies generally believe they get away with humiliating and mistreating more vulnerable, passive, and shy people than themselves. The point is, this is not the case. Arthur demonstrates that dealing with physical and psychological abuse on a regular and consistent basis will bring inevitable and negative repercussions.
    • Arthur is also a deconstruction of Insane Equals Violent. Insane people fall to violence not because they are inherently evil, but because their mental illness is compelling them to perform impulsive actions; in Arthur's case, he's impulsively and violently reacting against a society that alienated him.
    • For that matter, in contrast to most versions of the Joker, where Joker is portrayed as a charismatic, larger than life Supervillain, this movie realistically shows what would happen in real life if a mentally unhinged man dressed up as a clown and committed crimes and it would be nothing like how we see in the comics or most movies and be more akin to a real life shooter tragedy. Also like as mentioned above, the movie shows how horrible and miserable one's life would have to be for him to become The Joker. This Joker is portrayed more as a sad tragic man who just simply needed proper care and treatment. By the end of the day the movie shows how it could have all easily been avoided. It's to the point where neurocriminologist Adrian Raine, who studied the psychology of violent criminals for over 40 years, was floored by how realistic Arthur's transformation into a violent sociopath is depicted.
  • To a lesser degree, Thomas Wayne deconstructs the Non-Idle Rich. Rather than being a worldly man who wishes to help Gotham, he's really a selfish Upper-Class Twit with a shallow understanding of the poor, and whose crusade is mainly about personal glory.
• The Batman
  • Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne / Batman
    • He is one for the Terror Hero example, showing how it causes him more problems than it should especially when it leads to him accidentally creating the Riddler, who is a Loony Fan of his.
    • Other Batman works paint Bruce as someone rising up to stop the cities' descent into criminality, but here he's painted more like a symptom of it- yet another wounded boy lashing out at the people who wronged him. This makes Bruce a lot more pathetic and unlikable compared to other interpretations of the character, as his war on crime is called out several times as being selfish. His character arc has Bruce realizing that he needs to be truly different in order to make a difference in Gotham, and thus commits to becoming a Hope Bringer instead of someone who wants to hurt others. This is especially strong since the film ends with Riddler's plan going off and reducing Gotham City to a flooded wasteland, so beating down crime instead of helping people in their Darkest Hour would be a truly horrible thing to do.
    • The film also takes the "Batman is Bruce Wayne's true self" interpretation to its logical conclusion. Being Batman has consumed Bruce's life to the point that there's no distinction between Bruce Wayne and Batman at all: Bruce is Batman both in and out of costume, so much so that he retains his Batman mannerisms when presenting as Bruce Wayne. We later see that Bruce is actively neglecting his civilian life and family legacy in favor of his vigilante activities, viewing The Batman as his family's true legacy. This neglect has extended to his family's finances too, as the lack of oversight on his part is what allowed the Renewal fund to be looted by mobsters and corrupt officials after his father's death.
  • Paul Dano's Edward Nashton / The Riddler: This version of The Riddler is given a more realistic and darker take on the character's warped narcissism, which is more exaggered than prior versions. In particular, the Riddler's traditional narcissism is ramped up by transforming him into a vigilante. Instead of lording over others with his intelligence and making comical schemes, Nashton becomes completely obsessed with his war on crime to the point of being unable to understand or care about the damage he's causing. The Riddler only ends up losing because his ego causes him to be unable to see the obvious connections between Bruce and the Batman, too convinced in Bruce's supposed arrogance.

Live-Action TV

• Gotham: Although the show gradually leans completely into the pulpy and supernatural shenanigans that regularly occur in the Batman comics, the show's version of Harley Quinn, Ecco aka "Mummer", is a deconstruction of the Mad Love Dark Mistress, where it almost seems like a Take That! against the Misaimed Fandom surrounding the character. Ecco is just as insane as the Joker himself, with none of the childlike innocence or borderline sitcom shenanigans that make so many versions of Harley endearing. Even her Ms. Fanservice qualities are significantly dialed down to show what such a person would realistically be: an unkempt, mentally ill Psycho Supporter. Despite her attempts to win his affection, those feelings are never really reciprocated since Joker is far more focused on his obsession with Bruce Wayne. Her undying love for a murdering psychopath, to the point of spending 10 years of her life waiting for his return, gets her killed while carrying out one of his schemes, as said psychopath dismisses her death with a callous "plenty of other fish in the sea".
• Titans (2018)
  • "Dick" Grayson
    • Of the young sidekick taken in by the vigilante. Dick's behavior in costume shows exactly what happens when an adolescent is taken in by an emotionally troubled vigilante who has to use a certain level of brutality to be effective. Dick showcases emotional issues of his own and struggles with Becoming the Mask concerns, outright saying that his work with Batman was Harmful to Minors and feels that he was made into a Child Soldier in service to his mentor's crusade.
    • This all gradually becomes Reconstructed as Dick begins to believe that he was using Bruce as a scapegoat for his own insecurities. Dick's mental image of Bruce also acts as a positive influence which convinces him to start coming clean to his fellow Titans and motivates him to become better version of himself. This all culminates in Dick finally graduating to the Nightwing persona in the second season finale and reconciling with Bruce.
    • This is deconstructed again in season three, where Dick goes to Gotham and we learn more of the specifics of how Bruce behaves and the impact this has had on both Dick and Jason.

