*Main Post* 30 Days of Scans_Daily: Day 19: Character you used to hate/dislike, but now you don’t?

[sandoz_iscariot]

Hi all, this is sandoz_iscariot, your guest host for today's 30 Days of Scans_Daily entry. Today we ask, who's the character you used to hate (or dislike), but now like?

For me that character is...




Phoneix/Jean Grey!

Like a lot of X-Men fans my age, I first discovered the team via the 90s animated series. To me TAS Jean was incredibly bland compared to Rogue or Jubilee, and her romance with Cyclops was pretty much the two of them yelling, "SCOTT!" "JEEEEEEAN!" into infinity. All of Jean's episodes could have been cut from the series and first grader!me probably wouldn't have cared.

But as I soon learned, you can't always judge a comic character from an adaptation. For me the turning point was reading The Phoenix Saga and Dark Phoenix Saga in their original, not adapted/edited for Saturday Morning forms. With the Essential X-Men books in hand I was fascinated by her evolution as a mutant--going from the least powerful, "token girl" of the team (poor Silver Age Jean) to someone who was "fire and life incarnate." (Plus that whole sun-eating thing.) Jean's humanity, her basic struggle to hold onto herself, her relationships with her family, friends, and loved ones as she is becoming something beyond human, drew me to her character.

Recommended reading: Besides her two best known "Sagas," I'd recommend Chris Claremont's Jean-centric Classic X-Men backup stories. Though short, they're full of the quieter, character-driven moments that the main titles don't always have room for when the X-Men are fighting Firelord or The Brotherhood or whoever. (Though for the record, I'm not mad that she was brought back--clumsy retcons aside, if anyone has a "get out of heaven" free card, it's a character named Phoenix. And I'm looking forward to her return.)

Also, I need a Colleen Coover-drawn Jean/Wanda X-Men: First Class spin-off series right now:



So Scans_Daily, what character(s) did you used to hate, but now like?

Comments

[neuhallidae]

Not so much hate as just roll my eyes at.



My very, very first exposure to him was during the beardless-surfer-look years, which, let's be honest, were not kind to him. It was only after I got into my uncle's comics collection that I started to think he was pretty hilarious, but I still mostly ignored him until he he got to be fucking awesome in Civil War (and was, for me, one of the very few awesome things about it). He's done well by me since.

[suzene]

Obadiah Horn from Elephantmen.



I started off tolerating this character as the villain of the piece. I regarded him very much as a necessary evil -- one of the Elephantmen had to be the bad guy, and brilliant evil businessman is a pretty standard trope. Lex Luthor with a few more winkles and a little more hair. Whatev.

Except, no. Lex is the sort of evil genius who, in the long term, still wants to benefit humanity, so long as they let him run things.

Horn is not that easily placated. He doesn't want to rule humans - he loathes them. He rejects any vestige of humanity within his own being, and likewise his fellow Elephantmen for dwelling under the yoke of a species that barely tolerates their existence. The only reason he suffers them at all is that they have superior numbers...and that's something that can be fixed.



He is a force of nature -- a storm driven by malice and brewing anger, barely held in check by his love for one person who has ever dared to see the capacity for good in him.



And that makes him pretty friggin' terrifying -- he's a character that just injects tension into a scene every time shows up on the page, and is one of the many, many reasons that Elephantmen is such a joy to read.

[an-idol-mind.livejournal.com]

I used to hate Superman in the extreme. To me he was just a bland collection of random powers with no personality. More recently, thanks in large part to the DCAU, I've turned around to liking the big lug and realizing that his incredible power level and boy scout personality are part of the character's charm.

[retro_nouveau]

Jason Todd. Didn't really hate him, it was more meh, so what and good riddance. Jason Week at Scans Daily turned that around, I saw that early Jay was really trying to fit in, and post-rez Jay is such a tragic figure in an underdog-against-the-world kind of way that I really like (although the creepy, red-haired, cold-blooded, mass-murdering wacko is not the way to go, DC). Jay/Donna/Kyle (especially with the Jokester) was one of two great things to take from the otherwise awful Countdown. Not to mention Batman & Sons is great. :)

2. Barda. Normally I love big, hot people, and is there anyone bigger and hotter? But she's so dour and taciturn, and she spouts a lot of "rawr! wrath! fury! havoc!" stuff, so it was always eyeroll, whatever for me. Then Scans Daily showed this shipper the awesomeness of Barda/Scott, and I love how she interacted with Booster and Beetle, so Barda is now somewhere in the middle of retro's top 100.

[perletwo]

I really disliked the "Mother, I want a helicopter" Damian of the R.I.P. arc and earlier. Since he's committed to the Robin role he's really grown on me though - especially as he gets out into the world and interacts with other Bats and non-Bats more and more.

[kamino_neko]

Bruce Wayne (outside B:TAS, but (albeit to a lesser extent) in JL/JLU).

Starting in the 90s when 'Bruce Wayne, asshole extraordinaire' started to be really amped up. By the time I drifted away from superhero comics in the late 90s, I was only reading the Superman and Legion titles, so I didn't see much of him at that point.

I eventually came back circa 2002, and he was even worse, and had had 'infallible ultra-Sue' added. Totally gave up on him for a while, and actually got to the point where I hated seeing him in guest roles. (Though I enjoyed the issues of JLA up until almost the end of Kelly's run, which I read as back-issues - even my detestation of the Bat couldn't ruin them for me.)

