History EnsembleDarkhorse / ComicBooks

* Rorschach from ''{{Watchmen}}'' is easily the most popular character, [[MisaimedFandom even though the author wrote him to be unsympathetic]].
** Correction: He was meant to be somewhat sympathetic, but the readers certainly weren't supposed to take his moral stance as anything other than insane.
** ''Watchmen'' has a flock of these in the form of the Minutemen. Also a good deal of the villains that are mentioned offhandedly, most notably the Twilight Lady.

* {{Blade}} of the {{Marvel}} comic Tomb of Dracula. He was the token minority character in that 1970s comic and appeared periodically to assist Quincy Harker, Frank Drake, and Rachel Van Helsing. Blade notably teamed up with vampire detective Hannibal King to defeat their archfoe Deacon Frost. He, Frank Drake, and King would continue years later in various 90s comics such as Nightstalkers and Midnight Suns. Drake would vanish as a result of {{Chuck Cunningham Syndrome}} Even Dracula himself has no reason to show up unless it's for another melee with Blade. King would show up periodically but all vampire-centric Marvel stories of the 90s and 2000s seem to acknowledge Blade as their central main character.

* People really seem to love Ultimate Spider-Woman. 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.

** The ''{{Spiderman}}'' Series has had several ensemble darkhorses; Mary Jane, who was originally simply meant to be TheRival of Gwen Stacy, [[DatingCatwoman Black Cat]] who transformed from a simple bank robber to a romantic love interest, and Spider-Man himself, who, like Superman, was meant to be one among many in a feature (Amazing Fantasy).

** Under the hand of PeterDavid, 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 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.

* {{Blade}} of the {{Marvel}} comic Tomb of Dracula. He was the token minority character in that 1970s comic and appeared periodically to assist Quincy Harker, Frank Drake, and Rachel Van Helsing. Blade notably teamed up with vampire detective Hannibal King to defeat their archfoe Deacon Frost. He, Frank Drake, and King would continue years later in various 90s comics such as Nightstalkers and Midnight Suns. Drake would vanish as a result of {{Chuck Cunningham Syndrome}} Even Dracula himself has no reason to show up unless it's for another melee with Blade. King would show up periodically but all vampire-centric Marvel stories of the 90s and 2000s seem to acknowledge Blade as their central main character.

* {{Blade}} of the {{Marvel}} comic Tomb of Dracula. He was the token minority character in that 1970s comic and appeared periodically to assist Quincy Harker, Frank Drake, and Rachel Van Helsing. Blade notably teamed up with vampire detective Hannibal King to defeat their archfoe Deacon Frost. He, Frank Drake, and King would continue years later in various 90s comics such as Nightstalkers and Midnight Suns. Drake would vanish into {{Chuck Cunningham}} status. Even Dracula himself has no reason to show up unless it's for another melee with Blade. King would show up periodically but all vampire-centric Marvel stories of the 90s and 2000s seem to acknowledge Blade as their central main character.

* [[{{Dreamkeepers}} Namah]], although it was probably intentional.
* [[{{Batman}} Catwoman]] started out as sparsely appearing character in the Batman series, became a regular villain, then became an anti-hero with several series of comics bearing her name as the title.
* Similarly, Harley Quinn got her own series.
** And then a one-off series, "Harley & Ivy" was made of Poison Ivy and Harley later.
** Now they all [[GothamCitySirens are best friends]]

** Correction: He was meant to be somewhat sympathetic, but the readers certainly weren't supposed to take his moral stance as [[MoralDissonance anything other than insane]].

** In an odd example, the GreenLantern Sinestro Corp War storyline was originally meant as a [[BatFamilyCrossOver minor storyline]], the big stories of the DCU were supposed to be CountdownToFinalCrisis and Amazons Attack. However, Sinestro Corp War was a massive hit, and both Countdown and Amazons Attack were [[SoBadItsHorrible massive failures.]] in fact, Sinestro Corp War was such a great success, that it's sequel, BlackestNight, became THE next major CrisisCrossover, and DC's way of [[AuthorsSavingThrow repairing the damage Countdown has done to their reputation]]. Fan outlook on the books is positive.

* [[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles The Shredder]] was originally a one issue character. However, due to his popularity, he was brought back and, later, made the primary antagonist in the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 cartoon show]]. Nowadays, he is the ''first'' person you think of when the turtles' RoguesGallery is brought up.

