History ValuesDissonance / ComicBooks

* In the Gargoyles "ComicBook/BadGuys" series, it's revealed that Dingo was raised by his stepfather, who showed visible shock when the teenaged Dingo came home with a mohawk. [[spoiler:You'd think someone who'd kill his wife, lie to her son about it and raise said son to a life of crime would be more understanding.]]

** In his earliest incarnation Moose was, by today's standards, an outright terrible boyfriend who would not only savagely beat up anyone who so much as looked at Midge (and often for not looking at her because "[[InsaneTrollLogic Why?! Isn't she pretty enough?!]]"), but even threatened and intimidated ''her'', which was entirely PlayedForLaughs. As the years went on he mellowed into at least treating her genuinely well, and from that to a mostly good-natured guy who just has a bad temper and is typically TooDumbToLive.

** In earlier comics Jughead was outright repulsed by women, against the idea of them having careers, and firmly believed women were below men. This was all PlayedForLaughs and he was portrayed as both sympathetic and often in the right for believing this, whereas nowadays this would be over the top for even a StrawMisogynist. Over the years this slowly changed from hate into a phobia that was mocked InUniverse, to indifference to women and only being afraid of Ethel's advances, to simply not being interested in women. ''ComicBook/ArchieComics2015'' took this even farther, with Jughead being explicitly UsefulNotes/{{Asexual|ity}}.

* ''ComicBook/{{Jommeke}}'' can be this towards lots of people who grew up with comics that were not BelgianComics (be it the American, Japanese or French type) due to how heavily it avoids having even the lightest mature subject matter (such as action, black comedy, flaws about school life, growing up, death, the environment, economy etc.) and thus ends up looking for the plenty who grew up with those comics as material that is [[SweetnessAversion so saccharine that they wouldn't even give it to their kids]]. Fact is that its heritage dates back from the '50s when there was a genre of Belgian comic books in which everyday families did everyday stuff. Before Jef Nys even worked on ''Jommeke'', he even created a comic book with an edgy kid character whose edginess stems from the fact that [[{{Tsundere}} at times he would be a jerk]]. In its native Flanders, the comic series has a very long-lasting demographic and is even popular with Muslim immigrants, something you wouldn't expect from something that originated in a Catholic magazine. All of those facts also allow it to avoid UnfortunateImplications.

** Some comics have been rewritten or had pages altered to change the story into something appropriate for modern values, such as one infamous story that had Jughead lamenting women in the work force and being portrayed as in the right (the entire story was rewritten into an entirely different plot). These often stick out as the new text and/or newly drawn pages often clash with the style of the older ones, so much so that a few of these older "fixed" stories have been completely redrawn from the ground-up so the style would match. Even nowadays if you look, you'll find older stories where they'll mention "___ Ethel", complete with the big glaring space where "Big" was before it was whited out.

*** In the earliest years of Archie, Archie only dated Veronica, and Betty was the DoggedNiceGirl who was constantly left out in the cold, with a vindictive streak that often led her to try to sabotage the couple. Of course, she was often portrayed sympathetically as the girl who was always getting her heart broken by a jerk, even though Archie simply didn’t notice her affections and/or made it clear he was interested in Veronica only, and Betty was usually the one trying to ruin their romance to get Archie to herself. The writers amended this by having Archie being in a relationship where Betty and Veronica share him. They also portray them in an open relationship, as even though the girls are his most frequent dates, Archie, Betty and Veronica are often seen dating and flirting with other people.
*** Only in most recent years have readers questioned Betty’s UndyingLoyalty to Archie. For most of it’s run, Archie’s constant dismissal of Betty in favor of Veronica, breaking dates with her at the last moment to go out with Ronnie and constantly using her as a backup date when Veronica was unavailable was often PlayedForLaughs, implied Archie should treat Betty better, or least implied that it was Veronica’s fault for tempting him. In more recent years, however, readers complain that the romance between Archie and Betty is toxic and unhealthy. They place fault at Archie for being the one to give into temptation and ditch Betty for Veronica over and over, and Betty herself for putting up with his shabby treatment. Lots of fans say that Betty should dump him and find a new boyfriend who won’t string her along and constantly disappoint her for another girl: one comic had exactly that happen where Reggie and Betty begin dating to make Archie and Veronica, respectively, jealous, and the relationship soon [[BecomingTheMask became genuine]], but as StatusQuoIsGod everything snapped back to "normal" at the end anyways.

* The typical climax to many strips in BritishComics like ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' in the '70s would involve a child doing something naughty and being given, as some stories put it, 'six of the best' - in other words, being bent across Dad's knee and whacked on the bum with a large slipper. It can be pretty surprising to a younger reader (ie. a reader not old enough to remember the time when smacking wasn't controversial) to realize that not only was that considered a moralistic plot element, ''you were supposed to laugh''. Of course, recent comics don't do that.
** This was also the case in school-set stories, here the general outcome for naughty children was to be caned by a teacher wearing an outmoded and archaic mortarboard and black gown. Many BritishComics originate in Scotland; what stopped corporal punishment in the ''Dandy'' and the ''Beano'' was the realization that the comic producers were advocating a practice that had been made illegal in the nation where they were created and printed.

* ''ComicBook/ZipiYZape'': A lot of stories show the twins receiving CorporalPunishment for their pranks. Keep in mind that most of that stories were written in the Spain of the 1940s and 1950s... Nowadays, YOU GO TO JAIL for this kind of punishments. The only reason the old comics still get away with this (sort of) these days is because it's always PlayedForLaughs.

** Another gag you'll ''never'' see nowadays is the gag where Ms. Grundy's entire head of hair would fly off her head whenever startled or frightened, leaving it ambiguous if she's actually bald and wearing a wig or if it's merely a SightGag. Back then it was just a funny "ha ha the grumpy old teacher is bald" joke, but nowadays this would never fly as viewers would likely see it as [[UnacceptableTargets making fun of cancer survivors]].

* The dissonance in comics is mocked in the videogame ''VideoGame/ComicJumperTheAdventuresOfCaptainSmiley.'' When he travels into UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, he is immediately paired with a ching chongey Chinese stereotype and put up against a feminist villain. Even Captain Smiley's sidekick Star, who is a complete {{Jerkass}} throughout the game, [[EvenEvilHasStandards is offended]]. The game also points out how UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode forbade swearing, but allowed ethnic stereotypes.

** One Scrooge incident had Scrooge gloat that legendary cowboy "Buffalo Bill" Cody had taught him how to fight with knives "Injun style". When mentioned on ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', one of the hosts, Wiz, had to sheepishly remind everyone that Scrooge is ''very'' old and it was a different time.

* ''ComicBook/{{Jommeke}}'' can be this towards lots of people who grew up with comics that were not BelgianComics (be it the American, Japanese or French type) due to how heavily it avoids having even the lightest mature subject matter (such as action, black comedy, flaws about school life, growing up, death, the environment, economy etc.) and thus ends up looking for the plenty who grew up with those comics as material that is [[SweetnessAversion so saccharine that they wouldn't even give it to their kids]]. Fact is that its heritage dates back from the '50s when there was a genre of Belgian comic books in which everyday families did everyday stuff. Before Jef Nys even worked on ''Jommeke'', he even created a comic book with an edgy kid character whose edginess stems from the fact that [[{{Tsundere}} at times he would be a jerk]]. In its native Flanders, the comic series has a very long-lasting demographic and is even popular with Muslim immigrants, something you wouldn't expect from something that originated in a Catholic magazine. All of those facts also allow it to avoid UnfortunateImplications.
* There's a bit of discussion on Website/{{Tumblr}} and Website/FourChan's /co/ board on how Harvey Comics' "Little Lotta" character, whose entire personality is more or less "hahaha, she's so fat", will never get an animated adaptation due to how relevant body-shaming and self-image issues have become. Ironically, the other major focus of "Little Lotta" is that her weight and appetite provide her with superhuman strength (she has uprooted trees), which violates the modern anti-obesity campaigns that both accompany and contradict the anti-body-shaming campaigns. In her case, there is no way to win!
* Creator/WilhelmBusch's 19th century stories like ''ComicStrip/MaxAndMoritz'' feature corporal punishment for kids (by caning). There are also some anti-Semitic bits in (lesser known) stories.

