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Superheroes and comic book characters are some of the most popular parts of our modern culture. Still, there are a plethora of characters who remain in relative obscurity outside of their niche fan groups despite their exceptional powers or fascinating stories.
It would be impossible to give each of these underrated individuals their just due in this small space, but to start, here are five of the most underrated comic book characters and the reasons why they deserve more attention.
Jessica Jones: Real, Relatable, And Little Raunchy
First up is Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Yes, she was portrayed by Krysten Ritter on a hit Netflix show, but that just scratches the surface of what she offers as a character. Shown to have super strength and near invulnerability, the Netflix series left out one other major ability that puts her shoulder-to-shoulder with other Marvel heroes. Yeah, she can fly. In Michael Gaydos and Brian Michael Bendis’ Jessica Jones: Alias (2001), Jessica has encounters with other major Marvel heroes such as Captain America and Spider-Man. She even dates Ant-Man at one point!
All three of these Avengers have had multiple movies as featured heroes. Jessica is far more flawed than any of them, but that’s what makes her more deserving of our attention. Despite her super-human abilities, she still looks for comfort at the bottom of a bottle or in a casual tryst with a stranger (we’ve all been there, am I right?). Jessica wants to help people with her powers, but she can’t even seem to help herself most of the time. She is one of the most fundamentally human superheroes in comics, but her story doesn’t get the attention it so desperately deserves.
It has been twenty years since Bendis and Gaydos created the underrated Jessica Jones, and she has gone on to star in several of her own series, not to mention the team-up books in which she appears. Still, Jessica is often left out of the conversations when it comes to the best and most interesting comic book characters (and, honestly, she’d like it that way). The twenty-eight issues of Jessica Jones: Alias, from 2001 to 2004, stand out as some of the best comic book storytelling this millennium. And Jessica Jones is the main reason why.
Erica Slaughter: “You’ve Got A Monster In Those Woods.” (( Tynion IV, James. “Something is Killing the Children #1.” Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1. Boom Studios. 4 Sept. 2019. )).
For this next entry, I chose a relatively new character from Boom Studios’ ongoing series, Something is Killing the Children (2019-). Her name is Erica Slaughter, and she kills monsters. This book, created by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera, continues to be well-received but she is rarely talked about as one of the great, new characters in comics. When Erica was just a little girl, her parents were devoured by some sort of a shadow creature while she listened and hid in the closet. Afterward, she was found, taken in, and trained to hunt these horrible monsters by a secret society. Oh, and she talks to a stuffed octopus that she carries with her.
Erica is rough around the edges, socially speaking. She is blunt, honest, and to the point, often coming off as cold or unkind. But she has a good heart. Throughout Something is Killing the Children, she acts as a big sister to a teenager, James, after witnessing his friends violently torn to pieces by a shadow monster. The police don’t believe him. Other students don’t believe him. No one believes him: except Erica. That’s what makes Erica Slaughter underrated despite how little is known of her past. Not only does she take out monsters with a machete, which is badass in its own right, but she also gives a traumatized young boy somebody to talk to that will actually listen.
Static: “You Don’t Start None, There Won’t Be None.” (( McDuffie, Dwayne. “Static #1.” Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool. DC Comics. 1 Jan. 2011. )).
Zapping into this spot is one of my personal favorites, Static or Virgil Ovid Hawkins. As a character, Static is most well-known for headlining the Static Shock animated series, underrated in its own right, that started in 2000 and ran for four seasons. He was originally created by Milestone Media founders Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle in 1993 as part of a new comic book universe with greater representation of minority superheroes. Although these creators managed to fashion a fine bullpen of heroes and villains who themselves are underrated, Static stands out as one of the most memorable among them.
Exposed to radioactive material, a teenage Virgil Hawkins gained the ability to control electromagnetic phenomena, allowing him to manifest and manipulate electricity. Ever since he has fought to make Dakota City a safer and better place under the moniker of Static. Hawkins was made purposefully by his creators in a similar archetype as Spider-Man. He is a teenager who gets picked on for being intellectual but has a kind and strong heart. When given great power, Virgil Hawkins chooses great responsibility.
