History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / TheDCU

** In his first few appearances, The Jay Garrick Flash had no secret i.d. He was called by friends and co-workers as Jay even when in costume.

** Originally ComicBook/DoctorFate's magic wasn't based on Order, as it's most frequently been post-Crisis; it was merely general spiritual power. This extended to his archenemy Mordru, whose powers weren't based in chaos and who wasn't immortal. During his first meeting with the JSA, Fate also claimed that he had no childhood and was actually an ArtificialHuman created by the Elder Gods. His origin story, told the following year, would completely contradict this plot point by showing that Kent Nelson was indeed a naturally-born human prior to encountering Nabu.

* The [[Characters/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaCrimeSyndicate Crime Syndicate]] are well-known for being evil versions of the Justice League from a world where morality is reversed, but their original depiction in the Silver Age wasn't a completely straight MirrorUniverse counterpart to the League, with their home universe Earth-3 merely being a world where they're the only existing super-powered beings in addition to being evil as well as certain major historical events being reversed (such as Britain fighting the Revolutionary War to gain independence from America, or President John Wilkes Booth being assassinated by Abraham Lincoln). No heroic equivalents to the standard DC Universe's villains were confirmed to exist until the first Annual of ''DC Comics Presents'', where Earth-3's counterpart to Lex Luthor showed up to help the Earth-One and Earth-Two Supermen defeat their respective Luthors as well as Ultraman, having been encouraged by the two Supermen to finally stand up to Ultraman's villainy. Nearly every interpretation of the Crime Syndicate's universe since would make it clear that the universe is inhabited by villainous counterparts to the standard universe's heroes and, conversely, heroic counterparts to the regular reality's villains.

** ComicBook/{{Hourman}}'s SuperSerum used to be completely beneficial and harmless, in stark contrast to how it would later be portrayed (addictive and dangerous, with Hourman taking years to overcome it and create a non-harmful version).

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational'': The earlier issues are much more straightforward superhero stories, with just a bit more comic relief moments than comparable superteams. The amount of comedic moments gradually grows, and when they become Justice League International in #7, they already have entire issues dedicated to {{Sitcom}} plots. Also, the first year of the comic sees them ditching characters like Doctor Fate, Captain Marvel, and Black Canary, and acquiring the signature characters of the period, like Booster Gold, Rocket Red, Fire, and Ice.

* In ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s original Golden Age adventures, he was a normal human whose powers came from ancient Atlantean techniques taught to him by his father, a famous ocean explorer. Aquaman's base of operations was a sunken boat, {{Atlantis}} was a dead kingdom rather than a thriving undersea metropolis, and he actually talked to sea creatures in their own "languages" instead of using telepathy. Additionally, Aquaman had no civilian name, and none of his supporting characters like Aqualad, ComicBook/{{Mera}}, or even his most famous villains, Black Manta and Ocean Master, appeared until many years later. Aquaman was also a more violent character in his early appearances, killing Nazi villains with little issue. The differences were pronounced enough that, in 2022, DC [[DecompositeCharacter officially declared that the Golden Age Aquaman was actually a separate character from Arthur Curry]] in the ''New Golden Age'' one-shot.

* In ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s original Golden Age adventures, he was a normal human whose powers came from ancient Atlantean techniques taught to him by his father, a famous ocean explorer. Aquaman's base of operations was a sunken boat, {{Atlantis}} was a dead kingdom rather than a thriving undersea metropolis, and he actually talked to sea creatures in their own "languages" instead of using telepathy. Additionally, Aquaman had no civilian name, and none of his supporting characters like Aqualad, ComicBook/{{Mera}}, or even his most famous villains, ComicBook/BlackManta and Ocean Master, appeared until many years later. Aquaman was also a more violent character in his early appearances, killing Nazi villains with little issue. The differences were pronounced enough that, in 2022, DC [[DecompositeCharacter officially declared that the Golden Age Aquaman was actually a separate character from Arthur Curry]] in the ''New Golden Age'' one-shot.

** The original 1960s series made it clear several times that Cliff could die if his head was removed from his body, when later comics would establish that Cliff can [[LosingYourHead survive decapitation]] and will be okay as long as his head can be attached to a new body afterwards.

