Are there bad characters in fiction as in they were bad ideas?

[Güicho]

I'm not denying there is silliness but it takes it to a new damn level when you have lady and man in the same damn name [Lady Stilt-Man]. It would accurate if she has half man and half woman otherwise it's just being inaccurate.

"Lady Stilt-Man"? LOL!

Dynamite created a character called Lady Zorro, a female Zorro is a fine idea, but in Spanish Zorro is the masculine of Fox, so Lady Zorro is Lady Male-Fox.
Her name should have simply been Zorra.

[Güicho]

My favorite "bad" characters, the Hanna Barbera created Super Friends characters.
As a kid I thought, hey they are good enough to hang with the Justice League, they must be great!.

It's hard to entirely blame Hanna Barbera, they had the right idea, as they wanted their heroes to somewhat reflect more of the ethnic diversity of their audience, while DC had little to offer them other than all white characters. So they had to quickly come up with their own:


Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Samurai, El Dorado. (and the Exor Twins humanoid alien characters who weren't default white)

They came up with four simple cliches, who all screamed token, wore their ethnicity, on their sleeves, in their costumes and names. In case you already couldn't tell from their bare legs and chests and heavy accents what ethnicity they were! LOL

Of course Black Vulcan was just reworked bare legged Black Lightning, so DC didn't have to pay Tony Isabella royalties.

There is however, plenty of room for reinvention without betraying the characters or intent. As I said the idea was sound, just the execution ham-fisted. Both JLU and later Young Justice revisited the characters in their animated roots.
First JLU giving them costume and name updates.
And the later YJ making them all actual human beings, with unique personalities.

JLU


YJ


As for the Exor Twins, actually not a bad idea, Jayna was great pretty much beast boy, with even alien-beasts added to her menagerie.
Zan became a joke, as he traveled in a bucket, he apparently was originally conceived as an all around elemental, (who like his sister becoming any beast), he could emulate any element, and take on the physical forms of any objects.
Imagine Metamprho combined with Plastic-Man, full elemental who could emulate any object.
The writers (according to an interview) actually found him to powerful, so they limited him to just water based objects.

[Soubhagya]

I'm almost 100% certain these have been said, but:

-Nick Fury Jr.
-Squirrel Girl

There are also other characters that I find to be ridiculously stupid, but who may have a compelling backstory/origin, but I can't be bothered:

-Triathalon
-Silverclaw
-Wonderman

Are you serious? I hope its an opinion that has changed after close to 3 years.

[Carabas]

Although I believe it was due to licensing rights Human Torch had gone to another show, so they had to invent a new 4th member.
They could have at least come up with a new fourth human who gets powers.

The one I always heard that it was due to concern that kids would imitate what they saw, and light themselves on fire.

[ed2962]

The one I always heard that it was due to concern that kids would imitate what they saw, and light themselves on fire.

I'd heard that as well, but it turned out to be an urban legend. The true reason was that Human Torch had been licensed for a solo show that never happened.

Fun Fact: John Byrne actually did a story during his FF run concerning a little boy who lit himself on fire attempting to be like Johnny.

[Trey Strain]

I'd heard that as well, but it turned out to be an urban legend. The true reason was that Human Torch had been licensed for a solo show that never happened.

Fun Fact: John Byrne actually did a story during his FF run concerning a little boy who lit himself on fire attempting to be like Johnny.

I don't imagine that the story was a lot of fun.

Something like that did happen with Beavis and Butt-Head.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/10/us...-for-fire.html

[Güicho]

Although I believe it was due to licensing rights Human Torch had gone to another show, so they had to invent a new 4th member.

The true reason was that Human Torch had been licensed for a solo show that never happened.

This ^.
Marvel had once parsed out some of their FF character license to some curious projects, a potential Human Torch solo show

And, anyone willing to admit they remember this... !!!



A wimpy kid, who with the combining of magic Rings, ...becomes the Thing!
LOL! "Thing Ring Do Your Thing" could be the epitome of bad ideas!

[ed2962]

I don't imagine that the story was a lot of fun.

Something like that did happen with Beavis and Butt-Head.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/10/us...-for-fire.html

The Bryne story was loosely tied to the Secret Wars 2 event that was happening at Marvel that summer but it actually was not a bad comic on it's own.

[ed2962]

This ^.
Marvel had once parsed out some of their FF character license to some curious projects, a potential Human Torch solo show

And, anyone willing to admit they remember this... !!!



A wimpy kid, who with the combining of magic Rings, ...becomes the Thing!
LOL! "Thing Ring Do Your Thing" could be the epitome of bad ideas!

Fred and Barney meet The Thing!!

[Vic Vega]

DC's Brother Power, The Geek seems like something somebody would come up with on a dare to deliberately make the worst character possible.

Either that or it was the result of a drinking binge. Or both.

Marvel's Battling Bantam is pretty irredeemable also.

[Adam Allen]

"Prisoner of War is a member of The Others, the first superhero group Aquaman belonged to. Prisoner of War is a war veteran who gained powers from the deaths of his comrades and hides his face because of it."

2331501-2313433_screen_shot_2012_04_25_at_3.18.15_pm.jpg


Such a bad idea.

[ouroboros]

It's hard to believe that anyone ever thought Scrappy Doo was a good idea.

I actually think "Scooby Dum" was a worse idea than "Scrappy Doo." Some critic pointed out that the former was unnecessary duplication, since Scooby himself wasn't exactly Mister Peabody to start with.

[ouroboros]

He's still awesome though, so he doesn't count.

Stilt Man could occasionally be imposing done "straight," as long as the artist sets things up so that his superior height is a real advantage. Gene Colan did this well in the first DAREDEVIL ANNUAL, but a lot of the other DAREDEVILS-- even other stories by Colan-- simply had DD or Spider-Man swing up to meet Stilty, and usually found some way to make his height a disadvantage in some way.

[Güicho]

"Prisoner of War is a member of The Others, the first superhero group Aquaman belonged to. Prisoner of War is a war veteran who gained powers from the deaths of his comrades and hides his face because of it."

2331501-2313433_screen_shot_2012_04_25_at_3.18.15_pm.jpg


Such a bad idea.

He was definitely a weird idea, I remember his intro in Aquaman, but never followed him into Aquaman & The Others book. Did they explain the gold chains? How exactly he "gained powers from the deaths of his comrades"?
Did we ever see his actual face?
And did he ever just go by POW!

[Osiris-Rex]

Rusty from Major Crimes on TNT. The Closer was an entertaining police procedural, so I had big hopes for Major Crimes. What genius thought that the only thing missing from the show was a whining teenage asshat who hangs around the police station being a whining teenage asshat?

As bad as the final three episodes of Major Crimes have been, I wouldn't put it past them to have this turd be the one who kills Stroh.

And C3PO has the advantage of not being an embarrassing racial stereotype disguised as an alien.

C3PO is a homosexual stereotype disguised as a robot.

You know what's kind of a stupid name when you think about it? Superman. Least original name/concept ever. Or how about Ghost Rider? Never seen him riding a ghost. That'd be something. Instead it's always with the motorcycles and leather with him/her. Is he supposed to be a ghost? I thought he was a demon. Terrible name.

I always assumed that Ghost Rider was a ghost that rode a motorcycle. A ghost motorcycle rider.

Surprised no one mentioned The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones cartoons.