History BrokenAesop / Comicbooks

** In ''ComicBook/TheKillersOfKrypton'', Empress Gandelo's rants about the Kryptonian race being a danger to the universe that needed to be exterminated are treated as an evil monster's excuses and justifications... except that most of post-1986 storylines involving Krypton in both comics and other media have given the message that the universe dodged a bullet when Krypton blew up. From Byrne's reboot onward, Superman's homeworld has been consistently depicted as a dystopia inhabited by arrogant, prideful, short-sighted, power-hungry assholes who are prone to conquer and abuse weaker races, with ''only'' [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} two]] [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} exceptions]] being ''usually'' decent people. And even so, Superman's goodness is treated as something stemming solely from his Earth upbringing, and the ''Injustice'' continuity treats Superman as a weak-willed, self-entitled tyrant who is one wife away from snapping and enslaving mankind.

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
** This is a common issue in ''Batman'' comics, and superhero comics in general, when they attempt to provide the moral that [[NeverBeAHero "vigilante justice is bad"]]. It's true that in real life, attempting to be a vigilante on the level of Batman is a terrible idea, but when it's a fundamental fact of the genre that vigilante justice not only works, but is usually the only way to solve the problem, any reader can look at Leslie Thompkins ranting to Batman about how he shouldn't be putting these people in danger and taking the law into his own hands, and then recall the seventeen times that year alone that Batman's activities saved the entire city, country, or ''the entire planet''.

*** This is a common issue in ''Batman'' comics, and superhero comics in general, when they attempt to provide the moral that [[NeverBeAHero "vigilante justice is bad"]]. It's true that in real life, attempting to be a vigilante on the level of Batman is a terrible idea, but when it's a fundamental fact of the genre that vigilante justice not only works, but is usually the only way to solve the problem, any reader can look at Leslie Thompkins ranting to Batman about how he shouldn't be putting these people in danger and taking the law into his own hands, and then recall the seventeen times that year alone that Batman's activities saved the entire city, country, or ''the entire planet''.

** ''ComicBook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'' has one of these. Superman loses (most of) his powers and has to rely on a gigantic machine gun to solve his problems. After using his gun to kill two Hitlers and a Batman zombie ([[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask]]) he tells his allies (some little kids with guns) that he's dying. The little kids then bawl and say that guns killed Superman before throwing all of their guns into a bonfire. No one bothers to point out that guns also saved the kids from two Hitlers and a Batman zombie! Worse is the fact that Superman himself admitted that the only thing keeping all these kids alive in this AfterTheEnd [[CrapsackWorld Gotham]] was those guns. And Batman, for God knows what reason, has the gun that killed his parents proudly displayed in his batcave - it's even labeled [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "THE GUN THAT KILLED MY PARENTS"]]. For someone who despises guns like Batman does, it makes you wonder why he spent time locating the gun in the first place.

** ''Batman: War Games'', and its follow up ''War Crimes'' seems to have the aesop that teenagers shouldn't be superheroes, because they might screw up and get killed. Except, despite the brutal death of Spoiler, both Tim Drake and [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Cassandra Cain]] (who were the same age as Stephanie Brown) continue to operate, except now they move to Bludhaven, a city that is ''worse'' than Gotham. On top of that, Steph's actions were in response to the emotional abuse Batman put her through ever since he met her (namely, repeatedly taking her under his wing then firing her and telling her she's terrible for making [[DoubleStandard the same mistakes he forgives the boy Robins for]]), on top of her already present issues with wanting to prove herself, and she was only able to cause the gangwar that lead to her death because Batman, despite ''firing her'', then gave her unsupervised access to his computer where he kept his contingency plans (while never giving her the information she'd need to do them right, info that even ''Catwoman'' knew, stuff he ''should'' have given to her while she was ComicBook/{{Robin}}), meaning Batman took an emotionally vulnerable young girl, made her ''more'' emotionally unstable, then gave her the tools to either fix or destroy the city without the knowledge on ''how to use them''. Essentially, the aesop isn't so much as 'kids shouldn't be superheroes', its that 'kids should only be superheroes [[SpaceWhaleAesop if Batman likes them]]'.
*** This is a common issue in ''Batman'' comics, and superhero comics in general, when they attempt to provide the moral that [[NeverBeAHero "vigilante justice is bad"]]. It's true that in real life, attempting to be a vigilante on the level of Batman is a terrible idea, but when it's a fundamental fact of the genre that vigilante justice not only works, but is usually the only way to solve the problem, any reader can look at Leslie Thompkins ranting to Batman about how he shouldn't be putting these people in danger and taking the law into his own hands, and then recall the seventeen times that year alone that Batman's activities saved the entire city, country, or ''the entire planet''.

* In ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' there is an underlying implication that the superheroes were being punished for their arrogance. Even though people like ComicBook/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/WonderWoman are fairly humble in normal continuity (not to mention all the characters who are nothing but humble, such as [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]), while ComicBook/{{Batman}} in this story is ego tripping and denigrating the contributions of his formerly powered friends even as they kiss his ass. Apparently the writer thought the superheroes WERE being arrogant because they weren't bowing at Batman's feet and worshiping him as the greatest superhero of them all. This requires the aesop not to apply to Batman, because he's the single most arrogant person in the story.
** Really, the whole arrogance thing just utterly falls apart the MOMENT the event begins because heroes are shown losing their powers WHILE TRYING TO SAVE LIVES. It's not like we see Green Lantern showboating or Hawkman demanding praise, we're treated to Superman losing his powers while trying to hold a dam together and Flash slowing down while trying to intercept a bullet aimed at a cop... Then being told it's probably for their own good.
** There's a comment about Supergirl's actions as a superhero was an abuse of power, acting outside the law, only to disregard this and comment about how inefficient police work is and how much more effective she was as a superpowered vigilante and how she should go back to being a vigilante. Then it breaks ''that'' aesop because standard police work (like forensics) did more to uncover what happened to ComicBook/TheAtom than vigilantism.