** When the album was to be published in Scandinavia, the publishers objected to a scene on page 56 of the color album, where Tintin blows up a rhinoceros with a stick of dynamite. They asked the page to be redrawn, and Herge complied. Instead of blowing the animal to pieces, the rhino accidentally fires the gun of the sleeping Tintin, gets scared, and runs away. This page was also used in the English- and German-language translations.
** When discussing racism in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics series one should also mention the fact that Hergé was forced to redraw black characters in "Tintin in America" and "The Crab With The Golden Claws" and change them into Caucasian characters under pressure of American publishers. This happened way in the 1950s!

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} in the Congo'' has often been criticized as having racist and colonialist views, as well as several scenes of unnecessary violence against animals. Hergé said that he was portraying the naïve views of the time. When the album was redrawn in 1946, Hergé removed several references to the fact that the Congo was at that time a Belgian colony. This failed to mollify critics. Because of its controversial subject matter, the album was previously only published as a facsimile black and white edition in English. However, a color English edition was finally published in September 2005, by Egmont Publishing, with a foreword explaining the historical context (a similar move had been employed for the 1983 translation of ''The Blue Lotus'') and a collectors'-edition banner in red covering the main image over the front cover.
** When the album was to be published in Scandinavia, the publishers objected to a scene on page 56 of the color album, where Tintin blows up a rhinoceros with a stick of dynamite. They asked the page to be redrawn, and Herge complied. Instead of blowing the animal to pieces, the rhino accidentally fires the gun of the sleeping Tintin, gets scared, and runs away. This page was also used in the English- and German-language translations.
** When discussing racism in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics series one should also mention the fact that Hergé was forced to redraw black characters in "Tintin in America" and "The Crab With The Golden Claws" and change them into Caucasian characters under pressure of American publishers. This happened way in the 1950s!
** Hergé's early albums were mostly drawn for fun, without much documentation. ''The Blue Lotus'' was the first story where Hergé actually did a lot of research. He had met a Chinese exchange student who told him a lot about Chinese culture and the Chinese-Japanese war that was going on back in 1934. This motivated Hergé to put more research into all of his stories. "The Blue Lotus" actually has a section where Tintin discusses various racist stereotypes about Chinese people to Chang, who laughs and says "people in your country must be crazy!" Hergé later lost contact with his Chinese friend and wrote arguably the most beautiful and touching album in the entire series, ''Tintin in Tibet'', just to express how much he missed him. They finally met again two years before Hergé's death.
* In the introduction to ''Fagin the Jew'' (his own confrontation with the anti-Semitism in Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/OliverTwist''), Creator/WillEisner recollects how he created {{E|thnicScrappy}}bony as a one-dimensional [[EthnicScrappy comic relief black sidekick]] for ''ComicBook/TheSpirit'' because it was common practice at the time. After serving alongside other Americans of different heritage in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Eisner was more enlightened and gave Ebony more depth and gravitas.

* ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' either stubbornly ignore it, or simply don't realize it in many tracts which contain outdated values (one example is in [[http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1054/1054_01.asp "The Little Bride"]], when the Christian Suzy insists that Mohammed was not a man of God because he married teenage girls and had slaves).
* In the Gargoyles "ComicBook/BadGuys" series, it's revealed that Dingo was raised by his stepfather, who showed visible shock when the teenaged Dingo came home with a mohawk. [[spoiler:You'd think someone who'd kill his wife, lie to her son about it and raise said son to a life of crime would be more understanding.]]

** This was also the case in school-set stories, here the general outcome for naughty children was to be caned by a teacher wearing an outmoded and archaic mortarboard and black gown. Many BritishComics originate in Scotland; what stopped coproral punishment in the ''Dandy'' and the ''Beano'' was the realisation that the comic producers were advocating a practice that had been made illegal in the nation where they were created and printed.
* Racial stereotypes, especially black and Chinese caricatures, were pretty frequent in British Comics back in their early days although no strip with these sort of characters were particularly longlasting. Some racial caricatures appeared in British Comics as late as the 1980s.

* Dave Gibbons recalls encountering this trope when writing ''Powerman'' for a Nigerian audience in the '70s. In particular, he had difficulty with the idea that a fat stomach indicated success and power rather than [[VillainousGlutton gluttony]] and {{greed}}.
* In the ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'' comics by Ibañez:
** Most non-white characters are drawn and speak as typical wartime caricatures, complete with accents, which raises more than a few eyebrows in the present day. That said, Ibañez's black characters tended to be universally more competent or at least less [[TooDumbToLive suicidally stupid]] than the white protagonists, so maybe it was just him catering to the drawing style expected at the time.
** The traditional Spaniard sentiment of disdain towards authority really shows in each album, starting with resident BadBoss El Súper, who is by far the greatest {{Jerkass}}. Real life politicians, wherever they show up, [[AcceptableTargets get absolutely no quarter]].
* ''{{Superdickery}}'' is something of a sub-trope of this, as the "humor" of the time now comes off as manipulative, abusive, and all-around in bad taste in these heavily-P.C. times.

* Creator/WilhelmBusch's 19th century stories like ''ComicStrip/MaxAndMoritz'' feature corporal punishment for kids (by caning). There are also some anti-Semitic bits in (lesser known) stories.

