ITT: Underutilized characters

What are some characters who are, in your opinion, underused?

Obviously, pic related.

I think it would have been substantially better if they ran with a Maxima/Superman relationship in the New 52 than if they ran with the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship. On the surface there are some similarities: both are female warrior royalty to their respective societies. But because she is an alien queen, Maxima fits Superman books a lot better than a demigod like Wonder Woman. Furthermore, there is more tension if it's a relationship that Superman has some reason not to be in, as is the case where Maxima wants him so he can plant babies in her. Almerac has a little more plausible diplomatic tension with Earth than Themyscira if only because Themyscira is basically DC's Wakanda, it's a ridiculously utopian society of perfect people (women instead of Africans) who have access to technology well beyond the grasp of the rest of the world, but won't share any of it because they're isolationist dicks while also being Mary Sues. Almerac could plausibly have some tension in having the possibility to at some point try invading the Earth and within the context of the government worrying about Superman having a baby with another superhuman, Maxima's desire to have babies would elevate that conflict. The government would have to balance inter-planetary diplomacy with the strategic military concerns about what a nightmare a planet (in the long run) of Kryptonian/Almeran hybrids would be.

Of course, we're thankfully no longer in the New 52 era, but Maxima can be used to provide tension to Superman at almost any given time, and has a lot of flexibility to be used as a villain, a hero, or anything in between.

Speaking of Maxima, from Wikipedia

vomiting anime girl.jpg

That shit's a total inversion of what Maxima is. Maybe it's a good thing that they didn't have her show up a lot in Superman books in the New 52. But now that we're in Rebirth, there's no reason not to bring her back like she should be.

I read up Gods of Mars and I was surprised at the level of depth Phaidor had compared to the comics. In Warlord of Mars she is just some crazy bitch who wants to ride John Carter's cock, but in the book, she is very naive about how her race was being secretly jewed by the Black Martians, who spend all their time raping the women of her race. She could have made an interesting character who would turn away from the Therns and help Carter, but alas she was underutilized in the books and the comics. Such a shame.

Maxima always did seem like a character with a lot of wasted potential.

Wait..they made Maxima a lesbian? Why? She's like DC's version of Saiyans..she's cool..and a red head.

Marvel's Volcana could be really interesting in some good hands. She could be used in a new group of less famous heroes.
Since she was pretty much a simple woman that received godlike powers, you could always use this side of her in the story.


As I said, I would like to see they make some stories showing the reactions of a 'normal' woman in some completely crazy situations, and since she already have some experiences, and it seems like that Doom messed up with her brain a bit to make her more courageous and aggressive, this could be fun. And, to be honest, she is a very powerful super being, so, you could use her in many type of stories.

Nothing against your choice, but why, WHY Marvel and DC keep making 'human aliens'?
you compared her to saiyans, but at least they had a tail and could became monsters.

I only know her from that S:TAS episode where she tried to fuck Superman.

'Twas a good episode

Not that I am complaining but how does she manage to hold these pasties from falling off?

Because you can't relate to a true alien. At least in a few different universes, the Kryptonians are explained as being Atlantians or some other type of Human, and that's why they look like a Human.

Others, like the Martians, look like monsters.

The power of comic censorship.

Funny thing you say that when this chick right here is a Martian too.

Pairing Superman with another metahuman is flawed from the get-go because there's very little tension for writers to exploit without resorting to contrived bullshit that hurts both characters. Plus, seeing that Superman has and is raising an actual son in continuity kills the novelty behind your idea, which is rather dumb on its own.

To my recollection, the best Maxima got was a place on the Max Lord-era Justice League alongside Superman, right before he died. Aside from that she has the same problems as most supporting characters: her gimmick reduces her range so of course she isn't used often.


It's easier to come up with characters that can pass for humans instead of constantly brainstorming and drawing different designs for aliens that might only appear in one arc.

I don't get how a human woman has any more tension. It seems to me to have less. Sure, they're more physically vulnerable, but that's about it. And we know if Lois Lane is falling out of an airplane, Superman will somehow save the day. That's what he does.

I don't know much about John Carter's universe, but I could believe that these human like aliens were human once and went to mars as John did. And then changed a bit, but not much, but the same book have aliens that don't look like humans at all.

That's a bit strange to think too, because they did managed to have some interesting alien races in the Lanterns, but, they look like an anomaly.
It's funny to think about how western games kind of managed to keep it interesting. If you look at games like X-COM, Master of Orion, Star Control or Mass Effect hade some cool races. Many were still humanoid in form, but quite different to look at.
I agree it's probably just laziness, but it's just so weird too.

By the way, had DC created any explanation as to why humans are not the minority on Earth when you have beings like Amazons and Atlantians that could probably easily outbreed humans by the simple fact that pretty much nothing in this planet could kill them?
Or maybe they already did a story about it.

Don't breed. No men + they're immortal. Diana's mother is an exception
Could very well outnumber humans but their numbers are unknown because they live under the sea

Maxima was only ever an expie of Wonder Woman, to tell the stories that would make the editors shit themselves if you used the real Wonder Woman.

In the case of Superman is just robs something essential about the character. He's someone who strive to be human, to fit in, constantly at odds with his alien nature and status.

So when he's paired with other super-powered metas we lose that, we lose the Clark Kent character, and end up only having another kryptonian dick on our hands.

Amazons can breed, they decided not to. There are those amazons that live on land. I think Grace Choi was one of them. They could do it easily, since they are not under Diana's mother rule. And there was that amazon that gave birth to Grace, the daughter of Darkseid. So, yeah, they breed if they wanted to.
And about the Atlantians, what was that thing with Aquaman's Mother living on a island? I mean, seems like they could easily live on land. too.

According to the backstory, Black Martians sprouted from the Tree of Life, and the White Martians were evolved from the white apes. The non-human Green Martians were actually genetically engineered to be battle drones for the ancient peoples on Mars, but they rebelled and became pretty much orcs.

The amazons actually have magical wombs making them able to breed with any living creature.

No, really. That's the explanation those 90's Elseworlds would give for why Superman and Wonder Woman would be able to have super-babies when Superman and Lois couldn't.

I never said they couldn't breed. I said they didn't

The Amazons of Bana-Mighdall aren't mystical. They're not immortal and they don't have super powers.

The amazons of Themyscira only have their perks because they bowed their heads and were blessed by the goddess, while the amazons of Bana-Mighdall went away before that could happen.

Your point being?