Most Underrated Comic Superheroes

[JaseSF]

As a kid and up until my teen years and even into my early to mid-20s, I was an avid comic book reader. Everyone knows the most popular heroes we've seen in multiple movie and TV adaptations including the likes of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men and their like but what about all those other superheroes who rarely get such treatment (well maybe an appearance or two on Justice League or Batman: Brave and the Bold but little else...)? Here's some of my favourite lesser known superheroes:

1) Red Tornado: I've loved this android character since I was a very little kid and first saw him appearing in the Justice League of America comic. Later I'd collect his mini-series too which was sadly a tad disappointing although I liked the villainous Construct. Actually Red Tornado started out as a villain, an android sent to infiltrate the Justice Society of America. Later he'd join them to defeat his creator the evil T.O. Morrow.



Red Tornado powers (from Wikipedia): "Red Tornado is capable of creating tornado-like vortexes, channeling these forces through his arms and legs to produce bursts of cyclone-force winds and high speed forward velocity powerful enough to affect Superman-level beings. On occasion, Red Tornado used his high-velocity movement to render himself invisible to unaided human vision and travel at speeds on par with Superman, Power Girl and Green Lantern. His android body possesses superhuman strength and resilience sufficient to withstand a direct hit from a missile and can repair itself. He is also extremely intelligent. He can access information at any time from computer systems due to his immense memory and hacking skills, but he has problems relating to human emotion and is trying to change himself to understand them. Following his destruction in Blackest Night, he was upgraded and given a new body composed of microscopic nanites. According to Cyborg, the body features synthetic organs and nerves, thus giving him a working replica of the human body. In addition, the nanites grant Tornado the ability to change from his android form to his human "John Smith" person simply by willing it."

2) Firestorm: Another hero I really loved as a kid: a literal hothead young hero Ronnie Raymond who rushes into things but see inside Firestorm's head is also Martin Stein, a nobel prize winning physicist. Firestorm the Nuclear Man who a very powerful hero who seemed to be able to manipulate things even at an atomic level. Loved his comic interactions with top enemy Killer Frost and seeing him tangle with the huge Brimstone as well as his romance with Firehawk. He was kind of like an even more powerful Peter Parker.



3) Blue Beetle: His genius use of gadgets, his wisecracking antics, his constantly entertaining friendship with Booster Gold. Blue Beetle seemed in many ways a more approachable version of Batman and a more likable guy all around. He was always an entertaining presence in comics.

[WilliamWeird1313]

The Doom Patrol, The Metal Men, The Creature Commandos, and the Challengers Of The Unknown - 4 of my all-time favorite DC teams that do NOT get enough love, the closest would probably be The Doom Patrol, who are often called an "insider treat" as they're not really well-known outside the world of diehard comic book nerds (though sporadic TV appearances on Teen Titans and Batman: The Brave & The Bold have, hopefully, introduced them into the mainstream a bit), even before Grant Morrison's run the Doom Patrol was great, quirky, unusual stuff... same goes for the others as well (Creature Commandos are especially noteworthy for being a special ops military unit made up of a werewolf, a snake-head Medusa look-a-like, a vampire, and a Frankenstein's Monster-esque patchwork being... a soldier who had died and been patched together several times and whose nickname, I believe, was, of course, "Lucky" ...lol)

Anarky - a shameless rip-off/riff on the title character from Alan Moore's V For Vendetta, Anarky nevertheless matched wits and held his own against Batman whilst espousing (at first) a message of anarchist politics... more interestingly, though, he acted, at times, as almost a working man's Punisher, pursuing and unleashing vigilante vengeance upon white collar criminals with as swift and unblinking approach as Batman uses when dealing with muggers and mobsters

Moon Knight - Marvel's "poor man's Batman," he's a super-skilled lapsed-Jewish ex-mercenary with multiple personality disorder who worships the Egyptian god of the moon, and is absurdly proficient in all forms of hand-to-hand combat... the man's definitely got an interesting backstory (and outfit), if nothing else

