Welcome back, nerd squad.
Today we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the not-so-well-loved heroes.
In fact these heroes within their own universe more often find themselves hated or hunted
than loved and appreciated.
It's not easy being a super.
And even if you are saving the world, doesn't mean civilians will always appreciate it.
Join me in counting down these heroes who some would rather boo and hiss and than applaud
or cajole as we count down the top 10 superheroes who the public hates.
And be sure to stick around till the end of this list where I will have some bonus content
coming you way.
Alright, let's get counting.
10 Scarlet Witch
Okay, so Scarlet Witch might not be as hated as some when it comes to the general public,
she has sure had her share of hate when it comes to the mutant population.
In issue 7 of 2019's X-Men mutants even express their hate as part of a ceremonial right of
passage called the Crucible that involves revisiting her story.
Young mutants who have likely only experienced what happened as a story profess their hatred
for Wanda and call her pretender.
And before this Rogue was the one to lead the charge when it came to the mutant community
blaming Scarlet Witch---rightly, albeit perhaps not fairly--for the whole M-Day ordeal and
threatening the very existence of mutantkind.
9 Thor and the Avengers
During the Fear Itself event, Thor was struggling with his place in the world.
He was hated for the fact that the events of Siege, while not his fault directly, had
not only caused destruction in Asgard but also in neighbouring Earth residing communities.
Many of the people living in that town resented the superhero community for causing danger
to come to them.
Some had their homes destroyed and couldn’t even afford to rebuild, choosing to sell and
move out rather than stay and wait for the superheroes to attempt to save the day agian.
Not all of the town felt this way but then a coming war between Midgard and Asgard also
was approaching, fueling some of the hate from the public in regards to Thor and the
Avengers team.
Of course Asgard was only aiming to destroy Earth to prevent the Serpent from feasting
on all of the human’s fears and becoming even more powerful.
But this only added insult to injury as the Serpent, you know, was also already bent on
conquering and devouring earth himself.
I mean, Thor recovered but this was a pretty tough time for the Thunder god.
In the end, it was really only his self-sacrifice that managed to redeem him.
8 Silk
Silk is Cindy Moon.
She has similar powers to Peter Parker’s Spider-Man including a built in danger sense
but she can actually also produce her own webbing.
She even sometimes uses this skill to spin herself a disposable silk-suit spider-costume.
After her and Peter dated or “hooked up” for a bit, she ended up settling back into
her own life and searching for her family.
She had been locked up in a bunker for years.
Long story.
Like Peter she also got some of the J Jonah Jameson treatment when it came to her superhero
persona of Silk.
Though Jameson himself very much liked Cindy who even worked for him for a time, helping
him to take pictures of Silk.
7 Green Lantern
When comics made the choice to turn Hal Jordan to Parallax and had him basically threaten
the entire DC universe, they also created a world of hate for him With some readers
but mostly within the comic book world.
And especially in the realms of the superhero community.
Even today more than 20 years later, people still bring it up in the comics.
6 Spider-Man
He’s a menace!
At least that’s what JJ would have us think.
But the fact of the matter is that a lot of people in New York read the Daily Bugle and
trust what it has to say.
So when they do stories about Spider-Man being a criminal, a murderer, a dang menace!
People are inclined to believe those words which has led to a lot of problems for Spider-Man.
And let’s not forget the amount of times people have tried to frame him.
Right from the beginning Chameleon himself tried that ploy.
5 Deadpool
While movie-going audiences may love Deadpool, not everyone does.
Not only is he considered a major menace within the superhero community who no one wants to
team up with but his disregard for human life and violent nature also make him feared by
your average civilians in the comic book world as well.
4 Booster Gold
Although he does for a time end up achieving superhero status, Booster Gold is still probably
one of the least liked heroes across the board in the DC universe.
Likely because his heroics all appear to be for the fame.
This doesn’t of course stop him from becoming famous but once people find out that he’s
a sham with stolen future tech and yet a man from the future with no relevant information
to share with those in the past, many of the public often seem to be finding themselves
rolling their eyes at him as much as the superhero community does.
