100 FAVORITE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS
40 - 21
Appearing three years after Batman himself, Two-Face was created by the exact same creative team of Bob Kane and Bill Finger and debuted in Detective Comics #66. He was little more than a silly gimmick-driven villain at first, hatching schemes around the number "two". Which is pretty much the exact same stuff that he would have done if he had appeared in the Batman 60s TV show, (which almost happened with Clint Eastwood in the role). Harvey Dent only sporadically showed up as a Bats adversary for the next few decades until the massively influential Batman writer Dennis O'Neil brought him back in the early 70s, establishing him as the top-notch rogue that he has been ever since. Dent is fascinating and complex, with a "good guy gone horribly tragic" backstory, plus mountains of personality disorders. His duality complex plus his obsession with fate manifests itself with his compulsion to make every tiny or huge decision in his life by the flipping of a coin. The more years go by, the more cracked Dent's psyche becomes. Which is a "good" thing.
I sure do like me some comic book demons. Marvel's Satan...um, I mean Mephisto, is the best and evilest of them all. Actually based on the German folklore demon Mephistopheles, hence the name, he usually poses as Satan in the Marvel Universe, at least when doing so suits his fiendish needs. This includes striking a deal with Johnny Blaze to become Ghost Rider, (though this was eventually retconned because comic book writers usually can never make up their minds). The Satan-esque angle continues in the pact-forming schemes and soul collecting that Mephisto usually partakes in, not to mention the righteously bad-ass character design. Originally introduced as an adversary to Norrin Radd, Mephisto debuted in Silver Surfer #3 and has continued to bump heads with a number of the more powerful forces in the MU, including Thanos, Stephen Strange, Thor, and the Fantastic Four. Similarly to Dormammu and other dimensional Marvel beings, Mephisto is considerably more formidable within his own domain and utterly immortal. If his physical body is ever "killed", he simply reappears in his own realm, evil as new.
Marvel's Captain Marvel, (or Mar-Vell), is the only major superhero I believe to have died from cancer, in the appropriately titled The Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel back in 1982. More surprisingly is that he has pretty much stayed dead ever since. After being chosen as Protector of the Universe and granted "cosmic awareness" by the living planet Eon, Kree-born warrior Mar-Vell became one of the cosmos' most all powerful warriors. Captain M's Nega-Bands bump-up his psionic powers tenfold, increasing the usual things like strength, speed, and invulnerability. Plus, he is also able to absorb solar energy to increase said abilities even further. I have been bias here a bit since my childhood due to my 70s Marvel collecting cousin whose favorite superhero ever is Captain Marvel. So the admiration rubbed off on me from early on. As you can clearly see though, this guy's costume is fucking awesome. That may seem like a mute point to some, but we are dealing with a visual medium here as well as a literal one and well, the glorious duds do contribute to the greatness.
Irish vampire with a heart of gold Proinsias Cassidy is the most hilarious character in Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's phenomenally awesome Preacher title, and there are many a laugh-out-loud moment in said series. My personal favorite is when Cass meets the cliche-eccentric vampire Eccarius and continues to ruthlessly rip on him for being a "ponce". Though there is far more to good ole Cass then that. He is probably the most complex and well written character in the entire book. Turned undead in the early twentieth century, Cass is doomed as immortals often are to witness everyone he ever gets close to die. More than that though, he himself seems perpetually inclined to bring about such destruction to most of his acquaintances as a reckless fuck up with a drinking problem that means all of the right things while doing all of the wrong ones. When he wants to go full on bloodsucker maniac though, he can rip an entire entourage of people apart and even get himself blown/burnt up and essentially just walk it off.