!!Franchise/TheDCU
!!!The following have their own pages:

** The original 1960s series made it clear several times that Cliff could die if his head was removed from his body, when later comics would establish that Cliff can survive decapitation and will be okay as long as his head can be attached to a new body afterwards.

** In issue #25, Lilith Clay's first appearance, some perplexing dialogue (such as an announcer referring to her as "The enigma of the East" and Speedy calling her "A dish of sukiyaki!") would seem to suggest she's of Asian descent or possibly mixed race, something that was never followed up on.

** ComicBook/{{Stargirl}} In the early days she was much meaner and disrespectful. She did not have the name "Stargirl" until over four years after her creation, and she did not have the cosmic staff until over two years after her creation. In her first few chronological appearences her only power was super strength, and she was a melee fighter.

** The first ComicBook/BlackCanary didn't gain her famous sonic scream power until 1969. She also started out as a villain, in that she was a thief who stole from other thieves. The first Black Canary was originally a supporting character of Johnny Thunder but she ended up becoming a BreakoutVillain who surpassed the actual protagonist of her comic. By the time she became the lead of her own comics, her original love interest Johnny Thunder had been replaced with her definite love interest (and the father of the post-Crisis Black Canary) Larry Lance.

* In ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s original Golden Age adventures, he was a normal human whose powers came from ancient Atlantean techniques taught to him by his father, a famous ocean explorer. Aquaman's base of operations was a sunken boat, {{Atlantis}} was a dead kingdom rather than a thriving undersea metropolis, and he actually talked to sea creatures in their own "languages" instead of using telepathy. Additionally, Aquaman had no civilian name, and none of his supporting characters like Aqualad, ComicBook/{{Mera}}, or even his most famous villains, ComicBook/BlackManta and Ocean Master, appeared until many years later. Aquaman was also a more violent character in his early appearances, killing Nazi villains with little issue.

* ComicBook/GreenArrow originally had a different costume, brown hair, and no goatee. He also had a more boring personality, lacking the inclination towards social justice that would define the character starting in UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks. Additionally, like many Golden Age heroes, he had no qualms about killing bad guys.
* The modern version of ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} debuted in the series ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', with a different look than what she'd sport in her ongoing series and ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' appearances. Kate was first depicted as having long auburn-red hair, was more into dresses for her fashion sense, and had brown eyes. When her series came around, her skin was dramatically lightened to be a "vampire porcelain white" (to better reflect a redhead's complexion), she was depicted as dressing more punkish, her hair became short and a highly saturated shade of red, and her [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead eyes were changed to green]]. She was also portrayed as a closeted LipstickLesbian, in contrast to her depiction in ''Detective'', where she sports a more masculine dress style and is open about her sexuality.