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'':
** The story ''Recap/AsterixAndTheSecretWeapon'' had a female bard, Bravura, come to the village, and introducing feminism to its women, which causes the men to leave the village in protest of their unfeminine ways. The main plot deals with female legionaries being introduced to fight the Gauls, because Gaulish gallantry insists they can't fight women. In the end, though the women of the village are prepared to fight, Asterix suggests they defeat the female legionaries by turning the village into a combination shopping center/spa, where the women can get mani/pedicures, get their hair done, and buy new clothes. In the end, the story ends with the men coming back and the women happily going back to their roles as housewives. Bizarrely, this comic was written in 1991, at a point where everyone should have known better. Even more bizarrely, most critical outrage was focused on a scene where Asterix punches Bravura, saying this would normalize violence against women, even though the context was completely different to domestic violence (it was in reaction to the ''second time'' Bravura had sexually harassed him publicly, using her [[TinyGuyHugeGirl size difference]] to manhandle him and completely ignoring him asking her to stop - and he immediately felt horrible about hitting her, ''and'' almost all the other characters treat him like crap for the rest of the story as a result of what he did) and the comics rely on silly violent slapstick constantly.
** The comic frequently presents black characters in the stereotypical blackface fashion with inky black skin and huge, red lips (in the earliest issues they even had thick "African" [[FunetikAksent accents]], although this was fortunately dropped in later volumes and the English translations). The crow's-nest pirate is a prominent example, which was recognised by the comics' original French audience as a parody of a character from a serious pirate ''bandes dessinée'', so his [[{{Blackface}} caricatured features]] were a way of swiping at comic books taking themselves too seriously. Interestingly, they rarely act out negative stereotypes when they have larger roles, behaving like any other character.
** A more cultural issue is the frequent use of gentle AlcoholInducedIdiocy and "funny drunk" archetypes, which are considered innocent in France, acceptable but not particularly child-friendly in the UK, and a thoroughly DiscreditedTrope in America where heavy drinking is connected in the public consciousness primarily to alcoholism. This may have contributed to how the comics have repeatedly failed to break America.
** Obelix is usually the one to be given a love interest, though usually it's unreciprocated and takes the form of a crush on a pretty woman which helps drive the plot. In ''Recap/AsterixAndCaesarsGift'', he develops another crush on newcomer Influenza, the daughter of an innkeeper, who uses this crush to manipulate him. Influenza is stated to be a teenager; Obelix, though he has a VagueAge, is clearly an adult and is at ''least'' in his twenties [[note]]He and Asterix are the same age; according to one book, Asterix isn't as young as he looks. Asterix and Obelix could be anywhere between their twenties and their thirties[[/note]]. While it was more acceptable in times past for adult men to pursue teenaged girls, to modern readers it's certainly uncomfortable.
** A lot of the humour is based around transplanting modern stereotypes about European countries to their historical equivalents - jokes about Belgian tribesman eating mayonnaise and Corsicans having switchblade swords are funny if you're a continental European, but nonsensical if you're American. Even nations that Americans do have stereotypes about (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Scotland) get treated from the French point of view, or from an unusual angle to avoid [[DudeNotFunny making jokes Goscinny thought would be considered more offensive than playful]]. ''Asterix'' dealt with American stereotypes in ''Recap/AsterixAndTheGreatCrossing'', where the added racial elements of having Native Americans act in stereotypical ways come off as just not funny to American readers (the jokes about American culture were removed from the film version to avoid alienating American audiences); ''Recap/AsterixAndTheFallingSky'' has likewise been seen as horrendously racist against the Japanese.
** Europeans have a long history of stereotyping and making fun of each other, and such humour is not considered particularly offensive in Europe so long as you're not referencing old wars or making fun of genocide. In America, a melting pot where immigrants from various European countries attempted to keep a personal cultural identity while living with others doing the same, many experiencing serious class oppression due to coming from the wrong 'old country', it comes off as much more mean-spirited.
* ''ComicStrip/TheOutburstsOfEverettTrue'' depict a man with a HairTriggerTemper beating up anyone who angers him (or simply yelling at them if they're female). While this isn't so bad (several victims are depicted as {{Asshole Victim}}s who deserve their comeuppance) one strip features a woman laden with many packages from a shopping trip politely asking Everett to give up his seat for her, which he responds to by yelling at her and accusing her of being one of those women who "gives women's rights speeches". While this may have been acceptable in Edwardian times, nowadays it just comes off as rude and unchivalrous.
* ''ComicBook/ZipiYZape'': A lot of stories show the twins receiving CorporalPunishment for their pranks. Keep in mind that most of that stories were written in the Spain of the 1940s and 1950s... Nowadays, YOU GO TO JAIL for this kind of punishments. The only reason the old comics still get away with this (sort of) these days is because it's always PlayedForLaughs.
* Polish comic book ComicBook/TytusRomekIAtomek was created when Poland was a Communist country under Russian control. In order to have the books published, the creator Henryk Chmielewski was forced to include elements of Communist propaganda in them as well have his heroes praising current system while being critical of the much more western world.
** In one particular story, the heroes meet Fidel Castro who is shown as a very nice and sympathetic person...
* ''ComicBook/{{Urbanus}}'' has lots of racial stereotyping (one of the characters is called "het Negerke", roughly translated as "The Little Negroid"). This makes export in other countries rather difficult, though the series is already too self-referential Flemish for that. The series did manage to be published in the politically correct Netherlands, though.
* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' has aged very poorly in regards to its depiction of stigmatized groups like LGBT and the mentally handicapped with slurs being thrown around very liberally and in situations where they don't really make sense, even if Hughie ends up calling Butcher out on using said slurs. Vic the Veep is a particularly insensitive portrayal of someone with Down's Syndrome, with having the same facial expression all the time, and has no sexual boundaries [[spoiler: at one point climaxing in an aide's face.]] The story can't decide whether his oafish behavior is funny or terrifying.

* ''ComicBook/DeKiekeboes'': Album #125 ''Vrouwen komen van Mars'' (women are from Mars) has in-universe ValuesDissonance when the main characters travel to an album so old that it has become a holy grail among comic book collectors called ''De avonturen van snijboon en zoon'' through a machine that transports them there.
** In the album they notice not only that SmokingIsCool there, but EVERYONE (even the little kids) do it. Justified, as the comic series [[MerchandiseDriven was given as a freebie if you bought enough packs of cigarettes]].
** There is no female character in the entire album. At the end of the story it is revealed that the creator wanted his characters to search for womankind in the album ''Vrouwen komen van Mars'' but it was never finished.

* ''Many'' of ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' older slapstick routines are magnificently dated and offensive by today's standards:
** In his earliest incarnation Moose was, by today's standards, an outright terrible boyfriend who would not only savagely beat up anyone who so much as looked at Midge (and often for not looking at her because "[[InsaneTrollLogic Why?! Isn't she pretty enough?!]]"), but even threatened and intimidated ''her'', which was entirely PlayedForLaughs. As the years went on he mellowed into at least treating her genuinely well, and from that to a mostly good-natured guy who just has a bad temper and is typically TooDumbToLive.
** "Big" Ethel was originally both [[{{Gonk}} a hideous bony monster]] and as close to an [[BlackComedyRape outright rapist]] as these comics could get, who all the boys were outright disgusted by. Again, as the years have gone on she went from that to typically just lusting over Jughead (and the source of the humor was Jughead's overall fear of women, rather than her looks), and ultimately got a redesign into a somewhat plain but otherwise easy on the eyes woman who's typically very kindhearted and fun to be around.
** In earlier comics Jughead was outright repulsed by women, against the idea of them having careers, and firmly believed women were below men. This was all PlayedForLaughs and he was portrayed as both sympathetic and often in the right for believing this, whereas nowadays this would be over the top for even a StrawMisogynist. Over the years this slowly changed from hate into a phobia that was mocked InUniverse, to indifference to women and only being afraid of Ethel's advances, to simply not being interested in women. ''ComicBook/ArchieComics2015'' took this even farther, with Jughead being explicitly UsefulNotes/{{Asexual|ity}}.
** Some comics have been rewritten or had pages altered to change the story into something appropriate for modern values, such as one infamous story that had Jughead lamenting women in the work force and being portrayed as in the right (the entire story was rewritten into an entirely different plot). These often stick out as the new text and/or newly drawn pages often clash with the style of the older ones, so much so that a few of these older "fixed" stories have been completely redrawn from the ground-up so the style would match. Even nowadays if you look, you'll find older stories where they'll mention "___ Ethel", complete with the big glaring space where "Big" was before it was whited out.
** ...while others received {{George Lucas Altered Version}}s, such as one issue that featured Archie defending his home from a robber ''Film/HomeAlone'' style (albeit unintentionally; it was the mess he'd left behind that tripped the robber up). Years later the comic received a part two where [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Reality Ensued]] and the robber sued them for the injuries. Similarly, a ''That Wilkin Boy'' bit had Sampson fall for a scam where he, in effect, handed a couple hundred dollars to a thief posing as an FBI agent that ended on a page featuring the scammers [[TheBadGuyWins celebrating that they got away with it]] -- newer prints of the story feature a footnote of an embarrassed Sampson declaring the police had since caught the thieves and begging the reader not to tell Bingo or Sam.
** Another gag you'll ''never'' see nowadays is the gag where Ms. Grundy's entire head of hair would fly off her head whenever startled or frightened, leaving it ambiguous if she's actually bald and wearing a wig or if it's merely a SightGag. Back then it was just a funny "ha ha the grumpy old teacher is bald" joke, but nowadays this would never fly as viewers would likely see it as [[UnacceptableTargets making fun of cancer survivors]].
** Archie comics have also touched on these on InUniverse from time to time, usually [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]]. One issue had Jughead explaining that it was tradition in ancient tribes for a pair of friends as close as he and Archie to become BloodBrothers by [[BloodOath cutting themselves and mixing their blood]]. When Archie points out that by today's standards this is a {{Squick}}ey practice that carries serious health risks, Jughead is quick to point out he has a way that doesn't go against modern values:
---> '''Jughead:''' Yeah! Since we're pretending to be ancient tribesmen, I was thinking we would ''pretend'' to cut ourselves and mix our blood!
---> '''Archie:''' You know what? I like the way you think!
** Not even the famous love triangle that put Archie Comics on the map is invulnerable to this.
*** In the earliest years of Archie, Archie only dated Veronica, and Betty was the DoggedNiceGirl who was constantly left out in the cold, with a vindictive streak that often led her to try to sabotage the couple. Of course, she was often portrayed sympathetically as the girl who was always getting her heart broken by a jerk, even though Archie simply didn’t notice her affections and/or made it clear he was interested in Veronica only, and Betty was usually the one trying to ruin their romance to get Archie to herself. The writers amended this by having Archie being in a relationship where Betty and Veronica share him. They also portray them in an open relationship, as even though the girls are his most frequent dates, Archie, Betty and Veronica are often seen dating and flirting with other people.
*** Only in most recent years have readers questioned Betty’s UndyingLoyalty to Archie. For most of it’s run, Archie’s constant dismissal of Betty in favor of Veronica, breaking dates with her at the last moment to go out with Ronnie and constantly using her as a backup date when Veronica was unavailable was often PlayedForLaughs, implied Archie should treat Betty better, or least implied that it was Veronica’s fault for tempting him. In more recent years, however, readers complain that the romance between Archie and Betty is toxic and unhealthy. They place fault at Archie for being the one to give into temptation and ditch Betty for Veronica over and over, and Betty herself for putting up with his shabby treatment. Lots of fans say that Betty should dump him and find a new boyfriend who won’t string her along and constantly disappoint her for another girl: one comic had exactly that happen where Reggie and Betty begin dating to make Archie and Veronica, respectively, jealous, and the relationship soon [[BecomingTheMask became genuine]], but as StatusQuoIsGod everything snapped back to "normal" at the end anyways.
* All of the comics from the heyday of Creator/HarveyComics feature preteen girls providing almost constant {{panty shot}}s. During the time when the stories and characters were most popular, a preteen girl showing her underwear was only considered cute and nothing more.
* The main character/narrator of ''ComicBook/{{Crecy}}'' frequently breaks the fourth wall to talk to the readers. At one point he notes they probably think of the French as CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys and points out that in his times they were feared across Europe and invaded Britain many times - if anything, they probably were considering the British "parsnip eating surrender monkeys".
* Many old jokes of the Chilean comic ''ComicBook/{{Condorito}}'' - even some from recent years - can be quite offensive now, what with the use of all kinds of racial stereotypes, like that of the CannibalTribe, and by jokes about [[BlackComedyRape women being forcibly kissed, and enjoying that.]]