** At one point, the series criticizes the superhero industry's usage of RapeAsDrama for its characters, which can be hard to take seriously when one considers that Butcher's primary plot is avenging his wife, who was raped by Homelander[[spoiler: (actually Black Noir)]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' is about Barry Allen trying to fix the timeline after he thinks his enemy, Eobard Thawne, messed with the past and created a hellish present. Barry needs to regain his speed to go back in time and stop Eobard. We eventually learn that it was Barry ''himself'' who created the dystopian timeline, when he went back in time to stop Eobard from killing Barry's mother, Nora. Thus, when he goes back in time, he has to stop his past self from saving her and allow Eobard to kill his mother. The story tries to deliver a message about how you can't change the past and need to look forward... except Nora ''should'' be alive! We know that because Eobard himself is a time traveller and only ''recently'' killed her in the past via time travel, and prior to that, she lived a long and full life. So you ''can'' change the past... but you apparently shouldn't even when your nemesis repeatedly and openly does so? Or maybe... you should make sure you change the past correctly?

** Compare Xavier's powerset to those of characters like Rogue, Toad, or Cyclops. Xavier has telepathy -- a power that he can [[PowerIncontinence control perfectly]], that has absolutely ''no'' negative effects on him physically or mentally, that is a massive benefit to his life, and cannot be detected by normal humans. In comparison? Rogue's powers kill anyone she has physical contact with. She cannot control this or stop it in any way, and has resigned herself to being isolated from her peers. Her powers have drastically injured her self-esteem and social life. Toad's [[http://marvel.com/universe/Toad mutation]] turned him into an ugly, lizardlike humanoid and made him the subject of severe bullying from other children. Cyclops projects a continuous wave of destructive energy from his eyes and relies on special glasses just to live a normal life. Even ''Phoenix'', another telepath, is often overwhelmed by the thoughts of others -- to the point of mental instability. Looking at the general trend of mutant powers, it's hard not to think that Xavier ''really'' lucked out where the SuperpowerLottery was concerned.

* In ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' there is an underlying implication that the superheroes were being punished for their arrogance. Even though people like Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/WonderWoman are fairly humble in normal continuity (not to mention all the characters who are nothing but humble, such as [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]), while Franchise/{{Batman}} in this story is ego tripping and denigrating the contributions of his formerly powered friends even as they kiss his ass. Apparently the writer thought the superheroes WERE being arrogant because they weren't bowing at Batman's feet and worshiping him as the greatest superhero of them all. This requires the aesop not to apply to Batman, because he's the single most arrogant person in the story.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** In ''ComicBook/TheKillersOfKrypton'', Empress Gandelo's rants about the Kryptonian race being a danger to the universe that needed to be exterminated are treated as an evil monster's excuses and justifications... except that most of post-1986 storylines involving Krypton in both comics and other media have given the message that the universe dodged a bullet when Krypton blew up. From Byrne's reboot onward, Superman's homeworld has been consistently depicted as a dystopia inhabited by arrogant, prideful, short-sighted, power-hungry assholes who are prone to conquer and abuse weaker races, with ''only'' [[Franchise/{{Superman}} two]] [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} exceptions]] being ''usually'' decent people. And even so, Superman's goodness is treated as something stemming solely from his Earth upbringing, and the ''Injustice'' continuity treats Superman as a weak-willed, self-entitled tyrant who is one wife away from snapping and enslaving mankind.

* In continuities as old as Marvel and DC's, the inevitable {{retcon}}s often break initially intact aesops. For example, many of the older ''ComicBook/XMen'' storylines involving Nightcrawler made it clear that FantasticRacism is bad, that we shouldn't judge people by their external appearance, and that having a tail doesn't necessarily make you the Antichrist. Enter Chuck Austen, and it turns out Nightcrawler really was half-demon all along. Similarly, any superhero comic with a message of "You need to accept people die, and move on" (for instance Comicbook/SpiderMan's denial of MJ's death in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' Vol. 2 #13), since most superheroes have seen their loved ones come BackFromTheDead all the time, and the chances are it'll happen this time as well (as MJ did in ''Peter Parker: Spider-Man #29, a year and a half later), however permanent the original writer intended it to be.
** One of the most egregious examples was the [[StatusQuoIsGod infamous]] ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' storyline as it breaks the [[ComesGreatResponsibility aesop]] that Franchise/SpiderMan is supposed to embody, as instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he dodges it by making a DealWithTheDevil against the wishes of its main beneficiary and guilt-tripping his own wife into going along with it. The message then becomes "the ends justify the means", and that instead of learning how to cope with loss and move on with your life, you should hold on to what you have and never let go, even if the cost of doing so might be too high; for you and others.

* In ''ComicBook/RunawaysRainbowRowell'' #11, Nico extracts an apology from Klara for her past homophobia, which would be all well and good, except that this comes in the middle of Gert baselessly accusing Klara's [foster dads of being evil.

* The plot of the 2021 ''ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld'' series is about the SpoiledBrat protagonist maturing as a person and fixing her mistakes. The problem is the main conflict is caused by the [[CosmicKeystone Amethyst Keystone]] being damaged, which her brother did not hear. Yet, both the story and characters, including Amethyst herself, treat the situation [[InformedWrongness as if it was all her fault]]. Meanwhile, the brother gets [[KarmaHoudini no blame]] despite [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt nearly dooming the world]].