History Characters / Popeye

* TheDreaded: Popeye is practically superhuman and is all-but-invincible when he eats his spinach, but ''even he is afraid of the Sea Hag''. Best exemplified when he persuaded his son Popeye Jr. to let Bluto and his family keep a statue he dredged up from the depths which should belong to his son by maritime salvage law - because it actually belongs to the Sea Hag, and he would rather let Bluto's family face the Sea Hag's wrath than to mess with her.

* TheAce: Downplayed. When he's his normal self, Popeye is pretty brash and reckless, as well as being scatterbrained at times. That said, he is reasonably skilled in a multitude of things. Likewise, when stumbling into a lot of situations he's clearly out of his depth on, Popeye's [[PowerupFood eating spinach]] instantly turn the tables to absurd degrees.

* SuperStrength: Even without his spinach, he can be quite strong. With it, he becomes a [[LightningBruiser walking, talking tank capable of destroying whole armies in seconds]]!

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Olive and Popeye got together after the strip had Ham and Castor left to seek their fortunes in the semi-Wild West. In his final appearance in an arc, Ham went home and actually caught them cuddling in Olive's house, and got into a flurry of a fistfight with Popeye, with all their blows inadvertently landing on Olive who got between them. Olive them knocked them both out with vases. A few strips later, Ham left town offscreen permanently.

[[folder:Olive Oyl]]
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* AdaptationNameChange: Renamed Brutus in the comics and the 60's shorts due to King Features being unsure of whether or not they owned the rights to the character. Before the name Brutus was introduced in the comics and cartoons, various figures nigh-identical to Bluto but not called that name appeared in the comics. Most notably, the Sea Hag was given a Bluto-like son called Sonny Boy, who was later equated to Brutus when the comics started using the name, but then even later Brutus's mother was introduced as a different character. On rare occasions, Brutus and Bluto [[DecompositeCharacter have been depicted as two separate characters,]] usually as brothers; but again, this is rare.

* BreakoutVillain: Bluto was a very minor villain in the original Segar comics, only appearing for roughly 18 daily strips in a 1932 story. The animated cartoons were what made him a major player in the franchise.

Despite rarely appearing in the classic shorts, he has become a fan favorite, and even has a brand of burger joints in Europe named after him called "Wimpy's".

!Thimble Theater / Popeye strip

* PutOnABus: As noted, he has never been seen ever since Popeye was introduced. He does briefly appear in the Robin Williams movie.

Olive Oyl's longtime boyfriend and one of the strip's two original protagonists. Originally "Harold Hamgravy" and renamed "Ham Gravy" by mid-1920, he would remain a lead character and regular for much of the strip's first decade, vanishing permanently a year following Popeye's introduction.