History BrokenPedestal / ComicBooks

** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen''. ComicBook/WallyWest is sent into a HeroicBSOD when his mentor and hero Barry leaves him to die out of jealousy, but he then discovers that "Barry" is actually an amnesiac Reverse-Flash who simply believes he's Barry.

* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'': Loma Shade, the titular character of the Creator/YoungAnimal imprint's ''Shade, the Changing Girl'', is initially a fan of Rac Shade and made her own journey to Earth using the Madness Vest to be like her idol, but ends up condemning Rac Shade after seeing what a (literally) heartless monster he's become in the ''Shade, the Changing Woman'' miniseries.

* ''{{ComicBook/Laika}}'': Yelena believes her superior, Korolev, is kind at first, and is moved by his statement that the Soviets are proud of their space dogs and their "big Russian hearts." Later, after a rocket crash that killed two of the dogs, Gazenko bluntly tells her that Korolev will stop at nothing to achieve his goals and does not prioritize the safety of humans, let alone "dumb mutts."

** ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Sinestro was once considered to be the greatest Green Lantern to have ever existed and was a mentor to Hal Jordan. But eventually, it came out that Sinestro was a tyrant on his homeworld and was exiled, becoming an enemy to the Corps (especially Hal). This trope is invoked a lot when they go head to head.

* Dolante Murray, the [[LegacyCharacter new Sentinel]] in ''ComicBook/Youngblood2017'', was a childhood fan of [[ComicBook/{{Youngblood}} Marcus Langston, the original Sentinel]]. [[ComicBook/YoungbloodJudgmentDay After Sentinel was revealed to be a murderer]], Dolante hates his former idol to the point where he makes clear that he [[RedeemingReplacement may be taking Sentinel's place]] in the new Youngblood, but he ''won't'' take the name Sentinel [[spoiler:and was part of the hacktavist group "Bloodstream" who revealed the original Youngblood's dirty secrets, destroying the team]].

** Xavier is ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}' broken pedestal. Since learning of Xavier's various misuses of his telepathic powers to rewrite Scott's memories and cover up old shame, Cyclops has had great difficulty dealing with Xavier's betrayal. It eventually culminated with Cyclops financially seizing control of the Xavier Institute and kicking Professor Xavier out of his own home.
*** This goes into overdrive in ''ComicBook/{{Inferno 2021}}'' as the Quiet Council learns the scope of Xavier, Magneto and the actually-alive Moria [=MacTaggert=]'s plans with creating Krakoa. The Council was already in a bad state as it was, being an alliance of X-Men and Hellfire Club members, but this made it worse.

* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': O'Reilly used to be grateful of Scourge trying to help the police on his own. He was detained and interrogated, and it turns out that he was a racist maniac.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
** In ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', [[spoiler:the Batfamily is unhappy with Batman for keeping at least one secret from them. In fact, Joker could be counting on this trope to sabotage his enemies. That was his motive, to figuratively cause the death of the Bat-family by breaking their trust in each other.]]
** This is how Batman finally defeats Deacon Blackfire in ''ComicBook/BatmanTheCult'' -- he realizes Blackfire wants to die at Batman's hands so he can become a martyr, thus Batman attacks him to show his followers that he isn't immortal, but just a man. His drugged and broken followers are so enraged by the weakness that they finish the job.
** Before becoming ComicBook/{{Robin}} himself Tim Drake was in awe of [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]], Jason Todd and Bruce. The one who should have had the hardest time failing to live up to Tim's expectations was the deceased Jason who instead came back from the dead and turned on the Batfamily, became a serial killer, and repeatedly attacked Tim because he felt the lesson of his death wasn't learned by the superhero community and because he was furious at being "replaced".
** Bruce preventing Stephanie Brown from visiting Tim while she was Robin, hiring Steph and then unceremoniously firing her in an attempt to manipulate Tim back into the role, and preventing anyone from even telling Tim that she was missing while she was being tortured to death permanently altered the lens through which Tim views Bruce in a way little else could.
--->'''Tim Drake:''' "During my visit it took every bit of discipline I could conjure to keep from asking Bruce that one terrible question I'm stone cold certain our relationship can't survive. 'What happened in those last moments between you and Stephanie, and why did you keep me from being there?'"
* ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'': Despite utterly loathing T'challa, Erik Killmonger actually idolized ComicBook/TheAvengers as a young man. During the brief period where he became the new Black Panther after defeating T'Challa, he petitioned to gain membership in the group, and even teamed up with them during a battle involving ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}. The battle in question caused him to lose his respect for the Avengers, as he felt the fact that they abide by rules imposed on them by the government made them a pack of spineless cowards.
* Eddie Bloomberg aka Kid Devil idolized ComicBook/BlueDevil and wanted to be a hero just like him. When he made the DealWithTheDevil that turned him into the superpowered Kid Devil, said Devil Neron stated that Eddie's soul would belong to him if his trust in Blue Devil was ever broken. After the deal was made, Neron told Eddie that Blue Devil had made a deal with Neron for movie stardom that accidentally (on Blue Devil's part) claimed the life of Eddie's aunt Marla. When Eddie confronted Blue Devil about it and Blue Devil confirmed it, Eddie resigned himself to becoming Neron's slave because he would ''never'' trust Blue Devil again.

