History MisaimedFandom / ComicBooks

** His villains tend to have their own beloved fanbases as well. Typically, one of the reason why Batman is considered so cool is because everyone thinks he has "THE BEST VILLAINS EVER!" When in fact, Batman villains are the most vile in the comic book mythos. Aside from the homicidal Joker, there's also the Mad Hatter who is a child-molester with a blonde fetish, Calendar Man who has his own obsession with holidays, Anarky who is a kid-turned-terrorist/anarchist, the misanthropic Killer Croc, and Clayface who was once written to be symbolized as "AIDS with two legs" (And these are just a few). Seriously do you really think these people deserve a fandom-worship?

** This goes for many popular monstrous characters, there is a difference between enjoying the character's appearance in the story (which, one must imagine, the creator wants you to do unless stated otherwise), and the kinds of interactions they bring, and seeing their crimes and psychopathy as something to be cheered on and supported or thinking the villain might be a cool dude to know, which is the main idea of this trope.

** His villains tend to have their own beloved fanbases as well. Typically, one of the reason why Batman is considered so cool is because everyone thinks he has "THE BEST VILLAINS EVER!" When in fact, Batman villains are the most vile in the comic book mythos. Aside from the homicidal Joker, there's also the Mad-Hatter who is a child-molester with a blonde fetish, Calendar Man who has his own obsession with holidays, Anarky who is a kid-turned-terrorist/anarchist, the misanthroped Killer Croc, and Clayface who was once written to be symbolized as "AIDS with two legs" (And this are just a few). Seriously do you really think these people deserve a fandom-worship?

* The UsefulNotes/BechdelTest (which originated in a comic) was conceived as a deliberately easy-to-pass test (passing merely required that a work have more than one female character, that the female characters have a conversation, and that this conversation not revolve around men) in order to demonstrate just how little effort movie directors and screenwriters put into developing female characters, but has since been co-opted by others as an all-purpose feminist-credentials test.

* Xavin has a huge following among ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''' LGBT fandom because of their perceived transgender or genderfluid identity, despite the fact that even under Creator/BrianKVaughan's pen, the series presents Xavin as an arrogant, controlling asshole who emotionally blackmails Karolina into an arranged marriage, inadvertently reignites a war that wiped out most of Karolina's people, and treats Karolina's friends in a condescending manner.

* ''Superdupont'' is a French comic parodying the superhero genre ''and'' a satire of French jingoism. The titular character is an over-the-top stereotypical Frenchman with ''Superman''-like powers (which he loses when he hears the French anthem played in reverse) and battles "Anti-France", a shadowy group of people who all speak with a mix of all foreign accents at once and target French core values - such as replacing French wine with Italian wine and mass-producing berets made in China. The French extreme right-wing nationalist party took Superdupont as their icon, which caused the authors of the comic to put it on hiatus for a few years.

* Though the series was a massive BaseBreaker, there were a surprising number of readers of ''Comicbook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' who sided with Comicbook/DoctorOctopus and genuinely felt that he was indeed better at being Spider-Man than Peter Parker ever was. This is despite the series' final arc demonstrating in great detail ''why'' Ock's pompous, DarkerAndEdgier methods did not work, and even climaxed with him willingly relinquishing control and admitting that Peter was indeed the [[TitleDrop superior Spider-Man]] all along.

** A book that came out in 1985 was deconstructing NinetiesAntiHeroes?

* Batman in general isn't necessarily immune to this. Mark Waid's Justice League story ''Tower of Babel'' was designed to criticize the character's prep time paranoia tendencies by [[spoiler:showing that he'd secretly been thinking up ways to kill or incapacitate his Justice League allies for years, only to have them fall into the wrong hands, thus placing the entire world in jeopardy]], but unfortunately all some fans came away with was "BATMAN'S THE SMARTEST, MOST BAD ASS HERO EVER!!!"

* ''JudgeDredd''. You'd be surprised how many people find the idea of the [[PoliceState Judge system]] appealing and miss the strip's satire altogether.