* ''ValuesDissonance/TheDCU''
* ''ValuesDissonance/MarvelUniverse''

** ...while others received the equivalent to Administrivia/{{Justifying Edit}}s, such as one issue that featured Archie defending his home from a robber ''Film/HomeAlone'' style (albeit unintentionally; it was the mess he'd left behind that tripped the robber up). Years later the comic received a part two where [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Reality Ensued]] and the robber sued them for the injuries. Similarly, a ''That Wilkin Boy'' bit had Sampson fall for a scam where he, in effect, handed a couple hundred dollars to a thief posing as an FBI agent that ended on a page featuring the scammers [[TheBadGuyWins celebrating that they got away with it]] -- newer prints of the story feature a footnote of an embarrassed Sampson declaring the police had since caught the thieves and begging the reader not to tell Bingo or Sam.

A lot of long-running heroes from both Creator/{{Marvel}} and Creator/DCComics suffer this. UsefulNotes/{{The Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} in particular has cringe-worthy racist and sexist moments, taken UpToEleven in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}.

** In his earliest incarnation Moose was, by today's standards, an outright BastardBoyfriend who would not only savagely beat up anyone who so much as looked at Midge (and often for not looking at her because "[[InsaneTrollLogic Why?! Isn't she pretty enough?!]]"), but even threatened and intimidated ''her'', which was entirely PlayedForLaughs. As the years went on he mellowed into at least treating her genuinely well, and from that to a mostly good-natured guy who just has a bad temper and is typically TooDumbToLive.

* All of the comics from the heyday of Creator/HarveyComics feature preteen girls providing almost constant panty shots. During the time when the stories and characters were most popular, a preteen girl showing her underwear was only considered cute and nothing more.

* All of the comics from the heyday of Creator/HarveyComics feature preteen girls providing almost constant {{Panty Shot}}s. During the time when the stories and characters were most popular, a preteen girl showing her underwear was only considered cute and nothing more.

* ''ComicBook/{{Jommeke}}'' can be this towards lots of people who grew up with comics that were not BelgianComics (be it the American, Japanese or French type) due to how heavily it avoids having even the lightest mature subject matter (such as action, black comedy, flaws about school life, growing up, death, the environment, economy etc.) and thus ends up looking for the plenty who grew up with those comics as material that is [[TastesLikeDiabetes so saccharine]] [[UpToEleven that they would not even give it to their kids for a reading]]. Fact is that its heritage dates back from the '50s when there was a genre of Belgian comic books in which everyday families did everyday stuff. Before Jef Nys even worked on Jommeke he even created a comic book with an edgy kid character whose edginess stems from the fact that [[{{Tsundere}} at times he would be a jerk]]. In its native Flanders the comic series does have a very long-lasting demographic and is even popular with Muslim immigrants, something that you do not expect from something that originated in a Catholic magazine. That here being said all of those facts also allow it to avoid UnfortunateImplications.

** A ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' comic from 1949 called "Voodoo Hoodoo" showed, in a flashback, [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] hiring thugs to chase stereotypically drawn Africans out of their village so he could take their land, causing a witch doctor to send a zombie after him. Most of the sympathy of the story is reserved for Bombie the Zombie (who has had to search for Scrooge for years) and Donald (who the Zombie is currently chasing, mistaking him for a young Scrooge), with relatively little for the African tribe. When later depicted in Creator/DonRosa's ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', there is no doubt that his treatment of the natives is Scrooge's FaceHeelTurn, and arguably a crossing of the MoralEventHorizon. When Bombie was introduced in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', his entire backstory was redone, removing all of the connections to the tribe, and was completely redesigned to remove any sort of racist connotations (he's a [[{{Franchise/Batman}} Grundy]]-esque {{Dogface}} with only the nose ring being kept).

** The story ''Asterix and the Secret Weapon'' (La rose et le glaive) had a female bard, Bravura, come to the village, and introducing feminism to its women, which causes the men to leave the village in protest of their unfeminine ways. The main plot deals with female legionaries being introduced to fight the Gauls, because Gaulish gallantry insists they can't fight women. In the end, though the women of the village are prepared to fight, Asterix suggests they defeat the female legionaries by turning the village into a combination shopping center/spa, where the women can get mani/pedicures, get their hair done, and buy new clothes. In the end, the story ends with the men coming back and the women happily going back to their roles as housewives. Bizarrely, this comic was written in 1991, at a point where everyone should have known better. Even more bizarrely, most critical outrage was focused on a scene where Asterix punches Bravura, saying this would normalize violence against women, even though the context was completely different to domestic violence (it was in reaction to the ''second time'' Bravura had sexually harassed him publicly, using her [[TinyGuyHugeGirl size difference]] to manhandle him and completely ignoring him asking her to stop - and he immediately felt horrible about hitting her, ''and'' almost all the other characters treat him like crap for the rest of the story as a result of what he did) and the comics rely on silly violent slapstick constantly.

** Obelix is usually the one to be given a love interest, though usually it's unreciprocated and takes the form of a crush on a pretty woman which helps drive the plot. In ''Asterix and Caesar's Gift'', he develops another crush on newcomer Influenza, the daughter of an innkeeper, who uses this crush to manipulate him. Influenza is stated to be a teenager; Obelix, though he has a VagueAge, is clearly an adult and is at ''least'' in his twenties [[note]]He and Asterix are the same age; according to one book, Asterix isn't as young as he looks. Asterix and Obelix could be anywhere between their twenties and their thirties[[/note]]. While it was more acceptable in times past for adult men to pursue teenaged girls, to modern readers it's certainly uncomfortable.
** A lot of the humour is based around transplanting modern stereotypes about European countries to their historical equivalents - jokes about Belgian tribesman eating mayonnaise and Corsicans having switchblade swords are funny if you're a continental European, but nonsensical if you're American. Even nations that Americans do have stereotypes about (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Scotland) get treated from the French point of view, or from an unusual angle to avoid [[DudeNotFunny making jokes Goscinny thought would be considered more offensive than playful]]. ''Asterix'' dealt with American stereotypes in ''Asterix and the Great Crossing'', where the added racial elements of having Native Americans act in stereotypical ways come off as just not funny to American readers (the jokes about American culture were removed from the film version to avoid alienating American audiences); ''Asterix and The Falling Sky'' has likewise been seen as horrendously racist against the Japanese.

