The DCU
- Batman: Batman is being hit hard with this in the new DCU as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. Some people in Gotham actually riot because they think he killed The Joker — yes, The Joker is more sympathetic in the public eye. Bruce's attempts at urban renewal are also not being well received. Some people in Gotham do not see it for the act of goodwill it is and see it as a rich bastard tearing down historical buildings (read: run-down buildings in a high crime area they didn't care about before) to make a new skyscraper. Most versions of Batman actively cultivate this trope, because it lends credit to him being far more ruthless than he truly is, therefore scarier to most criminals.
- Booster Gold: Over at The DCU, no matter how hard he tries, Booster Gold goes up against negative public opinion fairly often... usually due to his own screw-ups and glory-hound nature. He's getting better but the nature of his time-travel mission means that, in the Present Day, he's Obfuscating Stupidity and is keeping up a "jerk act" so he still has bad publicity. Now he has to have bad publicity, as being an infamous screw-up is the ultimate insurance against his enemies (also time travelers) trying to Ret-Gone him... Among his family, he is the greatest hero of all.
- Clean Room: The comic shows every public opinion of Astrid Mueller as "evil, corrupt, manipulative, secretive corporate emperor". While much of it is true, it pales in comparison to her hidden enemies' depths. It's implied that Astrid allows this on purpose since it explicitly separates her allies from her enemies.
- The Creeper: The Creeper is often seen as a creep by the public and as an outright criminal by the police/other superheroes, but the twist is that he himself is more than willing to accuse and demonize the Creeper as Jack Ryder, his reporter/talk show host alter ego to lessen any suspicions that they might be connected. And Ryder is seen as an irritating TV menace on his own too.
- Legends: During the series Darkseid uses his lackey Glorious Godfrey to discredit and smear the superheroes, leading to them being outlawed. When the populace discovered they were duped at the end of the story, the citizens were so ashamed by this that, when the Millennium storyline hit, they absolutely refused to listen to the Manhunters' claims that the heroes were bad.
- The Outsiders: The Outsiders' raison d'être is to be the team of superheroes that can do the Dirty Business and know they're going to come out with stains upon their name. Considering that it was funded by Batman, it makes sense but raises some interesting questions. When Batman retook control of the team, he fired several of the members, pointedly because they weren't suited to that sort of reputation:Batman: Only criminals operate without constraints anymore, so we're going to cultivate the Outsiders' reputation as a team of outlaws. I didn't think you'd mind sparing Nightwing and Thunder that kind of stigma.
- Supergirl:
- PostCrisis Supergirl suffers from Kryptonite poisoning when she arrives on Earth, which changes her personality to one of a crazy, self-absorbed, whiny, rude emo teen. After one year she gets her act together and begins acting as an S-wearing hero, but it took some time for her initial behavior being forgotten. Likewise, Daily Planet journalist Cat Grant starts a negative PR campaign to smear Kara. She finally stops one year later when Supergirl saves her life.
- Confused and frightened, Post-Flashpoint Supergirl fought Superman when they first met; which didn't exactly make the public like her. She yo-yo's back and forth on this, though. Some remember her fight with the Worldkillers in New York and praise her as a hero. Others... not so much.
- In the Supergirl story arc Red Daughter of Krypton — in which Supergirl became a Red Lantern — this was subverted when Superman and Guy Gardner talked about Supergirl. Superman admitted that Justice League teammate Hal Jordan had nothing good to say about the Red Lanterns (even when they try to be heroes, Red Lanterns are generally regarded as violent, dangerous, blood-thirsty sociopaths); but he added that he judges people based on what they do, not what people say about them, and he forms his own opinions.
- In Supergirl (Rebirth), Director Chase regards Supergirl as an out-of-control liability -although she has saved the world several times at this point- due to the number of messes she caused or took part in before getting over her angst, loneliness and anger issues.
- In Bizarrogirl, the inhabitants of Bizarro World hate Bizarrogirl, believing she left them to fend for themselves when the godship turned up. As soon as they see her, they insult her and pelt her with fruit, eggs and worse things.
- Superman:
- With the New Krypton storyline, Superman, Supergirl, Nightwing, Flamebird, Valor, and their friends are lumped together with General Zod and the Kandorians in Earth's eyes.
- In a complete 180 of his long-held status, Superman in the New 52 starts out as one of these (which is covered in Action Comics.)
- It becomes full-blown after he loses his powers and gets his identity outed in the Superman: Truth storyline and half the population turns against him. His approval rating dropped to just twenty-five percent.
- He previously had a bit of bad publicity during his Electric Superman phase where losing control of his powers made him dangerous briefly.
- Before that, there was a storyline a few years after Superman returned from the dead where stories started circulating that Superman had not returned from the dead and that this was another impostor. Seemingly backed up when Superman's body was found in his tomb (turned out to be an illusion placed by Brainiac.)
- Way back in the very first Superman stories, by way of Early-Installment Weirdness, this happened entirely as a result of his own tendency for morally questionable actions. He started getting good publicity pretty quickly, though, since one of the city's most prominent reporters was in love with him. Being a reporter himself can't have hurt, either.
- In Kryptonite Nevermore, Morgan Edge slanders Superman to try to bring him down.
- Transmetropolitan: Spider is one of the few people who are consistently willing to stand up for the little guy, and he gets a lot of shit for it. Granted, Spider has done a wide variety of colourful things to piss off the rich and famous, and, at least to some extent cultivates this persona in order to draw creative inspiration from it. However, consider the fact that he once received a death threat consisting of a petition to have him dragged outside and shot. It had over five-hundred signatures...
- Watchmen: Just about all of the masked vigilantes after they fell out of favor and costumed adventuring was made illegal — except for those who work for the American government. Of course, the only other one still active is Rorschach, and let's be fair — he's an insane person who does terrible things.
- Wild C.A.T.s: In WildC.A.T.s (2022), the Crisis Aversion Tactics Squad (or "Crisav") is trying to save the world from an evil alien invasion, but since their main strategy for doing that is attacking various corporate laboratories, much of the superhero community views them as a terrorist group.
