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* ''ComicBook/TheLeaugeOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': In "The Tempest", we're clearly meant to support Emma in her plan to get revenge on "Jimmy" by murdering him. However, she doesn't even try to get her own hands dirty, and instead emotionally blackmails Jason King into being her assassin while she safely watches from a distance. Then when the apocalypse happens, all the story's "good guys" don't even make the slightest effort to save humanity, choosing instead to abandon Earth.
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* ''ComicBook/TheLeaugeOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': In "The Tempest", we're clearly meant to support Emma in her plan to get revenge on "Jimmy" by murdering him. However, she doesn't even try to get her own hands dirty, and instead emotionally blackmails Jason King into being her assassin while she safely watches from a distance. Then when the apocalypse happens, all the story's "good guys" don't even make the slightest effort to save humanity, choosing instead to abandon Earth.
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* ''ComicBook/TheLeaugeOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': In "The Tempest", we're clearly meant to support Emma in her plan to get revenge on "Jimmy" by murdering him. However, she doesn't even try to get her own hands dirty, and instead emotionally blackmails Jason King into being her assassin while she safely watches from a distance. Then when the apocalypse happens, all the story's "good guys" don't even make the slightest effort to save humanity, choosing instead to abandon Earth.
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* ''ComicBook/AmazingCowHeroes'': The cow heroes often snatch burgers people are about to eat or make without any warning or persuading them not to beforehand, which doesn't exactly make them look all that good.
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* ''ComicBook/{{Amulet}}'': Some feel Emily and Navin are these, with some:
** For one, Emily rarely does anything heroic and the reasoning behind her actions sounds less because she wants to do good but more like she simply has no other choice. It also doesn't help that she's rarely nice and warm to other, especially ruthless towards her enemies and is not above using force and violence against her allies, proven they stand in her way. She also doesn't exhibit any sort of leadership qualities, and can be quite arrogant, and although she does care for other people and believes in the value of teamwork, she still steadfastedly works alone.
** Ever since the Resistance claim that Navin is a commander and a leader, he doesn't possess leadership qualities himself, and always defer to someone else when there's leading needed to be done. He also has little development at all because the lack of a concrete personal goal or character flaws.
** For one, Emily rarely does anything heroic and the reasoning behind her actions sounds less because she wants to do good but more like she simply has no other choice. It also doesn't help that she's rarely nice and warm to other, especially ruthless towards her enemies and is not above using force and violence against her allies, proven they stand in her way. She also doesn't exhibit any sort of leadership qualities, and can be quite arrogant, and although she does care for other people and believes in the value of teamwork, she still steadfastedly works alone.
** Ever since the Resistance claim that Navin is a commander and a leader, he doesn't possess leadership qualities himself, and always defer to someone else when there's leading needed to be done. He also has little development at all because the lack of a concrete personal goal or character flaws.
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i wrote this when i was a young man, it was awful, it is gone now
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* A common problem with the NinetiesAntiHero trope is that they might end up this when badly handled. Countless comics had the hero smashing into a doom fortress and butchering dozens of mooks, without explaining why he's there, who the mooks are, or what he actually wants - about the only way to tell is to check if he's on the cover.
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* ComicBook/MonicasGang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ComicBook/MonicasGang'': ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ComicBook/Monicas Gang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ComicBook/Monicas Gang'': ComicBook/MonicasGang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ComicBook/Monica's Gang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ComicBook/Monica's ComicBook/Monicas Gang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ComicBook/Monica's Gang'': Marina made drawings of Smudge bathing and freely handed out copies of them to everyone in the block without his permission. Smudge got understandably offended by it, but Marina countered with "It's just a drawing" and brought up her right to freedom of expression. He then steals her art tools as revenge, but she proceeds to fill the walls of the streets with the very same drawing as payback. So Marina gets away with not only violating Smudge's privacy, but also with vandalizing public property, yet the reader is supposed to side with her.
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* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Gladstone Gander in Creator/DonRosa's "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink". Considering the immense lucky streaks he gets every other day of the year and [[SmugSnake his unrelenting smugness about that fact]], it's hard to feel sorry for him if his BornLucky status is inverted on a single one. And he accomplishes his goal of getting rid of even that blot on his entitlement to fortune, while beating Donald out of attaining any luck for himself, who is usually portrayed as barely being able to get by or financially support his nephews (take for example the ending to ''Super Snooper Strikes Again'').
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* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Gladstone Gander in Creator/DonRosa's "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink".''ComicBook/TheSignOfTheTripleDistelfink''. Considering the immense lucky streaks he gets every other day of the year and [[SmugSnake his unrelenting smugness about that fact]], it's hard to feel sorry for him if his BornLucky status is inverted on a single one. And he accomplishes his goal of getting rid of even that blot on his entitlement to fortune, while beating Donald out of attaining any luck for himself, who is usually portrayed as barely being able to get by or financially support his nephews (take for example the ending to ''Super Snooper Strikes Again'').
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Nemesis never anticipated that his wife and son would die and the story blames him for this despite the fact that those deaths were caused by magna and Torquemada. Magna betrayed Chira and Thoth to torquemada out of lust towards nemesis
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* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' is supposed to be seen as a hero of the alien resistance, but is really a manipulative, murderous jerk and nobody would root for him, was he fighting somebody less evil than Torquemada. Later the series decides to turn him into one in-universe, revealing some unpleasant things about him: [[spoiler: most notably, that his motivation is simple boredom and he could have solved the conflict long time ago, but is holding back, therefore prolonging a monstrous war, that took a great toll on both sides and caused the genocide of countless alien species as well as the deaths of his wife and son, for thrills]]. That however makes him lose the status of a hero among both his allies and the readers.
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* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' is supposed to be seen as a hero of the alien resistance, but is really a manipulative, murderous jerk and nobody would root for him, was he fighting somebody less evil than Torquemada. Later the series decides to turn him into one in-universe, revealing some unpleasant things about him: [[spoiler: most notably, that his motivation is simple boredom and he could have solved the conflict long time ago, but is holding back, therefore prolonging a monstrous war, that took a great toll on both sides and caused the genocide of countless alien species as well as the deaths of his wife and son, for thrills]]. That however makes him lose the status of a hero among both his allies and the readers.
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* ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard'' is a weird example. A lot of his villains are utterly despicable scum. However, Stardust is so utterly brutal and dishes out such [[FateWorseThanDeath horrific punishments]] that he becomes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic difficult if not impossible to root for him]]. He’s now in the public domain and frequently treated as an AntiHero or outright VillainProtagonist by later writers.
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* ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard'' is a weird example. A lot of his villains are utterly despicable scum. However, Stardust is [[MoralSociopathy so utterly brutal brutal]] and dishes out such [[FateWorseThanDeath horrific punishments]] that he becomes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic difficult if not impossible to root for him]]. He’s now in the public domain and frequently treated as an AntiHero or outright VillainProtagonist by later writers.
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* ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard'' was essentially DisproportionateRetribution made flesh, an absolutely invincible, omnipotent being raining terrible and disturbingly creative punishment on everyday petty criminals. He’s now in the public domain and frequently treated as an AntiHero or outright VillainProtagonist by later writers.
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* ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard'' was essentially DisproportionateRetribution made flesh, an absolutely invincible, omnipotent being raining terrible is a weird example. A lot of his villains are utterly despicable scum. However, Stardust is so utterly brutal and disturbingly creative punishment on everyday petty criminals.dishes out such [[FateWorseThanDeath horrific punishments]] that he becomes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic difficult if not impossible to root for him]]. He’s now in the public domain and frequently treated as an AntiHero or outright VillainProtagonist by later writers.
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* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'':
** In the beginning, the Authority were hardline with their ideals and used violence reasonably. With Jack Hawksmoor as leader [[spoiler:receiving the position after Jenny Sparks's death]], the Authority became increasingly predisposed toward unyielding moral positions and merciless brutality as time went on, but the entry of another character, [[spoiler:Jenny Quantum/Quarx,]] as a member of the team softened them somewhat. Now, their level of violence is about par for Wildstorm's post-apocalyptic world, so they're no better or worse than any other group.
