History Flanderization / ComicBooks

* The Guardians Of The Universe in ''GreenLantern'' have always been distant and aloof, but were once wise and respected, having created an organization of star-patrolling peacekeepers that has survived for eons. With each passing year though, they become more incompetent, single-minded, and corrupt, lying to their members, holding their own mysterious agendas, and constantly having their mistakes blow up in the faces and inevitably needing to be saved by the Earth Lanterns (and then clearly resenting the aid). One recent comic even had a Guardian admit he didn't remember why they started the Corp in the first place. By this point, it's a genuine curiosity how they got an organization as advanced and well-functioning as the Green Lanterns working outside of dumb luck.

** A notable aversion occurs with, of all people, Guy Gardner. Giffen and [=DeMatteis=] were concerned with how much Flanderization had already occurred with the character, who initially was more intelligent than Hal Jordan, but by the time of joining the JLI was mostly famous as a JerkAss with severe brain damage. A punch from Batman sends Guy into an alternate, hyper-sensitive persona, [[spoiler: eventually revealed to be a total con, as Guy enjoyed screwing with his teammates. His girlfriend, Ice, sees through it.]]

* [[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Wolverine]] is a case study. During the [[TheEighties '80s]] considerable CharacterDevelopment evolved the character from a one-note JerkAss prone to UnstoppableRage to a wise, intelligent, multitalented, and skilled warrior/mentor (with just enough issues to avoid CanonSue status). Then he [[WolverinePublicity got popular]] and the LowestCommonDenominator of Captain Fuzzity [=McStabStab=] won out with all the guest-shots even as they ramped his HealingFactor to UpToEleven, making him pretty much the definition of a CanonSue. [[EnsembleDarkhorse And he's still the most popular character of the whole franchise]]. Because being BadAss is the ''only'' thing he seems to need.
* Some readers complain about Surge. While she is initially depicted as being kind-of a JerkAss, it's understandable. While she was always an outspoken, rebellious smart ass, her recent depictions make her much harder to sympathise with. Recently she has been portrayed as an unrelenting bitch and it is becoming her most dominant characteristic.

** Obelix also developed, mostly because of the artwork - he starts out as an [[TheBigGuy angular, burly warrior with hairy arms and big, pointed horns on his helmet, but gets a rounder, softer, more childlike look with beatific expressions and small, rounded helmet horns to suit his [[TheFool softer, more childlike personality]] within the first few books.

* Northstar of Marvel's ''AlphaFlight'' (later the ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'') started off as an arrogant former athlete with an interest in politics and a devotion to his mentally ill sister. While John Byrne wasn't allowed to write Northstar as explicitly gay, he managed to work in a few hints. When Marvel finally got the bright idea to "out" Northstar... well, suddenly, it seemed like all that mature characterization vanished, and suddenly he was gay. Gay, gay, gay. ''So'' gay. Did he tell you how gay he is? Even worse, he went back to being a self-absorbed douche despite maturing over the course of Alpha Flight.

* TheUltimates are a interesting case of Flanderization. In their initial run, Mark Millar tended to take the most famous aspects of each Avenger (Cap being of the 40's, Tony's hedonism, Pym slapping Janet, Jan being slapped by Pym, Hulk's rage, etc) and amplified them all several times over (Cap was painfully old-fashioned in speech and social views, Tony was always drinking and/or flirting with some blonde, Pym was a textbook wife-beater, Jan was a textbook battered wife, and Hulk was a murdering cannibal). This went into overdrive when Jeph Loeb took over the third volume. Tony was always in a drunken stupor and Cap spontaneously picked fights over Wanda's choice of attire.

** In a surprising [[SelfDeprecation Take That, Me!]] moment, the original writing team actually addressed their Flanderization in the [[ReunionEpisode reunion mini-series]] ''Formerly Known as the Justice League''. In one of the more memorable moments, BlueBeetle actually calls out BoosterGold and [[TookALevelInDumbass claims that he used to be competent and heroic before joining the JLI]], before ultimately accusing him of acting stupid and childish on purpose.

** Well yeah... That's kinda the point of the Hulk, the angrier he gets the stronger he gets; potentially if he gets angry enough he can go to [[DragonBallZ Super Saiyan]] level.