* Franchise/WonderWoman:
** In Wondy's first appearance in ''[[ComicBook/AllStarComicsNumberEight Wonder Woman Arrives in Man's World]]'' the introductory blurb about her powers is, ''As lovely as Aphrodite, as wise as Athena, with the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules''; all later iterations of this blurb will end with ''faster than Mercury and stronger than Hercules''.
** She didn't have her iconic Lasso of Truth for her first few appearances, and was only given it by her mother in the sixth issue of ''ComicBook/SensationComics''. Also, it was simply known as the "Magic Lasso" in the early days, and compelled captives to obey Wonder Woman's every command by imposing her will on them. The idea that its primary function was to force people to tell the truth originated in ''Series/WonderWoman1975'', and didn't [[RetCanon make its way into the comics]] until Creator/GeorgePerez rebooted Wonder Woman's origin after ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' for ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987''.
** Likewise, Wonder Woman couldn't originally fly, which explains why she needed the Invisible Jet in the first place. And it wasn't the Invisible Jet at first, either, but simply the Robot Plane (with standard-for-the-time propeller propulsion, which somehow worked in space).
** The Golden Age Wonder Woman stories come off as rather kinky nowadays, with a ''lot'' of gratuitous BoundAndGagged scenes, even by the standards of the era. Also, Wonder Woman's major weakness was that she would lose her powers if her bracelets were ever welded together by a man, a problem she obviously no longer has.
** The Amazons were all white in the Golden Age stories and for much of the comic's history. It was George Perez who decided to give Paradise Island a racially diverse population, as he felt there were some UnfortunateImplications behind having an all-female utopia consist solely of white women.
** There was a greater focus on psychosexual and gender themes in the Golden Age stories. In addition to the ubiquity of the aforementioned bondage themes, Wonder Woman had several villains who were female crossdressers, like Doctor Poison and Blue Snowman.
** Wonder Woman had a lot of rather silly [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Golden and Silver Age]] villains who are pretty much never used any more, such as Mouse Man.
** It helps that the original creator was heavily into bondage, and [[AuthorAppeal worked it into his stories]] whenever he got the chance. Later writers didn't share the fetish and so it was toned down heavily even before the Comics Code.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** Superman was originally a FlyingBrick who couldn't fly, only jump (hence, "able to leap tall buildings {{in a single bound}}") and run (hence, "faster than a speeding bullet"). Thanks to SerialEscalation[[note]] and [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Fleischer Studios]], as it was easier and cheaper to [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons animate a man in flight]] than a man continually jumping[[/note]], though, he could already fly higher and faster than most airplanes well before America got into World War II. His invulnerability level changed too, since his first origin story said that only "an exploding shell" could hurt him, while these eventually became ineffective as well, necessitating the invention of {{kryptonite|Factor}}. He also lacked many of his current powers, sported a different (and often inconsistently illustrated) costume, [[ThouShaltNotKill killed bad guys]], and was something of a rebel. But especially weird, given his current international sensibilities, is when we're told that "Superman says 'You Can Slap a Jap'" as seen on many World War II-era covers.
** In part this is because Superman, Batman, and some of the others listed here were introduced before the genre was codified as they ''were'' the codifiers of many of its tropes. Their early adventures were the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness of the entire genre. Another major reason is UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, which was later introduced: For a significant length of time, comics simply ''couldn't'' have their main characters kill people, so writers gave them TechnicalPacifist leanings (and made them more like TheCape in general) as a way of satisfying MoralGuardians. These characterizations were used long enough to stick after the Comics Code fell.
** Superman wasn't always the lawful, pacifist hero he is known as today. In fact, he arguably caused more harm than good in his earlier comics, [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20069_5-classic-superman-comics-that-prove-he-used-to-be-dick.html since he was actually kind of nuts]]. Examples are deliberately trapping a party of rich people in a mine to demonstrate the mine's safety problems, and drugging a football player and taking his place on the team, so that an opposing coach, who is guilty of cheating, won't win. He also once tackled teenage delinquency by demolishing their slummy neighborhood, making sure that the residents had evacuated with their possessions, upon learning that the government would be obligated to rebuild the neighborhood.
** Clark Kent and ComicBook/LoisLane didn't originally work for the ''Daily Planet'' in the fictional Metropolis. Instead, they worked for a newspaper company whose exact name was often ambiguous, at one point even being the ''Evening News'' in Cleveland. Usually, though, when it was named it was called the ''Daily Star'', before switching to the ''Planet'' more or less for good in 1940.
*** Initially, it was said that Superman's fantastic abilities were inherent to all indigenous Kryptonians.[[note]]One of the first stories, if not the first, to explore the exact events that led to Superman/Kal-El being sent to Earth, had Kryptonians dismissing Earthlings as being 'hundreds of generations behind them' and that 'they didn't even possess X-ray vision!'[[/note]] Subsequent re-tellings would establish that this was not the case, with Superman's powers instead being explained as the product of Earth's yellow sun and weaker gravity.
** For the first 10 years Superman was published, neither he or anyone else knew that he was an alien from the doomed planet Krypton. His origin was never questioned in-universe. Since then, it's become a very important part of his self-image and the way he's seen by others on Earth.
** In his earliest appearances, ComicBook/LexLuthor was a war profiteer whose [[MadScientist scientific genius was considered "mad"]] [[MadScientist specifically because he used it to invent horrific weaponry to sell to the highest bidder]]. Later, this war profiteer motivation was {{flanderiz|ation}}ed to the standard MadScientist who uses his skills to commit crimes. It wasn't until the Iron Age that Lex Luthor became a CorruptCorporateExecutive who moonlights as a supervillain (in some ways a modernization of his Golden Age war profiteer characterization). During the Silver Age, his motivation for battling Superman was also a lot less complex and more petty, essentially amounting to "I'm bald because of you! SCREW YOU!". [[note]]This origin was from the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]], where Lex and Superboy were friends. In gratitude for setting up a lab, Lex discovered a cure for Kryptonite and created an artificial lifeform, but Clark (Superboy) set off a fire because he wanted to punish Lex for treading in God's domain. Without realizing Lex was trapped inside, Clark used his super breath to blow out the fire, causing chemical fumes that made Lex bald, killed the lifeform, and drove him insane.[[/note]] And that was a Silver Age retcon; before that, his Silver Age relationship with Superman boiled down to a simple villain-who-gets-foiled-by-the-hero dynamic.
** Even Lex's modern incarnation presented Early Installment Weirdnesses. Originally, Lex had little interest in keeping his clean view in the public eye; in fact, he wanted everyone to know how rotten he was, as him eluding arrest had little to do with him being a VillainWithGoodPublicity, and more with the fact he basically owned Metropolis, and could force authorities to turn a blind eye to his illegal activities. Oh, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he still had hair.]]
** Likewise, in his early appearances, ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} was just an alien scientist who collected cities in bottles. It wasn't for six years that it was established that he was a super-computer, a characterization that has stuck ever since. It wasn't some time after that that we saw ''full use'' of the fact that he was an AI. At first, he and Lex (in his own original mad scientist persona) were basically the same character, and they teamed up a lot. When the makers of an educational computer/toy by the same name complained, he was retconned into being a computer, with an ad for the aforementioned computers thrown in. It was a ''long'' road to the current understanding of him as an AI spread over multiple bodies and computer systems, Skynet to the DCU.
** ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': When Kara Zor-El was brought back in 2004, the first years of [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 her book]] were plagued with weirdness due to editorial carelessness and a poor understanding of the character: Kara was turned into a mood-swinger angst-filled and jerkass Anti-Hero, her personality changed every story, her backstory was constantly retconned and she displayed a ridiculous power of sprouting crystals from her body. After issue #20, she was given a heroic, likable personality and a definite backstory, and the early characterization and weird powers were retconned out and ignored.
* Franchise/{{Batman}}:
