30 Days of Scans Official Day 8 Post: Least Favorite Female Character

[shelleymaree]

30 Day DC Meme Day 8: Least favorite female character

Yeah. Okay, I get why people DO like her… so this isn’t going to be an ANTI-RAVEN WHY DO YOU ENJOY THIS CHARACTER post. But for me personally? I find her kind of boring and she’s never done anything for me. She’s often written as someone with very little personality, and everyone seems to fall back on the “OH NO TRIGOOOON” storyline. Like all the time. I don't enjoy that she keeps getting written off as the "emo-kid," but recently it doesn't seem like anyone knows what to do with her, thus making her completely uninteresting for me to read.

Comments

[halialkers]

Eh, I would have preferred if they turned her into a rendition of the cartoon character to bring the whole Combo Platter Powers with her. That to me would at least have been the whole deal, as Cartoon-Raven has in some ways a different kind of depth than her comics version.

Or alternately have the two meet in some fashion. If Batman Beyond gets its own comics......

[crinos]

Aren't the DCAU and Teen titans universes among the 52? I could have sworn they were.

And if not they damn well should be.

[benicio127]

You know, I was debating this one and I was trying to figure out if maybe it's Rose, but I'm actually enjoying roleplay stuff with her a lot, so that would just be a big fat no and maybe Starfire, because she seems such a dependent character (ie recent Titans ish where when she's making a major decision, she needs Dick's input. It felt very much like she couldn't make the decision on her own without his input. I know they are friends now, but it makes her seem to het up an ex's/man's/someone else's opinion of her and her life).

But no, I think after careful decision, this is gonna have to go to Grant Morrison's Talia al Ghul.

I actually really like Talia, too! But Grant has really turned her into a shallow character bent on eugenics and acquiring Batman's sperm. She's a full-on monster who's willing to drug her beloved to have sex with her, to use her son to kill Dick so her son can ascend to the Bat-throne. I just... I really don't like what he's done to her. I feel like this is a really shallow and weird reading and now everything is based on *that*



I find her to be a much more complex and manipulative character in Lost Days and I'm just absolutely loving her there. Grant Morrison Talia pffft...

[neuhallidae]

...The art on that last panel really, really bothers me.

[morgana006]

Note that I kinda don't mind her as much now, but for a long time I couldn't stand Emma Frost.

You know that scene where Cyclops and Emma are telepathically cheating and Jean Grey "walks" in? Yeah, that was the first time I saw Emma. (Note, however, that I never really liked Cyclops or Jean Grey because of that scene).

Her treatment of some of her students in New X-Men: Academy X didn't help either. (Especially Post-House of M)

[thokstar]

Among currently active female characters, I'm not a fan of Jade. It could just be Robinson's writing, but she comes off as very shallow and self-centered and overly concerned with her personal issues, but without the self-confidence to actually do anything that might help her get over her problems or the humility to try to talk to somebody else.

[perletwo]

This one's a pretty easy call for me:



Sorry, Gail, but every time I see Black Alice turn up in a story I just cringe. Possibly I'm the wrong age group to relate to her, but I know I'm just going to want to never stop slapping her. She also amplifies every trait I find annoying in Misfit anytime they're in a story together, so *bonus*.

I love Raven, but my Raven is Original Recipe Raven, when she had a pretty clearly defined powerset that included empathy and healing.

[retro_nouveau]

Oh, how could I forget? Motto! New #4 on my list.

[retro_nouveau]

Emma Frost. Seems to me like there's nothing there but cold-hearted, elitist arrogance, and I get the feeling that she doesn't care to observe the customary standards on power abuse.

2. Genocide, 3. Talia al Ghul, 4. Black Alice, 5. Killer Frost, 6. Morgan Le Fay

Not many women I can't stand. Lots of people I love to hate because they're magnificent, uh ... bastards? Circe is a good example, hate her but I love to see Diana pwn. Genocide is almost one, but she kills for the sake of killing, and that bugs me about anyone. I don't even know if Genocide counts as a woman, but since it's woman-shaped and is apparently Diana's remains from the future or something, I'll keep it at #2...

[midnightvoyager]

Huh. All of these! So THIS!

[kd_the_movie]

I personally can't stand Stephanie Brown (aka the current Batgirl). She's always been the annoying scrappy of the Bat Verse and IMO (and not to offend anyone) only became a little popular because she was the poster child for WiR for the longest.