* [[{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne]] was originally depicted as merely [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Comfortably Well-Off]]. Now, he's one of the two richest men in TheDCU. Of course, that's hardly the only example of Bat-Flanderization:

** Well yeah..That's kinda the point of the Hulk, the angrier he gets the stronger he gets, potentially if he gets angry enough he can go to [[DragonBallZ Super Saiyan]] level.

*** He's also portrayed as the "brooding loner" of the Justice League. This is despite the fact that the "Bat-family" has more members than Superman's friends and allies, two of the five Robins have led the Teen Titans, one of those two also led ComicBook/YoungJustice, the other is considered the most trustworthy man in the hero community, and Oracle acts as the MissionControl is a close friend of a lot of superheroes as well, and he managed to be something of a father to [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl 2000}} Cassandra]] [[BrokenBird Cain]].

* Most mainstays of the Giffen-era JusticeLeague International suffered heavy Flanderization; that was sort of [[RuleOfFunny the whole point of the books.]]
** A notable aversion occurs with, of all people, Guy Gardner. Giffen and [=DeMattis=] were concerned with how much Flanderization had already occurred with the character, who initially was more intelligent than Hal Jordan, but by the time of joining the JLI was mostly famous as a JerkAss with severe brain damage. A punch from Batman sends Guy into an alternate, hyper-sensitive persona, [[spoiler: eventually revealed to be a total con, as Guy enjoyed screwing with his teammates. His girlfriend, Ice, sees through it.]]

** Poison Ivy went from a gimmicky plant-themed villain to [[GreenThumb having full-blown control over wildlife and an unkillable immune system]] after getting in touch with "The Green". In a case of TropesAreNotBad, many feel this actually made her character more interesting, as being actually part-plant made her ecoterrorism and connection to plants ''much'' more understandable.

* [[XMen X-Men]] villain Mojo was introduced in a miniseries as a psychotic EldritchAbomination obsessed whose very presence actually caused living things to wither and die and who casually committed MindRape. He also commissioned genetically-engineered slaves to act in movies to entertain him. Even Comicbook/DoctorStrange feared what would happen if he stayed on Earth for long. As soon as he was brought into the main X-Men comics, the mystical powers and murderous demeanor were downplayed and the media obsession was turned UpToEleven, so Mojo immediately became a comedic villain used to spoof the entertainment industry.

*** The whole emotion thing was Sega's doing: They weren't too thrilled when Sonic broke down into tears during an early episode of the Saturday Morning cartoon and demanded that Sonic never show any emotion beyond his usual badass self. Granted, some people were able to get away with it at times, but for the most part, Sonic was 100% attitude.

*** Perhaps most tellingly, Reed was originally written as a veteran of WorldWarII before ComicBookTime forced the writers to cut that detail from his backstory. After 40 years of intense {{Flanderization}}, though, it's practically unthinkable that the current comics' pencil-necked nerd would have ever even ''considered'' serving in the Army, let alone that he would ever have served in Nazi-occupied France in the Big One.

*** Perhaps most tellingly, Reed was originally written as a veteran of WorldWarII before ComicBookTime forced the writers to cut that detail from his backstory. After 40 years of intense {{Flanderization}}, though, it's practically unthinkable that the current comics' pencil-necked nerd would have ever even ''considered'' serving in the Army.

** Also, Reed Richards was originally a tad eccentric and rather emotionally stunted, but was Flanderized in the late 1990s/2000s into a borderline savant who doesn't understand human social behavior. This pretty much is part and parcel of Reed's slow derailment from a many-layered, infamously trope-defying character into a generic scientific supergenius strawman.

** Batman himself has become increasingly ultra-competent and infallible in the past few decades.

*** One could argue the flanderization of Batman was necessary to keep him interesting in the context of the Justice League. He's one of the few characters without a true super power, so the question of why they keep him around (aside from maybe his money) needs answering. Having him be the greatest strategist in existence gives him a purpose and even a reason for being one of the guys in charge.