** Batman was perfectly willing to kill in his earliest appearances, as seen in his very first story, where he punches the villain into a vat of HollywoodAcid, and shows no remorse for it. To be fair, it's not like Batman ''deliberately aimed'' to send him into the acid (a safety rail broke- [[NoOSHACompliance this is why you build to OSHA standards, kids]]), but he sure didn't have any problem with what happened, declaring it a 'fitting end for his kind.'
** In ''Detective Comics'' #32, Batman fashions a pair of silver bullets, draws a pistol, and shoots two dormant vampires, and #35 shows a title page image of him wielding a gun. While [[BrieferThanTheyThink these are the only instances of him using a gun in the era,]] it's still rather bizarre in light of how the fact that Batman DoesntLikeGuns is now a defining part of who he is.
** Readers weren't told about the death of Bruce Wayne's parents for the first six months of the character's adventures. These early adventures took place in New York City rather than the fictional Gotham. Also, he had purple gloves. And the Batmobile was originally a bright red sedan rather than a black car with a bat motif. In general, he was a lot less like Batman and a lot more like Radio/TheShadow (a few comics scholars have even suggested outright plagiarism), and didn't really become recognizably Batman in personality and operating methods until he got his own solo series.
** Bruce Wayne originally had no servants in his home, unable to trust anyone with his secret identity (except Robin, once he showed up). When Alfred was introduced (four years after Batman's debut in ''Detective'') he was a bumbling comic relief character who looked and acted almost completely different from the man we know.
** ''A lot'' of Batman's RoguesGallery were completely different in their initial appearances:
*** ComicBook/TheJoker originally had NoSenseOfHumor (his name was instead more of a reference to his status as a WildCard). His Silver Age self was closer to his typical depiction but was simply an [[AffablyEvil affable]], [[LaughablyEvil legitimately funny]] thief who liked to make people laugh and viewed Batman as a WorthyOpponent; a far cry from the creepy, murderous psychopath he would become famous as being. He would even sometimes team up with the heroes to take down worse villains, such as a memorable issue where circumstances forced him and Superman to work together in order to save Perry White. His clown-like complexion also used to be actual makeup, which he removed to pose as a cop (a scene that was referenced in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''). Later issues would reveal that his complexion was a deformity from falling into a vat of chemicals. Post-''ComicBook/DarkseidWar'', the earlier depictions of the Joker were retconned into [[DecompositeCharacter separate characters]], and Batman wasn't aware there are three different Jokers (i.e., the original, Silver Age, and ''[[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke Killing Joke]]'' Jokers) until he asked the Mobius Chair what the Joker's true name is.
*** ComicBook/TheScarecrow was originally a standard hoodlum-for-hire (albeit one who used to be a college professor) who terrorized his victims the old-fashioned way: with guns and death threats (in [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks this era]], fear gas was actually the gimmick of the now-comparatively obscure Hugo Strange). He also managed to hold his own against Batman and Robin physically, at least for a little while.
*** Killer Moth was actually a KnightOfCerebus rather than an IneffectualSympatheticVillain, having been intended as an EvilCounterpart and archenemy to Batman. He managed to keep up his threatening nature until an issue in the latter half of the Silver Age, where [[TheWorfEffect Batgirl beat him on her first night out as a vigilante]]. This caused his reputation to take a massive downhill turn, both in and out of universe.
*** Clayface used to be a simple thief/murderer without superpowers who wore an old costume. He only got the upgrade to superpowers after it became clear that Batman and company completely outclassed him.
*** ComicBook/MrFreeze, one of the most famous examples of the TragicVillain, was originally just your typical bank-robbing supercrook who cracked jokes and used cool Sci-Fi weaponry to pull off heists. Also his condition didn't change his physical appearance, he called himself "Mr. Zero", [[HarmlessFreezing his freeze-gun couldn't kill people]] and, perhaps most shockingly, his first appearance actually ended with his body returning to normal after being exposed to steam. It took another nine years for the character to show up again, and even that was only because of his appearances on the popular live-action ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' show. After that, he mostly bounced around the various Batman books as a minor foe, before he was straight up ''killed off'' during the 1991 ''Robin'' mini-series. It wasn't until ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' revamped the character that he was brought back in the comics, now reimagined as the pitiable and tragic character he's famous as.
*** ComicBook/PoisonIvy's debut contained none of the GaiasVengeance or StrawFeminist themes the character would later become famous for; her association with plants only went gimmick-deep, and even then it was largely metaphorical (she got into crime because she was a huge AttentionWhore, who sought to stick in the public's mind like a case of poison ivy). She was also far more obsessed with material possessions like jewelry and clothing, with one ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' issue having her outright claim to ''hate'' the jungle after getting a tear in her tights.
*** ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} did not wear a costume at all, instead using disguises and trickery in her heists, and while she did occasionally wear a mask, it was an actual cat-faced mask as opposed to her better known cowl with cat ears. She didn't even call herself Catwoman originally, instead going by the shorter alias "The Cat"; "Cat-Woman" was just a nickname. She was also more overtly villainous, in contrast to the AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain characterization most modern fans are familiar with.
*** As the most "epic" villain in Batman's rogues gallery, ComicBook/RasAlGhul is all but ''guaranteed'' to get away at the end of a story, whether blatantly or through a NeverFoundTheBody [[DeathIsCheap Comic Book Death]] (which his loyal followers and/or daughter will no doubt undo with the Lazarus Pits). Which makes it kind of hilarious to reread his debut story, which ended with Batman getting a clean win over him and dragging him off to jail like any other crook. The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' two-part adaptation of [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE60TheDemonsQuestPart1 this]] [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE61TheDemonsQuestPart2 story]], faithful in most other respects, conveniently left this part out.
** While Damian would go on to be a well established animal lover while he was first infiltrating the batcave in ''ComicBook/Robin1993'' he complained about and hit several bats, saying he didn't know what his father saw in them. He was pretty stressed at the time and had just been injured when he didn't move his hand fast enough to avoid it being slammed in one of the caves emergency doors.

