The folks at iFanboy have suggestions for the Top 5 Comic Book Characters You Either Love of Hate. And, by golly, their suggestions aren’t bad ones:
- Gambit – I don’t mind Gambit all that much, except for his costume and his background (and plotlines driven thereby, which are far too many). The rest of the time he’s no worse or better than your average 80s X-mutant.
- Captain Marvel – I’ve always thought the Big Red Cheese was just way too goofy. But when you take the goofiness away, there’s not much left. Captain Marvel is only of interest when either (a) playing to the mildly goofy tone (the Giffen/DeMatteis JL, for example), or (b) as a magical contrast to Superman. But I’ve little interest in him in and of himself.
- Aquaman – The only run of Aquaman I’ve ever enjoyed has been Peter David’s. As a guest star, he’s fine, but Aquaman’s been screwed with as to origin and nature more than pretty much any other male DC hero. I’ve zero interest in his new relaunch by Geoff Johns.
- Deadpool – I have never read a Deadpool story, or appearance, that I enjoyed. Ever. He could vanish from human memory and we’d be the better for it.
- Lobo – Almost as bad as Deadpool, but there have been a few occasional humorous appearances here and there. In general, though, I try to avoid most of the comics he shoes up in.
Others? Cable should probably be on the list. Some really seem to enjoy his whole convoluted history; I usually just roll my eyes and look for something else (Cable, to me, epitomizes, along with Gambit, how Chis Claremont ruined the Marvel X-Universe).
Hawk & Dove also seem to be regular favorites for writers to pull into things, and I almost never enjoy them in any of their configurations.
Any other suggestions of comic book protagonists that some folks seem to really like and others really hate?
Captain Marvel himself is a bore, the rest of the Marvels, esp. Black Adam, are a lot more interesting.
Most annoying?
Gambit, Jean Grey and Jubilee
@Arty: I do like the stuff that was done (by Geoff Johns, I believe) with Black Adam over the last decade or so.
@BD: Jean Grey is too sandpapered smooth a figure to be annoying. She’s lost any individuality she had by her constant death/resurrection cycle. Meh.
Jubilee’s been kind of fun since she got turned into a vampire.