90's anti-hero done right?

Spawn.

Garth Ennis's The Punisher series from the 00s.

Ironically, you won't actually find any stereotypically 90s heroes done correctly in the 90s itself.

Speaking of Garth Ennis, the Hitman series he did for DC is fantastic.

2nded.

I was A "90's Kid" at some point, anyway.

I hated most comics in the 90s, though. I had many arguments with other kids my age, because I liked old school stuff like the Superman movies.

Just for reference how many of those kids stuck with comics past that point? Besides you?

Not sure. I certainly did so for the longest out of the group I knew.

I continued to collect comics up until around 2011, where I was forced to stop because of financial constraints.

edited 5th Sep '14 2:09:41 PM by KingZeal

Hardware.

Incidentally, the post at the end of the last page made me realise that the only two really good examples of this trope that I can immediately bring to mind are actually from anime/manga, which is kind of weird for a number of reasons. (The characters in question are Guts from Berserk and Ichise from Texhnolyze, both of whom are fascinating and kind of monstrous.)

My point being that they may have not really liked comic books for the content but because at that time there was a sort of edginess to them.

i haven't seen texhnolyze (you bringing it up again is REALLY making me want to watch it), but the reason that Guts WORKS is because the typical 90's hero traits are just a starting point for his character.

when guts is first introduced he SEEMS to just be a typical example, but the end of the first 3 volumes and the subsequent golden age arc show his transition from innocent boy into raging, damaged badass in such an amazing, detailed, meticulous and well-done fashion that he completely transcends the trope. the story adds layers upon layers onto his character and you come to understand his rage, despair, and loss completely, so the typical grimdark stuff associated with this character type is actually powerful and horrific and not difficult to take seriously. he's one of the few characters in manga that i think is too complex to be boiled down to just a tvtropes page.

this is in stark contrast to 99% of the other examples of this trope. when this trend was in vogue, most of the characters were very one-note and just cashing in on the next big thing and were made by people who were either not skilled enough to provide the storytelling and art to make them good characters, or who weren't even trying.

edited 5th Sep '14 11:56:33 PM by wehrmacht

@Napoleon:

PERFECT.

I always liked the interpretation of Jotaro from Jojos Bizarre Adventure as a bit of a deconstruction of 90's anti heroes, specifically in the Stone Ocean arc.

All the traits that made him seem like such an extreme grimdark badass in the original story ended up making him a really shitty and neglectful father whose bad parenting results in his daughter being royally screwed up.

edited 6th Sep '14 7:09:16 AM by comicwriter

Guts is a wonderfully fleshed out character, and the way that he comes to be what and where he is in his life is fascinating to witness. Ichise's character arc and overall development is very similar, but the transformation is quieter (much as Ichise himself is quieter) and ends on a very different note.