Well, after a year, I see not only has there been no discussion on these, but someone re-added Spider-Man, whom I'd previously removed. After carefully going through all discussions, descriptions and forum posts, I can safely say those characters do not belong here. Superman, Batman, the Spirit and Spider-Man may not have been expected to be as popular of features as they were, but they were the lead characters of their features and appeared on the covers of their respective first appearances. They are not secondary or minor characters who ascended due to fan popularity, which is what this trope describes.
I contest the removal of the Superman & Spirit entries. Superman was an oddity amongst what was at the time an anthology comic and kickstarted the superhero genre. Same goes with Batman, albiet with a more earnest attempt to copy Superman's success.
Likewise, the Spirit Section had three different strips: The Spirit, Mr. Mystic, and Lady Luck. While the Spirit stories had more pages than the other two, the fact that it alone made any lasting splash surely more than qualifies it.
Edited by 98.255.55.27 Sometimes life just sucks. You have to learn to take the good with the bad. Why should you expect anything different in the mediums?
Two things: 1.) If you contest the removal, fine, but you had nearly a year to contest it and didn't say a peep. In the future, if you contest the removal, feel free, but please discuss BEFORE replacing them, because otherwise, it leads to an edit war.
2.) An anthology is not an ensemble. By that definition, literally every single successful comic strip that has ever appeared on the funnies page is an "ensemble darkhorse." And the main feature of an anthology is not a "darkhorse." Superman, Batman and the Spirit were all the lead-off and longest features of their anthologies - from appearance one - and the Spirit Section was called "the Spirit Section." A darkhorse is a surprise. Your flagship feature being the biggest hit is not a surprise. That is exactly what you anticipate happening.
Removed Rorschach, as Rorschach was always a main character in Watchmen and so cannot be an Ensembe Darkhorse.
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Except that he was much more popular than the author intended, and is, insofar as I can tell (of course, this is a Mileage trope), significantly more popular than the other main characters of the story. I mean, I see where you're coming from, but I think it warrants mention if not for the Fandom following, than because the author intended for him to be entirely unlikeable... and the opposite happened. Perhaps it should be on Draco In Leather Pants instead?
Edit: Never mind. After reading the trope repair shop discussion, I get where I screwed up.
Edited by USAF713 I am now known as Flyboy.
Am I the only one that would prefer this page to have a picture of Wolverine from the comics? I agree that his role in the X-Men movies is very indicative of his status as a Darkhorse character, but I still think the image of a page listing examples from comics should be from a comic.
I see the examples I removed of Superman, Batman and the Spirit - who were all the main characters and were never part of ensemble casts - have been replaced. Are we no longer removing main character examples from this trope?
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