Go ahead...I can wait.
Got it? Now close your eyes and try to picture that character clearly.
Got it?
Now, take a quick count in your head, how many items including comic books, movies, cartoons, figurines, etc. do you have of that character?
If you went into a store tomorrow and they had a statue of that character at a reasonable price, would you buy it?
Yes...yes you would. You would because you can relate to that character in one way or another. Maybe you like the way they dress or like their powers or just the way they kick butt.
My favorite happens to be Midnighter. I like the character not just because he is cool looking, wears all black and kicks butt in his comics, but I also like the artistry and the ingenuity that is put into the writing. This is all to say nothing of his skill set. He is...well...never mind. This isn’t a blog about Midnighter. I’ll move on...
But there is another side to the comic book heroes and villains. A side very much like an Elephant Graveyard, you know the infamous place where all elephants supposedly went to die? Let’s call it the Character Graveyard. CG for short.
In this CG there are dozens and dozens of character which just didn’t make it for one reason or another. Chances are it all boiled down to money. The comic didn’t take off as well as they wanted or another project took away all of the talent. In cases like this there is always a chance that the character will be reinvigorated. Maybe someone doing market research said that they should give the character another shot.
But some characters are thrown into the Character Graveyard never to be seen again. Here is a small, but by no means comprehensive, list of characters who we may never see again:
The Black Lamp
Coldblood
Egg Fu
Electroid
Hardedge
Humbug
Icicle
Match
Mokkari
Rose Tattoo
The Red Bee
Xorn
Yetrigar
Now, let’s be honest. There are some characters here that you can just tell are not going to be in the theaters anytime soon.
Electroid? It looks like he’s unencumbered by a proper diet.
The Red Bee? Come on, The Red Bee? What possible powers could he have the would make one overlook the wimpy name he has?
Egg Fu? Don’t even start with the Chinese menu jokes.
Humbug? Is he only out at Christmas? What could his power set possibly be?
Xorn? He looks cool, but the name?
Here are some more for you to cut your teeth on:
Giz
Protex
Andromeda
OK, let’s give some credit. Protex has some creativity, I’ll give them that at least. Andromeda? Good name, she look intimidating and I like the warrior motif. The blue skin, however, has been overdone and if she gets even a little sweaty that knife on her thigh is going to slip right off.
Come to think of it, when was the last time you saw a hero or villain sweat? It’s not often. I sweat at the drop of a hat so I would have to go with the Crusher Creel look. Just pants and shoes.
The last one to address is “Giz”. I think we all know that this is probably short for Gizmo, but “Giz”, really? I have to say that not everything that came to my mind reading the name was not clean. I won’t say any more.
You can see that this list is not too lengthy, but be honest, how many of these characters did you know (other than Crusher Creel which I GAVE you)? Until I started researching this I didn’t know the names of any of these characters who may have made it to the CG by now.
So the next time you think about the comic book world and all the characters in it, count how many heroes there are whose name you recognize. It’s kind of like wrestling (if you follow that kind of thing). You have the same 20 guys and gals wrestling all the time, but since they are in different combinations it seems like alot.
Also, if you’re so inclined, count how many NEW heroes and villains there are in the last 5 years. I’ll bet you won’t need more than your fingers to count!
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