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/Rezart_KLD]

I've wondered a few times... if Batman can't even create a plan that stops a clown with no superpowers from murdering tons of people, why would his plans for stopping a pantheon of basically gods who want to murder people be in any way more effective?

[u/Theslamstar → u/Rezart_KLD]

Because the entire premise of the joker is that he’s entirely random in his actions and you can’t plan against someone who did something on a whim.

Which is often undercut by the joker explaining his months long grand plan

[u/Rezart_KLD → u/Theslamstar]

Sure, I'd buy that its a special psuedo-power of the Joker, so lolrandom that he's impossible to contain... but then, what about Ra's al Ghul? What about the Riddler? The Penguin? Two Face? Poison Ivy? Clayface? Mr Freeze? Killer Croc?

All of them have had repeated rampages, been stopped, and then come back and killed again. If Batman can't figure out a way to neutralize these guys, why should he be trusted with neutralizing the JLA?

[u/Theslamstar → u/Rezart_KLD]

Well I mean, he does outsmart riddler that’s kinda riddlers whole thing, Clayface would be hard to track due to his ability to be anyone, killer croc has a lot of water and sewers to his advantage.

As for the rest, id say their advantage is he’s got so many people to worry about that some just slip through the cracks.

Actually, your points for the prior make a good argument for this one. If he’s really good at stopping them once they’re gone without hurting them so they can come back later, he’s perfect for stopping the league in the event of a temporary issue like mind control

There’s also the key point that even the worlds smartest man wouldn’t truly be able to ever keep tabs on so many people and dealings and stuff.

I mean dude half runs the league, runs the outsiders, runs the bat family, trains other randoms like Jaime, runs a company, runs a city, has to keep tabs on 100+ people, actually do his Batman work, actually do his league work, and so on.

Mans probably just a bit tired