George: Elroy is a bright boy. He takes after his mother's side of the family.
Robin (1993): Tim Drake notes at several points the foolishness and unpleasant side effects of doing the kind of work Robin does without wearing head protection, but only leaves on his motorcycle helmet for one fight. He finally starts wearing an armored cowl after being burned on the back of his neck and head and makes it a permanent part of his costume as Red Robin after about four years (in universe) of going without.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2018): The comic book is introduced with Miles Morales narrating: "My name is Miles Morales. This is my journal. The Journal of... Spider-Man". And then he admits that it sounds so cheesy, that he's glad that nobody will ever read it, or he would die of embarrassment.
Morty: I-I don't get the point of the transformations, Rick. Rick: Wh-what's to get, Morty? They're frickin' hilarious. Funny equals ratings. Ratings equals orbs. Morty: Th-They're not that funny, though, Rick. Comedically, it's real low-hanging fruit. I-I-I mean, all you do is turn into something, then yell what it is and then you add your name. It's pretty basic. Like, maybe it's a little absurdist, but it's really just playing to the lowest common denominator, you know? Rick: You ever think maybe you're not smart enough to get the subtle references I-I'm making here, Morty? Morty: Yeah, I don't think that's it.
All over the place in Issue 57, which features Rick and Jerry going to "SchwiftyCon", a convention in an alternate dimension that entirely revolves around Rick and Morty (which, there, is a "fictional" cartoon about Rick's and Morty's adventures). Particular examples include:
Numerous various attendees at the con yelling "Pickle Riiiick!" at random times just like Rick did in the titular episode, which might also double as a Take That, Audience!.
The con has a long line of fans waiting to see the creators of the show (Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon), and there's a table next to them for the writer and artist of the comics (Kyle Starks and Marc Ellerby respectively)...which has no line at all. One fan walks up and asks if they created the series, and when they correct him and encourage him to read the comic, he walks away, bored and disinterested, to their displeasure.
When Roiland sees Rick and Jones fighting, he says, "Are they doing a bit? When did this become a thing?" Harmon then asks Roiland if Peacock Jones (whom they're assuming is another cosplayer) is one of his characters, and Roiland responds with "No. Mine are good."
Roiland and Harmon (of that dimension, anyway) die when the giant Pickle Rick statue hanging from the ceiling is accidentally shot loose by Rick and Jones, falls, and crushes them, complete with a "PICKLE SQUISH".
Starks and Ellerby also die when Jerry, while trying to shoot Jones with the gun Rick gave him, accidentally shoots and disintegrates the two of them instead (while they're talking about whether they should put more fart jokes or butt jokes in the next issue, to boot).
A big chunk of Hollis Mason's autobiography in Watchmen is dedicated to gently mocking himself for his career as Nite Owl, acknowledging just about every easy joke that people made about him and his contemporaries. He is still generally proud of his work and doesn't regret it, but he claims he was never all that great, and will tell you at the first opportunity that the second Nite Owl was much better.
Creator self-deprecation
Comic books and comic book storylines that are all but universally considered terrible often end up being mocked in another comic book from the same company or even the same comic book series from which the reviled story came.
The longest-running gag in the series: Whatever you do, don't talk to Spider-Man about clones. Heck, even someone else showing up in the same costume as him will set him off!
Spider-Man: I’m telling you now, if I ever see another clone again, I’ll throw it off the nearest bridge. Thus making an obscene clone fall.
The third issue of Spider-Man Unlimited (The first volume, no relation to the cartoon) starts with a newspaper editor explaining to his new employee about how they usually write obituaries in advance, which can lead to embarrassing retractions, what with the Marvel universe being the way it is. In the foreground of that panel, we see two filing cabinets, one with the label "Tony Stark" with two stickers reading "dead" and "alive"... and another named "X-Men", with so many of the dead/alive stickers that they go off-panel. This was in the early nineties, by the way, so Tony probably got a few more of those stickers added to his cabinet over the years.
