Friday, June 27, 2014

Most Disliked Characters and Characterizations

It's hard for me because I don't usually hate characters but certain ones do get on my nerves to the point I get annoyed when they show up. To be fair in some cases it's just certain writers that make characters I usually like into unlikable jerks. That is the case for a few on this list. Not all though. There are other characters I'm not fond of that I might hate if I saw more of them. Their not on the list because these are the ones that currently bug me.



  • Buffy, Xander and Willow.
  • Zsasz, you know the Batman villain that makes a mark for each kill on his body. Compared to the other bat baddies he's dull. I have a hard time buying him giving the bats trouble.
  • Joker. Very few stories write him well, he's overused and the fact he still exists just boggles the mind. Sorry Bruce but I'm with Jason on this one.
  • Deathstroke. He's overblown, lost any honor he used to have, awful husband/father and a pedophile. I don't care if Terra "seduced" him, this is a old guy that hooked up with a teen. Why is Terra always the great evil and everyone ignores this? Yeah there was a reboot but I still don't care about him.
  • Norman Osborne. He went from a jerky dad with mental problems to the guy in charge of the Marvel Universe. Norman murdered Gwen and Ben. Apparently got Gwen pregnant with his advanced aging twins and some other bad plot lines. I rather have Hobgoblin as the archenemy because have a smart villain that doesn't have to deal with insanity and can challenge the hero? That's pretty appealing. Not wondering who Norman will screw in a literal sense like Harrys' girlfriend. Seriously why do writers think Norman is capable of seducing younger women?
  • Dr. Ock. I got the Scarlet Spider trades and read the Superior Spider-Man crossover. I also read scans of Otto pretending to be a hero. I don't like the character anymore.
  • Kraven the Hunter. Last Hunt was a masterpiece and bringing him back is pointless. I liked his son in the role but of course he's dead because daddy only wanted one heir.
  • New 52 Damian Wayne. I LIKED him prior but after he teams up with Bruce he just gets away with everything and apparently is better than others because of his blood. The latter is something his half sister Helena Wayne usually shares (although she still didn't measure up to him when they met) but I dropped her book early on. I miss the Damian that Stephanie helped learn how to act like a kid.
  • New 52 Barbara Gordon. Forget the fact that Oracle is written as a much stronger character I'm judging this solely on how Barbara has acted so far. She's been self righteous, hypercritical, has an ego about her intelligence and just hasn't impressed me at all. Her double standards and arrogance just rubs me the wrong way. It's not just one writer doing this. There are a couple that write her better but their few and far between. Simone claims Babs is the smartest one in Gotham and I've yet to see it anywhere besides the characters saying it. Show don't tell.
  • Batman. I'm only talking about the bat jerk side of him which makes me wish for a crossover when his family kicks the crap out of him. The fact that he's emotional abusing, using and at time physically hurts them isn't my idea of a hero.
  • Giffin/DeMatties written Ted Kord/Blue Beetle. To be fair they could make Ted likable...at the beginning. But when they wrote him in ICBINTJL/FKATJL, Booster Gold--even in some issues of JLI--he could be a real jackass. The first three series I gave made me wonder why Booster would put up with being treated like that from a supposed best friend much less mourn him. It really makes me dislike Ted to the verge of hating him and while I know it's intended to be funny it doesn't read that way to me. Honestly it feels very abusive and I have to remind myself that I like Ted.



9 comments:

  1. Man, I am so sick of deathstroke and joker. Criminally over exposed. And as much as I love ted,there is no doubt that he could be incredibly bratty sometimes.

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  2. Just yesterday, a friend of mine who hasn't read a comic book since the end of the Bronze Age asked me "what the hell happened to Joker's face?" I tried to explain, and all he said was, "Joker is dead to me now." Amen.

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  3. Sally: Yeah I can do without either especially since their not capable of any real growth. That's putting it nicely. I can't read those issues without wondering why Booster even cared about Ted.

    Boosterrific: My sister and her husband get most of their comics in trades. My brother-in-law has become a semi-Snyder fan (he loathes Morrisons' work on Batman) and liked DOTF. Personally I think it's would be overblown even without the face part, something you know their reverse at some point.

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  4. Tell your brother-in-law that he's not the only one who hated Morrison's run on Batman. (I'm pretty sure we'rein the minority.) I had a 30+ year consecutive run of BATMAN and DETECTIVE that Morrison finally convinced me to break. I just wasn't enjoying it anymore. And then FINAL CRISIS. Ugh.

    They may be the best books that DC is publishing these days, but I don't care. I feel that now that I've kicked the habit of chasing down Batman appearance, I don't want to look back. (My name is Walter and I was a Bat-holic.)

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  5. I already told him that and that I have no interest in reading anymore than I have.

    So you dropped all Batman books or just stopped getting books where he shows up? Do you plan on getting any in trade if they look good? (I'm thinking of getting Batman Eternal once it's released.) I know, it's hard to kick the collecting habit.

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  6. Nope, nothing. Batman is dead to me. Well, modern Batman. I'm still nuts about the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age character.

    For point of reference, Batman turned for me with Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel" in JLA 43, a downward trend accelerated by Jeph Loeb's "Hush." When FINAL CRISIS finally put him out of my misery, it was kind of a blessing.

    My Batman is a mortal detective who works to make Gotham City a better place for the common man. He's not a raving paranoid who hangs out with gods. (It seems to me that 21st century Batman isn't really any different than Lex Luthor except that Lex is sane enough not to dress like a bat.) Bah.

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  7. Yeah the jerky Batman is what I hate most about the character. It's why I don't follow his titles but rather his kids. It's why I want to get Batman Eternal for the "sidekick" characters and not him. Dropping series/a character you love can be awful. For me it was Spider-Man.

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  8. That's the thing about Batman. I've always liked his supporting cast so much better than I liked him.

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  9. Yep, although I'd still prefer them even if he wasn't a jerk since their more interesting.

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