What does it mean when a superhero ages badly?
I mean, superheroes really don’t age, right?
Unless we are counting Oldmen Bats, Logan and Spidey.
But, no that’s not what we are talking about here.
Instead we are talking about the fact that over time this heroes have become less relevant
due to being stuck in a certain time period, or could be framed as a villain instead of
a hero as times have changed.
Their powers might no longer seem as great or their costume might not seem as cool.
These are heroes what now embarass us more often than they make us want to celebrate
them.
They may have had controversial panels which greatly changed them.
Today we'll look at some of the ways our perception can change about what makes someone a terrific
superhero as we count down the top 10 superheros who aged badly.
And be sure to stick around till the end of this list where I will have some bonus content
coming your way.
Alright, let's get counting.
10 Professor X
You might think of the fatherly image of Sir Patrick Stewart when it come to Professor
X or the bright eyed and inspired younger James McAvoy when it comes to Charles.
But over the years in the comics, Professor X's image has become so twisted that he's
almost become a villain in the eyes of X-Men fans.
But was Cyclops right?
While Xavier did his best and had the best intentions, his treatment of the X-Men have
been criticized.
His use of the Danger Room, which he continued to use after discovering it was sentient and
his many many secrets that he kept have called his methods when it comes saving the world
and creating his team has resulted in him being called in to question as a parental
role model.
Scott Summer's himself, Charles's golden boy even ended up turning on him.
Granted he was possessed by the Phoenix Forceal and regretted killing him but still, it seems
like it wasn't unjustified.
And honestly the more we find out about Charles, the more shady
he appears.
9 The Punisher
The Punisher himself hasn’t aged poorly in terms of his looks but living as we are
in 2020, his glorification of war and violence could be viewed as problematic.
This has always been an ongoing debate for me in my mind in regards to how I feel about
punisher.
One one hand, his story is well written and tragic.
But on the other it also promotes the idea of taking violent revenge on those who have
harmed you or your loved ones.
An eye for an eye as they say.
Granted we’ve also seen some updated versions of Frank Castle.For example the tragic and
completely insane alternate cosmic Ghost Rider, which imagined Frank as the vengeful spirit
who managed to survive beyond having anyone to take revenge on; thus sort of highlighting
some of the problems with the idea of vengeance itself.
Yet his iconic image as the superhero we were first introduced to in the 80s continues to
spark debate in regards to the commentary he implies regarding topics such as masculinity,
violence, war, victims of PTSD in the military and mental health.
An eye for an eye after all, leaves the whole world blind.
8 Manhunter
Manhunter is Kate Spencer.
She is a lawyer and prosecutor working for the US government in regards to attempting
to convict guilty criminals in court.
When she feels that too many guilty criminals appear to be getting freed from their charges,
she takes the law in her own hand and becomes Manhunter.
She blackmails a weapons manufacturer in Witness Protection to help outfit her profession as
a vigilante, helping to armour her and arm her.
She kills those she deems guilty criminals and stands to represent some of the most problem
ideals surrounding what vigilante’s stand for.
A lack of trust in the justice system with a penchant to fight for what they believe
is right in a violent manner as opposed to fight to make the system the right again.
Though granted, Spencer is working in law, so obviously she has been trying to some extent.
7 Big Bertha
Bertha Crawford who was originally Ashley Crawford, isn’t problematic on the surface,
as soon as you get into her powerset, she quickly becomes a problem.
Bertha has the power of body transformation.
She can give herself excess bulk granting her superhuman strength and durability but
she can also reduce herself to a small size.
And when I smaller, I don’t mean shrinking down like Antman.
We’re talking about dress size here.
Reducing her mass can only be done through induced vomiting.
Meaning that Big Bertha who was also known as a supermodel by day and superhero by night
originally, promotes bulimia.
Although I will say that Bertha now often prefers her bulkier form so you likely won’t
see her vomitting as often to become slimmer.
6 Alan Scott
Alan Scott was the first Green Lantern to appear in the comics in the 1940s.
Because of the origins of his ring, he was granted great power but with a pretty big
limit on it.
He couldn’t do anything against wood.
Any wooden weapons would handily defeat him.
This weakness remains one of the weirdest todate.
Even weirder than Hal and the Green Lantern’s previous weakness to the colour yellow.
And it is for this reason that is hard to take Scott seriously when it comes to his
prowess as a Lantern as we look back from the modern age of superheroes.
5 Hank Pym
While Hank Pym was once tired as a brilliant mind when he originally appeared in comics,
he eventually went on to become one of the worst role models when it came to what it
meant to being an Avenger and a superhero.
Although even the Avengers have made some questionable decisions over the years.
Antman would eventually go on to develop a split personality as a result become Yellowjacket.
He would be expelled from the Avengers after he beat his wife, Janet.
Whom he also kidnapped in order to propose to.
Yeah that whole thing was pretty weird.
He was the man responsible for Ultron in the comics.
