One of the things that made the early Marvel Universe unique was the more realistic attitudes and personalities that the Marvel heroes were given. Some, like Ben Grimm, were curmudgeonly to the point of unpleasantness, whereas Hawkeye was a mouthy jerk and early Hulk was a fullbore hateful misanthrope. Marvel didn’t create the ‘jerk with a heart of gold’ routine (I think Moses Horowitz might be the patron saint of the whole deal), but they helped pave the way for Boston Brand, Cliff Steele, most of the X-Men, and the walking pile of swagger and Drakkar Noir that is Guy Gardner, leading us to today’s ‘runnin’ out of you!’ query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is torn between Batman and Howard The Duck, but leans toward the one who is suave and heroic and not the one who wears the cape, asking: Who is your favorite example of the Jerk With A Heart of Gold in fiction? (Please, no real-life examples…)
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Scrooge McDuck (Comic Version). He doesn’t like anyone, is quite rude. But, when push come to shove, he’ll help his friends.
Is Malcolm Reynolds too charismatic to count? He definitely can be a dick, but maybe he’s more “thief with a hard of gold” than “jerk”
I’d say Jayne, but he’s more like the jerk with the heart of fool’s gold… or maybe a heart of silver… probably just heart of cash, but he has moments now and then.
Eh, I’m watching Umbrella Academy right now, so I guess I’ll just say… well… all of them really… but I’ll give it to Number Five.
Probably Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China.
Many incarnations of Harvey Bullock, not least of which the Donal Logue version from GotHam?