Dig the intentional soft synergy here
Ventriloquist definitely could use some support, like some melee Criminals that bond with him or some such. It would take a lot of work for him to not be awful though, his powers are just super limited. Like he'd probably be kinda bad in Classic, compare his movement boost to the Class Leadership powers, but the special attack could give him some juice, it's harder for him to compete in C3G where he just isn't really offering anything. Wizard having Criminal Leadership doesn't help his case either.
Salvaging him would probably involve somehow leveraging "You Dummy!" into something semi-positive. Like Rhino getting to take a turn after a Hero you control takes a turn if that Hero wounded him during their turn or some such.