100 FAVORITE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS
20 - 1
The Marvel Universes' decades long running roster of big strong-guys has produced a whole lot of memorable ones. When it comes to the big strong-guy X-Men roster in particular, Piotr Colossus Rasputin is top of the heap. Me, my brother, and one of my oldest friends especially have always loved this guy, originally because he is big, turns into metal while smashing things, and looks cool as shit. The very best of the new mutants to debut in Giant-Size X-Men #1, (along with the likes of Nightcrawler and Storm), Pete Rasputin is a quiet, shy, and mild-mannered Russian farmer whose mutant ability kicked in for the first time when saving his sister Illyana from an on-coming train. Professor X caught wind of this, made Piotr the offer that most mutants cannot refuse, and well, here we are. A common trait in comics is to give a character a personality that is at odds with his/her powers or physical appearance and at 6'7" un-metalled, Colossus could run around smashing through brick walls all day if he so desired. Instead though, he only busts out his Hulk side in extreme combat situations, preferring to cuddle with Kitty Pride or quietly read and/or doodle in his spare time. Of course us superhero fans ultimately hoot and holler when he lays the smack down on bad guys though.
It was only a matter of time before the Joker got a love interest. Actually a matter of five decades in this case. Just like we have the 1960's Batman television series to thank for giving us Barbara Gordon's Batgirl, we have Batman the Animated Series to give props to for giving us Harley Quinn. The awesome season one episode "Joker's Favor" was the very first appearance in any medium of Harley. The writers initially just needed someone to jump out of a cake and nab a bunch of Gotham's finest. Co-creator Paul Dini used friend and former Days of Our Lives actress Arleen Sorkin to voice the character as well as inspire her and thankfully they decided to keep her around and see what else they could get Miss Quinn into. This included bringing her into the actual comics with the Dini and fellow BTAS co-mastermind/Bruce Timm penned The Batman Adventures #12. Dr. Harleen Quinzel, (get it?), who is a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum falls hard prey to the Joker's fiendishly manipulative ways, becoming her Puddin's on/off accomplice and turbulent love interest. The results of this have remained hilarious to be sure, but have furthermore brought a fascinating concept into the Batman mythos to further follow someone who could have such a highly disturbed, profound emotional attachment to comic book's greatest ever psychopath.
Why give your comic book creation one superpower when you can give him ten? This is the long-short of what makes Iron Man's numero uno arch nemesis the Mandarin so fucking awesome. The Mandarin has so much going for him that it is downright silly that he has not succeeded in taking over the world yet, as he has always been determined to do. The ten power rings that he is equipped with cover almost everything even a hack criminal could utilize in making the globe kneel before their feet. Seriously, scroll down to the "powers and abilities" section. Yet this guy here is no hack. He has been hell bent on vengeance since early adult hood after being kicked out of his native land for being flat broke from squandering all of his inheritance on training himself in all things supervillainy. This included mastery of the scientific and hand-to-hand combatic arts. The Mandarin then stumbles upon long-abandoned alien technology which gives him the rings. Enter more training, more mastery, more meglomaniacal desires festering within, and the do-badder that would forever come to blows with Tony Stark becomes firmly established. On pure ability alone, few if any super villains deserve to rule all of us more than the Mandarin does.
Good ole Batman TV shows to the rescue yet again, this time both of them. A stock gimmick villain originally called Mr. Zero when he debuted in Batman #121 in 1959, the "Zero" was changed to "Freeze" for the 1960s Batman show and so it forever remained. Fast forward to Batman the Animated Series where Paul Dini re-wrote his origin for the phenomenal "Heart of Ice" episode which still ranks as probably the best one that show ever produced. So much so that DC took their cue from an outside adaptation yet again and re-introduced said origin as canon. A cryogenic scientist that suffered an accident while trying to cure his vegetated, terminally ill wife Nora, Dr. Victor Fries, (yeah the "real" name is still silly), gets his body shocked to freezing level temperatures. Hence the armored astronaut from hell suite and hence the taste for vengeance. In obvious ways, a cartoony bad guy with a silly schtick and name like Freeze would seem like one of the last ones to get such a successful second chance at awesome. Low and behold though, lighting struck. Also, I made it through this entire write-up without dropping one ice pun. Suck it Arnold!
