While there are hundreds of superheroes placed into comics, not all of them get the same level of attention. There are some that are adored so much by the fans (and their creators) that they get all of the new series, movies, and live-action TV shows. Meanwhile, the rest of the bunch is left by the wayside, desperately hoping that they will get their shot someday. A lot of the popular superheroes are there for a reason. They were well-designed characters that reinvented what a superhero could be. They had a great costume, their motivation was much more interesting than most... whatever the reason, many superheroes are deserving of the popularity they achieve. There are others, however, that shouldn't get the same kind of attention. After so many years in the spotlight, these characters are nothing more than tropes re-used over and over again. At some point, they lose a lot of the impact they had back in the day.

What makes this pill harder to swallow is that there are plenty of other characters who could easily take the top spot in the popularity spectrum and give the current A-listers a chance to breathe. Both Marvel and DC Comics have other superheroes with more interesting stories, potential, motivation, and even powers than many of their biggest characters. Why they're not used often is beyond us. If you're tired of current superhero trends, lean back in joy as we go over 10 A-list superheroes who don't deserve the spotlight and 10 other characters that do deserve it.

20 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: BATMAN

Batman is one of the most popular superheroes ever created. Since his inception, the Dark Knight has been the darling face of the media. He's been the focus of several DC movies (both live-action and animated) and has starred in several cartoons.

However, there isn't much to the character other than his crusade to stop crime in Gotham City. Yeah, he tries to be aloof and edgy, but there's not much else that has been explored in his psyche. Because he's been around so long, Batman doesn't nearly the same level of impact that he once did. Move aside, Caped Crusader.

19 DESERVES IT: MOON KNIGHT

Moon Knight was once a mercenary who nearly met his end in the desert. However, he was brought back to life by the god, Khonshu, who wanted the Moon Knight to become his avatar and deal out justice to those who deserved it. Or is that what really happened?

What makes Moon Knight so worthy of A-list status is that he's constantly teetering on the line of insane and lucid, making the audience constantly guess. Exploring a more diverse hero like that and integrating him more into the Marvel Universe would lead to some brilliant storytelling. Who cares if he's Marvel's Batman?

18 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: SUPERMAN

There was a time when Superman was DC's biggest character, only for him to be taken over by Batman. That said, the Man of Steel is still one of their most popular, also being the focus of several movies and TV shows. He is a very symbolic character, but that alone isn't enough.

Superman doesn't really have any weaknesses (other than a green rock). Because of this, it isn't all that interesting to watch him fly around and be an unbeatable character. It was nice to see him brighten up for the Justice League movie, but he was just a massive deux ex machina.

17 DESERVES IT: BOOSTER GOLD

booster-gold-header

Booster Gold is a character from the future. He decided to go back in time with all sorts of impressive tech so that he would be seen as a hero to the people of the past. He also happens to be the father of Rip Hunter.

The reason Booster Gold deserves A-list status is that so many heroes in comics are so focused on doing the right thing. Having a hero work for the good of himself so prominent would be an interesting and compelling change of pace. On top of that, time travel could be featured more in his stories.

16 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: IRON MAN

iron-man-header

Tony Stark has been one of Marvel's biggest characters since the MCU began in 2008. Stark is an egotistic if not irrational hero who wants to protect the entire world. Unfortunately, he gets it destroyed along the way quite a bit.

Now that Stark has been around for so long, all of his interesting character traits have been run into the ground. He struggles with addiction, he continuously makes mistakes that he has to learn from, and he is kind of a jerk whenever he finds the opportunity to be one. Once he's done in the MCU, Marvel should let someone else take his place.

15 DESERVES IT: IRON FIST

Iron Fist 79 cover header

Danny Rand was the inheritor of a large business. Instead of going all-out with it, though, he decided that he would train with the monks in an ancient village in the mountains to then fight and defeat a dragon to become the Immortal Iron Fist.

