• 'The Man From Atlantis' rocked.  Sure, it was a product of its time, but to compare it to Aquaman–essentially Marvel's Submariner, without the super-strength, winged ankles, and cool 'hate all surface dwellers' vibe–isn't quite fair.

• I have to say this. Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog were placed in Superfriends to enhance the Kid-friendly concept so more stations would air that SOB. I agree they were fantasically bad ideas. But you might as well not bother being vindictive as DC comics beat you to it, reviving the character concept for one of their comic lines then having Wonder Dog turn into a monster and brutally murder Marvin. It was a wonderful example of later comics staff deciding to spit on older fans, a subject I seriously think needs to be covered.

• There's a reason the Bay of Pigs Democratic Convention fiasco happened in Chi-Town. Just as there's a reason the guys behind RIFTS used the remains of Chicago in placing the deliberately fascistic Coalition States' capital, for that matter. And, for the record, I was born in Chicago.

• gotta give M.a.n.t.i.s some credit, a invisible dinosaur could take out a few people.

• A lot of these shows were part of my childhood and you forgot  'Holmes & Yo-Yo'.

• Captain planet was a great series, it spawned it's own computer game and everything, shouldn't really be on this list. The only thing I didn't like was he fought polluters and was hurt by pollution!! Kind of like superman fighting kryptonite people all the time!! Poor guy from south america everyone had a cool power ring and all he got was heart LOL

• I liked Captain Planet

• Heroes got a fifth season?  what reality do you live in?  The Evil Carnie season was the FOURTH and FINAL season of Heroes, and The Cape sounds like they used the Sullivan Bros sets they used and threw NightMan in there.  then again, I gave No Ordinary Family a chance...up until the Family Hug Cure Memory Wipes! (yeah, sure hope mpm & dad weren't thinking about THAT! EW! ok, Julie is still pretty hawt, but doing Vic "The Thing" Mackey, and pretend their your parents.  quasi-yuck.)

• Spider man that's my  favorite

• Street Hawk anyone?  

• BTW how the hell can you diss Captain Planet?

• The Cape blew super chunks. Now everything on this list may be bad now but at the time (70's, 80s) it was the ish. I am sure some 20 something hipster made this list since they have no nostalgic value for any of it.

• Matthew Star should be on a list of Worst Aliens in Prime-Time. Throw in Prince Zack from that Benji show. Full disclosure: I recorded the theme songs from both shows on my cassette player when I was a kid.

• Severely missing Bibleman!

• missing from this list 90's flash (only good part was Mark Hamell as trickster)Power pack (the less said the better) the justice league pilot that's been circulating on you tube and last but least 70's japanese spiderman

• Lol, My Secret Identity looked and sounded like a Mentos commercial, didn't it? :D

• LittleBigSteve, thanks! That's it! I just watched a clip of it, and man, it's hilariously bad! From a promo voiceover: "Exoman's main crime-fighting tactic was psychological terror! He never actually touched the hair on his enemy's heads!! All he had to do was SHOW UP!!!" hahaha hilarious. (guess he can't be sued for unwanted touching, then!)

• This list is FAIL for saying the submitted are worse than the Cape. Furthermore, if you REALLY wanted to compose a serious list for superheroes worse than the Cape, it definitely needs to include Dark Angel.

• [Correct me if I'm wrong] There were superheroes who used 'Wonder twin powers' to turn into animals. Theoretically, Manimal should beat them by not needing another person to change shape. But really, cats and birds? Sabertooth tigers and Pegasus are much more fun.

• What you're trying to think of is a pilot movie called "Exo-man." Story was by novelist Martin Cadidin, on whose novel "Cyborg," the then-popular "Six Million Dollar Man" was based. The exo-armor design was kind of cool, except that it so immobilized the performer inside (I don't think it had any head or waist movement at all) that they could only lurch along in a fashion that would make Frankenstein's monster look like a gymnast. Obviously, it didn't go to series.

• The list should have put the 70's japanese spiderman show on it. Same lame special effects as the U.S. live action 70's spiderman but with power ranger zords and monsters.

• DUDE I remember that... oh wow... what was it called? Augh...

• Everyone would demand that Koranman and The Red Torah-Nado also be put on the list.