** Right from the start, this was the case. Ellis has said on more than one occasion that he wrote the Authority as villains, just ones who happened to fight even bigger villains. The first story arc does end with Midnighter plowing a giant swathe through a populated city just to reach one person, after all. If that's not enough for you, one arc later the Authority stops an invasion from a parallel Earth by totally and indiscriminately destroying a whole country to eliminate the enemy's infrastructure, even though by that point it is clear that the invaders are completely outmatched by them anyway. Starting from Millar's run, however, the comic increasingly turned into a vehicle for political [[AuthorTract Author Tracts]], where the Authority were indeed designated to be heroes, although, obviously not all readers were convinced.
** In the "Utopian" arc, their actions kill off an ''entire alternate earth.''
** In the beginning, the Authority were hardline with their ideals and used violence reasonably. With Jack Hawksmoor as leader [[spoiler:receiving the position after Jenny Sparks's death]], the Authority became increasingly predisposed toward unyielding moral positions and merciless brutality as time went on, but the entry of another character, [[spoiler:Jenny Quantum/Quarx,]] as a member of the team softened them somewhat. Now, their level of violence is about par for Wildstorm's post-apocalyptic world, so they're no better or worse than any other group.
** Right from the start, this was the case. Ellis has said on more than one occasion that he wrote the Authority as villains, just ones who happened to fight even bigger villains. The first story arc does end with Midnighter plowing a giant swathe through a populated city just to reach one person, after all. If that's not enough for you, one arc later the Authority stops an invasion from a parallel Earth by totally and indiscriminately destroying a whole country to eliminate the enemy's infrastructure, even though by that point it is clear that the invaders are completely outmatched by them anyway. Starting from Millar's run, however, the comic increasingly turned into a vehicle for political [[AuthorTract Author Tracts]], where the Authority were indeed designated to be heroes, although, obviously not all readers were convinced.
** In the "Utopian" arc, their actions kill off an ''entire alternate earth.''
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* ''ComicBook/{{Crecy}}'': The narrator insists that he and his countrymen are plucky and heroic underdogs--despite the fact that they deliberately [[RapePillageAndBurn pillage and burn]] several French villages from Caen to Crécy in an attempt to persuade the French people that their own warrior class won't protect them but the English will.[[note]]How any English commander thought these chevauchée tactics would endear them to their French victims [[FridgeLogic is anyone's guess]].[[/note]]
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* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' is supposed to be seen as an hero of the alien resistance, but is really a manipulative, murderous jerk and nobody would root for him, was he fighting somebody less evil than Torquemada. Later the series decides to turn him into one in-universe, revealing some unpleasant things about him: [[spoiler: most notably, that his motivation is simple boredom and he could have solved the conflict long time ago, but is holding back, therefore prolonging a monstrous war, that took a great toll on both sides and caused the genocide of countless alien species as well as the deaths of his wife and son, for thrills]]. That however makes him lose the status of a hero among both his allies and the readers.
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* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' is supposed to be seen as an a hero of the alien resistance, but is really a manipulative, murderous jerk and nobody would root for him, was he fighting somebody less evil than Torquemada. Later the series decides to turn him into one in-universe, revealing some unpleasant things about him: [[spoiler: most notably, that his motivation is simple boredom and he could have solved the conflict long time ago, but is holding back, therefore prolonging a monstrous war, that took a great toll on both sides and caused the genocide of countless alien species as well as the deaths of his wife and son, for thrills]]. That however makes him lose the status of a hero among both his allies and the readers.
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* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIDW'': Karai is a criminal and a murderer who has hurt and killed many people, both innocent and evil. However, the comic initially presented her as the "reasonable" member of the Foot Clan and she is rarely ever called out for her actions. This appears to have been rectified in issue 92, when discussing the fate of the orphans currently in the foot clan's care she wants to conscript them into warriors or kill them for seeing the inner workings and she is shown to be a violent zealot for it.
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Misuse. Designated Hero is when the characters' actions go against the idea of him beign a hero. Mercy to villains and his attitude towards those who argue with him isn't the same thing. This would be Unintentionally Unsympathetic
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* As ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' has continued, more readers have begun to view Sonic in this light, in that not only does his [[KarmaHoudini overt leniency to his foes]] make him look especially negligent when they come back to make things worse for everyone, but that he also acts more judgmental and controlling to everyone else compared to his game self, with some even accusing him of ''{{gaslighting}}'' some characters so they can go along with his viewpoints: he lambasts to Shadow's face a comparison of ''his'' history of villainy to Eggman's own, [[NotSoSimilar despite the former's being misguided and the latter's being purely self-aware and ego-driven]]; furiously argues to an Espio ''clearly traumatized'' by the loss of his friends to the Zombot plague that he's wrong about his regret that they should've let the amnesiac Dr. Eggman be; chastises Eggman and Metal Sonic on their returns to villainy [[{{hypocrite}} despite him asserting that he wanted to "honor [Metal's] decision" prior]]; and [[CharacterFilibuster preaches his beliefs]] to Surge, which only serves to make the latter even more furious towards him as he brushes off her trauma with snarky retorts (whereas Tails, by comparison, at least tries to talk things out with Kit). Overall, the critics of this version of Sonic have accused the comic of taking a ProtagonistCenteredMorality stance where the readers are intended to agree with Sonic's ''prospect'' to give everyone a chance to live free, but that his failure to truly empathize with others ''in practice'' prevents said prospect from looking responsible or even genuine, among other things.
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* As ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' has continued, more readers have begun to view Sonic in this light, in that not only does his [[KarmaHoudini overt leniency to his foes]] make him look especially negligent when they come back to make things worse for everyone, but that he also acts more judgmental and controlling to everyone else compared to his game self, with some even accusing him of ''{{gaslighting}}'' some characters so they can go along with his viewpoints: he lambasts to Shadow's face a comparison of ''his'' history of villainy to Eggman's own, [[NotSoSimilar despite the former's being misguided and the latter's being purely self-aware and ego-driven]]; furiously argues to an Espio ''clearly traumatized'' by the loss of his friends to the Zombot plague that he's wrong about his regret that they should've let the amnesiac Dr. Eggman be; chastises Eggman and Metal Sonic on their returns to villainy [[{{hypocrite}} despite him asserting that he wanted to "honor [Metal's] decision" prior]]; and [[CharacterFilibuster preaches his beliefs]] to Surge, which only serves to make the latter even more furious towards him as he brushes off her trauma with snarky retorts (whereas Tails, by comparison, at least tries to talk things out with Kit). Overall, the critics of this version of Sonic have accused the comic of taking a ProtagonistCenteredMorality stance where the readers are intended to agree with Sonic's ''prospect'' to give everyone a chance to live free, but that his failure to truly empathize with others ''in practice'' prevents said prospect from looking responsible or even genuine, among other things.
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* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': Most of the titular Boys. Sure, [[ALighterShadeOfBlack when you compare them to their enemies, they more or less look like saints by comparison]], but they aren't much better. They’ve got a lot of blood on their hands and during the series, a lot of what they do can be considered morally dubious at best, and downright horrifying at worst. It doesn’t help that their motivations for opposing and hunting down the supers [[NominalHero aren’t quite altruistic]]... and their methods for dealing with their enemies are... ”creative”. This is not to mention the fact that despite their (particularly Butcher and Hughie's) ideological opposition to superhumanity as a whole, they themselves are superhumans. You could easily argue that their stated purpose would be just as well fulfilled purely through their surveillance operations: gathering sordid information on their activities for use as blackmail does a far better job of 'keeping the supes in line' than going around maiming them, but the latter seems to be most of what The Boys get up to: using their superpowers to throw their weight around, just like the supes they are supposedly there to keep in line.
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* ''Stardust the Super Wizard'' was essentially DisproportionateRetribution made flesh, an absolutely invincible, omnipotent being raining terrible and disturbingly creative punishment on everyday petty criminals. He’s now in the public domain and frequently treated as an AntiHero or outright VillainProtagonist by later writers.
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* ''Stardust the Super Wizard'' ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard'' was essentially DisproportionateRetribution made flesh, an absolutely invincible, omnipotent being raining terrible and disturbingly creative punishment on everyday petty criminals. He’s now in the public domain and frequently treated as an AntiHero or outright VillainProtagonist by later writers.