Video Games

• Injustice: Gods Among Us
  • The Monster Clown trope is deconstructed in an alternate version of The Joker. While known to be Laughably Evil, his jokes are not funny, especially when they're full of references to spreading anarchy or the pointlessness of life, on top of being responsible for the chaos in the Injustice-verse. The sheer horror of his misdeeds prompts revulsion even in other villains in this game and its sequel. Even Harley Quinn (who is usually depicted as his lover) is absolutely done with his antics after realizing how his actions have made the Injustice-verse miserable by causing Superman's Face–Heel Turn posthumously. Joker's rants about society's "inner ugliness" and assumptions that others are just as bad as him reveal how insane and messed-up he truly is.
  • Shazam deconstructs Wide-Eyed Idealist as his idealism and naive belief that Superman is right by virtue of being Superman allows Shazam to become a mindless follower of the New Regime. Luthor even calls him out of it, saying no good comes from blind hero worship. And once Shazam finally does call Superman out for his extremism, Superman kills him in cold blood.
  • Flash and Shazam are the Token Good Teammates of the Regime who aren't involved with the Regime's more atrocious actions but they are deluding themselves into believing that those actions are for the good of the world. However, there is only so much they could be in denial about and it becomes impossible to ignore Regime!Superman's Villainous Breakdown and how he decides to raze cities down and invade parallel universes. In particular, Flash does a Heel–Face Turn once Superman murders Shazam, who is a teenager at oldest as it was so cruel that even someone like Flash could not support Superman after that.

