#I haven’t engaged in fandoms for years until The Acolyte

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

FIVE UNDERAPPRECIATED CHARACTERS (and five runners up)

A few caveats before we begin. Firstly, the difference between underused and underappreciated. An underused character is one that the writers haven't done much with at all. An underappreciated character is one that fandom doesn't pay much attention or give credit to despite what the writers have done with them already as is that should warrant more attention. Secondly is that this list is biased as fuck. The only person on it who isn't one of my special favorites is Moira MacTaggert. I tried for that not to be the case, but the fact is, the Marvel Universe is really, REALLY big, and there are soooo many characters that I can really only get to know a specific few. And so of course the ones I know best are the ones that I know have done stuff that should be more widely appreciated by fandom. So if your under-rated favorite isn't on here and you think they deserve to be, it's not that I looked at them and said "what a loser" and deliberately left them off, I just probably don't know who they are and what they accomplished to deserve to be on this list. I'm sure that the characters who deserve to be on it could fill a book. That's why I just put "five underappreciated characters" instead of "top five", because I don't think these are objectively the TOP underrated characters, they're just five of the ones that I know and like best. Thirdly, my definition of "underappreciated" is based solely on what *I* have seen of fandom in *my* experience with it...and I am not someone deeply involved in fandom. I largely stay out of it, only venturing in when looking for info on a preferred character, or just happening on stuff by chance. So I might be totally wrong in how I've gauged the popularity level, or lack thereof, of a character. Thus, one or more of these might actually not be "underappreciated" at all.  Which, hey, would be great! Anyway, on to the list...