• Hugh G. Membur

• Does anyone remember a TV movie (I think it was a TV movie) about a paraplegic guy who who lay down in a chamber, it would close, and when he came out, he was in some sort of red fiberglass looking robot suit that allowed him to walk around and made him strong? I do remember one episode where he somehow lost power or something, fell backward onto a rock, and the rock blocked his helmet's breathing holes. A kid came by, and pressed some button, and it opened the visor on the helmet, saving the guy's life. The actor was white, with brown hair (so it's not the Mantis TV show from the 90s). Sound familiar to anyone?

• No, I'm saying that it appears that he didn't watch the show because of the level of research he did. When you know the basics about something you generally bring up a cursory level of information. When you are familiar with it, you usually bring stuff to the table that is a bit deeper, and that's the first bit of "second level" information someone would bring up about Misfits. The rest of the article just seems like he was skimming forums on the topic or other "Top 10 Worst TV Superheroes" lists. I'm not saying that he should only write about what he's personally seen. But, if he's just compiling stuff he's pulling from other sites, he needs to be bringing a better level of information than: "Electra Woman wasn't the best crimefighter, but she was excellent at keeping her name branding visible. Everything she owned needed to have the word "Electra" in front of it, like her "Electra-Plane," "Electra-Beam," "Electra-Degravitators," and "Electra-Chomps." Too bad she couldn't brand her way into more than eight episodes back in '76. "Electra-Footnote-In-TV-History!"

• I think this should definitely be in the list: "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future"

• I am currently studying to be a TV writer so it could be that that has made me a little jaded. But I really am a marginal comics collector. I buy probably over 40 comics a month, 95% being from either DC or Marvel. I just think it's easier to get away with mediocre storytelling on paper than on TV. I mean if you're going to open yourself to extreme scrutiny by making a superhero tv show, make sure the stories are solid ones, ones with no gaps and ones that don't require the audience to have to suspend complete disbelief because one guy forgot to reread the script for inconsistencies prior to actually shooting it. Its just my opinion.

• I loved Misfits of Science when I was a kid. Cheesy fun.

• You people clearly have forgotten "Wonder Wheels"...or "The Robotic Stooges"....

• Depends....are you close to Manitoba? *cracks knuckles threateningly*

• You should Check out the Greatest American Hero facebook fan page! William Katt does Q&A's and there is an address you can write to him! Over 22,000 fans. Contests for GAH comics too!

• The problem with the pilot episode was that they tried to cram 3 episodes of story into a two hour pilot. It was rushed like nothing I have seen in recent years.

• Say anything you want about Smallville, and there's much that can be said - but the show's in its 10th (tenth, that is) season, so I think it must have done <i>something</i> right.

• LOVED Misfits of Science! Never missed an episode. Can't remember a single one, of course, but I know I watched 'em all.

• Markie Post in a superhero costume? I'll be in my bunk.

• Due to various legal problems from the old Fawcett Comic days when DC (then National) sued because it was Captain Marvel was a rip off of Superman, it wasn't possible to use the name "Captain Marvel" as a comic book title. Marvel got around it by calling Captain Marvel, Mar-vell (or whateverthehellitwas). Lawyers. Its always lawyers.

• Actually, it was the episode where the bad guys (Chess? Pawn? Rook? Cobra? My Ex-Wife? What's their fucking name?) invented a machine that could predict the future. And they decided to sell it like A FUCKING iPAD! Hey, let's keep this neat thing and predict where our enemies will be. Let's predict what stocks will go up in the next six months. Let's predict who'll win the next year's worth of NFL/NBA/MLB games. Hey, I have a better idea. Let's sell a copy of it to every schmoe out there. Hell, if we're really lucky, most of the Intelligence Services of all those nations with nuclear weapons will buy some. I'll bet we could see Global Thermo-Nuclear warfare real soon! Ass and Hats!

• Bayformers is a double-threat of terrible. It is lousy in general, but then goes the extra mile with Shia LaBeouf being so awful that I've known people to walk out of the room when he has a scene. The Cape is good fun. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but isn't annoying about it either. Bayformers is just bad. The Cape just runs with superhero tropes, like how putting on a mask and hood suddenly means his wife, son, and best friend can no longer recognize him. That the main character steals a comic book persona may be silly, but it works within that world's logic. He does it to make his son feel better. And it gives him a reason to dress like a superhero in a world without superheroes. I also like how the show doesn't spend all its time on the guy's family. They get plenty of screen time, but the show stays about the Cape and his new world. Like the episode where the kid is hassled at school. Here, it gets a couple of short scenes. In any other show, half the episode would have been devoted to it, with either 30 minutes of Cape sneaking around the school or 10 minutes of the mom being called to the school because her son is causing problems. The whole thing works on another level as well, matching Cape's focus on his new world that takes him from his family with the viewer only getting short windows into the family life.

