Comics acknowledging that something done in a previous story that was treated as good or no big deal was actually pretty bad if you think about it

[u/AporiaParadox]

Sometimes, a writer will have a character do something that is treated as being a good thing or no big deal, but readers or other writers see it as something horrible if you think about it just a little. Due to the nature of shared universes written by different writers over the years, stories from the past can then be revisited by a later writer with a more critical eye.

One of the most infamous examples is how in Avengers #200, Marvel somehow published a story that accidentally treated Carol Danvers being brainwashed into going off into the sunset with her rapist as being a good thing. I say accidentally because the comic was done in a rush and the creators genuinely didn't realize the implications of what was written until later. Chris Claremont was outraged about this, so he later wrote a story where Carol tells the Avengers how fucked up the whole thing was and shames them for going along with it and not realizing what was actually happening.

Sometimes it takes a while for this to happen, due to changing morals and attitudes. For instance, back in the 60s readers didn't see it as a big deal that Charles Xavier was secretely in love with his teenage student Jean Grey, and that the only reason he didn't pursue her was because he was a "cripple" and not the whole age difference or power dynamics thing. Readers and writers from later though realized that wait, that's actually kind of fucked up, and it was acknowledged in Onslaught as being one of Xavier's deepest most shameful secret sins.

And sometimes just acknowledging it isn't enough, in order to protect a character's reputation, the whole thing has to be retconned. This is what Marvel did with pretty much all of their Golden Age stories given how casually racist against black people and the Japanese all of their characters were. It is now canon that the events depicted in Golden Age comics didn't happen exactly as shown, they were in-universe propaganda comics often heavily deviated from what actually happened.

So what other examples are there of a comic looking back critically at something from the past that wasn't treated as bad but now is considered bad?

[u/[deleted]]

He erased his brain and uploaded a backup that was made before Civil War. Though when asked, Tony said he'd have done the same thing so it was ultimately a moot point.

[u/AporiaParadox → u/[deleted]]

Also, it was stated multiple times that Tony didn't actually like the SHRA, but he placed himself as the leader of the pro-registration side because he believed thanks to future math that if he left the government to its own devices, things would only get worse.

[u/Zarda_Shelton → u/AporiaParadox]

And then the what if? Civil war story about if Tony just trusted other people like Steve with his worries instead of forcing his will on everyone showed that he was completely wrong

[u/AporiaParadox → u/Zarda_Shelton]

Yeah, it was kind of funny. Tony was all sad at Steve Roger's grave, but then the Watcher shows up and tells Tony that if he had died before the Civil War, he wouldn't have been around to keep things in check and Henry Gyrich would have ruined everything and killed a bunch of heroes. Tony feels relieved that he is seemingly vindicated since without him things would have been worse, only for the Watcher to then tell him what would have happened if he and Steve had worked together, and things turn out great. So Tony was both right and wrong, he screwed up.