The Scrappy/Comic Books


 * Avengers:
 * During the Busiek/Perez run, new character Triathlon wasn't held in very high esteem among the fandom. After he left the group, any enmity against him was largely forgotten - until he mercilessly killed Crusader at the end of Secret Invasion.
 * Wonder Man earned this reputation back in the 80's, when he was a member of the West Coast Avengers. The fan reaction to the infamous storyline where he tried to break up Scarlet Witch and the Vision so that he could date the former earned him the ire of a number of readers.
 * Batman:
 * Post-Crisis Jason Todd was hated by quite a few readers, to the point that fans eventually voted for him to be killed by the Joker. While an almost equal number of people voted to spare him (and at least three hundred of the votes were from the same caller), a LOT of people thought that the vote was for the first Robin, Dick Grayson, who was excessivly popular amongst a lot of fans.
 * Funnily enough, he was brought back to life due to Alas, Poor Scrappy status, where he became an anti-hero Jerkass Woobie who was centre stage to a very well received storyline. However, poor use lead to him landing right back into Scrappy dome. He still has some fans at least.
 * Damian Wayne, particularly since he became Robin; he is, depending on your view, either a snotty, bratty Jerk Sue who gets away with a lot of crap because he's the writer's favourite character and who should never have become Robin, or is a complete Deconstruction of the Jerk Sue who has gradually and painfully begun the process of developing from a snotty brat to a genuinely heroic character.
 * Hawk and Dove:
 * Holly Granger, the female Hawk. It doesn't help that the original Hawk (Hank Hall) was changed into a Complete Monster of a villain with Armageddon 2001 thanks to an Ass Pull when Captain Atom was leaked as Monarch and DC wanted to keep things a "surprise". Then come 2005, after Dawn Granger/Dove II's death was undone with a convoluted and squicky explanation: Dawn, an only child in the Hawk and Dove series, suddenly shows up to the Titans with a bratty younger (or older?) sister in tow that was living away in England all the while. Fans of Hank Hall immediately cried foul on Holly, for not only did she have an inconsistent and unlikeable personality, but her existence also retconned the fact that Hank and Dawn's powers were bound to them and could NOT be passed on to anyone else. It wasn't uncommon to see those fans wishing death on her and wanting Hank back with an Author's Saving Throw,
 * Before Holly and long before Dawn's comeback, DC attempted to do a completely different take on Hawk and Dove, with an army brat named Sasha Martens and a slacker musician named Wiley Wolverman gaining the power to sprout bird wings and fly, as well as telepathy. Due to them being a case of In Name Only and not being received very well by H&D fans, these two wound up vanishing with no explanation given, not even showing up as cannon fodder for big events. Would it have helped if the artist had known how to draw bird wings that don't appear to be suffering from both crippling arthritis and mange? Guess not...
 * Judge Dredd: Walter the Robot. He was fine, until they decided to give him a speech impediment. Do you have any idea how many 'r's are used in the average English sentence? You will after reading his dialogue, as every single one turns into a 'w' that drills into your soul like a misshapen bullet. And of course, he worships Judge Dredd. And for some reason Dredd puts up with it! Walter eventually gets his own feature.
 * Justice League of America: Vibe, a member during its "Detroit" era, was widely hated for being a "hip", slang-spouting caricature of Puerto Rican youth whose power was basically super-breakdancing. His inevitable death, though, is one of the saddest moments in the League's history.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog:
 * Drago Wolf, the Wolf Pack Freedom Fighter traitor. No one likes the misogynistic bastard, not even current writer Ian Flynn (who has gleefully stated he only brings the guy out whenever he wants him thrashed by the good guys). The fact that he's a despicable coward whose only claim to fame was tricking his former girlfriend into playing the patsy to a murder/frameup in a totally illogical and scientifically impossible way, and joining an anti-Freedom Fighter team that he's contributed nothing to, during his tenure there doesn't help his cause, any.
 * There is also Dulcy the Dragon, who was thrown into the comic in issue 29 with just a page of backstory to show for it, instead of the full origin story that comic readers are used to. And she wasn't even a main character in the issue! Instead, it was about Sally being turned into a robot! Sadly, she was also suddenly added to the Sonic Sat AM animated series that was based off of the comics.
 * Spider-Man:
 * Morlun and Ezekiel. What's wrong with the classic Spider-Man characters? Many post-OMD characters have quickly gained Scrappy status, like Freak, Paper Doll, Menance or Vin Gonzales.
 * None of these are a patch on Michelle Gonzales, a token love interest for Peter from the BND era. Michelle is a violent bully who wound up becoming Peter's roommate when Vin went to prison, and regularly insults, abuses, and humiliates Peter.