* Satirical depictions of politicians are almost inevitably popular with their targets (with the notable exception of [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,802577,00.html Steve Bell's take on former British Prime Minister]] JohnMajor.) Often, they will contact the cartoonist, or the paper it was published in, to ask for a copy or the original, probably thinking it's better if people are making fun of them than just ignoring them. Ralph Steadman declared he would only depict politician's arses to prevent this.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermac_%28cartoon%29 Super-Mac]] by Victor Weisz, a parody of HaroldMacmillan, was especially so. Maybe he shouldn't have compared him to a ''superhero''.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', a '80s superhero deconstruction, Creator/AlanMoore heavily based the character Rorschach on Steve Ditko's Objectivist superheroes, specifically The Question and Mr. A. However, Moore had no affinity for their ideology, calling Mr. A "an absolute insane fascist" and Objectivism "laughable," and he wrote Rorschach as his own take on what an Objectivist hero would probably be like, a short, ugly, murderous sociopath. Despite this, readers saw Rorschach's uncompromising persona as endearing, and he became the most popular character of a landmark comic series. Additionally, as pointed out on the UnbuiltTrope page, Rorschach and the Comedian were intended to deconstruct the NinetiesAntiHero, and ended up popularizing it instead. Apparently, the series's beginning with the horrific death of the Comedian and ending with [[spoiler:the even more horrific death of Rorschach]] wasn't enough to make people realize that ''these were not admirable characters''.
** Amazing how Moore could write characters to deconstruct something that didn't exist. Kinda hard to be setting out to deconstruct a 90's archetype in a book written in the early 80's.

* {{Asterix}}: Sometimes used by European far-right politicians or supporters to promote the idea that ancient Europe was far better because there were no immigrants like today. It doesn't occur to them that "Asterix" is more historical fiction than anything else and that Asterix and his friends always get along fine with other nationalities. Even the Romans aren't always depicted as villains.

** ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', particularly the movie, spread the misconception that Guy Fawkes Day celebrates Guy Fawkes, the plucky rebel, instead of celebrating the fact that ''England narrowly averted a terrorist attack on the capital.'' It's like thinking [[TheWarOnTerror September 11th]] honors Osama Bin Laden. The holiday also has anti-Catholic overtones (Fawkes was a convert to Catholicism), which makes it particularly ironic in the film when V slays a pedophilic Catholic priest.

* Batman in general isn't necessarily immune to this. Mark Waid's Justice League story ''Tower of Babel'' was designed to criticize the character's prep time paranoia tendencies by [[spoiler:showing that he'd secretly been thinking up ways to kill or incapacitate his Justice League allies for years, only to have them fall into the wrong hands, thus placing the entire world in jeopardy]], but unfortunately all some fans came away with was "BATMAN'S THE MOST BAD ASS HERO EVER!!!"

* In the infamous ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'', readers are ''supposed'' to agree with everything the protagonists say, but there is a significant "fandom" that finds the over-the-top nature [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]]. In addition, on first reading them, many people assume that they are intended as a parody. [[PoesLaw They are serious.]] The sheer number of times he has [[StrawmanPolitical Straw Secularists/Liberals]] (especially in schools), such as the dystopia in "Last Generation" which has the security and language of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Oceania]], the religious politics of ''LeftBehind'', and the social politics of Straw Liberal states, with a touch of "concentration camps" for parents who discipline their children -- it makes it difficult for one to accept them as serious arguments unless one realizes that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps there are more extreme people out there]].

** ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', particularly the movie, spread the misconception that Guy Fawkes Day celebrates Guy Fawkes, the plucky rebel, instead of celebrating the fact that ''England narrowly averted a terrorist attack on the capital.'' It's like thinking [[TheWarOnTerror September 11th]] is an American holiday honoring Osama Bin Laden. The holiday also has anti-Catholic overtones (Fawkes was a convert to Catholicism), which makes it particularly ironic in the film when V slays a pedophilic Catholic priest.

** Some of that has to do with the concepts that Waid and Ross came up with being popular enough with writers that they were made canon. A few characters like Irey West, Jakeem Thunder and the female Judomaster ended up crossing over into the DCU, while Cyborg temporarily got his golden skin and Roy Harper became Red Arrow. Seeing as how those characters were generally not shown to be outright asses though, it's somewhat understandable.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', a '80s superhero deconstruction, AlanMoore heavily based the character Rorschach on Steve Ditko's Objectivist superheroes, specifically The Question and Mr. A. However, Moore had no affinity for their ideology, calling Mr. A "an absolute insane fascist" and Objectivism "laughable," and he wrote Rorschach as his own take on what an Objectivist hero would probably be like, a short, ugly, murderous sociopath. Despite this, readers saw Rorschach's uncompromising persona as endearing, and he became the most popular character of a landmark comic series. Additionally, as pointed out on the UnbuiltTrope page, Rorschach and the Comedian were intended to deconstruct the NinetiesAntiHero, and ended up popularizing it instead. Apparently, the series's beginning with the horrific death of the Comedian and ending with [[spoiler:the even more horrific death of Rorschach]] wasn't enough to make people realize that ''these were not admirable characters''.

