Recently, Spider-Man has been on a roll of sorts, with villains new and old appearing, a whole new attitude and a new, successful take on life. Along with that mini-renaissance, though, has come a new series for Spidey’s 90s antagonist, Carnage, a character whose entire reason for being seems to be in the description of his character design: “Venom, covered in blood.” As with anything, I allow that mileage can vary, but I will never be able to see Carnage as anything more than an agglomeration of the very worst excesses of the most excessive decade of comic books, and I kind of wince inwardly whenever he appears, no matter how good the title may be or how impressive the pedigree of the creative team involved.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always “misquoted”) offers this caveat to offset spiraling into negativity: For the purposes of this QOTD, the answers “I don’t know” or “Character X is just overexposed!” will not be allowed, asking: If you could choose one character who would never be seen again, who would it be and why? Make sure to show your work!
19 Comments
Carnage and Doomsday are two characters that I think became “Wolverine Wannabes” and ended up over used. They were these great destructive characters originally, and they had a few good stories later, but then they got so overused.
I think Carnage worked best as a crazed serial killer with a symbiote that caught everyone off guard. Now he’s had so many extra stories and people have tried to give him depth that he’s become a joke. Similarly, Doomsday worked best as this powerful mindless monster brute that killed Superman. Then later, “whatever doesn’t kill him makes him stronger”, yet he doesn’t kill Supes again? That just feels like lazy writing.
I would also be quite pleased if I never had to see or hear anything about any of the Cullens again. Vampires do not sparkle unless they are wearing body glitter.
I’d say Cable at least as he appears now. I’m not opposed to the idea of Nathaniel Summers, but if I feel like the character’s frequent reappearances is holding back both the the X-Men and his own character development.
Damian Wayne and Jason Todd. The New 52 missed a real opportunity to clean up the excessive Robin mess. Damian is little more than an irritating gimmick who runs counter to the whole point of Robin balancing Batman. The “he has room to grow” schtick simply doesn’t work for me and a hyperviolent asshat of a kid doesn’t interest me.
Jason Todd worked as a troubled-kid-who-wants-to-be-better balance to Batman. His tragic death actually redeemed his counternarrative to Dick and TIm (and served as a bridge between them). Bringing him back from the dead hits one of my hot buttons — dead should (almost always) be dead. Gimmick deaths that you know will resolve in a year or so (Superman’s, for example) are one thing. Digging up the corpses of long-dead characters just because really irritates me. The Zero Month rewrite of Jason becoming Robin solely because of the Joker’s manipulations is too cute by half.
Not to go all Pollyanna, but I think even the worst character can be redeemed (or destroyed) by the right creative team. For example I hated the way Marvel handled Brand New Day Spider Man and politicized the crap out of a character that everyone should be able to like, but rewind a few years and I loved almost all of the JMS run and have read them repeatedly. So I guess that I wouldn’t want any character to go away, maybe it would be closer to say which character would I like to see have a change of creative teams or a re-branding, etc.
Right now I guess that character would be the extended bat family of the new 52. We are only a year in and it has gone from confusing, to annoying, to boring. Not Batman himself, Court of Owls was awesome.
Maybe it was because many of my formative comic reading years were in the 90’s, but I never understood the hate for 90’s characters like Deadpool, Cable, Carnage, Doomsday and the like. They have all had great and horrible stories just like everyone else in comics.
I would love to see Phoenix Force (what ever host it might be) die and never be heard of again.
It gets to be a running joke about how many times She/It has reappeared.
I’m tempted to say Punisher because he’s nothing but a murderer with no personality and weak motivation and I hate him with a passion. But I will admit he makes a decent villain. I don’t necessarily think he should be wiped out of existence, I just think he should NEVER EVER be depicted as a hero.
The only comic character I’ve ever wanted to never see again (so far) was
Sodam Yatt from Green Lantern Corps. Dude was a text book Mary Sue, depicted as this perfect guy who was always right and everybody loves despite the fact that he’s a total douche bag. And he was overpowered on top of that; he was a Green Lantern, had the powers of Superman, and was granted the power of Ion.