• Congratulations, you are the viewer every network prays for.

• Yeah, no. I dig the Cape, and have never seen any of the Transformers movie save the 80's animated one, which I hold in high regard. It doesn't need to be improved upon, and I certainly won't validate that kind of behavior with my dollars.

• Don't forget all the crack!

• I think you're being too critical of something that's not supposed to be bulletproof in the first place. It's a comic book story. Some suspension of disbelief is required as a matter of rote. You don't strike me as an appreciator of marginal comics in the least.

• I don't understand this. are you saying because he didn't know this specific bit of info he never watched the show? a lot of people watch shows without ever knowing who is behind it all. that being said, if he only listed things he has seen himself, he would be cutting out a lot. especially when listing a bad short lived something.

• same here. before watching it.

• I was expecting that too.

• chameleon man. just one guy though I think. his whole shtick was changing colors (they thought invisible was a color). I remember he got all of it from an uncle or something that died after making it so he had to figure everything out. he had a souped up car that could change colors and there was a robot in it that I think controlled the car and popped out the top too.

• I'm glad I was too young or not alive for most of these titles. I remember thinking Night Man was dumb back then too though.

• Can you believe they cancelled it? I only found out when Johnny and Ben were talking about this "Doctor Betty" character.

• congratulations you get the super nerf moment of the day

• (insert obligatory comment about Max Wright blowing homeless dudes here)

• will any of you people from Canada hunt me down if i continue to hoard any of your currency that comes to my side of the border? the grand total i have so far is about $60.00

• Um. This list is basically full of cartoon characters and 80s shows (some of which were cartoons). Yes, The Cape would make a better 80s cartoon than all the shows on this list (it would still suck compared to the great 80s cartoons like Transformers, Robotech). Damn shame it ain't the 80s no more, and it's not a cartoon (though sometimes it's hard to tell). Summer Glau deserves better.

• As one of those people that buy 60-70% of "generic" comics, I can say that The Cape does nothing but make me shake my head in shame at just how awful, awful that show turned out. I don't have a problem with a show about a superhero with a magic cape, its just the unbelievable amount of cheese and the horrendous plot holes and inconsistencies that I just can't put up with. Let me give you an example: I think it was in episode 2, there's a scene where The Cape infiltrates Checker's corporate building only to step into an ambush and get stabbed by some French guy with poisoned knifes. He jumps out of like a 30 story window and breaks his fall using his cape. At the exact moment he hits the street, his faux Oracle shows up and takes him away but not before being attacked by the same French dude that stabbed The Cape seconds before. You got all that? Now let me tell you what bothered me because that scene alone was just a disaster. 1. Let's start with his entry. In the first episode. The Cape guy is a cop who leaves the force after the police commissioner is killed in a bombing to work in the bad guy's privatized police. That's stupid on its own but that's beside the point. For some reason, beyond all reason, he is made the head of the bad guy's police force and given complete clearance to the bad guy's building. Yadda, yadda, he's framed, yadda, yadda, yadda, they think he's dead, whatever. For how much of a genius the writers want you to think the baddie is, for some reason, it never occurs to him to deactivate the Cape's security clearance. Yeah, he probably thought the guy was dead but somebody else could have found the fucking card and used it. What a dumbass. 2. The Cape wears a costume so that those he fights don't go after his family. Then why would the dumbass use his own security card to enter the bad guy's building. Wouldn't that show up on the network. Then again, the bad guy is such a fucking moron that he never figured that out. 3. Doesn't the bad guy own a house that he has to sleep in the corporate building? That was just odd. 4. Too coincidental that the chick showed up just as The Cape fell from the building with no notice that she'd been tracking him or that he followed him whatsoever. 5. How the fuck did that French dude get down to the street so fast?! He pretty much appears on the street seconds after the Cape flew through the window and he was free falling! Does this guy also teleport? Does the bad guy have an ultra fast elevator with some sort of gravity controls to ensure the French guy doesn't splatter when it hits the ground floor? What the fuck is going on?! The fucking show just fails in the details. Doesn't really matter though. Its almost guaranteed to be cancelled since NBC has cut down the number of episodes all but ensuring it won't return to which I say, good riddance!