Post-Infinite Crisis, I took a step back into Batman's own titles. Still didn't LIKE him, so much, but I could enjoy stories with him again. Since the run-up to his death, I've been softening a bit, and even kind of respect him. (Though there's still the occasional...issue, like when he guested in Green Arrow/Black Canary, and showed the two of them up.)

[halialkers]

I have a hard time accepting as a hero a character who destroyed an entire planet, no matter how that's handwaved. Any time people object to Magneto as a member of the X-Men but not Jean I tend to roll my eyes. I like the character, mind, I do not like her being presented as a hero. Anti-hero? Definitely. She didn't get a Satanic divorce like Spider-Man did. But still........she's no hero.

[minyandu]

Starfire. Her costume used to freak the hell out of me. But in the beginning of Teen Titan 1/2, when she fought Diana and defended Cassie's right to choose, she suddenly worked to me as a character standing for whatever she chose, being herself and being great. Even the costume worked since then.

[karlalove]

Cassie I used to really not like her. I guess she was just sort of blah to me and then I read young justice and I get it now. I love her I really do. I like that they've started writing her stronger then they were, and I like that she sticks to her opinions I don't care what people say about her being a bitch I don't care. It's not new. She has ALWAYS had an attitude even back when she was first created. I love her. I don't care I know a lot of people hate her but haters gonna hate. I love her <3

[werehawk.livejournal.com]

Daredevil. He did nothing for me as a character and then Bendis and especially Brubaker's early run did amazing things will Daredevil.

[newnumber6]

My usual response to this is Chase from Runaways. When the series started out, he was instantly the character I liked least. Typical, almost stereotypical dumb jock who makes jokes and is comic relief. Useful, maybe necessary in some ways to a team book, but a little dull (and fire-shooting gauntlets wasn't a great power). He made me smile from time to time, but if they were going to kill off anybody, I'd hoped it would be him.

Then in Volume 2, he became Pure Awesome. Starting, of course, with Lasers. But also "What's your power?" (pops knife) "A poor upbringing." And of course, his relationship with Gert (which started before Vol 2, and was one of the few things I liked about him before that), both before and after the tragic result. In general a lot of depth appeared underneath that stereotypical persona, and he rocketed to the very top of my favorite list.

In many ways he reverted to the stereotypical dumb jock role in Vol 3 (Immonen's take was a bit better, as much as I dislike virtually everything she did on the title).

[siamesa]

Hm... Probably Emma Frost, though I did this a bit backwards.

Most of my early exposure to her was modern Emma- bland, annoying, stealing the man from a character I related to and then following him around in a ridiculous outfit.

Then I read some old Emma. Essentially, character love at first sight. Badass, interesting, villainous to antihero and managing to make lingerie look classy.

Maybe the current version is some sort of malfunctioning clone.

[http://www.google.com/profiles/NielJacoby]

Naruto Uzimaki.

[kingrockwell]

That's surprising, actually! But then, I remember that X-Men cartoon, so I can see what you mean. Those Classic back-ups really are good, I only have the second Vignettes trade, but Jean has a really good showing in it.

As for me,



I was one of those kids who thought Superman was some kind of stuffy jerk who's powers would have to remove him too far from humanity for him to be at all interesting. When I was 16 I actually wrote this really embarrassing essay about why Spider-Man was the best and Superman was dumb because Pete's relatable and Clark simply couldn't be. I also thought Batman was awesome back then, so it's funny how that works out.

So what changed? I guess it's that I actually tried reading Superman stories instead of stories where he's used as a strawman to be torn down. The first one to stand out to me was Superman: Birthright, though it's been years since so I prolly couldn't explain what it was I saw then, but in the time since I've grown fond of of his good nature and big heart, and his capacity to inspire. I can tell you know that what I didn't get about him as a kid (and Lex prolly missed, too) was how his humanity anchors him, keeps him in check and grounds his perspective. He can still be a little sanctimonious when he starts seeing the rules he uses to keep himself in check as universal, but he's generally a really good guy.

Also, Lois. If you can't love Clark for Clark, you can always love Lois, and maybe Clark'll get some of spillover.

[big_daddy_d]

For me, The Miz from WWE. Use to be annoyed by him but he has won me over.

[ajremix.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go a completely different route from everyone else and say Wheelie from Transformers. In the cartoon he was the most annoying character around and the only episode I never watched all the way was the one about him and Blur. Then IDW did a Spotlight issue on him and turned Wheelie into a character painfully aware of his insignificance but still trying to survive, alone and abandoned on a very unforgiving planet. It even gave a reason for that rhyming that used to annoy the hell outta me.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I guess I'm gonna have to say Batman. Mind you, I'm not sure if he counts, because I never exactly hated or disliked him, but back when I was a little kid, I had a big attitude problem with superheroes in general, and the first time I saw the Tim Burton 'Batman', it scared the crap out of me for me some reason. (I don't even remember why, but I was something like seven or eight, and I scared easy.) Then, years later, I picked up 'Batman Returns' on a whim at the local flea market, saw it, was VERY impressed, and from then on, I was into superheroes. So, yeah - I guess Batman counts.

[angelophile]

Hmm. Top choice, probably Namor, who, a while ago, I never cared for. The look, the attitude, everything left me cold. But now I've grown to appreciate the arrogance and the speedo. I'm not sure why, beyond my general growing appreciation of hot chaps in speedos, he never did anything particularly memorable that triggered this change of heart, but I have a great warmth for him now.

There's plenty of characters I was indifferent to, or even disliked (Cyclops springs to mind as another example), but Namor probably beats them out.