* In the '80s superhero deconstruction ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', AlanMoore heavily based the character Rorschach on Steve Ditko's Objectivist superheroes, specifically The Question and Mr. A. However, Moore had no affinity for their ideology, calling Mr. A "an absolute insane fascist" and Objectivism "laughable," and he wrote Rorschach as his own take on what an Objectivist hero would probably be like, a short, ugly, murderous sociopath. Despite this, readers saw Rorschach's uncompromising persona as endearing, and he became the most popular character of a landmark comic series. Additionally, as pointed out on the UnbuiltTrope page, Rorschach and the Comedian were intended to deconstruct the NinetiesAntiHero, and ended up popularizing it instead. Apparently, the series's beginning with the horrific death of the Comedian and ending with [[spoiler:the even more horrific death of Rorschach]] wasn't enough to make people realize that ''these were not admirable characters''.
* {{Lobo}} started as a generic mercenary before being retooled by creator Keith Giffen as a parody of eighties "grim and gritty" heroes like {{Wolverine}} and Comicbook/ThePunisher in a series of mini-series books. Needless to say, Lobo became a big hit with fans who took the satire at face value.
** This happens with a lot of "satire" characters where the author "exaggerates" them just by taking all the elements that people seem to like in other shows and lumping them together without actually exaggerating anything. We've seen this in reverse with films like ''Film/SuckerPunch'', intended to "parody" exploitation literature but garnering reactions as if they were genuine because, well, the creators forgot the part where they make the thing they're parodying more ridiculous or extreme than the source material.
* V from ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', to the point where the live action adaptation made it so that he was obviously meant to be the hero. V is a fanatical terrorist whose main motives are revenge and his methods include physical and psychological torture (of both enemies ''and allies''), bombing of public monuments, and brutal murder. An argument can be made for a case of ALighterShadeOfGrey, given that V is also a charming and charismatic NobleDemon and his enemies are a brutal, genocidal and largely irredeemable fascist regime, but V was intended to be a lot more ambiguous than many ultimately view him as being.
** ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', particularly the movie, spread the misconception that Guy Fawkes Day celebrates Guy Fawkes, the plucky rebel, instead of celebrating the fact that ''England narrowly averted a terrorist attack on the capital.'' It's like thinking [[TheWarOnTerror September 11th]] is an American holiday honoring Osama Bin Laden. The holiday also has anti-Catholic overtones (Fawkes was a convert to Catholicism), which makes it particularly ironic in the film when V slays a pedophilic Catholic priest.
* This happened to [[RobertCrumb R. Crumb]] ''a lot'' -- most notably with his iconic "Keep On Truckin'" character/pose, which was adopted by many rock-loving hippies as their "mascot," as it were. The truth was, Crumb was ''making fun'' of rock music lovers, who in his eyes were doing "The Dance of Cultural Death" (as he put it). He even explained it in a comic in The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book and told his (probably now disillusioned) hippie fans: "KEEP ON TRUCKIN', SCHMUCKS!". (This was followed by Mr. Natural remarking: "Don't forget, Bob, that it was the compassion, the loving forgiveness, that they found so appealing in your cartoons, that made you so popular, that got you laid, that earned you a living. Keep it in mind!")
* JhonenVasquez repeatedly takes pages out of his ''JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' and ''Squee'' series to TakeThat to various people he feels are enjoying his comic for the wrong reasons. One extended story in ''JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' is about a serial-killing fanboy of Johnny's. Since Johnny is a character who goes around murdering the most annoying people in the typical Vasquez CrapsackWorld, it's not hard to see why some people might get the wrong idea.
** Goths seem to treat Jhonen as their king, despite him constantly insulting them and his own hatred of the association. With that said, he doesn't necessarily hate Goths, but he doesn't care for catering specifically to them.
* In the infamous ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'', readers are ''supposed'' to agree with everything the protagonists say, but there is a significant "fandom" that finds the over-the-top nature [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]]. In addition, on first reading them, many people assume that they are intended as a parody. [[PoesLaw They are serious.]] The sheer number of times he has [[StrawmanPolitical Straw Secularists/Liberals]] (especially in schools), such as the dystopia in "Last Generation" which has the security and language of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Oceania]], the religious politics of ''LeftBehind'', and the social politics of Straw Liberal states, with a touch of "concentration camps" for parents who discipline their children -- it makes it difficult for one to accept them as serious arguments unless one realizes that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps there are more extreme people out there]].

