Misuse or No Use: What's Worse?

We all have characters that we grow attached to, characters we call our favorite, characters who will cause us to pick up a book for at least an issue simply because they're in it. So in your opinion, what's worse? That character that you love making plenty of appearances and being terribly mis-characterized and just being written completely wrong, or not being able to read anything with that character in it at all?

I would go with No use. Then I could get a job there, and write for that character :D

tough as hell but id have to say misuse

Misuse is the worst. I stopped reading Uncanny X-Men and even grew to loathe Emma Frost due to Matt Fraction writing her. Misuse further leads into a character having bad development and being stuck with it because it's canon. With "no use" you can still hold on to hope that they'll reappear in some epic way.

@pixelized: She's what inspired me to write this up. I wish I could stop reading Uncanny, I just hopefully keep waiting for it to get better...

I'd say no use.  Misuse can feed on itself and completely ruin a character.  If enough people like a misused version of a character, eventually all we'll get is the horrid misused version and the proper version will be gone forever.

Misuse, definitely. At least there's more hope that somewhere down the line, a writer will actually use a good character (GAMBIT).

Misuse 
 
Examples? New Krypton, Arsenal, Donna Troy, Tempest, etc. 

I would go with No use. Then I could get a job there, and write for that character :D

Misuse.
 
I'd rather not see a character, then see them dragged through the muck and mire.

@MrUnknown: I typed it out wrong :P

Misuse - Since misuse has varying degrees. More than no use. Misuse can even lead to no use. The cure for no use, is use, the cure for misuse, is correcting misuse with use, just to gain back what you lost, and then more use. Misuse exploits you emotionally, no use lets you say money each week and use your imagination and time thinking of writers you like to use characters you like, instead of using a pen and a fridge magnet to discern their location, to hide our their window in their bushes and steal their jeggings and hats when they go to get their morning Vanilla, Mochae Triffoli Baccarino Hipresso. 

Misuse Frankencastle and Punisher Purgatory were god awful and I would've been fine if 616 Punisher didn't have a comic during that time.

Both are awful.I can't detach them.I hate that we Echo isn't an Avenger anymore.I'm just as pissed off that she did NOTHING the entire time she was one.She has 0 feats from Avengers.And I mean 0.Aside from killing the fake Elektra (which apparently anyone can do because Skrulls are papier mache') she's done nothing.

Kyle & Yost made up my mind for me.  When they killed Boom Boom, it was clear that I'd rather she sit in limbo instead of being used & abused (to be fair, they did go on to save her later & her brief appearance thereafter was brilliant, but still... don't kill her again!!)

Fraction & Land confirmed it when she was bouncing around Utopia for no reason other than to look like a dis-proportionate prostitute.

Gallery

Dead... or malformed hooker?  Neither, thanks! 
 

LMFAO @ SUP BEE-YOTCHES.

Misuse. 
Characters I love that have been misused in the last 5 years; 

• Black Bolt (War of Kings, poor characterisation and he was castrated in terms of power) 
• Spidey (OMD)
• SENTRY (BENDICK'S RUN ON DARK AVENGERS, SIEGE AND EVERY OTHER PIECE OF CRAP HE WROTE)
• Moon Knight (Bendick's run)
• Emma Frost (Fraction)
• Cyclops (Fraction)
• Doctor Doom (WWHs, FF, asking Valeria for help >_<)
• Ms Marvel (Again, Bendick's Avengers titles)

Bendis thinks Ms.Marvel in flight can only fly at 700mph and that's as fast as she can go.When it's been proven by Brian Reed that she's far faster than that.Mach-3 at least.I think even as Warbird she was somewhere around Mach-5. 
 
Bendis' Sentry is the worst thing to happen to Marvel Comics since Clone Wars.

Misuse, definitely. It sucks not knowing what is going on with a character because they aren't used at all, but it can be hard to undo a poor characterization of said character. What's the worst, however, is when they misuse a character so they can further a single plot only to leave them hanging in limbo for years after *cough*Scarlet Witch*cough*

really good question DH :)

Tough to answer.

Misuse leads to dilution of the how serious you can take or enjoy a character, and no use leads to forgetting they exist.

Neither helps a good character to develop very well.

If I REALLY had to choose though, I suppose no use is still worse though. You can't tell if somethings been misused until you at least try :)

  Lol, I wrote a blog about this in August of last year.  Misuse is worse.

I would say no use is worse.  Misuse is a bit iffy, there are different ways to interpret characters.  A reader might interpret a character one way and a writer might interpret them another way.  Its all about perspective.
Where as no use can lead to people caring less about them, or someone killing them off completely. 

I'd say both are about equal to be honest

We all have characters that we grow attached to, characters we call our favorite, characters who will cause us to pick up a book for at least an issue simply because they're in it. So in your opinion, what's worse? That character that you love making plenty of appearances and being terribly mis-characterized and just being written completely wrong, or not being able to read anything with that character in it at all?

Misuse.
 
I rather my character not be used  rather then be overly used and mistreated and written poorly.
It can make one start to hate the character and it just tarnishes the character's history and abilities.
it is what happen to Wolverine, he has bn hoed out so much that he is a joke half the time getting smacked around and mistreated by characters that he once should have bn able to solo within a panel or two.
writers tend to put them in funny awkward situations  that goes against the character for cheap laughs b/c they need to put them inside the book if only for a panel or two.. hence Wolverine and squirrel girl wtf?
 
over at DC my top favorite hero is underused and i rather like it that way otherwise suffer the poor quality writing and continuity hiccups that effects just about everyone over there. I rather Captain Marvel only be brought our once in a great while for a good story then to be placed in a team with other characters where he will be underutilized and risked being written wrong character wise

Probably, no use.

