Parodied in an issue of Planetary, where a superhero who went through a Darker and Edgier Audience-Alienating Era during The Dark Age of Comic Books blames the resident John ConstantineCaptain Ersatz for it. The caped character in that issue is an obvious expy of Alan Moore's famous Cerebus Retcon to the Miracleman/Marvelman franchise. (Perhaps not coincidentally, he also happens to look like Tom Strong, another Moore character, though the similarities end there.) The masked, caped man is rather clearly an example of The Cape whose origin turns out to be far seedier than originally presented — precisely what Moore did to Miracleman in the 1980s.
Deconstructed by JLA/Avengers. The heroes have had their two earths and timelines fused, and the entire cosmos keeps warping as a result. When they finally meet the Grandmaster, a cosmic being who was nearly killed by the other organizer of the event that led to the universes fusing, Krona, he tells them to stop Krona, which would separate the worlds and put the timelines back to normal. The heroes ask him, basically, "What kind of worlds are we going back to?" The Grandmaster, with the last of his power, shows them the events of their lives. The Audience-Alienating Eras end up sticking out more than anything else; about half the examples on the DC and Marvel pages are seen. The most notable becomes Hal Jordan — at the time of the comic's writing, he had gone crazy, killed off all the other Lanterns, tried to destroy and remake the universe, died, and become the host for The Spectre. And yet, when they debate, he decides to restore the old time because they are not gods to reshape reality as they see fit. Even more amazing when you consider that this is a reversal of what he himself tried to do in Zero Hour during his Parallax phase.
For many fans, the Aliens comic books were mostly this. While some were appropriately themed, the majority ignored the Lovecraftian elements of the source material in favour of macho muscles-and-guns action influenced by the second film entry in the series. The second film itself doesn't qualify as an example because it was a subversion of the high expectations placed on the combat unit involved, neatly allowing for heavy action elements without subverting the horror. Obviously, the writers of the comic books weren't mindful of this distinction and neutered both the horrifyingmonster and the interesting, medium-tech, hypercapitalistic space exploration setting. This may not count as A.A.E. as it hasn't ended yet. While many fans of the films consider the comics horrendous, comic writers themselves are completely happy to continue the trends if the 2009 and 2010 entries into the series (of both Aliens and Alien vs. Predator) are any indication. Being a cross-media franchise, however, makes the alienation of the audience difficult to measure, as some examples in some media may avert the trope and others may play it straight.
The comic version of W.I.T.C.H. has either entered its A.A.E. or, at the very least, turning into a very boring comic. After entering its seventh story arc, the New Power arc, and gaining new powers, the girls were retooled from "super-powered guardians of the universe" to "super powered teachers" who are set to train other magic users around their town. It also doesn't help that a lot of the stories have devolved into uninteresting slice-of-life stories that rarely have the girls in action, and whenever they do, it's against the same evil queen type of villain.
The '90s was this for 2000 AD. With crap like Chronos Carnival, Zippy Couriers and Medevac 318, the comic went through a down period until the debut of strips like Nikolai Dante and Sinister Dexter.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch from the early 90s to late 2000s. The first noticeable thing was Sabrina temporarily being changed from being a witch amongst humans to a witch living amongst supernatural creatures. They also changed her hair from having white bobbed hair to it being long and blond. Next were the changes made due to the popularity of the TV series: Sabrina got a last name, her aunts look more normal, and Salem got a complete overhaul (he could talk, his fur changed from red to black, and he Was Once a Man). Not soon after that the comic was given an ugly, "manga" redesign that turned off fans, even though the storyline is arguably one of the best the comic has had and they returned Sabrina to having short hair. After its cancellation Sabrina has only appeared in Archie Comics cameos within the last few years. With Afterlife with Archie and the 2014 reboot it seems the A.A.E. has completely passed
Though not as severe as most examples, IDW Publishing's G1 Transformers continuity suffered through a rather lengthy and divisive Audience-Alienating Era:
After AHM caused massive rifts in the fandom and wasn't very well received, IDW did a Retool and put popular G.I. Joe writer Mike Costa on as new head writer. Unfortunately Costa had zero prior experience with Transformers (and didn't like the series much anyways) and ended up creating a hideously decompressed, human-centric storyline that shattered the already divided fanbase with just plain weird or idiotic plot developments. It also had Spike Witwicky and Bumblebee become Creator's Pets. Costa's run grew its beard later on but the damage was done. And in the midst of all this emerged the infamous ''Heart of Darkness" miniseries, generally considered the worst entry in the IDW continuity.
