DC Comics has been dropping iconic characters on readers for decades. They’ve created some of the most popular heroes and villains of all-time, with numerous household names coming from their pages. Many of these characters have stayed atop the superhero and supervillain communities, with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Lex Luthor, the Joker, Two-Face, Dick Grayson, Robin, and more all being built into characters that got to the top and stayed there. However, the publisher has always been able to build up numerous characters to major roles in the DC Multiverse, making them into legends. DC history is full of characters who became major players from the most humble origins.
However, not every character can stay at the top forever. Many times over the years, DC has introduced characters who became major players and then sort of faded away. They seemed like they were on the road to superstardom, but had some hiccups along the way. Some of them have been able to make comebacks, but they never reached the level that they were once destined for. These five DC characters all seemed like the next big thing but it didn’t happen, their bright futures fading away before readers’ eyes.
Time travel is one of those things that can break a superhero universe, so it’s honestly pretty hard for characters who can travel through time to become major players. It raises too many questions about stopping the bad guys; a time traveler can basically fix everything. However, in 1991, DC introduced a character that seemed like he was going to transcend that – Waverider. “Armageddon 2001” saw him coming back in time to show the heroes of the present their terrible future, where one of their number becomes the Monarch and takes over the world. That story had its own problems (which we’ll get to later; hint hint), but Waverider stayed around, mostly because he was the baby of Superman writer/artist Dan Jurgens and Jurgens kept putting him into stories, including the aftermath to “Death of Superman”. He felt like he was going to become the time-traveling character of the DC Universe, but the character just never caught on. I loved him because of my love of Jurgens, but I’m in the minority.
Crisis on Infinite Earths is the greatest event book ever and there will be no discussion otherwise. DC spent years preparing for this groundbreaking story, introducing several of major characters years before it started, including Harbinger. She was the Monitor’s partner, appearing in the background when he made his deals with villains. In Crisis, she became his chief field agent and was revealed as Harbinger, gifted with the power to split into different bodies and travel to other Earths, flight, and energy powers. She was one of the main leaders against the Anti-Monitor after the Monitor was killed at her hands (she was possessed, so everyone was okay with it). In History of the DC Universe #1-2, she was the chronicler of the newly singular universe and it honestly felt like she was going to be the next big character. However, this wasn’t the case; she was roped into New Guardians (Vol. 1), which basically killed all of her momentum. She was killed in the ’00s and has since come back as the computer system for the House of Heroes, the multiversal home of the Justice League Incarnate, but that’s the extent of her importance.
Hawk was introduced as part of Hawk and Dove in the late ’60s. Hank Hall and his brother Don had opposite tendencies – Hank was all about action and Don was all about peace – and the two were empowered by the Lords of Chaos and Order. Hank got super strength and durability from the Lords of Chaos and became the headbuster of the duo. Don died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and was replaced by Dawk Granger as Dove. The duo started getting popular in the late ’80s/early ’90s, partly thanks to artist Rob Liefeld. Then “Armageddon 2001” happened. Originally, it was meant for Captain Atom to be revealed as the Monarch, but that was accidentally leaked to the public and DC scrambled to fix it by putting Hawk in the role. This may have seemed like the road to stardom for the character, but the whole thing left a bad taste in readers’ mouths and Monarch faded away. They tried to salvage the character by making him into Extant in Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time, but he still never caught on. Since then, there have been several attempts to make him popular again, but none of them have stuck.
Firestorm was DC’s Spider-Man in the early ’80s. The character was created by Gerry Conway, one of the greatest writers on The Amazing Spider-Man and Justice League of America (Vol. 1), and Al Milgrom. Ronnie Raymond was a teen jock who ended up working with Professor Martin Stein to salvage his grades. However, a terrorist attack on their nuclear research led to them being melded together in the Firestorm matrix. They could transform into Firestorm any time, with Ronnie controlling the body while Stein helped him figure out how to use his matter-rearranging and energy control powers in the smartest way. He was a cauldron of power with an awesome costume and readers in the ’80s loved him. However, as can often happen, the character couldn’t keep his popularity, especially after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then, DC has tried to bring him back, with the Jason Rusch Firestorm in the ’00s becoming a solid B-lister on name recognition, but the New 52 torpedoed his and Robbie’s big push. Firestorm is back in his own miniseries, but he’s not the icon he seemed destined to be.
Barry Allen was the second Flash and is one of the most important characters in comic history. His introduction was the beginning of the Silver Age and he became an icon. However, Barry was always kind of a boring, white bread character with cool powers and he started to lose his shine as comics changed in the ’70s and early ’80s. He died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and was replaced by his nephew Wally West. West became a superstar, with Barry positioned as the patron saint of the superhero community. He returned to life in 2008’s Final Crisis #2 and took Wally’s place as the Flash until 2021, when fans complaints about DC’s treatment of Wally saw him returned to the mantle. Since then, Barry has faded away almost completely. He’s no longer the main Flash and he rarely appears anywhere; his last major appearance was as the narrator of The New History of the DC Universe #1-4. He’s integral to comic history and yet he’s nowhere to be found in 2026.