The character was completely worthless, offered nothing to the story, and was the one big detriment to an otherwise awesome series. And yet he’s the one character confirmed to be coming back. *BLECH* I hope they’re just bringing him back to kill him.
I don’t mind the idea of a Daxamite or Kryptonian GL in theory, but I didn’t like the way they handled Sodam Yat either. It wasn’t the overpowered bit that got me, it was just the overall way they portrayed him.
Wolverine. Imagine how other writers would have to forever change the Marvel universe if Wolverine was killed and never allowed to come back. They would actually have some creativity and form more interesting teams.
Also Batman for the same reasons.
I’m sorry, this response breaks the “character is overused” rule.
Any character who has “died” and then been brought back – especially those who have done so repeatedly. I didn’t buy or read any of the DC comics where Batman had supposedly been killed by Darkseid, because I knew that DC would cheat in the end and bring him back, without even bothering to explain how Bruce Wayne could really still be alive even though Superman was left holding his skeleton.
Going back thirtyyears or so, Marvel killed off Captain Marvel, in one of the most touching graphic novels to date. The character should never had been brought back because doing so robbed that epic story of any relevance or purpose.
I think we have multiple threads on that subject. I started at least one in the forums you can check out, maybe more.
Did they ever actually bring him back? I know there was a Skrull impostor that had a series back around Civil War, but the real thing hasn’t been resurrected, has it?
After giving this some thought, I decided to go with Stan Lee, now I know this may sound a bit crude, but this guy is every where, and has to be in every movie, and take credit for everything in the marvel universe. ( now he has a pace maker, I hope he tones it down and just does conventions.) But as for a comic book hero I would like to see superman never come back again, the guy who is so super and can do anything it just to powerful, Over the years from when he was firs created to now his power and his abilities has one up like a super saiyan, just becoming god like. He need o go away, stop with his books and movies. I was glad when he died in the 90’s I with he would have stayed dead.
I have a three way tie.
Blok of LSH, Mimic, and Kitty Pryde.
Kitty, lame Phantom Girl wannabe. They tried to make her interesting by pairing her up with Colossus, then making her a “Ninja” trained by Cpt. Mary Sue himself Wolverine. When that failed to make her interesting they made her a computer whiz. The best thing she ever did was get stuck in a bullet.
Mimic- Couldn’t think of any powers to give him so they made a conglomeration of the X-Men. There is a good reason he didn’t last long. He was lame. Unfortunately they did bring him back like everyone else. Dead should stay dead. Be creative and come up with something new.
Blok – Original name (not), created while recovering from a bender, this brilliant intellect is strong and can take a hit. Your classic tank, something the Legion is in short supply of with Ultra Boy, Mon-El, Superboy & Supergirl, hanging around. Depending on the Suit, Wildfire can also fit the bill and to a lesser extent Colossal Boy, Ferro Lad (when alive), even Quislet depending on his posession at the time can fit the bill and lest we forgethe original wolverine Timber Wolf. He was so lame that he wasn’t brought back in the other iterations of the LSH and pretty much sidlined with Mysa the Trollop in the current series.
They even created Blok-likes that were better like Strata, Rox in LSH and Badrock in Liefeld’s Youngblood. Were Blok more like Badrock, I could possibly get behind him. The best scene and use ever of Blok was when Roxxas sent him as a gift to the Ranzes in the 5YG Legion.
Those are my suggestions and I showed my work. do I get an A?
B plus for following instructions, C minus for overt trolling. :)
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LOL don’t mess with the LSH.
But Blok is a good one ;)
If just one? Guy Gardner. I love the GL books, but Gardner’s an asshole with a terrible costume, a crappy haircut and no personality beyond “I hAtE tEh AuThOuRiTy!1!1!”
If allowed more than that, Longshot and Damien Wayne.
Sentry, (is he still around?), embodiment of Retconning that is death to continuity and kind of pees on the shoulders of those giants that contemporary superhero comic writers stand upon. He’s not that interesting of a character to begin with, it’s not like Marvel NEEDED a Superman analogue, they were getting along just fine without one.