The Warlord - one of DC's more interesting (and surprisingly long-running) oddities, The Warlord was a military pilot who accidentally flew through a hole near the polar ice caps (if memory serves) which transported him into a hidden world hidden within the hollow interior of Earth (and illuminated by a small star/sun at the planet's core!), inspired heavily by old school "hollow earth" stories, as well as classic sword-and-sorcery and the old John Carter stories, The Warlord used his military training (and "otherworldly" weaponry) to become a bona fide barbarian butt-kicker

FrankenCastle - the undead cyborg version of The Punisher that hung out with the Legion Of Monsters after Frank Castle got sliced into sushi by Wolverine's kid, a lot of purist Punisher fans went apesh*t and compared it Marvel's infamous Punisher reboot from back in the day when they brought him back from the dead as an angelic warrior fighting demons with magic guns (seriously), but I think the FrankenCastle arc was MUCH more fun and definitely great stuff, ...honestly, is it really that big a deal? is it worth getting in a tiff over? it's not like Marvel was really going to leave the character that way? things ALWAYS revert back to the good old classic stuff you know and love: Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Hal Jordan all came back from their respective "deaths," more popular than ever, Peter Parker ended up NOT being the clone, etc. Y'know, there used to be a joke that, in comics, "only Bucky stays dead." But that ain't even true anymore. What's to gripe about? FrankenCastle was a quirky, groovy, over-the-top love letter to the monster comics Marvel put out in the 70's, what's not to dig?

Mr. Miracle - though somewhat popular (mostly among my fellow Jack Kirby fans), Mr. Miracle never really took off in the way that I think DC (and certainly) Kirby hoped he would, a spin-off character from Kirby's criminally underloved masterpiece, The New Gods, Mr. Miracle (one of the New Gods himself) is not just a superhero but also the single greatest escape artist in existence (his secret identity, by the way, is the patently pun-tastic "Scott Free" ...natch)

OMAC (the original version) - another Kirby classic, originally envisioned as "Captain America in the future" ...OMAC, whose name stands for One Man Army Corps., is a mohawk-headed example of physical perfection, the absolute peak of strength, speed, stamina, and agility (y'know, the usual)... he's also one badass mofo, and works as the sole agent of aggression for the future's global pacifist police force (I can't remember the name of the agency, but I remember Brother Eye, the weird space satellite that can zap Buddy Blank, OMAC's secret identity, and turn him into OMAC at a moment's notice, and increase or decrease his superhuman abilities as needed)... there was also a somewhat Shazam-y approach to the character which I thought was nifty

the Archie heroes - The Shield! Steel Sterling! The Web! Black Hood! The Comet! Bob Phantom! And many, many more! Yes, wayyy back in the day, Archie Comics had heroes (which the company still irregularly revisits and relaunches today, including a brief time when they were licensed to DC who put them out under the Imprint line). I'm talking way back, before Archie Comics WAS Archie Comics. Great, oft-overlooked, retro-cool Golden Age goodness

Taskmaster - Okay, he's not a "superhero." He's generally considered a villain (though he has been portrayed on-and-off more recently as something of an antihero), but I'm gonna sneak him in here just because I love the character concept so much, and think that it's a bit of a crime he's relegated so much to the minor leagues and is little more than a "cult" character at best. His power is that he has "photographic reflexes." Basically, he can watch a video tape of Bruce Lee and instantly become just as good a fighter as Bruce Lee. Similarly, he can watch a video tape of Captain America throwing his shield, and he'll instantly be able to do it the exact same way, with the exact same style, with the exact same accuracy and effectiveness. He can't mimic actual powers, but he has the capability of becoming the BEST combatant in comic books. It's a shame he hasn't really been given the chance to attain true greatness. Another aspect of his character that I thought was pretty interesting was that he made a living not just as a criminal, but as a teacher for a sort of "supervillain school." Ever wonder where the hell guys like Kingpin and The Red Skull get their garishly dressed superpowered henchmen? Look no further!

