History HarsherInHindsight / TheDCU

* An in-universe one DC one: ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' Issues #20-#21 of the New Teen Titans comic (May-June 1986). The Titans were (temporarily) mostly broken up after incidents involving or happening roughly around the time of ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths. Wonder Girl, who is left in charge with an empty nest, calls in Aqualad, a newly-minted Flash, a Hawk without Dove, Jason-Robin, and Speedy. At the request of King Faraday, they help to protect a peace conference which is being threatened by Cheshire. This was where it was discovered Speedy and Cheshire [[spoiler:had a child together]]. Issue #21 closes on some supposed to be heart-warming reconciliations between Terry Long and Wonder Girl and also Speedy and Cheshire, including him getting to hold his daughter for the first time. Also, Wally getting to explain his new role as The Flash to his hero-avoidant then-girlfriend Francis Kane. Now, look at these events through the lens of:
** Speedy and Wally West still apparently have strong feelings for [[spoiler:Wonder Girl, well after their teen romance fizzled]] according to later comics. Oh and Lian is killed when Prometheus destroys Star City and chops off Speedy's arm too.
** King Faraday [[spoiler:being the (possibly mind-controlled) villain, Gamemaster]].
** Wally-Flash [[spoiler:being erased from existence by Barry Allen as a result of Flashpoint, made worse by the fact that when fighting a deranged Reverse Flash (who had a breakdown and literally thought of himself as Barry Allen) cursing Wally and leaving him to die out of anger over how everyone loved Wally more as Flash and was furious at how fast he was forgotten]]
** Jason Todd being the voice of reason among his older, more experienced peers and [[spoiler: then not receiving a statue in the memorial hall upon his death for this and the work to free Raven as if they were embarrassed.]]
** Having Speedy, Wonder Girl, and Flash return to Cheshire, Terry Long, and Francis Kane with the idea that this is a relief to them. [[spoiler:All three of these couples later go nuclear. Cheshire dumps Lian on Speedy and then nukes Qurac, literally nuking their relationship. Wonder Girl and Terry split apart even after she gave up her powers to ensure their son Robert wouldn't grow up to become Lord Chaos, followed by the father and son dying in a car crash. Francis develops magnetism powers and a split personality, becoming the supervillain Magenta and making things really hard for Wally.]]
** Having Hank Hall (Hawk) be a nearly-murderous bastard as a hero, when later [[spoiler:he becomes the JSA villain Extant, who slaughtered half of the team.]]

** In Jason's first Post-Crisis outing as Robin (rather, the first after Dick officially passed the torch to him), he ends up separated from Batman and brutally beaten by Crazy Quilt, who mistook him for Dick. When Batman hurries back to try and save him, he finds Jason unsconscious and assumes he's dead. The next issue has Batman holding Jason in his arms in a manner distinctly reminiscent of the iconic scene from ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily'', where Jason did die.
-->'''Narration:''' This is certain - even if Jason's injuries are neither serious nor permanent, they will prey on the Batman's conscience forever...

** In ''ComicBook/Superman1949 #165: "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot"'' (1963), Superman is exposed to red kryptonite that causes him to lose his powers and his memory. He eventually enters a rodeo, where he's thrown from a horse and injured so that he's paralyzed from the waist down. That story became rather more significant when Creator/ChristopherReeve, known for playing Superman, was paralyzed from the neck down by being thrown from a horse.

** In ''ComicBook/Superboy1939'' and ''ComicBook/Superboy1980'', Pete Ross goes to great lengths to protect Clark Kent's secret, while letting nobody -including Clark- in on the fact that he is aware of said secret. Usually, scenes wherein Pete pretended to fall for Clark's stupid excuses were played for laughs, but they stopped being funny considering that Pete Ross was killed after being tortured into revealing Clark's secret identity in ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow''; and Clark never knew about his childhood buddy's level of loyalty before his death.

** In ''ComicBook/Superman1939 #165: "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot"'' (1963), Superman is exposed to red kryptonite that causes him to lose his powers and his memory. He eventually enters a rodeo, where he's thrown from a horse and injured so that he's paralyzed from the waist down. That story became rather more significant when Creator/ChristopherReeve, known for playing Superman, was paralyzed from the neck down by being thrown from a horse.

** In Jason's first Post-Crisis outing as Robin (rather, the first after Dick officially passed the torch to him), he ends up separated from Batman and brutally beaten by, of all people, Crazy Quilt. When Batman hurries back to try and save him, he finds Jason unsconscious and assumes he's dead. The next issue has Batman holding Jason in his arms in a manner distinctly reminiscent of the iconic scene from ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily'', where Jason did die.