* Franchise/{{Superman}} was a FlyingBrick who couldn't fly, only jump (hence, "able to leap tall buildings {{in a single bound}}") and run (hence, "faster than a speeding bullet"). Thanks to SerialEscalation[[note]] and [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Fleischer Studios]], as it was easier and cheaper to [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons animate a man in flight]] than a man continually jumping[[/note]], though, he could already fly higher and faster than most airplanes well before America got into World War II. His invulnerability level changed too, since his first origin story said that only "an exploding shell" could hurt him, while these eventually became ineffective as well, necessitating the invention of {{kryptonite|Factor}}. He also lacked many of his current powers, sported a different (and often inconsistently illustrated) costume, [[ThouShaltNotKill killed bad guys]], and was something of a rebel. But especially weird, given his current international sensibilities, is when we're told that "Superman says 'You Can Slap a Jap'" as seen on many World War II-era covers.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} was perfectly willing to kill in his earliest appearances, as seen in his very first story, where he punches the villain into a vat of HollywoodAcid, and shows no remorse for it. To be fair, it's not like Batman ''deliberately aimed'' to send him into the acid (a safety rail broke- [[NoOSHACompliance this is why you build to OSHA standards, kids]]), but he sure didn't have any problem with what happened, declaring it a 'fitting end for his kind.'
* In ''Detective Comics'' #32, Batman fashions a pair of silver bullets, draws a pistol, and shoots two dormant vampires, and #35 shows a title page image of him wielding a gun. While [[BrieferThanTheyThink these are the only instances of him using a gun in the era,]] it's still rather bizarre in light of how the fact that Batman DoesntLikeGuns is now a defining part of who he is.
* Readers weren't told about the death of Bruce Wayne's parents for the first six months of the character's adventures. These early adventures took place in New York City rather than the fictional Gotham. Also, he had purple gloves. And the Batmobile was originally a bright red sedan rather than a black car with a bat motif. In general, he was a lot less like Batman and a lot more like Radio/TheShadow (a few comics scholars have even suggested outright plagiarism), and didn't really become recognizably Batman in personality and operating methods until he got his own solo series.
* Bruce Wayne originally had no servants in his home, unable to trust anyone with his secret identity (except Robin, once he showed up). When Alfred was introduced (four years after Batman's debut in ''Detective'') he was a bumbling comic relief character who looked and acted almost completely different from the man we know.

