... See Get an Entry

Had to adjust the historical title from Comixfan and later forums due to character limits. Here's the historical text

skippcomet

Apr 6, 2013, 01:55 am


So, I've been wondering. We've seen and posted lists of characters, usually super-heroes or -villains (but not limited to them), dozens if not hundreds of names long, we would like to see get covered by the OHOTMU staff.

But what of the supporting characters? I'm not talking about the junior members of the latest roster of Avengers, X-Men, Imperial Guard, or even the Great Lakes Avengers, but the characters who were neither super-heroes or super-villains but who nonetheless flesh out the Marvel Universe. The families and friends, bosses and employees, the lovers and rivals. Scientists and soldiers, professors and politicians, cops and criminals, parents and children, and more -- the characters who almost never are the stars or main attractions but who flesh out the heroes and villains' stories and provides ties to continuity and the characters' own humanity (or lack thereof). Usually they don't have powers, but sometime they do, even if just briefly. They can be human, mutant, Inhuman, Eternal, Deviant, supernatural, alien, extradimensional or extratemporal (why limit ourselves to just the modern day, Earth, or Earth-616?). They might be associated with just one character or title, or they might have made multiple appearances across the Marvel Universe (hello, Rick Jones!).

So, just to get the conversation started, let's ask ourselves which supporting characters we would like to have seen get handbook entries.

Three rules: 1). Let's limit ourselves to, say, five to ten nominations per post. No need to post 100 names when we know there's very little likelihood they'll happen (so far). 2). Try not to just repeat previous nominations; fifteen people may want the same Howard the Duck character to have gotten an entry, but fifteen people nominating that same character means at least fourteen characters aren't being nominated. And 3) Make a brief case for your nominations. Tell us who they were supporting and what role they played, instead of just listing their names.

Here's my nominations:

1) Marlo Chandler -- Supporting character from the pages of both The Incredible Hulk and Captain Marvel, at least when they were written by Peter David. Married Rick Jones, had some kind of relationship with Moondragon, was briefly killed and brought back to life, apparently was transformed into a version of the Harpy.

2) Ivan Petrovich -- Character with ties to The Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff that go back to at least WWII, also appeared in the pages of Champions of Los Angeles. Father of one of the early wearers of the Crimson Dynamo armor. Apparently recently had a villainous turn and later died.

3) Ned Leeds -- Spider-Man supporting character. Was a reporter for the Daily Bugle who eventually married Betty Brant and eventually became abusive. Died on an overseas assignment with Peter Parker. Was once believed to have been the orginator of the Hobgoblin identity (and received an entry in the Deluxe Edition as such) for years before it was revealed that Roderick Kingsley was the true culprit.

4) Brandy Clark -- Rom supporting character, human waitress who eventually became one of Rom's allies and later his romantic interest and, later still, his wife. Served as a successor to the Spaceknight Starshine. Later left Earth with Rom to repopulate Galador (?), led a new version of the Spaceknights. Apparently now Rom's widow and ruler (?) of Galador.

5) Boris -- Doctor Doom's manservant for who knows how long. Was at one point abducted and impersonated by Zarrko the Tomorrow Man (long before Secret Invasion). Okay, might be worth only a half-page entry, but if fellow manservants Jarvis and Wong can get entries, why not?

6) Andrew Chord -- New Warriors and Night Thrasher supporting character. Father of Silhouette and Midnight's Fire, former soldier, and former friend of Thrasher's parents. Was forced to kill them by the villainous Tai, later served as Dwayne Taylor's aide-de-camp. Received an entry in the Master Edition.

7) Monica Lynne -- Black Panther supporting character, and on-again/off-again lover and fiance of T'Challa. Now that the T'Challa/Ororo marriage has been annulled by T'Challa, who knows if she might appear again?

8) Orini -- Dark Dimension denizen, former lover of Umar and father of Clea (therefore a Dr. Strange supporting character). Has had appearance and motivations vary wildly thanks to various creative teams' differing interpretations of him.

9) Brian Banner -- deceased father of Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, and a direct impact/influence on Bruce's...Issues. Killed Bruce's mother. Currently deceased, although he was apparently briefly resurrected as a result of Chaos War.

10) (tie) Izzy Cohen/Dino Manelli -- Technically, these two former members of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos could be considered as heroes. But as Nick Fury was the main character, I think we can consider them as supporting characters. Currently the only major members of the Howlers who haven't been individually covered. Cohen is, I think, still alive, but Secret Warriors indicated that Manelli is now deceased.




Andy E. Nystrom

Apr 6, 2013, 09:09 am


Annie: Sentient LMD with a playful sense of humour. She has worked with the Red Hulk on a number of missions and is now Red Hulk's main confidant (he considers her to be human in any important respect).

Ted Locke (engineer), Blaze Kendall (pilot), Arnie Berman (agent): The Human Fly's main allies. Since the Human Fly himself is highly unlikely to ever get an entry unless Marvel regains the rights, these are probably about as close as we're likely to ever get to a Human Fly entry. A case could be made for skeptical reporter Harmony Whyte. None of these are important to the Marvel Universe as a whole, but again, any of the above are probably to only way to properly cover the Human Fly.

Beverly Switzler: Life model and girlfriend to Howard the Duck, also the main obsession of Doctor Bong. Howard has a couple of other supporting cast members I wouldn't mind seeing entries (Paul Same and Winda Wister) but Beverly has been through a lot more than those two.

Leila Taylor: Falcon's girlfriend. As a black activist, she has had a number of debates on how best to handle racial issues. She has also assisted the Falcon and Captain America on missions.

Kristy Watson: Mary Jane Watson's cousin. Had a notable bulimia subplot in Web of Spider-Man




captainswift

Apr 9, 2013, 10:20 am


Blake Tower (District Attorney): For a long time, the most important lawyer in the MU who wasn't Daredevil (or Daredevil's best friend). Supporting character in a number of titles, participated in the Floating Super-Hero Poker Game, actually supported super-heroes (unlike many comic book politicians), employed She-Hulk for a while.

On a similar note:
Mallory Book (lawyer): An associate and later partner in the lawfirm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway who made her career defending super-villains.

Dian Wilkins: Confidante and best friend of James-Michael Starling (android "sibling" of Omega the Unknown), who proved immune to Mandrill's pheromone-based powers, apparently because at age (13?, 14?) she hadn't gone through puberty.

Heck, James-Michael Starling, for that matter. And his "guardians", nurse Ruth Hart and photographer Amber Grant (who was also briefly a Man-Thing supporting character).

OH, and since Beverley's been claimed:
Winda Wester: Sometime companion of Howawd who has an Ewmer Fudd wisp, but who's name apawwantwy is Winda Wester.




Eduardo M.

Apr 12, 2013, 08:27 am


Stevie Hunter: X-men supporting character. Confidate to Kitty Pryde.

Derek Freeman: Avengers supporting character. Brother to the late Duane Freeman. ties to Monica Rambeau.

Douglas Rockwell: former head of the Commission on Super-Human Activities. Because of this and the fact he was also a lackey for the Red Skull at the time, he was a major catalyst for the Cap Gets Fired storyline.