Iyo: The Most Underrated Or Underused Character In Comics

[Eyendasky80]

You must be speaking of some other Brother Blood, one who isn't the creepy character that Johns is writing. He's certainly not a whiner by any means, though admittedly rather mother obsessed.

I am not. He whined constantly and he was about as creepy as a five year old with a really runny nose that insists on pawing you after he gets done rubbing snot all over his hands.

[Twilight]

I am not. He whined constantly and he was about as creepy as a five year old with a really runny nose that insists on pawing you after he gets done rubbing snot all over his hands.

He didn't whine at all and if you don't find a kid who latches onto a mother figure for the sole purpose of killing her creepy then you must be really creepy. Then there was the whole blood drinking thing. Granted he's not the original Brother Blood but he's an interesting take on the character, in my opinion. Geoff Johns indeed strikes again, with a good story.

[Eyendasky80]

He didn't whine at all and if you don't find a kid who latches onto a mother figure for the sole purpose of killing her creepy then you must be really creepy. Then there was the whole blood drinking thing. Granted he's not the original Brother Blood but he's an interesting take on the character, in my opinion. Geoff Johns indeed strikes again, with a good story.

Hey buddy. Why don't you take two steps back from Johns heiny and not turn this into some personal vendetta, okay? I think he's slipped, you're obviously madly in love with the man and who am I to judge the two of you? So I say live and let live! You enjoy Johns and I'll enjoy saying he's out of good ideas.

Because he is.

Out of good ideas.

[Twilight]

Hey buddy. Why don't you take two steps back from Johns heiny and not turn this into some personal vendetta, okay? I think he's slipped, you're obviously madly in love with the man and who am I to judge the two of you? So I say live and let live! You enjoy Johns and I'll enjoy saying he's out of good ideas.

Because he is.

Out of good ideas.

The only one making this into a personal vendetta apparently. I state my opinion and you claim I'm having a homosexual lust for the man, very mature indeed.

And if you call writing good stories being out of good ideas, then I feel sorry for you.

That's all I have to say about that.

[Bill_CCHKK]

You must be speaking of some other Brother Blood, one who isn't the creepy character that Johns is writing. He's certainly not a whiner by any means, though admittedly rather mother obsessed.

Not me, man. I was just answering the question of who the "he" being referred to was. I've been very much enjoying the current Teen Titans run, but I think part of that is the fact that I didn't read the title before about a year ago, so I have no idea if any continuity/back story is getting messed up.

This thread has been interesting to me, but I don't have much to contribute to it, due to the fact that I took a 15 year hiatus from reading comics. Back in the 80s, I read Marvel comics pretty much exclusively. When I started back about a year or so ago, I was annoyed by the multitude of X-titles, and started reading DC (plus Astro City). So I can't comment on the current state of old Marvel characters, and I don't know who's missing in the new DC. And, frankly, I'm just fine with that

- Bill

[Lord Liaden]

Yes, the Brother Blood I'm referring to was a very different character from the one you're describing. The original BB was a charismatic, ominously powerful presence, the leader of an international "church"/cult who was a master at manipulating the minds and emotions of others. He played the Titans like a flute to advance his plans, but ultimately fell prey to his own hubris, and the fury of a woman scorned.

[Eyendasky80]

The only one making this into a personal vendetta apparently. I state my opinion and you claim I'm having a homosexual lust for the man, very mature indeed.

And if you call writing good stories being out of good ideas, then I feel sorry for you.

That's all I have to say about that.

I never said you had homosexual lust , I said you appear to be in love with the man because you leap to personal insult to defend any who dare impugn his honor. You wanna draw some conclusions on your own, that's your business and I'd appreciate if you wouldn't credit me with your thought processes. And your opinion was I'm creepy so don't play innocent victim with me, pal, you've already showed a certain degree of disrespect here. May as well stick to your guns.

And no I don't call writing good stories being out of good ideas, I call former good writers writing bad stories being out of good ideas. Don't feel sorry for me, I'm a happy person. You seem a little stressed, though.

And I guarantee you've got more to say.

Johns is out of good ideas. :

[Lord Liaden]

Folks, I'm not sure Mr. Johns would feel good about being the cause of personal animosity between comics fans. Maybe we can just agree that tastes differ, and continue to discuss our favorite underused characters.

[Eyendasky80]

Love too, but apparently my opinion is wrong.

[Twilight]

Folks, I'm not sure Mr. Johns would feel good about being the cause of personal animosity between comics fans. Maybe we can just agree that tastes differ, and continue to discuss our favorite underused characters.

That works fine for me, I'm not gonna continue what seems to be a hopeless argument. As for my favourite underused character, well many of them seem to have been listed already but Shang Chi is definetly one of them. DC can find something for Richard Dragon to do, in a very well written comic I might add though probably not to everybody's tastes, so why can't Marvel find something for Shang-Chi to do?