FIVE UNDERAPPRECIATED CHARACTERS

- Moira MacTaggert: If you're imagining a sexy young American CIA agent, stop it right now. I'm talking about comics Moira. Comics Moira is around Charle's age, very Scottish, and she is actually DOCTOR MacTaggert, a world-renowned leading geneticist whose area of specialty is mutants. She's badass, she's smart, she calls Charles out on his shit when no one else does, she has dark issues of her own, and she goes after a kelpie with a giant gun. She's a longtime ally of the X-Men, she lives at the mansion and forms a relationship with each team member of the time, and even forms/leads her own team of X-Men on Muir Island (the site of her research center) when it appears the original team has been killed. Moira debuts at an early point in the comics, and is an important player in numerous stories for years to come up until her death at the hands of Mystique, but not before she discovered the cure to the Legacy Virus, saving the lives of countless mutants. If you remember no one else on this list, remember Moira MacTaggert. - The Hellions: During the 80s when Emma Frost was still a villain, she ran a school of her own and the Hellions were her teenage proteges. They were rivals to the New Mutants, but with the exception of Empath and maybe Roulette, not evil at all. They were just mutant kids that Emma had gotten to before Xavier did. Some of them formed friendships with the New Mutants, and their clashes were more like contests than real battles. They all had distinct personalities, most of which were quite likeable and interesting, but were never used to their full potential. They might have had big futures ahead of them, but when the 90s came along, they were all wiped out in a mass slaughter (except, ironically, Empath, the one character I don't think anyone WANTED to survive) which prompted Emma Frost to join the X-Men, as she felt her future students would have a better chance of surviving if she were with them. While the Hellions are still beloved and mourned to this day by a small but devoted number of comic fans, their fascinating and unique personalities make them worthy of so much more remembrance. - Destiny: I see more fanart of Mystique and Azazel than I do Mystique and Destiny, and I think that's a damn shame. Azazel was just a dude who knocked Mystique up. Destiny was a woman she had a lifelong relationship, never leaving her side even when she grew old while Mystique stayed young. Historically, same-sex relationships in comic books and other movies were used to show how evil and depraved a villain was to engage in such a thing, but Mystique's love for Destiny was used to humanize her instead. While they could never actually be called lovers on-panel, they pushed the envelope as much as possible for the time, living together and even raising an adopted child (Rogue) together. How is fandom not all over that? God knows there's a fuck ton of fanart of Charles and Erik raising the latter's kids together, and that didn't even happen! But she's more than just Mystique's wife or Rogue's mother. She's an enigmatic but influential force in the Marvel universe who affected all of the X-Men even long after her own death. She was far less malicious and malevolent than the rest of the Brotherhood, yet her predictions are what steered their actions. Did she really want to achieve their cause of mutant supremacy? Or was she manipulating them to shape the future in a larger way? And the diaries she left behind recording her visions both predicted and moved plots in the 2000s, making her a more important character post-mortem than she was alive. She's also neat in that not only in that she was one of the first LGBT mutants (and represented positively, no less, despite her villainy) but also in that she wasn't a hot sexy villainess, she was an elderly woman and neither she nor her relationship with another woman was sexualized at all. That's very rare. It's even more rare to see older gay people represented; the 'face' of the LGBT community is typically portrayed as people around 30 or less, seldom over 50. Therefore, I think she deserves more recognition both in terms of being a diversity milestone and for just who she was and what she did. - Fabian Cortez: Yes, there's a little personal bias here, but I really do think Fabian deserves more spotlight in fandom than he gets. This dude showed up at the beginning of the 90s, expertly manipulated the retired Magneto back into villainy for his own purposes, then orchestrated his death for the same reason, framing humanity for it. He then used Magneto's image as a martyr to gather a cult called the Acolytes that numbered far more than any incarnation of the Brotherhood ever had. They were vicious, they were bloodthirsty, and they did anything Fabian said. Fabian manipulated heroes and villains alike, attempted to sway Quicksilver to his side. When that failed, he became his nemesis of the era, and during Blood Ties he even kidnapped Quicksilver's daughter to hold hostage as he deliberately plunged the nation of Genosha into a bloody civil war. After the return of Magneto and addition of Exodus, Fabian loses his badass status and gets put more in a "Toad" role as the slimy subordinate who is abused by his superiors as he secretly schemes against him. But while he ceases to be important in the OVERALL story, he remains important in relation to Magneto and Quicksilver, as there's obviously still a lot of animosity between them. This animosity remains right up until Magneto kills him once his use for him runs out. So, what makes Fabian Cortez unappreciated? Well, when's the last time you met a fan who knew who he is? Did you even know who he was before you read this blog? He's a major player for the first half of the 90s, then attached to a major player through the next half (and one that is IMMENSELY popular in fandom), yet no one knows who he is. Even fans of Magneto and Quicksilver, whose stories he was very important in during the entire decade, don't know this guy. Then there's his personality. Fabian is the WORST and it's AMAZING. It's not just that he's a manipulative liar who will do anything for power, it's not just that he abuses and even sacrifices his followers for his own gain, it's not just that he's a major egomaniac, he's also a tremendous sexist and tremendously thirsty, with goals of forming a harem. He even causes a 15 year unexplained mystery because he was staring at a woman's butt! He's threatening and competent, yet at the same time, utterly hilarious in his sex-crazed misogynistic pompous cowardly assholery. He also has some fantastic lines, such as MY WILL BE DONE SO SAYETH ME in the animated series, and telling Quicksilver that he scream his name very well. He's also in some hilarious scenes, like vanishing even faster than QUICKSILVER can see when Quicksilver says he has explaining to do. Seriously, if you don't recognize him for his importance to plot as a villain or for his role as an enemy to Magneto and Quicksilver, recognize him for his epic doucheyness and epic hilarity. - Kwannon: If you love Psylocke, you need to love Kwannon, or at least know her, because everything Psylocke is today is due to Kwannon. In both the 90s cartoon and the X-Men movies, Psylocke has always been depicted as Asian, but in fact, she's not---Kwannon was. And in many regards, she was who Betsy has been since. You see, Psylocke originally was a well-mannered little lady from England. Her time with the X-Men made her want to be a fighter very much...and she got her wish when she was body-swapped with Kwannon, a Japanese ninja assassin, in order to save the latter's life. The swap was done by the Mojoworld villainess Spiral, but arranged by Japanese crimelords Mastu'o Tsurayaba and Lord Nyoirin. Once it was done, each of them attempted to manipulate the two mentally confused women into both their loves and personal weapons. The swap also resulted in their minds merging to a degree as well, so that they absorbed skills, memories, and personality traits from each other. For Psylocke, she gained Kwannon's ninja abilities, and a much more brutal personality. The latter was only exacerbated by her rage at how she had been used and victimized, how her agency had been taken from her to the point her body literally was not her own, of what these men had done to her. This was the beginning of the Psylocke as we know her now. As for Kwannon, she suffered an identity crisis. Thanks to absorbing some of Betsy's memories during the swap and the manipulating lies of Nyoirin, she believed herself to be the REAL Betsy Braddock, mentally as well as physically, and accused Psylocke of being an imposter. Due to their scrambled psyches, this could not be worked out for some time, and it was not until the time that Kwannon was on death's door with the Legacy Virus that she was finally able to realize the truth of who she was and what had been done to her. She perished in the white body of Betsy Braddock, while Betsy lived on in her Asian body, which is now the appearance most associated with her today. Kwannon deserves to be remembered both for what Betsy gained from her, and as a character in her own right.