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' has aged very poorly in regards to its depiction of stigmatized groups like LGBT and the mentally handicapped with slurs being thrown around very liberally and in situations where they don't really make sense. Vic the Veep is a particularly insensitive portrayal of someone with Down's Syndrome, with having the same facial expression all the time, and has no sexual boundaries [[spoiler: at one point climaxing in an aide's face.]] The story can't decide whether his oafish behavior is funny or terrifying.
** Except that this is the point, as shown by Hughie's character rebelling against Butcher's (in particular) use of language regarding said groups. So it actually has aged well.

** The comic also frequently presents black characters in the stereotypical blackface fashion with inky black skin and huge, red lips (in the earliest issues they even had thick "African" [[FunetikAksent accents]], although this was fortunately dropped in later volumes and the English translations). Interestingly, they rarely act out negative stereotypes when they have larger roles, behaving like any other character.

* ValuesDissonance/TheDCU
* ValuesDissonance/MarvelUniverse

* A lot of long-running heroes from both Creator/{{Marvel}} and Creator/DCComics suffer this. UsefulNotes/{{The Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} in particular has cringe-worthy racist and sexist moments, taken UpToEleven in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}.
** Franchise/{{Superman}}'s entire history says a lot about this trope. Originally his powers didn't come from the rays of Earth's yellow sun, but were genetic since Krypton was home to a "race of supermen"; the horrors of World War II put an end to that kind of praise of eugenics. As has been well-documented, Superman did not originate as much of a "boy scout" (thus making it ironic when people say, "there's no room for a boy scout, this isn't 1938 anymore") and was distrusted by and distrustful of authorities, while his adventures pitted him against people abusing the downtrodden. During World War II, he moved into the role of "boy scout" and was often depicted as fighting enemy spies to the point where by the end of the decade, he was frequently depicted in front of the American flag, and so-forth. Then, of course, by the fifties, everything about him seemed to change to suit the atomic age, from his powers, to his ideals. This, however, didn't stop him from occasionally tackling common prejudices of the time in which he has to battle an expy of the KKK who were threatening a Chinese-American family.
** Values dissonance began to haunt Superman by the end of the '60s as he had not reverted to his earlier, rebellious form, but remained a symbol of the establishment, despite the youth movement moving that way. Attempts at "modernizing" Superman were often scoffed at, and between the '70s and the '00s, Superman was often used as an example of the right and virtuous old-fashioned superhero for better or worse, though besides "I don't kill," they're rarely specific about what "morals" of his are supposed to be outdated. That's not to say Superman never had any high points during this period, they just tended to be more about the overall plot or spectacle. Lately, they seem to be trying to get away from this.
** Many ComicBook/{{Superboy}} [[note]]Superman in his youth[[/note]] comics had the main character, Clark Kent, being subjected to corporal punishments, usually in the form of spanking, by his adoptive father, Jonathan. However, Jonathan discovers the hard way why he would be called [[MadeOfIron Man of Steel]], even with a spanking machine, which is also destroyed. One story even has it in a school! Now, think about that for a moment considering corporal punishment of any kind in school... at least state ones, would not go well with today's view.
** One [[TheFifties 1950s]] storyline has Lois Lane breaking Superman's absolute veto about following him to the Fortress of Solitude. The storyline attributes this not to her being a journalist but down to her being female, and therefore both nosy and in need of punishment for this very female character flaw. Superman, watching unseen, orders the sentinel robot to catch her and inflict Punishment. The robot therefore upends her over its lap and applies a vigorous spanking. The next morning she apologises to Clark Kent about not being able to sit down "because of what that robot did to me last night". The reader is invited to join in with the laughter.
** Shortly after ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s introduction, there's a ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' story in which (for typically contrived [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] reasons) he has to pretend to be engaged. So, he spends a good part of the story making kissy-face with the mysterious new superheroine Mighty Maid. At the end of the story it's revealed she's Supergirl in disguise, and thus Supes has been making out with his ''15-year-old first cousin.'' (A later story makes it clear that this is not Kryptonian-Earth values dissonance; first cousins couldn't marry on Krypton.)
** Many modern collections of Golden Age stories have taken steps to try removing content that would be deemed offensive. For instance, many of the ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1942}}'' collections remove the painfully racist caricatures of black people, replacing them with more natural-looking black characters.
** Franchise/WonderWoman from the Golden Age had a particular problem because her creator, William Marston, believed that dominance, submission, and a very bondage-oriented culture were all things needed in what was then "today's world". Wonder Woman at one point extols the virtues of being a (consensual) slave. Needless to say, this sexuality-based cultural paradigm was ''not'' in synch with what people believed then, and hasn't really caught on ''now'' either. And while Marston had very progressive ideas about women's empowerment for his day, he also seemed to think that women were "naturally" prone to things like vanity and emotional outbursts.
** Much like the ''Series/{{Bat Masterson|1958}}'' example in the television section, many older comics, including ones featuring Superman and Batman, had the heroes sometimes punish female criminals by spanking them. This is even where Batman's infamous "quiet or poppa spank" line comes from. By today's standards, it'd be considered sexist, as well as sexual harassment.
** ComicBook/TwoFace's traditional origins of his disfigurement being the cause of his FaceHeelTurn has been criticized as a case of UnfortunateImplications as Harvey's turn to villainy was due to his disfigurement. Adaptations have tried to mend this to varying degrees:
*** The ComicBook/PostCrisis comics, the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse and ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' depicted Harvey as suffering from mental health issues long before he's disfigured (though given the type of games Telltale did, the player can save Harvey from his disfigurement and he'll still snap).
*** ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' combined Two-Face's origin for the character of Clayface due the Bat Embargo making Two-Face exclusive to the below film. However, not only is Clayface’s body warped, but he was subject to psychological torture from Joker and constant abuse by his BadBoss, finally being unable to take any more of it. Even then, he was simply on a tipping point and people treating him like a monster was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
*** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' had his disfigurement be combined with the death of Rachel Dawes and both be the capstone of a TraumaCongaLine Harvey went through.
*** ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'', ''Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman'', ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'', and ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'' depicted Harvey's moral compass as largely unchanged: the former three went with AdaptationalVillainy and had Harvey be a piece of work long before he's disfigured, whereas the latter went with AdaptationalHeroism and keep a disfigured Harv on the side of the angels.
* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's Creator/MarvelComics maxiseries ''ComicBook/TheTwelve'' contains an InUniverse example. [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero Dynamic Man sees a woman who's been mugged being chased by a black man. Upon grabbing the black man he finds out that this is the victim's husband. He instantly loses interest in helping either one. Likewise, when he helps out a bar that is being attacked, only to realize it's a gay bar, he disgustedly comments that this sort of thing should have been stopped a long time ago before flying away.
** The whole series examines the dissonance between Golden Age heroes and the modern world they've found themselves in; while all of them suffer to a degree, Dynamic Man is a particularly ironic example given how he constantly stresses that he's "the Man of Tomorrow."
* An in-story example occurs in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', when '70s superhero ComicBook/BlackLightning meets modern black superhero Mr. Terrific. Terrific remarks that a black person actually calling himself "Black Lightning" is ridiculous. (He did wear a black-and-blue costume, and his lightning bolts are often depicted as literally black, but still.) Lightning replies that when he began his career he was "the only one of us out there" and wanted people to know that.
* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} in the Congo'' has often been criticized as having racist and colonialist views, as well as several scenes of unnecessary violence against animals. Hergé said that he was portraying the naïve views of the time. When the album was redrawn in 1946, Hergé removed several references to the fact that the Congo was at that time a Belgian colony. This failed to mollify critics. Because of its controversial subject matter, the album was previously only published as a facsimile black and white edition in English. However, a color English edition was finally published in September 2005, by Egmont Publishing, with a foreword explaining the historical context (a similar move had been employed for the 1983 translation of ''The Blue Lotus'') and a collectors'-edition banner in red covering the main image over the front cover.