* In Franchise/TheDCU, ComicBook/{{Deadshot}} who takes a contract to kill his mentor David Cain from Lex Luthor, and is disgusted by how much Cain, his former idol, has fallen apart.
* The Chief (Niles Caulder) of the ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol''. [[RetCon Turns out]] that, believing that greatness comes from overcoming tragedy, he engineered the accidents that gave the original Doom Patrol their powers. He eventually tried to take his plan global before he was finally stopped. He's supposedly reformed since then, but let's hope the Patrol is smart enough to keep an eye on him. Half of them are just as nuts as he is, at least [[ComicBook/TeenTitans one fell in with a better crew]], and all of them follow the ManipulativeBastard even though they know full well he's a ManipulativeBastard. At least other, non-Doom Patrol superheroes are always visibly put out of sorts when Caulder's around.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Sinestro was once considered to be the greatest Green Lantern to have ever existed and was a mentor to Hal Jordan. But eventually, it came out that Sinestro was a tyrant on his homeworld and was exiled, becoming an enemy to the Corps (especially Hal). This trope is invoked a lot when they go head to head.
* ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'': Superboy-Prime gave up his home, family and friends to save the Multiverse during the [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]]. He then was imprisoned in a pocket dimension to make sure he survived the reconstruction of creation. How is he repaid? He has to watch his heroes get [[DarkerAndEdgier corrupted for years]]. How does he react? [[UnstoppableRage Not well.]]
* Antos Wyrick is probably going to become this for Jarael in ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. While Jarael believed in him as a great man, he's actually a murderous psychopath who views his students only as ways to advance his own agenda.
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'':
** Subverted in ''[[ComicBook/TheLegionOfSuperHeroes their first appearance]]''. After ComicBook/{{Superboy}} fails his three initiation tests, the Legionnaires laugh and mock his reputation as the greatest hero ever. Before Superboy leaves, though, they confess they were pranking him, and he has more than lived up to their expectations.
** During the 1990s reboot, Livewire constantly warns sister Spark of misusing their lightning powers. It comes out that Livewire is worried that using them too much will drive them insane as it did their older brother Mekt, who became the criminal Lightning Lord. Even when Mekt kills a cop before him, Livewire is begging him to stop so they can get him help. In a fight, Sparks is astounded by Livewire going "the lightning drove him mad" and snaps that everyone else in the family already saw what Garth didn't: That Mekt was ''always'' this twisted criminal and the lightning did nothing to change him. It takes having his arm blown off and Sparks nearly killed for Garth to accept his brother was never this great person he thought he was.
--->'''Sparks''': That's what you think? That our powers corrupted him? Garth, you looked up to him too much! You didn't see what the rest of us saw! That Mekt was ''always'' a---\\

