It has come to my attention that a lot of characters that I happen to like a lot don't get enough respect in my mind. I'm about to change all that right now. This is sort of a "Respect Thread" if you would, that lists several people who I feel are a little (or a lot) underrated and more then deserve a good bit of respect and why I think they do. So here goes....
My favorite Marvel character without a doubt. I feel he doesn't get as much respect as he could (I've seen my share of Spidey-bashers) Now first off, he is the ultimate flawed hero, and a guy I can personally relate to (not saying that I've ever had malicious alien slime stuck to me, or anything) He's really smart, usually fair-minded about things like the SRA controversy, and not to mention, a bit of a smart-ass. Skill-wise, he has beaten every villain in his rogue's gallery for starters (and that includes fairly powerful villains like Electro, Scorpion, Sandman, Venom, and of course, Norman Osborn.) Took down the Juggernaut (albeit by outsmarting him but this is a guy who has beaten the X-Men before) Stood toe-to-toe against both Wolverine and Captain America (not at the same time but both feats are still impressive) and completely humiliated the X-Men like they where a bunch of amateurs. Speaking of which, he also defeated Daken, someone who had already beaten both his father and Deadpool. Furthermore, he has also endured more then his fair share of crap. And the deaths of his parents (orchestrated by the Red Skull!) his Uncle (partially his own fault) and his girlfriend (and her killer impregnated her first) are just the tip of the iceberg. He's been a fugitive, his aunt's been shot and left in a coma, he forgot he was ever married in order to save her, and is currently going through a gauntlet (pun fully intended) of many of his oldest and greatest foes. He also has an insane amount of kick-ass costumes. His red and blue, his black costume, his iron spider outfit, his red and black variation of his classic look (my personal favorite) and many more. Between it all, he is definitely (at least to me!) the best comic book hero besides Batman and more then deserves his position as Marvel's most recognizable hero.
Everyone hates this guy's look except for me, it seems. As the perfect Spider-Man clone, Ben is essentially another Spider-Man and is one of my favorite heroes because of it. As for the costume, it's awesome and that's that. To his credit, he also invented what's known as "impact webbing" which would later be used frequently by the original Spider-Man in the future as well as be incorporated into the movies and almost all of the Spider-Man video games. Nice job Ben! Though their relationship had it's downturns, usually conflicts over who was the clone and who wasn't (It was even believed for a time that Ben was the real deal and Peter was the clone!) Ben and Peter where usually the best of friends and, to put it plainly, just like brothers. Unfortunately that ended when Ben died helping Peter fight the Green Goblin, who had just returned to the fold. For some very stupid reason, Marvel Comics have yet to resurrect him.
Though I do admit that she is a rather shameless rip-off of Catwoman, I still like Black Cat a lot. Mostly for the same reasons I like Catwoman (sexy cat-burglar, kicks ass despite having no powers, etc.) As far as combat feats go, she DID beat Sabertooth (although most people consider that a kind of BS win.) handled herself well alongside Venom and Spider-Man against a very pissed off Carnage despite not quite being at her best, and beat the Vulture soundly. She also did well against the Lizard, although as I recall, she was being both enhanced and made more aggressive, but still impressive. She's also my absolute favorite of all of Spidey's love interests (and he has had QUITE a few) and one of my favorite female heroes in general. Not quite on the same level as Catwoman and Wonder Woman, but still pretty high up there. I would definitely say she deserves recognition and I keep hoping that they do at least ONE alternate reality where she and Spider-Man get together and STAY together, but I have the feeling that's not gonna happen.
Long dismissed as a shameless Batman rip-off, Moon Knight is without a doubt one of my favorite heroes ever. First off, he is a very skilled fighter. When he was at ROCK-BOTTOM and slowly making his way back to the top, he was attacked by Taskmaster and did so well against him that he actually got him to back off. A swordfight with Deadpool landed the mercenary in the hospital, and this is a guy with a healing factor that rivals Wolverines. Silver Sable and her Wild Pack tried to take him in and he outmaneuvered all of them out of costume and without any of his equipment. He has held his ground against Spider-Man before and had the upper hand in a fight with Nick Fury (who is quite a good hand-to-hand fighter) and actually forced him to retreat. He is incredibly strong (bended cell bars like they where nothing) has recovered quickly from some pretty grievous injuries, and successfully navigated a battle between numerous possessed heroes including the Hulk, the Thing, Strong Guy, Gambit, Nova, Weapon Omega, US Agent, Storm, Living Lightning, and several others. He is also a really complex and interesting character with some serious mental issues and rather brutal methods that make him something of an outcast among other heroes. The ironic thing is, he's cooler then almost all of them.