The series finally escaped its Audience-Alienating Era with another Retool, with James Roberts and John Barber being put in charge of the series and doing some major cleaning up to retcon, rework, or explain the tangled mass of Kudzu Plot created by the last two runs.
Image Comics is an odd case where their A.A.E. is widely considered to be when they first started. When they were formed in 1992, Image was riding high on the seven big-name creators who left Marvel to form the company and capitalized on The Dark Age of Comic Books, which led to them edging out DC for a brief period from the second spot, something no other company has done since. However, they became well-known for being overly gritty, showing up way late, looking hideous, and starring knock-off superheroes in paper-thin plots while having some attempt at a Shared Universe. After The Great Comics Crash of 1996 (which started in part with their ill-conceived crossover with Valiant, Deathmate) and the end of the Dark Age, Image largely cleaned up their act. Not only did they hire editors to ensure their work came out on time, but they've since branched out by switching their focus from trying to beat the Big Two at the superhero genre to instead becoming the ultimate haven for original ideas to flourish. While some titles from the '90s continue and have a following, such as Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, and the various WildStorm titles (now owned by DC), others like Youngblood (Image Comics) and Shadowhawk mostly do not.
Spawn, however, did have an audience-alienating era after the character killed his former boss Malebolgia. He then teamed up with demons Ab and Zab, a Catch-Phrase Spouting Duo, and fought vampires and British cannibals. Fortunately, it ended after he returned to Hell and lost his status as king.
Valiant Comics entered one following their purchase by the video game company Acclaim in 1994, while the industry was reeling from the aforementioned crash. The new owners wanted to use the properties as source material for video game adaptations, and their efforts set the comics on a steady path of decline. First there was a big marketing push in 1995, Birthquake, during which the eight lowest-selling ongoing titles (almost half the titles in the entire line) were cancelled, including Valiant mainstays such as Rai and Harbinger, and the remaining characters were re-imagined to make them easier to adapt into video games. Things did not improve when Acclaim launched a full-on Continuity Reboot the very next year as part of a plan to cancel out some expensive creator contracts signed before Birthquake, turning the company into Acclaim Comics and overhauling the characters yet again almost beyond recognition. There were some series during this period that are fondly remembered, such as Quantum and Woody, and Acclaim did produce a few fairly well-liked games based on the comics, specifically Turok and Shadow Man, but comic book sales steadily declined and the line was shut down in 1999, with Acclaim itself filing for bankruptcy a few years later in 2004. Luckily, the Valiant properties were bought by entrepreneurs the following year, eventually leading to Valiant's comics being brought back in 2012 with its universe similar to how it had been when the company was founded.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) suffered an Audience-Alienating Era with its "Beyond the Grid" storyline. Coming off of the massively popular Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid storyline, it was already faced with a Tough Act to Follow fight on its hands. The fans were already wary of the writer, Marguerite Bennett, as they felt she didn't have the chops to follow Kyle Higgins. The story, following the adventures of the survivors of the Shattered Grid storyline as they were somehow cut away from the rest of the universe and trapped in a portion of the galaxy where the Morphin' Grid was somehow non-existent, ended up being a bore due to dragging on for nine issues and not focusing on the actual Mighty Morphin' team. When news of the next storyline, Necessary Evil, was revealed, fans were relieved as it revealed that we'd be going back to the original team and meeting the White Ranger. New writer Ryan Parrott ended up salvaging the series by adding new characters to the cast and incorporating a lot of world building.
