DMC3 Dante is a Ryuhei Kitamura character. Watch any of his movies and the parallels are obvious. This Dante also became part of a trend that japan was going through where the heroes always acted too cool to really care. Those type of characters always lied about why they did the right thing, the excuses are always 'because he p*sses me off' or 'I just want to get him back for what he did to me.' They always say that crap to sound cool even if they are obviously doing it because it's right but they were too cool to ever admit it.
DMC1 was a creation with the notion of a protagonist that always smiled but on occasion, when it was called for, he would put on a serious face, ala Cobra, the space pirate. Add to that a lot of Blade's personality from the first blade film and you got a general consensus. This Dante was also always hiding his actual emotions so as to not be manipulated by is opponents. In the SoundDVD book the composer implies that it is not in fact what Dante shows his emotions to be but rather what the music playing reflects, it's often more truthful of what he is feeling than the expression in his face.
DMC4 Dante's attitude is more of 3's sans the actual emotion. At this point he's become too cool to ever really care.
DMC2's Dante was actually a take on DMC1's from another's perspective. Really, it's how whoever wrote it saw Dante.
DmC Dante is a lot more simple than Tylor Durden or Punk rock. He is rebellious, that is all. He is not as philosophical as Palahniuk's character, nor does he embody the ideals of Punk music. He is rebellion, pure and simple. If the mohawks were the one in power Dante would have a buzz cut, an Armani suit, and suitcase and two staplers called ebony and ivory 'cause, let's face it, going against the man is what's really cool, who ever the man is.