** When discussing racism in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics series one should also mention the fact that Hergé was forced to redraw black characters in "Tintin in America" and "The Crab With The Golden Claws" and change them into Caucasian characters under pressure of American publishers. This happened way in the 1950s!
** Hergé's early albums were mostly drawn for fun, without much documentation. ''The Blue Lotus'' was the first story where Hergé actually did a lot of research. He had met a Chinese exchange student who told him a lot about Chinese culture and the Chinese-Japanese war that was going on back in 1934. This motivated Hergé to put more research into all of his stories. "The Blue Lotus" actually has a section where Tintin discusses various racist stereotypes about Chinese people to Chang, who laughs and says "people in your country must be crazy!" Hergé later lost contact with his Chinese friend and wrote arguably the most beautiful and touching album in the entire series, ''Tintin in Tibet'', just to express how much he missed him. They finally met again two years before Hergé's death.
* In his earliest appearances, ComicBook/BlackPanther was often called "Jungle Man" by ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} and [[ComicBook/AntMan Goliath]]. While the name was in reference to his beast motif (and the fact that he literally lived in the jungle), calling a black man that name would justifiably be considered highly offensive in the 21st century. Quite a few people didn't think it was appropriate in the 20th Century.
* Likewise, the ComicBook/BlackPanther villain who used to be his ArchEnemy, M'Baku the Man-Ape, has become increasingly sidelined due to the fact that caricaturing Africans as apes or monkeys was quite popular throughout the first half of the 20th century. This makes a big burly African man who dresses up in a gorilla costume and calls himself "the Man-Ape" very inappropriate these days.[[note]]When the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' got around to featuring M'Baku in ''Film/BlackPanther2018'', the gorilla theme remained associated with his tribe and he briefly wears a bit of gorilla themed wear for a TrialByCombat early in the film, but he would undergo AdaptationalHeroism and never call himself Man-Ape.[[/note]] Lampshaded in the 2nd volume of ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', where the African-American ElementalShapeshifter Coal has to temporarily disguise himself as M'Baku and complains about the racism in making the black guy dress up like an ape.
* If M'Baku is bad, then the C-list mutant supervillain The Mandrill is worse. First, there's his backstory; his father was exposed to radiation at the same time as an African cleaning woman, and as a consequence, the Mandrill was born with black skin and excessive body hair, resulting in his father [[ChocolateBaby believing his wife had been unfaithful]], a condition that worsened as the kid aged until he literally [[{{Animorphism}} transformed into a humanoid mandrill]] in his teens. Secondly, there's his power: he secretes mutated sex {{pheromones}} that act as MoreThanMindControl on women - and ''only'' women - by acting as [[LivingAphrodisiac an addictive super-aphrodisiac]]. And he's explicitly confirmed as [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain a misogynist who shamelessly abuses his powers]] to get ''any''thing he wants from women, including sex. So, in other words, he's a black man[[note]]yes, genetically he's Caucasian, not African, but nobody can tell[[/note]] who is literally a humanoid ape, and whose power-set is, effectively, "super-rapist"[[note]]he does also have enhanced strength, reflexes and agility, which fits his ape-man body, but everybody just remembers the super-rapist pheromones[[/note]]. Needless to say, Marvel generally wants to pretend that this guy never existed, although he has popped up in some surprising places -- including ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' and, most notably, ''WesternAnimation/MODOK2021''.

* ComicBook/{{Ultimate|Marvel}} ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is another in-story example. In order to maintain his UsefulNotes/WorldWarII origin story for stories in the 1970s and beyond, the original Cap was said to have been frozen in an iceberg and thawed out years later. The Ultimate version goes into depth about the kind of culture shock that would happen if a man, frozen in the 1940s, actually woke up in the 2000s.
** Unfortunately, Ultimate Cap actually doesn't feature ''enough'' values dissonance. At one point, when talking about possibly surrendering, he asks insultingly if any one thinks that the ''A'' on his forehead stands for France. CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys is a ''modern'' stereotype and during WWII, Cap actually fought beside dozens of French resistance fighters who regularly gave their lives to complete a mission or save Cap. The actual Captain America proved this point only a few issues later, during Civil War, when he makes a rather more intelligent and eloquent speech about the bravery of the men and women he fought besides in occupied France. In ''Ultimate Avengers'', Cap was in custody of some French soldiers, who just happened to be mentioning how brave the French Resistance was. About a page later, Cap's free and kicking ass... whilst the soldiers are cringing, giving up without a fight. That's Creator/MarkMillar for you.[[note]]He [[ComicBook/{{Nextwave}} licks goats]], after all.[[/note]]
** A kind of unintentional double subversion occurred in ''Ultimates 3''. Cap's understandable shock and disgust at learning Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are in an incestuous relationship is laughed off by Wasp as an example of his old-fashioned Puritanism. For readers however, Wasp's (and by extension the whole team's) casual acceptance of incest is extreme Values Dissonance, while Cap comes across as the OnlySaneMan.
** Cap also got hit with that particular stick in ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'', solely for [[RuleOfFunny comedic purposes]].
-->'''Nextwave Cap''': Close your eyes, go back to Avengers Mansion, and [[StayInTheKitchen make my dinner]].
** '60s-era Cap featured many similar views played straight, with Cap nudging his career-woman girlfriend Sharon Carter to resign from SHIELD so that she could be his wife; back then, that was pretty normal. Nowadays, it makes Steve look like a dick. As such, Steve is now far more progressive with his views (including bowing leadership to Wasp and serving alongside many female Avengers without questioning their abilities), and his relationship with Sharon is modernized into a BattleCouple with Sharon being the one who proposes to Steve.
** The entire early run of Cap's stories from WWII fit this category, most especially the ones featuring villainous "Japs."
** Similarly, in the '50s there was a run where Captain America and Bucky came back and fully embraced the idea of the RedScare. This was later retconned to be a ''replacement'' Captain America and Bucky who went a bit paranoid after getting a bad batch of the Super-Soldier Serum.
** [[{{Pun}} Ultimately]], the differences between original Captain America and "Ultimate" Captain America are a values dissonance between the comics industry of the 1940's and the modern day. At the time, the industry was all about big patriotism and sticking by your country in times of trouble because hey, it's your country. Nowadays, comics are more willing to stick it to the man. Thus original Cap attempted to symbolize everything best about America, while post-[[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Cap tries to fight everything that's the worst about it.
** ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's sidekick Lemar Hoskins briefly [[AffirmativeActionLegacy took up the mantle of Bucky]], Cap's [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] sidekick. When it was pointed out that the term "Buck" was once used as a derogatory term for black men, Lemar changed his CodeName to Battlestar.
** The ''Young Allies'' member Whitewash Jones was depicted stereotypically enough to be retconned as a stereotyped depiction of the real character in ''Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special'' #1.
* Early ComicBook/XMen comics have some inevitable casual sexism that can be jarring to the modern reader, all the males (including Xavier) spend much of their time making crude remarks about Jean Grey and in one early issue the maid is ill so it falls to Jean to make everyone dinner (nobody questions this, least of all Jean). The fact that Professor X had a full-time maid who prepared meals for the household is itself a bit of values dissonance: it was something to be expected of a man of his social status back then, but to modern readers the idea of having a full-time domestic servant seems weird at best.
** Similar to the treatment of Sue Storm throughout most of the early ComicBook/FantasticFour stories. Even tales that tried to demonstrate her value to the team - like "[[http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=61747 A Visit to the Fantastic Four]]" in FF #11 - come out painfully sexist now (as for the old running gag with Namor... let's not even go there...).
** One early issue showed the team training in the Danger Room, with the male members fighting a robot while Jean - who went into combat alongside the men all the time - practiced using her telekinesis to sew.
** One very early issue showed that every male member of the team was lusting after Jean, even Professor Xavier, who believes the biggest obstacle to a romance between them is ''his wheelchair'', not that he's her teacher and twice her age. This has almost never been mentioned since then, and when it is brought up it is one of Xavier's greatest personal shames.
** ''{{ComicBook/Sabretooth}}'' has a habit of casually referring to women as "frails." The term being slang from the 18th century -used to refer to women back when they were seen as the weaker, more frail, sex. Creed was born in the 1800s, and seems to have stuck to the name. He usually refers to many women he speaks with as "frail" or just simply "girl." Even after his Inversion, and becoming a good guy, he still does it. Rogue, Mystique, and Monet have expressed dislike of being called "frail." But Creed continues to do it, telling Rogue that if he stopped, he may as well be neutered completely. Also an example of possible racism comes up with him condescendingly referring to Silver Fox as Logan's "squaw", which could be seen as offensive now.
** Similarly, Mister Sinister is an immortal from XIX century Britain and some writers, Creator/KieronGillen in particular, like to give him attitude and prejudices fitting that time and place - he once referred to Storm as "Cyclop's colonial pet" and when Loki called him a Frenchman, demanded an apology for a "Galic slur".
** The depiction of Wolverine in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' has aged rather poorly since the book first saw print. While it was intended to play up his image as a bad boy and ladies' man, in a post [=#MeToo=] and Time's Up world, his sexual proclivities, which included sleeping with a barely-legal Jean Grey and trying to sleep with the very-underaged Mary Jane Watson (during a FreakyFridayFlip with Spider-Man, to boot, which happened because he wouldn't leave Jean alone) and Liz Allan make him come across as creepy and with the latter two, he looks like a pedophile and attempted rapist.
* This idea was played with in ''[[ComicBook/XForce X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl]]'', where the Golden Age heroine Miss America was portrayed as an unapologetic racist. Ironically, she ended up in a romantic relationship with Anarchist, a black superhero she had earlier hurled a vile slur at. Miss America's racism was later used by artist Nick Dragotta as part of a justification for making the new Miss America a [[AffirmativeActionLegacy Latina]]. He pointed out the delicious irony behind making the successor of an out-of-touch bigot a woman of color.
* The climax of an early [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} Constantine]] story dealing with a serial killer who targets the hero involves the hero getting a gun. Given that the killer is a KnifeNut, the confrontation is a bit uneven. For a British audience, the pistol was presumably an unexpected and shocking twist. For any nation where pistols are perfectly legal and commonplace, this is both an AntiClimax and a bit of a WhatAnIdiot moment for Constantine who did not think to use a gun on many previous occasions.

