# Fictional heroes who are overweight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366 "2021-07-13T04:09:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/1 "2021-07-13T04:09:26Z")
My example: I’m really getting into John LeCarre’s spy novels, especially the ones featuring master spy George Smiley. If you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s described as being overweight, sloppily dressed, and a genius. His enemies underestimate him, and usually find out they’ve been played—they’re just pawns on his 3 dimensional chess board. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/2 "2021-07-13T04:18:20Z")
Not sure if he is a hero, but Nero Wolf was certainly overweight. He was also very fussy about food, cars, women, beer, and working too much. And he was contentious with not only the police, but with his clients. Only a genius could get away with that! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/3 "2021-07-13T04:25:31Z")
Mr. Incredible, at least before his workout montage. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/4 "2021-07-13T04:36:08Z")
William Conrad played the title character in the TV detective show Cannon. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/5 "2021-07-13T04:36:14Z")
Never seemed to slow down Hercule Poirot, so far as I could tell. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/6 "2021-07-13T04:40:53Z")
Let’s not forget Big Bertha from Marvel comics (X-Men?). Her superpower is to make herself, well, overweight… her fat is like a super strong shield. And she goes bullemic to get back to normal. (I read a comic with her at summercamp once. It was pretty weird.) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/7 "2021-07-13T04:46:19Z")
> [@sunstone](#): > > Not sure if he is a hero, but Nero Wolf was certainly overweight. Nero Wolfe was the first character I thought of. And then, perhaps since my mind was going in a mystery-novel direction, I thought of Jupiter Jones, from the Three Investigators books I loved when I was a boy. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/8 "2021-07-13T04:54:45Z")
Little Lotta. Somehow, being overweight gave her super strength. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/9 "2021-07-13T05:08:36Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > Let’s not forget Big Bertha from Marvel comics (X-Men?). _Great Lakes Avengers_. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/10 "2021-07-13T05:11:22Z")
Mma Precious Ramotswe from _The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency_. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/11 "2021-07-13T06:19:32Z")
Elvis Presley, as played by Bruce Campbell in Bubba Ho-Tep, was in his stouter years, at least at the start. Possibly ineligible as formerly comatose, not-dead Elvis in a nursing home is not a fictional character. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/12 "2021-07-13T06:35:03Z")
Perry Mason, especially in the television series. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/13 "2021-07-13T09:28:17Z")
Dashiell Hammett’s “Continental Op” character (appearing in _Red Harvest_, _The Dain Curse_, and numerous short stories) was described as short and fat. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/14 "2021-07-13T09:38:40Z")
Obelix from the Asterix comic books. He loves to eat and polishes off several wild boars in one sitting. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/15 "2021-07-13T10:49:22Z")
Bouncing Boy, of the Legion Of Superheroes. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/16 "2021-07-13T11:08:42Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Mma Precious Ramotswe from _The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency_ . Bite your tongue. She’s just “traditionally built”. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/17 "2021-07-13T11:19:25Z")
> **[Herbie Popnecker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Popnecker)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Herbie Popnecker is a fictional comic book character who first appeared in Forbidden Worlds #73 in December 1958, published by American Comics Group. He was created by Richard E. Hughes (using the pseudonym "Shane O'Shea") and Ogden Whitney. > Herbie is an atypical hero - a short, obese, unemotional, terse, unstylish boy. Deriving some of his powers from genetics and some from magical lollipops he obtains from a salesman (from a mysterious realm ca... ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/18 "2021-07-13T12:05:06Z")
Sir Henry Merrivale and Doctor Fell, both created by John Dickson Carr. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/19 "2021-07-13T12:08:31Z")
Detective Inspector Andy ‘Fat Andy’ Dalziel in the Dalziel and Pascoe series of detective novels by Reginald Hill, and played by Warren Clarke in the TV adaptation. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/20 "2021-07-13T12:11:37Z")
Not in the movie " Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", but in the books Captain Jack Aubrey was described as overweight, and I seem to remember the book saying that sea captains tended to be overweight in general. I think it might have been a status thing-- showing you were prosperous enough to afford to eat and drink too much. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366.md?page=2)