Even though I've already stopped playing the MMO, I've been following the Marvel Heroes Online forums just to see if there are updates that would convince me to pick it up again. One of the regular types of posts there are requests for new characters, and along with the fanpages for existing ones, I noticed that there are characters who have surprisingly huge (or at least vocal) fanbase.
Deadpool is sort of an exception. Not a fan of the fourth wall breaking and I've always considered him as nothing but a Rob Liefield creation (really, his character design screams liefield - guns, swords, full mask, martial arts, tendency to do ridiculous poses mid-air) but I do know that he's popular through various mediums (videogames, comics, cartoons, even the Ryan Reynolds version has fans.)
However, there are characters that I really don't understand why people feel strongly about:
Squirrel Girl - she's a joke character. She's a mutant who controls squirrels and her storylines involve her beating Doctor Doom or Thanos, or even Galactus. I'm not sure if the fans are just fake-liking the character because liking joke characters is cool and shows that you don't take the medium seriously.
Jubilee - I'm not updated, and I'm only familiar with the one from the 90s cartoons. But apparently, she's a vampire now and people like her. I thought people hate things that jump on the Twilight bandwagon?
Doop - really. Another joke character, this time a nigh-omnipotent creature that looks like an uglier version of slimer, whose stories consist of gross visuals and reality being altered significantly and then changed back to status quo (and the heroes forgetting what happened.)
Spider Gwen Stacy's costume - note that it's not even the character. Just her costume. Having a hood seems really unnecessary considering that she already has a mask on. Plus I don't think the hood helps make her aerodynamic when swinging. Also, she's wearing sneakers.