*** ComicBook/TheJoker originally had NoSenseOfHumor (his name was instead more of a reference to his status as a WildCard). His Silver Age self was closer to his typical depiction but was simply an [[AffablyEvil affable]], [[LaughablyEvil legitimately funny]] thief who liked to make people laugh and viewed Batman as a WorthyOpponent; a far cry from the creepy, murderous psychopath he would become famous as being. He would even sometimes team up with the heroes to take down worse villains, such as a memorable issue where circumstances forced him and Superman to work together in order to save Perry White. His clown-like complexion also used to be actual makeup, which he removed to pose as a cop (a scene that was referenced in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''). Later issues would reveal that his complexion was a deformity from falling into a vat of chemicals.

** The Golden Age Wonder Woman stories come off as rather kinky nowadays, with a ''lot'' of gratuitous BoundAndGagged scenes, even by the standards of the era. Also, Wonder Woman's major weakness was that she would lose her powers if her hands were ever bound by a man, a problem she obviously no longer has.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} was perfectly willing to kill in his earliest appearances, as seen in his very first story, where he punches the villain into a vat of HollywoodAcid, and shows no remorse for it. (To be fair, it's not like Batman ''deliberately aimed'' to send him into the acid, but he sure didn't have any problem with what happened, declaring it a 'fitting end for his kind.')

* Franchise/{{Superman}} was a FlyingBrick who couldn't fly, only jump (hence, "able to leap tall buildings {{in a single bound}}") and run (hence, "faster than a speeding bullet"). Thanks to SerialEscalation[[note]] and [[Creator/MaxFleischer Fleischer Studios]], as it was easier and cheaper to animate a man in flight than a man continually jumping[[/note]], though, he could already fly higher and faster than most airplanes well before America got into World War II. His invulnerability level changed too, since his first origin story said that only "an exploding shell" could hurt him, while these eventually became ineffective as well, necessitating the invention of {{kryptonite|Factor}}.
* Superman was probably the most notably different of these, lacking many of his current powers, sporting a different (and often inconsistently illustrated) costume, killing bad guys, and being something of a rebel. But especially weird, given his current international sensibilities, is when we're told that "Superman says 'You Can Slap a Jap'" as seen on many World War II-era covers.