One of the most badass character designs in all of Jack Kirby's career, (which is saying something to be sure), Thor's arch-nemesis Loki is also just one of the best supervillains of all time. For one, he cannot be killed due to a reincarnation power he picked up, which is a pretty awesome trick right off the bat. Speaking of tricks, naturally the trickster god can pull of virtually limitless sorcerer shenanigans. Astral projection, shape-shifting, conjuring, the casting of illusions, manipulation of all magical forces, flight, hypnosis, and a hoopla of other stuff is all at his beckon call. Also being a descendant of Frost Giants yet at the same time maintaining the physical abilities of Asgardian Gods, he also has super strength, speed, durability, stamina, and immunity. To almost solely be pitted against his stronger than anything adoptive brother Thor, he would have to have a plethora of powers to utilize and as you can see, boy does he ever. He is of course also fiendishly clever and evil, as epic baddies most always are. Two for two in excellence as far as Kirby and Stan Lee Norse God Marvel adaptations go.
Out of the original band of uncanny mutants that debuted in X-Men #1, the Beast Hank McCoy has remained my absolute favorite. As a founding X-Men, he is also the one who has undergone the most dramatic and gradual physical change. Originally just a big guy with over-sized hands and feet who ran around on all fours while being agile and strong like ape, Beast has become more and more well, beast-like over the decades. Blue fur, claws, fangs, and an overall almost cat like appearance has taken over. With the more ferocious appearance has come ever increasing mutant abilities too, namely strength, speed, and agility. He also has had super healing and super senses at various points. From the beginning though, Hank McCoy has had the brains to match the beastness. A mathematical and scientific genius, doctor, and at the front line along with Charles Xavier himself in the quest to spread mutant awareness and acceptance via political means, McCoy is one of those "looks and abilities at odds with intellect and demeanor" type characters. Always makes for a more compelling superhero which is certainly the case here.
Neil Gaiman's single greatest creation as well as the single greatest comic book series of all time is The Sandman. Said book's title character Dream, (aka Morpheus), is the single SINGLE greatest of Gaiman's creations. The book's personification of the seven Endless, (unfathomably powerful beings who have existed longer than any other concept or being in all of creation or before), is possibly the most epic concept in all of comic books. Staring front and center in the series is Morpheus, Lord of the Dreaming. A dead ringer for Robert Smith of the Cure, Morpheus is the living entity of all dreams and stories, all of "fiction" basically. A tall, very brooding character who is slow to humor, deeply in-tuned with his all important responsibilities, and very, very long on forgiveness for those who have wronged him, he is as troubled a character as any in comicdom. Being one of the Endless, he is also beyond omnipotently powerful. Throwing these two ideas together, plus so many more that would take ages to get into here, is a testament to Gaiman's genius that this guy is as compelling and fantastic as it is.
Originally created by psychologist and S&M enthusiast, (no joke), William Marston, Wonder Woman is and has always been the world's greatest female superhero. Princess Diana of Themyscira, (let us just forget her utterly stupid "secret identity" Diana Prince shall we), is a warrior princess based on the Greek Amazons. Her origin though has undergone both slight and major tweaks in continuity over the seventy-plus years. Many elements stay the same, involving Diana's Queen of the Amazons mother Hippolyte forming her daughter from clay, American Captain Steve Trevor's plane crash on the women-only Paradise Island, and the contest which Diana enters against her mothers will to prove that she is the most heroic and badass of all the Island's women. Her leaves-nothing-to-the-imagination costume has always retained its red, white, and blue colors as well, yet it is actually not as impractical as all logic points to. For one thing, if you are invincibly strong and bullets/most other things do not harm your skin, then you do not need protection from much. Also, the less you have on, the more freely you can move. Also again, the less you have on and the more you look like the robo-babe that Diana does, the more the male would-be badguys that you are dueling it out with will be, well, distracted to say the least. Easy-on-the-eyes-ness aside, it is Wonder Woman's nobility, god-like powers, and epic origin that really make her deserve her iconic status I would say.
