I'm a big Lobo fan, despite him being an over the top parody of the anti-hero.

Magog's pretty cool too, despite being literally everything wrong about the 90's. I mean seriously, the Cable-like appearance, the attitude, the redundant sidearm. I heard Mark Waid designed him to be everything he hated about comics. Maybe it's HeroClix. Maybe it's because Kingdom Come was so awesome, but I think Magog's cooler than Gog, despite being far far weaker.

Thoughts?

Well, there's always... Squirrel Girl!

I'm not sure if she really counts - I think her charm is intentional.

It was actually alex ross who mentioned that he was making a parody of the cable-esque/rob leifield-ian look that was running rampant. Incidentally, he also mentions that it was one of favorite costume designs.

Talk about being so bad that it's good.

My pic would have to be Deadpool; another parody that turned into his own character.

Ambush Bug

The Tick

What about Dazzler... do you think that the PTB really thought a disco-themed heroine would turn into the present incarnation?

Morph on the X-men animated series comes to mind. It's crazy how "popular" one shot characters can get.

Before the animated series, Morph "appeared" in the comics, he went by Changeling, a mutant with the same powers as Morph. He pretended to be Xavier as a way of redeeming his evil deeds, and died while pretending to be him (Xavier himself was preparing against an alien invasion).

Then there's the current Morph in the comics, who first appeared in Age of Apocalypse, and another version of him appeared in Exiles, and has been there since.

And all Morphs/Changelings were named Kevin Sidney, so it's the same character.

He was awesome on the cartoon. I remember him shapeshifting into senator Kelly and mocking him.

Talk like that brings up a memory. After Onslaught, I thought, "wouldn't it be more interesting to send all the mutants away instead of the non-mutant heroes?".

It would be almost the opposite effect of Onslaught. When Onslaught happened, all the non-mutant heroes seemed to give up their lives while the mutants stayed behind, making them look even worse in the public mind. Of course, we the readers knew the reasons they couldn't sacrifice themselves, but the population of the 616 Earth did not. Now, had the mutants sacrificed themselves, and came back a year later, I bet the reaction would've been better for all mutant-kind as they "died" to save all people, flat scan and mutant alike.

And I always hated Morph.

The Sentry! That has to be a joke that got out of hand.

"Bad" is confusing.

As in villains or as in terrible junk?

Cable, Gambit, Shatterstar, etc all are terrible but have a level of popularity.

I was thinking along the lines of characters that were only supposed to show up briefly and then developed a life of their own.

Blink, for example, was a one-shot character who got popular enough to get a mini-series and a spot on a team for a while.

Never underestimate the appeal of pastel-colored women...

No. But I do think that the PTB will throw just about anything into the mix at least once to see if it'll catch or just to take advantage of somthing timely - ala; Dazzlers original dico theme.

And then they have this character lying around on file.

Later on somone else dusts it off & uses it, often with new twists etc.

Thus todays Dazzler thankfully bears little resemblance to her original theme.

too true. this is a character that continues to backfire, Marvel gets it then ruins it gets it then well you get the idea, but thats thier MO ie Spider-Man, Maggineets, etc.

also true, but i wouldnt list her in the "bad character" line-up since she, IMHO, was a interestin' character which made her sacrifice durin' thePhalanxCovenant that more movin'. in a "briefly" catagory, yes.

i myself would have to go w/ StongGuy. he was alwyas LAME! on the name alone. that bein' said PeterDavid's work durin' X-Factor vol.1 and espeacilly in vol.3 has really transformed ol' Guido into a character and not a bonehead intergallactic rock star's bodyguard. the one issue that sticks out was Guido's flashback/origin issue in X-Factor #87 as well as most of the current X-Factor shtuff.