There was a scene in the JSA: 80 Page Giant involving Power Girl and Cyclone, where at least part of it revolved around the two of them discussing Power Girl's costume, and Cyclone giving all these reasons why she thinks it works, and so on and so forth*. There are a couple of different thoughts I had that spun out from that page, so let's cover one today, and one tomorrow. Don't worry, neither one is going to devolve into me ranting angrily about anything.
When Power Girl said, 'Most women don't see it that way', I thought she was talking about other super-heroes**. Maybe she was, though considering a lot of the costumes other ladies sport, that would seem a bit odd. I imagine I was remembering the comment Huntress made in JSA Classified #3, when she told Power Girl most of the guys liked her, and most of the girls didn't, which I also thought referred to other super-heroes***.
OK, so clearly I've lost touch with the fact that super-heroes do occasionally hang out with people who aren't costumed vigilantes. It did start me thinking, the heroes are people. Maybe they're people from other worlds, dimensions, times, universes, but still, they're people. They have likes, dislikes, personalities, quirks, so on. It would make sense that some of them wouldn't get along. I don't mean in the sense that Frank Castle doesn't get along with Spider-Man or Daredevil because they have a serious difference of opinion about how to do their crimefighting. I'm thinking more about people who respect each other, can work together, but don't like each other.
I guess Justice League International era Guy Gardner and just about anyone might be an example. His personality rubbed people the wrong way. I feel that Spidey and Daredevil used to have this. They'd work together, but Peter found Murdock to be too serious****, and Daredevil felt Spider-Man was too immature, unwilling to see the grays in the world. I think they may have become closer friends now, at least to the point each is more readily willing to work with the other.
One pair I'd think wouldn't work are Colossus and Wolverine, back in the day. Peter the friendly, naive farm boy, Logan, was well, you know how Wolverine is. Actually, it's kind of amazing Wolverine made any actual friends on that team. I have a similar problem seeing Batman (Bruce Wayne version) being friends with Superman, and maybe they weren't actually friends. I couldn't really tell.
* I think they're having a conversation. The writer, Jen Van Meter, left a comment about the intent of the story on the post at the 4thletter that originally introduced me to the whole thing, and the comment makes me think the conversation might all have been in Cyclone's mind. I haven't read the issue, so I'm just guessing.
** It can be meta-textual even if the writer and artist don't intend that, correct? Van Meter doesn't sound like the aim was to jab at female comic fans unhappy with Power Girl's costume, and I can't speak to the artist, but it can be read that way, regardless.
*** Which could also have been a comment about the fans, couldn't it? I mean, Geoff Johns wrote the story, so it's certainly likely. Yes, I'm incredibly slow on the uptake, this has been well-established previously, let's keep moving.
**** I think Spidey also found Murdock too concerned with the letter of the law, but that's probably that philosophical difference about how to do their work.
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With the soap opera that is the X-men there always seems to be a few characters that don't get along. Go back to the first class and you have Scott and Warren fighting (in a wishy-washy 60's kind of way).
The FF started out with Ben and Johnny fighting a lot, and early on it seemed actually to be a dislike of each other rather than the brotherly stuff they have now (again, accounting for the 60's effect).
The Avengers had a lot of personal conflicts as well as I recall. Hawkeye disliked Cap for years, as an example.
These all seemed to be personal differences rather than philosophical, but the people involved would usually end up working together fairly well once a real threat showed up.
As for Wolverine, I think what happened is that the new team started with him, and so respected his obvious experience, and the kids on the team (Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler) were all from such different backgrounds that they were a bit more willing to work past the exterior.
The old team however all pretty much universally hated Wolverine due to his attitude, and Cyclops was the only one willing to try and work past that. Not because he wasn't considered good enough, but because his personality just conflicted so much with their established dynamic.
When you think about it, it just makes sense. Do you like EVERYONE that you work with? I certainly don't but I manage to get my work done with them, nevertheless.
I don't think that too many superheroes actually LIKE Batman, because face it, he's a bit of a pain, but they sure do respect him. Wolverine had that whole bad boy thing going on, which can be irresistable to the ladies, but can REALLY grate on the men, but they did manage to work things through.
I think that Colossus got along with Wolverine because he was a nice and friendly if rather naive young man, who seemed to like everyone. But Nightcrawler and Wolverine had a much closer friendship.
Here's a related question: Do you think there are more or fewer of those conflicts in comics these days? It seems to me there are less, because pratically everyone has teamed up at some point, and lots of heroes know who everyone else is in there civilian lives, there's a greater sense of camraderie, arguments about mind-wiping and registration aside.
I think it's still there, but mostly on the secondary characters. You're right that the main characters are all friendly now, despite the recent events. Of course it probably helps that the lunatics of the Marvel Universe put Norman Osborn in charge of planetary security. Sort of gives everyone a common enemy.
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