We all have our favorite characters. When I reflect on my childhood, (a lot of illness and a lot of isolation) I recall Curious George, the Penvensie kids, and Spider Man as great companions. George taught me to be inquisitive, to seek out people and experiences. The Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmond gave me adventure. They also taught me how to deal with fear and loss and even personal failure. Spider Man expanded on those lessons and added on a healthy dose of mid-century optimism and humor.
They were more than favorite characters, they were my friends. Then, as so many other readers do, I matured as did my tastes. I began to read further a-field and I became more critical of cherished favorites.
The thing is, we all have our least-favorite characters, too.
Often, those less-than-favs are in the same stories as our favs. The man in the yellow hat? He took George from his home and turned him over to a zoo. Not a fan. Edmund Penvensie was a bully toward Lucy and a middling coward. Don’t get me started on Norman Osborn, (killed Gwen Stacy) and Harry Osborn, (just damned evil). REALLY not a fan.
But those characters have lessons to teach the writer
Edmund is a prime example of how to write the face-turn, (professional wrestling expression where a “heel” turns good). He encounters true brutality and near-unspeakable fear. Instead of breaking him, the fire tempers Edmund and he comes out of the White Witch’s dungeon penitent (as good Christian, C.S. Lewis aspired for us all to be) and fierce, nearly falling in battle at his siblings’ side.
Sometimes the last really does become the first
In Gerard Way’s The Umbrella Academy, Reginald Hargreeves sets out to form a team of super-powered kids to battle an unnamed evil. Even when nearly four-dozen such kids are born on one day, pickings can run slim and they’re not all guaranteed to be winners. Vonya Hargreeves looks a lot like a dud when we meet her. In a group of seven she’s the only one without powers. She also presents like a perpetual victim and that shtick wears thin, fast.
What UA teaches is to take your time. Over time, we find out that Vonya has been abused throughout her life. Her power, (near-god level) has been suppressed by her foster father to the point that she doesn’t even know that she has it. Then she is attacked by a villain determined to set it off by setting Vonya loose.
Just like that, Vonya goes from one of the most boring characters to a HUGE factor that may be good or evil or both. It is a brilliant use of clichés to subvert tropes. Gerard Way redirects the reader’s focus and in doing so we see not only a fully-fleshed out character but we also see the other characters in new ways.
…and the third becomes a jerk
We also meet Allison Hargreeves (Vonya’s foster sister) in The Umbrella Academy. Adult Allison seems like Vonya’s polar opposite. Well-adjusted with a career, marriage, and child, Allison looks like a winner. Then we find out that her marriage has ended badly and she doesn’t have custody of her daughter.
Over time we find out that Allison has lost a lot more. In spite of her superpower (a form of mind-control) she has lost a hand to a supervillain. Her childhood crush (and foster brother) Luther has left Earth to live on the Moon after his own near-death experience. Her family has largely fallen apart after the death of another foster brother. We also learn that Allison is a narcissist who used her powers to compell her ex to marry her. She also used her powers on her daughter.
If Edmund is the entry-level face-turn, Allison is a master class heel-turn. I went from team-Allison rooting for her big comeback to cheering when Vonya slits her throat—in just a few short pages. Allison’s redemption is too little too late for me but I understand that it resonated with others.
Oh, yeah, spoilers…
I’m among the few science-fiction fans who did not like Firefly. The Fox television series created by Joss Whedon seemed a poor imitation of the superior anime Cowboy Beebop. Mostly, the Firefly characters were flat and stereotypical. The world creation smacked of Asian dread and white-male-replacement anxiety.
Sure, Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds is the typical haunted-hero-with-a-past. That’s thousands of heroes in thousands of stories. The problem is Mal never really moves beyond that. True, Firefly only ran one, truncated season but the later movie, (which I saw first) did nothing to suggest an arc or any form of development. Still, there were glimmers even among the drack.
Meanwhile, the biggest annoyance, Jayne Cobb, a stereotypical sidekick, quickly became one of the more interesting characters. In a few episodes Jayne evolves from not-quite enemy to not-entirely ally. He also infuses humanity through self-interest, speaking truth (rudely) to power, and calling out the elephant in whatever room he’s in. While stalwart in a fight, Jayne is also the voice of “why are we doing this again?” just about every story needs.
Adaptations can be problematic they can also illustrate possibilities
Arthur Douglas, a human from earth, lost his family to the intergalactic titan, Thanos. Kronos, (another titan) decides Arthur will make a good ringer and he takes Arthur’s soul and places it in an enhanced being with the strength/power to challenge Thanos. Like, can’t these guys work out their own issues? A friend of mine said basically Arthur became space-Hulk.
Having read several incarnations of Drax I can tell you he was boring. The tragedy was little more than a motivational device. His anger and second (or third) tier power made Drax little more than cannon fodder. I typically didn’t read Drax panels, skipping ahead to anyone else.
The movie was better
Guardians of the Galaxy (movie) Drax, (Arthur got the entire boot) is other-than-human species who’s family was slaughtered by Ronan, (one of Thanos’ homies). Movie Drax wears his grief the way the other characters wear clothes. Movie Drax is also literal—no sense of metaphor or simile—with a very laconic (means “basic”) sense of humor.
Drax, in GotG, is multifaceted. He seeks revenge for his wife and child but he also fights to protect his new companions. A consummate warrior, he totally punches above his weight. He also admits when he is wrong. Drax is big and menacing but he’s also silly and clumsy.
Our favorite characters give us so much. But our least favorites can teach us SO much about how to craft a story. Pay attention to the annoying characters, the cringe characters, the characters you like to skip-past. You’ll be surprised what they can do for your writing.
The image above, The Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 promotional poster is the property of Marvel and Disney Pictures. It is used here for educational/illustrative purposes as covered by the Fair Use Doctrine.
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