Okay, now I'm just gonna start listing stuff or else this post will go on forever: Zatanna, Kamandi, Dr. Fate, Devil Dinosaur, The Phantom Stranger, Beta Ray Bill, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Starman (mainly the Vertigo-esque Jack Knight incarnation), Nova (Richard Rider, NOT Frankie Raye ...admittedly, he's an obvious GL knockoff, but I still dig him), Brother Voodoo, Adam Strange, Adam Warlock, The Question, X-Statix, Simon Garth (aka The Zombie), the myriad characters of Big Bang Comics (especially Knight Watchman and Protoplasman), The Demon/Etrigan, Metamorpho, Cloak & Dagger, and soooo many more I can't even think of right now

[venomx]

FrankenCastle - the undead cyborg version of The Punisher that hung out with the Legion Of Monsters after Frank Castle got sliced into sushi by Wolverine's kid, a lot of purist Punisher fans went apesh*t and compared it Marvel's infamous Punisher reboot from back in the day when they brought him back from the dead as an angelic warrior fighting demons with magic guns (seriously), but I think the FrankenCastle arc was MUCH more fun and definitely great stuff, ...honestly, is it really that big a deal? is it worth getting in a tiff over? it's not like Marvel was really going to leave the character that way? things ALWAYS revert back to the good old classic stuff you know and love: Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Hal Jordan all came back from their respective "deaths," more popular than ever, Peter Parker ended up NOT being the clone, etc. Y'know, there used to be a joke that, in comics, "only Bucky stays dead." But that ain't even true anymore. What's to gripe about? FrankenCastle was a quirky, groovy, over-the-top love letter to the monster comics Marvel put out in the 70's, what's not to dig?

HolyCrap, that's real. That. IS. AWESOME. I never even knew and I'm a Punisher fan.

[El Misfit]

Super heroes? er, not heroes per say, but rather a villain who's the main character- Grendel

[JaseSF]

Great stuff WilliamWeird, I totally agree with you on a number of those you mentioned but I especially liked the following:

Anarky
Moon Knight
Challengers of the Unknown
The Metal Men
Mr. Miracle
The Black Hood
The Demon/Etrigan
Starman

Some more I'd add:

The Ray: Ray Terrill, the son of the original Ray, who finally gains his superpowers when finally exposed to sunlight after years of being shielded from it as a child. He's a very powerful superhero whose has the following abilities: Generation of light and solid light constructs,Conversion to energy form, and Flight. He's been a member of the the Freedom Fighters, Young Justice, The Justice League and Forgotten Heroes. I used to read his solo series in the 1990s and loved the character.



Deathlok: a cyborg style character, I read the comic book series featuring the African-American pacifist Professor Michael Collins whose brain is transplanted into Deathlok, a ruthless killing machine with Collins eventually asserting his will and control over the cyborg body. I really liked the ideas behind this character and the inner clash and struggle he was battling was fascinating (even if we had seen something similar before with RoboCop). The comic though didn't seem to sell well and there always seemed to be other heroes guest starring.



Sleepwalker: Now this was truly a unique character if there ever was one, a guardian of the Mindscape dream realm from evil theats that exist therein. I loved this concept and found it utterly intriguing as a teenager. I read this comic for quite a while but Sleepwalker too didn't seem to be selling well so they started adding constant guest heroes and seemingly watering down stories to allow for them. Still I love the idea behind this and the spooky looking Sleepwalker who was extremely powerful in his realm.



Booster Gold: started off as a glory seeking gloryhound from the future hoping to attain fame and fortune in the past as a superhero. Things don't quite pan out as he hoped which makes him somewhat fascinating as an hero as he seems flawed and quite rather like a real person. His eventual teaming with Blue Beetle was pure comic comedy gold and I've loved his character ever since.



EctoKid: From Clive Barker's Razorline, I found this character rather fascinating too about a kid who has the ability to see the real world through one eye and the Ectosphere, or world of ghosts, through his other eye. Rather like They Live when Roddy Piper gets the ability to see the world through new eyes with special sunglasses, here our hero sees two different worlds that coexist in the seeming same space. Thought this idea was wonderful for a comic series.



Sure there's even more others could very well add and talk about here...

[66Crush]

Moon Knight
Union Jack
Nova
Dazzler
Alpha Flight
John Carter Warlord of Mars
Power Man
Iron Fist (Luke Cage)
Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[JaseSF]

They actually did a Nick Fury TV Movie starring David Hasselhoff as Fury...does anyone else remember that?