Alan Moore's six volume spreading run on DC's Swamp Thing is near the top of the vegetable chain as far as comic book excellence goes. Though it is all that I have read thus far of the character, it is also more than enough to solidify Swampy's place this high on this list. There is a borderline Frankenstein monster element here, though the scientist becomes the monster rather than creating it artificially. Thing's origin has changed with the former humans that have become him/it, but it has essentially remained more abstract than any Marry Shelly creation. It is basically someone's consciousness becoming absorbed into the swamp and a sentient being comprised of both emerging. One of the elements that Moore brought into canon was that there have been many Swamp Things over the centuries and will continue to be many more no doubt. As ST becomes older and wiser, his powers and control over them become more awesome as well. A being that can travel its consciousness over any untold distances where there is even the most remote of vegetation, he can then emerge in said area which is a ridiculously useful power. Then there is his seemingly limitless ability to control and furthermore create plant life virtually anywhere on earth or any other planet for that matter. Also when Swampy gets pissed, you are not going stop him so do not even try.
Wielding the single greatest weapon in the history of comic books is awesome enough, yet Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, (Stan's brother), and Jack Kirby's Norse Thunder God Thor is no one-trick pony. Being the son of all-powerful Odin, Thor is the very strongest Asgardian and virtually the strongest being in the Marvel Universe. His senses are so in tuned that he can hear people in trouble from across the universe, he can time travel, heal himself, withstand anything, fight forever, and never die basically. It is a small wonder why every other Marvel superhero does not immediately holla at him when they need an extra hand or better yet, just feel like taking the day off by letting Thor handle it. Good thing he is a founding Avenger then I suppose. Yet the same as Superman who is also so invincible that he can easily become boring dramatically, Thor has remained relevant and has had some classic arcs through his decade-spanning existence in comics. Walt Simonson's run in the 1980s in particular is probably the best the character has ever had. Of course being based on Norse mythology, most of the Mighty Thor's stories are epically epic, huge sprawling battles between the forces of good and evil that feature vast armies, otherworldly realms, and even giants and dragons. Thor and the unstoppable Mjolnir are right there at the forefront, pounding everything into dust that is in their way.
We are getting to some predictability here since probably Marvel's very most popular superhero ever is up next, meaning of course the Spectacular Peter Spider-Man Parker. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in Amazing Fantasy #15, (a comic that if you owned a copy of, would pretty much mean you would never have to work again), Spidey has had more titles than any other Marvel character, as well as more movie adaptations to date. There is good stuff here warranting such dedication to the web-slinger. Lee envisioned Peter Parker as the type of teenager that he figured a good chunk of Marvel's readers actually were. So, a puny nerd that gets picked on pretty much. In that regard, Spider-Man was essentially a hero for the people or at the very least, a hero for the audience. It was one of the many innovative and ultimately brilliant moves on Lee's part, and due to a continuous stream of top-notch writers and artists, (John Romita, Todd McFarlane, Brian Michael Bendis, not to mention Ditko himself), your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has continued to thrive. Many a legendary arc such as the death of Gwen Stacy, Norman and Harry Osborn becoming Green Goblins, the Venom suite, and his marriage to Mary-Jane Watson have been part of Spidey canon. Plus his rogues gallery is the only in Marvel to rival that of Batman in quantity if not exactly in quality.
Batman's second greatest though perhaps most dangerous foe is the Demon's Head himself, the immortal Ra's Al Ghul. Spawned by arguably Batman's first creative team that really mattered in Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, Ghul first appeared in Batman #232 in 1971. Being a supervillain created three decades after Batman's debut and a few years after the 1960's TV show had come and gone, Ghul has never had an interpretation that resembles the least bit of silliness or obvious pun-related gimmickry. He is more of an anti-villain really. A centuries old mastermind and ruler of the international terrorist group the League of Shadows, Ghul seeks to purify the human race through biological warfare by wiping out all of the evil and unworthy in the process. A perfect world would therefor thrive, but it is the cost of such a world that has consistently pitted Batman against him. Well that and the family ties make their relationship complex to say the least. He is the father of Talia Al Ghul and therefor grandfather to Bruce Wayne's son Damien. Drama! It is Ra's infinitely far-reaching empire, Lazarus Pit fueled immortality, ability to go hand in hand while standing his ground against Batman in a duel, overall brilliance, and twisted nobility that just make him utterly awesome. No Batman villain could essentially end the world as we know it if not for the Dark Knight's interference and this puts Ra's Al Ghul at the top of Bat's Most Wanted list.