And the thing is, she's the type of character i should love. She's had some growth and development and is far more of an integral piece of the Bat mythos than most ever thought she'd be. But still IMO once again, she never really proved herself in my eyes and is Batgirl only cuz the team was done with Cass, realized regressing Babs was a dumbass move and pretty much had to ask themselves "well shit, who else could be Batgirl?"

[thebigapricot]

Stephanie Brown was a co-star in the DCU for quite a while before she became, as you stated "a little popular because she was the poster child for WiR for the longest." In fact, the character's fans drove the creation of GirlWonder.org. You may be confusing that with WiR.

I agree with you about the way they treated Cass, but you should give the Batgirl title a spin. It's very good.

[icon_uk]

I think my problem with this category (and tomorrows) is that if I don't like a character I basically don't give a crap about them, so it's tough to actually pick a "least favourite" because they just float in a sort of pool of generic indifference. I can pick characters I dislike, but not really a "least favourite".

As examples, I find Rose/Ravager Wilson to be a terribly dull example of the "bad girl". Huntress leaves me more or less cold. Black Alice is completely unsympathetic because the selfish cow doesn't care that every time she uses her power she could be condemning someone else to death because they might be using them to, say, fly at the time, or be busy saving the world from an infestation of flesh eating imps, but she does it anyway. How can I feel anything but dislike for someone that thoughtless?

Most bloody annoying female character is different. If I had to pick a female character who drove me to screaming aggravation in a particular circumstance, the choice is actually easy



Most of the time I like Lucy just fine, but for that sodding football act every single sodding year, I could cheerfully feed her into a wood chipper (closely followed by Charlie Brown for being dumb enough to believe her every year. Just say no, you blockhead)

[newnumber6]

I agree. I was thinking of this post and going.. Least Favorite. I don't know, if I care about them that little, it's hard enough to bring them to mind.

Even assuming they're just trying to euphamistically say 'most hated', I have a hard time coming up with anybody, just cause I don't hate, I mostly just don't care.

The only thing I can think to do with this meme that's at all workable is 'female character I dislike/don't give a damn about, in a Team/book I really love'.

[icon_uk]

Oh, and apropos of very little, the image about the cut is rather over the size limit

Well, this one's easy

[seriousfic]

Gwen in her natural habitats: Teary and perfect.

If Gwen is the next love interest in the Spider-Man reboot, then when the bridge scene rolls around, I'm rooting for inertia. She's so boring, they killed her for it. You know how boring you had to be to get killed off in the Silver Age? Those were the days where you didn't really have to have a personality, you just had to be a white guy with superpowers and they gave you a comic book. These guys were so whitebread, you could spread butter on 'em.

Do you think it's a coincidence that the well-received Ultimate Gwen and Spectacular Gwen have pretty much completely different personalities from 616 Gwen? It's because she's so boring. She's so boring, that even though she was dead, people thought it would be a good idea to reveal a shocking secret about her, like how she was having the Green Goblin's bastard kids. That's how boring she was. Even dead, she was too boring. If you're dead in comic books, your only job is for people to angst over you, and she was too boring for that. I'm really surprised Peter didn't fall asleep every time he went to Teh Bridge to brood. "Oh, Gwen, never again will we... do... stuff... like we did... zzzzzzzzzzzzz..."

Yes, I know, I know, Gwen was Peter's first love (not counting Betty Brant or all the other girls Peter dated before he met her). But she's just so boring! In comparison to Mary-Jane, Felicia, or hell, Kitty Pryde? Boring. Her look? Boring (horizontal stripes? Are you trying to look fat?) The whole conceit he's only with MJ because Gwen died? Boring and stupid and not even canon -- shortly after Gwen's death, Peter encountered a clone of Gwen and was cloned himself. The way he determined that he wasn't a clone was that he was now in love with MJ, not Gwen, leading him to reject the Gwlone. And yet we're supposed to believe he's spent his entire marriage to MJ pining after his lost love. A comic book character angsting over a dead loved one? Boring!

