10 Most Inappropriate Comic Book Characters

What were their creators thinking? We're not sure we want to know the answer to that.

By T Campbell /

Comics characters live in a world of frozen frames and speech balloons that€™s often not quite like our own, so sometimes what would be considered inappropriate in our world is perfectly appropriate there. For instance, comics have a long-standing tradition of kid sidekicks: Robin, Bucky, Toro, Aqualad, Wonder Girl-- child endangerment laws? What are those? We likewise tend to look the other way at how many black characters created in the 1960s or 1970s have their race literally in their names. Black Panther, Black Lightning, Black Racer, Black Manta, Black Vulcan, Bronze Tiger? It€™s all good. They still get points for being a step forward for race relations. It was a different time! And with some characters, it€™s all in the handling. If all you read of Lois Lane was Silver Age comics, you€™d probably conclude she was a terrible character: constantly scheming to expose Superman€™s secret identity and/or get him to marry her (because nothing will win your man€™s heart like forcibly exposing his most closely guarded secret). She matured considerably once Superman stories stopped being written for girl-hating pre-pubescent boys. Even so, there are some characters who are simply beyond the pale. Most of these haven€™t seen a lot of action lately because really, no writer can save them. Check out Egg Fu at the top of this page, a sentient egg which also manages to be an outrageous stereotype of the Chinese and Asians in general. He didn't make this list. These are ten characters more inappropriate than him.