5 Characters Whose Potential DC Completely Wasted

The DC Universe is a big place—and we’re not talking about it in terms of the various worlds and realities that make it up. It’s a universe that is populated by a lot of different characters, both heroic and villainous. It can be easy to forget just how many interesting and unique characters exist in DC because we frequently focus only on the big names like Batman and Superman, but make no mistake: DC is a rich, diverse world with interesting characters a plenty.

However, while there is no shortage of characters that can come out of the woodwork as supporting players for story arcs, there are some that deserve to be more present on the pages of comics. These are characters who have a lot of potential to be truly great and in some cases even major characters in their own right, but who DC seems to have simply forgotten about. These are the characters we’d love to see more of but for various reasons just haven’t.

5) Aztek

Aztek is one of DC’s more unique heroes. Originally debuting in 1996, the vigilante’s lore was inspired by rich, pre-Hispanic cultures and was created by the secret Q Society to serve as the champion of Quetzalcoatl to battle Tezcatlipoca. Aztek even had a neat, magical suit of armor. The character would eventually come to the United States and pick up the identity of Curt Falconer. He even joined the Justice League at one point because he was absolutely excellent at fighting crime. He would go on to sacrifice himself to help Superman stop Mageddon, who was actually Tezcatlipoca.

The thing about Aztek, or at least the original version, is that there was a lot they could have done with him and further explored their role as the champion of Quetzalcoatl. Truly, there really isn’t anything else quite like it in DC so the possibilities were endless. Instead, the first Aztek was killed off and while a new version, Nayeli Constant, eventually comes on the scene to succeed the first Aztek, DC doesn’t end up doing much of anything with her, either.

4) Richard Dragon

Martial artists always have a place in comics and Richard Dragon is one such martial artist who had a lot of potential. The original Richard Dragon, Richard Drakunovski, was a teen thief in Kyoto who was raised and trained alongside Bronze Tiger. The pair would grow up to be vigilantes, working alongside Lady Shiva. Post-Crisis, the character grew even more popular, training The Question, serving as Barbara Gordon’s sensei, and even went on to teach Huntress as well. In fact, there was a point where there was almost no hero in certain corners of the DC Universe where Richard Dragon didn’t somehow teach them.

But when DC rebooted with The New 52, the character is killed off by Ricardo Diaz, who in turn then took the “Richard Dragon” alias and even with this new version of the character, DC hasn’t really done much with him. Even if we don’t love that Diaz killed off the first Richard Dragon, there’s a lot of potential in a story about a student who kills their master.

3) Duela Dent

Admittedly, a character declaring herself as the Joker’s Daughter is going to be a wild ride, but the truth is that DC has never done all that much with her. In her early appearances, we saw her trying to join the Teen Titans and be a superhero before Crisis on Infinite Earths changed everything for all of the DC Universe and saw the character take a darker turn where she was shown to be schizophrenic. More recently, she’s been a supporting character for the Suicide Squad, but even that was a long time ago at this point.

The character has actually gotten a little more life off the comic book page, however. She was a significant character in The CW’s Gotham Knights, but with that series being cancelled after just one season, Duela has once again largely been left on the sidelines.

2) Gotham Girl

We still aren’t sure what the purpose of Gotham Girl was, but there was so much more that DC could have done with the character. First appearing in DCU: Rebirth #1, Claire Clover/Gotham Girl was created by Tom King and was part of a sibling duo that had used a special serum to give them superpowers allowing them to operate as Gotham and Gotham Girl. While Gotham Girl has a significant role in King’s Batman run working with Bane to break Batman, her story largely ends with Batman saving her by using Platinum Kryptonite to cure her from the negative effects of the serum she took while also letting her keep her superpowers. You’d think that a character with that sort of story would be one that would pop up more often or at least operate more in a supporting capacity but for the most part, DC seems to have forgotten she exists.

1) Naomi

When Naomi debuted in 2019, she was a character with a ton of potential and a lot of buzz. Created by Brian Michael Bendis, Naomi McDuffie came from a different reality, one where 29 random people received godlike superpowers after radiation leaked onto the Earth’s surface after the collapse of the ozone layer. This led to a massive civil war between factions. As none of the 29 powered people had been able to procreate, when Naomi was born to one, the worst of the 29 wanted to kill her to maintain his superiority. It led to Naomi being sent to the Prime Universe for her own safety—where she lives until she discovers her abilities.

Naomi had a truly cool backstory and DC even made a major push to make the character popular—she even had her own television series on The CW. However, her popularity wasn’t immediate and after just one year, the character was largely abandoned which is sad because there are so many places that story could have gone.

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Every Member of the Absolute Justice League, Ranked by Threat Level