* TheJoker from ''{{Batman}}'' was originally introduced as a one shot villain based off the title character in the film ''The Man Who Laughs''. He was slated to die in his second appearance, but he proved popular with fans so they made him a recurring villain and {{arch enemy}}. He now has JokerImmunity.

** [[CatsAreMean Red Lantern]] [[AnimalSuperheroes Dex-Tarr]] too.

* Carol Danvers, a.k.a. MsMarvel, was originally created as a DistaffCounterpart to CaptainMar-vell, and even worse, 'the woman whose power got stolen by [[XMen Rogue]]' (who is actually more popular). However, she has actually made quite a name for herself and has a reasonably sized fan following. Which is seriously impressive, because usually female clones of popular male superheroes tend to be lame, pointless {{Flat Character}}s, but Ms. Marvel has turned out to be really awesome and even outshined her original. She was recently included in both ''MarvelUltimateAlliance'' games as a playable character, and many players agreed that she was one of the best characters. Presumably (and hopefully), she will return as a playable character if they decide to make a third game. She also appears in several other shows such as the MarvelSuperHeroSquad, and comic-wise, she shapes up to be one of the more important heroines of the MarvelUniverse (even going so far as becoming the 'Marvel counterpart' of DC's iconic WonderWoman.

* Carol Danvers, a.k.a. MsMarvel, was originally created as a DistaffCounterpart to CaptainMarvel. However, she has actually made quite a name for herself and has a reasonably sized fan following. Which is seriously impressive, because usually female clones of popular male superheroes tend to be lame, pointless {{Flat Character}}s, but Ms. Marvel has turned out to be really awesome. She was recently included in both ''MarvelUltimateAlliance'' games as a playable character, and many players agreed that she was one of the best characters. Presumably (and hopefully), she will return as a playable character if they decide to make a third game.

* Carol Danvers, a.k.a. MsMarvel, was originally created as a DistaffCounterpart to CaptainMarvel. However, she has actually made quite a name for herself and has a reasonably sized fan following. Which is seriously impressive, because usually female clones of popular male superheroes tend to be lame, pointless {{Flat Character}}s, but Ms. Marvel has turned out to be really awesome. She was recently included in both MarvelUltimateAlliance games as a playable character, and many players agreed that she was one of the best characters. Presumably (and hopefully), she will return as a playable character if they decide to make a third game.

* Carol Danvers, a.k.a. MsMarvel, was originally created as a DistaffCounterpart to CaptainMarvel. However, she has actually made quite a name for herself and has a reasonably sized fan following. Which is seriously impressive, because usually female clones of popular male superheroes tend to be lame, pointless {{Flat Character}}s, but Ms. Marvel's turned out to be pretty awesome. She was recently included in both MarvelUltimateAlliance games as a playable character, and many players agreed that she was one of the best characters. Presumably (and hopefully), she will return as a playable character if they decide to make a third game.

* Scrooge McDuck was originally intended to be a one shot character in Carl Barks's comic ''Christmas on Bear Mountain''. But due to the unexpected popularity of the character he became a recurring character in the Donald Duck comics, eventually getting his own comic book series, and eventually making animated appearances.

* Death from ''{{The Sandman}}''. She was originally meant to be a minor recurring character who might appear a handful of times, but her instant popularity with the audience - helped no doubt by her perky, upbeat, kindhearted nature, at the time (and STILL) a sharp contrast to most personifications of Death - was so strong that Gaiman made sure she'd get at least one appearance in all Ten volumes. These appearances vary in size but always feel substantial, and their sparsity helps prevent the story from ever focusing on her too much.

* GoldenAge example: The Red Tornado was originally introduced as "Ma" Hunkel, a supporting character in "Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist," but was so outrageously silly that she completely overshadowed the title character. 60 years later, Ma is the curator of the ''JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' museum, and nobody remembers poor ol' Scribbly.

* Ares, Greek god of war, had been since the SilverAge nothing more than a lesser enemy of [[IncredibleHercules Hercules]] and [[TheMightyThor 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 [[spoiler: his death caused an InternetBackdraft much stronger than the death of Wasp, founding Avenger.]]

* Can't believe nobody's mentioned Death from ''{{The Sandman}}'' yet. She was originally meant to be a minor recurring character who might appear a handful of times, but her instant popularity with the audience - helped no doubt by her perky, upbeat, kindhearted nature, at the time (and STILL) a sharp contrast to most personifications of Death - was so strong that Gaiman made sure she'd get at least one appearance in all Ten volumes. These appearances vary in size but always feel substantial, and their sparsity helps prevent the story from ever focusing on her too much.