After all Fu-Manchu couldn't have been the ONLY villain from the Far East could he?

[Vigil]

One of the things that I do find a bit troublesome in the industry is the constant, almost incessant ret coning of established characters. It happens with magneto all of the time, most recently with the lunatic Magneto who infiltrated the X-Men, destroyed them from within then tried to destroy and depopulate New York. Only, I guess that wasn't the real Magneto cause the real Magneto was having tea with Profeesor X in Genosha while their mutual students were being slaughtered in New York. Maybe the Magneto in New Yok was mutant who just happened to have exactly the same mutant powers and appearance as magneto only he was evil and insane and not drinking tea in Genosha with Prof. X. Or maybe he was a skrull (remember the brilliant cow-skrulls story from FF?). Or maybe he was robot? Or maybe...?

Which, naturally enough, brings me to Brother Blood. I think Blood (from the 80's Titans) was one of those characters who had the problem of not being broke so they felt they had to fix him. I do find the current Titans run to be their best in over a decade but I don't think the change in Blood has helped anything at all or forwarded the story in a way that returning the classic Brother Blood wouldn't. Now, if they made some connection between Blood and Ras Al Ghul, that may be interesting.

vigil

[Twilight]

One of the things that I do find a bit troublesome in the industry is the constant, almost incessant ret coning of established characters. It happens with magneto all of the time, most recently with the lunatic Magneto who infiltrated the X-Men, destroyed them from within then tried to destroy and depopulate New York. Only, I guess that wasn't the real Magneto cause the real Magneto was having tea with Profeesor X in Genosha while their mutual students were being slaughtered in New York. Maybe the Magneto in New Yok was mutant who just happened to have exactly the same mutant powers and appearance as magneto only he was evil and insane and not drinking tea in Genosha with Prof. X. Or maybe he was a skrull (remember the brilliant cow-skrulls story from FF?). Or maybe he was robot? Or maybe...?

Which, naturally enough, brings me to Brother Blood. I think Blood (from the 80's Titans) was one of those characters who had the problem of not being broke so they felt they had to fix him. I do find the current Titans run to be their best in over a decade but I don't think the change in Blood has helped anything at all or forwarded the story in a way that returning the classic Brother Blood wouldn't. Now, if they made some connection between Blood and Ras Al Ghul, that may be interesting.

vigil

You're right, that would be interesting, though from what I understand R'as al Ghul is dead now so that's unlikely to happen at least with Johns writing as he's usually not fond of ressurecting characters others have killed [Fury and Dove being the exceptions as far as I know.]

As for the change in Blood, who knows why Johns did it? Perhaps he felt he couldn't write the original version as well as Wolfman and Perez did or perhaps he felt the original's story was so good that he wanted to let it rest and thus created a new version? Or perhaps he wanted to use Brother Blood and said "oh crud Winnick killed the original in The Outsiders, better try and do something interesting with the new guy." We'll never know really.

[Vigil]

We could torture Johns and force him to reveal why. That would work. I think Johns is kinda like Busiek in some ways in that he does seems to have respect for whats gone before and for the work of others. Maybe he did feel that he couldn't do anything with the original Bro Blood or maybe he's just waiting to ring him back in one of his story twists. Wasn't it Johns who revamped the JSA and put together the sleek twist on Hawkman's origin?

Beyond the characters which we've already mentioned I'd nominate Rogue as yet another completey mishandled character. In her early appearances as a villains she was duking it out with the entire Avengers line up. Almost immediately upon joining the X-Men she seemed to forget how powerful she is and how to fight and after a while didn't even use her power absorption abilities. A clasic Martian Manhunter syndrome if I've ever seen it.

Vigil

[Twilight]

[QUOTE=Vigil]We could torture Johns and force him to reveal why. That would work. I think Johns is kinda like Busiek in some ways in that he does seems to have respect for whats gone before and for the work of others. Maybe he did feel that he couldn't do anything with the original Bro Blood or maybe he's just waiting to ring him back in one of his story twists. Wasn't it Johns who revamped the JSA and put together the sleek twist on Hawkman's origin?

Yup that was him. He also added surprising depth to the character of Black Adam during his JSA run and made Flash's Rogue's Gallery some of the most interesting characters around. Granted I didn't like his Zoom but ya can't win em all. Rumour has it that Johns might get a go at writing Wonder Woman next year as well.

[Twilight]

Another criminally underrated character, in my opinion, would have to be Spoiler. Unfortunately she's going to be eternally underused it seems as she's been killed in the horrid horrid Wargames story. She was a fun character, in my opinion and I was really enjoying her budding friendship with Batgirl and her relationship with Robin. Of course all that got shoved to the wayside as a second rate Bat-villain, Black Mask, needed to be made to look badass. It's really sad.