History Main / RealitySubtext

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1963'' #416 (October 1996) included a story by Tom [=DeFalco=] where the Daily Bugle is facing financial problems and has to lay off many of its personnel. Meaning that established supporting characters such as Kate Cushing were PutOnABus, with their fates in doubt. Peter Parker himself, who had only recently returned to New York City with the promise of a permanent staff position, was among those fired and faced an unstable future. The story reportedly served as a way for [=DeFalco=] to work "through his feelings" concerning the ongoing financial difficulties of Creator/MarvelComics and a series of Marvel staff layoffs. Some were staffers whom [=DeFalco=] himself had hired for Marvel, and he felt partly responsible for the company letting them go like this. Per "The Life of Reilly": "In his Daily Bugle scenes, Tom D. worked in a lot of in-jokes and references to what was going on at Marvel, all of which probably went over the heads of people on the outside, but were glaring obvious to anyone who was working (or had been working) at the company."
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl|2011}}'' tie-in to ''[[ComicBook/TheNew52FuturesEnd Future's End]]'', Barbara Gordon tells Cassandra Cain that she admires how Cass never gives up despite having gone through absolute hell. While this fits in-universe, it also references the fact that from 2005-2015, the character was put through a ''lot'' of shit by DC editorial. She was turned into an evil DragonLady, then stripped of the Batgirl title so that she could be replaced by Stephanie Brown, then dumped into ComicBookLimbo, and then brought ''out'' of limbo and given a new identity only to be {{Retcon}}ned out of history after the ComicBook/{{New 52}}. It's been a roller coaster ride to say the least, but her fanbase never gave up on her.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In the final issue of ''[[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman, Inc]]'''s second volume, Talia al Ghul goes on a villainous rant to Batman about how little his whole crusade to keep Gotham safe actually matters, and declaring that he's wasting his life on pointless nonsense. This was after Creator/GrantMorrison, who wrote that issue, had spent years doing an extensive reworking of Batman and his mythos to make for a more worldly and complex vision of the character... only to see the ''ComicBook/New52'' undo a lot of the run's impact and reset as many things as possible back to square one. For instance, one of Morrison's main ideas was to make Dick Grayson the next Batman, hoping the change would stick for at least a decade--instead, despite Dick's time in the cowl being widely acclaimed and selling very well, he was reverted back to being Nightwing again. Hence, Talia's frustration at Batman's shortsightedness is essentially Morrison's own frustration shining through.

* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': When Captain Marvel (the ''[[Creator/DCComics other]]'' Captain Marvel, that is) and Superman see each other, they usually end up throwing punches, much more often than is typical for LetsYouAndHimFight. This is largely a nod to their very first battle ''in court''. DC Comics sued Fawcett over Captain Marvel being too similar to the Man of Steel, and eventually got the book canceled. Comic writers have since explored this situation decades later by having the two of them fight one another in the panels.
* A few years before Creator/StanLee introduced ComicBook/DoctorStrange, he created a similar, but far less successful supernatural hero named Doctor Druid. The two characters had strikingly similar origin stories, and many comic historians have commented that Druid was likely a precursor of sorts to Strange. Many years later, ''Avengers Spotlight'' #37 revealed that Doctor Druid and Doctor Strange had actually been empowered by the same man, the Ancient One, and that Druid had essentially been used as a guinea pig to make sure that it would be safe for the Ancient One to make Strange the new Sorcerer Supreme:

* Creator/PaulCornell has written that the Doctor's increasing feeling that he needs to get away from UNIT and twentieth-century Earth in his Third Doctor ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitan'' miniseries was an expression of his own decision at the time to stop doing work-for-hire or licensed work completely and only work on his own stand-alone works.
* Creator/DwayneMcDuffie:
** [=McDuffie=]'s final ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' arc, which saw the team struggling to stay together and ComicBook/BlackCanary questioning whether she even cared enough to continue with the group, was meant as a metaphor for [=McDuffie=]'s own deteriorating relationship with Creator/DCComics. Not too long after, he was fired for publicly speaking out against the ExecutiveMeddling his run had received.
** His earlier storyline with the team captured by Anansi was also a commentary on ExecutiveMeddling. Anansi rewrites reality and causes a bunch of [[PointOfDivergence Points of Divergence]] that result in a radically different Justice League, mirroring the way [=Dwayne=] felt his own storylines were being twisted and taken away from him.