FIVE RUNNERS UP

These are the characters that I think deserve more recognition for whatever reason, but also aren't truly what I would call underappreciated either . Sebastian Shaw: Sebastian Shaw has been a big name in the comics fandom since his first appearance, and for very good reason. He's a major baddie, and he's very good at it, though admittedly he's never managed to top his first story. Poor guy peaked too early. But he's still managed to be a pretty cool villain, and a fairly consistent one, though his role wanes more with every decade. Still, he's always been at least B-list in fandom. Maybe not everyone's favorite, but at least everyone knows who he is, what he does, and the basic reasons why he does it. The evil billionaire who just wants more money and power and will do anything to get it isn't new or original, but Shaw does it very well, and with a mindset that makes him more realistic than the stock stereotype and with a flair very distinct to him...also, he takes his shirt off every chance he gets and it's hilarious. He's great, and even fans who don't love him have generally still recognized his importance as a good villain. But with the rise of movie fandom, that's changed. The movies have far overtaken the comics in reach and popularity, and while I don't think that's a good or bad thing, it does mean that now most people think Nazi Kevin Bacon when they hear the name Sebastian Shaw, who has nothing in common with comics Shaw. The fact he hasn't done any proper villainy in the comics for like ten years doesn't help. And I think Shaw deserves better. He's not a sympathetic villain, he's not even a particularly complex one, but he's interesting in his own way, and he's both threatening and fun. Threatening because of his ruthlessness, how he uses political and economic power as much as punches, his willingness to throw all of mutantkind under the bus for his own gain, and his incorrigible perseverance. He's also got a pretty fleshed-out past which could easily have been used to make him tragic to the point of cliche, but isn't, which I find neat. He's not tragic in the SLIGHTEST at all, actually, he's so self-interested and awful it's kind of hilarious. And he has some great dynamics with other characters. So, why would I only make him a runner-up? Because I think that while he's not getting as much credit as he used to, and that he does deserve a little more spotlight, he's not totally deprived of it either. There are still plenty of comic fans out there who know he is, and who say, yeah, that dude was pretty cool. He's not as big a name as he used to be or as he could be, and he probably is never going to get out of Movie Shaw's shadow ever again, but he's hardly forgotten either. I think if the comics find cool new things to do with this fucker, he'll start gaining back some of his former glory from the classic days ASAP in fandom. He's a character in All New All Different right now, and they do seem to have SOMETHING planned with him, so here's hoping! Madelyne Pryor: As with Shaw, the rise of the movie fandom overtaking the comic fandom has made her name more obscure, but lots of comics fan still know her. But I think the underappreciation factor is that many only really know her as the Goblyn Queen, the insane villain, the evil ex-wife, the Jean Grey clone gone wrong. The fact that she was good guy character for six years, and even a member of the X-Men in addition to their friend, goes forgotten. Before she was the Goblyn Queen, she was just Maddy, and she had a lot of adventures with the X-Men where she was a hero, and a strong character in her own right for reasons that had nothing to do with being Jean's clone or Sinister's creation or the rest of that stuff. I think that the original Maddy, the real Maddy she was at heart before everything went so wrong, needs to be remembered too. But I've never seen so much as a single piece of fanart where she wasn't in her villain garb. That said, I can't call her underappreciated altogether just because one aspect of her is overlooked. Many fans still know who she is and recognize the tragedy of who she became, even if they don't really know who she used to be, and there's a lot of sympathy for her in comic fandom to this day...and skimpy fanart, of course. Haven: Haven is a big-time favorite of mine, that's no secret. Other villains, I love because they're nasty, but Haven, I love because she's good. She's really, really good. And while I've seen villains who are good people before, I've never seen a villain that was a pacifist, and who not only never harmed the heroes, and barely even threatened to, but even healed them and helped them and rescued them. It's a really unusual decision, and a risky one (TV Tropes says she was killed off because readers refused to root against her) and it can be interesting to the point of distressing to read her comics, because it gets really hard to tell who should be seen as the bad guy. Because in spite of all the bad things we're told that her cult is doing offscreen, all that's shown onscreen is the heroes attacking a gentle compassionate woman who doesn't want to fight and doesn't hurt them back even though she could. It's such a unique dynamic, and brings conflict not only to the story but the reader. Haven also brought other unique ideas to the scene as well. For one thing, she wasn't a mutant herself, but her unborn child was, and she could access its great powers (hence why the Adversary probably chose her) That's a really neat idea, and it also puts her in a unique position of not really being human or mutant but sort of both, and having lived half her life as one, half as the other. She brings up the perspective this gives her at one point, and I really would have liked to see that expanded on. Another thing I'd liked to have learned more about is her books and lectures; in addition to being a supervillain and a charity worker, she was a best-selling author and lecturer who promoted mutant/human peace. Even though she's little-known to fans, she was