Iron Man has been around for over fifty years now and pretty much from his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39, he has also been in the upper elite of Marvel good guys. Four gentlemen are credited with ole Shell Head's creation, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby of course, plus Lee's brother and sometimes co-conspirator Larry Lieber as well as fellow stock Marvel house artist Don Heck. It was Lee's concept to make a superhero based off Howard Hughes; a billionaire playboy industrialist and genius whose background could and often would far more stereotypically spawn as the origin for any number of supervillains. Instead, Tony Stark took to the hero path after he found himself trapped in a Vietnamese jungle against his will with a near fatal heart injury in tow. Forced to make a deadly weapon for his captors, he reasonably said "fuck that noise", (I am paraphrasing), and instead used the materials to build a suite of impenetrable armor and escape. Metallic in color at first, then yellow, and then tweaked to the now iconic yellow and red ensemble, few comic book characters of any era or genre look as balls-droppingly awesome as Iron Man does. When it comes to powers and abilities, Stark's tin can on steroids has consistently one-upped itself, making him one of the strongest and most powerful of earth-bound good guys. Also of course there is the always compelling and long, long going story arc of Stark's fight with alcoholism, a realistic flaw to propel the character into much great, dramatic territory.
The saying "American as apple pie" I hereby vote should be forevermore changed to "American as Captain America". Or fine, maybe "American as Steve Rogers". Originally debuting WAY the hell back in 1941 for Timely Comics, (which pre-dated Marvel), and created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, Captain Steve Rogers came back into the public consciousness since Kirby and Stan Lee had the foresight to usher him into the Silver Age with The Avengers in 1964. Cap was my favorite Marvel superhero for as long as I remember, mostly because Red Skull looked so cool that I therefore had to love his sworn enemy just as much. So there are years of nostalgic drawing and reading and re-reading about my favorite red, white, and blue, Nazi-whooping patriot. As I got older though and started reading back from the beginning of Cap's Silver Age period, I re-evaluating my former childhood fondness of guys that just looked awesome, In this case, I found myself enjoying the super soldier serum golden boy even more. Steve Rogers just idealizes everything a superhero is supposed to be. There is a type of good for the sake of good, justice for the sake of justice, and freedom-for-all code of living and dying that Cap just absolutely optimizes. Old fashioned? No doubt. Yet Cap is the noblest and just of all comic book characters that has fought villainy and tyranny through five plus major wars over seventy years now. You don't stick around that long if you are not fighting the good fight.
I was in denial during my childhood and young adulthood as to the awesomeness of Wolverine. "X-Men? Bah, that Wolverine is too popular and I am too cool for that". So I was a hipster before there were hipsters. Sigh. Honestly though, I have been a fan of Marvel's ultimate anti-hero for most of my life, be it secretly or for quite awhile now, most openly. Pretty much if it has Wolverine in it and no matter what the medium, it will be good. The Chris Claremont and John Buscema solo book that debuted in 1988 was instantly one of the best Marvel ever put out, as was the mini-series six years earlier by Claremont and Frank Miller. There has been a bunch more since and before then too, (mmm...Old Man Logan). What can you really say about this guy? There is a reason that the dude with the claws is so popular. A brooding anti-hero who debuted right at the perfect time when comics were getting more adult, he forever found a home in the Uncanny X-Men. Plus lets face it, he has fucking awesome powers; super healing, super senses, super animalistic everything, and of course that adamantium skeleton and dem claws. You really cannot lose when you throw all of this into a no-bull shit, not afraid to murder, wise-cracking, 5'3" Canadian that has lived longer than even Captain America and presumably always will thanks to that good ole healing factor/immortality mutant ability.