Western Animation

• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • Roland Daggett is a realistic take on what would happen to a Corrupt Corporate Executive if he engaged in being a Card-Carrying Villain for a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme. All of Roland's plans just end up losing him more and more money as they tend to be Awesome, but Impractical and each time he tries, the law closes in more and more. It gets to the point where he's basically bankrupt and can't use money or resources any longer to keep out of jail.
  • Sidney Debris deconstructs the Mooks in his first appearance in episode "The Man Who Killed Batman", showing what kind of person would assume the daily risk of working for the Joker or Thorne, or confronting Batman as part of his job; a total loser who can't achieve anything except through dumb luck.
  • The Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch) is a deconstructed of the Dogged Nice Guy in his first appearance in episode "Mad as a Hatter". Jervis is a shy, awkward dork who pines for his secretary Alice and tries to woo her with Grand Romantic Gestures. However, instead of portraying this as cute and romantic it's made clear it stems from him being mentally unstable and dangerously possessive. And once it becomes clear that she prefers her current boyfriend to him, Jervis tries to force her to be with him.
  • Mary "Baby Doll" Dahl is a deconstructed Psychopathic Manchild in her first appearance in episode "Baby-Doll". Mary is a 30-year-old actress with a medical condition that causes her to look about five, despite having the emotional and intellectual maturity of her actual age. Because of this, she was never taken seriously beyond her original role in a sitcom and ended up being Driven to Madness, throwing up her Cheerful Child stage persona as a psychological shield against her miserable existence (though it isn't perfect — she slips up and reveals her true, depressive personality on occasion). The plot is driven by her attempt to recreate the show's setting in an attempt to return to the one happy part of her life. Her emotional immaturity is a mask to help her avoid her problems with adulthood, as revealed when she crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
• Batman Beyond:
  • Derek Powers plays the Corrupt Corporate Executive...but his appearances show the kind of person who would indulge in such criminal behavior: a scheming sociopath who only cares about power. His actions earned him the hatred of people like Terry, and his own estranged son, who internalized his father's lessons, turns on him.
  • The titular character of the episode "Payback" is a deconstruction of the Bully Hunter. His schtick is that he hunts down people who have wronged kids at a local counseling clinic. But his methods are downright lethal and way overboard for the kinds of people he hunts. On top of that, he's eventually revealed to be the head psychiatrist's son, who thought that his father would have more time for him if the other kids' issues were resolved, so he's not even doing it out of any sort of altruism.
  • The very first episodes does this to Old Superhero and Retired Badass. Bruce Wayne has continued being Batman well into his elderly years, but no matter how skilled he is, he cannot escape his age. When he gets into a fight with some goons, he suffers a heart-attack before he can defeat the last goon, who easily takes advantage of it to begin hitting him into a corner. When it looks like he may die, Bruce desperately grabs the only thing nearby to help; a gun. This scares the goon into running but makes Bruce react with disgust at himself for having to do something he morally is against, and when he returns to the Bat-cave, he gives up being Batman, realizing he no longer has the stamina for fighting crime. Later on, when he finds Terry being harassed by criminals, he steps in and easily defeats several of them, but the stress of it is enough to cause him pain, and its clear if Terry had not joined in to help him, he would have died.
    • The show also deconstructs Crimefighting with Cash. Bruce has dedicated himself solely to fighting as Batman instead of fighting Gotham's issues as Bruce. As a result, other businesses have long surpassed Bruce's ability to protect the city and Bruce's social life is virtually nonexistent. His ability to protect Gotham from more financial dangers, or even enjoy the company of his fellow superheroes, has completely vanished because of his own hyperfocus on costumed crimefighting.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The creators had lots of fun with this version of Firestorm, with most depictions being a young boy fused with a wise professor who talks in his head. Here the relationship is inverted, where it's a smart kid with a bigger dumb guy in his head telling him what to do.
• The Batman
  • Ethan Bennett is a deconstruction of the Shapeshifter. Ethan gets his shapeshifting powers through a traumatic experience where he is kidnapped, tortured, and exposed to a mutagenic chemical that turns anything it touches into a clay-like substance. With both his skin and his mind melted, Bennett becomes the criminal Clayface. Every time Ethan uses his powers, his brain is among the parts that have to shapeshift. The more he uses it, the more unhinged he becomes, with the implication that his brain melting and remolding itself is causing some brain damage.
  • D.A.V.E. is a deconstruction of the Generic Doomsday Villain. While he believes himself to be a human imprisoned inside a computer, he's actually a robot programmed by Dr. Hugo Strange with the memories and abilities of Batman's worst foes for the sole purpose of giving Batman a challenge; to this end, he proceeds to easily curbstomp Batman and steals all of Gotham's money just to commit the ultimate crime. He's defeated when Batman asks him about his origin, at which point he realizes that he has no actual motivation or purpose beyond fighting Batman, and the resultant Logic Bomb distracts him long enough for Batman to destroy him.
  • The Terrible Trio deconstruct the Bully Hunter by showing what happens if you choose to go too far in taking revenge on the people who picked on you. They steal Dr. Langstrom's mutant formula so they can prey on their bullies with the unfair advantage of their half-animal forms, laughing at their fear and misery all the while. They also care nothing for the innocent lives that get hurt in the crossfire. The Terrible Trio prove that, in essence, they’ve become even worse bullies than the people who picked on them.
• Justice League: Cadmus are deconstructed Cape Busters. They're the U.S. government's anti-superhuman organization, brought together to come up with contingencies in case the League ever goes rogue, and over the course of the show make several good points over the sheer power the League has. But despite their noble stated goals, they cause as many problems as they solve to the point where they're indistinguishable from the supervillains the League usually fights. Considering they're really being controlled by Lex Luthor and Braniac, this isn't an accident.
• Harley Quinn (2019)
  • The Commissioner Gordon is deconstructed by the man himself. The show actually shows how being in charge of Gotham City would take a toll on someone. Unlike most media, where Gordon remains tough as hell in the face of overwhelming adversity, this Gordon is a deeply stressed out mess of a man who's always on edge. Co-creator Justin Halpern discussed this:
  Justin Halpern: "What would Commissioner Gordon actually be like if he was the Commissioner of the Gotham Police Department, saw what he saw every single day for 27 years, and never went to therapy? What would that look like? He'd be so fucked up and constantly on edge. He’s got a thankless job, He’s doing the day-to-day grunt work, filling out all the paper work, and he’s oftentimes maligned. That ultimately drives a man to madness. His marriage is falling apart, he’s drinking too much and has no real friends.”
  • Although Catwoman is an iconic Classy Cat-Burglar, this incarnation ironically deconstructs the trope with her personality and relationship with Batman. The traditional Catwoman is usually depicted as a high-class thief who steals for the challenge of it and usually has some kind of romantic relationship with the hero, but her portrayal in this series only has her be in a relationship with Batman purely for self-gain and also shows just how personally unpleasant a person who steals expensive items for sport would likely be.
• Teen Titans (2003): The Very Special Episode "TROQ" deconstructs the Noble Bigot with Val-Yor. He is genuinely heroic, badass, and friendly with the Titans, except he's horribly racist to Starfire, something the other Titans demand he apologize for once they find out. One would think Starfire saving him and the day would turn him around, it turns out racism is not that easily overcome. All it did was make him think Starfire was "one of the good ones", causing the Titans to lose any remaining respect for him. Val-Yor showed that no amount of nobleness would make bigotry acceptable.

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