The first person to actually get Superman in this thread. He basically put up this façade of being a perfect being to motivate people and to inspire confidence, but is often found struggling with balancing how dependent people become of him versus inspiring them and actually using his powers to protect the people he loves.Vausch said:See I don't agree with that, at all. Superman doesn't have to lose his powers in order to make for an interesting story. There are other races and characters in the DCU that are just as powerful as he is and can give him a fight on an even keel. A lot of good stories from Superman tend to arise when he has to question when the right time to use his powers is, and often he worries that if he uses them for too many situations (saving the Earth not withstanding), he'll be viewed as a god and people will stop solving their own problems and become reliant on him. There's other stories like Superman: Red Son where he did abuse his powers too much and wound up becoming a dictator, really the better stories of Superman revolve around his sense of balance between his upbringing with humanity and his Kryptonian abilities.Kordie said:Except he isn't. Don't get me wrong, if given the option to become any superhero, Superman is the only right answer. That doesn't make him the "best" from a story telling point of view. Because Superman can literally do anything he becomes a very boring character. Characters need flaws to be interesting, they need weaknesses to overcome, an arc that ends with them as a better person. Superman doesn't do any of that. His arcs are usually the opposite, he has to lose his powers then get back to where he was at the start.The_Blue_Rider said:And that in the end, even the mightiest of us are still human.
A way more interesting character is the Plutonian. If you are unfamiliar, he is pretty much superman with one distinct difference. He snapped. He just lost it, and started to ruin shit. Even as a bad guy, he is way more relatable than superman will ever be.
*edit* Plutonian Bio [http://www.comicvine.com/plutonian/29-60993/]
IMO Seeing a character like Superman break down and show his flaws makes for a really interesting story. I can also relate to it a lot more knowing that you can never do everything right.
As for my underrated heroes, Blue Beetle (Jaime Rayes) and Captain Marvel (SHAZAM). Granted I absolutely hate what the reboot did to them since they took away from a lot of the things that made Blue Beetle good (light hearted nature, fun and interesting but still compelling villains, Jaime being smart and just telling his family about his powers so they have more protection from harm by knowing) and Billy Batson went from being the kind-hearted boy scout that would do anything for anybody into a snarky little shit that I can't see the wizard actually giving the powers of SHAZAM, but I always have older comics or I can just wait until DC just says "This is Earth 16 it wasn't really a reboot please love us again!".
Sheesh, guys. I'm mainly a Marvel guy and even I knew that.
Anyway, my underrated heroes: Captain Marvel (SHAZAM now, apparently) because the idea behind him is really interesting and has tons of room to be explored, but DC very rarely put much focus on him. I mean, his last high profile series ended in 1998, and he's not even in the NEW 52 except as a back-up for Justice league. And I won't buy a comic for the back-up.
Moon Knight is another nice one. Essentially a psychotic Batman constantly urged on by a mad moon god to kill all the villains he faces, and he's constantly fighting that urge because of an ideal he barely believes in. Too bad Bendis ruined him.
Also Cable. He hasn't even shown up in Avengers vs X-men yet, when his own daughter is in the middle of it. I'm always hoping he'll recover from Duane Swiercynzski's (or however it's spelled) terrible run, but they never do anything with him since second coming. It's ridiculous.