So we’re ranking every hero that has debuted within the Arrowverse so far. So before we get into the list, here’s the criteria. They have to be superheroes or vigilantes. Keyboard warriors or everyday heroes need not apply. We’re talking masks, spandex, capes, and superpowers, though they don’t need all of those to qualify. Characters will be evaluated on individual basis. Some characters are going to be tweeners, good with shades of evil, but no flat out villains. So no Captain Cold, Mick Rory, Cupid, etc. Just flat out good guys, or anti-heroes.
We’ll count future heroes too, like Mon El, but not characters who might become an original hero sometime down the line. However if they’ve already become their own hero, ala John Diggle becoming Spartan or Jimmy Olsen as The Guardian, they’ll be included. So if Julian Albert returns and becomes Doctor Throws Things at Bad Guys, he won’t be on this list.
Length of time as a hero won’t hurt but can help the placing. However how often a character is featured or talked about will. Characters who have been around for a while won’t necessarily be given preferential treatment, because that could just mean we’ve seen more of them to dislike them.
Here’s what we’re looking for;
– Comic Character Accuracy: How one portrays the character in relation to their origin.
– Unique Handling of the Character: Making the character their own, while embracing the origins.
– Efficiency: Are they able to handle themselves.
The Suck
53) Citizen Steel
– The character Geoff Johns created is one of the most sympathetic, heart breaking and enduring characters of the Justice Society of America relaunch of the mid ’00s. Nate Heywood? He sucks. He’s suck incarnate. He’s suck supreme. He’s DC’s Colossus, with out the heartbreaking backstory or fun accent. Citizen Steel in the comics can’t feel anything. He’s forged into the hero he is through the steel plasma of a Nazi. No longer able to judge how much force he’s using, and no longer able to feel, he’s forced to live inside of a suit that’s constantly restraining his muscles, just so he can care of his nieces and nephews, all of whom were left orphaned by the same Nazi gang that accidentally gave him his powers.
This Steel just pines after a woman he knows he can never be with. FUCK HIM.
52) B’Wana Beast
– Technically not a superhero in this universe, and not even a meta. Though the fact that he is a comic-based superhero, has a pristine costume, and could easily pop back up, gets him on the list at 52.
51) Breacher
– Being Gypsy’s father, and apparently a lawman gets him on the list, but the fact he’s actually bragged about killing people who don’t deserve it means he’s still in the shit pile with the rest of the suck. Seriously, why hasn’t Gypsy or someone arrested him for murdering all those innocent boyfriends? He’s murdered innocent people for fun….WHAT THE FUCK!?
50) Zari
– Some may hate this, but so far she’s shown to be someone you can’t trust. When she was tasked with taking Helen of Troy back to her time, Zari made sure to not follow the protocols of time travel and do her own thing. Seeing as how this was her first real time travel mission, and the fact she chooses not to care about the ramifications of messing with time travel, she’s in the suck as well. We’ve had three seasons of “Legends” and two seasons of “The Flash” that really highlight that even one minor change can prove to be catastrophic. So Zari will live in the suck for now.
49) Hourman
– He shows up, without a mask, gets the Legends into a fight they’re not ready for, and then dies like a bitch without ever once using his powers. Hourman’s only redeeming quality is that he has good taste in women. Maybe next time don’t show up and immediately die after. The JSA were bastardized in Legends….yikes.
48) Dr. Midnight
– Speaking of showing up just to die. I love the JSA but don’t even remember why Midnight was killed. I think it was just Reverse Flash being his dickish self, but don’t quote me on that. He barely did anything relevant, I think he had prosthetic eyes, thus negating the purpose of his entire gimmick, and like Hourman – died like a bitch. (*Correction: It was ‘Evil’ Rip that killed him. Still don’t care*)
47) Stargirl
– I fucking love Courtney Whitmore as a character. A newer member of the JSA in modern times, the high school Courtney joins up after finding out her stepfather is the former sidekick Stripesy. This version of Stargirl is from the past, goes to Camelot and fucks King Arthur. Seriously, anyone who fucks with history that much goes into the suck list, no matter how much I like them.
46) Sara Lance/ White Canary
– Be thankful I remember her from Season 2 of “Arrow” where she was awesome. But since joining “Legends”, she’s been awful. She constantly fucks with time, she’s allowed her sexual proclivities to endanger all of time; sleeping with one royal figure on her wedding day, before trying to make it with King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere. Let’s not even talk about the way she chased after a drunk and heart broken Alex Danvers, just so she can get her rocks off. That’s not even to point out she’s by far the most sexist character on the show, constantly hitting and demeaning her male comrades for no reason, while spouting off sexist and deplorable gender-biased rhetoric. Can we kill her off again, please?
45) Wildcat
– They done did the JSA wrong! While not a member of the Arrowverse’s JSA, Wildcat was a founder of the actual comic JSA back in the day. When they introduced him in season three of “Arrow”, he was inferred to be the first masked crime fighter in the universes’ history. He even is credited as training and help remold Laurel Lance into the hero she’d become. However, his own combat skills were shit, as Danny Brickwell beat him so badly the character was never seen again. For someone who was supposed to be the Green Arrow before The Green Arrow, it sure didn’t make a lick of sense that he was so pathetic. Oh, and he was a championship boxing legend too. So yeah. Welcome to the suck!
44) Accelerated Man
– While the rest are in the suck portion of the list due to what we know, Accelerated Man is in here because of what we don’t know. He works with Gypsy and hasn’t taken down Breacher for his hunting of Gypsy’s boyfriends, so we know he’s not that honorable. We can give a pass to Gypsy for this due to her relationship with Breacher, but what’s Accelerated Man’s excuse?
43) Hawkgirl
– She was largely ineffective. Her, and Hawkman were the key’s for the second DC Crossover, which saw that serve as the spin off for “Legends of Tomorrow” but during her time with Team Flash and on the Waverider, she essentially did everything she could to not be who she could be. Part of the issue is that she was supposed to have a second season arc, but the actress playing her bailed due to the fans of the series’. So with that, Hawkgirl will be more of a whiner than the awesome version we got in the “Justice League” cartoon.
42) Hawkman
– So the comics version of Hawkman is angry, violent, destructive, intimidating, and a threat to anyone. He once took on the entire Fifth Reich on his own. Hawkman is a BEAUST! Hawkman though in the Arrowverse was…..disappointing. He was soft, weak, a non-threat. He was the only member of the team to die in season one of “Legends of Tomorrow” and then came back as a villain known as Scythian Torvil. As mentioned, the Justice Society of America became bastardized by the writers, and he was no different. He gets a mark higher than his love interest due to him being slightly less disappointing.
41) Rip Hunter
– Rip Hunter is actively fighting against his best interests. He forms the Legends, then he leaves them hanging. He returns to them, but then quits to form the Time Bureau to keep the Legends in check, only to use them behind his own organizations back. He then gets fired from his own group. Outside of that, he embraced Sara Lance as his replacement, despite her breaking time, and well…the rest of the issues she had. Oh, and he resurrected Damian Darhk. While that gave us “Return of the Mack”, in regards to the storyline it was a dumbass mistake.