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* ComicBook/IronMan during the ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica as the DesignatedVillain, DependingOnTheWriter. In some issues from that arc, the exact opposite effect occurred: ComicBook/IronMan appeared to be the DesignatedVillain (to many, he seemed like a reasonable guy defending normal humans against powerful forces while trying to avert a backlash against superheroes, yet some writers expected us to root against him) and Cap seemed like the Designated Hero (refusing to take seriously Iron Man and Reed Richards' arguments that humans were in danger due to the mega-powerful supers running loose and unaccountable, yet some writers expected us to find Cap to be completely reasonable). The fact that the ''writers themselves'' seemed to be fighting over which side was right just added to the confusion; some sources claim that there wasn't actually a single, mutually-agreed version of ''the letter'' of the SuperRegistrationAct, which surely cannot have helped.
** Perhaps the {{Aesop}} was that neither extreme was truly moral. ''If'' that's what they were going for, designated heroes were the way to go. ComicBook/CaptainAmerica was the Designated Hero more often than not with ComicBook/IronMan as the DesignatedVillain. Mainly because the politics associated with Cap's side tended to resonate better with most of the writers. But all in all, it was a case of a complicated issue being "simplified" by having a good guy and a bad guy. Iron Man and his pro-Registration side all took a big hit in the credibility department when they started tossing anti-Registration heroes into a parallel universe prison without trials.
** Another example of Iron Man being the Designated Hero was ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk''. To the point where many readers were cheering the Hulk on. (This was, in fact, already happening when Civil War was still going on, with "[[TakeAThirdOption You're all fucked when the Hulk gets back!]]" being a common response to Marvel's ad campaign trying to get fans to choose a side in the war.)
** According to WordOfGod, the ''official'' stance is that Iron Man and the Pro-Registration side was meant to be the one in the right; and they thought it was "so ''obvious''" (despite "Registration" in Marvel comics historically relating to "Mutant Death Camps", and despite ComicBook/CaptainAmerica traditionally being '''the''' moral compass of the Marvel universe) that they threw in a few KickTheDog moments to make it seem more ambiguous. If so, they went ''seriously'' overboard, since the Pro-Reg does things like try to arrest Cap ''by force'' for breaking the Act '''before the Act was even passed''', creating a [[CloningBlues clone of Thor]] that went AxCrazy and killed an Anti-Reg C-list hero (Bill Foster/Goliath), [[ToCatchHeroesHireVillains hiring supervillains to capture their opponents]] (and giving the AxCrazy mass-murderer ComicBook/NormanOsborn ''a major position in SHIELD''), ''throwing captured heroes into a prison without trial in the [[DeathWorld NEGATIVE ZONE]]'' (an otherworldly post-apocalyptic dimension populated entirely with dangerous aliens and monsters) and trying to start a war with another nation (Atlantis). The worst the Anti-Reg side did was hire ComicBook/ThePunisher (then fire him immediately), fight Pro-Reg forces, and be on the receiving end of StrawManPolitical journalism. The majority of readers sided with Cap and supporters of ''both'' sides thought Iron Man was a dick in this story and believed he was meant to be the bad guy.
** And then he and Reed Richards (two of the heads of the Pro-Registration faction) use science to make everyone forget Spider-Man's secret identity so he can continue being a vigilante without having to deal with accountability in ComicBook/OneMomentInTime. Which pretty much goes against what they fought the entire ComicBook/CivilWar and committed all their crimes against humanity to put a stop to. So you can add horrific levels of hypocrisy to the list of what makes them designated heroes.
* There was a lot of this in ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' as well. DependingOnTheWriter, Captain America and the Avengers are a bunch of fascists jerks to the plucky underdog X-Men, or ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} and his X-Men are a bunch of religious fanatics and dictators waiting to happen.
** The aftermath is just as confusing with regards to this trope. Cyclops is definitely framed as being in the wrong (it was him who killed Professor Xavier, after all), but the validity of this is pretty questionable considering why he killed Xavier and that he was spurred on by the Avengers, but other issues have members of the Avengers calling out Tony Stark over his role in the crisis. The fact that [[Comicbook/UncannyAvengers the Avengers were the ones to man up and offer the olive branch to the X-Men]] just confuses the roles even more.
** Throughout the series and aftermath, the only one who seems to be constantly a Designated Hero is Wolverine, who essentially causes the conflict by telling Captain America what essentially amounted to biased accounts on Cyclops' character and the Phoenix as a whole, repeatedly attempts to kill Hope because 'it's the only way' to stop the Phoenix (which would have fucked everything up had he been successful), and afterwards doesn't even try to help the newly appearing, and vulnerable, mutants. He does however, find the time to harass Cyclops at every opportunity when ''he'' tries to do so.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' came off as this in his earliest stories, as he had yet to become the iconic beacon of hope he is today. One story showed him angry that a friend of his died to a car accident and hijack a radio stadio to [[DisproportionateRetribution declare war on all reckless drivers]]. Hundreds of dollars in property damage later, Superman has succeeded in his goal, as driving laws are now rigidly enforced by the mayor (after Supes kidnapped him and took him to a morgue so he could guilt him with all the victims of driving accidents, natch), and the story ends with Superman getting a ticket for parking in the wrong place. This leaves the reader wondering if it's just a kooky [[{{Irony}} Ironic ]]TwistEnding typical of comics of the time, or if Superman is receiving LaserGuidedKarma for his vigilantism. Hijacking a radio station to declare war on ''blank'' sounds straight out of a SaturdayMorningCartoon villain's playbook. He sometimes slips back into this in modern comics, particularly some moments in ''ComicBook/SupermanGrounded'' where he refuses to do hero things just to make some kind of vaguely-defined point about non-interference, but it never gets as bad as that aforementioned story, at least in canon comics.
** Perhaps the {{Aesop}} was that neither extreme was truly moral. ''If'' that's what they were going for, designated heroes were the way to go. ComicBook/CaptainAmerica was the Designated Hero more often than not with ComicBook/IronMan as the DesignatedVillain. Mainly because the politics associated with Cap's side tended to resonate better with most of the writers. But all in all, it was a case of a complicated issue being "simplified" by having a good guy and a bad guy. Iron Man and his pro-Registration side all took a big hit in the credibility department when they started tossing anti-Registration heroes into a parallel universe prison without trials.
** Another example of Iron Man being the Designated Hero was ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk''. To the point where many readers were cheering the Hulk on. (This was, in fact, already happening when Civil War was still going on, with "[[TakeAThirdOption You're all fucked when the Hulk gets back!]]" being a common response to Marvel's ad campaign trying to get fans to choose a side in the war.)
** According to WordOfGod, the ''official'' stance is that Iron Man and the Pro-Registration side was meant to be the one in the right; and they thought it was "so ''obvious''" (despite "Registration" in Marvel comics historically relating to "Mutant Death Camps", and despite ComicBook/CaptainAmerica traditionally being '''the''' moral compass of the Marvel universe) that they threw in a few KickTheDog moments to make it seem more ambiguous. If so, they went ''seriously'' overboard, since the Pro-Reg does things like try to arrest Cap ''by force'' for breaking the Act '''before the Act was even passed''', creating a [[CloningBlues clone of Thor]] that went AxCrazy and killed an Anti-Reg C-list hero (Bill Foster/Goliath), [[ToCatchHeroesHireVillains hiring supervillains to capture their opponents]] (and giving the AxCrazy mass-murderer ComicBook/NormanOsborn ''a major position in SHIELD''), ''throwing captured heroes into a prison without trial in the [[DeathWorld NEGATIVE ZONE]]'' (an otherworldly post-apocalyptic dimension populated entirely with dangerous aliens and monsters) and trying to start a war with another nation (Atlantis). The worst the Anti-Reg side did was hire ComicBook/ThePunisher (then fire him immediately), fight Pro-Reg forces, and be on the receiving end of StrawManPolitical journalism. The majority of readers sided with Cap and supporters of ''both'' sides thought Iron Man was a dick in this story and believed he was meant to be the bad guy.
** And then he and Reed Richards (two of the heads of the Pro-Registration faction) use science to make everyone forget Spider-Man's secret identity so he can continue being a vigilante without having to deal with accountability in ComicBook/OneMomentInTime. Which pretty much goes against what they fought the entire ComicBook/CivilWar and committed all their crimes against humanity to put a stop to. So you can add horrific levels of hypocrisy to the list of what makes them designated heroes.