It's forgivable, perhaps, since she was written when comic book storytelling was less sophisticated, but that doesn't excuse the Mary-Suish reverence she's gotten now, the boringly undramatic "true love!" of her relationship with Peter, or the constant inferences that the whorish MJ stole Peter away from sweet, innocent Madonna Gwen, which has gotten so bad that Marvel has come up with multiple Gwen expies to compete with MJ (from Gwen's own cousin, to her daughter, to Carlie Cooper). If we could all just move on from this character and accept that, yeah, Peter fell in love with someone else, got married to someone else, and wants to have kids with someone else, the world would be a better place.

But for now, we're stuck with "MY GIRLFRIEND IS DEEEEEAD!" and constant not-at-all creepy attempts to set Peter up with a Gwen-a-like. And thus, she is the least favorite.

Re: Well, this one's easy

[bj_l]

Remember when Gwen was a bitch who didn't like Peter because he didn't pay attention to her? That was great.

[jaybee3]

Eh, I feel more indifference to Raven than actual dislike. DC hasn't exactly tried to do anything with her to make her interesting since her return anyway (the whole Beast Boy thing doesn't count).

If I had to pick I'd say:
Marvel: Emma Frost - so a person who who tortured X-Men when Kitty rebuffed her and who also killed a pony (!) just because. Cold, calculating, at times selfish (look how she went after the married Scott - yes, he shares the blame, it was her doing the chasing), with her fakr British accent and her love of plastic surgery, and I'm supposed to LIKe her? Fraction has turned her into basically Jean Grey Lite which makes no sense since they just could have kept Jean alive and have her in the same role as Emma currently occupies.

DC: Rose Wilson - outside of her interactions with the now late Red-Devil (Eddie) I find Ravager a contrived uninteresting and unlikable. Having Deathstroke as a father does not automotically give you sympathy point - a lot of DC heroines come with screwed up biological fathers, ask Steph Brown or Cass Cain or even Stargirl. At this point I'm more interested in reading stories about Lady Deadpool than Lady Deathstroke.

[halialkers]

Eh, once they resurrected her through Black Magic some logical choices which could have explored worldbuilding would be the problems of such a resurrection. Since her resurrected body is underage but her soul is older, what would her legal status be? How exactly would her college career have impacted her? With a new body and a return of old issues, why not even focus on possible "Well, shit, here I go again" issues about her not really bothering with evil-issues.

Or perhaps even explaining her issues with evil as being the new possession-merger thingy with the Brother Blood Cultist as the Cultist trying to force her into a destiny she doesn't want.

And of course you forgot Raven on the screwed-up biological father, it doesn't come more screwed up than a Dimension Lord who conquers an entire dimension at the age of 30 and is OVER 900 years old. Methinks that would be more than somewhat a challenge to live up to......

[neuhallidae]

Is it possible to just hate a character's time period? I hated Emma when she first appeared, and I've hated her ever since Morrison, but in between the two, she wasn't bad.

I think in terms of characters I wish would just fuck off and go away for awhile, I can't really think of anyone, since I tend to just avoid certain books.

[neuhallidae]

Also, in the same "time period" terms, even though she's sometimes my favorite, there are periods of Wasp characterization that I can't stand. And the fact that we've seen in some universes that Janet can be adorable and awesome (Avengers Forever, Mighty Thor, Marvel Adventures) makes them grate even more.

[pyrotwilight]

Honestly I tend to just be indifferent about characters I don't like but Mirage from the Team/Teen Titans is the one I just loathe. She was such a waste of page space during the Team Titans run, particularly after they made Nightwing (future) into Deathwing.

The fact she's also the last surviving Team Titans member when every member was more interesting than her makes me cringe to this day (yes, I'd even rather have Battalion). With any luck instead of killing a character worth a damn DC will kill her in the next Titans blood fest.

[star_of_airdrie]

Completely agree on Mirage. Just a loathesome creature. That whole Team Titans debacle was horrid enough but she made it that much more cringeworthy (of course Deathwing didn't help).

[arilou_skiff]

Hmmm, hard to say, really. I do have one for "least favourite male character" but I really can't think of any female ones.

Yes, Gwen was a flat character. (and she's always going to be more interesting for what happened to her than for who she was)

I hate it when Felicia is written badly (which is so, so often) but I can't help liking the character anyway (because I know she can be written well)

There are characters I think can be written badly, but very few that I can't think of ways of "making better", so I have a hard time picking one.

