Dirt poor superheroes?

Cafe Society
1

Really bad at their jobs:
Iron Fist/Power Man’s “Hero For Hire” company where they never got paid.
Daredevil’s Law Firm where Foggy works for free and they never get paid.

Homeless people whose job is unpaid superheroism:
Bucky Barnes, the original Bucky, who is basically an orphan who was adopted by some army guys.
Samuel Wilson, The Falcon, who was a reformed pimp and drug dealer who was living on an abandoned island learning to talk to falcons when Captain America found him.
Most of the X-Men except Angel and Xavier, as revealed in many comics and the films, they were usually abandoned by their families and homeless for being mutants.
Shang Chi, no idea how he eats but apparently his weapons are homemade. Somehow walks the streets of New York barefoot, probably not by choice.
The Question and Ralph Digby the Elongated man, whose job is apparently free detective work.
Cloak and Dagger possibly work at a homeless shelter or live there, it’s hard to tell.

Homeless people with irregular work:
Bruce Banner, the Hulk, somehow make tons of money doing government jobs once every few years and spends the rest of the time wandering around getting hunted by them.

Heroes with jobs but bad pay:
Captain America, Steve Rogers, is officially in the Army but apparently not pulling Captain’s salary, although in several issues his “Captain” title is real. In several issues, he usually takes shifts watching the Avengers mansion as a part-time job. He’s also left the army on several occasions to be a comic book artist or school teacher.
Peter Parker, Spiderman, was getting ripped off for his photos for the Daily Bugle for years and usually would repeatedly say his inability to get a full time job prevented him from marrying Mary Jane or completing college.
Hector Ayala, the original White Tiger, lost his job (dishwashing) because of his drug addiction and tried to go back to college.
Wonder Woman’s original employment in WW2 was nurse then secretary to Steve Rogers, and her side job was secretary of the Justice League.

Live a rich life with no discernible income:
Dr. Strange has huge house and servant in Manhattan, probably inherited from the Ancient One, but neither had any kind of job. Known to be absolutely broke from origin issue from his old medical career. Dr. Fate also seems to have a cool lair, cool stuff, and no job.
Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow: seems to be losing/regaining his fortune every other issue.
The Fantastic Four: Reed sells stuff, I think, and apparently they own the entire Baxter Building. The other three members apparently contribute nothing.

Lost their job because of their powers:
Green Lanterns immediately do green lantern stuff full time the second they get the ring and never go back to work. Hal Jordan apparently is so cool that Pieface and his girlfriend both left the airplane company they all worked for.
Ted Grant, Wildcat, whose boxing skills are so good they’re a superpower and prevent him from making money with it in the ring.

Had good jobs that gave them powers and then never worked again:
Hourman: doctor.
Flash: scientist.
Hal Jordan: Test pilot.
Ben Grimm: Test Pilot. (Astronaut?)

Mooches from other dimensions/universes with no Earth money always trying to crash on your couch and eat your food:
Thor
Hercules (at least he has the class to sometimes look for a job)
Silver Surfer
Green Lanterns besides Hal Jordan.
The entire Legion of Super Heroes

2

Another category:

Inexplicably had good jobs with no education, talent, or ability but then was never mentioned again:
Dazzler: disco queen during roller skate era.
Billy Batson, Captain Marvel: radio news announcer while 12-year-old orphan.
Matt Murdoch, Daredevil, is supposedly the best trial lawyer in New York. But it seems unbelievable that he was dirt poor while is father was alive and he could see, but the second his father died and he was blind put himself through school and then law school.

3

His income is entirely discernible; Stan Lee himself wrote the early issue where (a) Wong asks about getting some money to hire workmen for repairs on the big fine house, at which point (b) Doc says “Strange has no need of mere mortal workmen! With but one incantation, I now restore this chamber to its former condition … What to me are mundane considerations of earthly currency? With a single gesture, I can conjure wealth beyond measure! THERE! Take what is needed, and we shall speak of this no more!”

(The bit where he said “THERE” is when a pile of money appeared – just like it later would when Chris Claremont was writing the guy’s comic. “All eyes are on her. Good. No one noticed the gold coins I conjured onto the table. They should cover our bill and smooth any ruffled feathers.”)

