Some characters appear in the pages of a comic book only to be sadly forgotten afterwards. Some characters appear in a comic book and they are gladly forgotten.
The below characters appeared in Marvel comics a handful of times or even went as far as being featured in the comics of yesteryear, only to have minimal to no current appearances. And good riddance.
7 Gladly Forgotten Marvel Characters
Stacy X: Let’s forget the entire run.
Chris Claremont built the X-Men into a renowned franchise. That’s why Chuck Austen run on the title from issues 410-428 is so dispiriting. Chuck Austen took over from Joe Casey who himself penned an unexceptional run that introduced a character originally named X-Stacy.
Her body covered with snake scales, X-Stacy is the on-the-nose naming of a mutant whose pheromone powers bring others to orgasm, so obviously she works at a brothel in Nevada called X-Ranch, I think, but I’m trying to forget about this character, so I’m not spending the time to double-check that.
Subtlety is obviously not Casey’s superpower, so you’d think that Austen would’ve have dialed the character back, but the way he wrote her in his X-Men run made it clear that the character heated up his loins. That puts the reader as a voyeur looking in on the writer’s self-indulgent fantasy, which makes the whole situation feel unseemly and makes Stacy X gladly forgotten.
Dansen Macabre: A look into what the writers did in their free time.
While we are on the subject of unseemly characters that serve only to fulfill a writer’s self-indulgent fantasies, let’s talk about Dansen Macabre, then quickly forget about her.
Dansen Macabre has the mystical ability to hypnotize or kill anyone who witnesses her dancing. In other words, you are powerless to look away from Dansen’s dancin’. Get it? So clever.
Yet to up the ante once more, Dansen Macabre has a “Dance of Death” that can even kill a victim who watches her dance.
I’m sure you’ve picked up on this already, but Dansen Macabre is a stripper and was even illustrated nude from time to time with only thin dance ribbons strategically covering her hypnotizing bits.
Dansen Macabre appeared on and off throughout the 80s as a member of various villainous groups, but I don’t think she’s been featured for a while in Marvel comics. That’s probably for the best.
NFL Superpro: Reimagined as Tim Tebow?
NFL Superpro was such an eye-rollingly product of the 90s that Nerds on Earth contributor wrote about the character for his “My 90s Life” column, as he’s a Marvel character that is gladly forgotten.
Big Bertha: Fleaargh!
Big Bertha is a Marvel character that solidly falls in the “Why didn’t the editor push back on this?!?” category. I’ll explain:
Milwaukee native Ashley Crawford (not Cindy) discovered that her mutant ability allowed her to completely control her body’s tissue, a power that allowed Ashley to craft the perfect physique in order to become an internationally famous supermodel. Ashley became the highest paid fashion model in the country, appearing on the covers of multiple glamour magazines but deep down Ashley yearned for more (don’t all models).
Donning the persona of Big Bertha, Ashley Crawford joined the Great Lakes Avengers by adding hundreds of pounds of super-bulk to her frame increasing her mass, girth, and height, giving her super strength. But to decrease her size, Big Bertha would need to induce vomiting to expel the excess mass. In other words, the writers used bulimia as a means to create a super-powered persona.
Big Bertha and her teammate Mr Immortal got engaged, but, due to his alcoholism, it didn’t even last 24 hours. In short, Big Bertha is a character metaphor for serious issues but has rarely been written with care or delicacy. So, Marvel should either step up their game with Big Bertha or forget the character.
Asbestos Lady: No longer OSHA approved.
Nothing against Asbestos Lady, but thank the Beyond that the EPA and OSHA exist to regulate usage and protect health.
Victoria Murdock first appeared in 1947 in Human Torch #27 an era when the primary thing that was known about asbestos was that it protected against fires. So, us humans used asbestos as a fire-retardant insulation in buildings and comic writers used it to name an arch-enemy for Human Torch.
Again, nothing against Asbestos Lady because she had cool paraphernalia. Her costume was made from asbestos, so it was flame resistant. Plus, she wielded a flame thrower as well as a pair of handguns loaded with asbestos bullets that were capable of penetrating the defensive flame sheaths used by the Human Torch and Toro, her enemies.
Appearing in 1947, her time was well before the Fantastic Four version of Human Torch and certainly before the EPA and OSHA stepped in to regulate asbestos usage. She has a great visage that is reminiscent of the era of comics, so she should only be forgotten because science continues to educate us, not because she was a bad character.
Ruby Thursday: I don’t even know what to say here.
Thursday Rubinstein’s head has been replaced with a red plastic fishbowl filled with a mass of “organic circuitry” that mimics the typical functions of a human head while also being able to sprout eight tentacles from her head, each of which can elongate and constrict an opponent, and be either blunt or edged weapons.
The big red ball she has as a head can also do tons of other tricks that were largely dependent upon what the writer needed at the time. And, listen, we want our comics to be weird, but there are times when the concepts become heads craters, no pun intended. Ruby Thursday is one of those times.
She showed up in comics like Sensational She-Hulk but her best storyline was when she ran for President of the United States as the candidate of the “Global Head” political party under the slogan “New heads for old,” because, c’mon, that’s something.
Needless to say, its best if Ruby Thursday is forgotten at this point.
Shamrock: A little too on the nose.
I have a big orange beard, so I appreciate my Irish ancestry, while also quietly enjoying the character Shamrock, despite how the character really pushed hard into every Irish stereotype you could imagine.
Ultimately, Shamrock was a Marvel character that when too darned far in how she embodied Irish stereotypes, even in her power to possess the souls of thousands of poltergeists that would affect probability around her, altering situations so that she is given an advantage, in essence having “The Luck of the Irish.”
It wasn’t just her look either. Ultimately, the list of Shamrock’s Irish cliches was just too long, from getting her powers by kissing the Blarney Stone to her brother Paddy being killed by the IRA. Luckily, she has deep red hair, as one would guess, so Marvel eventually retired the character by giving her a civilian life as a hairdresser.
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