* There was a lot of this in ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' as well. DependingOnTheWriter, Captain America and the Avengers are a bunch of fascists jerks to the plucky underdog X-Men, or ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} and his X-Men are a bunch of religious fanatics and dictators waiting to happen.
** The aftermath is just as confusing with regards to this trope. Cyclops is definitely framed as being in the wrong (it was him who killed Professor Xavier, after all), but the validity of this is pretty questionable considering why he killed Xavier and that he was spurred on by the Avengers, but other issues have members of the Avengers calling out Tony Stark over his role in the crisis. The fact that [[Comicbook/UncannyAvengers the Avengers were the ones to man up and offer the olive branch to the X-Men]] just confuses the roles even more.
** Throughout the series and aftermath, the only one who seems to be constantly a Designated Hero is Wolverine, who essentially causes the conflict by telling Captain America what essentially amounted to biased accounts on Cyclops' character and the Phoenix as a whole, repeatedly attempts to kill Hope because 'it's the only way' to stop the Phoenix (which would have fucked everything up had he been successful), and afterwards doesn't even try to help the newly appearing, and vulnerable, mutants. He does however, find the time to harass Cyclops at every opportunity when ''he'' tries to do so.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' came off as this in his earliest stories, as he had yet to become the iconic beacon of hope he is today. One story showed him angry that a friend of his died to a car accident and hijack a radio stadio to [[DisproportionateRetribution declare war on all reckless drivers]]. Hundreds of dollars in property damage later, Superman has succeeded in his goal, as driving laws are now rigidly enforced by the mayor (after Supes kidnapped him and took him to a morgue so he could guilt him with all the victims of driving accidents, natch), and the story ends with Superman getting a ticket for parking in the wrong place. This leaves the reader wondering if it's just a kooky [[{{Irony}} Ironic ]]TwistEnding typical of comics of the time, or if Superman is receiving LaserGuidedKarma for his vigilantism. Hijacking a radio station to declare war on ''blank'' sounds straight out of a SaturdayMorningCartoon villain's playbook. He sometimes slips back into this in modern comics, particularly some moments in ''ComicBook/SupermanGrounded'' where he refuses to do hero things just to make some kind of vaguely-defined point about non-interference, but it never gets as bad as that aforementioned story, at least in canon comics.
to:
** Perhaps the {{Aesop}} was that neither extreme was truly moral. ''If'' that's what they were going for, designated heroes were the way to go. ComicBook/CaptainAmerica was the Designated Hero more often than not with ComicBook/IronMan as the DesignatedVillain. Mainly because the politics associated with Cap's side tended to resonate better with most of the writers. But all in all, it was a case of a complicated issue being "simplified" by having a good guy and a bad guy. Iron Man and his pro-Registration side all took a big hit in the credibility department when they started tossing anti-Registration heroes into a parallel universe prison without trials.
** Another example of Iron Man being the Designated Hero was ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk''. To the point where many readers were cheering the Hulk on. (This was, in fact, already happening when Civil War was still going on, with "[[TakeAThirdOption You're all fucked when the Hulk gets back!]]" being a common response to Marvel's ad campaign trying to get fans to choose a side in the war.)
** According to WordOfGod, the ''official'' stance is that Iron Man and the Pro-Registration side was meant to be the one in the right; and they thought it was "so ''obvious''" (despite "Registration" in Marvel comics historically relating to "Mutant Death Camps", and despite ComicBook/CaptainAmerica traditionally being '''the''' moral compass of the Marvel universe) that they threw in a few KickTheDog moments to make it seem more ambiguous. If so, they went ''seriously'' overboard, since the Pro-Reg does things like try to arrest Cap ''by force'' for breaking the Act '''before the Act was even passed''', creating a [[CloningBlues clone of Thor]] that went AxCrazy and killed an Anti-Reg C-list hero (Bill Foster/Goliath), [[ToCatchHeroesHireVillains hiring supervillains to capture their opponents]] (and giving the AxCrazy mass-murderer ComicBook/NormanOsborn ''a major position in SHIELD''), ''throwing captured heroes into a prison without trial in the [[DeathWorld NEGATIVE ZONE]]'' (an otherworldly post-apocalyptic dimension populated entirely with dangerous aliens and monsters) and trying to start a war with another nation (Atlantis). The worst the Anti-Reg side did was hire ComicBook/ThePunisher (then fire him immediately), fight Pro-Reg forces, and be on the receiving end of StrawManPolitical journalism. The majority of readers sided with Cap and supporters of ''both'' sides thought Iron Man was a dick in this story and believed he was meant to be the bad guy.
** And then he and Reed Richards (two of the heads of the Pro-Registration faction) use science to make everyone forget Spider-Man's secret identity so he can continue being a vigilante without having to deal with accountability in ComicBook/OneMomentInTime. Which pretty much goes against what they fought the entire ComicBook/CivilWar and committed all their crimes against humanity to put a stop to. So you can add horrific levels of hypocrisy to the list of what makes them designated heroes.
* There was a lot of this in ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' as well. DependingOnTheWriter, Captain America and the Avengers are a bunch of fascists jerks to the plucky underdog X-Men, or ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} and his X-Men are a bunch of religious fanatics and dictators waiting to happen.
** The aftermath is just as confusing with regards to this trope. Cyclops is definitely framed as being in the wrong (it was him who killed Professor Xavier, after all), but the validity of this is pretty questionable considering why he killed Xavier and that he was spurred on by the Avengers, but other issues have members of the Avengers calling out Tony Stark over his role in the crisis. The fact that [[Comicbook/UncannyAvengers the Avengers were the ones to man up and offer the olive branch to the X-Men]] just confuses the roles even more.
** Throughout the series and aftermath, the only one who seems to be constantly a Designated Hero is Wolverine, who essentially causes the conflict by telling Captain America what essentially amounted to biased accounts on Cyclops' character and the Phoenix as a whole, repeatedly attempts to kill Hope because 'it's the only way' to stop the Phoenix (which would have fucked everything up had he been successful), and afterwards doesn't even try to help the newly appearing, and vulnerable, mutants. He does however, find the time to harass Cyclops at every opportunity when ''he'' tries to do so.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' came off as this in his earliest stories, as he had yet to become the iconic beacon of hope he is today. One story showed him angry that a friend of his died to a car accident and hijack a radio stadio to [[DisproportionateRetribution declare war on all reckless drivers]]. Hundreds of dollars in property damage later, Superman has succeeded in his goal, as driving laws are now rigidly enforced by the mayor (after Supes kidnapped him and took him to a morgue so he could guilt him with all the victims of driving accidents, natch), and the story ends with Superman getting a ticket for parking in the wrong place. This leaves the reader wondering if it's just a kooky [[{{Irony}} Ironic ]]TwistEnding typical of comics of the time, or if Superman is receiving LaserGuidedKarma for his vigilantism. Hijacking a radio station to declare war on ''blank'' sounds straight out of a SaturdayMorningCartoon villain's playbook. He sometimes slips back into this in modern comics, particularly some moments in ''ComicBook/SupermanGrounded'' where he refuses to do hero things just to make some kind of vaguely-defined point about non-interference, but it never gets as bad as that aforementioned story, at least in canon comics.
Deleted line(s) 22,23 (click to see context) :
* Spider-Man in the infamous ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' is supposed to be suffering from the upcoming death of his Aunt May, instead he's a selfish manchild who scoffs at a man showing him sympathy for saying "I know how you feel", [[spoiler:accepts a ''literal'' DealWithTheDevil by giving up his marriage and talks his wife into doing it]]. So, with great power comes... [[BrokenAesop no responsibility? Peter's deal was a better option than taking responsibility for his actions and growing up?]]
** Things become more complicated and worse when it is revealed Mary Jane egged him on and her reasons why.
** Things become more complicated and worse when it is revealed Mary Jane egged him on and her reasons why.
Deleted line(s) 25,28 (click to see context) :
* ComicBook/{{Fables}} gives us Jack (of beanstalk and giant-killing fame, but also ''every'' Jack in every fairy tale or nursery rhyme,) who tries to be a LovableRogue, but often comes across as having all the conscience of TheSociopath, just one who finds it easier and safer to con people rather than use violence. The discovery in his spin-off ''Jack of All Tales'' that he is half-Fable (ie a ''character'' in a story) and half-Literal (an AnthropomorphicPersonification of a trope, like Dex the DeusExMachina or the Pathetic Fallacy, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s) leads to the conclusion that he is the incarnation of the DesignatedHero.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', if not handled properly, can fall into this category.
