One famous scene in issue #49 featured the Ray, Impulse, and Superboy (Kon-El) talking to each other about how their comics — excuse me, their favorite comics — were cancelled for no reason. For added points, all three of them glare at Tim "Robin" Drake when he comes in at the end of the scene. Robin, of course, starred in a solo title that was still going strong at the time and lasted roughly as long as the other three characters' titles combined.
In another scene, Wonder Girl and Arrowette are using the Internet, but their connection dies. Arrowette angrily remarks that she hates ISPs. Wonder Girl nervously replies, "No you don't! You LOVE! ISPs! Especially the biggest one!" Arrowette realizes her mistake and says "Umm, I'm going to shut up now," as she and Wonder Girl look in the reader's direction. At the time, Time Warner, the parent company of DC Comics by way of Warner Bros., had just completed a merger with AOL.
Impulse: Man, will you stop blabbering about your stupid power!? You act like you're filling in someone who's just met you! Enough already!
Also done in the final part of the Blue Beetle backup in Booster Gold #29, where Paco laments the cancellation of his favorite comic and Brenda attempts to reassure him that the character will still be around.
A very similar scene occurs during the last story arc of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (1989) comic: Batman, Superman, and the Martian Manhunter are talking about dreams they'd had. Batman and Superman discuss how they've both had dreams about how they're not themselves, but simply actors playing themselves on television. Martian Manhunter laments that he's never had a dream like that (not having had a live-action actor at that point).
Marvel Adventures: In issue #9 of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes (first run), Doctor Strange admits to Wong that he just doesn't get abstract art, that it seems more conceptual than artistic; ideas without proper execution. Which is hilarious considering that Strange's original adventures had him regularly visit locations drawn entirely in abstract art styles like the Dark Dimension, whose design likewise was never given any explanation beyond "it looked cool".
Don Rosa's Scrooge McDuck comic The Black Knight Glorps Again features pictures Carl Barks painted of Scrooge as in-universe artifacts. Scrooge McDuck calls the person who did the paintings "his favourite artist" while Donald claims they "look like scenes out of a kid's comic book".◊
In "The Last Lord of El Dorado", Scrooge's response to a bit of exposition from Donald is "I know all that! What are you, a recap caption in some silly comic book?"
When Agent 355 asks Yorick why he has "Fuck Communism" engraved on his lighter, he explains it's truly from a comic. "They can say 'fuck' in comic books?"
The main character is named Yorick, after the Posthumous Character in Hamlet. In one scene, a playwright makes a derisive comment about subpar works of fiction trying to seem smarter with Shakespeare references.
She-Hulk: The character is famous for Breaking the Fourth Wall, but in the mid-aughts she had a series where, by editorial mandate, she couldn't. So in the first issue, in response to someone asking if it's true that she acts like she's in a comic book, she gives an Aside Glance to the readers, grins and says "No". Then, in the last issue, after the book is cancelled, Mallory Book is talking to her mysterious employees (the Fourth Wall Foundation) and cancels the plans they had for She-Hulk. One of them starts narrating about how the Fourth Wall might be battered, but it will not be broken, even though they must face the fact that their plans for She-Hulk are what...(Dramatic pause) Book's cancelled. Then, of course, it becomes an actual Breaking The Fourth Wall moment as he turns to another member and asks "Get it? I said Book's cancelled-" and then they tell him to shut up.
In Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #2, when Spidey explains Theresa Parker's backstory to the Human Torch, Johnny snarks about how this fits with Spidey's everyman status, which reads more as a self-deprecating comment on the storyline and how Peter is "supposed" to be written:
Johnny: I'm Spider-Man! I'm the relatable super hero with relatable problems! Just ask my long-lost sister from my super-spy parents with Nazi g[old].
"The story is told all out of order — you can't follow the damned thing... God, they just let any idiot write this stuff, don't they..."
Black Panther: Christopher Priest's run featured a fair bit of subtext as well. In the very first issue, Ross dismisses the Black Panther as one of the second-string Avengers and questions just how dangerous he can be, which Priest has said was a deliberate reference to the way that prior to the 90s, many fans didn't see the character's worth.
A story in Tales from the Crypt called "Concerto for Violin and Werewolf" had the main character figure out the plot twist of the story because it was similar to one he had read in an American comic book called Tales from the Crypt. The story he refers to, called "Midnight Mess", was an actual story that had been published a few issues before.