apparently pretty prominent in-universe, and I think having a voice in the mutant/human debate that for the first time wasn't white, male, and Western was neat. I would have liked to know more about her perspectives and arguments and how they compared and contrasted with those of others, from Graydon Creed to Professor X himself, and how the public viewed her. Also, she's just endearing. Again, TV Tropes says that fans of the day refused to root against her, and I can see why. She heals the sick, she feeds the hungry, she cares for orphans, and she tells X-Factor she loves them. How do you bring yourself to fight someone like that? It's easy to stand against bad guys who are mean and nasty, who doesn't wanna punch Fabian Cortez in his smug gross creeper face, but Haven creates the dilemma of making the heroes (at least some of them) very reticent to apprehend her or even believe the accusations against her. It's a much more complex setup than is typical, and as I said, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it anywhere else. The fact that the reader finds out she's not really doing this of her own free will (though the heroes never discover this) makes her all the more sympathetic. Ultimately, though, I don't think she counts as truly underappreciated because that word implies she deserves much more recognition than she gets, and I think she simply wasn't major enough to the story to warrant that (unlike, say, Fabian Cortez, who was VERY relevant). And unlike the Hellions, I don't think she had potential to go on to become a lasting character. Her story could only end one of two ways. Either she died tragically (as she did), or she was saved from possession and went on to live a normal life as a normal human. Either way, she would be removed from the scene. I guess they could have had her stay on as part of the team or something like that but...I can't see that happening at all. What would she even do? And would she want to? I mean, can you seriously see HAVEN as part of a government strike force? No way. Haven simply is not cut out to be a major character in an action comic, and once you take away the Adversary forcing her into conflict, she's out. And she just...didn't do much while she was in. Consequence of refusing to hurt anybody, I guess. I think she's definitely worth looking into for fans who are interested in seeing an unusual type of character like her, but she's far from being a "must-know" little-known. Zaladane: Magneto's family has been a point of interest in canon and fandom for a long time, and the rise of the movies has only increased that. There's fanart GALORE of the Magneto clan, most prominently him and the Maximoffs but also Polaris, Speed, Wiccan, and Luna (Magda and Anya tend to be forgotten...) And now there's a kid named Nina from XMA, apparently? And yet, there's nothing to be seen of poor Zaladane. Few people even know who she is, let alone that she is almost certainly a child of our favorite iron-controlling helmet-head as well, or at least was until recent continuity changes fucked up that possibility. So, who was she? She's a sorceress from the Savage Land that the X-Men faced as a foe more than once. On one occasion, she kidnapped Lorna Dane aka Polaris. She revealed that her real name wasn't Zaladane, it was Zala Dane, and Lorna was her long-list sister. She then proceeded to use a machine to transfer Lorna's magnetic powers to herself. Lorna had no memories of Zala and dismissed her claims of sisterhood as a crock, but Moira MacTaggert confirmed that the machine required that the two people in worked on be genetically related in order for the transfer to take place. In other words, Zala was indeed related to Lorna, either as her sister or some other connection. Not content to steal the powers of Lorna alone, Zala later went after Magneto, and successfully took his as well using the same machine. So, if the machine requires the people involved have similiar genes, to be family, to work...and she could use it on Magneto....it follows he and she are related as well. And if Zala is Lorna's sister...and Magneto, as we now know, is Lorna's father...well, the math does itself. Zala is Magneto's daughter too. Though Zala must surely have worked this out, she never mentioned it to him, and Magneto killed her without ever knowing their likely connection. Unlike many X-villains, she has yet to make a resurrection. This all went down during the 80s and 90s. During the 2000s, writers who had either forgotten Zaladane or simply didn't care made alterations to Lorna's history that make any relation between Zala and Magneto impossible. But me, I think that could be easily explained---just say she came from another universe! She sure wouldn't be the first alt-dimensional child of a character to come to 616, and it might help explain how the hell she got to the Savage Land, as well as why Lorna had no knowledge of her.I think Zaladane should get more attention because, well, Magneto's other kids get so much love. However, there's really nothing about her besides her potential pedigree that makes her stick out enough that I think she's truly "unappreciated" aside from this. Hence her only having a runner-up status. Shinobi Shaw: There's really nothing important about Shinobi. He wasn't in any big stories, he didn't do anything major, he barely did anything at all. Calling him "underappreciated" would in no way be justified. There is no reason he deserves appreciation and recognition. But you know what? He's funny. He's really, really funny. He's ridiculous, and that's my entire reason for reading him, and I think the outlandish shit he manages to get up in his 20something issues of existence is enough that he bears warrant as an honorable mention. There's no real reason you NEED to know who he is, but I think you'll be get a lot of laughs if you do look into him. He's basically the Emperor Kuzco of D-list X-villains, and I wouldn't have him any other way. Seriously, bless this vain selfish lazy wine-loving bisexual idiot, I love him so much.