DC and Marvel Comics both love to come up with new, original characters that can challenge the status quo of beloved characters like Superman and Batman. It is only right that these companies should try to keep creating as they move forwards, past eighty years of publication for many of the same characters.
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However, innovation doesn’t always work. There are many characters created in the past who have been so heavily abandoned by DC Comics that they haven’t even appeared in a comic book for over twenty years. Such characters usually didn’t fit with the moving times or were too similar to other characters, and thus couldn’t make it in the pages of modern comics.
6Bouncing Boy
The Legion of Super-Heroes was always meant to be a bit of a strange team, with a lot of unusual members. But this 31st Century’s version of the Justice League went too far sometimes in setting itself apart from the original incarnation of the team, and Bouncing Boy is a perfect example of how wrong things can go sometimes.
A character who was born a normal human being, Bouncing Boy gained the ability to inflate into a giant ball shape and bounce around, one ofthe weirdest superpowers in history. He did this by drinking a super-plastic formula which he believed was a soda. First appearing in the early 1960s, Bouncing Boy’s secret identity Chuck Taine survived into the 21st century, but post-Crisis he became a normal human with no powers, thus Bouncing Boy was abandoned and has not managed to return thus far. Some crazy characters have been suggested forfuture DC projects likeThe Batman 2, but Bouncing Boy seems unlikely to ever return.
5The Original Super-Sons
In a modern-day world wherecharacters like Damian Wayneand Jon Kent have been much more successful as the sons of Batman and Superman respectively, this is a strange one to look back on. In the 70s, DC chose to bring together Batman Jr and Superman Jr, whose real names were seriously Bruce Wayne Jr and Clark Kent Jr.
The duo had almost exactly the same powers and abilities as their fathers and went on adventures together. However, it turned out to be a simulation created by Batman on a computer to show him and Supes what it would be like if they had kids in real life. A totally ridiculous series of events, this series didn’t manage to stick around long and these characters never really returned, making Bruce Wayne Jr one of the few youngsters Batman hasn’t kept around through the yearsas part of the Bat-Family.
4Gunfire
An entirely forgettable 90s superhero who was brought into DC Comics as part of a New Blood series of heroes that DC was attempting to popularize. While Gunfire proclaims himself the world’s deadliest weapon, his power is random and fairly underwhelming. Quite simply, he can turn anything into a gun.
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It may seem unusual that a hero who primarily uses guns wouldn’t simply keep guns on them, but Gunfire doesn’t need to do that. Instead, when he needs a gun, he creates one. It’s strange that a superhero has a power when all he does is use guns, but that was one of the many failed ideas in the Bloodlines story.
3Stone Boy
Yes, it’s another member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Worse, this time it’s one of the members of the infamous Legion of Substitute Heroes. Not actually good enough to get into the Legion itself, Stone Boy was forced to join the backup team. Stone Boy comes from a planet where darkness covers everything for half of the year, so his peopleevolved to be able to turn to stoneand wait it out.
Unfortunately, that’s all he does. He turns to stone and can no longer move or assist in any way until he decides to no longer be stone. An aggressively useless hero who made it into a surprising number of comics before being totally abandoned, Stone Boy remains a baffling inclusion that must surely have been a joke which went on for far too long in DC Comics.
2Codpiece
Not only did this character not make it to the 21st century, but Codpiece didn’t even manage to make it past the first comic book issue that he ever appeared in. Codpiece is a high school student who misunderstood when a girl insulted him and thought she was implying he was short in another way. As a way to compensate, he built a giant weapon and attached it to his groin.
Appearing in a single issue ofDoom Patrol, the “groin cannon” used by Codpiece managed to contain a boxing glove, an ultrasound emitter, and a rocket launcher, to name but a few of the weapons he used in his strange villainous rampage.TheDoom Patrolshow may recently have been canceled, but Codpiece was canceled after a single issue.
1The Original Black Condor
There have been many characters who get an update, a change in identity or a completely changed origin and style. Black Condor received all three of these things, twice, before finally finding some success at DC Comics. Originally a man named Richard Grey Jr, Black Condor was created by Quality Comics and later bought out by DC.
Dubbed by some as “bird Tarzan” the original Black Condor was abandoned in Mongolia as a child and was raised by a group of genius condors. As such, he can fly. He was raised by birds and thus can fly. Whether the logic tracks or not, the later incarnations of the Black Condor improved on the backstory but have never gained much foothold either in DC Comics. The character is about as likely to return as he is to appear inJames Gunn’s DCU future plans.
