Surely, it's the whiny Silver Surfer! Not many appearances in the Bronze Age but never allowed to move forward from his doleful soliloquies until the mid-80s. I prefer him much more nowadays in modern Marvel where he effectively became D*ct*r Wh*.
Oh, goodgoodGOOD discussion topic! Trickier than it looks at first glance, too, yeah?
To my mind, characters that are purposely written as innately unlikable or disagreeable (think Severus Snape from Harry Potter) probably should be discarded. So, though I've never liked either of them much, I'd pull Mantis and Moondragon from the candidate list. Also, characters who are indeed supposed to annoy the daylights out of the other characters in the context of the story (like Impossible Man, the technorganic Warlock 2, or Mr Mxptlkzk(whatever)-) would actually be the "Best" annoying characters, not the worst. So that narrows it down to characters that we're intended to like or relate to-- who we really just want to shake and throw off the page (like. . . Jar-Jar Binks, say, yes?). I must confess that I've never read any of the JLA when Snapper Carr was aboard--- but boy he surely does seem to fill that bill, eh?
I would similarly nominate Rick Jones when he was on-hand for the initial Avengers run (along w/ his already-dated "Teen Brigade"). The endless, inane whining-- "I wanna be an Avenger! Why can't I be an Avenger?? Cap, when're you gonna make 'em let me be an Avenger???"--- truly, the weakest stretch ever for one of Marvel's oldest, earliest characters-!
Oop-- and with that, it's time to run. Too much continental breakfast consumed as it is. . .
Robin and Bucky because I hate sidekicks. Aunt May. Wolverine now he's become ubiquitous. The original X-Men. The Red Skull...I never liked him. Scrappy Doo - oops, that's not comics :D
Moondragon, although Quicksilver also comes to mind, and for the same reason. Pietro, like Moondragon, is pretty impressed with himself. Although Pietro also has a tendency to show other character flaws such as prejudice , while Moondragon is simply arrogant as all get out...
Of course the Sub-Mariner is also notoriously arrogant, but it fits him; guess you come to expect that from a prince of Atlantis.
Can I nominate Dollar Bill from the Defenders? And Wonder Girl's boyfriend; I think his name was Terry. Every time they showed up on a page I was annoyed.
This is probably not a popular statement, but in the FF little Franklin Richards was annoying. I can only take so many "Unca Bens". He was less of a character than a prop and plot point.
I like Moondragon, Subby, and Pietro... I know they are annoying but that was their personality and other characters reacted to that personality. They didn't annoy me as much as a reader. Does that make sense? As you know, the Sub-Mariner is one of my favorites despite his cantankerous crabbiness. I can't extend the same courtesy to Mantis; for some reason she rides my nerves. I never felt she was fully realized or that I could relate to her motivations; was she as one-note as I recall?
Kitty Pryde used to really annoy me. Mainly because she was obviously a pet character of writer Chris Claremont, and because of this fact her importance in the X-Men was elevated beyond her status (or her popularity). In other words, it always felt like she was kind of being shoved down our throats. Which made her annoying.
Another one who always annoyed me a bit was Foggy Nelson. Especially in the early days of Daredevil. Back then, he was a pretty bad "best friend" to Matt Murdock. Always trying mack on Karen Page, even though he knew his poor blind friend had feelings for her. (And she for him). But Foggy didn't care, and he came off selfish (and whiney, and incompetent).
Any Chris Claremont character with a bad Southern or Scottish accent. Such as Rogue, Cannonball, and Moria McTaggert. "I dina care Charles". or "Git outta mah way." Uhg.
The X-Men. All of 'em. Not just Wolverine and Kitty Pryde, but the lot of them. And that includes all spin offs, Generation New Mutant X or whatever.
Also, any Marvel character that isn't from the US; note to writers - nationality is not a character trait. Banshee and his Marvel Oirishness is the one that irritates me the most.
All the X-Men introduced in the Cable era, including Cable. Jubilee, Warlock, Shatterstar, Ganbit— meh, they seem to combine the worst aspects of Mary Sue and Mopee retcon.