@Omega Ray Jay said:

Misused and retconned, makes by blood boil.

I'll never understand why they even went back to the Beyonder, let alone retconned him to the point that both the Secret Wars couldn't have happend. Just another example of why I think 'No Use' is better than 'Misuse' :(

We all have characters that we grow attached to, characters we call our favorite, characters who will cause us to pick up a book for at least an issue simply because they're in it. So in your opinion, what's worse? That character that you love making plenty of appearances and being terribly mis-characterized and just being written completely wrong, or not being able to read anything with that character in it at all?

The character being misused IMO.

Misuse feels worse but with retcons being as common as they are, I'd take misuse over no use except in the most extreme of character cock-ups.

Misuse. 
Characters I love that have been misused in the last 5 years; 

• Black Bolt (War of Kings, poor characterisation and he was castrated in terms of power) 
• Spidey (OMD)
• SENTRY (BENDICK'S RUN ON DARK AVENGERS, SIEGE AND EVERY OTHER PIECE OF CRAP HE WROTE)
• Moon Knight (Bendick's run)
• Emma Frost (Fraction)
• Cyclops (Fraction)
• Doctor Doom (WWHs, FF, asking Valeria for help >_<)
• Ms Marvel (Again, Bendick's Avengers titles)

 Do we notice a trend? **** you, Marvel.

really good question DH :)

Tough to answer.

Misuse leads to dilution of the how serious you can take or enjoy a character, and no use leads to forgetting they exist.

Neither helps a good character to develop very well.

If I REALLY had to choose though, I suppose no use is still worse though. You can't tell if somethings been misused until you at least try :)

No use is worse, IMO. People blow characterization out of proportion sometimes. Misuse is bad and sometimes worse than no use, but when it comes to certain characters I rather see them changed or have another take placed on them than not at all. For example, Machine Man in Nextwave has become the characterization that stuck, but ever since his creation by Jack Kirby way back when he's been a third and fourth tier character that never got that much attention. He may still lack attention but at least he gets much more now than he did before.and the change to his character isn't all that bad. 
 
I feel the same way about Moon Knight.  
 
Characterization is often fluid in comics, there's nothing solid about the characters or the continuity, sometimes you just need to suck it up and bear with it and wait for something more familiar to come along.

Originally I would have said that both are equally bad, but some of the arguments I've read have convinced me that misuse is worst. 

Depends on the durability of the character (as a collective established icon) and the duration of the use. 
 
Strong Icon & short use - Neither is a big deal because the icon is self-correcting / self-healing.  Batman peeing his pants gets forgotten.  Superman leaving Earth is not forgotten.  Short misuses against established icons tend to act as thorns in the minds of fans until corrected and any absence an icon can get is almost a good thing.

Strong icon & long use - Misuse would tend to be worse, because if it continues long enough it can replace the original legitimate icon which could be grating for some or lead to confusion if reading old stories.  A long absence for a strong icon is harmful, but the memories that exist would tend to crystallize or be viewed with fond nostalgia; compared to being ruined by long on-going misuse.

Weak icon & short use - For a forgettable character who's always present (say, Ant Man), misuse probably does more damage, because that thorn in the mind might be the only thing you remember... and so a relatively minor one-time event can become the whole of a weak icon's characterization one day.  A good example is Ant Man hitting Jan.  With a relatively weak icon, a single misuse can result in Ant Man being portrayed as a wife-beater as a matter of core characterization. 

Weak icon & long use - For a forgettable character who's rarely present, a long misuse is probably BETTER than even more no use.  If the character is already a weak icon, further LONG misuse often means the character dies as IP.  It's no longer in the minds of readers, creators, or licensing, so the character is worthless and never to be seen again.  A weak icon that is rarely present tends to suggest characterization that arguably isn't worth reviving, so long misuse can actually reinvigorate the character and make him or her relevant again.  Machine Man, for example, being "misused" in Nextwave Agents of HATE made for a better character and addition to Marvel's modern canon than sticking to- or utterly ignoring- his original characterization. 
 
For characters who are in between, you'll get a mix of the above.

Misuse. 
Characters I love that have been misused in the last 5 years; 

• Black Bolt (War of Kings, poor characterisation and he was castrated in terms of power) 
• Spidey (OMD)
• SENTRY (BENDICK'S RUN ON DARK AVENGERS, SIEGE AND EVERY OTHER PIECE OF CRAP HE WROTE)
• Moon Knight (Bendick's run)
• Emma Frost (Fraction)
• Cyclops (Fraction)
• Doctor Doom (WWHs, FF, asking Valeria for help >_<)
• Ms Marvel (Again, Bendick's Avengers titles)

 Do we notice a trend? **** you, Marvel.

We all have characters that we grow attached to, characters we call our favorite, characters who will cause us to pick up a book for at least an issue simply because they're in it. So in your opinion, what's worse? That character that you love making plenty of appearances and being terribly mis-characterized and just being written completely wrong, or not being able to read anything with that character in it at all?

Misuse etc. Ultimates V3

im going to be stubborn and say both missuse is annoying coz you want to slap who ever is writting it and no use gets you feeling bitter that they can't use epic characters anymore. let just hope they fix both problems by getting decent writters to get missused characters out of there ruts and maybe some new ones that do reasearch on the actual charaters and can take them from there limbo into something exciting and new but manage to still have the essence of the character.