Supporting casts

[Gaius]

And yes, I'm still bitter about the Kapetelises being replaced the Sandsmarks. Sue me.

Mostly the same, especially since Cassie's main purpose writers want seems to be the arm candy for her Super and Bat equivalent so kind of a bum tradeoff.

[witchboy]

That'll happen when you get new writers or new books. Although Superman's supporting cast is somewhat untouchable (even if a given writer isn't all that interested in, say, Jimmy Olsen), as is Batman's (more or less), even characters as venerable as Wonder Woman tend to get their supporting casts upended by new writers.

And yes, I'm still bitter about the Kapetelises being replaced the Sandsmarks. Sue me.

I thought Byrne was really lazy to write out Diana's supporting cast of an archeology professor single mother of a teen daughter with ...an archeologist single mother of a teen daughter. It's like he just copied and pasted the characters they're core elements are so similar.

[Restingvoice]

I feel supporting characters are a relic of a bygone era, sadly.

With lesser page counts and too many 'special' events, there seems to be almost no time for supporting characters to appear much less shine.

No that's just means in events, main characters become the supporting cast of the event headliner
Like the main characters are the Trinity, everybody else are the supporting cast
The main character is Batman, everybody else in the family are the supporting cast

[Frontier]

Mostly the same, especially since Cassie's main purpose writers want seems to be the arm candy for her Super and Bat equivalent so kind of a bum tradeoff.

I would check out Cassie in the original Young Justice run.

[Robanker]

They're extremely important and their disappearance for want of more superhero crossovers has only diminished both the protagonists and their slice of the universe.

[Jim Kelly]

I think any supporting character that continues to wear a super-hero costume or gains super-powers for an extended number of issues should have their supporting character union card taken away. Supporting characters need to be regular folk. It's okay if Perry White becomes a super-hero for one story because he was mind-controlled by a plant in his garden or flew because he got a special brand of cigars, but if that becomes the only kind of stories he ever gets, then he's lost his function as a supporting character.

The problem with modern comics is there's too much of characters in tights only hanging around with other characters in tights. The comic should mostly be populated with regular people--the supporting cast--and the main character being the one with the powers and the costume.

[phonogram12]

I think any supporting character that continues to wear a super-hero costume or gains super-powers for an extended number of issues should have their supporting character union card taken away. Supporting characters need to be regular folk. It's okay if Perry White becomes a super-hero for one story because he was mind-controlled by a plant in his garden or flew because he got a special brand of cigars, but if that becomes the only kind of stories he ever gets, then he's lost his function as a supporting character.

The problem with modern comics is there's too much of characters in tights only hanging around with other characters in tights. The comic should mostly be populated with regular people--the supporting cast--and the main character being the one with the powers and the costume.

I agree. This was especially apparent in the Arrowverse shows when I was still watching them. I understand that from a practical point of view it was kind of necessary so as not to burn out the main star, but from most every other point of view, you begin to wonder if these guys know any normal people anymore. IMHO, the Daredevil show handled it's supporting cast perfectly for a tv show. Both Foggy and Karen were both interesting and vital enough to the main storylines as they were that they never had to put costumes on them.

[Robanker]

I think any supporting character that continues to wear a super-hero costume or gains super-powers for an extended number of issues should have their supporting character union card taken away. Supporting characters need to be regular folk. It's okay if Perry White becomes a super-hero for one story because he was mind-controlled by a plant in his garden or flew because he got a special brand of cigars, but if that becomes the only kind of stories he ever gets, then he's lost his function as a supporting character.

The problem with modern comics is there's too much of characters in tights only hanging around with other characters in tights. The comic should mostly be populated with regular people--the supporting cast--and the main character being the one with the powers and the costume.