The story titled "The Reformers" (collected in "Judgement Day and Other Stories") is about a group of Moral Guardians desperately trying to find things to "reform" in a perfect society. The old man who greets them states that, though they have escapist entertainment, it does not cause them to go out and emulate the things done in it, in a likely Take That! at the Comics Code Authority which gave EC Comics so much trouble in Real Life.
The story "...So Shall Ye Reap!" (Shock SuspenStories #10) shows a mother hypocritically scolding her son for reading what she calls a "cheap lurid comic book" full of "nothing but murder and violence" while being interested herself in reading news reports of grisly murders. Hypocritical Humor aside, this was more or less the complaint Moral Guardians were making against EC's publications at the time.
An issue of Injustice: Gods Among Us follows James, a young man who used to idolize Superman, but who has become disillusioned by Superman's increasingly violent and tyrannical tactics following the death of Lois Lane. The issue ends with James saying that he misses the kinder, gentler Superman of old, which seems like commentary on the way DC and WB have been increasingly trying to revamp Superman as a Darker and Edgier character in an attempt to appeal to modern audiences (such as with the controversial Man of Steel movie or the New 52 reboot of the character).
James: I miss Superman. I miss the guy who actually inspired people. The Superman who had time to help a kid who fell off a bike. Before he was changed. Before he gritted his teeth and looked angry all the time. Before he became all hard and dark because people, supposedly, needed him to.
In The Flash (volume 2) #133, the end of the first Mark Millar and Grant Morrison storyline concludes with Wally putting on a cod Scots accent and Linda telling him "You've spent entirely too much time around Scottish people." Of course, she's talking about Ewan McCulloch (Mirror Master) and not the two writers.
In The Flash Annual (volume 4) #3, Future Flash, a future Barry Allen, says that if it wasn't for him, Wally would be married and have two kids, and that it's his fault Wally is dead. While the latter is more guilt for not saving the current Wally, it's uncanny how this dialogue matches up with complaints about Barry's actions during Flashpoint which led to the RetGoning of the original Wally West and his entire family.
The Flash (volume 5) #24 has Eobard Thawne, who remembers the pre-Flashpoint timeline and not the New 52 one, mock the new Kid Flash, Wally West II. This Kid Flash was originally the New 52 version of Wally West, before negative reception led to DC reintroducing the original Wally West and retconning the New 52 Wally into the original's cousin. Eobard beats up Wally West II while exclaiming that he's a "fake" Kid Flash and not even the "real" Wally West. This also doubles as a Take That!, as the modern incarnation of Eobard Thawne and especially this run depict him as what amounts to a crazed Flash fanboy.
Later in that same series, Barry and Wally II have a brief talk where Wally II asks Barry what's up with Wally, and if they will ever discuss it. Of course, this is something readers have been asking DC's writers and editors since the Wallys' brief meeting, and has been skirted around for basically the entire Rebirth relaunch. Barry tells Wally II to be patient and that they'll get to it eventually.
As Iris and Wally II hear about Barry and Wally saving people over the radio, Iris mentions that they're always getting in each other's way since Wally became the Flash as well. This doesn't make sense at all in-universe, as the times we've seen them work together prior to this story, it's only worked out well. In reality, it's a reference to the editorial politics of DC, which aimed to make Barry the "real" Flash at the expense of other Flashes.
The last issue of the storyline sees Iris writing about Wally West. It's essentially a tribute to the character, who was set to ship off to another comic. In particular, Iris mentions that Barry was Wally's (and some fans') Flash, but for a whole generation, even if some have forgotten, Wally was theirs.
Flash #751 has new villain Paradox aim a rant at Barry that sounds suspiciously like what a lot of fans have been saying about Barry for the last ten years.
In the Flash-centric Dark Nights: Death Metal spin-off Speed Metal, Barry and Wally have a conversation that can easily be read as the audience complaining about how Wally was completely sidelined in favour of Barry after his return, and DC acknowledging that and promising to do better. Additionally, Barry confesses that, because he wasn't there to see Wally grow up, he still thinks of him as his sidekick rather than a hero in his own right; which seems to reference how fans of the old Silver Age stories saw Wally as a supporting character who was just filling in for the "real" Flash rather than a beloved protagonist in his own right.
