In Your Opinion, Who's the Most Underrated Comics Character?

Nobody appreciates the Prowler, Forge, or Cloak & Dagger. And the only people who seem to like Namor besides me are the actual people who work at Marvel. Maybe if they gave him some more clothes people wouldn't give him so much shit (and guys would feel less uncomfortable buying his comics).

As far as villains, I've always loved the Beetle (who I've always imagined as Steve Buscemi underneath the helmet), Blacklash/Whiplash, and Mr. Hyde. Exodus was cool while he was around in the 90s, and would have made a great character for Jean Grey to face off against in the X-Men films had they not squandered her storyline entirely. The Sin Eater was a cool, gritty, more grounded villain, I'd like to see what the modern writers and artists of today, given far more lax restrictions on what they can get away with now, would do with him. Scourge of the Underworld, too. Marvel's continuity could use a little more culling.

And whatever happened to Puma?

I think Daredevil's really under appreciated, but mostly by casual comic fans. I think the shit movie probably had a lot to do with it.

Bullseye deserves more credit for being one of comics best bad-asses (even though I hate the term 'bad-ass').

Also, I think while Wolverine gets a lot of flack, the character has way more potential than people realize, which is obviously due to over-use and shit writing.

Dude, Forge is boring. His name is Forge, for God's sake.

I really like Warlock. Scratch that, I love Warlock. He's loveable, completely guileless, has a useful power, talks funny, and has a fantastic character design. I actually think he's been killed off, which may explain why he hasn't turned up in anything for twenty years. Poor wee fella.



And Cyclops, while probably used quite a lot, remains, and will forever remain, eternally underrated.

I miss Cypher. Now THAT was a useful power.

Madrox/Multiple Man. Admittedly, I've been mostly away from comics for years so maybe I missed something, but I barely knew who he was before X-3.

That's a power you could do a lot with. Assuming I understand correctly, the guy can be his own army. By sending a shitload of copies out into the world for a few years, he could develop lifetimes of experiences and skillsets. He'd make a great spy-type. He's not superstrong or nigh-invulnerable, no laser blasts or inviso-rays or steel endoskeletons, but he's effectively un-killable because there can always be another copy stashed somewhere.

Has any book done much with his power?

I find that my character Molesto the Magnificent was extremely underrated. Stan Lee even spat in my face.

Moon Knight. Such a great concept if they'd handle it properly.

You guys could get together and miss Douglock. There really aren't enough partially re-animated hybrid characters in the Marvel universe.

If I may cheat and name a team- The U-Foes. These four were an evil version of the Fantastic Four, and yet they were Hulk villains.

The GCPD:



Not including Jim Gordon. They had a great run with Gotham Central.

The Madrox mini from a couple years ago by Peter David is pretty flipping fab. It's in trade format now. I've also heard good things about the new X-Factor (also by David), which also stars the character, but my pocketbook won't let me hop on that bandwagon. The two series are pretty similar, apparently, sort of a funny superhero noir thing going on.

EDIT: Oh, and I always thought that Superman's Rogues Gallery was pretty underrated. Everyone always talks about how shit it is, but he's got some awesome villains in the mix. If Geoff Johns can work his magic on a couple like he did in The Flash (seriously, who ever thought that The Turtle could be threatening or creepy?), that could change, though.

I also think that Morrison's Bulleteer character is going to circle the drain into death or obscurity, even if she is a great character, and I'd buy anything with her in it in a minute. Easily my favorite character from Seven Soldiers.

EDIT AGAIN: And Turok. Fuck you, Acclaim.

Definitely Gambit.

I was going to mention Cypher. A nice character, and he and Warlock made a great duo. They also provided one of the more tasteless scenes in comics, when Warlock opened Cypher's coffin as it was awaiting burial, hauled Cypher's corpse out of it, and, believing he was "just sleeping", started walking the corpse around to try and "bring it back to life".

Fondling the corpses of children = Comics Code Approved.

I'll have to throw some love towards Deathlok. He only had a 34 issue run in the early 90's, and his run from the 70's was great. I know he had another comic sometime back, but he should have another shot. This time on the MAX line. That would bring down so many barriers. It made the Blade comic great, and The Punisher is at home there.

Off the top of my head, he's the only one I can think of right now.

I believe Morrison wants to keep writing her, along with the Guardian and Frankenstein.

Superman

Batman


, but seriously, Dr Midnite.

Please, God, let this happen. Substitute Guardian for Shining Knight, and I'd be pleased as punch. Come to think of it, I think I'm the only guy that read SS and isn't totally in love with Guardian...

The Madrox mini-series and the X-Factor series that has since spun out of it are both incredibly good reads. Peter David has made Jamie Madrox one of my favourite comic book characters.

Deathlok recently popped up in BEYOND!, written by Dwayne McDuffie, who wrote the '90's Deathlok series.

As for some of my favourite underrateds:

Space Ghost - Sure I love his goofy talk show cartoon, but the recent Joe Kelly written mini-series proved he could actually be viable as a superhero, and conversely Zorak could be a viable nemesis. More of the like would be good.

Vixen - The lady has always had potential, but it's not until Justice League Unlimited that she's really let loose. Equal parts supermodel and ferocious warrior, I hope Meltzer gets around to doing something interesting with her in the latest Justice League

The Question - Last year's mini-series by Rick Veitch was one of my favourite books, and he was loads of fun on JLU, and Denny O'Neil's run back in the late '80's was quite decent. Too bad he's going to bite it by the end of 52

Aquaman - he's not as lame as everyone makes him out to be. Really. Honest.
Well, at least he shouldn't be. Sigh.

The Micronauts.

Or maybe that's just my remembering the cool-ass toys they spawned.

The comic had potential, and it had its moments...But went down pretty quickly.