[WilliamWeird1313]

Good picks, guys, especially with Grendel, Deathlok, and Sleepwalker.


JaseSF, I never got the chance to read any of the Razorline titles, but I've wanted to. I'm definitely going to check out EctoKid on your recommendation. Regarding Booster Gold, I was wondering if you had the chance to read the DC weekly title 52 from a while back which happened during the last big "Crisis" storyline. If not (and if you're into the reality-bending/timeline-altering elements inherent in all Crisis-related arcs, which I know turn off a lot of people), then you should DEFINITELY check it out. Booster Gold is the star, front and center, and shines brighter in the series than he'd had the opportunity for too long before that.


Also, I'd like to remark that I totally remember the Hasselhoff Nick Fury movie. I want to get it on DVD so much. It's reeeeeally bad, as you'd expect, but, hey, this is the BadMovies.org message boards, so, naturally, I love it not DESPITE its badness but BECAUSE of it. Great/terrible craptacular schlock for Fury fans who don't hold their pop culture TOO sacred.



Also, I'd like to add a few more names to my list of underrated characters. 66Crush's mention of Union Jack made me suddenly remember some of the comics I love from the UK. Obviously, you have the classic characters of 2000AD (Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, etc.), but one line of comics I'm a VERY big fan of that I almost NEVER see anyone showing any love is the Marvel UK line of original books from the early 1990's. There was the psychotic cyborg mercenary Death's Head, and his predecessor Death's Head II. There was Killpower, a trigger-happy genetically engineered supersoldier with the mental development of a video game-addicted teenager, the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a technopath-esque ability to instinctively understand and manipulate complex technologies for his benefit, even when the tech in question is completely new to him (whether it be foreign, futuristic, or even extraterrestrial). There were several others too, but my absolute favorite was Warheads. Imagine if Nick Fury & the Howling Commandos were supplanted into a super-gritty cyberpunk/space adventure setting. The Warheads were the private army of the shadowy Mys-Tech Corporation, who manipulated wormholes to travel through time and space, journeying into various alternate realities, timelines, and alien planets in search of artifacts and devices that the Mys-Tech Corp. could profit off of. The group's turnover rate ridiculous, with the logic behind it being that the job was so hazardous that most agents didn't survive their first missions. The leader of the unit was Colonel Liger, a hardboiled, rough-and-tumble type who would eventually go onto acquire an intelligent weapon in the form a huge-ass sentient gun before eventually turning on his employers after seeing so many under his charge die for their corruption and thirst for power. The stories were great, with fantastic, unique art. At times, I think the tales felt a little burdened by the company's insistence on cramming in guest stars like Iron Man and the X-Men into virtually every issue, but usually their inclusion was (thankfully) kept to a minimum. The stories (like many Marvel UK stories from the time) were HEAVILY concerned with themes of technology, morality, time travel, reality, interplanetary interaction, and the fusion of both science and mysticism (a combination I always find enticing). Highly recommended, especially for those with a taste for the muscular science fiction comics of 2000AD.

[HappyGilmore]

Doctor Strange

One I love and never see much love for.

[66Crush]

I forgot about Dr. Strange, he was cool. That "Nick Fury" movie was weak. Fury deserves better.

[El Misfit]

Firefly- he's my favorite Batman villain, better than The Joker, Scarecrow, Riddler. Also, Clayface deserves more time than most of what villains are shown, same as Bane, Maxie Zeus, Killer Croc, Calender Man, Mr. Zsasz. yeah, I went there.

[JaseSF]

Speaking of underrated villains, I've always liked Electro, The Shocker and Mysterio in Spider-Man.

[InformationGeek]

My favorite unrated superhero or in this case, superheroine is Power Girl.  I'm not showing a picture, but as soon as you see her, you'll laugh and think my reason for picking her is something else.  It's not.  Just read her current run and you'll see why she is awesome.

My favorite underrated villian, I've enjoyed Captain Cold from The Flash series, but that's when he is being written by Geoff Johns.

[HappyGilmore]

Rorschach from The Watchmen.

[WingedSerpent]

I'm going to throw some respect to DarkHawk.  If for no other reason then one of the best armor costumes in comics.