• Shit list< not only is it embarrassingly stupid, your shitty, zero effort comments make me ashamed to be a nerd, and none of these clowns are worse than a cop who was taught how to fight by a midget weighing a fucking third of his weight. it's as if a retard who doesn't understand the basics of weight classes wrote the script to this abortion, not even Night Man in all his 90s FX sucked as bad. The Cape is retarded beyond any of the entires of this list and anybody who enjoys it needs to be put down to make sure they don\t contaminate the human gene pool. They are the same people who think Bayfomers are cinematic masterpieces. The Cape makes me lose faith in humanity and makes me want to torture people to death. For real...

• I never paid any attention to M.A.N.T.I.S. but it got my attention reading he died in the last episode fighting an invisible dinosaur. Holy crap, it's true, the episode is available on Hulu http://www.hulu.com/watch/84656/mantis-ghost-of-the-ice The internet is amazing.

• Come on, how does Bibleman not make this list?!

• Captain Planet = Okay for young young kids. Get them used to bad guys and such, but at 5 time to bring out Batman and good characters. the stupid kids on Super Friends. Yeah they were super lame. Like the Wonder Twins >_<

• I wonder what it's like for Turbo Teen now that he's undoubtedly on cinder blocks in front of a trailer these days.

• My Hero was a hilarious show. It deserves better than to be on this list. Misfits of Science was also a great show. They drove around in a freaking ice cream truck ffs! Not to mention the shame of the very tall black doctor who has no athleticism to speak of, and is relegated to wearing Michael Jackson red leather suits when he shrinks down to action figure size. Super Force, however should be on this list. And very near the top, I might add. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098917/

• Im suprised Sabans Masked Rider wasnt on the list...lol.

• Don't forget, Black Scorpion wasn't even good enough to come up with their own villans. Never forget the horrible mash-up of Two-Face and the Joker, "Prankster Gangster". Horrible.

• typing errors happen.....or happed :-)

• This was a great list but I feel that you forgot one of the worst superheroes ever. I persent to you, Bibleman http://www.familyfriendlygaming.com/Bibleman-video-game.jpg

• Blue Falcon and DynoMutt were the shit and I won't hear a word to the contrary.

• Oh, so I get to be that guy today? Well, here goes whatever... Your list is inadequate when I get no real sense of why the shows suck and have to rely on the comments to glean any useful information. Your three lines of rarely humorous snark below video are useless when the inherent suck of so few of the shows and/or characters you are ripping on is self-evident. It's made even worse when the peanut gallery is pretty firmly opposed to about 1/3 of your list and does a better job of explaining why they don't necessarily belong on the list than you do of explaining why they do. *tips cap, exits*

• Not surprised to see Nightman on the list, or Ultraman from My Secret Identity, even though I enjoyed both shows way back when. I really do enjoy The Cape.

• NOF started out as silly fun for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I didn't expect it to last into a 2nd season. However, I'm of the opinion that the plot has been getting consistently better as this season has progressed, with a pretty solid metaplot that's kept me engaged.

• Damn you WB, always canceling potentially good pilots but letting crap like Dawson's creek grow into obvious senility. Skintight spandex and a peek-a-boo panel,awesome. Even more almost a decade after Night Court left the air,Markie was still hot.

• I like the part in the My Secret Identity clip where the middle aged guy tries to punch the kid in the face lol.

• Incidentally, as "Man from Atlantis" first aired, I was first learning how to seriously swim (I mean being old enough to do so without adults in the pool with me), and I by God learned how to do that undulating swimming motion he (very inefficiently) uses. {g} Just to see if it actually worked. Someone badly needs to make "The M.A.N.T.I.S. from Atlantis."

• forgotted? forgot or forgotten.

• The wizard was in the show, sort of, as the mentor named "Mentor". I think. It didn't occur to me later that he was probably supposed to be the wizard.

• Fox was doing a lot of low-budget original movies that were serving as backdoor pilots for TV series. It's kinda funny that established heroes given such movies like Generation X, Nick Fury, and even Doctor Who couldn't get past the pilot stage, but M.A.N.T.I.S. was able to warrant a series.

• You chose the wrong Electra Woman and Dyna Girl..... 2001 re-boot pilot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOitJbSBSg Yeah.....that's Markie Post as a bitter/jaded Electra Woman

• While it can be fun digging up old superhero shows, maybe the list should have held some more recent offerings. The Cape is leagues better than No Ordinary Family, and is better than the bulk of Smallville.