[kingrockwell]

Yeah, this is the problem I'm having. I have a very definite least favorite guy, but any women I try to think of I just keep thinking they'd be all right in the proper hands. I guess I'll have to think of whatever character I just wouldn't be able to care about no matter who was handling her.

[northstarfan]

Another one for Emma Frost. I thought she made for a pretty good villain, and I liked her when Lobdell wrote her with the X-Men and GenX (especially GenX) and even shipped her and Iceman like wow for a bit.

But under Morrison...yeah, there was just nothing there to interest me, and the way she treated the students once Kyle and Yost got their hands on her made me actively loathe the character for her actions and the rest of the present X-Men for not tossing her out on her ear.

[whitesycamore]

I'd choose Vicki Vale. I really don't get why Bruce tolerates her, let alone likes her. She's so nosy and pushy.

I'm also primed to dislike Starfire because of her stupid hair, vacant eyes and ugly-ass costume, but I haven't actually read much with her in so I'll withhold judgment on her character.

[benicio127]

Her costume isn't the most functional for crime-fighting at all. I have no idea how she flies around and keeps everything in place! She must have really, really, really strong double-sided tape. And on the hand, while I like the fact that she's really open about her sexuality, she also seems very male fantasy-like (not that a lot of female characters aren't...)

[ian_karkull]

Awww man, Emma Frost Hate Fest. :(
I feel people are doing the character a tremendous disservice when they only focus on superficialities, even though it's been made clear over and over, that all this, the aloofness, the surgery, the bitchiness, all of it is just a shell she's built around herself to keep people away, to avoid getting hurt... again. Emma's a much more complex character than that.
She's the child of a loveless, utterly broken home who had to fend for herself since a very young age, relying on nothing but her wits and courage. She had to fight for literally every single thing she's got and against every one she ever met, until she met Scott. Even in Hellfire days people just wanted to take advantage of her, so her only choice was to be smarter, to stay one step ahead, gain what she could and get out before she gets under the wheel.
In the end she just wanted to teach, help built a better future for children, in light of her own, broken past. But they just kept dying on her over and over and she's haunted by that tremendous guilt to this very day. That's why she built the manipulative, cold-hearted White Queen persona around herself, to protect the real Emma inside. The diamond form is the perfect expression of that. A flawless, indestructible thing too smooth to touch,, too dazzling to see inside.
Sure, her methods are often unorthodox, but she makes the hard choices and always carries the burden alone, for the sake of others.
Too bad that apparently nobody remembers Generation X anymore, that series elegantly showed the true caring side of Emma without making her seem weak. Nowadays all that people remember ar the bondage outfit, the catty comments and how omg!perfect Jean was.

Anyway, enough ranting, back on topic. So. many. choices.
Probably the most irritating one at Marvel has to be goddamn Spider-Woman.
I don't get what all the fuzz is about. She's a boring, derivative character with nonsensical powers and no personality. Settling her with tons of convoluted stories doesn't help. At all.
Harley Quinn and her very special brand mix of stalker girlfriend, co-dependant abusive relationship and annyoing comic relief is a very hot contender for worst character all around though.
Other non-favourites include Starfire, Donna Troy, Raven, Ms. Marvel, Psylocke, Storm, Magik and goddamn Kitty Pride, or whoever's the X-Mens resident Mary Sue this week.

[midnightvoyager]

Okay, siiiiince you ranted, I might as well respond in short.

Totally fine that you like her and such. But I hate her because she does not CONVINCE me that she is more complicated. None of her stuff has convinced me that she is any more complicated than she seems.

So, er, I'm not ignoring any of that. I just don't buy it whenever the writer says it. Guess it's a problem with the different phases of writers she's been through?

[vspope]

She's niche as all hell, but show me someone more annoying than Comet Queen.

Dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks origin, speech peppered with inane slang, and a face begging for a hurled brick.

[cleome45]

Then again, she was meant to be annoying. That was kind of the point.

I think it's different when they set a character up to be fascinating and competent, but then the character doesn't read that way to the viewer at all.

Mod note

[kingrockwell]

Images outside the cut should be no larger than 300x400. I'd prolly recommend leaving the main "hey this is today's topic" stuff outside the cut while putting your answer within it.

As for my answer, that's gonna take a lot of thought...