Stan Lee has remarked that J. Jonah Jameson was based on how Lee imagined the fans viewed him: a cantankerous, money-hungry old man. Most comics fans today see Lee as an affable grandfather figure, so in this case the Self-Deprecation lost its relevance. Likewise, Jameson received multiple bits of character development over the years, painting him as harsh, aggressive, and sales-happy, but also honest, fair, and with a strong moral code. As a result, he ceased to be an effective parody.
During J. Michael Straczynski's run on The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski), one comic included a security guard claiming he dislikes Babylon 5 because of its Kudzu Plot. In another issue, he mocks his own Retcon of Spider-Man's origin by having the director of the "Lobster-Man" movie claim that said hero's origin via radioactive lobster bite is lame and orders the writers to change it to the hero being The Chosen One of a "Lobster God".
Brian Bendis actually makes a cameo appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man storyline "Freaky" (where Spidey switches bodies with Wolverine), wherein he [Bendis] apologizes to the reader for coming up with such a hackneyed, ridiculous plot.
The Assistant Editor's Month which Marvel occasionally saw fit to inflict on unsuspecting readers was a great opportunity for self-parody on the part of the writers and staff. All comics printed during AEM had the label 'Assistant Editor's Month - You Have Been Warned!'. More self-deprecation would follow inside the comics themselves. The recap box for the first story in Iron Man #178 had this to say:
When ace editor Mark Gruenwald flies to San Diego for personal appearances, Mike Carlin, assistant editor extraordinaire, becomes the guy to blame for this... Stan Lee presents: "Mike Carlin's issue of Iron Man".
The first Marvel Holiday Special had a page dedicated to X-Men-themed christmas carols. They were rife with self-deprecation about various aspects of the comics - one sung to the tune of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas says that you should buy all their spin-offs even though prices are up (and make your parents pay for it, too!), the Jingle Bells one has lines like "Psylocke's race has changed" and "Phoenix is a mess" and lastly, the Twelve Days parody ends with "Twelve plotlines hanging".
He later calls himself Spoon-feeding Stan in that same issue.
More Stan Lee: In Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir, he talks about releasing a recording of him and the rest of the bullpen just talking randomly. He comments about how no one had that before, how no one had ever been able to hear the voices of the people behind the magazines they read.
Stan: It's a wonder they didn't cancel their subscriptions of the spot!
In Marc Guggenheim's Civil War: Choosing Sides, Mac Gargan is discussing selling his life story. He wants Guggenheim to do the movie, then says "No, the other Guggenheim, the one who wrote that hockey movie", simultaneously putting down Marc himself, and giving a Shout-Out to his brother Eric.
Kurt Busiek and Erik Larsen's early 21st-century resurrection of The Defenders: In addition to portraying its principal characters as supreme Jerk Asses who eventually decide to take over the world so it won't need to be defended (and, more importantly, so they won't have to deal with one another), the series invoked Stylistic Suck via references to Marvel's incredibly goofy Silver Age giant monster comics, and one of its covers proudly boasted a Wizard Magazine quote proclaiming The Defenders to be "the worst comic ever produced."
During a New Avengers arc dealing with The Multiverse, Johnathan Hickman wrote a scene where Beast claims that Multiversal and Butterfly of Doom concepts tend to be the foundation of "Every piece of bad science fiction ever written".
Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven's solicit synopsis calls Two-Gun Kid, the poster boy for Marvel's western heroes to the point of even having been an Avenger due to time travel shenanigans at one point, "The most overrated gun in the old west".
Marvel's 2008 Big Hero 6 miniseries poked some fun at the original 90's run. When answering the question of why not make the series have 6 issues to match the title, the author's notes in the first issue remarked that 5 issues is already longer than the original series had. The second issue had character profiles for Sunpyre and Ebon Samurai, who appeared in the original run but not in the new one, with the notes stating the profiles might actually be longer than their actual appearances in comic books put together. The third issue continued the trend when the backup feature was the editor's friend explaining the concept of American Football to him.