* Writer James Robinson talked about this when explaining some of the character changes in the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' reboot of the ComicBook/{{J|usticeSocietyOfAmerica}}SA. He pointed out that while the team's [[MonochromeCasting all-white]], all-heterosexual ([[AffirmativeActionGirl and mostly male]]) line-up was to be expected back in UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|of Comic Books}}, there was no excuse for it remaining that way in 2012. To that end, he slotted in the black Mr. Terrific and the Latina ComicBook/{{Hawk|man}}girl as founding members of the team, and made [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Alan Scott/Green Lantern]] an openly-gay man.
* Creator/DCComics trend of returning characters from the LegacyCharacter inheritors to the [[RunningTheAsylum versions the writers grew up with]] has had the unintended consequence of removing/killing off dozens of minority characters from the DCU. Because back when they were reading, all the major heroes were white.
** An odd version of this occurs with the Flash (Barry Allen). Barry was previously treated as something of an optimist and a good-natured fellow, with cheerful science lessons for the readers. In the decades since his death, this almost became Flanderization, with Barry being treated something close to a saint whose only flaw was spending too much time on heroics, showing up late on dates with his wife. The problem with his return? Barry was intended to be a nerd hero, so his day job was a police scientist. In the 1950s, nobody thought much of it. In 2010, CSI, profiling, and forensics investigations are the subject of nightly television drama, so Barry's happy attitude was jarring on a character who'd retroactively seen more death than the Joker. Although there is such a thing as GallowsHumor; it's common for people in jobs like Barry's to develop strong (albeit often [[BlackComedy somewhat dark]]) senses of humor as a psychological defense mechanism to counteract the grime and misery they're confronted with on a day-by-day basis in their careers. This [[RealityIsUnrealistic tends to not make it into said dramas]] because angst is generally more dramatic and makes those involved seem less insensitive. And with an increasing number of more comedic elements in forensics shows (AutopsySnackTime, just as an example), the modern reaction to this is ITSELF subject to this trope.

* In the ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'' comics by Ibañez:
** Most non-white characters are drawn and speak as typical wartime caricatures, complete with accents, which raises more than a few eyebrows in the present day. That said, Ibañez's black characters tended to be universally more competent or at least less [[TooDumbToLive suicidally stupid]] than the white protagonists, so maybe it was just him catering to the drawing style expected at the time.
** The traditional Spaniard sentiment of disdain towards authority really shows in each album, starting with resident BadBoss El Súper, who is by far the greatest {{Jerkass}}. Real life politicians, wherever they show up, [[AcceptableTargets get absolutely no quarter]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'':
** Shapeshifting Xavin, a skrull who was the romantic partner of Karolina, was a product of Marvel's reluctance (at the time) to put openly gay characters in a series that they had hoped to market towards teenagers, which is also why Xavin's first appearance created a pretense for the newly-outed Karolina being [[PutOnABus put on a spaceship]], and why, after Xavin and Karolina returned, Xavin kept assuming a male form. If Marvel had tried imposing such rules in modern times, they'd probably be subject to the kind of public-relations nightmare that DC faced when it vetoed ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}'s lesbian marriage in 2013.
** Some of the behavior of other Runaways towards Xavin would be less acceptable just nearly ten years later, after the knowledge of what behavior should be considered transphobic became more widespread.

* Franchise/GreenLantern Hal Jordan premiered in the late 1950s with a female boss/love interest who ran a military-industrialist complex air base, and an Inuit sidekick who not only knew his secret identity, but kept Jordan's power source safe and even stood in for him when Jordan was off-world. These concepts were [[FairForItsDay quite progressive at the time]], but to modern readers get easily overshadowed by [[LoveMakesYouEvil his boss turning to supervillainy to try to force Green Lantern into marriage]] and his sidekick gleefully accepting a blatantly racist nickname. Fortunately, in the latest reboot, the nickname "Pieface" showed up only on one occasion, and got the speaker pummeled shortly thereafter.

* The infamous ComicBook/OneMoreDay:
** The point of the story is that it's heroic to do whatever you can to save a life, which is a fine moral... Except that "whatever you can" in this case involves making a deal with the devil, so the moral becomes "do '''WHATEVER YOU CAN''' to save a life."
** There's the reason behind using a deal with the devil to separate Spider-Man and Mary Jane; Joe Quesada wanted them broken up, but believed divorcing them would send a bad message and so used magic to remove the marriage from existence. For those who don't think divorce is a bad thing when you have a suitable reason for it (which is a decent number of people nowadays), that makes the decision to use magic devil-deals ridiculous. Especially considering that most of Spider-Man's long-established supporting characters of roughly his own age-group were already divorced or widowed before ''One More Day''[[note]]Cleanly divorced: Randy Robertson (who is a few years younger than Peter Parker) from Amanda, and Debra from Mr. Whitman. Quasi-divorced (not married, but went through a very painful separation): Flash Thompson and Sha Shan. Widowed: Betty Brant Leeds (but not before her husband walked out on her because of her (second!) adulterous affair with Flash) and Liz Allan Osborn[[/note]]. To cap it all off, the issue immediately following ''One More Day'' revealed that Harry Osborn was alive and now a triple divorcé, having apparently married two more women after getting a divorce from his former widow Liz.
** The follow-up arc, ''One Moment in Time'', compounded this by motivating Mary Jane's decision not to get married to Peter in the altered-by-Mephisto timeline by having her say that she could not envisage raising children with Spider-Man and that marriage without children was meaningless. Which of course is not just out of touch with Mary Jane's established characterization, e. g. her joyful reaction to her pregnancy during the Clone Saga, but also with most readers' ideas about love and marriage.

* A very early issue of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' has a teacher respond to Flash's bullying of Peter by forcing Peter to challenge Flash to a boxing match. It's been decades since it would be considered even remotely acceptable for a teacher to respond to school bullying in a similar manner. Also, portraying everyone accepting a JerkJock as being popular has similarly become more problematic: the "wimpy" but kind and helpful Peter would be the one depicted with more friends in most modern works.

