Siblings; can’t live with’em, can’t live without’em. Or something like that. I have two younger siblings, and they’re pretty cool. But this isn’t an article about them. You know who else has siblings? Pop culture characters! And you know what’s even more fun? When those siblings randomly show up out of the blue and are sometimes never heard from again!

Like Enola Holmes, the hit new Netflix movie about Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister.

I watched Enola Holmes this past weekend and rather enjoyed it. But did you know that she is not canon to the actual Sherlock Holmes stories? Enola Homes is a creation of American author Nancy Springer, who wrote a series of young adult novels about the character between 2006 and 2010. So, surprise! Sherlock Holmes has a younger sister! Kind of!

Turns out, this happens every once and a while in pop culture and I’ve tracked down a couple other random, surprise siblings! Join me after the jump and be in awe!

6. The Ninja Turtle sister

Everybody knows the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: four turtle brothers are exposed to mutagen in the sewers and they transform into humanoids! But did you know there was a fifth baby turtle in that sewer? A girl turtle? Welcome to Venus de Milo, the much-derided new addition to the canon from the Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation live action television show from the late 90s. Venus became separated from her brothers and was later found by a different ninja master and trained in a different form of ninjitsu. She eventually joined her brothers in the TV show and quickly became a shameful embarrassment on the entire Ninja Turtles operation — largely because the show itself was god awful. TMNT co-creator Peter Laird hates her so much that you can’t even mention her in his presence.

Also, it should be noted that, somewhere along the lines, some psychopath wanted to make sure this reptile person had big shell boobs. Don’t pretend you didn’t notice them.

5. Sonic’s siblings

Sonic the Hedgehog remains a popular character to this day, despite not having a good video game in literal decades. His live action movie could stand a very good chance of getting nominated for an Oscar…because 2020. But did you know that Sonic is actually one of three siblings who are secret royalty? You didn’t?! That’s probably because you’ve encountered every single piece of Sonic media except for the ill-fated cartoon Sonic Underground from 1999. Unlike every other adaptation of Sonic, this one decided to make him a prince, along with siblings Sonia and Manic…only for the lot of them to be hidden away by their queen mother when Robotnik conquered the land…and then they formed a rock band? But not just any rock band, their instruments are actually magic amulets that can also be used as weapons. Sonic Underground is…a lot. Hoo boy. It’s also the first animated appearance of Knuckles, so that’s cool…but then no other Sonic characters show up. Not even Tails.

Also, all three hedgehogs were voiced by Jaleel White. Even the sister, who, of course, was also given a sexy body. Life is weird.

4. The Powerpuff Girls’ other other sister

Everybody loves the Powerpuff Girls! They were such a fun idea, filled with action, humor, excitement back in their first show. Nope, I didn’t just misspeak. Don’t you remember their second show? A reboot came along in 2016 and was all manner of controversial, not least of which because they replaced all the voice actors. The new show also introduced a fourth Powerpuff Girl: Bliss. There were a couple different “fourth” Powerpuff Girls during the original cartoon, but Bliss was the real deal. She was a secret older sister who ran away from home when she lost control of her powers, then returned to help out in a fight in season 2 of the reboot. Bliss was controversial because, as you’ll notice, she’s got much darker skin than her sisters. Some figured this was just a blatant effort at forcing diversity, while others were upset that the POC Powerpuff Girl was depicted as being hot-headed and unable to control her emotions.

3. Wolverine’s brother

Wolverine’s mysterious origins was one of his major selling points for most of the character’s life. All of that changed in Origin #1 in 2001, when Marvel decided to finally revealed his history (rather than let the movies do it for them). I loved the opening chapters of Origin. The artwork was so evocative, and the big twist was really fun! Turned out that Wolverine was the child of an affair between a rich Canadian housewife and her gruff and rough groundskeeper. And that groundskeeper had another son, Dog Logan, who then became Wolverine’s half-brother. In the story, Dog was really just a stand-in for Sabretooth, because everybody in Wolverine’s childhood was a stand-in for familiar characters in the comics. But Dog has since gone on to become a time traveler who has journeyed to the present day to pester Wolverine some more. He’s a hairy, rough and tumble bad guy who just wants to make Wolverine’s life miserable. Pretty sure that was already Wolverine’s rogues gallery to begin with.

2. Batman’s maybe brother?

Wolverine’s secret brother is firmly in continuity, and even Spider-Man has a possible secret sister running around these days (I should have added her to this list…). But did you know that Batman has a brother? Maybe? This one is a little more up in the air, or at least, very complicated. Especially since the entire point of Batman’s origins was that he was left all alone with no other family. So what of Thomas Wayne Jr.? Who is he? How many versions are there? It’s hard to say!

One version of Thomas Wayne Jr. exists as Owlman on Earth 3, the universe where the Justice League members are all bad guys. But who really knows Owlman’s status quo these days, considering how often DC Comics shakes up the multiverse? Another version of Thomas Wayne Jr. was revealed as Lincoln March, a mayoral candidate who appeared in the New 52 Batman stories. He was later revealed to be an operative of the Court of Owls, and he claimed he was Bruce’s younger brother…but there hasn’t been a DNA test to prove it. Maybe it was the rantings of a madman, but there was some evidence that Martha Wayne visited March several times at his orphanage. So maybe it’s true? Maybe not? Who knows!

1. Scooby-Doo’s lawman brother, et al.

Scooby-Doo has an extensive family tree, many of whom made appearances in a lot of his classic shows…but most of those other Doos were cousins. Remember Scooby-Dum? Cousin. But Scooby did have some actual siblings, and one in particular who really stood out. First there is Ruby-Doo, his younger sister and mother to Scrappy-Doo. She made one appearance in one of the classic shows, then was folded into A Pup Named Scooby-Doo when that cartoon did a family reunion episode. She was joined by brothers Skippy-Doo and Howdy-Doo, but those two only ever made appearances in A Pup Named Scooby Doo, and only for one episode, so mileage may very whether or not they count.

The Doo sibling I’m really talking about is Yabba-Doo, the lawman. While Scooby is a well-known marijuana enthusiast, his brother is a sheriff’s deputy in Tumbleweed County. Yabba is a strange one in that…well…he only ever appeared in a spin-off of a spin-off. Scrappy-Doo got his own spin-off show in “Scrappy & Yabba-Doo”, which were a bunch of episodes added to the third season of “Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo”, which itself was just another iteration of random Scooby episodes insteadf of the straight forward original mystery cartoon. Scrappy went and joined his other uncle, Yabba, and his human deputy partner for a bunch of adventures on the frontier. Unlike Scooby, Yabba was a brave and courageous lawman who fought bad guys for truth and justice. And Yabba is Scooby’s only canonical brother from the original shows.

Also, while we’re on the subject…Yabba-Doo? Really Hanna-Barbera? Being a little obvious there, huh? Also, now that I think about it…there’s no way “Scooby Dooby Doo” and “Yabba Dabba Doo” are a coincidence, right?

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