There's a lot of mysticism with Iron Fist that is also reminiscent of classic martial arts movies like The Karate Kid. By featuring Iron Fist more, Marvel would get the chance to explore a side of mysticism that's not frequently touched on. If he were more popular, we'd recommend Marvel focus on the Chinese mythology rather than street fighting in New York.

14 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: CYCLOPS

Never X Cyclops

Cyclops was the first leader of the X-Men team. He had a standout costume and the ability to shoot hot lasers out of his eyes. He has gone on to prominently feature in Marvel Comics as well as the X-Men movies from FOX.

With all of his presence, it's hard to understand why he's so popular. When you get down to it, Cyclops is kind of a selfish jerk. He is ruthless, unfaithful to his wife, and makes a lot of decisions that are immediately questionable. It's a mystery why Xavier ever let him lead the team and why Marvel made him so popular.

13 DESERVES IT: GENIS-VELL

Genis Vell

Mar-Vell was one of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe. Being a selfless Kree warrior, he would eventually meet his end when he was exposed to a cancer that could never be cured. All of the Marvel heroes have respect for Mar-Vell for his heart and his strength. That's where we bring in Genis-Vell.

Genis-Vell is the son of Mar-Vell. By making him a more prominent character, we would get to explore how Genis-Vell tries to live up to his father's legacy. We could also get the opportunity to see another side of Mar-Vell. There aren't a lot of legacy characters in the Marvel Universe heavily used, and we think Genis-Vell would be the perfect character.

12 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: WOLVERINE

Wolverine is hurled above the fray in Astonishing X-Men

While Cyclops was originally one of the biggest X-Men, it wasn't long before he was outshone by the Wolverine. This character had a dark past, is gruff and brutal, and has no cares in the world. He was the perfect mold for a popular character, going on to primarily star in the X-Men movies.

Wolverine traits, when you break them down, aren't all that interesting, though. Sure, he's gruff and angry, but that trope is so overdone by multiple characters that it doesn't have the same effect anymore. He doesn't have any new or exciting components to his character -- he's the same as he's always been.

11 DESERVES IT: ETRIGAN

Etrigan The Demon

Etrigan was a demon from Hell who was eventually brought to the real world when he took Jason Blood as his host. While wanting to be a villain, his ties to Blood eventually saw him become a superhero who fought alongside other popular DC characters.

The reason Etrigan would make a great A-lister is that DC could easily explore the mind of a demon who no longer "belonged" to Hell. Going against everything he was bred for to fight bad guys would be interesting to say the least. Exploring his dynamic with Jason Blood would also bring up many compelling tales.

10 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: DEADPOOL

Deadpool: Secret Agent Deadpool

One of Marvel's most popular characters is Deadpool. The Merc with a Mouth was an intentional parody of DC's Deathstroke but with a lot more self-awareness. He cracks a lot of jokes, makes no sense, and has permeated pop culture with his two recent movies.

That said, that's about all there is to Deadpool. Being turned into a big joke, there isn't much else to his character. He's just beloved because he's funny and that's all there is to him. There are plenty of other characters who have heart and depth, but people seem to appreciate raunchy humor much more.

9 DESERVES IT: MISTER MIRACLE

Mister Miracle from DC Comics

DC has an entire cosmic universe that they haven't taken full advantage of yet. That's where we bring in Mister Miracle. Scott Free was a child of New Genesis and traded to be raised on Apokolips: Darkseid's planet. After escaping, he went to Earth where he learned to become a superhero and fight the people that raised him.

Mister Miracle deserves to be an A-lister because of the types of stories he could open up. He is, technically, one of the New Gods but would rather live a quiet life with Big Barda: his wife. Seeing the two share that dynamic while attached to the cosmic realm would be exciting to watch unfold more often.

8 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: THOR

When thinking of a superhero, you think of an original character created to fight the villains of the world. Very seldom do you think of a literal Norse god who was just brought into the pages. However, that's exactly what Marvel did with Thor.