Jordan: I understand what you are saying to me, but it seems completely random and weird. Nate: So you're saying it's like having a fully drawn and finished comic, reading and enjoying it, then having a random series of back-page extras featuring an assistant that had nothing to do with the comic because you needed to fill up space? Am I equating properly? Jordan: ...You're cold.
French cartoonist Gotlib never misses an opportunity to make fun of his own limits as an artist. For example, while discussing the Italian westerns, he drew a typical protagonist of such films, which suspiciously looked like a famous actor... and commented it with "Any resemblance to Clint Eastwood would be one hell of a fluke" — a jab at Gotlib's (self-perceived) poor skills in caricaturing real people.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is a huge source of Old Shame, one Squee comic sends the titular character on a rant about how sometimes it seems like his life is controlled by a "suckish cartoon guy who can't draw", and one Invader ZimDVD commentary track has one member of the voice cast remark that "Jhonen is genius, although I couldn't say that in front of him because he'd beat me up or something." Back when he was planning on making a movie (whatever happened to that?) he said it'd be "Coming soon to a bargain bin near you."
For bonus points, he regularly uses the margins of his own comic to snark at elements of his writing and art he dislikes. During a particularly melodramatic bit of Wangst from Johnny, for instance, a caption remarks that he's "regressed back to stupid teen angst mode"; his caption to some odd flying creatures in the background of heaven admits he has no idea what they are or what he was thinking.
Note in the Margin: I didn't pay attention in perspective class.
MAD called its writing staff "The Usual Gang of Idiots", published letters that insulted the magazine creatively, and often included shots on itself in articles. They were also well-known for putting pictures in their letters column of actors tearing up copies of issues that parody something they were in.
In Ex Machina, Hundred interviews Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris for the possibility of them making a graphic novel style biography of him...then decides to get Garth Ennis and Jim Lee instead.
Ennis did something similar in The Boys, in which he tries to get a job at Victory Comics and is literally told to go fuck himself.
In the first issue of Young Justice, the Power Trio have nightmares in which strange and irrational things happen to them ... things which strangely echo Peter David's work on Aquaman (1994), Supergirl and The Incredible Hulk. On that note, in the same issue, when Robin asks Red Tornado how he knows of their history in spite of being deactivated, the latter explains he keeps over 1500 files on various superheroes constantly updated in his head. Then he says that 19 of those are for Hawkmanalone.
The point of Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield?, Forbush Man is turned into a '90s Anti-Hero and goes after Marvel staff for ruining Marvel Comics. The whole thing is giant self-mockery. Just for example:
Joe Quesada: Tim, Axel, do you guys still read the comics we publish? Axel Alonso: We still publish comics, Joe? Tom Brevoort: First, it's Tom, and second, I like that one with differentcolorrings. Do we do that?
Garth Ennis here mentions 2000 AD having its best ten years "before they got desperate and started employing people like me."
In The BoysSpin-OffButcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker, Stan Leeexpy The Legend tells Garth Ennis to "go fuck himself" and says he doesn't hire Brits.
Evan Dorkin. Although he never holds back on letting people have it the biggest butt of all his jokes is always himself.
One issue of the New Avengers featured Nighthawk telling the titular team that there is no reason for them to be called Avengers:
Nighthawk: I don't get it! Clearly you guys are The Defenders, but you're calling yourselves The Avengers??? I mean, is it me? Am I the crazy one?
The same gag was used in an earlier issue where Hawkeye met the New Avengers for the first time. Upon seeing their roster, he confusedly asked if they were supposed to be the newest incarnation of the Defenders.
In the last issue of Skrull Kill Krew Vol 2, Norman Osborn discusses how Earth-born Skrulls are using the media to curry favor with the public, noting that they've even begun moving into comic books - "yes, they still make them". It is Norman 'Green Goblin' Osborn saying it, but still.
