7 Great Characters DC Has Totally Wasted

At the heart of DC Comics are the characters. The publisher has some truly great characters whose stories and adventures have captivated readers for decades, sometimes even transcending the page to take on new lives on the big and small screen. But for every Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman for whom there is no shortage of adventure, there are other characters who are just as great that don’t seem to really go anywhere. These characters, despite being fascinating or having great power, end up starting strong only to fizzle out or just never really get the storytelling attention they deserve. They aren’t necessarily forgotten, but they just aren’t being used to their best potential.

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What makes this especially frustrating is that, in many cases, these neglected characters aren’t minor. They’re important sidekicks or characters that grew to great popularity in other media only to stall out in comics themselves. Some of the characters are so good, it’s deeply frustrating that it feels like, at times, DC is just wasting their potential when they could be some of the best heroes yet.

7) Bart Allen/Impulse

Bart Allen was primed for greatness. The raised-in-the-future grandson of Barry Allen, Impulse was a big deal for DC in the ‘90s. He was one of the fastest speedsters in the Flash family, had his own book, helped found Young Justice, and would even join the Titans as Kid Flash. Then, after Infinite Crisis, Bart even became the Flash. Sadly, Bart ended up dead, then was resurrected in the 31st century and has largely bounced around quite a bit since then. While Bart isn’t exactly gone, it just feels like DC doesn’t really know quite what to do with him in an already crowded field of speedsters that makes up the Flash Family.

6) Starfire

While she is one of DC’s most popular characters thanks to her appearances outside of comics — particularly in the animated series Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go! — on the pages of DC Comics it feels like there just isn’t much being done with Starfire. First introduced with two other fan favorite characters, Cyborg and Raven, Starfire is a massively powerful character that has somehow always been relegated to B-team roles. It seems like Starfire is never really allowed to rise beyond her relationships or her alien status or even as operating as a supporting hero on various teams when she really deserves to be a much bigger player.

5) Orion

DC has a lot of extremely powerful characters and that isn’t to say that every very powerful character needs to have a major role, but when it comes to Orion, it feels like he just isn’t being utilized to the fullest. One of the most powerful of the New Gods, Orion largely doesn’t do, well, anything. He’s supposed to be the guy that will someday kill Darkseid so you’d think that a guy that powerful and significant would show up more often — especially since he has Justice League connections — but alas that has simply not been the case.

4) The Spectre

As the embodiment of divine vengeance — The Spectre is such a cool character concept. Taking on various hosts over DC history, the Spectre has near-omnipotent magic and physical powers so he can do almost anything. But what do you even do with a character like that? That’s a good question because even DC doesn’t seem to know. The character shows up infrequently, usually to deal with more spiritual-type threats. It’s a corner of the DC universe that already feels underexplored which makes The Spectre a character that’s just as neglected.

3) Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl

Cassie Sandsmark was an awesome Wonder Girl. Not only did she really stand out on Young Justice, but she would go on to lead the Teen Titans. Things started to go sideways for Cassie, however, with the New 52 reboot that entirely redid the character. These days, she’s sort of just lost in the overall Wonder Woman mythos that already doesn’t really seem to get enough consistent and cohesive attention where she’s just another Wonder Girl along with another wasted hero, Yara Flor.

2) Jaime Reyes/Blue Bettle

Jaime Reyes may have gotten his own live action film with 2023’s Blue Bettle, but that hasn’t really led to him getting much love in the comics. Picking up the Blue Beetle scarab after the death of Ted Kord, Jaime was a great hero right out of the gate and was an exciting new approach to the iconic character. Unfortunately, we haven’t really gotten to see that much of the character. It probably doesn’t help that Ted Kord is also back, which complicates things. Here’s to hoping that with more appearances in James Gunn’s DCU — Gunn has said that the character will appear — the comics will end up doing more with the hero.

1) Tim Drake

What can we say about the best Robin? While Tim isn’t as physically capable as Dick Grayson, as aggressive as Jason Todd, or as tenacious as Damian Wayne, he’s honestly the smartest of all of Batman’s Robins, potentially even rivaling Batman as the world’s greatest detective. It’s something that positioned him to be a real powerhouse of a character, but instead he’s more or less just lost in the Bat Family shuffle. He’s operated as Red Robin, but that doesn’t really fit. He’s not really Robin, that tile belongs to Damian. Tim is a truly great character that deserves his own identity away from Batman but DC just hasn’t figured out how to give him that, which is a shame because he’d be great.

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