I agree entirely. While I disliked how CW's The Flash flooded Barry with regular folk, I at least appreciated they were mostly fellow nerds who he interacted with (usually doing things he would just be able to do anyway, but I digress). It's when all of them became superheroes that I was over it, but considering the names of the characters, that was more of a when than an if. Still, there needs to be a Law of Conservation of Tights drafted and enforced in cape comics.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I hate when a new writer takes over a book and decides that the first thing he or she needs to do is burn the previously established setting down to the ground, and getting rid of or killing off as many supporting cast members as possible. Because they want to do "ABC" kind of stories instead of "XYZ" stories about Dr. Crusader, and in their mind there's no place for Dr. Crusader's "XYZ" supporting cast but they need a completely new "ABC" supporting cast. Or they want to get rid of any new supporting cast members created in the last, say, 5-10 years, in favor of bringing back some long forgotten former supporting cast who was never even a real character, just a foil for Dr. Crusader to constantly put in their place in his civilian guise. (Looking at you, "Superman 2000" pitch, wanting to dump Ron Troupe in favor of f***ing Steve Lombard, unless we get to make Ron the newest version of villain The Kryptonite Man, just because Mark Waid or whoever grew up with Lombard.)

[Agent Z]

I think any supporting character that continues to wear a super-hero costume or gains super-powers for an extended number of issues should have their supporting character union card taken away. Supporting characters need to be regular folk. It's okay if Perry White becomes a super-hero for one story because he was mind-controlled by a plant in his garden or flew because he got a special brand of cigars, but if that becomes the only kind of stories he ever gets, then he's lost his function as a supporting character.

This feels like a very narrow-minded idea of what "supporting cast" means.

The problem with modern comics is there's too much of characters in tights only hanging around with other characters in tights.

That's only the case if you read team books.

[Frontier]

That's only the case if you read team books.

I think it can feel true for solo books as well.

[phonogram12]

I think it can feel true for solo books as well.

I loved the latest Black Widow series, but her entire supporting cast consisted of supers in costumes. It definitely could've used a few regular folks in the mix.

[Jim Kelly]

Re-reading Kirby's SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN (or "Jimmy Olsen's Pal, Superman" as it used to always remind us on the inside page), it strikes me that it's the inverse of my maxim--as Jimmy Olsen is the guy with regular clothes and no super-powers (except for all the transformations) and he's surrounded by folks with super-powers and weird outfits. But maybe that's one of the things wrong with the Kirby run.

Of course, the Legion of Super-Heroes is almost all super-people in costumes. But that's a special case--as it's the future and there are hundreds of planets. So the definition of regular folks is different. And on a team that size everyone is a lead character and a supporting character--it just depends on the story. It's like BONANZA, where on any given episode, Ben, Adam, Hoss, Joe or Candy (and even once Hop Sing) could be the lead character and then the others became more cartoonish in their supporting performance.

Many of the Super-Heroes in the Legion came from planets where everybody had the same powers--so in that sense they weren't "super" because they were like everyone else. And being in the future, regular clothing and super-costumes were virtually the same thing.

However, even in the L.S.H., many stories were made better by having recurring supporting characters in them--like Rond Vidar, Circadia Senius, R.J. Brande, Marla Latham, Gigi Cusimano, Shvaughn Erin, Marte Allon and others.

[Primal Slayer]

I think any supporting character that continues to wear a super-hero costume or gains super-powers for an extended number of issues should have their supporting character union card taken away. Supporting characters need to be regular folk. It's okay if Perry White becomes a super-hero for one story because he was mind-controlled by a plant in his garden or flew because he got a special brand of cigars, but if that becomes the only kind of stories he ever gets, then he's lost his function as a supporting character.

The problem with modern comics is there's too much of characters in tights only hanging around with other characters in tights. The comic should mostly be populated with regular people--the supporting cast--and the main character being the one with the powers and the costume.

I mean....characters like Kid Flash/Robin/Wonder Girl are all technically supporting characters until they branched out on their own.

There should be a good mixture of costumed and ordinary supporting characters.

[phonogram12]

I mean....characters like Kid Flash/Robin/Wonder Girl are all technically supporting characters until they branched out on their own.

There should be a good mixture of costumed and ordinary supporting characters.

I think sidekicks are a special exception, but yes, I agree with you. Me, personally, I do think regular people supporting cast members should make up at least 2/3 of a superhero's supporting cast.