Characters with No Social Skills in Comic Books.
- Batman:
- Cassandra Cain, a.k.a. Batgirl II, is pretty dysfunctional. The first eight years of her life were spent in a bunker learning the killing arts in isolation from spoken language. The next nine were spent on the streets, unable to comprehend spoken language and fleeing the man who raised her. It shows, even after telepathic intervention enabled her to speak and she got over her death wish.Cassandra: [speaking into an audiorecorder/diary] They say you are supposed to... dress up for parties, [looks at conservative business suit in mirror] But this is just... wrong.
- Damian Wayne — the fourth Robin — falls into this as well, especially during the earlier part of his tenure as Robin. Having been raised by the League of Assassins his whole life, adjusting to life as part of the Batfamily was rather difficult, especially trying to drill in the Thou Shalt Not Kill policy. He is aloof, headstrong, and rebellious.
- In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl Barbara Gordon alias Batgirl makes main universe Batman seem psychologically stable in comparison. She is rude, harsh and tactless, and she doesn't work well with other people (with the exception of Bruce Wayne and Supergirl).
- Cassandra Cain, a.k.a. Batgirl II, is pretty dysfunctional. The first eight years of her life were spent in a bunker learning the killing arts in isolation from spoken language. The next nine were spent on the streets, unable to comprehend spoken language and fleeing the man who raised her. It shows, even after telepathic intervention enabled her to speak and she got over her death wish.
- Vlad in Hack/Slash was abandoned as a baby due to his deformity and brought up in seclusion by a kindly but reclusive Czech-American butcher, causing him to be innocent, very good with cleavers, and not very good at English.
- Secret Six: Most of the Six had unusual/horrendous upbringings, and as such have no gauge for what is "normal". Upon discovering the body of an assassin that one of their friends has just tortured to death:Deadshot: Okay, I don't know what normal people think: Is this ***ed up?
Scandal: Thomas hates traps and torture. Yes, it's ***ed up.
Ragdoll: Why is everyone so sad? Are you hungry? Is that it? - Marv in Sin City admits to having few to no social skills. Dwight once mentioned that he would've gotten along with people if he was born in an ancient battle field, though.
- Spider-Woman: The original Marvel Comics version of Jessica Drew Spider-Woman had her raised among the High Evolutionary's menagerie of Beast Men — meaning that she had no idea how to interact with normal humans when she finally entered the outside world, and tended to creep out everyone she met. The Retconed version of her origin eliminates this, though.
- The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye:
- Nautica, a Naïve Newcomer to the Autobot-Decepticon conflict, is prone to social missteps like trying to see if Megatron, a fairly recently Retired Monster, is ticklish, and otherwise has No Sense of Personal Space. Then there's her sense of humour, which is a little funny if, and only if, you know a decent amount of quantum physics, which she tells to Riptide. It actually causes her quite a few problems because her home colony is (at least in MTMTE) a place that highly values social skills, meaning that shy, bookish Nautica ended up formally declaring lifelong friendship to someone she can't stand just because the social consequences of not having a formally declared lifelong friend were even worse.
- Ultra Magnus, the Ultimate Lawman, is also the most rigid, uptight, socially uncomfortable person in the universe, to the point where the systems that would allow him to smile have gone unused for so long they're starting to rust. He is so much The Bore that according to the other characters, the last time he gave a speech, people died, and has trouble even saying the word "fun".
- Watchmen: Rorschach is an extreme case. He never bathes, he thinks it's socially acceptable to break into people's houses and steal their stuff and has the nerve to tell Laurie that her mother almost getting raped by the Comedian could have been a moral lapse. Even Dan has problems dealing with him to the point where he finally lashes out at Rorschach. This leads to a handshake that Rorschach finds very awkward. The only time Rorschach feels at ease with anyone is when he's breaking people's fingers. He at least has the decency to try to avoid doing shit like that in front of children (probably because of his own past experiences with Abusive Parents). It's made clear to the reader that while Rorschach is ultimately a good person and genuinely wants to help others, his total lack of proper social skills and his abundance of disorders will probably end up destroying him. In the end, he sacrifices himself before that possibility ever comes up.
- Laura Kinney, a.k.a. X-23, is the female counterpart to Wolverine in the Marvel Universe. She is an example of the "synthetic" subtrope. She was cloned in large part from incomplete samples stolen from the Weapon-X project and raised as an assassin-for-hire. She is literate, multilingual, and a superb actress — when she sees the need. However, her post-escape attempt to go to ground at her aunt's place did not work out at first. Her first day at school was marred by faux pas and attempts to discuss matters far outside her peers' experience. She also failed to even pretend to be intimidated when called in to the Principal's Office.