I never minded either Mantis or Moondragon that much; they seemed to work in most of the stories I've read them in, arrogance and all. Same with Impossible Man: I liked him especially in Marvel 2-in-1 #60 and in X-men Annual #7 and New Mutants #3 (as long as the story is treated as light comedy, you can just sit back and enjoy the ride). Agree about Terry Long, though... And I definitely agree with William about Kitty Pryde - when she was introduced, I was just a little younger than she was supposed to be, so I guess I was in the target demographic, but initially I simply could not stand her, pretty much for all of the same reasons William enumerated. Also, I recall agreeing with Prof. X when he suggested that she should become one of the New Mutants - it made perfect sense to me.
Another character I find thoroughly annoying - and I apologize because it's not from comics - is Odo from Deep Space 9. So whiny and emo, he just made my teeth grate every time he showed up.
I sure don't have a problem in stretching the bounds of this question. The mention above of Jar Jar Binks may top any list like this, any genre!
Ditto to the way Stan wrote the Surfer in his 1968 solo series -- mentioned yesterday and today!!
I am seriously considering starting an irregular series of comics reviews under a "brain-melting" heading. I know other bloggers do such things. Seems like there might be a little "love to hate it" around here. We'll see.
My vote goes to the annoying silver Surfer. I'm with Doug on this. I loved SS guest starring in Thor and occasionally in the FF--but only when he stuck to fighting. In his own book, the whole infantile, existential angst thing got old very quickly. But then again I am very much in the "Tragic View" of the human race camp--meaning that I have always understood that life and human beings are inherently flawed. Life is a series of trade offs--there are no Utopian solutions. SS's incessant whining about how flawed humans were just annoyed me.
Mantis was a character I loved to hate. She brought much drama back in the day. I don't think you were supposed to like her--she was there to cause problems. And that she did!! I loved the tension between her and the Scarlet Witch--especially when Wanda brought down that meteorite from the heavens, smashing it into one of Kang's robots, nearly killing Mantis. That was some great chit!
Moondragon was another character you weren't supposed to like. I thought she made the Avengers more interesting back in the day when she was always dogging Thor for "slumming."
Rage was the most annoying Avenger ever. Second goes to Gilgamesh who was possibly too boring to actually dislike.
I LOVED Quicksilver and Namor. Their arrogance put a new spin on super heroes--who were usually so goody goody they just couldn't summon much enthusiasm with me.
Woozy Winks. In fact all of those goofball sad-sack non-powered sidekicks from the Golden Age really bugged me as a kid when I read the reprints in those DC 100 pagers. I didn't find them funny, plus they took up valuable space that should've been devoted to the hero!
Robin-he was the main reason I was never a consistent reader of New Teen Titans.
Gambit and Rogue-for reasons William stated, annoying Claremontian accents ("Ah'm Rogue,dahlin!"). And if Gambit, Rogue and Moira are written with phonetic accents, why don't Nightcrawler and Colossus have them. Not that I want to read that either, but let's have a little consistency.
Mantis-because of her speech patterns.
Terry-because he sucked, the other reason I wasn't a regular NTT reader.
Franklin-well, partially because of the "Unca Ben, Unca Johnny" stuff, but also because most post-Stan Lee FF writers insisted on characters calling him "little Franklin." Such as "It was nice of Alicia to babysit little Franklin tonight." "Oh no, Doctor Doom kidnapped little Franklin!" Why, so we didn't confuse him with "big Franklin?" I'm pretty sure his namesake, Franklin Storm was dead before Franklin Richards came along. Also annoying was the plot device where the FF get beaten but are saved because Franklin gets upset and turns into the most powerful being in the universe and humbles the villain.
Actually-- to shift it dangerously out of the super-hero realm-- Reggie Mantle consistently annoyed me enough to make me want to eat the flippin' pages out from under him (or something). Not even a "love to hate 'im" character for me--- he just made me NOT enjoy a light, easy Archie comic if he was used prominently. . .
Hmm never had a problem with Mantis, Moondragon or Subby. The two who most annoy me were Impossible Man and Mr.Mxyzptlk. Characters like these seem to be a writer's lazy way out in terms of writing a good story. One can just imagine a writer struggling to create a compelling story but then having the truly uncreative brainstorm of 'Hey! I know, let's have a villain who can alter reality at will! He'll make life uncomfortable for our heroes!'. To me, I've always despised this plot device, even up to this day.
