FAQ: Do You Have A Plan For THIS Character?
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Easily the most common type of question we get asked is about specific characters. Do we have plans for them, or if we aren't including them, why? Unfortunately, It became difficult to answer these questions in a satisfactory way because it was really just one of a few answers over and over... or at least permutations on those answers.
We do love it when people ask, so in an effort to keep answering I've created the following ranking system to quickly illustrate the status of any given character. The nice thing about this is we can actually use it to track as character might change over time as we slowly develop new ideas that might use them! We went with one to five stars (or skulls) so you can see quickly at a glance if they're on the docket or not and just where we fall on that character. I should add, these aren't PERMANENT. We reserve the right to change out mind at any time! With that in mind, here is the new character ranking system: |
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⭐ ~ This character isn't usable currently but they have enough going that we might find a use for them someday.
⭐⭐ ~ We have a vague idea of a way we could use this character, but it's very incomplete
⭐⭐⭐ ~ We have a pretty good idea of what we’d like to do with them and it's starting to look like we might actually use them.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ ~ We have a plan and they will be going on the site as soon as we find time to do it!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ~ They’re on the site!
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☠️ ~ We actually really do want to use this character but there are some fundamental hurdles that we just can't seem to work out.
☠️☠️ ~ Any utility this character might bring is done better elsewhere and they’re left being kind of redundant and not worth including.
☠️☠️☠️ ~ I get that people like this character? But they really don't do anything at all. We need characters to contribute something other than a cool action figure.
☠️☠️☠️☠️ ~ No… but you knew that. You’re clearly trolling by asking.
☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️ ~ I will be dead in the ground before this guy makes it in here.
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Abra Kadabra ☠️☠️
~ Our time travel rules means this guy can't be an illusionist from the future, and unfortunately that's really all he has going on.
Acrata ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ We're absolutely going to be expanding on the basic ideas of I Justica to make another international team down the road.
~ This is a really beloved character we all really like? But we don't want to invent a subterranean population of geokenetics, and without that it's actually tricky to get her personality as a loveable outsider right.
~ We're probably going to expand the role of Sophia Falcone at some point, and doing so will probably necessitate a page for Alberto
Alpha Centurion ⭐⭐⭐
~ We finally took this character down, but I still believe there's a functional version of him that we'll find one day.
Alura & Zor-El ⭐⭐
~ we don't need to do pages for everybody's parents, just the ones that are narratively relevant. These two don't have a role to play exactly in our version of events, but we could see them developing one.
Apollo ☠️☠️
~ Wildstorm in general is very cool as a standalone comic continuity, but I just don't think any of it has meshed well into DC.
Arani Desai ☠️
~ We did have her in our Doom Patrol once upon a time, but she really needs Evil Chief to work, and we're not doing that.
Atari Force ☠️☠️☠️☠️
~ This was a cute request, but they were never actual normal DC canon anyway. I do wonder if they'd actually work somewhere Omega Men adjacent, though?
Babydoll ☠️☠️
~ A good animated series episode, but this is really a character for animation. I just don't think she transitions well into the regular narrative.
Black Alice ☠️
~ I love a Gail Simone creation as much as anyone, to say nothing of goth girls with perpetually exposed bellybuttons, but this character has such a poorly defined powerset she essentially becomes unusable, and trying to GIVE her a usable powerset is essentially building a whole new character.
Black Hand ☠️☠️☠️☠️
~ Just no. This wasn't really a functional villain before the Johns Green Lantern run... but Blackest Night was one of the crossovers that really got me out of collecting current comics.
Blackrock ☠️☠️
~ Not really an important enough Superman villain to keep, I think we only included the South American version of the character because she was drawn by Ed Benes.
Brick ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ The first time, since introducing this format for this page, that I've updated a character because they are now on the site! This is a good feeling! I hope we get to do it more often!
Bulleteer ☠️
~ The Grant Morrison version of this character from Seven Soldiers of Victory feels like it might be usable, but in practice it's just tonally very weird
Caitlyn Fairchild ☠️☠️
~ One of the very earliest characters to be included in the project, I think she was a part of the Freedom Fighters for a long time for some reason, Like most Wildstorm characters, she never really fit in that well.
~ A very VERY cool character from a very VERY cool book... she keeps popping up for different roles but honestly I think the only one you can really use her for is the one she was invented to play. Which might be enough reason to include her all by itself.
Cavalier ☠️☠️☠️
~ People will not stop bringing this guy up, and for the life of me I just can't figure out why.
