The 15 Most Useless Heroes in the DC Universe

May 2024 · 11 minute read

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Superman. Batman. Wonder Woman. These and lots of extra have graced the pages of countless comics, monitors both silver and glass, lunchboxes, and underoos. DC heroes tend to be noticed as extra godlike than those throughout the boulevard at Marvel. DC have made many makes an attempt at breaking the mould and generating different characters to what they are recognized for. Some, like Booster Gold, experience good fortune and go directly to superstar in their very own books, and even make the leap to tv or movie. Others do not, via a mix of unhealthy luck, unhealthy stories, timing and, yes, general incompetence.

Some had been worked on by means of a few of the biggest creators in comics, and some had been created just to pad a few pages whilst a deadline loomed ominously in the background. Some are simply gag characters, but a few of them have the possible to be nice characters or have strong stories, with both very fascinating powers or starting place tales, which makes it particularly galling to see them consistently mishandled. At least character is completely distinctive in fiction. Some (very few) are workable characters, but would make terrible heroes.

Here are fifteen heroes DC either want to work on or depart buried in the archives beneath their offices.

15. Resurrection Man

Via nocookie.net

Mitch Shelley dies. A lot. A complete lot. He’s a one guy X-team.

Empowered via “tektites,” nanobots that give a remarkably crappy reward. Every time he dies, he is resurrected with an influence relevant to his loss of life. These powers range from the useful, like super-strength, to the needless, like converting color. Although there may be nice potential in tales about mortality, love, and loss in him, the sheer silliness of randomised powers is a large mark against him.

Imagine being held hostage by means of the Joker, and the guy who makes a super-heroic speech about justice will get shot in the face. It doesn’t exactly engender hope.

14. Comet the Superhorse

Via comicvine.com

Any Kryptonian positive factors super-powers when uncovered to the mild of a yellow sun. Flight, super-strength, super-senses and more come as a package deal. Krypto the Super-Dog is the easiest known non-humanoid example. He was once adopted through a few different super-pets, like Beppo the Super-Monkey and Streaky the Super-Cat. And Comet, the Super-Horse.

Instead of a Kryptonian, he was as an alternative a minotaur from ancient Greece, accidentally become a complete horse, albeit one with super-powers and immortality, who was trapped on an asteroid for several centuries until Supergirl’s escape pod broke him unfastened. He joined Supergirl as her own pet horse and fell in love along with her.

Later, he used to be able to become a mortal guy every time a comet passed through the solar gadget. Supergirl then fell in love together with his human self and it all gets very weird and most definitely got the writer placed on some kind of government watch record.

13. Dogwelder

Via thisisanothercastle.com

Writer Garth Ennis and artists John McCrea and Steve Dillon had been seeking to come up with the stupidest superhero name. Dillon received with Dogwelder, and they briefly introduced him in the pages of Hitman where he greater than lived up to his identify.

Silent and fatal, Dogwelder took his name for his brutal and peculiar strategies of fighting crime. He welds canine to faces. Simple, but efficient. He’s a member of Section 8, serving alongside such luminaries as Bueno Excellente, the Defenestrator and Jean de Baton-Baton, who fights with the energy of perversion, alcoholism and Frenchness, respectively.

Voted Best New Character in the 1997 Wizard Awards.

12. Extraño

Via thefw.com

A not unusual theme in superhero stories is evolution. The X-Men once in a while dabble in stories of human extinction and an apprehension of the subsequent generation. Plenty of superheroes got their powers in shady experiments in advancing evolution.

The Guardians, the creatures who created the Green Lanterns, decided to kickstart human evolution and advanced the evolution of a make a choice few humans to take their position and sire a new era of super-evolved youngsters. One of the ones chosen was Extraño, a flamboyantly gay magician. Quite how they anticipated a gay guy to impregnate a lady is left to the readers creativeness.

A horrible stereotype, best possible recognized for the first (openly) gay personality in a mainstream comic, he was later attacked through an AIDS vampire and tested certain for HIV. You may argue for excellent intentions, however his complete story was once poorly treated and will have to be introduced as a guide of “how NOT to jot down homosexual characters.”

11. Danny the Street

Via nocookie.web

Grant Morrison is well-known for his surreal creations. Danny the Street is unquestionably in the best five of his weirdest.

Inspired via Irish drag queen Danny la Rue, Danny is a cross-dressing teleporter, who travels the international, searching for the lost and lonely, providing them convenience and a place of protection. He is also a perfectly commonplace street. He communicates via boulevard signs and graffiti. He blends in the remainder of the the city or city he’s lately occupying, giving other people an abnormal surprise as they walk house from paintings. He has since joined the Teen Titans and grown to the size of a planet and reduced in size to the size of a brick.

10. Goldstar

Via newsarama.com

Superman is frequently characterized as too excellent, too pure, too nice. At times, this can be a legitimate grievance. He has had his share of poor tales or mischaracterisation.

Goldstar makes Superman seem like the Punisher. Raised as a part of an experiment, he was raised to be as delicate and loving as his brother used to be merciless and evil. As a consequence, his brother grew as much as be a galactic conqueror with a bounty on his head, and Goldstar grew up with the superpower to make other folks really feel good. He can sense just right intentions and rewards other folks with Gold Star stickers.

He may be a very good janitor.

9. Red Bee

Via new.dcuwiki.internet

Like Batman, Richard Raleigh used to be inspired through a peculiar creature to develop into a hero and strike terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere. Now he stalks the streets of Superior City with not anything more than his naked fists, a Stinger gun and his educated bees. Yes, bees. No bee-themed guns past a stinger gun, actual bees. Trained bees, certain, but bees nevertheless. One of them is called after Michael, the archangel who forged Lucifer out of heaven. Dream giant, youngsters.