At that, Claremont did the story where Sara Wolfe approached Doc about managing his finances, only for him to shrug her off.

“A bar of pure gold!”
“It weighs ten pounds – and there are nine more like it in the safe.”
“But how?! Where did you get them?”
“That must remain – my secret.”

Likewise, this was a favorite of Roy Thomas. “A new coat – even a hat – formed from the very AIR!” And et cetera. Doc wants stuff, stuff appears.

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Rorschach, no visible means of support, mooches off of his only friend.

5

Most of the Watchmen weren’t rolling in dough.

6

Veidt was filthy rich. Dreiberg seemed at least comfortably well off. Eddie, based on what we saw of his living quarters, appeared to be drawing a generous government salary. Manhattan was, like Dr. Strange, in a position where normal concerns over money just didn’t apply. I never got the impression that either of the Silk Specters was hurting financially. Only Rorschach was poor.

7

Sue Richards was a fashion model.
Johnny Storm was a pro race car driver, & apparently a good one.

8

Back in the early 90’s, one of the go-to writer for DC comics was Meisner-Loebs, who just loved his superheroes failing to pay their bills. He had the Flash as a 20-something living with his mother, doing random tasks for hire and Wonder Woman going broke and taking a job at a fast food joint. Not even kidding.

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The Tick, of course. No visible means of support. Not clear he really needs one. It’s not evident he has any physical ne4eds, including food. But (at least in the animated series) he decided he needed his own Fortress of Solitude and superhero stuff and ran up Arthur’s credit cards getting it.

10

I’ve long wanted to have a superhero do the rough equivalent of this:

Iron Man: “C’mon, sunshine, [Insert Villain here] is creating a 1920’s style deathray and is attempting to destroy all the neoclassical buildings in Western Europe by dawn.”

The next frame reveals that he just called an office worker in the middle of a workday… and the phone was on speaker.

[Insert Hero in a weird falsetto voice]: “Wrong number!” (Hangs up while a bunch of coworkers stare at him.)

Or maybe:

[HeroGuy]: “Sorry, Iron Man, I’ve used up my vacation. I’ll be over just as soon as I get out of here, but that won’t be until 6:30 tonight as we’re working on the Neumann proposal.”

11

From the OP:

I’m reasonably certain you mean Trevor, there, not Rogers.

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She makes me want to eat tacos. Just sayin’.

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Mmm Mmmm, rubber band filled tacos, with extra rubber bands on the side, my favorite.

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The trouble is, we want to see see superheroes doing superheroics, not working 9 to 5.

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Any stuff except normal, underwrought dialogue, apparently.

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“Tom! Tom Wolfe! Haven’t seen you since you were just a kandy-kolored tangerine-flake streamline baby! … Drop by for brunch sometime, hear?”

  • Stephen Strange
17

I would put Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny and his wife in the category “lives a rich lifestyle with no discernible income” category. Ralph made money putting on a showbiz act with his abilities. Remember he was one of the first heroes to go public with his identify. And he met his wife when he crashed a debutante ball, so it’s implied that Sue Dibny herself comes from a well-off family. I would hardly call them dirt-poor. Not rich on a Bruce Wayne level, but they certainly could afford a globe-trotting lifestyle. At least as they originally were presented in the 60s.

18

It’s all part of the Mantle of Sorcerer Supreme.

Cloak of Levitation, Eye of Agamotto, Underwrought dialogue, Book of the Vishanti.

19

Didn’t Captain America have a friend who went by Demolition Man and was actually homeless?

The jobs of most of the Mystery Men remain a well mystery. The Metro Marauder seems to have a regular suburban existence when not fighting crime. AFAIK They’ve never shown where the Flaming Carrot gets the money he is always spending on beer, gas, ammo, and women.

The Tick’s friend Paul The Samurai sent his first mini series looking for money to get home to Japan. In the end, he wound up with a job and decided to stay in America.

I’ve read an issue of the Books Of Magic where John Constantine admits to Zatana that he doesn’t have the money for tickets home to England. Zatana conjures tickets out of thin air.

20

Of course, that could be either an example of Constantine being poor, or an example of Constantine successfully conning Zatanna into giving him free air tickets.