 * Carlie Cooper's increasingly Purity Sue-like portrayal is resulting in a massive backlash from fans. Originally it was more along the lines of Replacement Scrappy for MJ, but it escelated when everyone, from past girlfriends to best friends, kept telling Peter how 'right' she was for him because she's his 'intellectual equal'. It was REALLY not helped by the fact she would get mad at Peter for the stupidest things, was pushed as a Woobie because her hero cop dad suposedly died only to be revealed he wasn't a hero and wasn't dead, act like a hypocrite, amongst other problems. She's also recieved ire for having similar characteristics as four of Peter's past love interests: troubles with father (MJ), Nerds Are Sexy and attempted Adorkable (Deb Whitman), loves Peter for him (MJ, and an invert of Black Cat), is old friends with Harry Osborn, a tsundere, and Peter's 'true love' and perfect girl (Gwen). You could make the case that the writers are trying to evoke Gwen Stacy in her character, but in the end comes off as a lot like Lana Lang in Smallville and the equally hated film version of Mary Jane.
 * Superman: The Post-Crisis Kara Zor-El was this for some time. Traits of hers included: An inordinate amount of time spent beating up other heroes, complaining about having to do heroics (while wearing the logo of the world's most famous hero on her chest), making moves that would instantly mark anyone else as irredeemable (like selling the Bottle-City of Kandor to supervillains, then threatening to break Power Girl's arms for being understandably pissed), receiving constant praise from all those around her despite the above, being stronger than Superman (later Ret Conned), and a solo series plagued by disgustingly bad Fan Service, Curb Stomp Battles, and a skirt that was more a belt with a ruffle on it than anything. The hatred hit its peak around #14 of said series, when she fought Cassandra Cain, a thoroughly popular character who had recently been changed into a Card-Carrying Villain. The near-unanimous reaction to Kara winning the fight (with a power that had never been seen or hinted at before) was, essentially, "Fuck you, Cass won." Since then, she's been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap by doing actual heroics and dialing down the Jerkass traits, but it took some time before readers ever really forgot "Super Paris Hilton".
 * Teen Titans:
 * Danny Chase. Not only did he actually look like Cousin Oliver, but everyone hated him. He mocked Jason Todd's death (in front of Dick Grayson, Jason's adopted brother) and his sole Crowning Moment of Anything was his own death.
 * Flamebird. After the first Crisis, the original Bat-Girl no longer existed and Barbara Gordon was deemed to be the original. When Marv Wolfman and George Perez decided to revamp the Titans West team for the Post-Crisis origins of the Teen Titans, Betty Kane was reintroduced as Mary Elizabeth ("Bette") Kane, now with the codename Flamebird and a Valley Girl with a strong desire to get the affections and praise of Nightwing in any way. As Wolfman had no love for the Titans West save for Lilith and Changeling, the portrayals of the revamped versions, ESPECIALLY Bette, earned them spots high on the Titans "Scrappy" list. Flamebird wound up as a Butt Monkey-type character for years to come, even though some writers attempted to make her seem more interesting through "depths" in her origin. For a while, it seemed that George Perez and Geoff Johns were revising her into a much more competent heroine, but apparently The New52 pressed the Reset Button via the Batwoman series, making Bette nearly Too Stupid to Live.
 * Cassandra Sandsmark, the current Wonder Girl; it doesn't help that Cassie is largely pushed as a Purity Sue à la Donna Troy by writers, when in truth she comes off like an Alpha Bitch, with the bitchiness cranked up to 11. It’s worse when you remember that she started out as her school’s lovable geek.
 * Once Conner returned to the series, you think she wouldn't have such a reason, but the writers kept on screwing with her. To add to that, it seems all the YJ4 are considered Scrappies by diehard fans of the New Teen Titans, who accuse the characters of stealing screentime away from their old-school favorites and wishing death upon them (especially Cassie). In the reverse, some Young Justice fans consider the NTT-era members to be boring Scrappies that should get the boot. Cassie's Scrappy status can definitely be chalked up to a case of Writer on Board. Under Johns' (ironically) and others' pens since Connor's return, she's been portrayed positively and having gotten over her grief. But other writers, especially in the case of Felicia Henderson, have continued to portray her as an angry shrew, who even goes as far as to treat her back-from-the-dead boyfriend like crap.
 * Tara Markov, Terra of course, isn't exactly a well-liked character. She was the original comic's mole, and a Psycho for Hire who toyed with people's emotions and taunted her former friends. Her version, Terra 2, was more liked, though. Atlee, the third Terra, managed to also become something of a fan favorite due to her supporting role in the Power Girl series.