Paste Pot Pete is grossly underrated as a Villian.
But serioulsy, I always liked Mysterio as a villian.Never understood why he was never quite rated with Sandman,Doc Ock and Venom as a Spidey Villian.

I'll throw in another vote for Deathlok. They never should have fucked around with him and made different Deathloks. That character is begging for an awesome relaunch.

And until recently, Black Panther was fairly underloved. I like how Marvel made him their Batman analog.

Marvel Characters - Union Jack, Havok, Nate Grey, Maverick, and yeah this will get some flak but Darkhawk, he's one of the first comics I ever read and I've always dug the design and the whole mystery surrounding his powers and his father's dirty dealings way back in the day. It was good stuff.

As for DC Characters - Firestorm, Aquaman, Donna Troy (I'd kill for Marv Wolfman to write a book with her on the team again.) Mr. Terrific, Damage and Manhunter (Kate Spencer). Manhunter is easily one of my new favorite DC characters in the last 10 years.

Well, he was until he went to prison and they retconned Black Panther history to establish that, like Batman, he could defeat any opponent if given the right circumstances.

Wonder Woman. A great character that in her heyday, outsold Batman and Superman; now she's been marginalized so badly that she only works w/in the context of the "Big Three".

DC moved away from the offbeat but light-hearted psychosexual foundations established by William Moulton Marston - stealing her fire - eventually allowing Wonder Woman to settle into little more than an honorary position in the DCU.

Some writers work with the character better than others, yet all aside from Marston have failed to generate a sustainable - or for that matter, memorable - vision of the character.

That was Denny O'Neil, and though I like a lot of those issues, it began the long trend of male fanboys (most of whom are only vaguely familiar with the character) believing the only way to make her an attractive property again is by "depowering" her - which for me has always reaked of Hercules taking the girdle away from Hippolyta, which incidently rated a brief mention in Allan Heinberg's current - and currently atrocious - run on the title.

I love the current "She Hulk".Taking the fact that She Hulk's "normal" identity of Jennifer Walters is a high powered attorney and running with that was a great idea. And it does not take itself too seriously,which is a problem with a lot of the Marvel Universe nowdays.

More the series than the character but -

They did, over at DC - it was called "Batman"

I've never read anything beyond the mini series. Sounds similar to that issue where Punisher kills everyone in the universe.

I'd throw the Scorpion in along with Mysterio as classic underrated Spidey villians. Everybody always talks about Green Goblin, Doc Ock, or Venom as being great villians, but Scorpion was always my favorite growing up. I guess it would have to do with the fact that his origin ties directly to J.J. Jameson's hatred of Spider-Man. I always liked the idea that the Scorpion was originally created to just humilate Spider-Man, but then becomes something much worst that Jameson has no control over.

I'm kinda hoping that they tackle Scorpion in one of the future Spider-Man movies. At least it would give J.K. Simmons something to do besides yell at Tobey Maguire and be the comic relief of the series.

Since I'm just catching up on this thread, I'm not sure who mentioned Warlock, but if you're talking the Starlin-based Marvel character, Greg Pak did a nice 4-issue mini with him a couple years back. Of course, it was supposed to be an ongoing, and got cut down to a mini AFTER it had started, but he was still able to pull together a halfway decent wrapup to the storyline. Not sure if it's been traded, but well worth searching the quarter bins for.

Moon Knight's definitely had his potential overlooked in his earlier series (and apart from the general look of the costume, he's always been closer to The Shadow than Batman); I'm sorry Huston's not able to stay on the new series much longer.

(Actually, the Marvel character who was specificially created as a Batman analog, according to Steve Englehart, was The Shroud, who recently had a cameo in the Ms Marvel series)

Another vote for Deathlok from me-- his 70's series was one of my favorites.

A character whose potential is virtually untapped is Ghost-- she's a cool costume with nothing underneath (except... well, you know what I mean). There's a challenge for an ambitious writer: come up with a reason to read her comics, instead of just look at them.

And Medusa. Not sure why, but since she was one of the first female Marvel characters to undertake the "villainess-to-heroine" journey (which is sort of a standard career path over there), and took it a step further by becoming royalty, I could easily see that leading to some intriguing characterization. Problem is, of course, no one would buy it.

I haven't read a comic with Moon Knight in it since the 80's, but does he still have that insanely complicated set-up with the three or four split personalities? Because that was overkill.

My two underrated characters our Alan Scott and Thor.

Alan Scott has always been my favorite Green Latern, but never really get's his moment in the sun. The only two moments where they really explore what he means in the modem DC idea, is the Golden Age where he really comes off as a big gun for once. And one panel really in JLA/JSA Virtue and Vice where he and Superman are just floating on the moon.

Thor has always been Marvel's Superman character (shut up, the Sentry sucks balls), yet is even more powered down on any team or teamup then superman ever is. Writers even make him a bigger pussy then Superman, talking about how Captain America trainied him in hand to hand combat, he's a 1000's of years old war-god, I think he knows a bit more then Captain America about combat and war

Moon Knight

Iron Fist

Vision

Rocket Raccoon.

Bwahahaha!! +5 points!

The latest incarnation of the Moon Knight character has actually been one of my guilty pleasures this year so far. Do yourselves a favour and pick up the new book.

Dr. Strange has always been a character that, until this new series he's been in The Oath, has never really been written that well or up to the potential of the character, thus leading people to believe he is mediocre and not awesomeness. WHICH IS MADNESS!!!

Another underrated character? Adam Strange. The mini-series that they had before Infinite Crisis with him in it was one of the best I read that year. I've always been a sucker for the space story lines in both Marvel and DC, and they do such a great job with this one.

And no, I am not fixated on things with the last name Strange, that's just a dirty fucking rumour.