Personal Lives & Supporting Casts

[Lee Stone]

Which current non-Trinity book would you say is the best at balancing costumed adventuring with out of costume personal dramas?
Which hero would you say has a good level of interaction with the city/town they live in?
And which would you say has the best non-powered/non-costumed supporting cast that's seen regularly?

[Assam]

Which current non-Trinity book would you say is the best at balancing costumed adventuring with out of costume personal dramas?

New Super-Man and the Justice League of China. To be technical they're usually in their costumes, but there's still a good amount of time spent on the characters dealing with their own personal and interpersonal drama.

Were Humphries still writing Green Lanterns, it would have won here by a mile though.

Which hero would you say has a good level of interaction with the city/town they live in?

Can't help you here.

And which would you say has the best non-powered/non-costumed supporting cast that's seen regularly?

Again, the soon to be finished New Super-Man and the Justice League of China and the long-concluded Humphries Green Lanterns are you best bets.

[Jekyll]

Since I am currently only reading one DC title by default for me it’s the Flash. Williamson had several arcs were we got to see Barry use his CSI skills and we have had quite a bit of interaction with the suppporting cast out of costume.

[Korath]

For your first question, of the still ongoing titles, I would say The Silencer, since the basis of the series is that the main character has to keep hidden her life as an assassin from her family, and quite frankly, her interactions with her husband and son are always poignant. As for the other two, I can't really tell, even if I feel that Green Lanterns did a pretty great job at it early on.

[Frontier]

Since I am currently only reading one DC title by default for me it’s the Flash. Williamson had several arcs were we got to see Barry use his CSI skills and we have had quite a bit of interaction with the suppporting cast out of costume.

Yeah, I would say Williamson's Flash probably captures a lot of the points Lee is asking about, even the "good interaction with the city" bit.

[Jackalope89]

The Age of New Heroes in general has, including Spider-, I mean Sideways.

Speaking of which, anyone else think Ernestine from Sideways reminds you of Daria? Whenever I see her on panel, I can't help but think her lines in Daria's voice.

[astro@work]

Outside of the trinity, I would definitely say Flash.

Aquaman has been reasonably consistent with this, if you consider Atlantis his city.

[Waterfall]

Green Lanterns has the best balance.

Flash's side cast besides speedsters are extremely weak since they don't have any depth and exist as plot devices rather than characters.

[Lightning Rider]

Outside of the trinity, I would definitely say Flash.

Aquaman has been reasonably consistent with this, if you consider Atlantis his city.

Yeah that's what I would pick after Flash.

Green Lanterns has the best balance.

Flash's side cast besides speedsters are extremely weak since they don't have any depth and exist as plot devices rather than characters.

Yeah, that's kind of true.

[K7P5V]

New Super-Man and the Justice League of China. To be technical they're usually in their costumes, but there's still a good amount of time spent on the characters dealing with their own personal and interpersonal drama.

Were Humphries still writing Green Lanterns, it would have won here by a mile though.



Can't help you here.



Again, the soon to be finished New Super-Man and the Justice League of China and the long-concluded Humphries Green Lanterns are you best bets.

Speaking of long-concluded storylines/titles, I really enjoyed Conner/Palmiotti's Starfire. Even though she didn't exactly have any "in & out of costume personal dramas", Starfire had frequent interactions with both her supporting cast and the city/town where she took up residence.

And I know this is really old since it's been over two decades, but I think Chuck Dixon's Robin (Tim Drake) series fits this thread's criteria. Dixon's Drake had plenty of "in & out of costume personal dramas" and frequent interactions with his supporting cast.

[Frontier]

Speaking of long-concluded storylines/titles, I really enjoyed Conner/Palmiotti's Starfire. Even though she didn't exactly have any "in & out costume personal dramas", Starfire had frequent interactions with both her supporting cast and the city/town where she took up residence.

And I know this is really old since it's over two decades, but I think Chuck Dixon's Robin (Tim Drake) series fits this thread's criteria. Dixon's Drake had plenty of "in & out costume personal dramas" and frequent interactions with his supporting cast.

I very much agree with both these points .

[TheCape]

Speaking of long-concluded storylines/titles, I really enjoyed Conner/Palmiotti's Starfire. Even though she didn't exactly have any "in & out costume personal dramas", Starfire had frequent interactions with both her supporting cast and the city/town where she took up residence.

And I know this is really old since it's over two decades, but I think Chuck Dixon's Robin (Tim Drake) series fits this thread's criteria. Dixon's Drake had plenty of "in & out costume personal dramas" and frequent interactions with his supporting cast.

All of this is true

[Lee Stone]

Sounds like the New Age of Heroes books may be the best bet. Not surprising, really, as they're mostly inspired by early Marvel.

I think, some of the best DC comics that balanced these elements well were mostly in the '80s. Firestorm, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Blue Devil and Captain Atom in particular had strong real world connections with robust supporting casts and the heroes spending a lot of time out of costume just getting through their regular lives (well, maybe not so much Blue Devil as he was trapped in his costume, but that didn't stop him from trying).

Somewhere between the '90s and today, though, that part of superhero fiction has been reduced as supporting characters are either killed off or given costumes and powers of their own, love interests have become other heroes (or villains), and subplots (if any) now mostly revolve around a villain or something related to the hero's powers or abilities.
A lot of the shift has been in portraying the costumed identity as either their 'real' life or the main focus.
Such as Batman going from being Bruce Wayne dressing up in a costume as Batman to being Batman 24/7 with Bruce Wayne being the real mask. Or Superman and Wonder Woman becoming more prominent than Clark Kent and Diana Prince. Or how Green Lantern and Aquaman's worlds revolve more around the Green Lantern Corps and Atlantis than Hal or Arthur's lives in human society.
It seems logical that Flash would be the last one to make this transition, as he doesn't really have the 'super-societies' of Green Lantern Corps and Atlantis, or the 'otherworld hero adopting a human name' of Superman and Wonder Woman, nor does have the psychotic attraction to being the Flash like Batman. But DC's been slowly working towards alienating him from human society by way of the Speed Force and the numerous Speedsters.

I actually thought Green Arrow would be the one most suggested, as he doesn't have any of the hangups that the others have. And he has a smaller circle of superpowered/costumed supporting characters to work with. But then his main squeeze has pretty much always been Black Canary.

[SJNeal]

Another vote for The Flash here...