Characters who became much more prominent than they were intended?

[Hybrid]

Many characters, from heroes to villains, are created with the intention of having a role. For heroes, to be a recurring characters in the superhero world with titles or appearances in teams. For villains, to be a recurring antagonist throughout a heroes' rogues gallery or the MU.

But for some characters, it was very obvious they weren't intended to be anything special. These are characters who became far more prominent than they originally intended. I used "prominent" because this refers to the core comics that influence the surrounding media, as really you can say that any character became bigger than intended thanks to the MCU, which feels like a cop out.

To begin:

Baron Helmut Zemo

This actually inspired me to make this topic from looking back at the "Marvel characters who changed from their debut" thread. He was introduced as a one-off villain in Captain America #168 in 1973, created by Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella, and Sal Buscema, under the guise of the Phoenix (not to be confused with X-Men). He lacked many of his characteristics, instead being a man driven by revenge for the death of his father, Baron Heinrich Zemo, at the hands of Captain America. He died at the end of the issue by falling into a vat of Adhesive X, and that was that. Just a villain meant to be used once, who would tie into Cap's old and deceased nemesis, and never appear again.

Until he appeared again in Captain America #275 in 1982, over 100 issues and nine years later, where he became the new Baron Zemo. He literally had no appearances between his first, all the way until then. It was only after this point where much of his defining characteristics came into the fold such as the calculating mastermind, being Cap's secondary arch-nemesis, leading the Masters of Evil, the purple mask, being sympathetic while still a villain, the "Prussian aristocrat" motif, and other aspects like his master swordsmanship and expertise in firearms.

I'd say J.M. DeMatteis (writer of the Captain America titles which returned him), Mike Zeck (artist who collaborated with DeMatteis on the title and created his iconic look), Roger Stern (writer of the Avengers, including the definitive Under Siege storyline for Zemo), and later, Kurt Busiek (creator of the Thunderbolts, which is the other definitive Zemo story) did far more for the character than Thomas/Isabella/Buscema who simply created a one-off baddie and then forgot about him. Hell, you really can say they created Helmut Zemo, but not Baron Zemo.

So basically, he was introduced as a one-off character who died at the end of his appearance, and then became a prominent Cap and Avengers villain much later while being a very popular bad guy.

Anyone else to note?

[destinyascension]

Spider-Gwen! its amazing how popular she became.
Her superhero outfit is just so eye catching, definitely a masterpiece. Kudos to the person or people who designed that.

[Xalfrea]

Kamala Khan I believe could fall under this. Wilson and Amanat, when they first started with the character, flat out admitted that they didn't expect the character or series to last long, saying all the hurdles that type of character needed to overcome.

And now here we are 6 years later with 70 issues of her solo run, other comic appearances, multiple writers that have written stories about her, cartoon appearances, video game appearances, books, toys, collectibles, and costumes. And it was only after all of that was she granted MCU status.

[ed2962]

Wolverine. He was created because of a joke between Roy Thomas and Len Wein about Wein's ability to do accents. Supposedly, Roy said to Len, "You think you're smart? Do a Canadian accent!" The character had no back story or direction other than to fight the Hulk for one issue. While he was writing the comic there was loose talk about revamping the X-Men with new heroes and Len made him a mutant so they could stick him on the team. When the X-Men did get revamped, the creators actually thought that Colossus was going to be the star. Chris Claremont wanted get rid of the Wolverine cuz all he did was argue with people. And if you notice, in contrast to being the ultimate bad ass he is today, Logan used to get smacked around quite a bit in those early days.

[XPac]

Wolverine and Deadpool are the first two to pop in my head.

I doubt anyone came even close to imagining they would both end up having a string of solo movies.

Captain Marvel has gotta be way up there too. She started off as a sort of Lois Lane for Marv, and now she's got a billion dollar movie.

[Riv86672]

Groot.

Looking at his publication history, he debuted in Tales to Astonish #13 (November 1960). He wasn’t seen again till The Incredible Hulk Annual #5 (Oct. 1976), along w. some other monsters from Marvel's old 50s/60s horror comics. Then he showed up in Sensational Spider-Man #−1 (July 1997), in a dream sequence.

After that he wasn’t seen for almost a decade till the 2006 six-issue limited series Nick Fury's Howling Commandos.

Then came Annihilation: Conquest, and the spinoff GoTG book, which ended about the time the MCU was taking off. The MCU gave us the movie, which saw him and -all- the Guardians soar to new heights, so I guess they’d all count as well, really.