Janet would leave him and eventually he would turn begin to seek the help he needed, diagnosing
himself with bipolar disorder but not till 2013 while Antman was introduced in 1962.
So it took writers a long time to realize just how much this character seemed to need
help.
And while Hank sought to rehabilitate himself in the comics and has been altered somewhat
to make him less problematic of a character within the MCU, Hank became so problematic
for Marvel's comicbook world that he appeared to be killed off more than once, more recently
in 2015 Avengers: Rage of Ultron.
4 Sheena Queen of the Jungle
Ohkay.
So while there are some good things to be said about Sheena, there are also some really
big problems.
She is one of the first female superheroes to ever appear, making her debut in the comic
book adventure series, Wags.
She would also later go on to have her own series and her backstory was explained in
the 80s as being a young woman who was taken in by African tribes and raised to become
the Queen of the Jungle and kind of their saviour.
Which seems strange.
Especially when she was ended up saving them from themselves in a sort of Hamlet-esque
story where the King’s brother ends up killing him so that he can become King.
Sheena and her American companion, Vic Casey, end up saving the day.
And while Sheena also saves Vic, proving her strength, the cultural appropriation regarding
Sheena’s story has not aged well.
Though for being over 80, Sheena herself still looks pretty great.
3 Pre-Modern Age Superman
Before Clark Kent came into the Modern Age of comics in the 80s, he was quite different.
The original Superman was more powerful.
He could wipe out foes with just a super sneeze and had a slew of powers that came and went
for convenience of story.
We always think of Superman as being the good guy but this version of Superman was sometimes
sexist and he was just downright mean.
He made Jimmy Olsen think that he hated him to spare him from becoming the victim of a
deadly prophecy when he could have just told him about the prophecy instead.
And he one time made Lois Lane cry by being cruel to her and making her think they were
breaking up, simply to prove to a director that Lois could play a character based off
of her in a film about her life.
This version of Superman remains confusing and problematic for a number of reasons.
He also didn’t seem as bright as Modern Age superman either.
In today’s world, he seems kind of broken.
2 Eros
I don’t think many realized just how villainous Eros’ powers seemed when he was created.
Starfox is from Titan and is Thanos’ heroic brother.
He was even once an Avenger.
While his power set is extensive and impressive as he is a Titan-based Eternal, making him
a powerful being to begin with, writers originally and sometimes still do to focus more on one
specific power that he has.
Starfox also has the ability to manipulate the emotions of others.
Using pheromones, he can make you fall in love with him and do anything for it.
He has used this to win the day by making villains simply let him and the Avengers do
whatever they need and stand down.
He has even tried to use his powers to calm down the Hulk, though it didn’t quite work
out for him.
Because of how his abilities cause him to take away one’s free will he was eventually
tried on earth for sexual assault.
But escaped this trial only to be spirited away to be the subject of a similar trial
on Titan.
Yeesh!
Starfox was also suspected at one point during the trial to be responsible for Thanos’
love of death which would have meant he was in a way responsible for the death of billions.
1 Whitewash Jones
Marvel has this way of dealing with heroes who have aged badly.
They are either going to kill you, phase you out or retcon you.
That’s what ended up happening with his Young Allies member who aged pretty poorly.
Washington “Whitewash” or as he’s nicknamed now, “Wash” Jones was originally introduced
as part of Bucky Barnes team in 1941.
In the updated 70th Anniversary Special of the Young Allies comic, it was addressed that
the original appearance of his character was actually a fictional characterization within
the Marvel universe that was used as propaganda and not meant to be accurate.
Obviously Marvel wanted to retcon and distance themselves from his original appearance and
characterization because it was very racist.
I could talk about just how bad it was but with comics, sometimes pictures speak louder
than words and that is definitely the case with this character.
All you need to do is look at how he was drawn and Marvel’s reaction to understand just
how terrible his original appearance aged.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
Who do you think has aged the worst in the comics?
What are some the biggest superhero scandals that you think need to be retconned?
Whose costumes most need an update?
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 lists,
top 10 newest Avengers.
Galaxy-Eyes Garchomp askes, “Wow Amanda that outfit looks good on you.
Is there an occasion that you’re going to?”
Actually yes.
I was on my way to see Birds of Prey.
We had some early screenings here in Toronto and I felt like dressing up cause I was so
excited.
I have no regrets about that.
Also I’m going again tonight, in case you couldn’t already guess.
Hahaha.
Reginald Andrews says, “I can’t WAIT for the mcu to FINALLY introduce Adam Brashear
/ Blue Marvel!!!
That guy’s incredible!!”
He is pretty great.
I feel like he deserves some more love from us for sure.
And that’s all the time we have for comments today.
Be sure to comment below for a chance to have your thoughts and feelings shouted out in
a future list.
And while you’re on your way down there be sure to like, sub and ring my bell.
You know I love it when you do.
This has been top 10 nerd and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding you as always to
stay nerdy, YouTube.