~ We are ready to add this team pretty much at any time, we just have to get the timelines together
Cinnamon ⭐⭐
~ We sort of lose this character in later versions as she's made into just another Hawkwoman reincarnation, but the original story is actually really cool and useful for our western history.
Coldcast ☠️☠️
~ We already have both Black Lightning & Static, and neither of them are wearing chains. We gave his role in the Elite to Major Disaster, and you really don't miss him at all.
Commander Blanx ☠️☠️
~ This was suggested before we'd introduced our version of the White Martians. We've basically taken another route.
~ She was originally added as a part of Lex's story, but she never really justified being there. She was just in, and then she was out, and nothing really happened.
The Court of Owls ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ I've never liked this as a part of Batman's story, I think it runs contrary to his existing narrative, but we've actually found a way to use them in an entirely different part of the world and I think you'll like the results.
Crimson Fox ⭐⭐⭐
~ We've never really found a super usable version of her, but as we dig into international heroes she does tend to come out as a frontrunner a lot of the time.
Cyclone ⭐⭐⭐
~ There's a lot of talk about ways to update Red Tornado, and almost all of them create a very clear way to use Cyclone, so once that whole thing is solidified I think this is very in the cards.
Deacon Blackfire ☠️☠️
~ We originally took them off because we included the character Blackfire who is just way more important, but we also realized how redundant they were with Brother Blood, who is just a way more comic book-y character. Batman is not hurting for baddies.
Detective Chimp ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ We have a plan involving Detective Chimp that will expand the early narrative of the Oblivion that you'll probably see when we're updating the Shadowpact characters.
Dragon King ⭐
~ We have to be careful here, because there's some inherent racism in the concept (not to mention the Dragon Society is a real world thing, basically Japan's Nazi party) So there's a lot that has to be rethought? But there is a lot of utility here and we'll likely see some version of him turn up somewhere
Doctor Poison ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ She's listed as a Hippolyta villain rather than Wonder Woman since she exclusively operates in WWII, so I can see how she's easy to miss, but she's in there!
~ We redid the Doom Patrol to adhere much more closely with their classic structure, and it does feel like maybe Dorothy could be involved? But she'd be less a honorary member and more the catalyst of a single storyline.
Duke Thomas ☠️☠️☠️
~ I appreciate that he has his fans, but I have yet to be presented with a concrete reason to use him.
El Muerto ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ Easily the coolest of the original members of I Justica, we might actually wind up using him even more.
Empress ⭐
~ Comes up sometimes as a character that could be used for a few different roles. There's a weird disconnect between her status as a voodoo priestess and her presentation as a sword fighter... there's just some tonal incongruity there.
Evil Star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ We ultimately found a really great use for this very weird old Green Lantern Villain, and I'm actually really glad we did. He's fun to see out there.
Fever ⭐
~ I feel like this era of the Doom Patrol gets kind of glossed over in the long run. Fever feels like she's make sense in another book somewhere? I just imagine we might find a role for her at some point.
~ He is absolutely a Doom Patrol character because he debuted there? But Flex is a singular character that belongs in his own Meta narrative. Read it, it's great.
Flatline ☠️☠️☠️
~ If you're not doing Lord Death Man, and you're not doing the League of Lazarus Tournament... there's just not much to her that's usable. She certainly LOOKS very cool, though.
General Immortus ☠️☠️
~We gave General Immortus's role as a Doom Patrol Villain to Vandal Savage really early on, just because we liked it, and in doing so we've effectively rendered this character moot.
Ghost-Maker ☠️☠️☠️
~ Batman but edgier. This is a remarkably dumb character, and the sort of thing that happens when the writer on a book just has nothing to say of substance, so they start inventing nonsense like this.
Goldface ☠️☠️☠️
~ one of the Flash / Green Lantern villains that was pretty easy to say no to up front.
~ Basically the lynchpin that would have made our version of the Seven Soldiers of Victory really cool, but that storyline just isn't happening. So while we LIKE him, we just haven't worked out how to use him.
Hector Hammond ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
~ This gets recommended so often for so many roles that sometimes he actually does start to make sense as someone we could use? But then I remember how much I hate him.
Hellhound ⭐
~ We had him as an extra body in an early version of our Suicide Squad. He remains a fairly good LOOK for a character and will probably find some use for him at some point.
Holly Granger ☠️☠️
~ This is one of the most obvious examples of color-by-numbers fill-in-the-blank character design in recent memory. If Holly had been introduced as a whole character inside a Hawk & Dove story, that might have been something, but as she is she's barely even a background element.