[yaseen101]

Now, I know there are some who are aware of my dislike for two certain female characters. However, I've come to realize that my dislike was misplaced with those characters, yet this does not mean I love them now like everybody else but it doesn't mean I hate them either.I can see the appeal behind them but I just feel cold towards them. :)



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Now, Oracle will be a bit more trickier to explain, firstly I'm not in the same boat as those who wants her back in the Bat-girl suit nor am I in the same group who thinks she should go back to using the 'Bat' prefix again and become 'Batwoman' or something. My problem is that I just disagree with those who think that 'Oracle' is something akin to Dick's role as Nightwing, that it's the logical growth of the character. It's not but most of the time she's written that way, that Batgirl was some 'plucky, SHORT, wittle girl fighting the big bad thugs' and Oracle is 'Nightwing' to her 'Robin'. If a character's logical growth is to somehow to lose control of their legs and end up in a wheelchair then that's not a very good reflection of the character. To me, she's a person who suffered through something horrible in her life but managed to *adapt* to the situation and continue on fighting the good fight.

Though, has someone tried writing a story, a 'What If' or Elseworld's on what would have happened if Bab's didn't get shot and remained as Batgirl or rather Congresswoman?

Now, I'm not trying to start up a fight by typing all this, I'm just expressing what's on my mind. That's all. :)

[yaseen101]

Also:

Starfire.

Now this Starfire, this Starfire I love.




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This is the version I *don't* like:



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[cuntfucius]

My poor Starfire... ahem

HENYWAY

My answer is......................................................................../drumrolldrumroll



NONE!!

I dislike certain character's ... FANBASES and at times they grate on me so much that I think I dislike a character (Selina Kyle and Emma Frost and Barbara Gordon really come into play here), but then I actually think about their awesome moments and I am like wait, Babs is one of my faves, Emma can be totally amazing and interesting and it's not her fault Matt F. killed her character, and it is not Selina's fault that the writing surrounding her/bruce has bothered me and that her fanbase often doesn't really like a certain character I adore.

So yeah, none. I don't like certain fanbases (or what I've encountered with them) and certain MOMENTS characters have had, but... yeah.

I guess Countdown Donna Troy is the only one, if only because she hid Donna's corpse in a closet and stole her sparkly suit, and that is Not Okay.

[cuntfucius]

Ah yes, I also strongly considered throwing Soranik Natu up for least fave, but yet again it is a case of ....focusing not on the foundation of who she is and what she can be and what she has shone as in her most brilliant moments, and more of the terrible writing I feel she is subjected to as Kyles Lover* and Sinestro's Daughter* and the way she is often held up as a paragon of SMART AWESOME HOT PERFECT ACTION BABE and all of the other GL girls get all ...ignored and stuff (/KATMA TUI FAN) but...

That still is a reactionary line of thought and not an actual DISLIKE or even apathy to her character, so um. Yes.

I guess I just suck at not loving women in comics.

[minyandu]

Miaka Yūki is and Yui . *groan*
I'm so regret of buying the book. At first it seemed fun, but later, the story and the characters are just like, going down down and down...I'm not sure how much development they had later, but I was getting enough of the characters and dropped in the middle. I really really don't like Yuu Watase's character building in Fushigi Yuugi...*facepalm*

[minyandu]

...Is it too late to add Mother of Champion? From the few scan and preview I see, the personality of the character is not bad. She has some sort of potential. But the power and the original idea are just so horrible and offensive...D:

[milleniumrex]

Is it too easy to say Michelle Gonzales and Norah Winters?

God, a more vile pair of characters I can't recall. I hope they both fade out of continuity when ASM shifts to its new format and are never seen again.

[roily_rogue]

Jean Grey. Still. Even after Grant Morrison, I feel she's way too overhyped. Remove the Phoenix, give her a storyline that doesn't involve a love triangle and we'll see. But for the character that is often hailed as the top X-woman, there's just too much drama and too little HER.

[angelophile]

This is actually a tough one, because there's certain periods of characters I like and others I can't stand. For example, I love Emma Frost in Generation X, but actively disliked the way she was handled in Kyle and Yost's New X-menand find her horribly bland under Fraction. I love Wolfsbane, generally, but disliked N&C's version in New Mutants Vol 3. And so on.

I am totally indifferent to jean Grey, but I suspect just one good writer could change that.