During the early years, DC's different superhero stories very clearly took place in separate continuities.

* An issue of ''Batman'' from the 1940s, for instance, had [[ComicBook/{{Robin}} Dick Grayson]] get an autograph from Jerry Siegel, identified by name and explicitly noted as "the creator of Superman".

* Franchise/{{Batman}} was perfectly willing to kill in his earliest appearances, as seen in his very first story, where he punches the villain into a vat of HollywoodAcid, and shows no remorse for it. (To be fair, it's not like Batman ''deliberately aimed'' to send him into the acid, but he sure didn't have any problem with what happened, declaring it a 'fitting end for his kind.'

* Franchise/{{Batman}} was perfectly willing to kill in his earliest appearances, as seen in his very first story, where he punches the villain into a vat of HollywoodAcid, and shows no remorse for it. (To be fair, it's not like Batman ''deliberately aimed'' to send him into the acid, but he sure didn't have any problem with what happened, declaring it a 'fitting end for his kind.' And the main page image is a vampire, falling under WhatMeasureIsANonHuman -- though it's still hard to imagine the modern Batman trying to execute him with a gun.)

*** ComicBook/TheJoker originally had NoSenseOfHumor (his name was instead more of a reference to his status as a WildCard). His Silver Age self was closer to his typical depiction but was simply an [[AffablyEvil affable]], [[LaughablyEvil legitimately funny]] thief who liked to make people laugh and viewed Batman as a WorthyOpponent; a far cry from the creepy, murderous psychopath he would become famous as being. He would even sometimes team up with the heroes to take down worse villains, such as a memorable issue where circumstances forced him and Superman to work together in order to save Perry White. His clown-like complexion also used to be actual makeup, which he removed to pose as a cop (a scene that was referenced in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''). Later issues would reveal that his complexion was a deformity from falling into a vat of chemicals. Post-''ComicBook/DarkseidWar'', the earlier depictions of the Joker were retconned into [[DecompositeCharacter separate characters]], and Batman wasn't aware there are three different Jokers (i.e., the original, Silver Age, and ''[[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke Killing Joke]]'' Jokers) until he asked the Mobius Chair what the Joker's true name is.

* Doomsday had quite a few things about him in his first appearance during ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' that made him the {{Trope Namer|s}} for GenericDoomsdayVillain. When he first appeared, he was nothing but a rampaging brute as powerful as Superman but lacking any sort of morals (his EstablishingCharacterMoment was letting a little bird land on his hand, then casually crush it and laughing). The full extent of his powers and even his origin wouldn't be expanded on until ''ComicBook/SupermanDoomsdayHunterPrey''.

* An issue of ''Batman'' from the 40s, for instance, had [[ComicBook/{{Robin}} Dick Grayson]] get an autograph from Jerry Siegel, identified by name and explicitly noted as "the creator of Superman".
* Franchise/{{Superman}} was a FlyingBrick who couldn't fly, only jump (hence, "able to leap tall buildings {{in a single bound}}") and run (hence, "faster than a speeding bullet"). Thanks to SerialEscalation[[note]] and [[Creator/MaxFleischer Fleischer Studios]], as it was easier and cheaper to animate a man in flight than a man continually jumping[[/note]], though, he could already fly higher and faster than most airplanes well before America got into World War II. His invulnerability level changed too, since his first origin story said that only "an exploding shell" could hurt him, while these eventually became ineffective as well, necessitating the invention of {{kryptonite| factor}}.