- Mike 'politicians annoy me too' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Have we forgotten-- Lois Lane, for most of the Bronze Age. Obviously a completely inept investigative observer and reporter. Constantly prying to discover the identity of Superman... two questions-- why did everyone assume Superman HAD a secret identity and didn't just, y'know, hole up somewhere between action patrols? And, assuming the identity was important to his value and ability to serve humanity, what purpose to smashing that to smithereens through constant prying? Gah. Annoying.
Hey Pat Henry, if you can get a hold of Astro City, Local Heroes Issue 2. It's been collected and your local library system might be able to get it for you.
What would Superman do if Lois exposed ((wink wink nudge nudge say no more)) him? This story contains one answer to that question, but not the only answer.
Changeling from The New Teen Titans was especially grating, as was Heather Glenn from Daredevil. The Beast in "vocabulary mode" is deeply annoying. Professor X is a grim, moody jerk, as is his protege Cyclops. I still love the X-Men despite this however.
First, I must defend my girl Mantis. Me and Steve Englehart, that is. I'm also a big Silver Surfer hands, but he can be annoying in the wrong hands.
As far as annoying, yes, Moondragon with her haughtiness and manipulative ways is at the top. I'd also nominate Tigra and finally, sorry folks, but that whiny smart-mouthed punk, Rick Jones.
Danny Chase. Jillian:" What am I? Pate?". Troia's fuzzy alien pal. Harold H. Harold. Bernie, Caps and Nova's entire Happy Days cast.Ha! Didn't realise how annoying Marv Wolfman characters could be.
Terry Long has been mentioned. He was such a weak character, and seemed like a cradle robber to boot. I know Donna was of-age, but he was both flirtatious and condescending, which made their relationship feel wrong.
A later Titan, Danny Chase, was an obnoxious, know-it-all brat. He's the worst character ever.
The one character I find most annoying, however, is Changeling. He was the comic relief but he was never funny. Ever. And he had * so much* dialogue! Worse, he constantly hit on his female teammates. If I were one of them, I would have belted him into orbit. If I were Robin or Cyborg, I would have sat him down and told him the constant come-ons were not acceptable. Also, he fit the "poor little rich boy" trope, and I have no time for that kind of character.
Man, as a new reader of those New Teen Titans tales, I was wondering if I was the only one who found Changeling SUPREMELY annoying?? There are moments of insight where he recognizes that his bluster and smart-mouth and come-ons are manifestations of self-doubt and such, and that's fine. But the reason it doesn't work is because Marv Wolfman simply WAS DREADFUL AT WRITING HUMOR-!! His attempts at jokes and banter are forced, obvious, clumsy, and decidedly un-funny. It's just NOT what he was strong at. . . and since that's supposed to be the core of how Gar is presented, it makes it darned tough to like the green kid. . .
I have to second the whole Lois Lane thing.......and to add one more, this time from Marvel, Starfox. And while I'm throwing Avengers under the bus, Sersi. And when the changed Tigra so she was just this big flirt. Didn't we go through that with Jan/The Wasp!?!
(once again, this space intentionally left blank).
Surely, it's the whiny Silver Surfer! Not many appearances in the Bronze Age but never allowed to move forward from his doleful soliloquies until the mid-80s. I prefer him much more nowadays in modern Marvel where he effectively became D*ct*r Wh*.
ReplyDeleteOh, goodgoodGOOD discussion topic! Trickier than it looks at first glance, too, yeah?
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, characters that are purposely written as innately unlikable or disagreeable (think Severus Snape from Harry Potter) probably should be discarded. So, though I've never liked either of them much, I'd pull Mantis and Moondragon from the candidate list. Also, characters who are indeed supposed to annoy the daylights out of the other characters in the context of the story (like Impossible Man, the technorganic Warlock 2, or Mr Mxptlkzk(whatever)-) would actually be the "Best" annoying characters, not the worst. So that narrows it down to characters that we're intended to like or relate to-- who we really just want to shake and throw off the page (like. . . Jar-Jar Binks, say, yes?). I must confess that I've never read any of the JLA when Snapper Carr was aboard--- but boy he surely does seem to fill that bill, eh?
