Bad Team-Mates

Karen: lately we've done some reviews involving teams where there's one guy who just can't seem to help causing trouble among his team-mates. There was Hulk in the Avengers, with all his surliness; and Wolverine in X-Men, who in the early days was liable to flip out over any perceived insult.

Karen: It seems like the "loose cannon" is a good way for writers to bring some tension into a group. Stan Lee did it from the start with Fantastic Four. Initially, the Thing was an angry and unpredictable guy, until he evolved into the loveable mug we all know. But Johnny Storm could occasionally fall into this category, particularly when he was always running off to find Crystal. After the Hulk left the Avengers -as well as almost everyone else -Hawkeye showed up to make Cap's life miserable, but he eventually came around, although he never lost his big mouth.

Karen: The original X-Men were all pretty well-behaved, but the Mimic shook things up when he briefly joined the team. Actually, the all-new, all-different X-Men started with not one, not two, but three 'difficult' members. Besides Wolverine, there was also the hard-headed Thunderbird and the downright obnoxious Sunfire.

Karen: The original Defenders had both the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner in their ranks. Although Hulk was still a problem, Dr. Strange seemed to keep him in line. But Namor -well, he's always like a volcano ready to explode at any moment!

Karen: Seems like most of the DC heroes were much better behaved, although Green Arrow ruffled a lot of feathers once he became socially aware. And of course depending on who's writing him, Batman can be a real pain too. But that seems more of a modern depiction.

Karen: What other bad actors can you think of? Who did you enjoy, and who actually irritated you? (As you can tell, I'm not fond of Sunfire).