blueinstyle

Options include showing comments from specific categories, or excluding categories.
Exclude users from comment list by email address.
Uses a template to display comments exactly the way you want.
Limit amount of words or characters to display in each comment.
Include user’s Gravatar or Facebook avatar in comment list.
Create unlimited comment lists each with their own unique settings and options.
Support and Feature requests are on my forums at http://justmyecho.com/forums/

Customized Recent Comments

Display recent comments on your blog with complete control over the layout and format of comments.

ClevelandWebDeveloper

When you set up a new blog there aren’t any comments to start off with–it takes time until you get your first real person to participate in the discussion. When you use the default ‘recent comments’ widget in WordPress you are left with a ‘recent comments’ title in your sidebar and no comments listed under it. This plugin will replace that recent comments widget with a smarter one. The recent comments widget in your sidebar will not show until you start getting comments. Once you get your first comment, the widget will automatically appear so you can show off your latest comments. In all other ways this is exactly the same as the default WordPress recent comments widget. There is no configuration required with this plugin so once you install it you are good to go.
<h4>Screencast</h4>
This short screencast demonstrates how to use the Smart Recent Comments plugin. View it <a href="http://www.clevelandwebdeveloper.com/wordpress-plugins/smart-recent-comments/" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>.

Smart Recent Comments

Make it so recent comments widget only appears if there are any comments to show.

Customized Recent Comments vs Smart Recent Comments