Ben Templesmith appears in the Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse issue "Segue to Destruction" at the Dead Alley, where Wormwood describes him as "my biographer". None of the cast have any respect for him at all, and mock his defensively citing his three Eisner nominations: "No idea what those are, but he seems obsessed with them."
In Christopher Priest's first issue of Deadpool, the title character arrives in Limbo, dragging a bag. He then has to throw the bag, labelled "Everything that made this book good", into the void. He's greeted by various characters whose books Priest was writing when they were cancelled. They tell him that his own cancellation is now inevitable. In Priest's final issue, 'Pool again arrives in Limbo dragging a bag ... a body bag. When the other characters realize that he's killed the writer responsible for ruining their lives, they all cheer.
In the 1970s, Cary Bates once wrote himself into a Justice League story arc (in Justice League of America #173 and #174) as a villain. Not a thinly disguised version of himself named Barry Cates, not an alternate universe version of himself, just himself from our universe, where he's a comic book writer (in-story, being transported from our "real" universe to the JSA's Earth-Two made him go insane). Fellow writer Elliot S! Maggin also appeared as a character in the story; he was portrayed in a slightly more positive light (i.e., not an insane villain).
Iron Man #294 features a brief appearance by the Goddess, main antagonist of The Infinity Crusade, as a tie-in to that storyline. Iron Man remarks in his inner monologue that he can smell another Crisis Crossover coming, referring to these sorts of incidents as a logistical nightmare.
Near the end of Justice League International crossover "Breakdowns", Blue Beetle comments on the increasingly convoluted series of events the team is facing, saying that it seems like something a pair of mediocre comic writers would come up with. This sort of humor was commonplace in the series. A Running Gag involved former members of the "real Justice League" like Hawkman and Aquaman complaining about how the JLI was ruining their team's reputation by acting like a bunch of incompetent goofballs and jokesters.
Viz delights in describing itself as "not as funny as it used to be". From time to time it will also proudly say that it was rubbish then, too.
In the Hellboy story In the Chapel of Moloch, Hellboy is investigating the strange behavior of a painter who is making paintings of ghouls and demons. Unimpressed, his only comment is "He is ripping of Goya". (And the paintings are exactly the same style as all the other monsters in the series.)
DC Universe: Rebirth #1 set the stage for a major one by having the Pre-Flashpoint Wally West say that someone stole time, relationships and hope from the universe. This is exactly what people criticised the New 52 for: de-aging characters whose ages never factored into their appeal, the legacies of the DC universe (which Wally is actually the poster boy for), the removal of love interests and marriages, and the overall grim tone of the universe.
"Superheavy", the Batman storyline where Jim Gordon becomes Batman, had a very mixed reception from readers, mostly due to the choice of Batman successor. When Bruce Wayne returns as Batman, he rescues Jim and says "who died and made you Batman?" Doubles as a joke between the two, of course, but the issue opens with meta commentary about Bruce Wayne's return. About how "the people" need "their" Batman back, and how it's up to "you" to deliver, with Bruce seemingly looking right at Snyder on the same panel.
Soon after the end of their next Crisis Crossover, Marvel likes to release an one-shot poking fun at it and many of the problems they are criticised for at the time. Of course, they tend to do that so often that fans are starting to get annoyed with Marvel constantly poking fun at their own problems, but never trying to fix them. And you can do the "Look, we care about or C-List Fodder heroes, here are ones with their own books, that won't last six issues!" gag only so many times before it becomes insulting.
Perhaps the first of these was 101 ways to endThe Clone Saga, a one-shot set entirely in Marvel's own offices as their writers desperately attempt to invent a proper ending to the messy Kudzu Plot that they had created.
There was also the Marvel Year In Review series during The '90s. Initially a mostly-serious comic, as The Dark Age of Comic Books drew on and things looked bleaker and bleaker for not only the house of ideas but also for the industry as a whole, it relied increasingly on Biting-the-Hand Humor as if writers were trying to say "Hey, don't shoot the messenger!" The page quote for the Dark Age comes from issue #3 of this series, in fact.
