Iyo: The Most Underrated Or Underused Character In Comics

[Black Omega]

I was collecting X-men when Callisto appeared first, and never caught this. but now that you mention it I can see the connection right away. Doh!

And though he's already been mentioned, Mon-El is up there for most powerful, least used.

And as a confirmed martial arts fan boy, Lady Shiva is also on my worst used list. A martial arts plot device brought in and to often used to make the main character look tough at her expense. Her appearances in The Question were probably her best.

[Vigil]

Didn't Shiva whup the Questions hiney on an alarmingly reguar basis?

I absolutely agree with your inclusion of Mon El, also. I've alwaysfelt that he was the most underrated, overlooked, if not outright ignored Legionaire of all. Here he is, more powerful than Superboy or Supergirl (maybe evn put together) and he does nothing but bit parts or get aced to show how powerful the major threats are. Hell, most of the time, Ultra Boy is shown as being as, if not more, powerful. It makes no damn sense. I don't know whether the LSH scribes couldn't figure out what to do with him or whether it was editorial policy or personal preference but I always found it frustraing to see such a great character absolutely wasted. hell, if I were the lSH scribe I'd have him front and center in every book.

[McCoy]

I absolutely agree with your inclusion of Mon El, also. I've alwaysfelt that he was the most underrated, overlooked, if not outright ignored Legionaire of all. Here he is, more powerful than Superboy or Supergirl (maybe evn put together) and he does nothing but bit parts or get aced to show how powerful the major threats are. Hell, most of the time, Ultra Boy is shown as being as, if not more, powerful. It makes no damn sense. I don't know whether the LSH scribes couldn't figure out what to do with him or whether it was editorial policy or personal preference but I always found it frustraing to see such a great character absolutely wasted. hell, if I were the lSH scribe I'd have him front and center in every book.

All of Superboy's powers, none of his weaknesses, and over a thousnad years spent observing humanity. I am amazed that that was never touched on. "This reminds me of something that I saw in the 26th, no, the 27th century. What we need to do is . . .."

[Vigil]

Right on, McCoy.

The only tiem mon cam anywhere near his potential was when he duked it out with The Tim Trapper is LSH 50, I believe it was. Great story, dealing with the secret conspiracy within the LSH to kill the TT. Of course the end results of Mon's efforts were for him to be rendered comatose for the rest of the run and die off panel. Great, just great. That's a real fitting end to the guy who almost singlehandedly stopped the TT.

His next appearance was issue 4 of the Giffen debalce...er, I mean, run. Here, old TT has taken up residence in Mon's invulnerable form as a way of staying safe until he can reconstitute his power. Mon realizes what he's up to and trashes him in the final showdown, sacrificing himself and the ehtire continuum to stop TT. A good story and maybe the truest depiction of mon's potential but again, to what end? He shows up and gets erased from history never to appear in that form again.

Drives me crazy.

From there it just got worse and worse and worse.

Vigil

[Hugh Neilson]

I absolutely agree with your inclusion of Mon El, also. I've alwaysfelt that he was the most underrated, overlooked, if not outright ignored Legionaire of all. Here he is, more powerful than Superboy or Supergirl (maybe evn put together) and he does nothing but bit parts or get aced to show how powerful the major threats are.

This was the Martion Manhunter dilemma which eventually lead to him being written out in early-'70's (late '60's?) JLA. Here we have a guy who can do anything Superman can, and more. But we want Supes on the cover to sell books, which makes MM just redundant. So he appears less and less until he gets written out.

[Nucleon]

Of all the charcters you've read and enjoyed, which one is it that you thought was underutilized or underrated? Which character did you feel never got their due? And why? Just curious.

I've got a few.

In Marvel, where they seriously lack in stronf female types, there is Thundra, the chain-wielder and mate of Arkon. I would make an Avenger out of her.

Then there is these Buckys; the one we all know and love still isn't in any future Avengers Incarnations despite MC2's Avenger Next and the recent New Avengers. That's lame. But there is also the other one, Ricki Barnes from the "Heroes Reborn" debacle, who had some spunk. Speaking of Buckys, Nomad is also underused; his last incarnation was the tricky assassin in Thunderbolts -can't remember the name right now.

Finally, in Marvel, there are the whole Inhumans who are also underused.

In DC, I can't get enough of Cap Marvel (Shazam!). Here is a hero that got no chances in the Iron Age, but is now a marvelous concept with the recent Golden-Age fascination. And what a nice, classic costume he's got.

[Eyendasky80]

...Nomad is also underused; his last incarnation was the tricky assassin in Thunderbolts -can't remember the name right now...

