Favorite underrecnogized trait from heroes?

[Tzigone]

Lots of heroes have lots of good traits. But here's one I just like - it's not essential to a hero, it's not morally superior, and it's not talked about enough for these characters, IMO.

During the original run for each of the follow: Scott, Big Barda, and Koriand'r: They enjoy life, indeed, enjoy the small things in life. They've all had very bad experiences, but they see the good and pleasant in the world and appreciate them - indeed one could say they do so because of their bad experiences. They aren't blind to the bad things, so don't come off as Naive. And they aren't falsely cheerful or faking or treated as comic relief for it in the early days. They just think sunny days and hot baths and such are worth being appreciated and enjoyed.

[Will Evans]

Lots of heroes have lots of good traits. But here's one I just like - it's not essential to a hero, it's not morally superior, and it's not talked about enough for these characters, IMO.

During the original run for each of the follow: Scott, Big Barda, and Koriand'r: They enjoy life, indeed, enjoy the small things in life. They've all had very bad experiences, but they see the good and pleasant in the world and appreciate them - indeed one could say they do so because of their bad experiences. They aren't blind to the bad things, so don't come off as Naive. And they aren't falsely cheerful or faking or treated as comic relief for it in the early days. They just think sunny days and hot baths and such are worth being appreciated and enjoyed.

Well, one thing you can say about all three of them is that they appreciate our state of the Earth more, the good and the bad, because their home planets were extremely worse.

[Sutekh]

I always liked that Conner/Superboy, particularly in his earlier Hawaii days, seemed to *love* life and being a hero, and didn't have or need any sort of angsty dark past (even if his childhood wasn't exactly puppies and rainbows, he didn't wallow in it, but just moved past it).

Perhaps the root of my preference for teen heroes or younger hero teams, like the Legion, Teen Titans, Young Justice, etc. is that so many of the characters seem to genuinely enjoy the superhero life, and aren't all wrapped up in the drama and cost and trauma of it. That and some sketchy-characters-turned-heroes, like Booster Gold or Plastic Man, since they also are more likely to openly enjoy the upsides of the hero life (since it sure beats their pre-hero lives...).

[Riv86672]

In a way, the opposite is what I enjoyed about John Byrne’s Post Crisis Superman.

Pre Crisis a lot of writers seemed to have the character view himself as Superman and his Clark persona as a burden or necessary evil. Can’t have too much fun as Clark, can’t have Clark be too popular, Clark can’t get the girl, can’t have Clark be brave…because Superman.

Byrne showed us a Clark that was a football star in High School, and a brainy self assured somewhat nerdy ex-jock as an adult…:





Clark enjoyed being Clark. As he should; that’s who was, and he had a lot going for him.
PLUS he was a superhero.