** In ''ComicBook/Superman1939: "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot"'' (1963), Superman is exposed to red kryptonite that causes him to lose his powers and his memory. He eventually enters a rodeo, where he's thrown from a horse and injured so that he's paralyzed from the waist down. That story became rather more significant when Creator/ChristopherReeve, known for playing Superman, was paralyzed from the neck down by being thrown from a horse.

** Dorothy Spinner and Kate Godwin were shown to be among the living again in ''ComicBook/DCPride2022'', which was met with considerable acclaim after they had been killed off in John Arcudi's run and remained deceased in spite of other members of the Doom Patrol coming back from the dead and the history of the DCU being rewritten at least [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis three]] [[ComicBook/New52 times]] [[ComicBook/DCRebirth since]] (with the {{Cosmic Retcon}}s caused by ''Infinite Crisis'' and ''Rebirth'' even resulting in the respective resurrections of Elasti-Girl and Celsius). In spite of this, ''ComicBook/UnstoppableDoomPatrol'' ignored this development and established Dorothy and Kate to still be deceased, with the conclusion of the miniseries even having the Brotherhood of Evil unearth Dorothy's corpse as part of a ritual to summon the Candlemaker, a villain she originally defeated at the end of Creator/GrantMorrison's run. Tasteless as that already was, the miniseries' writer Dennis Culver confirmed that he was keeping Dorothy and Kate deceased mere days before Rachel Pollack passed away, making the [[InMemoriam dedication to her memory]] in the miniseries' third issue come off as insincere.

** Dorothy Spinner and Kate Godwin were shown to be among the living again in ''ComicBook/DCPride2022'', which was met with considerable acclaim after they had been killed off in John Arcudi's run and remained deceased in spite of other members of the Doom Patrol coming back from the dead and the history of the DCU being rewritten at least [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis three]] [[ComicBook/New52 times]] [[ComicBook/DCRebirth since]] (with the {{Cosmic Retcon}}s caused by ''Infinite Crisis'' and ''Rebirth'' even resulting in the resurrections of Elasti-Girl and Celsius). In spite of this, ''ComicBook/UnstoppableDoomPatrol'' ignored this development and established Dorothy and Kate to still be deceased, with the conclusion of the miniseries even having the Brotherhood of Evil unearth Dorothy's corpse as part of a ritual to summon the Candlemaker, a villain she originally defeated at the end of Creator/GrantMorrison's run. Tasteless as that already was, the miniseries' writer Dennis Culver confirmed that he was keeping Dorothy and Kate deceased mere days before Rachel Pollack passed away, making the [[InMemoriam dedication to her memory]] in the miniseries' third issue come off as insincere.

* Rachel Pollack's run on ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' established that a major reason for Dorothy Spinner's dysphoria was because of a traumatic incident where her first period resulted in the other children [[PeriodShaming making fun of her for menstrually bleeding in front of them]] and her mother showing an appalling lack of concern for her daughter's feelings by telling her to her face that she should've been aborted. John Arcudi's run would later reveal that the Spinners were Dorothy's ''adoptive'' parents, making Mrs. Spinner's already grossly callous statement even crueler in retrospect.

* ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica''

** ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel'' was lucky enough to have the Justice League members rescued on time, because ''ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal'' provides a scenario where an alternate universe Batman killed all members of the Justice League after being Jokerized by a purified version of the Joker toxin, essentially giving birth to the Batman Who Laughs.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'', FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Cassidy makes an ItTastesLikeFeet remark about how gravy made from bacon grease tastes like semen ([[OrSoIHeard or so he'd assume]]). Then we find out that in the past, he'd [[spoiler:resorted to prostituting himself and giving blowjobs to satisfy his addiction to heroin]]. Seems slightly less funny, except for those of us with sadistic senses of humor.
* There was a 1997 ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' comic whose cover showed a newspaper with prominent headlines saying that Wonder Woman (aka Princess Diana) had died. A couple days later, the real Princess Diana died.
* In ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' (vol. 3) #14, a character echoes most of the fandom's sentiments by saying "The last thing we want is ''ComicBook/AmazonsAttack: The Sequel''". Solicitations for DC's ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' crossover seemed to indicate that it would be ''Amazons Attack: The Sequel.'' Luckily ''Flashpoint'' was better received and better written and gave an actual reason for their actions that made sense.