Wally: You know... I saved the world when you were gone. I even saved the multiverse. Tons of times. More than I can count. Alone, with the Flashes, the Justice League. From the edges of time to the Fourth World I ran saving lives... and yet I always feel like I'm running behind you. I worked so hard to get out of your shadow. But when you returned, I got shoved back into it. Barry: That's not what I wanted. When I was gone, I missed so much. And part of that was you growing up. Going from Kid Flash to the Flash. And sometimes... I forget that. That's my thing to deal with.
In #2, a cave troll treats Fluttershy like she were a doll (including one shot that deliberately puts her in the same pose as the MLP "fashion" pony toys) and combs her hair, has rocks that look like Optimus Prime in his "toy" collection, and Rarity makes him some custom pony dolls. Sweetie Belle (watching from Queen Chrysalis's lair) comments that she'd make a cute toy. The whole scene is rather meta, considering the source material.
#48 has Discord holding a copy of the current comic's script to complain about the way he is being written in the story.
In Forever Evil (2013): Arkham War #2, Gordon tells Pierce that he and Bullock call end of the world scenarios "Apocalypse Wednesdays" because they seem to occur weekly.
Squee: I'd like to take you home, but that's probably not a good idea. See, things seem to go really bad around me, and I'd hate to see something like that happen to you. You'd probably explode or something. It's like my life is being done by some awful, awful cartoon guy. Stray Dog: Woooof. Squee: I'm sorry, boy, but it's true. Everything seems like one big, stupid, mean, bitter cartoonist's joke!! And I don't think he even knows how to draw a dog. I mean, look at you! You look like some sort of weird lamb-baby-dog thing. Like he messed up and was too lazy to start over.
In Secret Origins Special #1 published after the start of The Dark Age of Comic Books, the Riddler is interviewed about his career, looking nostalgically back at the early days when he used to do tricks involving giant props and the "camp" period (corresponding to the 1960s TV show) and bemoaning how Darker and Edgier things have gotten lately.
Riddler: Batman and Robin were part of the fun- they were the straight men, but we were the stars. No one ever hurt anybody. Not really. Nobody died. ...You look around these days- It's all different. It's all changed. The Joker's killing people, for God's sake! Did I miss something? Was I away when they changed the rules?
Scott Snyder's Batman run has a very obvious example. Since he was the writer of the New 52 Batman series, he rewrote Batman's origin in his "Zero Year" arc, which began with Batman #0 during "Zero Month", when DC published the new origins (or part of the origin) of their characters about a year after their New 52 Cosmic Retcon. The first page has Snyder blatantly telling people not to flip out because of change and the like, in the guise of a character talking about a refurbished bank. He even puts "Gotham National Bank" in bold, in case you don't get it:
Author Avatar: What was once old will be new again. That was our mission. Perhaps some will accuse us of razing our own past too quickly, too aggressively. Well, to them I say, "before you criticize our new Gotham National Bank... at least try our free coffee!" ... Seriously, though. Welcome to your new bank, team. It's modern and fresh, but it honors the rich history of Gotham National by offering better service, better strategy and better security.
JLA (1997) featured an arc where Triumph, a largely-forgotten former member of the League from the 90s, fought against the then-current team. Triumph railed against the way he and his teammates were dismissed as second-stringers and never treated as "real" members of the Justice League, and accused the public of only caring about the "Big 7"note Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and any of the various iterations of Green Lantern and The Flash. heroes. This could be seen as a reflection of the way that Justice League runs featuring some iteration of the Big 7 tend to be more popular than those that do not, as well as the notorious reputation comic fans have for refusing to accept change.
Christopher Priest's Justice League run had a similar story element. In addition to the main villain being a deranged fan who refuses to accept a Justice League that isn't the one he grew up with, Simon Baz points out the real life hierarchy of the team when it comes to popularity, particularly the way Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman have Wolverine Publicity.
Simon Baz: Come on, Diana. Come onnn. There're like, four Leaguers who count—you three and Barry.
One storyline in the Dwayne McDuffie run had Anansi as the villain. As the Prince of Stories, his alteration of the characters was presented as rewriting the story, and when they teamed up anyway, he reflected that he shouldn't have set them all in the same continuity. He even (ironically) dismissed Animal Man as far too metafictional.