Static is underrated on two levels. First, he is a tremendously fun character that has a unique perspective to explore. Early issues of Static dealt heavily with gang violence and even touched on the drama of teenage sex and pregnancy. These topics were never taken lightly but added a new dimension to mainstream comic books. Secondly, Static’s electromagnetic powers were already a force to be reckoned with when created in the early nineties.
In our modern world, which has more electromagnetic energy than ever before, Static should be considered one of the more powerful metahumans in the DC Universe. Hopefully, we’ll see him get the respect he deserves later this year when Static is slated to return in a new comic series. Shocking!
Spider Jerusalem: “I Don’t Have To Put Up With This Shabby Crap! I’m A Journalist!” (( Ellis, Warren. “Transmetropolitan #2.” Transmetropolitan, Vol 1: Back on the Street. 29 Oct. 1997. )).
Spider Jerusalem may not have any superhuman abilities, but he is absolutely a hero. More specifically, he is a journalist and a damn good one. It feels like even in the comic book community, people are starting to forget about Spider and how utterly brilliant a character he is. He is vulgar, contemptuous, and on a steady stream of drugs. From the minds of Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson, Spider is essentially Hunter S. Thompson in the twenty-third century. But he also maintains a healthy distrust of authority and has no patience for political corruption in a world of recycled press releases and truth-free reporting. That’s where the second underrated factor comes in: truth-telling.
It seems like we could have used a Spider Jerusalem the last ten years. One of Transmetropolian’s major story arcs pits Spider up against a presidential candidate who wants to be president for a fundamental purpose: being president. This guy, Callahan, just wants to be commander-in-chief for the hell of it. He gets off on the control. If there’s any criticism from the press, Callahan simply silences them in varying nefarious ways. This is starting to sound eerie, right?
More than anything else, Spider Jerusalem is underrated because he is a hero that could exist in our world. He digs for the truth and speaks it, regardless of the consequences and outright insanities that keep raining down on him (Callahan even sends assassins after him at one point!). Spider Jerusalem just wants us to understand one thing, “You people don’t know what the truth is! It’s there, just under the bullshit, but you never look!” (( Ellis, Warren. “Transmetropolitan Book One.” 26 Feb. 2019. )).
Martian Manhunter: As Strong As Superman, Less Popular Than Aquaman
This list is in no particular order, but if it were, Martian Manhunter, or J’onn J’onnz as he is also known, could easily be at the top. Created in 1955 by writer Joseph Samachson with the help of artist Joe Certa, Martian Manhunter is underrated on every level as a character. Of the seven original members of the Justice League, he is the least popular and has been given fewer interesting stories. And there’s no excuse. He is one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe. He rivals Superman in terms of strength and even has similar heat vision. Additionally, he is a shapeshifter, a powerful telepath, and can make himself invisible or even intangible.
Martian Manhunter is not just powerful; he is an underrated detective, almost as good as Batman. In fact, his first instinct after finding out that he was stuck on earth due to technological limitations was to adopt the identity of a human detective and fight crime. Something is inspiring about the idea of a stranger in a new world who decides simply to help when he could so easily sit idly by, or worse, force his will on the planet. Or maybe J’onn J’onnz just stuck around because of his newly discovered favorite food found only on planet earth: Oreos.
There’s A Underrated Comic And Character For Everyone
Like I said from the start, there is no way to name every underrated character in the comic book world in such a limited space. Nevertheless, I hope that these five characters show you the depth that comics have to offer and encourage you to seek them or others like them out.
I am a firm believer that the comic book medium itself is underrated—comics present stories and characters for everyone to latch on to. The underrated characters on this list, plus the swaths of other undiscovered heroes and villains, are a great place to start looking for your next favorite.