* TheUltimates are a interesting case of Flanderization. In their initial run, Mark Millar tended to take the most famous aspects of each Avenger (Cap being of the 40's, Tony's hedonism, Pym slapping Janet, Jan being slapped by Pym, Hulk's rage, etc) and amplified them all several times over (Cap was painfully old-fashioned in speech and social views, Tony was always drinking and/or flirting with some blonde, Pym was a textbook wife-beater, Jan was a textbook battered wife, and Hulk was a murdering cannibal). This went into overdrive when Jeph Loeb took over the third volume. Tony was always in a drunken stupor and Cap spontaneously picked fights over Wanda's choice of attire. It was a Flanderization of a Flanderization.
** Justified in many cases as being the result of stripping away CharacterDevelopment that hadn't happened yet because these were new versions of the characters. CaptainAmerica, for example, was freshly thawed out from TheForties and so could be expected to be more politically incorrect than the mainstream Cap who has had more than a decade to get used to modern life.
* Johnny Storm of the ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' started off as a somewhat-conceited daredevil hero of the team. Since the eighties, he's become increasingly more stupid and narcissistic, to the point where he now appears to be a [[TheDitz ditzy]], AmbiguouslyGay metrosexual completely in love with himself.

** The Justice League in general occasionally suffers this problem. The heroes in their own books have multi-faceted personalities, while Justice League in the hands of sloppy writers reduces them to their most stereotypical natures, such as Batman being completely unfeeling and methodical, or Superman's "boy scout" persona.
*** This is in part because each character was originally TheHero in their own titles. They weren't developed with a group dynamic in mind so some of their key character development has also come from them playing off of each other in the team books.

** An aversion may come from the early comics, which had a much zanier and cartoony format thus exaggerated a lot of the characters' traits compared to their ''[[WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM SatAm]]'' counterparts, e.g. Sonic existed as a BugsBunny with a TotallyRadical mannerisms akin to his ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog AoStH]]'' counterpart, Sally's somewhat neurotic and no-nonsense attitude was exaggerated into a spoiled, mean-tempered prude and Robotnik was converted into even bigger a bumbling CardCarryingVillain than his 'Eggman' incarnations. This was reversed as the comic's writing tone became more serious and akin to the show, though some genuine cases of flanderization do pop up on occasion.

* During Joe Kelly's run, {{Deadpool}} was a talkative loon full of bad jokes and other wackiness. However he was also portrayed as a total psychotic with a loose, at best, grasp of sanity. All the wackiness was a cover to hide his immense mental problems and self-loathing and just the slightest nudge could send him over the edge in a violent, unsettling rage. Most subsequent writers pretty much ignore the latter part and play him up as little more than a goofy comedy character. That being said, the character's popularity has, if anything, skyrocketed since his flanderization and his flanderized version has since become his more iconic and well-recognized version. It helps that Marvel already has characters to fill the [[{{Wolverine}} Canadian with Rage Issues, Regenerating Healing Powers, and a convoluted backstory complicated by Swiss-Cheese Memory]], and [[SpiderMan a flamboyant joke-cracker in a red costume, whose snark covers up his inner angst]] roles.

* Archie's ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comic: Sonic's attitude has been cranked UpToEleven, to the point where he's making wisecracks during a battle with Enerjak, a being with seemingly limitless energy (though this may have been more for ComicRelief than anything, it was a tad excessive). [[TropesAreNotBad To be fair]], though, it seems to have slightly boosted his {{Badass}}-ness--at the cost of emotion (again, though, to be fair, he never really showed much emotion anyway).

** An aversion may come from the early comics, which had a much zanier and cartoony format thus exaggerated a lot of the characters' traits compared to their ''[[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehog SatAm]]'' counterparts, e.g. Sonic existed as a BugsBunny with a TotallyRadical mannerisms akin to his ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog AoStH]]'' counterpart, Sally's somewhat neurotic and no-nonsense attitude was exaggerated into a spoiled, mean-tempered prude and Robotnik was converted into even bigger a bumbling CardCarryingVillain than his 'Eggman' incarnations. This was reversed as the comic's writing tone became more serious and akin to the show, though some genuine cases of flanderization do pop up on occasion.

** An aversion may come from the early comics, which had a much zanier and cartoony format thus exaggerated a lot of the characters' traits compared to their ''[[Series/SonicTheHedgehog SatAm]]'' counterparts, e.g. Sonic existed as a BugsBunny with a TotallyRadical mannerisms akin to his ''[[AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog AoStH]]'' counterpart, Sally's somewhat neurotic and no-nonsense attitude was exaggerated into a spoiled, mean-tempered prude and Robotnik was converted into even bigger a bumbling CardCarryingVillain than his 'Eggman' incarnations. This was reversed as the comic's writing tone became more serious and akin to the show, though some genuine cases of flanderization do pop up on occasion.