In the storyline that led into the controversial Detroit-era Justice League, Aquaman disbanded the JLA and argued that it needed a roster that was fully committed to the team, not a bunch of part timers who had other, more important things in their lives to focus on. This is pretty much exactly why writer Gerry Conway disbanded the team in real life, as he wanted to get rid of all the characters who had their own books (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and Firestorm) and create a new Justice League that consisted solely of second string heroes he could have complete creative control over, such as Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Zatanna.
In The Just #1, a character acts surprised when seeing a comic book and asks if people even read them anymore. Similarly, there’s this little nugget from the Pax Americana #1 issue, which comments on the trend of superhero movies being huge at the box office while actual comic sales are in the gutter.
Heroes are for movies. The super-hero is dead.
In Pax Americana #1, Captain Adam discusses the concept of comic book tropes to a group of doctors, but as he is discussing his ability to read their three dimensional thoughts, he's looking directly at the reader.
In Thunderworld #1, the Wizard Shazam breaks the fourth wall, telling the reader he was working on his 'omniscient narration'.
Modern Loki is so prolific in doing this that any given speech balloon has a significant chance of containing something that leans on the fourth wall. Lamenting that they don't have the power to write a happy ending for themselves while Aside Glancing at the reader (You could! Please!), stating that "It's never the end of all stories." about Secret Wars (2015) (Yeah. No. Not really a reboot.), and going on tangents about Loki being an important supporting character in Thor's life even when everything is All New All Different.
Teen Titans: Wonder Girl famously didn't have an origin when she debuted, as the writer of that issue was unaware that Wonder Girl was simply Wonder Woman's equivalent of Superboy (a younger version of the same hero), and didn't exist separately from her. DC gave a Shrug of God about it for the longest time, even asking the fans to submit their own ideas about where this other Wonder Girl came from. When her origin was finally told, Donna had this to say:
Donna Troy: She (Wonder Woman) tried to find out who the bodies were... who I was... but nobody knew! The landlady said the room wasn't even rented. I was a non-person... nobody knew me... nobody wanted me. I had no identity!
Way back in issue #12, Reed said that the team had redesigned their Fantasticar because "fans throughout the country" had complained about how stupid it looked. This was Stan Lee's way of acknowledging complaints from real-world fans, who had mocked the Fantasticar from its inception.
In an issue from the late 70s, it was mentioned that the in-universe Fantastic Four cartoon lacked the Human Torch because Johnny was out of town when the rest of team had to sign their contracts. This is a nod to the fact that the Human Torch was barred from appearing in the1978 cartoon because the production company didn't have his TV rights.
Likewise, West Coast Avengers #12 introduced a brand new costume for Wonder Man, one that quickly proved extremely unpopular with readers. After months of reading fan letters calling the new suit terrible, writer Steve Englehart got rid of it in issue #24 by having one of Wonder Man's associates tell him that market research had shown that "the public" hated the costume.
Done as The Reveal in New Super-Man #8: in the epilogue a mysterious figure visits Super-Man Zero (China's first attempt at creating a Superman, from The Final Days of Superman), claiming that he was there at the beginning, and if it wasn't for him there wouldn't be any superheroes. The final splash page shows that he's the Yellow Peril villain from the cover of Detective Comics #1, which is exactly duplicated.
In Dynamite Comics crossover event Pathfinder: Worldscape, Red Sonja tells Kulan Gath that "she is really tired of hearing his voice". According to writer Erik Mona's official commentary, that is supposed to be a shot at her character's rather lackluster Rogues Gallery, as Gath is frequently used as her Arch-Enemy in many, many stories and it wasn't helped that the concurrent Red Sonja comic published at the same time used him too, a fact that Mona wasn't aware at start of his own series.
In the 1950 story Mickey Mouse and the Tagalong Pup, Mickey tries to return a whistling dog to the circus and is arrested when the ringmaster assumes that he stole the dog. As he sits in the slammer, Mickey laments "This like one of those ridiculous situations you read about in comic books. I never thought it would happen to me."