I would similarly nominate Rick Jones when he was on-hand for the initial Avengers run (along w/ his already-dated "Teen Brigade"). The endless, inane whining-- "I wanna be an Avenger! Why can't I be an Avenger?? Cap, when're you gonna make 'em let me be an Avenger???"--- truly, the weakest stretch ever for one of Marvel's oldest, earliest characters-!
Oop-- and with that, it's time to run. Too much continental breakfast consumed as it is. . .
HB
Robin and Bucky because I hate sidekicks. Aunt May. Wolverine now he's become ubiquitous. The original X-Men. The Red Skull...I never liked him. Scrappy Doo - oops, that's not comics :D
ReplyDeleteMoondragon, although Quicksilver also comes to mind, and for the same reason. Pietro, like Moondragon, is pretty impressed with himself. Although Pietro also has a tendency to show other character flaws such as prejudice , while Moondragon is simply arrogant as all get out...
ReplyDeleteOf course the Sub-Mariner is also notoriously arrogant, but it fits him; guess you come to expect that from a prince of Atlantis.
Can I nominate Dollar Bill from the Defenders? And Wonder Girl's boyfriend; I think his name was Terry. Every time they showed up on a page I was annoyed.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably not a popular statement, but in the FF little Franklin Richards was annoying. I can only take so many "Unca Bens". He was less of a character than a prop and plot point.
I like Moondragon, Subby, and Pietro... I know they are annoying but that was their personality and other characters reacted to that personality. They didn't annoy me as much as a reader. Does that make sense? As you know, the Sub-Mariner is one of my favorites despite his cantankerous crabbiness. I can't extend the same courtesy to Mantis; for some reason she rides my nerves. I never felt she was fully realized or that I could relate to her motivations; was she as one-note as I recall?
Oddly.., I always liked Mantis.., she wasn't annoying with the 'this one' at all.
ReplyDeleteThose that annoyed me were the following..:
Donna's boyfriend Terry, one more shark-jump (along with Jericho) that fell the once great Wolfman/Perez NTT.
Dr Druid, annoying. 'Nuff said.
Impossible Man.., just cut down any sense of story-telling with that 4th wall broke and just, well annoying.
Moondragon, trying to be a catalyst for turmoil, but Mantis sort of covered that already.., and much better under Englehart.
Kitty Pryde used to really annoy me. Mainly because she was obviously a pet character of writer Chris Claremont, and because of this fact her importance in the X-Men was elevated beyond her status (or her popularity). In other words, it always felt like she was kind of being shoved down our throats. Which made her annoying.
ReplyDeleteAnother one who always annoyed me a bit was Foggy Nelson. Especially in the early days of Daredevil. Back then, he was a pretty bad "best friend" to Matt Murdock. Always trying mack on Karen Page, even though he knew his poor blind friend had feelings for her. (And she for him). But Foggy didn't care, and he came off selfish (and whiney, and incompetent).
Any Chris Claremont character with a bad Southern or Scottish accent. Such as Rogue, Cannonball, and Moria McTaggert. "I dina care Charles". or "Git outta mah way." Uhg.
The X-Men.
ReplyDeleteAll of 'em. Not just Wolverine and Kitty Pryde, but the lot of them.
And that includes all spin offs, Generation New Mutant X or whatever.
Also, any Marvel character that isn't from the US; note to writers - nationality is not a character trait. Banshee and his Marvel Oirishness is the one that irritates me the most.
Sandman. The gothy, Vertigo one.
-sean
PS "I dina care Charles". Somehow I didn't catch that earlier... Nice one, William
ReplyDelete-sean
All the X-Men introduced in the Cable era, including Cable. Jubilee, Warlock, Shatterstar, Ganbit— meh, they seem to combine the worst aspects of Mary Sue and Mopee retcon.
ReplyDeleteI never minded either Mantis or Moondragon that much; they seemed to work in most of the stories I've read them in, arrogance and all. Same with Impossible Man: I liked him especially in Marvel 2-in-1 #60 and in X-men Annual #7 and New Mutants #3 (as long as the story is treated as light comedy, you can just sit back and enjoy the ride).