• I see what you did there.

• Bad info. Dean Paul Martin from Misfits actually died about a year after the show aired. Kevin Peter Hall died about five years later.

• Yeah, but he was just an alien,, wasn't he?

• I was expecting this to just be a list of characters from characters from Heroes.

• My dad was a big fan of the bad live action superhero shows when I was growing up. Most of the late 70's and the 80's shows I have seen. I remember how Automan's car turned on a right angle and his passenger always slammed into the glass. Good times. Misfits of Science had a lot of tragedy behind it. Two of the cast members died, one the year it debuted and one shortly after, and one got in a disfiguring accident. You talked bad superhero shows, now talk about bad supervehicle shows (M.A.S.K. and Airwolf come to mind).

• because he is fanriffic..

• Um... Did you not actually watch the majority of these shows, because it feels kind of cheap to compile a list like this without actually having firsthand knowledge of the shows. Misfits of Science was pretty good, but I'm not writing because of that. I'm writing because you don't mention that Tim Kring, the guy behind Heroes was a writer on Misfits of Science, which is a pretty interesting tidbit. (Guy who works on one failed superhero show goes on to make another over two decades later...on the same network.) Did you just do a quick search for lame superhero TV shows on the internet and then sum up everyone else's thoughts?

• Great Primus,I had forgotten Norman Alden was on Electro-Woman and Dyna-Girl. =O He was the voice of Kranix in Transformers the Movie,and Aquaman in every iteration of The Superfriends prior to The Super Powers quasi-reboot with Adam West as the voice of Batman

• Too bad Bibleman isn't a TV Show so he couldn't make it to the list.

• That show knows that Captain Marvel's name is not, in fact, Shazam. Why don't you? Unless you were talking about the wizard, in which case...he was in the show? Sweet.

• By Thoth was she ever,I remember when Joanna Cameron guest starred on an episode of the Amazing Spiderman,and she had on that bikini. LORDS OF LIGHT,As a prepubescent it gave me new and strange sensations.

• How did the new Bionic Woman not make this list? I demand you take down ElectoSexy and DynaHot and put the new Bionic Woman in it's place!!

• Oh yeah, and Isis......how could I have forgotted Isis??!!

• It seems No Ordinary Family has escaped the ire of comic fans for whatever reason. Maybe because mangling The Fantastic Four is not so bad when they're not using the Fantastic Four, and it's mostly harmless, I guess.

• Amen brother.....between this show and Wonder Woman, I wanted all women to be dressed like superheroes.

• Big McLargehuge

• Amen...

• Dina Meyer as Oracle/Batgirl was enough to save it even with Not Huntress and Black Canary.

• I think you were a little too hard on most of these shows, especially the following: My Secret Identity (fun and relaxing to watch) The Misfits of Science (loved the characters. Only Martin was a bit annoying) The Powers of Matthew Starr (from what I remember, it wasn't that bad) Man From Atlantis (did you even watch this one??) Anyway, I'm finding 'The Cape' completely watchable. I like the fact that the networks continue to produce superhero shows and I would rather have them than NOT. I think that 'The Cape' suffers a little from a lead character that's always way too intense. Not sure I've ever seen him really smile... He's also lost in this new world and feeling his way around too much. There's also that gnawing sense - all the time - that as soon as he clears his name, he'll stop being 'The Cape'. Plus the hero's name is really stupid but it's too late to change that now. I've watch 4 episodes (others taped) and will continue to watch the series. Some of the other characters are fantastic. His wife qnd especially his kid - doing a fantastic job in this series. The main villian is pretty good too in a b-movie kinda' way. The Orwellian girl rocks (nice to see her working again after her TV terminator role:-) It's better than some of the shows listed here, I agree. Worst than a few others too. I guess you need to post some articles that drive in traffic BUT... do all internet articles have to be so negative and is it necessary to slam just about everything out there to make a point?

• I'm from Winnipeg AKA the Murder Capital of Canada. We kill you politely.

• I am one of the few that read this and immediately gets the theme song to My Secret Identity shitting all over my mind.

• I'm glad Birds of Prey didn't make the list.

• whoa whoa whoa..... Captain Planet? maybe the kid with the lame-ass heart ring but the capper? He was.... ya ok maybe he sucked.

• Wow, I'd forgotten about how The Man From Atlantis swam. So many kids were trying to imitate it that summer. Surprised there weren't mass drownings.

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