Sidekicks Who Are (Infinitely) Better Than The Main Character
We love a good underdog story, so it’ll come as no surprise that we’re coming out with a companion to Jon Morris’ The League of Regrettable Superheroes and The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains – this time with a big emphasis on the often forgotten sidekick! In The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, Morris shines a spotlight on some of the strangest sidekicks in superhero comics history. Which got us thinking about some of our favorite sidekicks in pop culture – sidekicks who are (dare we say it?) way better than their leads.
Hermione Granger
The entire series is named after Harry Potter, but even the biggest fan of the wizarding world will admit that The Boy Who Lived is a little – um – stubborn. (And that’s putting it mildly.) Imagine if these books were told from Hermione’s perspective. To start, we wouldn’t have to deal with all the speculation surrounding Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (There’s that name again.) And just imagine those time turner scenes that we never see! Plus, most of the quests would be solved much much earlier because did we mention she’s a genius? And yet all fans care about is whether she should have ended up with Ron Weasley in the end. We’re firmly anti-epilogue. There, we said it.
Hobbes
Calvin was such a brat that it’s almost too obvious to say that we prefer the even keel of Hobbes. But we’re going to come out and say it anyway. While Calvin was always off scheming explosions and throwing snowballs at unsuspecting neighbors, Hobbes took a different approach. He was always playful, but never encouraging of destructive behavior. He has a firm grasp on the consequences of his and Calvin’s actions – much like his namesake, 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes. And while Bill Watterson is no longer creating this famous strip, the adventures of Calvin and Hobbes will be immortalized forever in The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.
George Fayne and Bess Marvin
It’s sacrilegious to say, but we always preferred George and Bess to Nancy Drew. To start, they were never sneaking off to abandoned lighthouses, swamps, or mansions alone. When George was around, Bess was too. They were cousins, sure. But more importantly, they were best friends. And even though Bess was often overly cautious – going as far as begging Nancy Drew to give up on several cases – and George is fearless to a fault, the two women complement each other beautifully. Nancy Drew’s series of ghostwriters insisted on giving both women a boyfriend, but they always made Nancy a priority. We can’t say the same for Nancy aka the future Mrs. Ned Nickerson.
Scout Finch
Not gonna lie, when we first read To Kill a Mockingbird, we thought that Scout Finch was the protagonist. Hey, it’s not our fault this is in middle school curriculum. You’d find Atticus Finch unrelatable too! Over time, we’ve come to realize that the narrator isn’t always the center of the story. But we’ll always love Scout’s lens on the world over the course of her young life. She’s clearly proud of her father, even though she can’t fully comprehend what he’s doing in court day after day. And for that alone, she gets all the points.
