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In the fourth episode ofPeacemaker‘s first season, the titular hero Chris Smith rants about other super-people and observes, “I once saw Matter-Eater Lad eat a whole Wendy’s restaurant.” Even within a show that stars a big name like John Cena as perrinial Z-lister Peacemaker, that’s a deep pull. Not only is Matter-Eater Lad one of the teen members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a group whose convoluted history and 31st century setting makes them impenetrable to most, but his weird power to consume anything renders him unfit for mainstream appeal. And yet, there was Matter-Eater Lad, getting attention from Peacemaker.
Such reverence for the under-explored corners of comics has become one of James Gunn‘s trademarks. Even before becoming the co-head of DC Studios, Gunn somehow brought (a version) of Taserface to screen. At DC, Gunn has made Polka-Dot Man, Weasel, and, yes, Peacemaker, complex and three-dimensional figures worthy of empathy.
But there are some characters in the DC stable that seem too tough for even someone of Gunn’s abilities. Here are the deepest cuts, the most unlikely weirdos, the characters that we don’t think Gunn would put in the DCU… though we’d love to see him try!
Photo: DC Comics.
Snowflame and Hemo-Goblin
The late ’80s series New Guardians had some great creators working on it—Steve Englehart, Joe Staton, and Cary Bates—and it had admirable intentions. But New Guardians also had some of the most tone def social commentary in comics history. Case in point: Snowflame, a Colombian villain powered by super cocaine, and Hemo-Goblin, a vampire who spreads AIDS. Both characters died in their first appearances, but manage to show up again every once in a while, including in (unsurprisingly) the Harley Quinn animated series. But does Gunn have the audacity to put them in live action?
Photo: DC Comics.
Space Cabbie
Few characters seem better suited for the James Gunn treatment than Space Cabbie. First introduced in a 1954 issue of the sci-fi anthology series Mystery in Space, Space Cabbie sounds like a joke because of his obvious simplicity: he lives in space and drives a cab. But the character soon proved to be both a reliable launching point for other intergalactic tales and a compelling figure to include among DC’s cosmic characters. And if Gunn can get Patton Oswalt, who voiced the Space Cabbie on Justice League Action, to play him in live action, all the better.
Photo: DC Comics.
The Heckler
The obvious pick for lists like these is Ambush Bug a.k.a. Irwin Schwab, the fourth-wall breaking superhero who basically exists to annoy other people (why yes, he did do Deadpool‘s schtick before Deadpool). But given that Gunn has talked about Ambush Bug, we’ll have to go a bit deeper, to another oddity created by the same guy who gave us Irwin: the Heckler. Like Ambush Bug, the Heckler’s real (and, in this case, only) power is to annoy his enemies, but at least he uses his irritability for good, aggravating baddies until justice is achieved.
Photo: DC Comics.
The Human Flame
Before anyone objects, this does not refer to Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. Where the Human Torch has youthful vigor and incredible good looks, the Human Flame looks like your average 48-year-old schlub, even when wearing armor that shoots fire—the one weakness of his arch-enemy the Martian Manhunter. The Human Flame may not be the terrifying of DC’s villains, but his blue-collar enguiniety and general relatability make him a character worth adapting.
Photo: DC Comics.
Tomorrow Woman
Gunn has made his love of Grant Morrison‘s work well-known, yet there’s still little chance of seeing a live-action version of one of the best stories from the Scottish scribe’s Justice League run. JLA #5, written by Morrison and penciled by Howard Porter, introduces Tomorrow Woman as a powerful telekinetic who immediately proves herself a worthy addition. When she realizes that she’s an android created by mad scientists Professor Ivo and T.O. Morrow to infiltrate and then destroy the Justice League, Tomorrow Woman sacrifices herself. It’s a powerful story that no one has been able to match in any of the character’s subsequent appearances, but maybe Gunn can match that incredible introduction.
Photo: DC Comics.
Tattooed Man
Much to the consternation of some, the Green Lantern series Lanterns will keep its space cops grounded in an Earth-bound mystery. Even then, we’d be surprised to see one of GL’s least cosmic antagonists show up on the HBO Max show. The first version of the Tattooed Man was a salty sailor with magical tattoos that would come to life and help him do crimes. Later versions replaced him with more morally ambiguous people and pit him against heroes less overpowered than Green Lantern, so there’s a chance that Gunn will revise the baddie. But if he’s not making the dragon on his chest fight Hal Jordan, then is he really the Tattooed Man?
