Favorite second-string characters in comics

[Navarre]

While most of our focus tends to be on the stars of the Marvel and DC universe (the Avengers, Justice League, X-Men) those universes are teeming with characters. I was thinking about a few characters I enjoyed reading as a kid that were not the biggest names.

ROM: Space Knight: One of the best comics around, mixing sci-fi, superheroics, romance, and a serious dose of creepiness. Developed around a toy, I felt this title was far better than any Transformers or GI Joe comic I ever saw. ROM was also the only Marvel title based in my home state of West Virginia.

The Freedom Fighters: While the idea of Uncle Sam always seemed a bit silly to me, I enjoyed the rest.

The Metal Men: What a dysfunctional yet humorous bunch of robots we had here.

Firestorm: The Ronnie Raymond high school years were a constantly enjoyable read. I thought the premise of the dual consciousnesses was fairly unique.

The Inhumans: Sometimes they annoyed me but I liked the extended family aspect of them and that they had their own locales for adventure.

Some of these titles get a spotlight from time to time (eg, the Inhumans in "War of Kings") but in general they are no better than second tier. Still, they have given me some good reading memories.

Who do you feel deserves some recognition?

[BRZA21]

I'm not sure if they qualify as second-string per se, but I have always loved the Legion of Substitute Heroes - particularly back in the days of campy '60s weirdness. What can I say, I've always had a soft spot for that sort of Charlie Brown "aw-shucks" appeal.

[Gaumer]

If sales is an indicator the Legion itself is second-string.

[Rob, no not that one.]

I've always favored the secondary X teams (Exiles, X-factor, Excalibur) over the X-men proper. Maybe because the "B" X-teams are less prone to editorial interference and random cross-overs.

[Alisha Mynx]

Some of my favorite characters are seldom used, one-shots or second-string (or worse). 

From DC we have Jade, G'Nort (and many other background Green Lantern characters) and a slew of "older" characters that have been swept to the back (Metal Men, for example).  And then there are the "Elseworlds" versions of characters that might not exactly count, but when vampire Batman has multiple series but others don't it feels relevant.

In Marvel, we've got Slapstick (I liked the premise of a living cartoon superhero so much as a kid that I created my own about a year or two before Slapstick came out), the whole MC2 universe (I sorta consider it second string since aside from Spider-Girl the whole line failed) and the Inhumans (so many interesting characters).  And I can't even begin to list some of the interesting X-Men characters I liked that never got much use because they wanted to shove in more Wolverine.

[Gaumer]

I've always favored the secondary X teams (Exiles, X-factor, Excalibur) over the X-men proper. Maybe because the "B" X-teams are less prone to editorial interference and random cross-overs.

I agree completely. The "second tier" X-Books have been better because they can tell the stories that aren't the focus of the entire Marvel U.


My favorite second-strong character is Layla Miller. Mutant starring in PAD's current run on X-Factor. It is worth noting, however, that she was born inside the pages of House of M, a gigantic Marvel crossover event