** This is especially apparent in some of Creator/FrankMiller's later work. For example, in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', he outright kidnaps Robin, roughs up Alfred for ''daring'' to give the kid some food rather than forcing him to eat rats, gloats about his intellectual superiority to Superman, in general demonstrates little compunction for killing or abusing other heroes, and does barely any actual crimefighting.
** New 52/DC Rebirth Batman. From his extremely abusive treatment of both Jason Todd ''and'' Dick Grayson (including beating the crap out of both boys, the former to ''near death''), to neglecting Damian, to smacking Tim, this Bruce has become so abusive of his family that very few fans feel like rooting for him, with several even going on to outright disown him as Batman. The fact that the writers still insist on treating him like a hero and having said family forgive him for his actions with little to no secessions on his part did ''not'' help matters. There's a reason most 52 incarnations got nuked in the next multiverse shuffle/revamp.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', if not handled properly, can fall into this category.
** This is especially apparent in some of Creator/FrankMiller's later work. For example, in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', he outright kidnaps Robin, roughs up Alfred for ''daring'' to give the kid some food rather than forcing him to eat rats, gloats about his intellectual superiority to Superman, in general demonstrates little compunction for killing or abusing other heroes, and does barely any actual crimefighting.
** New 52/DC Rebirth Batman. From his extremely abusive treatment of both Jason Todd ''and'' Dick Grayson (including beating the crap out of both boys, the former to ''near death''), to neglecting Damian, to smacking Tim, this Bruce has become so abusive of his family that very few fans feel like rooting for him, with several even going on to outright disown him as Batman. The fact that the writers still insist on treating him like a hero and having said family forgive him for his actions with little to no secessions on his part did ''not'' help matters. There's a reason most 52 incarnations got nuked in the next multiverse shuffle/revamp.
Deleted line(s) 30,39 (click to see context) :
* ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'':
** Batman at many times came off as just as bad as Superman due to his {{Jerkass}} behaviour and incredibly stupid decisions, such as getting BadassNormal superheroes to try to fight Darkseid then getting upset when Superman decides to kill Parademons rather than allowing millions of people to die during their attack. Batman's unwillingness to help Superman when his friend was at his most vulnerable also directly contributed to Superman's descent down the slippery slope, as he had no one to turn to except a very violent Wonder Woman and Sinestro.
** Harley Quinn assists The Joker in nuking Metropolis and killing Lois Lane, then spends a great deal of the comic's initial run sexually harassing [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson, a child]] and threatening to kill his friends and family if he won't fight her. She receives no comeuppance for either of these things at any time and is considered to be a hero because she's not working for Superman. Even worse, she blames Metropolis's destruction on Superman [[NeverMyFault because he was supposed to stop them.]]
* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' came to be this in later issues, being treated as heroes despite doing horribly amoral things (Midnighter paving through a bunch of civilians to take out a villain or stopping an invasion from a parallel Earth by destroying a whole country, even though it is clear that the invaders are completely outmatched anyways). Under the pen of series creator Warren Ellis this was deliberate as his vision of the Authority was that they were [[EvilVersusEvil supervillains being used to take down worse supervillains]]. However when Mark Millar took over they were turned into his [[AuthorTract political mouthpieces]] and thus were always presented as being in the right, even when they committed terrible atrocities in the name of peace.
* The majority of the supporting characters in ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League: Rise of Arsenal]]'' besides Roy Harper come off as this:
** ComicBook/BlackCanary and Dick Grayson are supposed to be seen as trying to help Roy when his grief over losing an arm and losing his daughter Lian cause him to spiral back into drug addiction while also becoming a violent anti-hero. The problem is just that they do more damage than they fix. Black Canary spends most of the arc looking like she's made of ice, and ultimately decides to wash her hands of Roy, considering him a lost cause. Dick abandons Roy in a center for villains with substance abuse problems, and does nothing to argue with Canary over her condemnation of Roy. As a matter of fact, Canary's behavior is called out in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' when she's subjugated to MindRape by a villain forcing her to relive her past mistakes. An illusion of Roy specifically asks how she could let him become "this thing" he is now.
** [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]], [[ComicBook/TheFlash Wally West]], Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, and [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica Doctor Mid-Nite]] are equally unhelpful. Donna and Wally do nothing to help Roy, Doctor Mid-Nite is completely ignorant of how badly hurt Roy really is when he begins stealing pain medication and Mid-Nite never catches on, and Cyborg gives Roy a shoddy prosthetic arm that causes even more pain while making inappropriate jokes about the situation.
** Roy himself didn't endear himself to the readers either. It seems he is supposed to be a JerkassWoobie as he tries to come to terms with the death of his daughter Lian, the loss of his arm and a renewed addiction to drugs, but he's such a plain old {{Jerkass}} that the Woobie part is almost cancelled out. To their credit, all the above people do try to reach out to him and console him, but he throws their sympathy back into their faces [[KickTheDog along with some incredibly cruel, mean-spirited jabs]] while [[{{Wangst}} whining that none of them understand his pain]], even if they clearly do or at least want to (his comments on the deaths of Donna's husband and son are in especially poor taste). [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] has pointed out his behaviour, even when taken in context, still makes him UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.
*** Just about the one thing that does gain Roy some real sympathy points back is when, after being sequestered in St. Virgil's and forced to sweat out his addiction by himself, he admits to himself the others were ''right'' that he was going way over the edge and was going to try and endure the night. Unfortunately, by then he starts hallucinating a ghastly vision of Lian's corpse telling him he's horrible and he has to kill the Electrocutioner. On the flip side, while his friends tried what they ''thought'' was helping him, none of them ever realized how badly their attempts backfired, and what keeps them in this trope alongside Roy is none of them own up to how badly they failed. Later on, Dick Grayson still thinks [[NeverMyFault he did everything to help Roy instead of admitting he left his friend to rot]]. Really, the whole book is such a badly written cluster fuck of forced drama it's no wonder all the characters fell into this trope.
** The only character in this series who retains any genuine sense of sympathy from readers is Lian Harper, because of how horribly she was killed off and the fact that she ''was'' killed off to make this story happen. Her status as TheWoobie is only intensified when Roy uses her death as justification to go back to using drugs and to kill people, and later on when Cheshire uses her death to guilt trip Roy. That the only sympathetic character is one who's been dead for the entire story speaks volumes of how awful everyone else is.
** Batman at many times came off as just as bad as Superman due to his {{Jerkass}} behaviour and incredibly stupid decisions, such as getting BadassNormal superheroes to try to fight Darkseid then getting upset when Superman decides to kill Parademons rather than allowing millions of people to die during their attack. Batman's unwillingness to help Superman when his friend was at his most vulnerable also directly contributed to Superman's descent down the slippery slope, as he had no one to turn to except a very violent Wonder Woman and Sinestro.
** Harley Quinn assists The Joker in nuking Metropolis and killing Lois Lane, then spends a great deal of the comic's initial run sexually harassing [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson, a child]] and threatening to kill his friends and family if he won't fight her. She receives no comeuppance for either of these things at any time and is considered to be a hero because she's not working for Superman. Even worse, she blames Metropolis's destruction on Superman [[NeverMyFault because he was supposed to stop them.]]
* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' came to be this in later issues, being treated as heroes despite doing horribly amoral things (Midnighter paving through a bunch of civilians to take out a villain or stopping an invasion from a parallel Earth by destroying a whole country, even though it is clear that the invaders are completely outmatched anyways). Under the pen of series creator Warren Ellis this was deliberate as his vision of the Authority was that they were [[EvilVersusEvil supervillains being used to take down worse supervillains]]. However when Mark Millar took over they were turned into his [[AuthorTract political mouthpieces]] and thus were always presented as being in the right, even when they committed terrible atrocities in the name of peace.
