Who Are The Most Misunderstood Marvel Characters?

[JudicatorPrime]

Straight in with The Sentry. Per a Paul Jenkins tweet:

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I am not surprised that the Sentry has been mishandled by subsequent editors and writers.

I am surprised, though, that writers don't reach out to the creators of characters for insight wherever possible. Continuity should really start there.

[GMikey]

If i could put my two cents in, Matthew Malloy falls under this category. so much so, even his writers (Bendis) didn't know how to properly resolve his situation, and so just wrote him out of existence basically. such a bad call, especially coming from the X-Men.

Matt was a perfect test for the X-Men and thanks to Bendis, they failed him. He had no idea he was even a mutant, let alone understood his powers. Instead of coming up with creative solutions, or creating circumstances where Matt had to confront some sort of inner conflict or fear, and his confrontation of that helps reveal the root of his lack of control, ANY idea that represented finding a way, is better than what they settled with.

Also, Matt could have been an interesting opportunity of a character, if handled well. i can see lots of multidimensional travel and such with someone of his caliber. Also its not too many actual heroes that are "Beyond Omega" level in power. Him having to learn as he go would been something awesome on the table. but nope. Bendis' brain has very limited capacity for that kind of thought, so we got stuck with his easy way out.

[BroHomo]

The alternate realities where Magik is exactly the same as 616 even though in those realities she was never taken to Limbo really bother me. They miss the entire point about her lost innocence, years of abuse, and the damage done to her soul shaping who she became. Take those away and she'd be a completely different person, and an Illyana who was never kidnapped to Limbo would be much more like Colossus, except with less of a temper than him. Even in 616 it seems everyone has forgotten that she's supposed have a Jedi-like code about killing to avoid losing herself to the Darkchild persona forever, which was why she had a big Return of the Jedi moment in deciding not to kill Belasco in her origin story. Unfortunately the second person to write her regularly completely forgot what happened in her origin and thought she actually killed Belasco instead of sparing him, and that mistake has affected how most people have written her since.

I thought when she had legion kill tge Elder Gods she was safe from the darkchylde potential corruption

[Jonezy]

I’m going to go with Frank Castle.

When he is done well, he is dynamite.

Civil War’s highlight is forever destined to be Peter’s unmasking.

For me it was always Frank turning up for duty, but knowing he, sort of really shouldn’t be there, but at the same time knowing for the first time….. they needed him. And just being batshit crazy while being the most sane person there.

I genuinely don’t ‘get’ the current reticence about using Frank, but I completely hold my hands up - I’m a Brit. I have always lived in England. I understand the legalities and political and historical dialogue around the use of firearms in America. And the use of the skull symbol by …. well, frankly, those Nazis.

But, as a character, he’s so compelling on his own. When he’s done badly, he’s odious. When he’s done average, he’s boring. When he’s done well, he’s like a powder keg of character waiting to go off, put him with the rest of the MU in these moments and he’s sublime.

[Jonezy]

I meant to say as well, why I don’t ‘get’ the current reticence to use him.

I think in part it’s to do with the long slide he’s been on as a character in the MU for the last 20 years. He had his moment and it’s gone, popularity wise.

Then there is the wider issue around what he stands for, or rather what he is viewed as standing for, in the current times.

But, as a character … vengeful vigilante, rooted in the real world where death happens, pissed off that superheroes don’t ever actually solve anything, master strategist and tactician, forever haunted by his trauma (not tragedy, trauma), and probably being clinically mentally ill.
But, he’s got enough history in the MU to know everyone, he WILL play by the rules if needed, and he is a fantastic foil when he pops up. He makes other characters change their response. He always changes a story when he’s in it.

He also acts a great Trojan horse character for left/right political stories.

To my mind, the great misunderstood character of marvel. I don’t really understand him. I think that’s the point. He wears a skull and kills people in a comic universe. He is comic death.

You make of him what you will. You react to him in the context of the story. You try to either survive your encounter with him or protect others from him.

He has basically always been used as a ‘tough guy’. And that’s where he get’s misunderstood.

[sunofdarkchild]

I thought when she had legion kill tge Elder Gods she was safe from the darkchylde potential corruption

That was a unique period where she was missing her soul and therefore was acting differently from normal and had nothing to lose. There's a reason her personality shifts back to something much closer to her classic personality under Bendis after she gets her soul back. The reason I say a Jedi-like code is because she could kill depending on the circumstance, but never in anger. That is why she could mercy-kill 2 of her friends but had to spare Belasco. When she killed it had to be without hatred and anger to ensure she wouldn't 'fall to the dark side' the same as a Jedi. That central aspect of her character has been ignored since Claremont first left the New Mutants unless some writer wants to come along and say that each time she's killed someone in the last 10 years it's been strictly because it's necessary and never done out of anger.