History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / ComicBooks

* Similarly, the MartianManhunter, having first appeared at the start of the SilverAgeOfComics, was more like a detective than a superhero in his initial appearances and only became a superhero when superheroes started to get popular again.

* The early ''Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comics were very comedic and often even stranger than what we have today. This was more due to following ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' and using a few video game stages in the early days. Sally was seen with varying colors of fur (red fur with blonde hair in her first appearance, pink fur with black hair up until issue 16) and Rotor was known as "Boomer" until about issue 6. Roboticization was shown differently with people with hypnotized eyes instead of out and out robots. The series wouldn't reach the [=SatAM=] levels until Dulcy showed up in issue 28 and a few characters will still seem odd looking back at them (for instance, look at Metal Sonic in issue 25 and look at him today).

* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' had a bit of unevenness in the beginning: in addition to being a bit more violent than it is now, non-mammals and humans are seen in crowd shots and two human/oids have speaking roles [[HumansAreBastards (they're both villains)]]. Currently the only non-mammal characters are Lord Hebi, a giant snake, and his human boss Lord Hikiji, [[TheFaceless whose face hasn't been seen in ages.]] I can only speculate what foreigners could look like since [[MisplacedWildLife lions, tigers, and rhinos]] already live in Japan.

** The modern version of Batwoman debuted in the series ''52'', with a different look than what she'd sport in [[ComicBook/Batwoman her ongoing series]]. Kate was depicted as having long auburn-red hair, was more into dresses for her fashion sense, and had brown eyes. When her series came around, her skin was dramatically lightened to be a "vampire porcelain white" (to better reflect a redhead's complexion), she was depicted as dressing more punkish, her hair became short and a highly saturated shade of red, and her [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead eyes were changed to green]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'', Will was a major ButtMonkey and it seemed all she existed for, beyond being leader, was having something horrible happen to her. She lampshades this when her dormouse is ran over after she and her friends save her family's livelihood from her JerkAss, gambling-addicted father
* ''{{Asterix}} the Gaul'' had an single issue ArtEvolution (with plenty of OffModel drawings before Uderzo settled on the style he employed for years to come) and a plot unlike the ones that followed, in particular for having a relatively small role for Obelix. The first issues also have the lack of Dogmatix before his introduction in ''Asterix and the Banquet''.

*** Superman wasn't always the well meaning hero he's known as today. In fact, he caused more harm then good in his earlier comments, and was unbelievably insane. Examples include deliberately trapping a party of rich people in a mine to demonstrate the mine's safety problems, and drugging a football player and taking his place on the team, so that an opposing coach, who is guilty of cheating, won't win.

* Many superhero comics. Franchise/{{Superman}} was a FlyingBrick who couldn't fly, only jump (hence, "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound") and run (hence, "faster than a speeding bullet"); {{Batman}} and the TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles both killed their adversaries, even Joker and Shredder.

* While NeilGaiman's ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' has always taken place in the [[TheDCU DC Universe]], early issues were much less shy about depicting the title character interacting with other DC characters. Hell, the first story arc features Dr. Destiny as the BigBad, as well as [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]], [[NewGods Mr. Miracle]], MartianManhunter, {{Etrigan}}, and [[{{Batman}} the Scarecrow]] in supporting roles and/or cameos. For the bulk of the series, the Endless and associated characters more or less exist in their own continuity.

* The series ''La parejita'' started in 1993 as "Emilia-o", the story of a 18-year-old couple who had to serve in the Spanish military service. Emilia, the girl, dsguised herself as a man to stay with her boyfriend during that time instead of being sent to different destinations. After a year of military jokes, author Manel Fontdevila decided to put the couple back in the city and write a story about their day-to-day life, which he described as "putting the same actors in a different set".

** DoctorDoom acquired the ability to switch minds with whomever he had eye contact with. This is an ability that he occasionally uses even in the newer comics, but it was an odd concept for the time.

* The Brazilian distributor of Disney comics released in 2000 a special celebrating the 50th anniversary of their DonaldDuck magazine. The description of the first issue listed all that could be found weird: differences in language/spelling (apart from the 1950s version being quite formal, Portuguese underwent several orthographic reforms) and character names (biggest one was {{Goofy}} being called Dippy - though the story has him being called "a goofy guy"), unfinished stories (it was published across 3 issues as movie serials were popular in those days), only eight pages in color, and a trivia section filled with ValuesDissonance (telling stories of animals suffering accidents, such as ''j''iraffes being decapitated by telegraphic wires). 10 years later, the collection released to celebrate the 60th anniversary had its first issue come with [[EmbeddedPrecursor a facsimile of Donald Duck #1]], letting readers experience Early Installment Weirdness firsthand.

* In the first few isues of X-men, mutants weren't hated and feared, the X-Men were treated as celebrities (the second issue has Angel meet a bunch of fangirls), they had an official government liasion (Fred Duncan), Beast was DumbMuscle, Iceman was a JerkAss (mission briefing would sometimes lead to him attacking the rest of the team) and Jean's telekinesis was for some reason called teleportation, even in the second issue, in which they fought an actual teleporter. Xavier didn't hesitate to hit people who knew too much with LaserGuidedAmnesia, either.

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** Actually, I think the Turtles forced Shredder to kill ''himself''. But it still counts.

* The early ''Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comics were very comedic and often even stranger than what we have today.
** Also, Rotor Walrus was named 'Boomer' and Sally was pink with black hair. Also, her very first appearance (and only that one) had her reddish-brown with blonde hair.
*** The reprints of the early issues have been subjected to a bit of OrwellianRetcon; the plots are obviously unchanged, but the design and naming continuity errors have been edited.

** Also, the Human Torch looked like a featureless yellow blob of flame.

* While people often note the various changes that came about when the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles changed from being merely a comic book to a multimedia franchise, the original [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Mirage comics]] were also subject to quite a bit of this. Most notable is the Frank Miller-esque narration, which was gone by the series' second issue; the idea that the turtles had grown to look like their present-day selves in the space of a year, which was ignored when the writers decided to write stories featuring younger versions of the characters; and the bit where Splinter expressly trained the turtles so they would kill The Shredder for him, which was glossed over with time.

*** There is a lot of other weird things that happen before Hulk hits his stride, him changing via machine, Hulk's intelligence level going up to near Banner and down to inhuman stupidity. It takes them awhile before the character is associated with anger, around his first visit with the Inhumans where they establish that his strength increases with his rage.

* In the first few isues of X-men, mutants weren't hated and feared, the X-Men were treated as celebrities (the second issue has Angel meet a bunch of fangirls), they had an official government liasion (Fred Duncan), Iceman was a JerkAss (mission briefing would sometimes lead to him attacking the rest of the team) and Jean's telekinesis was for some reason called teleportation, even in the second issue, in which they fought an actual teleporter.

* Many superhero comics. {{Superman}} was a FlyingBrick who couldn't fly, only jump (hence, "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound") and run (hence, "faster than a speeding bullet"); {{Batman}} and the TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles both killed their adversaries, even Joker and Shredder.

* The "Locas" stories in ''LoveAndRockets'' initially had sci-fi elements, but they were soon dropped and the series became very present-day real-life in nature.

*** Superman wasn't always the well meaning hero he's known as today. In fact, he caused more harm then good in his earlier comments, and was unbelievably insane.

** {{X-Men}} villain {{Magneto}}, in contrast to his contemporary portrayal as a WellIntentionedExtremist, was a straightforward bad guy without any redeeming features. He also had psychic powers that were nearly a match for Charles Xavier's, including AstralProjection.

* The FantasticFour wore civilian garb in their first two issues.