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen''. ComicBook/WallyWest is sent into a HeroicBSOD when his mentor and hero Barry leaves him to die out of jealousy, but he then discovers that "Barry" is actually an amnesiac Reverse-Flash who simply believes he's Barry.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
** Around the time Spider-Man finally officially joined ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'', [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] became something of a mentor to Peter. The two gravitated to each other, being the only members of the team at the time who were scientifically minded, and after the infamous ''The Other'' storyline, Tony even designed Peter a new Spider-Man armor much like his own. This "mentorship" culminated during ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' when Tony essentially made Peter his NumberTwo on the Pro Registration side. Eventually, their friendship completely dissolved when Peter learned [[WellIntentionedExtremist the extremes Tony was resorting to]] during the event.
** The entire run of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' is this, watching various heroes and villains just being utterly gobsmacked by this much more vicious Spidey, not knowing that Dr. Octopus had taken over Peter's body and has no idea how Spidey truly operates.
** During ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', the [[VideoGame/SpiderManPS4 Spider-Man from the 2018 Playstation 4 game]] starts looking up to the Superior Spider-Man because [[spoiler:he felt that he was what his world's Otto Octavius could have been had he not fallen]]. However, when he asks Miles Morales more about him, that all changes, especially after [[spoiler:Otto willingly gave the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider to the Inheritors]].
* In the crossover ''ComicBook/SpiderManAndBatmanDisorderedMinds'', we learn that Carnage is a massive fanboy towards ComicBook/TheJoker. However, that all goes down the pot when Carnage grows tired of Joker's theatrics and the Joker just absolutely hates Carnage's idea of randomly murdering people without any form of comedy.

* ComicBook/{{Sunspot}} from ''ComicBook/NewMutants'' used to idolise his father, and was so close to him that they were practically best friends. Then he learnt that his father had thrown his lot in with the villainous Hellfire Club, with one of his first actions being to send out a hit on Sunspot's mother. He subsequently disowns his father, and his concern that he'll [[VillainousLineage grow up to be like him]] becomes an ongoing issue.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** ''ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy'': In the Pre-Crisis era, young Lex Luthor was a total ComicBook/{{Superboy}} fanboy until his lab got burned down, and he convinced himself that Superboy started the fire out of jealousy to destroy his great discovery.
** Post-1986 /Lex Luthor was gone through two major cycles of this: first as a CorruptCorporateExecutive and second as PresidentEvil. In the former case, Lex was a hero to the city who employed half of Metropolis. He kept his criminal activities hidden until clone degeneration affected his second body, triggering a rampage. The second time, Lex rose to even greater heights as the rebuilder of Metropolis and Gotham (in the public's eyes), who won the presidency as the darkhorse third party candidate and helped save the world from [[OmnicidalManiac Imperiex]], only to go crazy from Kryptonite injections as he prepared to use all his resources and goodwill to take down Superman once and for all.
** In ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} befriended Lex Luthor shortly after arriving on Earth. She regarded him as a good friend and a surrogate father and mentor, and she thought that he was a very, very good man who loved helping people. Then she discovered that he was a bigoted, selfish, egomaniac, uncaring, murderous, manipulative bastard.
** ''ComicBook/DeathAndTheFamily'': Supergirl feels so hurt by Lana Lang keeping important secrets from her that decides to leave her mother figure for a while. Subverted in later storyline ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', when Kara considers she was too harsh and apologizes to Lana.
--->'''Supergirl:''' ''"When you started...mentoring me, the whole goal of it was to teach me more about being human. We built a trust. For a year, I told you everything. You knew all the stuff that was wrong with my life. [...]But you lied to me, Lana, that entire year. You didn't trust me, and people in that hospital died because of it. You died because of it. I saw you die. Because you were scared to tell me something was wrong."''\\
'''Lana Lang:''' ''"Kara, I--"''\\
'''Supergirl:''' ''"Let me finish. Insect Queen wanted me to think she was the reason you put so much faith in me. That she was why we'd built a trust. Even if that's not true, our trust was still one-sided. And if I can't put belief in our trust, what good is this relationship?"''
** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': Lexor was a planet where Lex Luthor was considered a hero because he used his scientific genius to help their inhabitants to build an advanced civilization; and they were so grateful that they renamed the planet after their benefactor. However, when they find out he engineered a biological weapon in order to murder Superman, the Lexorians are so enraged that they throw Lex's statues down, burn his books and tear his machines down.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' were originally the Masters of Evil disguised as heroes to gain public trust. Needless to say, the public was quite rocked when their true identities were revealed. Teenage member Jolt (who hadn't known about the scam) is especially jarred to find the folks she'd called friends were nothing but super-villains.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When the Earth One version of Diana learns that her mother has modified her memories to try and control her relationship with ComicBook/SteveTrevor -- mostly erasing the fact that he'd died and been brought back twice from Diana's mind -- it breaks her trust of her mother permanently. This makes Diana's relationship with Hippolyta more distant and strained from then on, with her not speaking with her mother for months at a time.
* Xavier is ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}' broken pedestal in ComicBook/XMen. Since learning of Xavier's various misuses of his telepathic powers to rewrite Scott's memories and cover up old shame, Cyclops has had great difficulty dealing with Xavier's betrayal. It eventually culminated with Cyclops financially seizing control of the Xavier Institute and kicking Professor Xavier out of his own home.
** This goes into overdrive in ''ComicBook/{{Inferno 2021}}'' as the Quiet Council learns the scope of Xavier, Magneto and the actually-alive Moria [=MacTaggert=]'s plans with creating Krakoa. The Council was already in a bad state as it was, being an alliance of X-Men and Hellfire Club members, but this made it worse.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When the Earth One version of Diana learns that her mother has modified her memories to try and control her relationship with ComicBook/SteveTrevor -- mostly erasing the fact that he'd died and been brought back twice from Diana's mind -- it breaks her trust of her mother permanently. This makes Diana's relationship with Hippolyta more distant and strained from then on, with her not speaking with her mother for months at a time.