Time for some supervillains. Well actually, Magneto has not really been a straight-forward bad guy since Stan Lee stopped writing his dialogue. This is one of the chief things that makes him so fantastic and a very high favorite of mine. Erik Lehnsherr/Max Eisenhardt, (depending on the writer or Mag's mood), is essentially the other side of the coin to Professor Charles Xavier. The Prof wants mutants and humans to co-exist peacefully with each other, whereas Magneto wants to rule over them or at the very least, wipe out as many that get in his way or could pose a threat. Both love their mutant brethren with the utmost sincerity and have each dedicated their lives to the betterment of their own race. Yet polar opposite paths have pitted the two would-be close old friends countless times against each other. That being said, Magneto has had numerous spells, (even more so over the last few decades), of cooperating and even leading the X-Men on the side of good. Plus much of his hatred towards ignorant humankind is wholly justified. This is due to the fact that he is a Holocaust survivor and having experienced firsthand the modern world's most severe real-life form of racial injustice, naturally his desire to not let the world's mutants undergo similar treatment is something to rally behind. All the seriousness that makes Magneto such a "grey" and excellent character aside, Magneto is also straight-up ridiculously powerful. Control of everything electromagnetic basically means that unless he is surrounded by nothing but plastic, he can do whatever the hell he wants. Just try and drop a bomb on him or unload an arsenal of bullets his way and watch him rightfully laugh at you.
For most of my friends that grew up reading the Infinity Gauntlet when it was brand new, Thanos is and has remained our favorite thing ever. By leaps and untold bounds, he is the greatest cosmic being in comic book history and just damn near the greatest supervillain in comic book history as well. So says I and anyone who knows what they are talking about. Why is Thanos so awesome? Well mostly because of that nifty Gauntlet. Yes I know Thanos' omnipotence with the Soul Gems was ultimately short lived and I know the Infinity arc has stretched beyond the early nineties and is still being explored today. Yet when the Mad Titan finally got his hands on all six Gems and set about pleasing his Mistress Death, he instantaneously pulled off the greatest feat of any supervillain past or present. Has anyone else ever simply snapped his fingers and immediately made half of the beings in the galaxy no longer exist? Exactly. Thanos was doomed to fail of course, but for ever so short a moment, he was the most powerful anything ever. That naturally made me a fan forever, but even without the supreme-being/evil god powers, Thanos can still destroy almost anything. Being born a mutant Titanian Eternal already naturally enhanced his abilities over his own race, but then his scientific mastery of all things and worship of Death bumped his skills up even more. His never ending quest to please his Mistress with destruction and chaos while ruling over all makes him easily the most feared and unstoppable force in the cosmos.
Apparently inspired by a hot fudge sundae, (seriously, I had to read it twice myself to make sure I was not high), the Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, and France Herron-created arch villain for Captain America is my absolute favorite Marvel character. This has been firmly rooted in my brain since childhood when I took one look at a bad guy with a literal red skull for a face and immediately understood that yes, that was the coolest looking thing I had ever seen. It still is. Skull has been around exactly as long as Cap himself since they both share the same first appearance, Captain America Comics #1. So the two completely opposing forces of good and evil, justice and tyranny have been forever linked since day one. Originally a Nazi henchmen and a top dog answerable only to Hitler himself, Johann Schmidt has long outlived the hate-fueled ideology of his old boss. He has since set about his own mission of world domination and as always, the destruction once and for all of Captain Steve Rogers. Something I have always admired about the Red Skull is in fact the opposite of what I usually love about most other characters. That is that he is superpower-less for the most part. His long stint utilizing a Captain America clone body notwithstanding, he was originally just a German dude and as of late, he is an android. Comics get confusing I know. Really though, all that he has had going for him is just his unapologetical evil, some fighting skills, firearms, henchmen, the Cosmic Cube, (be it briefly), and his brilliant strategics. Sometimes just being a wicked old Nazi who refuses to die or give up on killing the living embodiment of all that is good about America is all you need to be a benchmark supervillain.
