Batman
Characterization Marches On in this series.Comic Books
- In his earliest appearances, while Batman wasn't any more particularly kill-happy than any other heroes, it's kind of shocking to see the archetypal Technical Pacifist clearly killing off criminals, often using guns. Case in point, a line from a showdown with his first nemesis:Batman: [as he watches the man in question burn to death] Death... to Doctor Death!
- He also displayed a fondness for puns and cracked jokes during fights, not unlike what Spider-Man would do later. IE, "Have a seat", while smacking villains with a chair, or, while beating the Joker "You may be the JOKER, but I am the KING OF CLUBS!" or "You played your last hand!". Now, he's oh so very much The Stoic.
- And, on more than one occasion, he referred to himself as "Poppa", in the third person, as in "Quiet, or Poppa spank!" or "Right into Poppa's arms!".
- The first Catwoman story depicts Batman deliberately allowing her to escape purely because he thinks she's hot, and then joking about it with Robin. Ever since then, he's been nothing but angsty about his obsession with her.
- The Joker was originally a sneering criminal mastermind instead of the cackling lunatic we know today, telling fewer jokes and laughing only occasionally. He was named after the Joker in playing cards. The Man Who Laughs later rewrote the Joker's first story with the current portrayal of the Joker. The Joker wasn't intended to be insane by Finger and Kane. Even during the Silver Age where the Joker became his Clown Prince of Crime version, the Joker was sent to prison when he was defeated instead of an asylum or otherwise remotely treated like a criminal who could get an insanity defense.
- Catwoman was, like Batman, shown to kill people in her earlier appearances, when she would later become established as a Classy Cat-Burglar whose morally-ambiguous or outright heroic nature rested on her scrupulous refusal to kill the innocent. (But not other villains, as Black Mask found out. Twice.)
- Selina's whole backstory has changed since she was first created as well. Especially now that she and Batman are more often than not an Official Couple after she learned his secret in Batman: Hush (that ran from 2002-2003). She used to be a rich socialite as well who robbed because she was bored. Now she's a poor street orphan who robbed to take care of her sister as a way to play up the Uptown Girl angle in their relationship.
- Robin was also shown to use brutal force on crooks in his debut, hitting them with rocks from a sling and shoving them off scaffolding to their deaths. This first origin story also depicted him as eight years old while doing all these feats (compared to later retcons that would establish him as either ten or twelve).
- Alfred is remembered as the Wayne family's loyal butler, however he was originally written as a Clueless Detective who wasn't quite up to par with the World's Greatest Detective, Batman. Rather than swear revenge, he ended up serving in the Wayne Manor and the Batcave. Nowadays Alfred is just written as The Jeeves. Alfred was also originally overweight and clean shaven, but adopted his iconic thin, mustached appearance after a stay at a health spa. Alfred also didn't become a major character until Denny O'Neil's run in the 70s. His role as Bruce's Parental Substitute was only introduced in Batman: Year One Post-Crisis. Bruce had previously been raised by an uncle and his housekeeper.
- Renee Montoya's sexuality is a defining character trait for her under Greg Rucka, but when she was originally created for Batman The Animated Series the plan (according to background info in the series bible) was that she was intended to be driven in her own fight on crime by the memory of her dead husband. It was not until Gotham Central that she was outed as a lesbian, which would become an integral part of an award-winning arc of that series and several follow up comics. The same source also says that she would butt heads with Batman over his methods, whereas in almost all her appearances Renee admires him and understands why he acts outside the law.
- The Batman Adventures: When Francis D'Anjou, Nora Fries' new husband, first appeared in Batman: Gotham Adventures #5, he was a scientist that greatly respected Victor Fries, having read everything he ever wrote, was grateful when Victor rescued him because he was Nora's new husband, and even shows that he knows that Nora still loves Victor and was respectful of her feelings for him. In his next appearance in Batman: Gotham Adventures #51, Francis is now greatly resentful to Victor and is jealous of Nora for having feelings for him, going so far as to hide all the letters Victor has been sending Nora asking for her to see him one more time. In his final appearance in 'Batman Adventures'' #15, Francis goes as far as to frame Victor for attacking him by having a robot freeze him, hoping to convince Nora to see Victor as a monster. This backfires when Nora refuses to believe Victor was behind the attack, and Nightwing discovers the truth, leading to Francis being arrested and sent to prison, with Nora leaving him.