* The first issue of ''ComicBook/InvaderZimOni'' begins with Zim having disappeared for some undisclosed but apparently very long amount of time, playing on [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim the show]]'s sudden cancellation and decade-plus SequelGap. Dib has become [[ThisLoserIsYou a gross, overweight shut-in]] as a result. [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus The movie]] (apparently set in an AlternateContinuity from the comic) does the same thing.
* Similar to Dwayne [=McDuffie=] above, James Robinson's final issue of the series (and the last issue of ''Justice League of America'' before the 2011 reboot) was very obviously a bitter commentary on the behind the scenes issues of the series itself. In the issue, Dick Grayson and Donna Troy lament that nobody will remember their League, but that they're proud of the work they did, and that they will never forget it. This incarnation of the team was going to be rebooted out of continuity, along with all of the team's members aside from Dick himself, who Robinson also commented on regarding his return to the Nightwing role after being Batman for a few years.
* ''ComicBook/LastDaysOfTheJusticeSociety'' (the story used to write the [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]] out of the DC Universe following ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'') opens with the Golden Age ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} giving a speech about how the team has become redundant and irrelevant in a world full of younger heroes with the same powers (and sometimes even names), the exact editorial justification for getting rid of the Justice Society in the first place.
* Creator/TomKing's ''ComicBook/MisterMiracle2017'' does this a couple times over, the first being based on subtext related to ''his'' personal reality, the second being on that belonging to Mister Miracle's original creator, Creator/JackKirby:

* The marriage of the ''ComicBook/NewGods'' characters Scott Free and Big Barda is based on that of their creator, Creator/JackKirby, and his wife Roz to whom he was HappilyMarried for fifty years.
* Creator/PeterDavid has expressed displeasure over the fact that Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}} killed off Ned Leeds in the ''ComicBook/SpiderManVersusWolverine'' one-shot without consulting him, as David had planned on revealing that Leeds was the Hobgoblin. In the tie-in issue of ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' that dealt with the aftermath of Ned's death, ComicBook/TheKingpin angrily tells the Foreigner (the man who arranged Ned's murder) that he should have consulted him first, and that [[TakeThat such a rash move displayed a complete and utter lack of respect]].
* The last [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] story Creator/CarlBarks wrote before going into semi-retirement was ''King Scrooge the First'' (written 1966, published 1967). It is the story of an immortal man who is tired of his long life and seeks death. He describes himself as "tired, and old and lonely". The story is considered to express the 65-year-old Bark's own feelings of fatigue and decision to end a whole era of his life.
* The Creator/MarvelComics hero ComicBook/ShangChi was initially created as the son of the infamous YellowPeril villain Literature/FuManchu. Since Marvel lost the rights to Fu Manchu in the ensuing decades, whenever Shang-Chi's father appears, he's never referred to by name. This is PlayedForLaughs in an issue of ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'', where T'Challa tries to speak Fu's name, only to be cut off before he can say it.
* According to the introduction to the Fleischer/Aparo ''ComicBook/TheSpectre'' trade, the only reason the Spectre was revived as a character at all was that then-DC editor Joe Orlando was mugged and the thief got away. This left him longing for a superhero who punished the wicked after every legal recourse has failed. A little research into MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks later, he found some early Spectre stories that were just up that alley, and voila.

** After the 2009 Website/{{BZPower}} Time Slip (also known as the Great Dataclysm), which erased six months of ''Dino Attack RPG'' content (including the entire Goo Caverns StoryArc up to that point), the ''Dino Attack RPG'' players agreed to start up again at a time and place shortly before the Time Slip occurred. Since this led to [[{{Rewrite}} rewriting several scenes that were erased by the Time Slip]], Sauro-Hunter remarked that he was experiencing deja vu.

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': Just like how Shifu had to tutor Po in the ways of the martial arts, the actors behind their characters oddly paralleled that considering Creator/DustinHoffman tutored Creator/JackBlack to improve his acting to raise it to his standard.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': During the climactic brawl in Nueva York, Migel furiously rants to Miles that he's "not supposed to be Spider-Man" [[spoiler:because the spider that bit him came from a different universe, meaning said universe was robbed of its own Spider-Man]]. According to WordOfGod, this is a subtle reference to the backlash toward the character of Miles Morales for [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks "replacing" the true owner of the mantle]].