I’m thinnking mostly in terms of big name characters here, rather than goofy, relatively unknown characters created by a committee to capitalize on some fad.
For my part, I’ve never been able summon up much interest in The Silver Surfer. He does seem to be a great favorite of stoners, though, for some reason. The original story that introduced both The Surfer and Galactus was interesting enough, but I’d never have missed either character if they were never used again.
Despite a personal involvement in martial arts, I’ve never been interested in any of the characters like Richard Dragon or Iron Fist whose schtick centered primarily around some form of martial arts.
Outside of GuanoMan, himself, I find the whole entire Bat Family a crashing bore. Always have, too. I first began enthusiastically reasing and collecting comics in the '70s when Batsy was solo because The Boy Hostage was “away at college.” Reading a lot of vintage stuff introduced me to earlier versions of the characters. Still didn’t like Robin. Batwoman, Batgirl, Batmite, Ace the Batdog, Manbat, et. al. stunk the joint up every time they appeared. Alfred was okay, though.
Never cared too much about Marvel superheroes when I was growing up, but back then, no one read Marvel (you could stump people in a trivia contest by asking “Peter Parker was what superhero?”) and you were more likely to find Charlton Comics* on the newstands. They’re adventures were too mundane and soap-opera-ish and I didn’t care much for Jack Kirby’s art (though I have learned to appreciate it).
If I were to name one, it’d be The Mighty Thor. The Norse mythology grew very dull very fast.
*Every one of which was completely uninteresting to me. Magnus, Robot Fighter seemed particularly stupid, since he was constantly punching out robots with his fists.
Superman. I never ever had the slightest interest in the too-perfect alien god.
Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the rest of the DC second-stringers. Although I’ve always liked the various Green Whatevers.
Agree with Chuck about Marvel. I didn’t get into that universe until waay later in my life. Even then, I still didn’t (and don’t) give a crap about Spiderman.
Yeah, Superman for me too. Four-color, goody two shoes…I even hate his stupid spitcurl. Perfect is boring.
Not a big Thor fan - I liked the movie okay, but the whole Asgardian thing in the comics was boring.
Don’t like the Green Lantern either. All in all I’m not a big fan of any of the big DC heroes. Batman is okay, but you can keep the rest of them. And don’t even get me started on the team (I forget the name and I’m too apathetic to go look it up) that has members named things like “Matter-Eater Lad” and “Bouncing Boy.”
Do not diss The Legion of Super-Heroes!
I learned to follow writers - not characters. It was usually mediocre writer that put me off rather than something about the character. Then again, DC’s B and C listers like Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, et al. always seemed a lot more boring than their 2nd tier Marvel counterparts.
Green Lantern, in his current incarnation. Both he and Superman are just too powerful. It’s hard to think of any problem that couldn’t be solved quickly and easily by either one.
I have a particular fondness for Magnus, because he got me through Latin class. Sister Mary Elizabeth gave 50 extra credit points that week if someone could show her a Latin-based word “in the next five minutes.” It just so happened that day good old Magnus was rolled up in my back pocket. She said later I would not have passed her class without that comic book.
My least favorites were the Metal Men, although I had some interesting fantasies come out of those comic books for some reason what with the female members of the team, surprisingly enough even more than Wonder Woman.
I always felt this way about Supes. Pretty much invulnerable; superpowers kept expanding until he was practically a god. Not much moral ambiguity. Even as I kid, I was bored pretty quickly.
I agree that superheroes with really open-ended powers are kind of dull. The Silver Surfer is an excellent example (and the surfboard thing isn’t helping him, either) along with Superman, Green Lantern, Firestorm – heck, the same applies for lots of Silver Age heroes (e.g. back when Green Arrow could whip out stuff like shark-repellent arrows or lava-solidifying arrows while driving his Arrowcar from the Arrowcave, etc.).
Wonder Woman.
A super is judged by his/her Rogues Gallery. Good villains define good heroes.
Witness Batman. Or, at Marvel, Spider-Man. Nuff said.
Wonder Woman’s baddies are silly and stupid. Egg Fu? Dr Psycho? Baroness Von Gunther? Too lame.
Don’t forget Angle Man.
Exactly. Worst case of power creep I’ve ever seen outside of bad anime. Maybe even inside it, since most anime power creep at least tries to stick to a theme; Supes’ writers just threw in random new powers whenever they wrote themselves into a corner.
My preference in superheroes is for those with a very limited power selection, which they gradually learn to use in different ways, or which they must apply in interesting ways to solve problems. If they weren’t so profoundly dysfunctional–individually or in groups–the assorted Marvel mutants would probably be my favorites. The mutants generally have only one basic power, or a couple of closely related ones, and either find different ways to use them or team up to get things done. (Okay, they all obviously also have some kind of minor invulnerability, but that sort of goes for everyone in comics.) With his visor, Cyclops can fire huge optic blasts, or a fine cutting beam, but you’re never going to see him get out of a pickle by suddenly remembering he can freeze stuff by breathing on it hard.
Of the (powered) DC heroes, the Flash is probably the closest to the ideal. Everything he does is a variation on moving really, really fast, plus the required secondary powers that go with it. I’ve always liked the Flash.
Ant Man. He looks like an idiot, riding on an ant. (Not to say his powerz are lame, he sends his minions of destruction to invade my kitchen every. single. year. I wish there was a Raid Man or Terro Girl to kick his ass.)
I still have a thing for Triplicate Girl.
Duo Damsel, not so much.
Agreed. Perfect is boring. Heroes overcome obstacles, but there’s not much which can even slow Superman down.
You know, after they’d only had him spend maybe a year as ANT-Man, his creators apparently agreed: reinventing the guy as GIANT-Man, who can cover a lot of ground with long strides before picking up a car and using it as a throwing weapon. (He of course still kept the ants – and eye-stabbing bees! – on retainer.)
Even the headliners were dumb. The Cheetah was strictly a third-stringer.
Anyway, I was never really all that into the third-string members of the Avengers…Starfox was just dull, as was the Rambeau Captain Marvel. I actually liked Jocasta (and Jarvis, for that matter) more than them. Or Mantis. Or the Swordsman. That whole era the Avengers were pretty much a hollow pie…the headliners were the crust and the rest of it was air.