Today’s MS-QOTD comes straight from Faithful Spoilerite Ric G., who challenged me to do a Ten Things list of characters who LEAST deserve to be part of their teams. It’s a topic ripe for discussion, but one that I’m leery of in the Ten Things format, as it borders on the kind of negativity you can find all over the place by name-searching Arm-Fall-Off Boy. Still, it’s a fascinating topic, making me think about The Black Knight as the leader of Ultraforce, Triumph trying desperately to re-integrate himself as a founding member of the JLA pre-Flashpoint, and especially the addition of half a dozen extraneous characters (including the utterly boring Darknight) to the final days of the Justice Society Of America. Heck, you could even argue that Captain Jack Harkness was an unnecessary odd person out in the TARDIS, if you wanted to start a fist fight with some Whovians, leading us to today’s highly opinionated query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) always felt like Chevy Chase, though talented and funny, never fit in with the rest of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, asking: What team or ensemble cast member seems most like the odd person out who doesn’t belong in their group?
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Billy Batson in the JSA. Think about that storyline where Jay Garrick was questioning Captain Marvel’s friendship with Stargirl. Thanks to the wisdom of Solomon, Billy can navigate those complex adult team dynamics, but he is still a young kid. As Billy, he can’t really contribute to the team; as Captain Marvel, he knows he is only masquerading as an adult on a team whose very legacy is based on the life experiences of its members.
Magneto is always better as aloof controversial mentor or straight out villain as a full X-Men team member. It never seems to quite work for me.
I am going out on a limb here a bit since I know your talking about superheros, however, I am going to say our own Orem from Critical Hits. I know he has, lets say softened, quite a bit, However when Orem first started he definitely stood out from the crowd. His snobbish attitude certainly made him the odd person out of the group. To see (hear) him come full circle and a great team member helped to fully tell the story. Even now every once and awhile for just a little bit, that snobbish attitude returns and it’s great to watch the players reactions, especially the older members of the team.
Revlis
That’s a perfectly legitimate call…
Once upon a time I would say Wolverine in the Avengers, but now that even freaking Red Hulk is with them…