The reason Thor doesn't deserve his status is because he was arguably never that interesting of a character. While the MCU is doing a great job of selling us on him, that level of depth isn't all that present in the comics. Furthermore, a Norse god arguably shouldn't be one of a comic book publisher's biggest characters. Focus on original heroes.

7 DESERVES IT: CLOAK & DAGGER

Cloak and Dagger were both created when they were exposed to the same experiment. Because of this, the two are permanently attached as superheroes. Dagger can throw pieces of light and is extremely agile. Cloak as an entire dimension under his cloak and teleport to anywhere else in the world.

Exploring the concept of Yin and Yang in a comic more often would lead to some powerful insights about superheroes as a whole. Cloak and Dagger have so different outlooks but are connected through their bond. Developing that relationship could make them one of the strongest comic relationships in history.

6 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: CYBORG

Cyborg Plugin

Cyborg is one of those characters that everyone knows from the Teen Titans show. Apart from that, no one knows that much about him. The character has been around a long time and even appeared in Justice League, but what else is there?

Cyborg has never been that compelling or memorable of a character. Yet, he seems to be so popular that he appeared in both the Teen Titans and the Justice League. However, there isn't much about him that stands out other than his appearance. Teen Titans did a lot to make him compelling, but that was just one version that has since been buried.

5 DESERVES IT: BLUE BEETLE (TED KORD)

Dan Garrett was the first Blue Beetle and had a student in the form of Ted Kord. The two worked together on several projects and were both quite brilliant. However, Garrett would die in battle and leave the mantle to Ted Kord. Kord accepted and became the second Blue Beetle.

What makes Kord so interesting and worthy of more exploration is that he couldn't use the scarab and had to keep the mantle without any of the powers. His determination to honor his mentor caused him to fight the good fight anyway. Further exploring how he came to this decision as well as his fears about having no powers would be worthy of its own series.

4 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: THE VISION

Jonas Vision

The Vision was a fairly obscure character until he appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Being created by the murderous robot, he was built with the intention of destroying the Avengers, but ended up joining them instead.

Since then, Vision has been a fairly big superhero. However, being a sentient android, there isn't much to him other than "being on the side of life." His powers are very ill-defined, he was really only there to fight Ultron and be a love interest to Scarlet Witch, and it seems that there's no room for him to progress as a character.

3 DESERVES IT: AGENT VENOM

Agent Venom

Eddie Brock was never that interesting or compelling as the host of the Venom symbiote. The one that brought more to the table was Flash Thompson, who learned to control the symbiote and become Agent Venom.

Agent Venom deserves more time in the spotlight because it's the first time we see the host and symbiote working in perfect and noble unison. It would also for some more interesting tie-ins with cosmic characters. Agent Venom has teamed up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but let's see more of that. Maybe he could work with Silver Surfer or Thor for a time?

2 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: SUPERGIRL

Supergirl is the cousin of Superman and came to Earth several years after he had already embraced his name as the Man of Steel. She has the same set of powers but tried to find a normal life for herself until duty finally called and she became a hero.

Why Supergirl became so popular (even enough to get her own show) is beyond us. She is a copy of Superman in almost every way (from her super powers to how she disguises herself) and only seems to be there because DC wanted a girl Kryptonian to try and increase their target audience.

1 DESERVES IT: NEW GODS

JL-New-Gods

It would be impossible to better incorporate characters like Mister Miracle without bringing in the New Gods as well. In the DC Universe, the Olympian Gods ruled over. However, they would eventually fall and give way to a new set of god-like figures referred to as the New Gods (beings from both New Genesis and Apokolips).

There's a lot of potential in bringing the New Gods in more often. Being the members of two planets, there's a lot of opportunity for political and physical combat on top of birthing new superheroes to then join the Justice League and leave the cosmic realm.