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'':
** The first Silk Spectre not only forgiving The Comedian for [[AttemptedRape trying to rape her]], but having at least one consensual encounter with him later in life that resulted in her daughter's birth, can come across as awkward to modern readers. The Comedian in general, who in addition to the attempted rape was also a war criminal and multiple murderer, would likely be portrayed not nearly as sympathetically were he created today. That or he would have to be extremely retooled. That said, he ''is'' very clearly written as a villain.
** One that actually works in Alan Moore's favor is Rorschach calling New York City "an abattoir of retarded children". At the time, "retard" wasn't considered that offensive, but in the time since, especially after a certain scene in ''Film/TropicThunder'', it's become a highly offensive term, so it will turn more modern readers off on Rorschach rather than having them become part of the MisaimedFandom that arose when the story first saw print.

* In ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' from the early 1980s, TheMole Terra has a sexual relationship with ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}. Not only is Deathstroke twice her age, but he has ''kids'' either her age or older. Terra is above the age-of-consent in most of America (she was sixteen) however it's still {{squick}}y. That was the intended reaction, however it's become a bit ''too'' uncomfortable in future years. That aspect of their relationship either gets altered or criticized in adaptations and future references. The 2003 ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' cartoon and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' outright removed their relationship (with it depicted as more of a mentorship in both) and the 2016 [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTheJudasContract animated film adaptation]] of the arc also changed it so that no sex occured. Terra simply has an unrequited crush on Deathstroke. The main bone of the problem is that the original story tries to use the relationship to show Terra as wicked and depraved, while ignoring how sleazy it makes Slade look like. When having an opportunity to RetCon the relationship away ''ComicBook/DeathstrokeRebirth'' shows it happened but portrays it as something Slade has done to easier manipulate and control Terra, a MoralEventHorizon even for Deathstroke himself, that seriously messed already emotionally unstable Terra for the rest of her life.

* In Marvel Comics, many of the older heroes were seen chomping on cigarettes or cigars. Wolverine, the Thing, Nick Fury, heck, we see Professor X using a pipe in the first issue of ''X-Men''! Smoking in Marvel's comics has sharply declined over the decades the same way it has in real life due to the increasing awareness of its health risks and decreasing social acceptability. Joe Quesada formally banned it when he became editor in chief due to having lost a family member to lung cancer, but it was already nearly gone by that point anyway.

* ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'': The "Wanda Langowski" storyline is complicated, but in a nutshell, team member Sasquatch aka Walter Langowski is (temporarily) killed, but returns to the living when his spirit occupies the body of his then-dead teammate Snowbird; the magicks involved altered her body so that it was neither Walter's nor Snowbird's, but a statuesque 30-something woman. Walter makes one attempt at getting his male body back by visiting the mutant Scrambler who could alter human flesh, but his supernatural body wasn't affected by Scrambler's powers. Walter takes the name "Wanda" and resigns himself to living as a woman for the time being. The storyline was written in the 80's before mainstream society had any real understanding of transgender issues. Had it come out more recently, Walter would've more fully explored his options for presenting as a man in his new body if medical transition wasn't possible--cutting his hair, binding his breasts, etc.--rather than just going "Welp, I guess I'm a woman now."[[note]]Walter did eventually get his male body back, which is ''also'' a long story.[[/note]]

** The depiction of Wolverine in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' as aged rather poorly since the book first saw print. While it was intended to play up his image as a bad boy and ladies' man, in a post [=#MeToo=] and Time's Up world, his sexual proclivities, which included sleeping with a barely-legal Jean Grey and trying to sleep with the very-underaged Mary Jane Watson (during a FreakyFridayFlip with Spider-Man, to boot, which happened because he wouldn't leave Jean alone) and Liz Allan makes him come across as creepy and with the latter two, he looks like a pedophile and attempted rapist.

** Some comics have been rewritten or had pages altered to change the story into something appropriate for modern values, such as one infamous story that had Jughead lamenting women in the work force and being portrayed as in the right (the entire story was rewritten into an entirely different plot). These often stick out as the new text and/or newly drawn pages often clash with the style of the older ones, so much so that a few of these older "fixed" stories have been completely redrawn from the ground-up so the style would match.

** Some comics have been rewritten or had pages altered to change the story into something appropriate for modern values, such as one infamous story that had Jughead lamenting women in the work force and being portrayed as in the right (the entire story was rewritten into an entirely different plot).
** ...while others received the equivalent to Administrivia/{{Justifying Edit}}s, such as one issue that featured Archie defending his home from a robber ''Film/HomeAlone'' style (albeit unintentionally; it was the mess he'd left behind that tripped the robber up). Years later the comic received a part two where [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Reality Ensued]] and the robber sued them for the injuries (''very'' sadly TruthInTelevision).

*** Only in most recent years have readers questioned Betty’s UndyingLoyalty to Archie. For most of it’s run, Archie’s constant dismissal of Betty in favor of Veronica, breaking dates with her at the last moment to go out with Ronnie and constantly using her as a backup date when Veronica was unavailable was often PlayedForLaughs, implied Archie should treat Betty better, or least implied that it was Veronica’s fault for tempting him. In more recent years, however, readers complain that the romance between Archie and Betty is toxic and unhealthy. They place fault at Archie for being the one to give into temptation and ditch Betty for Veronica over and over, and Betty herself for putting up with his shabby treatment. Lots of fans say that Betty should dump him and find a new boyfriend who won’t string her along and constantly disappoint her for another girl.

* In his earliest appearances, ComicBook/BlackPanther was often called "Jungle Man" by ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} and [[ComicBook/AntMan Goliath]]. While the name was in reference to his beast motif, calling a black man that name would justifiably be considered highly offensive in the 21st century. Quite a few people didn't think it was appropriate in the 20th Century.

** In earlier comics Jughead was outright repulsed by women, against the idea of them having careers, and firmly believed women were below men. This was all PlayedForLaughs and he was portrayed as both sympathetic and often in the right for believing this, whereas nowadays this would be over the top for even a StrawMisogynist. Over the years this slowly changed from hate into a phobia that was mocked InUniverse, to indifference to women and only being afraid of Ethel's advances, to simply not being interested in women. ''ComicBook/ArchieComics2015'' took this even farther, with Jughead being explicitly {{Asexual|ity}}.

* ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'': The "Wanda Langowski" storyline is complicated, but in a nutshell, team member Sasquatch aka Walter Langowski is (temporarily) killed, but returns to the living when his spirit occupies the body of his then-dead teammate Snowbird; the magicks involved altered the body so that it was neither Walter's nor Snowbird's, but a statuesque 30-something woman. He takes the name "Wanda" and resigns himself to living as a woman for awhile. This took place in the 80's before mainstream society had any real understanding of transgender issues. Walter makes one attempt at getting his male body back by visiting the mutant Scrambler who could alter human flesh, but his supernatural body wasn't affected by Scrambler's powers. Had the comic come out more recently, Walter would've more fully explored his options for presenting as a man in his new body if medical transition wasn't possible--cutting his hair, binding his breasts, etc.--rather than just going "Welp, I guess I'm a woman now."[[note]]Walter did eventually get his male body back, which is ''also'' a long story.[[/note]]

* ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'': The "Wanda Langowski" storyline is complicated, but in a nutshell, team member Sasquatch aka Walter Langowski is (temporarily) killed, but returns to the living when his spirit occupies the body of his then-dead teammate Snowbird; the magicks involved altered the body so that it was neither Walter's nor Snowbird's, but a statuesque 30-something woman. He takes the name "Wanda" and resigns himself to living as a woman for awhile. This took place in the 80's before mainstream society had any real understanding of transgender issues. Walter makes one attempt at getting his male body back by visiting the mutant Scrambler who could alter human flesh, but his supernatural body wasn't affected by Scrambler's powers. Had the comic come out more recently, Walter would've more fully explored his options for presenting as a man in his new body if medical transition wasn't possible--cutting his hair, binding his breasts, etc.--rather than just going "Welp, I guess I'm a woman now."