Iman ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ Our version of I Justica is absolutely on its way, and a big part of that was making this character into something we're actually really excited about.
Invisible Hood ☠️☠️
~ I'm fairly certain he was suggested as a joke, because this is an old Quality Comics character that has practically never been used? There's just nothing to him at all.
Jakeem Thunder ☠️☠️
~ We are close to introducing an updated Johnny Thunder, but the story we're using will likely make any legacy characters, at least legacies that use Yz, impossible.
Jemm Son of Saturn ☠️☠️
~ This is at best a palate-swap unlockable character. Still, sometimes if those characters show up enough they wind up getting their own backstory, so who knows?
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Jericho ☠️☠️☠️
~ This was disappointing because we all really like Jericho, but his appearances in the comics basically coincide with the end of the Titans really being relevant? There are NO stories featuring this character that we want to include.
Jessica Cruz ⭐⭐⭐
~ We are SO close to getting this to work. This might be the longest time I've worked on a character?
Johnny Thunder ⭐⭐⭐
~ The version of this character we were using was just too generic and wasn't taking advantage of the comic lore. We think we have a way to use him now, though.
Julia Pennyworth ☠️
~ A cool character, but unfortunately the life of one of the most importing supporting characters in DC doesn't really have room to be a parent, and we have other characters that can fill this role.
Kanto ⭐⭐
~ We just didn't have a place for him exactly in the 4th World story we were telling, but I'm fairly certain we'll find one for him eventually.
Kid Eternity ☠️
~ Another errant Grant Morrison fanboy inclusion... we tried to adapt their take and it just got very weird.
Kite Man ☠️☠️
~ A joke villain that got inexplicably zeitgeist-y for a minute there; we just don't really have the space for too many characters with this sort of role to play.
KGBeast ⭐⭐⭐
~ There is a surprising amount of utility in this very dated character. He's showing up in a number of places in future plans, so its definitely just a matter of time.
Lagoon Boy ☠️☠️
~ I just don't see a narrative purpose for including him other than trying to fill Atlantis with more supporting characters.
Libra ☠️☠️☠️
~ A few people asked about him, but honestly he might be the highest profile character with no story to contribute at all.
Lucifer ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ You'll absolutely see a page for Lucifer, as there are enough interactions with hell to justify it, but It's going to considerably less in depth than it would have been a few years ago, for obvious reasons.
Major Force ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
~ Some characters you just don't have to explain leaving out. No thank you.
Max Mercury ☠️☠️
~ I think people assume he's more important to Flash's continuity than he is. He's really just a holdover Quality Comics character they needed to find a role for, but if we really want a speedster mentor, Jay Garrick is right there.
~ We'll almost definitely avoid his heel turn, but it's conceivable that we might at some point need this sort of character somewhere
Midnighter ☠️☠️
~ Wildstorm just doesn't create it's characters with enough of a framework for them to transition very well to DC proper.
Mirage ☠️☠️☠️
~ Most of the Team Titans are pretty skippable. This one stuck around for a bit so we took a stab at including her, but she ultimately was pretty easy to take down.
Mister Nobody ☠️
~ We worked pretty hard to adapt a lot of the meta concepts of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol into our narrative. The comic version of this character is just pure dada metafiction, and to try to adapt them into something else would just completely miss the point.
Morgan Edge ☠️☠️
~ Never really had a well defined role in the comics. We used him as part of the backstory for our take on Blackrock, but even that wasn't really worth keeping.
Nighthawk ⭐⭐
~ Researching classic western characters has revealed that this guy might just work in our timeline after all!
Onomatopoeia ☠️☠️☠️
~ Outside his clever meta gimmick, I actually don't think this character does anything at all. He's basically defined by how minimal his narrative is
Peek-a-boo ☠️☠️☠️
~ We did try to make this character work at one point, but in practice they feel exceptionally tacked-on.
The Phantasm ☠️☠️
~ This is a beloved character from what might be the best Batman movie ever made? Trying to work them into our regular continuity, though, just kept bumping into other characters who do what they do, only better.
The Prankster ☠️
~ An absolute relic from a bygone era of Superman history. There are modern attempt to adapt the character, and they all read exactly like adaptation attempts rather than functional characters.
Queen Clea ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ We had a version of this character as a modern Wonder Woman foe, but we've since reimagined her as an enemy for Hippolyta.