He was once murdered by means of Baron Blitzkrieg and his grandniece constructed a bee themed swimsuit of armour to honour his legacy. She later turns into a large bee that tries to colonise the complete planet. Comics.

8. Vibe

Via robot6.comicbookresources.com

Every decade has something other folks glance back on with embarrassment. The sixties had the hair, the seventies had disco, the eighties had breakdancing. Vibe was a character born of the eighties and who should by no means have left the eighties.

Originally the chief of a breakdancing street gang, he decided to throw his lot in with the Justice League. He temporarily were given them drawn into a smalltime rumble between his previous gang and their rivals. He’s best possible identified for being the first Justice Leaguer to die in the line of accountability and for being completely hated by means of artist George Perez. When Perez illustrated JLA/Avengers, a crossover that featured each member of each teams, Vibe’s only look was once his legs as he fell off panel.

His powers revolve round sound, vibration and rhythm.

7. Doll-Man

Via dc.wikia.com

One of the first shrinking heroes, and created via Will Eisner (a key figure in early comics) Doll Man has the power to shrink to six inches tall and retain his full-size power. The catch is, he can only transfer between complete top and six inches, and he can’t get larger. He uses a Great Dane as shipping, or a fashion airplane for longer journeys.

Best known for his very cool covers, Doll Man is an easily-overlooked personality. DC has different length changing characters, with additional talents and longer runs. Doll Man vanished off the cabinets for two decades and has only made sporadic appearances since his return, together with one tale where he was main a military of subversive Doll Men after many years of length converting broke his mind.

6. Matter Eater Lad

Via hitfix.com

Hailing from the planet Bismoll, Matter Eater Lads eats the whole thing and the rest. He washes nuclear waste down with a tumbler of lava. He can bite through anything, without reference to how strong it's. Stone, metal, diamond, all fall ahead of his mighty chompers.

The skill is a native one. When all food on his house planet was once rendered inedible, the inhabitants of Bismoll evolved the ability to eat anything else. That’s ability with a ton of real-world programs, but it doesn’t truly translate to superheroism. Eating a villain is somewhat too ultimate.

Writers couldn’t call to mind ways to make use of him, so he was once continuously off-world, dealing with the politics of his home world.

5. Infectious Lass

Via comicvine.com

Yet some other member of the Legion, Infectious Lass comes from the planet Somathur, where the natives are hosts for all means of infectious diseases. Although they are immune to these sicknesses, they have a tendency to be pretty infectious, leading to her spending a lot of time in isolation.

This is a wonderfully nice supervillain foundation. Doomed to kill everybody round her, pressured to are living in isolation, lonely, scared, indignant, it’s almost Shakespearean. The problem is, she’s a superhero who wanders around spreading viral infections that she will be able to’t really keep an eye on. She has time and again inflamed bystanders and innocent civilians while trying to fight crime.

Nobody needs area ebola.

(*15*)4. Brother Power the Geek

Via comicvine.com

Brother Power the Geek is notable in the genuine world for being (unfairly?) shot down by means of an editor who hated those damn hippies, and in comics for buying shot into house via Ronald Reagan, who also hated those rattling hippies.

Hippies don’t get a ruin.

An attempt at creating a Silver Surfer-esque wandering thinker at DC, Brother Power was once a mannequin dropped at lifestyles by a lightning strike, fought for hippie rights towards Nazi-esque conservatives and ran for congress.

Cancelled after two problems on account of the editor’s dislike of hippy subculture, Brother Power used to be just too bizarre for comics in the 60s. It’s possible that there’s a just right tale in him in those extra liberal occasions, but DC will more than likely depart him be.

3. Black Condor

Via dc.wikia.com

Tarzan was once a feral kid adopted through nice apes who was once later reintroduced to well mannered society. Black Condor (or Richard Gray) was adopted by way of clever Mongolian condors who taught him learn how to fly, taking an enormous sell off on both evolutionary biologists and automobiles all over the global.

He used to be later civilised and moved to America, where he stole the identity of an assassinated senator to fight bootleggers and crooked politicians. A slightly literate chicken guy who rose to high administrative center. He’s the American Dream made flesh.

It was later said he actually got his flight powers from a meteorite, however the condor factor was much more entertaining to take into accounts.

2. Gunfire

Via comicvine.com

An assault by a Bloodlines parasite gave Andrew Van Horne the energy to show anything into a weapon. He can convert matter into power, for instance turning sticks into concussive blasters and balls into grenades.

Born in the Bloodline tale, an attempt to create new superheroes for DC to sell, Gunfire has almost totally disappeared, along with virtually each and every character created in the story. Who may just overlook Krag, or Razorsharp, or Shadowstryke? Everyone, apparently. Gunfire is notable for just how bad his stories were. He swings between feelings from panel to panel, looking to kill/staff up/save/kill characters as he puffs around.

A later version of the persona controlled to turn his buttocks right into a grenade. Which is unquestionably something.

1. Colour Kid

Via comicvine.com

The Legion of Superheroes have one rule referring to club. Every member must have other powers. It began as a problem for the creators to get weird and inventive with powers. So far, this checklist has had Infectious Lass and Matter Eating Lad. But they don’t even come as regards to the worst member of the Legion. Hands down, the worst hero in the DC universe is Colour Kid, who wields the terrifying energy of creating things alternate colour!

He as soon as had his gender flipped via Infectious Lass and later took the identify Colour King. That’s all there's to say about the persona.

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