This person was always there but no one heard of them trope

[mr friendly guy]

I am not sure if there is another name for this trope, but essentially a new character appears on the scene and its revealed they had always been there. They were just never shown. I am starting to find this trope irritating given how its used. But I digress.

A famous example of this trope would be Buffy the vampire slayer's sister, Dawn. She would just appear in an episode and it was revealed that Buffy always had a sister, we the viewer just never saw her. Well I never actually watched Buffy, it actually seemed like it was nicely done, especially with the reveal that Dawn was created to help Buffy and due to magic blah blah appeared that she had always been there. So the viewers could infer something was up, but the characters could not.

This was also done in the Avengers : The crossing storyline, where to counter Kang (which was later retcon to Immortus pretending to be Kang) the Priests of Pama inserted a new character in the line up of the West Coast Avengers Force Works to help them out. Due to time manipulation it appeared he had always been there. This actually was done ok as well, as it gave the impression of a contest of tactics between time travelling foes. Actually a similar tactic occurred in the DW parody The Curse of Fatal Death, when the Doctor and the Master kept on changing events so that a trap would have been built ages ago, and the counter to the trap would also have been built. Although I suppose a trap can't be counted as a "character."

Now lets use a few more examples. Take Triumph. A character who when he first appeared in DC comics turns out he had always been there and founded the Justice League. What? Oh it gets better. He is so powerful even Superman says he this keeps up you'll kill me (they were fighting each other). The reason why the world forgot, due to plot device, dimensional travel, time alteration blah blah blah. Okaaaay. Oh, and Triumph is "always right," that is he turns out to be correct. But there is more.

Take Marvel's Sentry. Now I will admit as a teenager I most probably had wish fulfilment comic book ideas where a super hero will join a super hero team, showcase his superiority. He would trash the bad guys single handedly which the entire team would struggle to beat etc. In other words a Mary Sue. Little did I know Marvel comics created such a character and they called him Sentry. Not only can he rip Ares, Carnage into pieces and single handedly stalemate Galactus, he defeats the Molecule Man. Yeah, that Molecule Man who was supposed to be the most powerful human ever which even the cosmic beings respected. He only lost to the Hulk after both reverted to human form. But my god he is wanked out. What has that got to do with my trope? Well when Sentry first appeared he was a hero who had been around "in universe" but no one knew of him. Because his wank mental powers made everyone forget. Is there a theme here with ridiculously powerful characters who people just happen to forget?

Now Marvel has Blue Marvel. He was really a hero in the 1960s Marvel Earth, but because of racism (he is an African American) he took a low profile. And Marvel Earth forgot him. They did such a good job no readers of the House of Ideas actually knew of him. Oh did I forget to mention that this character is apparently stronger than an enraged Hulk and could fight the Sentry? Oh yeah he also has awesome matter manipulation skills and energy manipulation skills.

Now comics will copy each other, but this trope is starting to IMO become cringe inducing. A character insertion can be done right (even if the rest of the story is crap). However this plot device seems to be an excuse to create even more powerful Mary Sues. Having powerful characters isn't bad in and of itself though, what I find irritating is that these characters "have always been there," but the readers are just not made aware of them, which is a cheap shot to protect continuity. What's wrong with simply having these characters first appearance in comics, actually be their first appearance in universe as well?

Has anyone else noticed this trope, and find it irritating in that its now used to introduce Mary Sue characters?

[Crazedwraith]

It's called Remember The New Guy according to TV tropes. For what that's worth to you.

[B5B7]

Dawn Summers isn't the same as say the Sentry, because she wasn't there before she appeared; the memories of the other characters were changed so that they thought she existed prior to when she did.
Whereas with Sentry he was allegedly there for many years but no one apparently remembered him.

[Purple]

A famous example of this trope would be Buffy the vampire slayer's sister, Dawn. She would just appear in an episode and it was revealed that Buffy always had a sister, we the viewer just never saw her. Well I never actually watched Buffy, it actually seemed like it was nicely done, especially with the reveal that Dawn was created to help Buffy and due to magic blah blah appeared that she had always been there. So the viewers could infer something was up, but the characters could not.

Dawn is a rather curious example because not only was she NOT there before her appearance but the fact that she was inserted would go on to become a major plot point.
Spoiler

Basically she is not really human but a sort of magical key that was placed under the slayers protection. And everyone memories were altered to make them think she is really Buffy's sister because the ones that did it believed it would make Buffy want to protect her. When this is revealed they both suffer an existential crisis before deciding that reality does not matter as much as family. And the entire season is built around the fact that she is this magical key and the main bad guy (well girl, depends) is trying to steal her and drain that power. The whole thing is supposed to be a shock to the viewer and is playing on what you describe but definitively does not count.

[TheFeniX]

It's called Remember The New Guy according to TV tropes. For what that's worth to you.

Of course they have it listed, but the Scrubs one immediately came to mind as a hilarious subversion. It was funny enough that they edited Banks into old scenes, but the bit concerning J.D. being such a spaz he though GSG was dead and bought flowers to send to her family still makes me laugh to this day. Also, Roy from The Simpsons. I assume they did it for a reason, but I always assumed the reason was in the episode (Poochy), not anything that rolls around in other property as I had never run into it before.