ReplyDeleteAgree about Terry Long, though...
And I definitely agree with William about Kitty Pryde - when she was introduced, I was just a little younger than she was supposed to be, so I guess I was in the target demographic, but initially I simply could not stand her, pretty much for all of the same reasons William enumerated. Also, I recall agreeing with Prof. X when he suggested that she should become one of the New Mutants - it made perfect sense to me.
Another character I find thoroughly annoying - and I apologize because it's not from comics - is Odo from Deep Space 9. So whiny and emo, he just made my teeth grate every time he showed up.
I sure don't have a problem in stretching the bounds of this question. The mention above of Jar Jar Binks may top any list like this, any genre!
ReplyDeleteDitto to the way Stan wrote the Surfer in his 1968 solo series -- mentioned yesterday and today!!
I am seriously considering starting an irregular series of comics reviews under a "brain-melting" heading. I know other bloggers do such things. Seems like there might be a little "love to hate it" around here. We'll see.
Doug
David_b mentioned Jericho...I can't stand him, but he became kind of a focal point for New Teen Titans. Who else? Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy. Man-Killer (mainly because she was written as such a cliché). Dale Gunn (another wish fulfillment character, I think). The "New" Defenders (Interloper, Manslaughter, et al. I just couldn't get into them). The Billy Batson Captain Marvel...too saccharine; I guess that was true to his character, but I always found it annoying.
ReplyDeleteMike Wilson
My vote goes to the annoying silver Surfer. I'm with Doug on this. I loved SS guest starring in Thor and occasionally in the FF--but only when he stuck to fighting. In his own book, the whole infantile, existential angst thing got old very quickly. But then again I am very much in the "Tragic View" of the human race camp--meaning that I have always understood that life and human beings are inherently flawed. Life is a series of trade offs--there are no Utopian solutions. SS's incessant whining about how flawed humans were just annoyed me.
ReplyDeleteMantis was a character I loved to hate. She brought much drama back in the day. I don't think you were supposed to like her--she was there to cause problems. And that she did!! I loved the tension between her and the Scarlet Witch--especially when Wanda brought down that meteorite from the heavens, smashing it into one of Kang's robots, nearly killing Mantis. That was some great chit!
Moondragon was another character you weren't supposed to like. I thought she made the Avengers more interesting back in the day when she was always dogging Thor for "slumming."
Rage was the most annoying Avenger ever. Second goes to Gilgamesh who was possibly too boring to actually dislike.
I LOVED Quicksilver and Namor. Their arrogance put a new spin on super heroes--who were usually so goody goody they just couldn't summon much enthusiasm with me.
Woozy Winks. In fact all of those goofball sad-sack non-powered sidekicks from the Golden Age really bugged me as a kid when I read the reprints in those DC 100 pagers. I didn't find them funny, plus they took up valuable space that should've been devoted to the hero!
ReplyDeleteIn no particular order:
ReplyDeleteRobin-he was the main reason I was never a consistent reader of New Teen Titans.
Gambit and Rogue-for reasons William stated, annoying Claremontian accents ("Ah'm Rogue,dahlin!"). And if Gambit, Rogue and Moira are written with phonetic accents, why don't Nightcrawler and Colossus have them. Not that I want to read that either, but let's have a little consistency.
Mantis-because of her speech patterns.
Terry-because he sucked, the other reason I wasn't a regular NTT reader.
Franklin-well, partially because of the "Unca Ben, Unca Johnny" stuff, but also because most post-Stan Lee FF writers insisted on characters calling him "little Franklin." Such as "It was nice of Alicia to babysit little Franklin tonight." "Oh no, Doctor Doom kidnapped little Franklin!" Why, so we didn't confuse him with "big Franklin?" I'm pretty sure his namesake, Franklin Storm was dead before Franklin Richards came along. Also annoying was the plot device where the FF get beaten but are saved because Franklin gets upset and turns into the most powerful being in the universe and humbles the villain.