3 Batman
Now I know what you are thinking, but everyone loves Batman!
I would offer that more people fear than love the Bat.
And while he may be remarked as a hero by civilians in Gotham, this isn't always the
case.
In Christopher Nolan's Batman universe Batman even had to go into hiding after choosing
to take the fall for the murders attached to Harvey Dent’s descent into madness and
transformation into Two-Face.
Even though Commissioner Gordon knew he was innocent, he was forced to pretend to pursue
him and publically label Batman a criminal and a murderer.
Batman himself understood the importance of maintaining the faith people had in Dent and
the system.
To protect Gotham from devolving into chaos like the Joker wanted, the system and those
who operated within it needed to be viewed as the real heroes at this time.
And in many alternate universes not everyone who has played the role of Batman has acted
as heroically as the main continuity Bruce Wayne.
In the Tales from the Dark Multiverse series, we get to see a world where Azreal stayed
as Batman and turned Gotham into an iron-clad facist-ruled dystopian nightmare.
And in this reality even when Bruce does get the title back, his views and approach appear
to be just as bleak and horrifying.
2 X-Men
Or rather all of mutant kind even.
Any superhero that is a mutant is automatically hated.
Just for being a mutant.
Why?
Because racism.
Although mutants were originally created from a writing standpoint to get rid of the nuisance
of an origins story, explaining away any need for one with the simple phrase, “they’re
a mutant,” people quickly started drawing parallels between mutants and the civil rights
movement which was really heating up at the time.
Although it’s hard to pin down the exact date, a big moment for the civil rights movement
first happened in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on
a bus in Montgomery.
The first issue of Uncanny X-Men was released in 1963, eight years later.
And people’s minds started to unite the two causes, making the fictional mutants the
parallel for all the real-world races that had experienced racism.
As such the mutants themselves have to face a big world of hate in the comics since their
introduction, fighting the good fight for mutant rights.
They likely have had more hate groups than one could even count.
1 Watchmen
In the series Watchmen, superheroes are constantly criticized.
Originally the supers actually had to agree to disband due to the public's opinions of
their existence.
Ozymandias' whole plan is to put supers back on top, creating a situation where they can
be seen as saving the day.
And in saving the world, after terrifying it, bringing everyone together to create a
time of peace.
Part of his plan is even to make Doctor Manhattan hated by everyone, to get him out of his way.
But even his brilliant master plan doesn't end up panning out when Rorschach's journals
are published, revealing that Ozymandias' was the one responsible for the alien squid
attack on New York.
As a result supers become even more hated and Adrian Viedt is forced to go into hiding.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
How do you feel about the in-comic hate that these heroes have gotten?
Do you feel it was deserved or underserved?
Are there any other comic book heroes that you think get or deserve the public’s hatred?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and speaking of comments, it’s time
to turn to some comments from one of our latest videos, top 10 strongest indie superheroes.
K Collier comments, “Definitely need a Part 2 to this list as Erik Larson’s Savage Dragon
needs some love…”
So I wasn’t aware of this amazing superhero but I am now.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
Also I just wanna say it was joy to read these comments.
So many of you have so much love for so many different indie heroes.
It brings joy to my heart.
I myself initially thought of about 30 I wanted to include on that list but had to try and
shave it down.
So I definitely hope we get to revisit the world of indie comics and superheroes more.
I got a lot more I wanna talk about with you!
And lots of new ones to read up on!
Briguy_38 writes, “Spawn should definitely be in part 2.
He is THE anti-hero when I think of indie comics.”
Spawn is definitely god.
Actually wasn’t there also a literal storyline where he was a god too?
Anyways, he was on my long list but it was between him and Hellboy and I decided to go
with Hellboy for that list.
Though both are super strong.
Hopefully we’ll see Spawn a part 2.
He definitely deserves a mention for sure.
And that’s all the time we have for comments today.
Be sure to comment below for a chance to have your opinions featured in a future list.
This has been top 10 nerd and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding you to stay nerdy,
YouTube.