* A more innocent example than most, but the rapid transformation of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' into the sort of MerchandiseDriven juggernaut it was originally meant to parody had a lot to do with this. The creators and later licensees seem to have decided to run with the misaimed version instead of trying to fight it. That fandom mostly came from the TV series, which was entirely intended as such, so it's not so much Misaimed Fandom as it is ExecutiveMeddling that took. [[TropesAreNotBad The franchise has become pretty popular since becoming a franchise too]].
* Some people read ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' just because they like the [[NinetiesAntiHero Antiheroes]]. This is missing the fact that ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' was written as a criticism of that kind of character. Others miss the idea that a big part of the story is that Superman and the new League trying to bring about world peace works horribly [[spoiler:and ends up getting everyone nuked,]] and wholeheartedly support/condemn them as SilverAge nostalgia.

* BrianAzzarello was surprised and disturbed to find that the violent, amoral homicidal rapist and torturer [[ComicBook/OneHundredBullets Lono]] had a devoted fan following.
* Likewise, many readers find his ''LexLuthorManOfSteel'' making an excellent argument for why LexLuthor is a hero, or at least believing that it brings up some intriguing GrayAndGreyMorality and humanistic traits to the character because he honestly thinks that he is a hero and Superman is a villain. Many also agree with Lex's arguments against Superman's LawfulGood ChronicHeroSyndrome, which sees him rescuing Toyman from an angry mob, in this story a [[KickTheSonOfABitch pedophile who had just (seemingly) blown up a daycare centre.]] Except for the fact that it is ''strongly, strongly'' implied that ''Lex himself'' blew up that centre, and is behind a bunch of other horrible things in the comic, and the real point of the story is that Lex is deluded and insane to boot.
* FrankMiller [[http://www.facebook.com/pages/Guns-Are-For-Cowards/125540797485215 has been quoted as saying]] what he [[TheDarkKnightReturns portrays Batman as saying]]. Seeing as how FrankMiller has also [[ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder portrayed Batman as a sadistic psychopath]], quoting Miller's version of Batman as though it were Miller himself might not exactly be all that fitting.

* SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker - mass-murderer, torturer, MonsterClown, and has a MASSIVE fanbase.
** This goes for many popular monstrous characters, there is a difference between enjoying the character's appearance in the story (which, one must imagine, the creator wants you to do unless stated otherwise), and the kinds of interactions they bring, and seeing their crimes and psychopathy as something to be cheered on and supported or thinking the villain might be a cool dude to know, which is the main idea of this trope.
** A better example from the pages of Batman might be Comicbook/HarleyQuinn. Although she is the girlfriend and accomplice of SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, and is often shown to be almost as AxeCrazy as he is, fans often seem to forgive her actions, hold her up as something of a heroic or anti-heroic figure, and she is often a KarmaHoudini in the actual stories.
* In-universe example: The Sons of the Batman from ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'', a group of vigilantes inspired by Batman using incredibly violent methods against mostly petty criminals (ie, stopping a three card monte game with napalm, cutting off the arms of a shoplifter[[note]]Not to mention the fingers of the poor clerk, for not defending the store.[[/note]]). Needless to say, when Batman finally meets them, he sets them straight.
* Batman villains tend to get this trope a lot... perhaps because they are part of a very flamboyant rogues gallery. Batman's tendency to be aloof and mysterious may also help them with the public.
* ''JudgeDredd''. You'd be surprised how many people find the idea of the [[PoliceState Judge system]] appealing and miss the strip's satire altogether.
* {{Asterix}}: Sometimes used by European far-right politicians or supporters to promote the idea that ancient Europe was far better because there were no immigrants like today. It doesn't occur to them that "Asterix" is more historical fiction than anything else and that Asterix and his friends always get along fine with other nationalities. Even the Romans aren't always depicted as villains.

* ''ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'': After being traumatized by the Iron Dominion's occupation of New Mobotropolis and NICOLE's brief [[{{Magitek}} Magitek-induced]] FaceHeelTurn, [[IdolSinger Mina Mongoose]] decides to send a message raising awareness of possible problems should NICOLE become compromised again, as well as convince the public to be more active and not just accept things so blindly anymore. In comes Ixis Naugus, who uses his magic to [[HatePlague amplify all existing fear and paranoia towards NICOLE]] as part of his [[EvilPlan latest plan]], turning NICOLE into a HeroWithBadPublicity and eventually getting her exiled from the city completely, the last thing Mina expected or wanted to happen.

* {{Lobo}} started as a generic mercenary before being retooled by creator Keith Giffen as a parody of eighties "grim and gritty" heroes in a series of mini-series books. Needless to say, Lobo became a big hit with fans who took the satire at face value.
** This happens with a lot of "satire" characters where the author "exaggerates" them just by taking all the elements that people seem to like in other shows and lumping them together without actually exaggerating anything. We've seen this in reverse with films like "Sucker Punch", intended to "parody" exploitation literature but garnering reactions as if they were genuine because, well, the creators forgot the part where they make the thing they're parodying more ridiculous or extreme than the source material.