[Triniking1234]

Yeah a lot of the GotG characters became pretty popular. Drax and Thanos were Iron Man villains (well not Drax).

I also would say Cable once they revealed him as Cyclops' son.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The word "intended" is a mug's game. Because literally nobody can say what the original intentions behind any character was, or whether it matters.

Writers and artists always create with the aim that their stuff last, they put in effort and so on, but realistically and pragmatically they of course have realistic expectations going in, but they also do their best work.

[Hybrid]

The word "intended" is a mug's game. Because literally nobody can say what the original intentions behind any character was, or whether it matters.

Writers and artists always create with the aim that their stuff last, they put in effort and so on, but realistically and pragmatically they of course have realistic expectations going in, but they also do their best work.

I guess, but when you read or look into their early appearances, there are many characters that were clearly written as a big deal, while others were treated as minor at the time. That's what I'm getting at.

[babyblob]

i think maybe a case could be made for Spiderman. I mean he wasnt featured in a title like Ironman or Thor who became the main features of their books. He was published for the first time in the last issue of a failed book. The only reason he came back was because of the popular response to that issue.

[Omega Alpha]

Besides the many examples already mentioned, I'd say Emma Frost, who was really just originally a generic rich evil lady. Never in a million years Claremont and Byrne imagined she'd become one of the most popular X-men.

Yeah a lot of the GotG characters became pretty popular. Drax and Thanos were Iron Man villains (well not Drax).

I also would say Cable once they revealed him as Cyclops' son.

Cable was always intended to be next big thing.

i think maybe a case could be made for Spiderman. I mean he wasnt featured in a title like Ironman or Thor who became the main features of their books. He was published for the first time in the last issue of a failed book. The only reason he came back was because of the popular response to that issue.

Yeah, but Stan & Steve always thought he was going to be popular, it was the publisher who was against the idea.

[Riv86672]

I guess, but when you read or look into their early appearances, there are many characters that were clearly written as a big deal, while others were treated as minor at the time. That's what I'm getting at.

Yeah, you can tell. It’s not that hard.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

i think maybe a case could be made for Spiderman.

Because the character who graced the cover of the final issue of Amazing Fantasy and even in his first issue had some amount of promotion is definitely an example of a character people had no faith in. Come on...Spider-Man was always intended to be a major character. Flagship mascot character for the entire brand...maybe not that at the start, but they did have high hopes for him.

Spider-Man got his own title after his first appearance. Whereas Superman and Batman were still in Action Comics and Detective Comics for a little while before their titles started.

Besides the many examples already mentioned, I'd say Emma Frost, who was really just originally a generic rich evil lady. Never in a million years Claremont and Byrne imagined she'd become one of the most popular X-men.

Emma's a great example, yes. But that's true of most of the X-Men.

I guess, but when you read or look into their early appearances, there are many characters that were clearly written as a big deal, while others were treated as minor at the time. That's what I'm getting at.

I think people make too much of intentions and not enough of actions. Actions are what really count.

Like Wolverine wasn't intended as a big character in his first appearance by Len Wein but he and others kept rewriting the character to make him stand out and flesh him out and so on. It's more interesting to me that they chose to work on Wolverine like that, than what they originally intended with him.

[Hybrid]

Ant-Man (Scott Lang)

He was introduced just to have someone carry the Ant-Man name after Hank Pym abandoned it. His entire status quo for most of existence was a supporting character, either for Tony Stark, the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, and he did practically nothing of note on his own. His only notable story was his debut To Steal an Ant-Man. Bendis actually had him killed off to kickstart Avengers Disassembled, believing him to be expendable fodder, which set the stage for Cassie to become a superhero as Stature and part of the Young Avengers. I think Stature actually had more prominence in Marvel Comics during the eight years Scott was dead than Scott ever did as Ant-Man in his career.

But then he came back, and then Marvel Studios went against expectations and had him be the star of Ant-Man's debut in the MCU, rather than Hank Pym (where he was just a mentor, made much older too). The reason, funnily enough, was that original director Edgar Wright's first comic was, in fact, To Steal an Ant-Man and he wanted to make a ******action adaptation of it. This of course greatly raised his status, and he's since become the default Ant-Man of Marvel as a whole.

[babyblob]

With Spiderman I was talking more about how little faith the publisher had in him. I mean the publisher wasnt keen on the idea and thought he would fail.