* The majority of the supporting characters in ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League: Rise of Arsenal]]'' besides Roy Harper come off as this:
** ComicBook/BlackCanary and Dick Grayson are supposed to be seen as trying to help Roy when his grief over losing an arm and losing his daughter Lian cause him to spiral back into drug addiction while also becoming a violent anti-hero. The problem is just that they do more damage than they fix. Black Canary spends most of the arc looking like she's made of ice, and ultimately decides to wash her hands of Roy, considering him a lost cause. Dick abandons Roy in a center for villains with substance abuse problems, and does nothing to argue with Canary over her condemnation of Roy. As a matter of fact, Canary's behavior is called out in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' when she's subjugated to MindRape by a villain forcing her to relive her past mistakes. An illusion of Roy specifically asks how she could let him become "this thing" he is now.
** [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]], [[ComicBook/TheFlash Wally West]], Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, and [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica Doctor Mid-Nite]] are equally unhelpful. Donna and Wally do nothing to help Roy, Doctor Mid-Nite is completely ignorant of how badly hurt Roy really is when he begins stealing pain medication and Mid-Nite never catches on, and Cyborg gives Roy a shoddy prosthetic arm that causes even more pain while making inappropriate jokes about the situation.
** Roy himself didn't endear himself to the readers either. It seems he is supposed to be a JerkassWoobie as he tries to come to terms with the death of his daughter Lian, the loss of his arm and a renewed addiction to drugs, but he's such a plain old {{Jerkass}} that the Woobie part is almost cancelled out. To their credit, all the above people do try to reach out to him and console him, but he throws their sympathy back into their faces [[KickTheDog along with some incredibly cruel, mean-spirited jabs]] while [[{{Wangst}} whining that none of them understand his pain]], even if they clearly do or at least want to (his comments on the deaths of Donna's husband and son are in especially poor taste). [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] has pointed out his behaviour, even when taken in context, still makes him UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.
*** Just about the one thing that does gain Roy some real sympathy points back is when, after being sequestered in St. Virgil's and forced to sweat out his addiction by himself, he admits to himself the others were ''right'' that he was going way over the edge and was going to try and endure the night. Unfortunately, by then he starts hallucinating a ghastly vision of Lian's corpse telling him he's horrible and he has to kill the Electrocutioner. On the flip side, while his friends tried what they ''thought'' was helping him, none of them ever realized how badly their attempts backfired, and what keeps them in this trope alongside Roy is none of them own up to how badly they failed. Later on, Dick Grayson still thinks [[NeverMyFault he did everything to help Roy instead of admitting he left his friend to rot]]. Really, the whole book is such a badly written cluster fuck of forced drama it's no wonder all the characters fell into this trope.
** The only character in this series who retains any genuine sense of sympathy from readers is Lian Harper, because of how horribly she was killed off and the fact that she ''was'' killed off to make this story happen. Her status as TheWoobie is only intensified when Roy uses her death as justification to go back to using drugs and to kill people, and later on when Cheshire uses her death to guilt trip Roy. That the only sympathetic character is one who's been dead for the entire story speaks volumes of how awful everyone else is.
Deleted line(s) 43,57 (click to see context) :
* ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' intentionally invokes the trope as part of its satire of {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es, which were popular around the time it was written. The story displays an alternate universe where the anti-heroes have evolved into full-on designated heroes after Superman retires; they quickly kill all the villains, and then, bored, turn on each other. The end result is that we open InMediasRes of a world where the costumed neo-fascists, BombThrowingAnarchists, {{Torture Technician}}s, and {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s gun each other down in the streets for nothing more than amusement, all the while still having the gall to call themselves "heroes."
* ''ComicBook/TheNew52'':
** This iteration of ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|2011}} lectures people in danger for being weak instead of saving them (at first), and casually kills villains and is proud of it. ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'' would later turn most of this run into magically implanted and altered memories rather than things which actually occurred.
** From ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'':
*** Cassie Sandsmark in this reality is a thief who steals artefacts from museums and dig sites that her mother works at purely for fun. This is never presented as bad and just a fun thing. No, she doesn't donate them or the money she gets from them or anything, it is literally just for fun.
*** Bart Allen, real name Bar Torr, is... weird. He started a space revolution against an oppressive government but immediately regretted all of it the instant it got his sister killed, because that apparently nullifies the oppression and all, because someone ''he loved'' was killed during it, even though people were obviously dying during the violent revolution. He becomes an informant against the revolution he started and gets put into witness protection and has his memory altered (for some reason), and it's painted like some kind of redemption thing for him... then it's not, because somehow he faked all of it and it was all to get the space politicians in one place for his trial so he could murder them all, and he's clearly painted as a villain for this -- meaning the previous characterisation probably ''was'' meant to be the "heroic" version -- and then... it doesn't work, his sister tells him their parents sucked for not listening to the space government, and he's painted as a tragic character now. There is a good reason some readers thought he was meant to be a new version of Inertia, the villainous version of Bart Allen (a flashback has him in an Inertia-looking outfit too).
*** Solstice was a generally heroic character... until she ''murdered a judge''. She does this so she can be incarcerated with her lover Bar Torr, but it's played as a sad ending for her and the characters sympathise and say it's wrong she's incarcerated. As opposed to, say, exactly what she deserves for, again, ''murdering a judge''.
*** That same story has Tim Drake also come off this way, because Tim is completely on board with the space government capturing Bar Torr for his crimes. However, once they decide to imprison him for life after the whole attempted murder of political enemies thing, Tim decides "fuck that, we must free Bar!" Apparently justice is only worth upholding if you think your friend won't be punished for what he did.
*** Bunker got this big time in Will Pfeifer's run. He saves a bunch of people from an incident, and one of the guys says that, of all the heroes, they're saved by the two that look like... we'll never know what he was going to say, because Bunker ''slams the dude into a brick wall'' assuming he'd say something homophobic (Bunker himself is also gay), when the guy hadn't even gotten the first letter of what he was going to say out. We were obviously supposed to side with Bunker as he dressed down this guy afterwards, but people ended up siding with ''the guy'' since he was being brutalised for being ''ungrateful''. Yeah, not exactly heroic behaviour right there.
* ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'' gives us [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]], following in the footsteps of Iron Man in the first ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' and who went a little crazy with her methods while using a Inhuman precog, Ulysses, to combat crimes. [[spoiler: She went around trying to arrest her allies and others for things that haven't happened yet, and ignored people when they tried to tell her that the precog wasn't really seeing the future, at least not with 100% accuracy. Having indirectly caused the deaths of War Machine and Bruce Banner, she grew more stubborn in her beliefs and went on to imprison an innocent woman, tried to arrest Miles for a crime he may not commit, and put Iron Man in coma when he opposed her]]. This was explained in ''ComicBook/Ultimates2015'' partly as having her GoMadFromTheRevelation of the Marvel Universe's floating timeline thanks to Galactus showing her. [[BaseBreakingCharacter While some fans still love the character, others are unsure that she should be the female face of Marvel.]]
** Several years on, thanks to a [[Film/CaptainMarvel successful film]] and appearance in [[Film/AvengersEndgame another]], a number of negative consequences for Carol and a fair amount of self-hatred on her part, plus a general desire by Marvel to forget that ''Civil War II'' ever happened (unlike the first ''Civil War'', which had extended consequences right up to and after ''{{ComicBook/Siege}}''), which was helped by how it was a forgettable event to begin with, and Ulysses himself hasn't been seen since - means that it's simmered down to the occasional mention.
* ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'' has the Inhumans, who are trying to stop the X-Men from essentially saving their people from being gassed by their Terrigen Mists, all so they can continue using those self-same mists to forcibly convert people with Inhuman ancestry into new Inhumans. Needless to say, having people die for their own benefit isn't heroic. And it only gets worse when supplemented by ''ComicBook/DeathOfX'' and the tie-in volumes of ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} and the Mercs For Money'', both of which prove that to the Inhumans, the Terrigen Clouds are so sacred that they ''outweigh mutant lives'' in their eyes. It gets so bad that, when Kamala Khan and other Nuhumans get involved and they find out what's going on, all she can sputter out is "You guys, who are the ''good guys''?" Which by itself is troubling enough because it seems to imply that there is some level of moral ambiguity in the situation, instead of mutants fighting back against genocide (something summed up when Magneto - a ''Holocaust survivor'' - roared, "I will not allow my people to be ''gassed again''!").