* There's a small example in a late-80s issue of ''Franchise/TheFlash'' in which Captain Cold has finished his term in the ComicBook/SuicideSquad and the Rogues are attending a party in his honor. Cold brings along a cheery letter from Dr. Light which he reads aloud to laughter and comments like "Arthur's always a card!" Wally and his girlfriend "crash" the party later, and they end up getting along pretty well despite the initial resentment of him [[AntagonistInMourning for replacing Barry Allen]]. Some fifteen years later it turns out that these [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Enemies]] were "chums" with a rapist.

** In the 1960's story "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot", Superman is exposed to red kryptonite that causes him to lose his powers and his memory. He eventually enters a rodeo, where he's thrown from a horse and injured so that he's paralyzed from the waist down. That story became rather more significant when Creator/ChristopherReeve, known for playing Superman, was paralyzed from the neck down by being thrown from a horse.

* Rachel Pollack's run on ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' established that a major reason for Dorothy Spinner's dysphoria was because of a traumatic incident where her first period resulted in the other children [[PeriodShaming making fun of her for menstrually bleeding in front of them]] and her mother showing an appalling lack of concern for her daughter's feelings by telling her to her face that she should've been aborted. Mrs. Spinner's statement becomes even crueler in retrospect, as John Arcudi's run would later reveal that the Spinners were Dorothy's ''adoptive'' parents.

* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'': A very early story involved the members of the Society traveling to the future to retrieve technology necessary to build a bomb-proof force field. They succeed and the scientists they were working for manage to successfully replicated the technology, meaning that now America is fully safe from bombing threats by the Axis... this story was written before UsefulNotes/PearlHarbor. This also created a ContinuitySnarl since later on, the Justice Society (or rather, the Justice Battalion) did very much join the war, which could not have happened if this story was true. Creator/RoyThomas later introduced a RetCon that, [[HappyEndingOverride right after the end of that issue]], Per Degaton sabotaged the machine and thus called its reliability into question, meaning that by the time the scientists could figure out what went wrong, it was too late.

** ''ComicBook/TheLivingLegendsOfSuperman'' aims to show how Superman's history would evolve into half-remembered and hilariously-inaccurate but inspiring myth through the millennia. Nonetheless, ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' and ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedTotheManOfTomorrow'' would invalidate this story only two years later by showing Superman losing his powers and faking his death only a few years before his universe's annihilation.

** ''ComicBook/FromEterniaWithDeath'' (1982) features the first meeting between Superman and ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' hero He-Man, and concludes with Superman promising to help He-Man out if the barbarian hero ever needs him again. However, future ''DC/MotU'' crossovers ''DC Universe Vs Masters Of The Universe'' (2013-2014) and ''Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe'' (2018-19) would put Superman in the role of brainwashed or maddened antagonist.

* In ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueInternational'', ComicBook/BoosterGold and ComicBook/BlueBeetle joke to each other about how Max Lord, their team's sponsor/boss, is going to [[https://imgur.com/1yg29LF "put a bullet in my head"]] for their latest ZanyScheme. Years later, the prologue to the CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' has Max, with a fresh new FaceHeelTurn, graphically executing Blue Beetle after [[ImpededMessenger (almost) preventing him from revealing his plans]], complete with a huge bullet hole going right through his skull. The panel from the earlier JLI issue could be found on nearly every comic-book site within days.

* There's a small example in a late-80s issue of ''Franchise/TheFlash'' in which Captain Cold has finished his term in the Comicbook/SuicideSquad and the Rogues are attending a party in his honor. Cold brings along a cheery letter from Dr. Light which he reads aloud to laughter and comments like "Arthur's always a card!" Wally and his girlfriend "crash" the party later, and they end up getting along pretty well despite the initial resentment of him [[AntagonistInMourning for replacing Barry Allen]]. Some fifteen years later it turns out that these [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Enemies]] were "chums" with a rapist.

* ''ComicBook/UnderworldUnleashed'': CListFodder Airstryke is one of the few villains to refuse Neron's DealWithTheDevil (feeling there is no point in selling his soul to the devil when the devil probably already has control over it) and is allowed to depart the gathering with a simple GetOut insult. In ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'', Airstryke speaks against following a second demonic figure (Brother Blood) at another supervillain gathering and is immediately ThrownFromTheZeppelin.

* Creator/GrantMorrison ended their run on ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'' by having their AuthorAvatar resurrect Buddy Baker's murdered family as a final favor and acknowledging that the next writer to take over is likely to discard what they had established at the first opportunity. In Creator/JeffLemire's ''Animal Man'' series written for ''ComicBook/New52'', Buddy's son Cliff would get killed again, but this time his death stuck and remained in effect even in the post-Rebirth canon in spite of the Rebirth initiative's primary purpose being to restore the DCU to how it was prior to the New 52 era.