DC Universe: Rebirth #1 is basically an entire issue of this. The original Wally West is revealed to be alive and basically serves as Geoff Johns' (and the majority of DC's readership's) avatar as he laments what has been lost in the New 52 universe, from legacy to love. In what seemed like it would be a Take That!, Wally starts to dissipate into the Speed Force and resolves to "let the past go", as he says goodbye to Barry... only for Barry to save him, and for Wally and Barry to try to find the culprit that rebooted the universe into a dark and cynical place (out of universe, Geoff Johns himself actually wrote the story that did that). It's revealed to be Doctor Manhattan, who basically serves as Watchmen's representative (as well as Dan DiDio's). So basically Johns is saying that Watchmen and DiDio caused the universe to reboot, and for love and legacy to go missing. Further into the relaunch, Wally would repeatedly refer to the timeline as having been "edited", another jab at DiDio.
Iznogoud: In "The Magic Calendar", when Iznogoud tears off too many pages of the title artifact and ends up in Jean Tabary's studio in the 20th century, Tabary mistakes Iznogoud for a courier sent to pick up the latest Iznogoud story and apologises for the delaysnote Tabary was notoriously hopeless at sticking to deadlines. but says he only has ten panels left of the current story. Sure enough, there are just ten panels left in "The Magic Calendar", and when Tabary tries to help Iznogoud by gluing pages back on the calendar (thereby trapping Iznogoud in the timestream), he is stunned to see his nearly-finished story turn into blank pages. He shrugs it off and starts over - drawing the title panel of a story called "The Magic Calendar"...
Happens in Issue 17 of Star Trek: Boldly Go when Gary Mitchell boasts to Kirk about various realities he's visited.
Gary Mitchell: Wait until you see the timelines where you're on an Enterprise powered by mushrooms! Or the ones where all of us are just fictional characters!
In Secret Empire,Carol says that she regrets her actions during Civil War II, noting that her attempts to make the public like her have actually made her hated. Some wondered if this was a commentary on the fact that Marvel has been pushing her so much that some now consider her The Scrappy.
Ms. Marvel (2014): Kamala Khan, the current Ms. Marvel, was a fan of superheroes, in the sense that they're famous people in her world, long before she gained her powers. She even writes (and reads) Fan Fic about them, which has led to some mild embarrassments now that she hangs out with them. Her vocabulary when talking about her adventures frequently sounds exactly like a comics fan.
Kamala: Oh! My! Gosh! I'm in a Spider-Man team-up!
Gwen: I preferred Spider-Woman. Spider-Gwen stuck.
Druuna: The Doctor, who is the writer's Author Avatar, tells Druuna that "if you weren't real, I would have to invent you".
The Inhumans: The subtext of the 2018 Death of the Inhumans mini-series seems to mirror the state of the franchise following the cancellation of almost all of the Inhuman-related books and the spectacular failure of their live-action TV show. Throughout the series, the Inhumans' empire is systematically torn down and destroyed (with the narration explicitly likening it to the fall of Rome), with many of the Nuhumans created during the Inhumanity push ending up as C-List Fodder. Though most of the core Inhumans do ultimately survive, it's made clear that their golden age has ended and that they will no longer be as powerful or prominent as they previously were, seemingly mirroring the fact that while the attempts at turning the Inhumans into a massive franchise failed, the characters themselves will still live as part of the Marvel Universe.
Wonder Woman: In Wonder Woman (Rebirth), Wonder Woman sees that her memories of the past (her origin) keeps changing...much like her actual comic book origin keeps changing significantly with each reboot.
Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time: Danny asks Clockwork to erase everything since Eye for an Eye, which was the premiere episode of the third season, in order to undo the damage that Dark Danny did to the timeline. This can be seen as a Take That! towards the rather weak quality of the season, which has been a source of contention for most of the "Phans".
Black Dynamite: Black Dynamite describes his mission in Issue #3 as sounding like something out of a comic book.
The first miniseries ends with a two-page spread showing numerous Simpsons characters in New New York. Fry comments that if they were still in a comic, it'd sure make for a cool-looking, two-page spread.
When trying to get rid of the giant Homer, Marge suggests they ask the "What if" machine for a solution. However, her family already asked three questions to the machine earlier in the issue and Leela explains that the machine only answers three questions per year, a reference to the "Anthology of Interest" episodes (where the machine would be asked three questions per episode) that ended up being produced once per season before being abandoned completely after Season 3.
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