** In the ''Death of X'', it's revealed that Black Bolt executed Cyclops for the hideous crime of... altering a Terrigen Cloud to still function as it should whilst no longer being lethal to mutants. Although ''Inhumans vs. X-Men'' tried to retcon that this caused the Cloud to destabilize and fall apart, that wasn't presented as being the case in ''Death of X'', and it still presents Black Bolt in a terrible light, since he ''still'' executed someone.
** In ''Deadpool and the Mercs for Money'', meanwhile, the characters visit an AlternateUniverse where the X-Men had one of their {{Reality Warper}}s successfully transmute the Terrigen Clouds to be harmless to mutants ''and'' still function to power-up Inhumans. The result? The war between the two races got '''worse''', as the Inhumans were outraged that the Terrigen Mists were no longer 100% the same chemical makeup as they had always been.
** This is even more obvious when one looks at the prior history of the Inhumans, which made it clear that they were largely {{Anti Hero}}es at best; the noble class of an intensely stratified and isolated monarchy with all the problems that comes with it, including archaic rituals, intense xenophobia, imperialistic ventures, and even slave labor at points. Trying to switch them to being straightforward protagonists was really never going to work.
* ''ComicBook/TheNew52'':
** This iteration of ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|2011}} lectures people in danger for being weak instead of saving them (at first), and casually kills villains and is proud of it. ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'' would later turn most of this run into magically implanted and altered memories rather than things which actually occurred.
** From ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'':
*** Cassie Sandsmark in this reality is a thief who steals artefacts from museums and dig sites that her mother works at purely for fun. This is never presented as bad and just a fun thing. No, she doesn't donate them or the money she gets from them or anything, it is literally just for fun.
*** Bart Allen, real name Bar Torr, is... weird. He started a space revolution against an oppressive government but immediately regretted all of it the instant it got his sister killed, because that apparently nullifies the oppression and all, because someone ''he loved'' was killed during it, even though people were obviously dying during the violent revolution. He becomes an informant against the revolution he started and gets put into witness protection and has his memory altered (for some reason), and it's painted like some kind of redemption thing for him... then it's not, because somehow he faked all of it and it was all to get the space politicians in one place for his trial so he could murder them all, and he's clearly painted as a villain for this -- meaning the previous characterisation probably ''was'' meant to be the "heroic" version -- and then... it doesn't work, his sister tells him their parents sucked for not listening to the space government, and he's painted as a tragic character now. There is a good reason some readers thought he was meant to be a new version of Inertia, the villainous version of Bart Allen (a flashback has him in an Inertia-looking outfit too).
*** Solstice was a generally heroic character... until she ''murdered a judge''. She does this so she can be incarcerated with her lover Bar Torr, but it's played as a sad ending for her and the characters sympathise and say it's wrong she's incarcerated. As opposed to, say, exactly what she deserves for, again, ''murdering a judge''.
*** That same story has Tim Drake also come off this way, because Tim is completely on board with the space government capturing Bar Torr for his crimes. However, once they decide to imprison him for life after the whole attempted murder of political enemies thing, Tim decides "fuck that, we must free Bar!" Apparently justice is only worth upholding if you think your friend won't be punished for what he did.
*** Bunker got this big time in Will Pfeifer's run. He saves a bunch of people from an incident, and one of the guys says that, of all the heroes, they're saved by the two that look like... we'll never know what he was going to say, because Bunker ''slams the dude into a brick wall'' assuming he'd say something homophobic (Bunker himself is also gay), when the guy hadn't even gotten the first letter of what he was going to say out. We were obviously supposed to side with Bunker as he dressed down this guy afterwards, but people ended up siding with ''the guy'' since he was being brutalised for being ''ungrateful''. Yeah, not exactly heroic behaviour right there.
* ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'' gives us [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]], following in the footsteps of Iron Man in the first ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' and who went a little crazy with her methods while using a Inhuman precog, Ulysses, to combat crimes. [[spoiler: She went around trying to arrest her allies and others for things that haven't happened yet, and ignored people when they tried to tell her that the precog wasn't really seeing the future, at least not with 100% accuracy. Having indirectly caused the deaths of War Machine and Bruce Banner, she grew more stubborn in her beliefs and went on to imprison an innocent woman, tried to arrest Miles for a crime he may not commit, and put Iron Man in coma when he opposed her]]. This was explained in ''ComicBook/Ultimates2015'' partly as having her GoMadFromTheRevelation of the Marvel Universe's floating timeline thanks to Galactus showing her. [[BaseBreakingCharacter While some fans still love the character, others are unsure that she should be the female face of Marvel.]]
** Several years on, thanks to a [[Film/CaptainMarvel successful film]] and appearance in [[Film/AvengersEndgame another]], a number of negative consequences for Carol and a fair amount of self-hatred on her part, plus a general desire by Marvel to forget that ''Civil War II'' ever happened (unlike the first ''Civil War'', which had extended consequences right up to and after ''{{ComicBook/Siege}}''), which was helped by how it was a forgettable event to begin with, and Ulysses himself hasn't been seen since - means that it's simmered down to the occasional mention.
* ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'' has the Inhumans, who are trying to stop the X-Men from essentially saving their people from being gassed by their Terrigen Mists, all so they can continue using those self-same mists to forcibly convert people with Inhuman ancestry into new Inhumans. Needless to say, having people die for their own benefit isn't heroic. And it only gets worse when supplemented by ''ComicBook/DeathOfX'' and the tie-in volumes of ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} and the Mercs For Money'', both of which prove that to the Inhumans, the Terrigen Clouds are so sacred that they ''outweigh mutant lives'' in their eyes. It gets so bad that, when Kamala Khan and other Nuhumans get involved and they find out what's going on, all she can sputter out is "You guys, who are the ''good guys''?" Which by itself is troubling enough because it seems to imply that there is some level of moral ambiguity in the situation, instead of mutants fighting back against genocide (something summed up when Magneto - a ''Holocaust survivor'' - roared, "I will not allow my people to be ''gassed again''!").
** In the ''Death of X'', it's revealed that Black Bolt executed Cyclops for the hideous crime of... altering a Terrigen Cloud to still function as it should whilst no longer being lethal to mutants. Although ''Inhumans vs. X-Men'' tried to retcon that this caused the Cloud to destabilize and fall apart, that wasn't presented as being the case in ''Death of X'', and it still presents Black Bolt in a terrible light, since he ''still'' executed someone.
** In ''Deadpool and the Mercs for Money'', meanwhile, the characters visit an AlternateUniverse where the X-Men had one of their {{Reality Warper}}s successfully transmute the Terrigen Clouds to be harmless to mutants ''and'' still function to power-up Inhumans. The result? The war between the two races got '''worse''', as the Inhumans were outraged that the Terrigen Mists were no longer 100% the same chemical makeup as they had always been.
** This is even more obvious when one looks at the prior history of the Inhumans, which made it clear that they were largely {{Anti Hero}}es at best; the noble class of an intensely stratified and isolated monarchy with all the problems that comes with it, including archaic rituals, intense xenophobia, imperialistic ventures, and even slave labor at points. Trying to switch them to being straightforward protagonists was really never going to work.
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* In their latest incarnation, the ComicBook/{{Runaways}} seem to be hitting this trope, as their efforts to reunite the team wreak havoc on the lives of the individual members, with Victor being resurrected against his will, Karolina getting dumped by her girlfriend, and Molly becoming estranged from her grandmother (who is, to be fair, a MadScientist, but was still genuinely devoted to providing a good home for her granddaughter.) This is perhaps most pronounced in issue #11, where the Runaways barge in on Klara, who's been HappilyAdopted, and try to pressure her into returning, even going so far as to baselessly accuse her adoptive dads of being supervillains.
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* ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'' does this with Harley Quinn. She breaks into Sanctuary, the superhero therapy centre, to hang out with Poison Ivy when Ivy was there for therapy. Everyone there except Harley and Booster Gold is murdered, and each thinks the other is the murderer. Booster wants to find out what really happened, while Harley... wants to murder Booster Gold. Batgirl tries to keep her in check and help her find the real murderer, but Harley still constantly brings up wanting to murder him and does actually attempt it. She is never presented as a villain throughout the story, just as a misunderstood hero out to avenge someone she cares about.