 * Bombshell was widely disliked by a number of fans during her brief tenure on the team. She was criticized for having very little personality and was accused of trying to ape the characterization of the recently departed fan favorite Ravager. The fact that she was a Motor Mouth and a Jerkass didn't do much to help her standing with fans.
 * Aquagirl was also disliked by some fans, mainly people who accused her of being a homewrecker who tried to seduce Blue Beetle and get him to cheat on his girlfriend Traci 13. She also flirted with Static and Superboy, which lead to some fans calling her a "slut" and other derogatory names.
 * Transformers: The IDW comics original character Drift has also taken a lot of flak from the fans, considering that he considered by some to be a Canon Sue built on everything his creator happens to like about Japan. What makes it particularly egregious is that his creator claims he was made to fill in a role that no previous character could, when Transformers is known for having Loads and Loads of Characters, and Drift is basically just a young Star Saber with Getaway's vehicle mode.
 * WITCH: In the comics, Orube took flak for a while, some of it perhaps because of fears that traditionally, new additions to longtime Five-Man Band stories tend to be bad ones. Most of the hate died down eventually though.
 * X-Men: A number through out the years due to its Loads and Loads of Characters.
 * Wolverine himself is a scrappy amongst a number of people, stemming from his blatant Wolverine Publicity. The fact he was originally a scrappy who got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap is also notable. It tends to come from when you grew up/how much you enjoy the series. To some people who grew up when he was popular, so around late eighties-early ninties, you're likely to love the guy. If you grew up after that point or before it, or even half of the guys from that era, you're going to hate him. Unfourtunately, a lot of writers these days are from the eighties.
 * Another notable example is Maggot. Presented as something of a Nineties Anti-Hero (but unlike most of them, having almost no heroic qualities to speak of) he was an annoying mutant with a very disturbing (and at times gory) power that was hyped up as being awesome amongst other complaints. Fortunately, they got rid of him after a short-but-not-short-enough amount of time. And now he's dead.
 * Hellion originally for being a jerkass, but has now became a Jerkass Woobie.
 * The third man to go by "Thunderbird", Neal Shaara, by virtue of having absolutely no right or reason to use that name; the original Thunderbird and his brother were both Native Americans with superhuman strength, durability, and speed. Neal is/was an Indian with fire/energy powers.
 * Moreso than practically any other teen X-Men character, Ink from the very short-lived Young X-Men series was hated by many fans. The fact that the writer went to extreme lengths (like ya know, giving him the power of Phoenix) to make him seem important did not go over well with fans, and he also had the stigma of being a human rather than a mutant.
 * Young Justice: Slobo/Lil' Lobo was a polarizing figure among fans and writers. The final issue of the series saw him transformed turned into a living statue and he has not been seen or mentioned since. DC editor-in-chief Dan DiDio reportedly despised the character, and claimed that he nearly ruined the original Lobo.
 * In the Justice Society of America, the character Magog is hated by a lot, partially because he's a massive Jerkass who got a lot of time on screen. This, of course, was the whole idea in Kingdom Come (where he was one of a group unethical and immoral "heroes" who clearly had no right to call themselves such, a big part of the plot), but attempting to "give him legs" (as writer Keith Giffen put it) was an experiment that just didn't work. A LOT of people also cite him hitting Maxine 'Cyclone' Hunkel when she was flying overhead because 'she came at him from his blindspot.'
 * Ultimate Marvel has their take on Deadpool, primarily amongst fans who had come in from the original Marvel Universe. 616 Deadpool, while having originally been created as basically a rip-off of Teen Titans villain Deathstroke the Terminator, is well-known in current pop-culture for going so deep into Chaotic Stupid that he emerges in the deepest part of Chaotic Awesome, glorifying in surreal, bloody-yet-whacky antics and lots and lots of fourth wall breaking, perhaps being the best known comic version of the Fourth Wall Observer. 1610 Deadpool, on the other hand, is a horrifically mutilated cyborg and one of the earliest-introduced Complete Monsters of the Ultimate Marvel universe; not only is he an active participant in a mutant-phobic country's sick program of kidnapping mutants from other countries and then hunting them down to slaughter them on national live television for entertainment, he's fully aware that they are usually totally innocent. He just hunts them anyway because he finds it fun. In other words, Ultimate Deadpool is crazy, but in a sick and horrifying way, whereas Mainstream Deadpool is pure Crazy Awesome, and so the fans of the original revile the Ultimate version -- the closest Ultimate Deadpool has come to being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap is when he appeared as a Composite Character (Ultimate Marvel appearance, Marvel Comics personality) in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.