Well
here he is. Any greatest villains/comic book characters/fictional
anything list that does not have the Joker in it/topping it is a list that deserves to go sit in the corner. He is the
single greatest super villain of all time and the most perfectly
constructed arch-nemesis to his chosen adversary, of course meaning
Batman. Just like Bats, the Joker has been around for seven decades and
there is little you can say about him that is not common knowledge at
this point. After all those years in comic book form as well as
appearances in every other Batman related medium, we all know the
lowdown on the Clown Prince of Crime. He is a living symbol of
anarchy. An absolute psychotic nutbar, as dangerously crazy as he is
straight up dangerous, the Joker is at once three steps ahead of
everyone and completely unpredictable. He is just as likely to kill his
own henchmen on a whim, ditch one of his masterfully arranged, long term
schemes on a whim, or spew a never ending thread of convoluted lies and
tricks on a whim as he is to stick to his plan. This makes him the perfect
criminal, meaning no M.O. and just all chaos and laughs at all times. Mr. J
has pulled off at least two of the most iconic crimes in comic book
history, the crippling of Barbara Gordon and the death of Robin number
two Jason Todd. Being the nerd I am, I would say that his never ending run-ins with Batman all equal the most satisfying stalemate in all of
fiction. As Heath Ledger perfectly uttered to
Bats at the climax of The Dark Knight, "You won't kill me out of some
misplaced sense of self-righteousness and I won't kill you because
you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this
forever". Truth.
1. BATMAN
Behold, the most predictable number-one spot in the history of list making! Well, maybe the Beatles topping a "Greatest Bands of All Time" list would be more predictable, but just by a hair. I really have no profound words of explanation here because really, Batman is the best of all time. Pure and fucking simple. Everything about the character's origin, personality, self-honed abilities, and motivation works. Plus no superhero has a greater supporting cast than Batman, be it the Rogue's Gallery to rule all others or the tight network of help that Bruce Wayne has round up over the decades. Then there is Gotham City, (the best and most iconic setting in all of comics), as well as Arkham Asylum, (the best "can't contain a psychotic criminal to save it's bricks" resident nuthouse in all of comics). Countless Batman-related arcs rank as some of the best that the comic book medium has ever had, (Bane breaking his back, the Joker killing Jason Todd and putting Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair, Ra's Al Ghul's appearance on the scene, and the on-again/off-again romances with both Ra's daughter Talia and Selina Kyle). No other comic book character has more or better graphic novels under his title than Batman as well. The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Hush, The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth, and A Death In the Family all just barely scratch the surface of greatness. My very first memories of Batman were of watching the 1960s TV show, which I still adore. Then when Tim Burton's first Batman film came out, it was all over; he has never been topped since. So this has been a life-long thing as well as a very current thing, since I am still on a quest to own every Batman graphic novel ever put out and will pretty much love everything with his face in it. I even think Batman & Robin is one of the greatest movies ever made. For completely silly reasons of course but still, that has got to say something right there.
Behold, the most predictable number-one spot in the history of list making! Well, maybe the Beatles topping a "Greatest Bands of All Time" list would be more predictable, but just by a hair. I really have no profound words of explanation here because really, Batman is the best of all time. Pure and fucking simple. Everything about the character's origin, personality, self-honed abilities, and motivation works. Plus no superhero has a greater supporting cast than Batman, be it the Rogue's Gallery to rule all others or the tight network of help that Bruce Wayne has round up over the decades. Then there is Gotham City, (the best and most iconic setting in all of comics), as well as Arkham Asylum, (the best "can't contain a psychotic criminal to save it's bricks" resident nuthouse in all of comics). Countless Batman-related arcs rank as some of the best that the comic book medium has ever had, (Bane breaking his back, the Joker killing Jason Todd and putting Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair, Ra's Al Ghul's appearance on the scene, and the on-again/off-again romances with both Ra's daughter Talia and Selina Kyle). No other comic book character has more or better graphic novels under his title than Batman as well. The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Hush, The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth, and A Death In the Family all just barely scratch the surface of greatness. My very first memories of Batman were of watching the 1960s TV show, which I still adore. Then when Tim Burton's first Batman film came out, it was all over; he has never been topped since. So this has been a life-long thing as well as a very current thing, since I am still on a quest to own every Batman graphic novel ever put out and will pretty much love everything with his face in it. I even think Batman & Robin is one of the greatest movies ever made. For completely silly reasons of course but still, that has got to say something right there.
No comments:
Post a Comment