Photo: DC Comics.
Power Girl
By no means is Power Girl an obscure character. A frequent member of the Justice Society of America, Power Girl has been a mainstay in comics since the Crisis on Infinit Earths event in the mid-1980s, and often headlines her own comic. However, her success comes despite of her convoluted backstory, as she began as an alternate reality version of Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. Power Girl survived multiple retcons and reimaginings to earn her place in DC Comics, but it’s hard to imagine the movie going public is going to put up with that many explanations, especially when Milly Alcock is already bringing the main Supergirl to the DCU.
Photo: DC Comics.
Warlord
Even most comic book readers who have heard of Warlord assume he’s from some time travel story where Green Arrow goes back to sword and sandals days. But to those who know the Mike Grell comics about Travis Morgan, Warlord is one of the universe’s hidden gems. An Air Force pilot who crashes his plane in the North Pole, Morgan discovers a warp that takes him to the magical world of Skartaris. Stripping down to furry undies but keeping his pistol, Morgan dons a winged helmet and a sword to become the Warlord, fighting to free the inhabitants of Skartaris from the evil wizard Diemos. The alternate reality keeps Morgan away from most heroes, but every once in a while, the Justice League finds their way to Skartaris, melding superheroes with swords and sorcery.
Photo: DC Comics.
Shining Knight
Like Warlord, Shining Knight is a compelling character hobbled by genre constraints. Creig Flessel introduced the character in 1941’s Adventure Comics #66, for a series of tales about Sir Justin of King Arthur’s court. Unlike most of the non-cape and cowl characters from era, Sir Justin managed to maintain some popularity even after DC revitalized its superheroes in the Silver Age, and even got to join some as a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and, later, the All-Star Squadron. But as many times as some ambitious writer tries to fully integrate Sir Justin into superhero stories, it never quite works, leaving the Shining Knight a perpetual outlier in the DC Universe.
Photo: DC Comics.
The Challengers of the Unknown
The Challengers of the Unknown made sense for exactly four years, between Jack Kirby (working with either Joe Simon or David Wood) introducing them in 1957 and Kirby and Stan Lee introducing the Fantastic Four in 1961. A quartet of adventurers who respond to a near-death experience by devoting themselves to solving the world’s toughest problems, the Challengers worked great in the sci-fi influenced superheroes of DC in the 1950s, so much so that creators keep bringing them back. No one’s been able to make the Challengers relevant since then (the really good joke at their expense in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies doesn’t count), but maybe they’ll be just the challenge for Gunn to solve.
Photo: DC Comics.
Red Tornado/Ma Hunkel
It might be tempting to lump Ma Hunkel in with ‘Mazing Man and Sugar and Spike, characters who belong to comedic or kid’s comics more than superheroes. But since she has been acknowledged as the Golden Age Red Tornado, a precursor to the android member of the Justice League, Ma Hunkel belongs on this list. Of course, Ma Hunkel started out as a humor character in 1939, an older woman who interacted with plucky kid Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist, but soon donned long underwear and a kitchen pot to fight crime as the Red Tornado. If Ma does get the DCU treatment, it will probably be in her current comics form as the Justice Society’s cook or grandmother to the hero Cyclone, but it would be great to see her in her Red Tornado getup.
Photo: DC Comics.
Charma
By this point, we’ve loved to embrace instead of reject the writer’s barely disguised fetish in superhero comics, which means that Legion of Superheroes baddie Grimbor the Chainsman can appear in movies without too much trouble. The same cannot be said of Grimbor’s associate Charma, precisely because of her icky powers. Created by Mike Grell, Charma has the ability to make men lust after her and make women furious at the sight of her. While Grimbor has continued to appear every now and a gain, Charma’s gender essentialist powers have consigned her to history.
Photo: DC Comics.
The Inferior Five
On paper, the Inferior Five sound like the exact type of superheroes that Gunn would love. Introduced by E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Joe Orlando as an attempt to embrace ’60s absurdist humor, the Inferior Five are, as their name suggests, a bunch of idiots who try and fail to walk in the footsteps of their more famous parents, the Freedom Brigade. With members like Awkwardman (the ability to trip over his feet) and Dumb Bunny (a beautiful blond idiot), the Inferior Five would fit into any Gunn project. And yet, he hasn’t put them in anything yet, which suggests that he never will. Then again, an evil version of the Inferior Five called the Superior Five does show up in Salvation Run, the comic that inspired Man of Tomorrow, so maybe there’s hope yet.
