Ensemble Dark Horse / Marvel Universe

"Because let's be real, this is the only Guardian of the Galaxy you actually care about. Am I right?"

— Blurb of Skottie Young's Rocket Raccoon series

Marvel Universe

Ensemble Dark Horse in this franchise.

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• Ares, Greek god of war, had been since The Silver Age of Comic Books nothing more than a lesser enemy of Hercules and Thor who nobody cared about. Then he got a mini-series in 2004 that strongly revamped his character, and later joined the Avengers. Since then multiple writers in multiple titles were working hard to make him win the fans' love. They succeeded so much that his death caused a backlash much stronger than the death of Wasp, founding Avenger.
• Bob, Agent of HYDRA became quite popular for no particular reason when he first appeared in Cable & Deadpool and has gone on to become a fan favorite. Fan reaction to his appearance in Deadpool's solo title can be summed up as, "OMG, IT'S BOB!"
• Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger from Iron Man. Between his debut in issue 163 and death in issue 200, he stands as one of the villains that managed to mentally screw up Tony Stark. You'd have to be a Darkhorse if you're the Big Bad of the first movie, despite your rather short time in the series.
• Kid Loki from Journey into Mystery is pretty popular. Even after it's revealed that his entire life was essentially a "Shaggy Dog" Story, and his older self takes control of his body, he remained a very popular character. This lead to Loki gaining a role in Young Avengers, where the Kid Loki persona haunts Loki's subconscious. This, combined with MCU Loki's popularity, led to Loki getting his own ongoing series, Loki: Agent of Asgard.
• Spider-Man:
  • Mysterio was initially thought of as a ridiculously dumb villain for his fish bowl head and silly get up. Still, his popularity grew over the years culminating in his (in)famous Old Man Logan appearance. Mysterio has become a Breakout Villain and fans were eager to see Bruce Campbell portray him before Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 was cancelled. They were mollified as Jake Gyllenhaal took up the role in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
  • Shocker while regard as a silly for many years has also become pretty popular due his unique (quilted) design, personality, and weapons.
  • Rodrick Kingsley is considered to be the true Hobgoblin and readers were quite pleased to see his return.
  • Toxin is also quite popular; a pity that Patrick Mullgan died and that Toxin is now bonded to Eddie Brock.
  • Mania from the Venom book is also quite surprising popular due to her background and design.
  • Mr. Negative and Overdrive are the only Brand New Day villains to stay. Mr. Negative proved to be popular enough to be one of the major antagonists of Spider-Man (2018).
  • Karn, the only good member of the Inheritors that is actually liked by fans largely for his tragic backstory, fun design, and especially for betraying the other Inheritors.
  • A lot of the new supporting cast members introduced by Dan Slott but especially Max Modell (for being a great Smart Guy for the Spiderfamily) and Anna Maria Marconi (for being really nice and her dwarfism being treated with impeccable good taste.
  • Sophia Sanduval from the Marvel Adventure Spider-Man. Generally down to earth, sweet, supportive of Peter/Spidey and a generally likable and entertaining companion a lot of people consider her one of Peter's best love interests behind only Mary Jane and Black Cat. So much so that when the series was eventually cancelled the biggest lament was that there would be no more Chat.
• People really seem to love Ultimate Jessica Drew, Peter's Opposite-Sex Clone. She's appeared relatively only a few times in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Yet fans tend to go "oh no!" whenever something bad happens to her or squeal whenever something good happens to her.
• Batroc the leaper was treated as a joke villain and dated French stereotype in his earlier Captain America comic book appearances. However fans have begun to appreciate what a Memetic Badass Batroc actually is and he’s even held in reverence by Gwenpool, Batroc’s kick ass live action portrayal by Georges St-Pierre in Captain America: The Winter Soldier helps too.
• Moonstone was just another villain until Thunderbolts reinvented her as a Manipulative Bastard Jerkass. Then she had her own comic, was a part of the Dark Avengers team and sat at the right hand of Norman Osborn. Same with Songbird (helps that her hair tastes like strawberries).
• X-Men:
  • Several of the background characters at the Xavier Institute developed fanbases despite having no or few lines, thanks to neat visuals or powers. Notable amongst these are Pixie, a girl with fairy wings and the ability to disperse a hallucinogenic powder (and who got a miniseries); and Anole, a lizard-like mutant with superhuman camouflage powers and a long tongue.
    • Both of these were introduced in New Mutants vol.2, which also has a different case - the initial cast were Wind Dancer, Prodigy, Elixir and Wallflower, who were later joined by Surge. After the book's relaunch as New X-Men: Academy X, they got a rival team in the new Hellions. Once Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost took over the series, they decided to focus on the most popular characters. Which were Surge and two thirds of the Hellions.
  • Under the hand of Peter David, Shatterstar has been the subject of extensive online debate, beaten up The Thing, kissed almost as many people as the rest of the cast put together, been featured prominently in at least three different covers, made himself a very likely candidate for a limited series, and just generally stolen the spotlight both in-universe and out; all this in, what, ten issues or so? Not bad for a character who the writer refused to allow anywhere near the book for quite some time.
  • Peter David took a bunch of nobodies, and made them into a team in the much beloved X-Factor series, specifically the one centering around X-Factor Investigations. The biggest examples would be Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man, and Layla Miller, who went from The Scrappy of the House of M event to one of the series' most popular characters.
  • Among X-Statix's frequently rotating cast, few stood out as much as the team's teleporter, U-Go Girl, a cute blue-skinned Southern Belle with a Tear Jerker of a backstory and probably the most functional moral compass among the Unscrupulous Hero team. Writer Peter Milligan was well aware of her popularity and chose to herald a major turning point in the story by killing her off - years later, reflecting on the series, he considered doing that his biggest mistake. But with X-Men (2019) gaining the means to bring mutants Back from the Dead, it's only a matter of time until U-Go Girl makes her long-awaited return.
  • Speaking of Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men House of X has brought Cypher (whose often been regarded as one the lamest X-Men by far due his near useless Omniglot powers) newfound popularity. Thanks to Cypher being the one who can speak and translate for the living island Krakoa where all Mutants residing making him one of the most important Mutants alongside Xavier, Moira MacTaggert and Magneto. Cypher even appeared following comics teaming up the likes of Nightcrawler and Magik.
• Young Avengers
  • Miss America Chavez. Despite her rather minor role, her new Civvie Spandex outfit became popular with cosplayers before the series even started and towards the end of the series even Kieron Gillen admitted that from fandom output and the way she somehow worked her way into the center of later covers, he feels like she is the character his run will be remembered for the most.
  • Tommy is consistently the least developed member of the team, but is well liked by most of the fans, to the point that his lack of development is something of a sour point for many. He's also Kate's most popular hetero pairing, despite the two not actually officially hooking up (though had quite a lot of Ship Tease and appeared to hook up at the end of Vol 2).
• Broo, a mutant member of the Brood Alien race that causes problems for the X-Men. After a small appearance, he vanished until Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) came onto the comic book scene, where he ended up being one of the series' most popular characters, and one of their most popular students. Kid Gladiator, another alien, also gets a lot of love.