- The Penguin, in early appearances, had his attitude towards his name ("Oswald Cobblepot") be complete embarrassment at how silly, old-fashioned, and lower-class it sounds. Nowadays, Penguin is defined in part as an old-money type who takes extreme pride in the name of Oswald Cobblepot, and the Cobblepots are often referenced as a very grand and respected family with a long history in Gotham.
- Batman's suspicion and hostility towards Superman is a relatively new thing. Prior to the '80s, Bruce and Clark got along just fine. By 1985, however, the two were established as polar opposites who clashed over varying differences.
- When her origin was first established, Harley Quinn didn't take her profession as a psychiatrist seriously, as her motivation for becoming one is to successfully rehabilitate high-profile Arkham inmates like the Joker and write a tell-all book. In fact, she resorted to Sextra Credit to make up for unsatisfying medical school grades. Later writers made her much more passionate about her career, with Harleen recontextualizing the school incident as a Teacher/Student Romance in a way that doesn't rely on her grades.
- Batman: The Animated Series
- In much of the first two seasons, Batman is fairly approachable and affable (though he certainly doesn't take criminals lightly), and has something of a Big Brother Mentor relationship with his partners. This can be rather jarring for people used to his characterization by the time of The New Batman Adventures and Justice League, where he generally comes across as rather cold, distant, overly serious, obsessed with the cause, and unwilling to let people in (though still having his Deadpan Snarker moments). Batman Beyond in particular has a major conceit being that Terry is the first person Bruce has been particularly close with in years, if not decades, and when his old partners appear, they generally have few nice things to say about him.
- In the early episodes, Harvey Bullock and Gordon were constantly at each other's throats, with Gordon even threatening to have him fired a few times. Later episodes portrayed him as being fiercely loyal to Gordon. This may have been a holdover from his original comics characterization as a Corrupt Cop antagonistic towards Gordon.
- Zatanna was an exceptionally talented but otherwise non-powered stage magician in Batman: TAS. A subsequent appearance in The Batman & Robin Adventures Comic featured her unwittingly using an actual magical spell and by the time of Justice League Unlimited, she had gained full-fledged spell-casting like her comic book counterpart.
- When first introduced in "Joker's Favor", Harley Quinn was originally introduced as nothing more than a minor henchwoman working for The Joker, once muttering, "Oy, beauty school is starting to look pretty good about now," after being caught by Batman. The producers envisioned her as a one-shot character. However, she turned so popular that she became part of the Batman comics, which led to the comic "Mad Love," later adapted on BTAS, which revealed that she was an intern at Arkham Asylum who was seduced by the Joker during psychiatric sessions.
- Also, in her debut, she was actually the calmest person in the room and seemed anything but immature.
- Her earlier appearances - especially "Joker's Favor" - also implied she had no real fighting skill and was mostly in Joker's gang for infiltration purposes (and standard Moll duties like cutting Joker's hair). A far cry from later seasons and especially the comics, which portray her as one of Batman's most athletic foes, on par if not surpassing Catwoman and usually the Joker's muscle if he doesn't have any other henchmen around.
- Also in "Joker's Favor", it is implied that she was a hairdresser before joining up with Joker (aside from cutting Joker's hair, she says "Boy, beauty school's looking pretty good about now." after Batman cuffs her). Later episodes established that she was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum who was manipulated by Joker into becoming his henchgirl.
- Poison Ivy started as a pretty hammy activist until she met Harley and became more of a Deadpan Snarker as a Foil to Harley's Genki Girl.
- "Cold Comfort" depicts Mr. Freeze as a more typical villain, going about trying to make other people miserable after losing Nora forever and having his body degenerate into just a head. "Meltdown" goes back to depicting him as a sympathetic and tragic Anti-Villain.
- Bane's first appearance depicted him as a Large Ham with a pseudo-Hispanic accent with a tendency to scream at the top of his lungs. Following “Over The Edge”, he adopts a soft-spoken, Faux Affably Evil demeanor and drops the accent. Mystery of the Batwoman has him gain a tendency to use Gratuitous Spanish.
- Firefly's first appearance depicted him as a deranged Stalker with a Crush, while his second appearance depicted him as an arsonist-for-hire more in line with the deranged pyromaniac he was in the comics.