Azrael here isn't very popular. And that's too bad, because he is actually way underrated. He is very cool and it's stupid that they killed him off and replaced him with some generic policeman (kind of like what they did with Question) What makes him so unpopular is partly the fact that he did a rather lousy job at replacing Batman. But as Batman, Jean-Paul did beat Bane (something that the original Batman had been unable to accomplish) and later, during a fight against Bruce, Jean-Paul won and seemingly killed him. He was then able to fend off an enraged Nightwing long enough to escape. He continued to be an elusive adversary, and when Batman did finally corner him, Azrael still put up a fight. He would later go toe-to-toe with Deathstroke, who was impressed by his sword skills so I really don't think that there is any denying his skills. Besides that, he also looks really badass and I personally just think that he is a good character in general (kind of like a less cool version of Moon Knight.)
This guy here is like the Anti-Batman. He is just as resourceful as his heroic counterpart and has had similar training. He knows how to maim and kill in a dozen different languages and he was, albeit with the element of surprise, able to sneak on board the watchtower and take down several members of the JLA. Despite having no superpowers, he is very highly trained, and has an extensive arsenal of various weapons with which to conduct his war on Justice. As already stated, he has beaten members of the JLA before and was a worthy adversary to the team...right up until Green Arrow shot him in the head. But that's Green Arrow. I admit, Prometheus may not be quite as...skilled or as intelligent as his counterpart, but he certainly had some things going for him and is definitely a good villain. Or was, anyway.
There is no denying that the pre-crisis CSA sucked beyond words. But everyone sucked pre-crisis (it was a time when comics where not written well. Or drawn well for that matter) But since the characters reintroduction, the Crime Syndicate have definitely been transformed into truly badass villains. They are evil versions of the Justice League after all. They posses all of their counterpart's skills and powers, but are perfectly willing to kill and are infinitely more ruthless. You might say that they are just as good at CAUSING crime as the JLA are at stopping it. Bottom line, they are excellent examples of cool dopplegangers in comics and I really feel that they deserve more respect and also deserve to be written better then they often are. Crisis on Two Earths is probably their best interpretation to date.
One of my favorite Spider-Man villains, Shocker is a good example of a character whose brains are better then his brawn and I respect him more because of it. He's no Dr. Doom or Lex Luthor, but he was smart and resourceful enough to make his first set of shock gauntlets in prison with raw materials and then his padded suit to go with it. True, Spider-Man has often beaten him by just webbing up his shock gauntlets, but this is when further proof of his resourcefulness comes into play. Shocker has adapted his design multiple times, and as such is not always beaten quite so easily. He is also smart and resourceful in other ways as well. And I consider that a lot more respectable then guys like Sandman and Rhino, who for all of their raw physical strength have no intelligence whatsoever.
This guy is underrated mostly just because he's so minor, and that's a shame, because he is an extremely powerful character. As the name implies, he can run pretty damn fast and is easily the fastest speedster in both Marvel and DC. He is just as strong as the Silver Surfer (if not stronger) and can fire cosmic blasts even more powerful then his (which is saying a lot) He also has a pheromone ability that makes people go stupid for him, regardless of their gender. When Silver Surfer fought him, Runner used this ability on him and proceeded to beat him like he was a child. He also gave Thanos a beating which, knowing the character's capabilities, is pretty impressive.
Of the four people who sought to replace Superman after his death, this guy is easily the coolest. Well, yes, the yellow goggles sucked, but the rest of him didn't. Taking to the streets as a Superman unafraid to use lethal force, he, ironically enough, ultimately contributed to Superman's resurrection. He kicked Cyborg Superman's ass and later did the same to Mr. Majestic, Wildstorm's Superman. He is a mercurial individual, sometimes Superman's friend, sometimes an enemy. He is currently the representative of New Krypton and a friend/foe of the Outsiders.