Photo: DC Comics.
KGBeast
The Inferior Five feel like they would belong on The Tick, in a good way. KGBeast feels like he would belong on The Tick in a bad way. Introduced by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo in 1988’s Batman #417, KGBeast was a Soviet supersoldier who debuted the year before the Berlin Wall fell, stripping him of his purpose. Over the years, people have tried to revive the character in some form or another, but none of them has worked. Today, the character exists as little more than a sadly serious version of the Tick villain the Red Scare.
Photo: DC Comics.
Ten-Eyed Man
As his name suggests, the Ten-Eyed Man has ten eyes. All ten of those eyes appear not on his face—in fact, he has zero eyes on his face—but on his fingers. Somehow, that unusual anatomy made him an antagonist for both Batman and Man-Bat, but he’s worked best as a more mystical figure, as reimagined by Grant Morrison during the 52 maxiseries in the mid-2000s. Still, even as a cooky magic user, the Ten-Eyed Man is hopelessly silly, a point underscored in a recent story in which Batman ally Azrael takes away half of the villain’s powers… but cutting off one hand.
Photo: DC Comics.
Prez
Even though it began amidst the Watergate scandal in 1973, the short-lived series Prez was built on the aspirational idea that anyone can be president in America. So when teenager Prez Rickard finds a way to solve basic infastructure problems and turns against the corrupt political machine, he wins hearts and minds as the country’s youngest president. Creators Joe Simon, who also-made Captain America with Jack Kirby, and Jerry Grandenetti infuse the original character with charming optimism, but its the absurdity of the premise that has allowed Prez to keep returning to mainline comics. Is optimism that enough to make Prez the next star of Gunn’s DCU, especially when the fact that anyone can be president is having such disastrous results?
Photo: DC Comics.
Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew
While superheroes continue to be the dominant genre in comic books, funny animal books remain relevant. DC combined the two with Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew, an odd-ball feature first introduced in a Superman-focused backup story published in 1982’s New Teen Titans #16. Led by Captain Carrot, the alter-ego of mild-mannered Roger Rabbit (now called Rodney Rabbit, for obvious reasons), the Zoo Crew includes super-speeding turtle Fastback, the mystical Alley-Kat-Abra, the armored Pig-Iron, and more. Even when interacting with mainline heroes, the Zoo Crew (usually) keeps a sense of humor, which helps remind everyone that superheroes are silly, even when they’re not funny animals.
Photo: DC Comics.
Karate Kid
Even though James Gunn told Den of Geek directly that he’s had conversations about bringing the team to the DCU, some Legion of Super-Hero members still don’t seem likely to be in the movies. None more so than Karate Kid, whose bad luck extends beyond the fact that a popular franchise stole his name, even though he appeared nearly 20 years before Daniel LaRusso. Karate Kid has the power of all martial arts (but is generally depicted as a white guy, a DC editorial mandate that overrode creator Jim Shooter’s plans to model him after Bruce Lee). He’s had some great stories, but because Keith Giffen kind of hates him, Karate Kid ends up getting killed with some regularity, making him even more unlikely to move to live action.
Photo: DC Comics.
Manga Khan
One more Keith Giffen character before we go. A reoccurring villain during the legendary Justice League International run by Giffen and co-writer J.M. DeMatteis, Manga Khan certainly poses a physical threat. He’s a gaseous being wears golden armor, and has the power to overcome heavy hitters like Big Barda and Despero. But where most baddies cover their love of capitalism with rhetoric about superior men or the greater good, Rama Khan just likes bartering and shopping, so he uses his great might to get people to embrace the free market. Such combinations of low-stakes evil and high-stakes powers make for refreshing reading, but don’t often show up in the movies.
Photo: DC Comics.
The Weird
No list of weird DC characters is complete without a character so weird that he’s called the Weird. Before gaining his catchy name, the Weird was a Zarolatt, an inter-dimensional energy being who rebelled against his captors and escaped to Earth. Possessing the body of a dead man, the Weird managed to escape to deep space with the help of the Justice League, but has found his way back to Earth time and again. Most recently, the Weird served as a member of the superhero containment team StormWatch. And given that Superman featured a team called PlanetWatch, surely inspired by StormWatch, maybe the Weird isn’t too weird to show up in James Gunn’s DCU after all.
The post The Weirdest Comic Characters We Dare James Gunn to Bring to the DCU appeared first on Den of Geek.