* Some readers feel the X-Men as a whole have hit this point during ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen''. To wit, after years of being the punching bag of... everyone, mutants have founded their own country known as Krakoa. This country quickly becomes a destabilising presence in the world, as its miracle drugs (which have effects including curing incurable diseases and extending lifespans) have a huge impact on global politics and the economy, but are only given to those who ally with Krakoa, which means recognising it as a country and allowing mutants to leave to join it no matter their previous crimes -- Krakoa bills itself as a "fresh start", so no crime prior to a mutant joining "counts", meaning mass murderers like Sabretooth and Apocalypse are given free passes. Anyone who attempts to arrest or detain a mutant who ''is'' aligned with Krakoa -- even heroes like the Fantastic Four -- are rebuked and basically told "this is a mutant problem, fuck off" and the mutants will deal with the criminal themselves, without revealing the world ''how'' they dealt with it, which does not build trust at all. They also do not allow any humans to visit without supervision. Finally, what laws they do have that seem good, such as the rule against killing any human, have been broken ''a lot'', to the point that most of the high-ranking X-Men ''know'' it's just for show and won't be followed when push comes to shove. The books ''do'' paint the X-Men as somewhat morally grey now, but for some readers, it's not often enough given the things they're doing.
* Some readers feel the X-Men as a whole have hit this point during ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen''. To wit, after years of being the punching bag of... everyone, mutants have founded their own country known as Krakoa. This country quickly becomes a destabilising presence in the world, as its miracle drugs (which have effects including curing incurable diseases and extending lifespans) have a huge impact on global politics and the economy, but are only given to those who ally with Krakoa, which means recognising it as a country and allowing mutants to leave to join it no matter their previous crimes -- Krakoa bills itself as a "fresh start", so no crime prior to a mutant joining "counts", meaning mass murderers like Sabretooth and Apocalypse are given free passes. Anyone who attempts to arrest or detain a mutant who ''is'' aligned with Krakoa -- even heroes like the Fantastic Four -- are rebuked and basically told "this is a mutant problem, fuck off" and the mutants will deal with the criminal themselves, without revealing the world ''how'' they dealt with it, which does not build trust at all. They also do not allow any humans to visit without supervision. Finally, what laws they do have that seem good, such as the rule against killing any human, have been broken ''a lot'', to the point that most of the high-ranking X-Men ''know'' it's just for show and won't be followed when push comes to shove. The books ''do'' paint the X-Men as somewhat morally grey now, but for some readers, it's not often enough given the things they're doing.
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!!The following have their own pages:
[[index]]
* DesignatedHero/TheDCU
* DesignatedHero/MarvelUniverse
[[/index]]
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[[index]]
* DesignatedHero/TheDCU
* DesignatedHero/MarvelUniverse
[[/index]]
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** Harley Quinn assists The Joker in nuking Metropolis and killing Lois Lane, then spends a great deal of the comic's initial run sexually harassing [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson, a child]] and threatening to kill his friends and family if he won't fight her. She receives no comeuppance for either of these things at any time and is considered to be a hero because she's not working for Superman.
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** Harley Quinn assists The Joker in nuking Metropolis and killing Lois Lane, then spends a great deal of the comic's initial run sexually harassing [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson, a child]] and threatening to kill his friends and family if he won't fight her. She receives no comeuppance for either of these things at any time and is considered to be a hero because she's not working for Superman. Even worse, she blames Metropolis's destruction on Superman [[NeverMyFault because he was supposed to stop them.]]
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* ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'':
** Batman at many times came off as just as bad as Superman due to his {{Jerkass}} behaviour and incredibly stupid decisions, such as getting BadassNormal superheroes to try to fight Darkseid then getting upset when Superman decides to kill Parademons rather than allowing millions of people to die during their attack. Batman's unwillingness to help Superman when his friend was at his most vulnerable also directly contributed to Superman's descent down the slippery slope, as he had no one to turn to except a very violent Wonder Woman and Sinestro.
** Harley Quinn assists The Joker in nuking Metropolis and killing Lois Lane, then spends a great deal of the comic's initial run sexually harassing [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson, a child]] and threatening to kill his friends and family if he won't fight her. She receives no comeuppance for either of these things at any time and is considered to be a hero because she's not working for Superman.
** Batman at many times came off as just as bad as Superman due to his {{Jerkass}} behaviour and incredibly stupid decisions, such as getting BadassNormal superheroes to try to fight Darkseid then getting upset when Superman decides to kill Parademons rather than allowing millions of people to die during their attack. Batman's unwillingness to help Superman when his friend was at his most vulnerable also directly contributed to Superman's descent down the slippery slope, as he had no one to turn to except a very violent Wonder Woman and Sinestro.
** Harley Quinn assists The Joker in nuking Metropolis and killing Lois Lane, then spends a great deal of the comic's initial run sexually harassing [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson, a child]] and threatening to kill his friends and family if he won't fight her. She receives no comeuppance for either of these things at any time and is considered to be a hero because she's not working for Superman.
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** New 52/DC Rebirth Batman. From his extremely abusive treatment of both Jason Todd ''and'' Dick Grayson (including beating the crap out of both boys, the former to ''near death''), to neglecting Damian, to smacking Tim, this Bruce has become so abusive of his family that very few fans feel like rooting for him, with several even going on to outright disown him as Batman. The fact that the writers still insist on treating him like a hero and having said family forgive him for his actions with little to no secessions on his part is ''not'' helping matters.
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** New 52/DC Rebirth Batman. From his extremely abusive treatment of both Jason Todd ''and'' Dick Grayson (including beating the crap out of both boys, the former to ''near death''), to neglecting Damian, to smacking Tim, this Bruce has become so abusive of his family that very few fans feel like rooting for him, with several even going on to outright disown him as Batman. The fact that the writers still insist on treating him like a hero and having said family forgive him for his actions with little to no secessions on his part is did ''not'' helping help matters. There's a reason most 52 incarnations got nuked in the next multiverse shuffle/revamp.
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* In Creator/GoldKeyComics Star Trek story ''[[http://www.comics101.com/comics101/?mode=project&action=view&project=Comics+101&chapter=105 The Planet of no Return]]'', aka ''K-G, Planet of Death'', Kirk and co. discover a planet with a plant civilization, in an otherwise uninhabited ''galaxy''. Unsurprisingly, the plants view the landing party as prey. To prevent this civilization, which was just sitting there minding its own business, spreading to neighboring ''uninhabited planets'', Spock performs an act of planet-wide genocide. We even get to see the Enterprise phasering [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman sentient trees]] who burn as they run for their lives across a devastated landscape.
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* In Creator/GoldKeyComics Star Trek story ''[[http://www.comics101.com/comics101/?mode=project&action=view&project=Comics+101&chapter=105 blastoffcomics.com/2013/01/the-nation-of-vegatation-the-gold-key-star-treks/ The Planet of no No Return]]'', aka ''K-G, Planet of Death'', Kirk and co. discover a planet with a plant civilization, in an otherwise uninhabited ''galaxy''. Unsurprisingly, the plants view the landing party as prey. To prevent this civilization, which was just sitting there minding its own business, spreading to neighboring ''uninhabited planets'', Spock performs an act of planet-wide genocide. We even get to see the Enterprise phasering [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman sentient trees]] who burn as they run for their lives across a devastated landscape.
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** New 52/DC Rebirth Batman. From his extremely abusive treatment of both Jason Todd ''and'' Dick Grayson (including beating the crap out of both boys, the former to ''near death''), to neglecting Damian, to smacking Tim, this Bruce has become so abusive of his family that very few fans feel like rooting for him, with several even going on to outright disown him as Batman. The fact that the writers still insist on treating him like a hero and having said family forgive him for his actions with little to no seccessions on his part is ''not'' helping matters.
to:
** New 52/DC Rebirth Batman. From his extremely abusive treatment of both Jason Todd ''and'' Dick Grayson (including beating the crap out of both boys, the former to ''near death''), to neglecting Damian, to smacking Tim, this Bruce has become so abusive of his family that very few fans feel like rooting for him, with several even going on to outright disown him as Batman. The fact that the writers still insist on treating him like a hero and having said family forgive him for his actions with little to no seccessions secessions on his part is ''not'' helping matters.