As for the trope itself, Blizzard is lousy with it. Varian Who? Garrosh Hellscream? Who the fuck is Tycus? They have so much shit tied up in their expanded universe that people who dump money on their games can't learn more than half the story because Blizzard's comment is always "read the books." Fuck you, I read enough shitty fantasy and Sci-Fi as a kid.

The only other thing close was Mara Jade from JK1: Mysteries of the Sith. We were expecting more garage-lightsaber Jedi Kyle Katarn, instead we got some random EU character. But that expansion had other issues, such as one of the great evils of gaming: colored lighting support.

[Tsyroc]

My biggest problem with the Blue Marvel is that there has been some serious shit happening on Earth since he got his powers but we're supposed to assume that he just didn't get involved because he promised the president? Galactus almost ate the planet, sorry I promised the president. Third Host of Celestials...I promised the president. WTF?

I actually kind of like the character (powerful and intelligent) just not the long period of retirement. From what I hear they've been slowly retconning in more history of him being active since the 60s, just more in secret. As powerful as he is he could have easily been very active outside the public view.

I also thought that his secret background was a little too much like Isiah Bradley's. Patriotic super hero that no one knows about because of racism. On their own I kind of like their stories. Together, it's starting to bug me. The Blue Marvel's more so than Isaiah Bradley's, although I think Isaiah's story detracts a bit from that of Steve Rogers but it is plausible considering what the US government did as far as experimenting on people in the real world. The Blue Marvel is just so crazy powerful that it is insane that he voluntarily retired to the extent that the mini-series had him doing. If you add in the Sentry it means that Earth of the Marvel Universe had two people skewing towards Silver Age Superman in power living on the planet at the same time.

[mr friendly guy]

That Blue Marvel not doing anything bugged me as well, although I was thinking more of the demonic invasion of NY in the 1980s rather than the threat of Galactus when I thought "why aren't you doing anything?" This of course straight away makes him a little unsympathetic, as it goes against the "with great power comes great responsibility" line of thinking.

His origin also reminded me of Bradley's as well. To be fair, Bradley was created more to be an allegory of the US medical experiments on African Americans, while Blue Marvel's origin seemed to be a way just to place him in the Marvel universe. Yes I am aware that the creators wanted to focus more on the bigotry aspect. Interesting note, the two most powerful characters out of Marvel's current heroes would be African Americans - Blue Marvel and the current incarnation of Captain Universe.

Also, yeah, Bradley's creation does detract from Steve Roger's willingness to volunteer for the super soldier serum. I mean his patriotism made him want to risk an "improperly tested" medical procedure and put himself at risk. Only it had been tested, on African Americans to make sure it was safe, so the risk was only in his own mind.

On another note, Marvel seems to have a habit of creating Mary Sues, er I mean powerful characters and then discarding them. Remember X-man (the Age of Apocalypse genetic son of Jean Grey and Scott Summers)? He beat Xavier in a mental fight and then he died at the end of his series. Sentry was wanked and then he died. How long will Blue Marvel last?

[Tsyroc]

On another note, Marvel seems to have a habit of creating Mary Sues, er I mean powerful characters and then discarding them. Remember X-man (the Age of Apocalypse genetic son of Jean Grey and Scott Summers)? He beat Xavier in a mental fight and then he died at the end of his series. Sentry was wanked and then he died. How long will Blue Marvel last?

I was actually surprised to read that he made an appearance outside of his miniseries. He apparently defeated "King" Hyperion and turned him over to the Thunderbolt program. That's pretty impressive since that version of Hyperion is the most powerful one so far, and easily held his own against two versions of the heroic Squadron Supreme Hyperion. I had expected The Blue Marvel to basically be forgotten after his mini. I guess you never know. It took them awhile to get The Sentry going after his mini-series so maybe that's their new way of doing things.

I remember X-Man, aka Nate Grey. He was supposed to be really powerful since he was essentially Cable without the weird infection. IMO I thought he should have been even more powerful in the 616 universe since, Cable's clone, Stryfe appeared to have stronger telekinetic powers than X-Man. I suppose he could have just been better at using them.

Marvel is very good at wanking out a character and then backing off from that later on. I suppose I prefer that to their practice of punking established powerful characters for the sake of making another character look awwwwwesome. It's happened to all of the Heralds of Galactis at some point or another. I think you mentioned the Molecule Man earlier, and that was during one of the Sentry's wank moments. (I see no reason why Owen Reese won't be back since he's been disembodied before but I would have prefered them just showing that he decided to lay low instead of continuing to fight with the Sentry).

[Vendetta]

To be fair, Bradley was created more to be an allegory of the US medical experiments on African Americans,

PS already Luke Cage's origin.

[Tsyroc]

To be fair, Bradley was created more to be an allegory of the US medical experiments on African Americans,

PS already Luke Cage's origin.

He had the added double bonus of being a wrongfully convicted prison inmate.