Marvel's What The?! parody comic poked fun at their own plotlines and characters (they also took shots at DC, but less often). One issue even made fun of the hairstyles, by having "The Mighty Sore, God of Blunder" stumble into the barber who does all of them.
In Young Justice (2019), Tim Drake moved on from being Robin/Red Robin to a new codename: Drake. It was not well-liked and fans made that very, very clear. In the last issue of the series, Tim has gone back to the Robin outfit and in-universe, it's stated that this was because the Bat-family staged an intervention to get him to change back. It was apparently that hated in-universe, which probably makes sense given that it has his real name in it and all.
The 1999 Plastic Man special by Ty Templeton is filled to the brim with a few jabs at the superhero's expense as well as that of Templeton himself. The cover has Superman pleading the reader to not read the comic because doing so will tarnish the reputation of the Justice League and the last story has a Framing Device where Ty Templeton is beaten into a coma by kids who hate Plastic Man for daring to defend the hero, causing the writer to dream about a nonsensical story about Plastic Man and his sidekick Woozy Winks that throws shade at DC Comics' habit of constantly doing Crisis Crossovers and arbitrarily killing off characters that aren't as popular as well as undoing deaths on a whim.
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist: The fictional version of Adrian Tomine constantly puts himself down or feels left out in the middle of events that ostensibly celebrate his success. He narrates several incidents where people don't show up to signings, prefer more famous authors to him, or spout negative opinions of his work in his presence. When he's interviewed for NPR, this insecurity is rendered as a "spirit" version of Tomine who overthinks his manner of speaking, calls his answers to the host's questions subpar, and tells him that the lame interview will be immortalized. Early in the comic he cites a real negative review about his work:
Haven’t we seen a little too much of the hip, muted, fragmented, overly-short short stories that this moron is trying to pass off as fresh and original?
The recap page for the first issue of the 2022 revival of I Hate Fairyland refers to creator Skottie Young as a "baby-cover-drawing dirtbag" and makes disparaging references to Middlewest and The Me You Love In The Dark, two other comics Young wrote for Image Comics.
Keith Giffen would sometimes make potshots at himself in his comics.
The Metal Men backup feature for his run on Doom Patrol, which is co-written by Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis as well as illustrated in the later installments by Kevin Maguire, at one point has Mercury see that the comic included with the Douglas, Robot Hunter DVD he's purchased is by Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire. He comments that he didn't know those people were still alive and complains that the humorous tone given in the comic isn't being true to the source material.
The Larfleeze ongoing, aside from constant jokes about no one being interested in reading the comic, frequently has the credits snark on how Giffen, DeMatteis and artist Scott Kollins aren't nearly as good as they think they are and jokingly state that they're an unpleasant burden to work with, with the credits for the last issue stating that DC was finally able to get rid of them after finding a big enough broom.
At the end of the Kurt Busiek's Astro City story "My Dad", the Broken Man grumbles about not having enough pages to tell his story and blames the pacing issues on the comic's creators.
The 34th issue of What If? has the cover depicting Uatu begging the reader not to buy it and lamenting that the Watcher's code of only observing and never taking action prevents him from doing anything about the craziness of the issue's stories. In addition, the final story asks the question of what would happen if Stan Lee read this issue, which shows a furious Stan declaring that the issue's writers are all fired.
Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man ends with their Author Avatar interacting with Buddy Baker, agreeing that Morrison isn't the best writer and that using the series to soapbox about their views on animal cruelty and the harm big business is causing the environment as well as putting Buddy through the wringer wasn't the best approach.
In Peter Milligan's run on Shade, the Changing Man, one of the featured characters is an Author Avatar of Milligan named Miles Laimling, who is depicted as a pretentious bore. Near the end of the series, it even becomes a recurring gag for characters to remark about the rubbish quality of Laimling's writing.
mentions 2000 AD having its best ten years "before they got desperate and started employing people like me."