** In part this is because Superman, Batman, and some of the others listed here were introduced before the genre was codified as they were the codifiers of many of its tropes. Their early adventures were the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness of the entire genre. Another major reason is UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode which was later introduced: for a significant length of time, comics simply ''couldn't'' have their main characters kill people, so they gave them TechnicalPacifist leanings (and made them more like TheCape in general) as a way of satisfying MoralGuardians. These characterizations were used long enough to stick after the Comics Code fell.
** Superman wasn't always the lawful, pacifist hero he is known as today. In fact, he arguably caused more harm than good in his earlier comics, [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20069_5-classic-superman-comics-that-prove-he-used-to-be-dick.html since he was actually kind of nuts]]. Examples include deliberately trapping a party of rich people in a mine to demonstrate the mine's safety problems, and drugging a football player and taking his place on the team, so that an opposing coach, who is guilty of cheating, won't win. He also once tackled teenage delinquency by demolishing their slummy neighborhood, making sure that the residents had evacuated with their possessions, upon learning that the government would be obligated to rebuild the neighborhood.
** Clark Kent and ComicBook/LoisLane didn't originally work for the ''Daily Planet'' in the fictional Metropolis. Instead, they worked for a newspaper company whose exact name was often ambiguous, at one point even being the ''Evening News'' in Cleveland, Ohio. Usually, though, when it was named it was called the ''Daily Star'', before switching to the ''Planet'' more or less for good in 1940.
*** Initially, it was said that Superman's fantastic abilities were inherent to all indigenous Kryptonians.[[note]]One of, if not the first story to explore the exact events that led to Superman/Kal-El being sent to Earth, had Kryptonians dismissing Earthlings as being 'hundreds of generations behind them' and that 'they didn't even possess X-Ray vision!'[[/note]] Subsequent re-tellings would establish that this was not the case, with Superman's powers instead being explained as the product of Earth's yellow sun and weaker gravity.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} was perfectly willing to kill in his earliest appearances, as seen in his very first story, where he punches the villain into a vat of HollywoodAcid, and shows no remorse for it. (To be fair, it's not like he ''deliberately aimed'' to send him into the acid, but he sure didn't have any problem with what happened, declaring it a 'fitting end for his kind.' And the main page image is a vampire, falling under WhatMeasureIsANonHuman -- though it's still hard to imagine the modern Batman trying to execute him with a gun.)
* Readers weren't told about the death of Bruce Wayne's parents for the first 6 months of the character's adventures. These early adventures took place in New York City rather than the fictional Gotham. Also, he had purple gloves. And the Batmobile was originally a bright red sedan rather than a black car with a bat motif. In general, he was a lot less like Batman and a lot more like Radio/TheShadow (a few comics scholars have even suggested outright plagiarism), and didn't really become recognizably Batman in personality and operating methods until he got his own solo series.
* Bruce Wayne originally had no servants in his home, unable to trust anyone with his secret identity (except Robin, once he showed up). When Alfred was introduced (4 years after Batman's debut in ''Detective'') he was a bumbling comic relief character who looked and acted almost completely different from the man we know.

*** ComicBook/TheJoker originally had NoSenseOfHumor (his name was instead more of a reference to his status as a WildCard). His Silver Age self was closer to his typical depiction but was simply an [[AffablyEvil affable]], [[LaughablyEvil legitimately funny]] thief who liked to make people laugh and viewed Batman as a WorthyOpponent; a far-cry from the creepy, murderous psychopath he would become famous as. He would even sometimes team-up with the heroes to take down worse villains, such as a memorable issue where circumstances forced him and Superman to work together in order to save Perry White. His clown-like complexion also used to be actual makeup, which he removed to pose as a cop (a scene that was referenced in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''). Later issues would reveal that his complexion was a deformity from falling into a vat of chemicals. Post-''ComicBook/DarkseidWar'', the earlier depictions of the Joker were retconned into [[DecompositeCharacter separate characters]], and Batman wasn't aware there are three different Jokers (i.e. the original, Silver Age, and ''[[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke Killing Joke]]'' Jokers) until he asked the Mobius Chair what the Joker's true name is.

*** ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} did not wear a costume at all, instead using disguises and trickery in her heists, and while she did occasionally wear a mask, it was an actual cat-faced mask as opposed to her better known cowl with cat ears. She didn't even call herself Catwoman originally, instead going by the shorter alias "The Cat;" "Cat-Woman" was just a nickname. She was also more overtly villainous, in contrast to the AntiHero / AntiVillain characterization most modern fans are familiar with.

** In Wondy's first appearance in ''[[ComicBook/AllStarComicsNumberEight Wonder Woman Arrives in Man's World]]'' the introductary blurb about her powers is, ''As lovely as Aphrodite, as wise as Athena, with the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules'', all later iterations of this blurb will end with ''faster than Mercury and stronger than Hercules''.