Rainbow Raider ☠️
~ I have this sneaking suspicion that it actually is possible to make a workable version of this Flash villain, but I just haven't found it.
The Red Hood Gang ☠️☠️
~ We're not making Jason Todd Red Hood, and we're not making Joker Red Hood, so there would be no reason to create this strained connection between them.
Red Panzer II ☠️☠️
~ We originally used him as a Donna Troy villain, but we decided it was better to use an updated version of Spellbinder instead and not have modern references to this sort of thing.
Resurrection Man ☠️☠️☠️
~ I feel like if someone found an interesting story to tell here that contributed to DC somehow, that might be cool? I just haven't seen it happen, and don't have anything to do with them.
Ryan Choi ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ It took us forever but we finally found a way to use him that felt organic, and I'm really proud of the result!
Savant ⭐
~ There's a lot to like in his design, but this is another example of the incredibly low bar Gail Simone sets with creating characters. He's all personality an no backstory at all.
Sarge Steel ⭐
~ He gets used in a lot of different roles because he never really had a definitive story of his own, but I do think that there's utility here that we'll find a use for.
~ Clearly a character whose role was made up as they went along. Her original utility doesn't really work (Batman's bodyguard?) but her eventual role as a spy with cyborg parts is cool. You'd really have to rethink her, though.
Sebastian Faust ⭐⭐
~ While we previously said he was just '90s Constantine', there have been a few interesting roles he's shown up in recently that actually suggest we might have a place for him.
The Shark ☠️☠️
~ Made zero sense as a green lantern villain. While they might have made a little more sense if they'd been rethought down the road, but King Shark beat them to the punch.
Slipknot ☠️☠️☠️☠️
~ Useful if I need really jokey, obviously ineffectual characters? But our project kind of deliberately sets everyone up to be functional, contributing parts of the timeline, so this sort of role just gets way less usable for us.
~ The Penguin series really had a bold take on this character and it does feel like we're really doing ourselves a disservice if we don't find a way to capitalize here.
Sojourner Mullein ☠️☠️
~ Far Sector was a great book, but adding more human green lanterns is completely insane at this point.
Solstice ⭐
~ Feels like she probably could have eventually become a usable character given the opportunity, so she’ll probably be useful at some point.
Soranik Natu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ There was never going to be a version of the Green Lantern Corp without her. She rules.
Spy-Smasher II ☠️☠️
~ We used a version of this character in our freedom fighters once upon a time, but have since replaced her with Rick Flag who just works way better.
Striker Z ⭐
~ The Power Company characters are all cool designs, and I like all of them, but he might have the least usable existing story.
The Tattooed Man ☠️☠️☠️
~ I get this powerset as a silver age green lantern villain, but they’ve never really introduced any update to his story to make him someone worth including.
Terra Man ☠️☠️☠️
~ Despite certain outspoken fans (sorry Gav) this is really a grab-bag villain who doesn't have a specific narrative contribution. He's just vibes.
Time Trapper ⭐⭐
~ We had no intention to use this character, but after this suggestion we actually had a conversation about a way we could actually use their complete disregard for their own continuity as a fun way to integrate them into ours? We'll see.
Tula ☠️☠️
~ As foundational a character as she might be, I don't really know what we’d do with her other than just introduce her and then kill her.
Vigilante II ⭐⭐⭐⭐
~ While fans of Peacemaker will probably be disappointed that this isn't Deadpool, we do absolutely have a plan to integrate the Marv Wolfman Adrian Chase version of Vigilante into the timeline.
Vigilante III ☠️☠️
~ We originally included a very modified version of Patricia Trayce to finish our version of Team 7, but we’ve since just found better candidates. We really had to bend over backwards to make her work, and I still don't think we actually pulled it off.
Volcana ☠️☠️
~ I've had some folks point out that this is a serviceable version of ‘What could have happened to Clark’, but as of yet I don't think she's really contributing much we don't already have.
Wild Dog ☠️☠️☠️☠️
~ This has always struck me as a laughable character, but he managed to be cool in Gerald Way’s Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye, and the discord manages to talk him up, so let's say he's not LOCKED at 4 ☠️’s.
Witchfire ⭐
~ Pretty much everyone in the power company is a really slick idea, but that just means there’s probably a perfect role for Becky Carstairs and we want to make sure we find it.
Xanthe Zhou ⭐⭐
~ This is a very well-designed character with a cool story and it's absolutely just a matter of time before they're in here. We just need to figure out where and how.
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