Hiya,
ReplyDeleteFunky Flashman and Houseroy.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
Actually-- to shift it dangerously out of the super-hero realm-- Reggie Mantle consistently annoyed me enough to make me want to eat the flippin' pages out from under him (or something). Not even a "love to hate 'im" character for me--- he just made me NOT enjoy a light, easy Archie comic if he was used prominently. . .
ReplyDeleteHB
Hmm never had a problem with Mantis, Moondragon or Subby. The two who most annoy me were Impossible Man and Mr.Mxyzptlk. Characters like these seem to be a writer's lazy way out in terms of writing a good story. One can just imagine a writer struggling to create a compelling story but then having the truly uncreative brainstorm of 'Hey! I know, let's have a villain who can alter reality at will! He'll make life uncomfortable for our heroes!'. To me, I've always despised this plot device, even up to this day.
ReplyDelete- Mike 'politicians annoy me too' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Have we forgotten-- Lois Lane, for most of the Bronze Age. Obviously a completely inept investigative observer and reporter. Constantly prying to discover the identity of Superman... two questions-- why did everyone assume Superman HAD a secret identity and didn't just, y'know, hole up somewhere between action patrols? And, assuming the identity was important to his value and ability to serve humanity, what purpose to smashing that to smithereens through constant prying? Gah. Annoying.
ReplyDeleteHiya,
ReplyDeleteHey Pat Henry, if you can get a hold of Astro City, Local Heroes Issue 2. It's been collected and your local library system might be able to get it for you.
What would Superman do if Lois exposed ((wink wink nudge nudge say no more)) him? This story contains one answer to that question, but not the only answer.
Seeya,
pfg
Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog.
ReplyDelete'Nuff Said!
Rip Off
Changeling from The New Teen Titans was especially grating, as was Heather Glenn from Daredevil. The Beast in "vocabulary mode" is deeply annoying. Professor X is a grim, moody jerk, as is his protege Cyclops. I still love the X-Men despite this however.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I must defend my girl Mantis. Me and Steve Englehart, that is.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big Silver Surfer hands, but he can be annoying in the wrong hands.
As far as annoying, yes, Moondragon with her haughtiness and manipulative ways is at the top. I'd also nominate Tigra and finally, sorry folks, but that whiny smart-mouthed punk, Rick Jones.
Danny Chase. Jillian:" What am I? Pate?". Troia's fuzzy alien pal. Harold H. Harold. Bernie, Caps and Nova's entire Happy Days cast.Ha! Didn't realise how annoying Marv Wolfman characters could be.
ReplyDeleteTerry Long has been mentioned. He was such a weak character, and seemed like a cradle robber to boot. I know Donna was of-age, but he was both flirtatious and condescending, which made their relationship feel wrong.
ReplyDeleteA later Titan, Danny Chase, was an obnoxious, know-it-all brat. He's the worst character ever.
The one character I find most annoying, however, is Changeling. He was the comic relief but he was never funny. Ever. And he had * so much* dialogue! Worse, he constantly hit on his female teammates. If I were one of them, I would have belted him into orbit. If I were Robin or Cyborg, I would have sat him down and told him the constant come-ons were not acceptable. Also, he fit the "poor little rich boy" trope, and I have no time for that kind of character.
- Mike Loughlin
Ah, superhero relationships that feel wrong - thats a whole other list in itself...
ReplyDelete-sean
Man, as a new reader of those New Teen Titans tales, I was wondering if I was the only one who found Changeling SUPREMELY annoying?? There are moments of insight where he recognizes that his bluster and smart-mouth and come-ons are manifestations of self-doubt and such, and that's fine. But the reason it doesn't work is because Marv Wolfman simply WAS DREADFUL AT WRITING HUMOR-!! His attempts at jokes and banter are forced, obvious, clumsy, and decidedly un-funny. It's just NOT what he was strong at. . . and since that's supposed to be the core of how Gar is presented, it makes it darned tough to like the green kid. . .
ReplyDeleteHB
I have to second the whole Lois Lane thing.......and to add one more, this time from Marvel, Starfox. And while I'm throwing Avengers under the bus, Sersi. And when the changed Tigra so she was just this big flirt. Didn't we go through that with Jan/The Wasp!?!
ReplyDelete(once again, this space intentionally left blank).
No hate for Vibe?
ReplyDelete-- Rusty