The Scourge

[Vigil]

I first saw MM when I picked up JLA 200. I wasn't much of a DC reader at that time but the character instantly blew me away becoming my fave along with Dr. Fate and Mon El. I thought, "Who is this guy? He's like Superman, but way cooler." And he is. Sadlt, because of the need to keep Superman as the top dog, most powerful guy in DC MM's been relegated to cheerleader and spiritual advisor.

I also loved the Inhumans, esp. Gorgon and Black Bolt. I couldn't get enough of them and loved all of their appearances (until the mopey,self indulgent, navel gazing mini series they did a while ago). Not only are they great characters but they have some of the best designed costumes ever.

Which may be the basis for another poll...

[st barbara]

For a long time I would have said that J'onn J'onzz (The Martian Manhunter) was least used, mainly because he seemed to be notheing more than a Superman copy with a couple of extra powers (shapeshift and stretching) but the moree reecent incarnations, making him more of a psionic, sem to have reinvented the character !

[McCoy]

For a long time I would have said that J'onn J'onzz (The Martian Manhunter) was least used, mainly because he seemed to be notheing more than a Superman copy with a couple of extra powers (shapeshift and stretching) but the moree reecent incarnations, making him more of a psionic, sem to have reinvented the character !

Reinvented? Or returned to his roots?

IIRC J'onn was accidently teleported to Earth. He learned English in one panel by reading his accidental abductor's mind. His superior Martin brain (Martians, being an older race than humans, are "more evolved") could control light waves by force of will, alloing him to project the illusion of a normal Earthman's apperence or turn invisible. I don't recall flight or life support in the early stories, just an telepathic detective who could look like anyone, or turn invisible. Fire, a "substance" that did not exist on Mars, affected him the way kryptonite did Superman, weakening him from accross the room.

But writer to writer, decade to decade, the character morphed. He kept the invisibility, but the "light-wave control" illusions turned into shapeshifting, then added streching, then turned into enough control over his body to become desolid. Back before the yellow sun thing, Kryptonians' powers came from being more evolved than humans, so if both Kryptonians and Martians are more evolved than humans, should they not have simular powers? (Except, possibly, heat vision. I don't recall ever seeing J'onn use heat vision. Anyone?) At this point I begain wondering why he couldn't just fly back to Mars. This was later resolved with the White Martians / Green Martians plotline.

So I think what we have here is five decades of spending expierence points with no reguard to original character concept.

[Vigil]

Hey McCoy,

Nice run down of Jonn's evolution. I was under the impression that when he first showed up he had pretty much all of his current powers. A lot of silver age characters tended to be that way, just hodge podges of powers and visuals. You ask about heat vision...and I know the answer to this one, lol. Jonn used heat vision ("Martian vision") against Firestorm in JLA #200. Sometimes it seems to be defined as some form of force blast but I believe that here it was defined as heat (sound to me like someone's got Variable SFX).

Vigil

[Enforcer84]

Martian Vision.

[assault]

In DC, I can't get enough of Cap Marvel (Shazam!). Here is a hero that got no chances in the Iron Age,

I think he would be just fine in the Iron Age with the right writer. He's completely incorruptable, and incredibly powerful. In short, he's the perfect watchdog for the Authority types.

Back in DC's old Action Comics Weekly series, there was an interesting Shazam story where he got involved with some Neo-Nazi types. It worked quite well. That version of the character could quite easily have coped with stuff like that more frequently.

On the Martian Manhunter: he originally seems to have been something like a Silver Age version of the Spectre, rather than a superhero. That is, he was a detective who secretly possessed powers, rather than someone overt like Superman.

His grab bag of powers makes more sense in that context, IMHO. Or at least he's no worse than the Spectre, who nobody complains about.

[CBikle]

Always thought that both Captain Comet and the Secret Society Of Super-Villains were underused.

[starblaze]

Vigil, you make good points but superhero comics are unlike the heroic myths of Hercules, Balder, etc in one important respect - they never end. Since the beginning, superheroes have been more like Sexton Blake, Doc Savage or other pulp heroes. For as long as they make money, their stories must go on and on and on with no end in sight. You can't kill off all the X-Men, no matter how grand their deaths are (and I'm not sure they ought to be, given that the X-Men are a little closer to real life than the likes of Superman or Thor) cause the X-Men are big money makers.

I've always felt the best Superman stories are the ones where he dies. This story has actually been told a bunch of times in the Silver Age, as well as the Doomsday thing, but the SA ones were all imaginary stories. Though, to quote Alan Moore, "Aren't they all?"

"Whatever happened to the Man of Tommorrow?" Was one of the best SuperMan stories I read.