** Around the time Spider-Man finally officially joined ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'', [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] became something of a mentor to Peter. The two gravitated to each other, being the only members of the team at the time who were scientifically minded, and after the infamous ''The Other'' storyline, Tony even designed Peter a new Spider-Man armor much like his own. This "mentorship" culminated during ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' when Tony essentially made Peter his NumberTwo on the Pro Registration side. Eventually, their friendship completely dissolved when Peter learned [[WellIntentionedExtremist the extremes Tony was resorting to]] during the event.

* ''Webcomic/DemonseedRedux'': [[spoiler:Chico is not happy that Uncle Hal hid boy's inhuman origins from him, and considers siding with [[BigBad Galadrel]] if he promises to keep Dee safe, and starts fighting Roger.]]

* Despite utterly loathing the ComicBook/BlackPanther, Erik Killmonger actually idolized ComicBook/TheAvengers as a young man. During the brief period where he became the new Black Panther after defeating T'Challa, he petitioned to gain membership in the group, and even teamed up with them during a battle involving ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}. The battle in question caused him to lose his respect for the Avengers, as he felt the fact that they abide by rules imposed on them by the government made them a pack of spineless cowards.

* During the 1990s reboot of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', Livewire constantly warns sister Spark of misusing their lightning powers. It comes out that Livewire is worried that using them too much will drive them insane as it did their older brother Mekt, who became the criminal Lightning Lord. Even when Mekt kills a cop before him, Livewire is begging him to stop so they can get him help. In a fight, Sparks is astounded by Livewire going "the lightning drove him mad" and snaps that everyone else in the family already saw what Garth didn't: That Mekt was ''always'' this twisted criminal and the lightning did nothing to change him. It takes having his arm blown off and Sparks nearly killed for Garth to accept his brother was never this great person he thought he was.
-->'''Sparks''': That's what you think? That our powers corrupted him? Garth, you looked up to him too much! You didn't see what the rest of us saw! That Mekt was ''always'' a---\\

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Jesse Custer's father figure (past the age of 5) who taught him how to fight, shoot, and grow up was Jody, the CorruptHick who ruined his life and killed his father. But he knew this the entire time, [[spoiler:and eventually paid him back for it by choking him to death with his bare hands instead of using the "Word of God". His last words to Jessie before his murder at Jesse's hands "Proud o' you boy".]]

* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls are fans of cartoon hero Tess Turbine (DC Issue #38, "To Be Or Not TV"). They're geeked when they hear that Tess is appearing in person in Townsville, but when a monster invades Townsville and takes Tess (actually an actress hired to play Tess) captive and she can't defend or help herself like in the cartoon, the girls renounce her. The Professor has to persuade the girls to put their hurt feelings aside and rescue Tess like the superheroes they are.

** Speaking of Spidey, the entire run of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' is this, watching various heroes and villains just being utterly gobsmacked by this much more vicious Spidey, not knowing that Dr. Octopus had taken over Peter's body and has no idea how Spidey truly operates.

** ''ComicBook/DeathAndTheFamily'': Supergirl feels so hurt by Lana Lang keeping important secrets from her that decides to leave her mother figure for a while. Subverted in later storyline ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}, when Kara considers she was too harsh and apologizes to Lana.