Best and worst use of a non-super hero supporting character

[caj]

What was the best and worst use of a non-super hero supporting character in a storyline or specific issue?

[Restingvoice]

Best: That time Alfred has to stall for time until Batman and Justice League arrived so he dressed up as Batman to face a Superman level foe

9dba4b3c4769c74c31664504566762a0._SX1280_QL80_TTD_.jpg

Batman Rebirth #5

[caj]

Worst - Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis

[Vampire Savior]

I would say the best is Lois Lane. The worst...um...probably Ebony White.

[mikelmcknight72]

I'll just do a few bests for now.

Lois, so very many instances. I'll go with the Hell Bat armor usage.

Alfred, any time he's pouring on the snark to encourage a little humbleness in Batman is wonderful.

Oberon, taking town the Imskian invaders during the JLI era.

[Jackalope89]

Lois has had some really good moments, some like in Rebirth, where she was very protective of both of her Kryptonians.

When Bendis took over, she had some of her worst, like leaving her not even teen son behind with a highly questionably person barely into their trip in space, and didn't even bother to tell her husband, the father of her child, about it.

[Fromper]

Linda Park in issue #100 of Flash. After her boyfriend, the title character of the series, seemed to die in the cliffhanger ending of the previous issue, Linda took his place as narrator, and also in helping her remaining super powered friends fight the remaining bad guys.

I'm not sure if Amanda Waller counts as just a supporting character, but she doesn't have superpowers and doesn't go on missions. So seeing her take Batman down a notch was one of her best moments:

You stay there and think about what youve done!.jpg

[caj]

Oberon, taking town the Imskian invaders during the JLI era.

LOL - I almost listed this as well but thought 'nobody will remember that'.

I love it.

[Starter Set]

Worst - Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis

No question there.

[hareluyafan1]

It may not be her best moment but personally I loved Abby's role in the "Convergence" storyline.

Basically she and Swamp Thing had travelled to Gotham but then some kind of barrier went up that sealed the city off. It also blocked Swamp Thing's connection to the Green, causing him to start withering. He only survived because Abby brought him bags of fertilizer, plant food and such which kept him going until the barrier came down.

Plus she also knocked Poison Ivy out with a tree branch. I grinned like a loon when I read that.

[Jim Kelly]

The worst...um...probably Ebony White.

I might be digging a big hole for myself, but I think Ebony White was a great character. He started out as a bad stereotype but developed into a well-rounded sidekick. In hindsight, I just wish that Will Eisner had early on changed the look of him, so he wasn't a caricature of a minstrel show act. But then it took a lot of comics a long time to change their stereotypes--Chop-Chop, who was much worse, looked like that in all the Blackhawk comics from the 1940s.

Even in the 1940s, Eisner was under pressure from well-meaning activists to get rid of Ebony--which he did a few times--at one time replacing him with an "Eskimo" stereotype which was just as bad if not worse--before finally replacing him with the innocuous Sammy, who was inoffensive but very bland compared to Ebony.

The best comparison I can make for Ebony is Rochester, played by Eddie Anderson, on THE JACK BENNY SHOW. Anderson's performance played into the stereotype, yet he gave Rochester so much dimension (and he often got the best lines) that the character became a beloved staple of the show and Anderson gained true stardom.

However, I now realize I'm probably making no sense--because no one reading this would be old enough to have listened to or watched the Benny show and know who Rochester was. And probably none have even read THE SPIRIT by Will Eisner.

And it's not like I'm old enough to have been around in the 1940s--but in the 1970s, as a teen, I listened to old radio shows like the Benny program on my crystal radio set late at night and I subscribed to THE SPIRIT magazine (from Warren originally and later from Kitchen Sink).

Trust me, there were whole storylines written around Ebony White--he even had his own popular song, "Every Little Bug." Yes, I dearly love Ebony White.

[Dred]

Linda Park in issue #100 of Flash. After her boyfriend, the title character of the series, seemed to die in the cliffhanger ending of the previous issue, Linda took his place as narrator, and also in helping her remaining super powered friends fight the remaining bad guys.

I'm not sure if Amanda Waller counts as just a supporting character, but she doesn't have superpowers and doesn't go on missions. So seeing her take Batman down a notch was one of her best moments:

You stay there and think about what youve done!.jpg

Waid's Linda in general is just one of, if not the, best written love interests in cape comics.

[Restingvoice]

Worst - Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis

I was going to write a case of fridging that still happened during New 52 which the trope was supposed to be old at that time, but yeah can't beat this one

[SneakyLookingSort]

Best: Holly in Brubaker's Catwoman.

Worst: Holly in King's Batman.

[Fromper]

I was going to write a case of fridging that still happened during New 52 which the trope was supposed to be old at that time, but yeah can't beat this one

I guess this would be a good time to suggest Alexandra DeWitt as among the worst in this thread.