The Watchmen's only actual superpowered superhero, Doctor Manhattan at once makes the rest of humanity look like insignificant insets while also helping usher in a huge leap forward in quantum level technology and science. He still finds time to single-handedly win the Vietnam war for us as well, so go team. Dr. Jon Osterman was originally a physicist who got trapped in a presumably fatal experiment but, because comics, he instead became a virtually all-knowing, all powerful quantum super being instead. Forming a blue-skinned physical human form from his own shattered consciousness, the American Government-dubbed Doctor Manhattan gains subatomic control over all matter,as well as clairvoyance to the point where he experiences everything that has, is, and will ever happen simultaneously. He also gets superhuman everything else, (strength, telekinesis, teleportation, etc). Having a character like Manhattan play such a huge role in essentially the most "grounded in reality" superhero saga ever told was a bold move, but proving Alan Moore's mastery of the medium, it was 100% successful. It also answering the question of just how the world would react to such a being truly existing.
Pretty much all of the super powers that you can give a vampire were given to Marvel's version of the undead Count Dracula. Ubber strength, flight, speed, stamina, shape-shifting, hypnosis, healing, fighting skills, intelligence, and weather control are all within his mastery. Of course being a vampire, he also has a boatload of weaknesses; sunlight, the need for blood and sleeping in his native soil, garlic and silver, etc. A main comic book whose titular character is a villain is interesting right off the bat and the Tomb of Dracula title which ran for seven years in the 70s may very well be my favorite book that Marvel has ever put out. I am a horror and Dracula buff besides so yes I am a bit bias. Yet Gene Colan, Gerry Conway and co easily produced a Dracula saga to virtually trump all others. Resurrected yet again in the then current time, Drac faces off against the decedents of his previous pursuers in the Bram Stoker novel as well as one of his own flesh and blood, (and Blade of course). He basically remains undefeated even when coming into contact with other of Marvel's premier heroes such as Doctor Strange and the X-Men. As he should.
You know what is bullshit? That I do not own any Doctor Strange comics yet. Yet as anyone who is familiar with Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme can tell you is that he is a total badass. The first real surrealistic comic book that Marvel produced, creators Stan Lee and especially Steve Ditko originally offered up a world full of dimensional beings, cosmic entities, and psychedelic-infused realms for neurosurgeon-turned-Sorcerer Stephen Strange to operate in. Strange has continued to wield near supreme mastery of the mystical arts and has protected the Earth from astronomically powerful and deadly foes for just about half a century now. Most of his power stems from various entities and amulets, artifacts, and enhanced objects, plus Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum is kind of like a mystical Batcave. Strange's villains are almost always gods, demi-gods, or cosmic entities and probably no more all-powerful of a rogue's gallery exists in all of comicdom. So naturally, the Doc has to have a pretty goddamn stepped-up game to be able to fend off such formidable foes. Which he does in spades.
A German Catholic teleporter with two mutant parents and a demonic appearance, Nightcrawler's mini-character description already gives you more than enough to work with. The offspring of Mystique and Azazel, the baby that would become known as Kurt Wagner and eventually Nightcrawler was abandoned in a well after his mother was chased by an angry mob. He was hitherto found and raised by a gypsy woman Margali Szardos. Brought up in a traveling circus, Wagner's horrific features and super agility were all that was present until early adulthood hit and his teleportation abilities manifested. Eventually rescued from yet another angry mob by Professor X and brought into the "new" X-Men in Giant-Size-X-Men #1, Nightcrawler has been a major Marvel mutant ever since. Wagner's faith eventually became a more prominent character ark in later years, culminating in his attempt to enter the clergy. Crawler's mutant shtick has always been awesome and his deep and conflicting aspects make him another in a very long line of outstanding X-Men characters.
As Alan Moore himself quoted Steve Ditko himself as saying "Ah Rorschach, he's like Mr. A except he's insane". Of course you would have to know who Mr. A is to get the reference, (hint, he was a post Marvel creation of Ditko's that very much reflected the author's own belief that good and evil exist with little or no shades of grey in between). Alan Moore took his own Watchmen protagonist's identical worldview to an extreme to be sure. Rorschach, (real name Walter Kovacs), was a member of the Watchmen yet refused to remain on board as a government agent just as the government refused to take him in the first place. Therefore, he continued to seek out his own black and white form of vigilante justice by his lonesome. He is probably the book's most famous character, and Dave Gibbon's simple design rocking the trench coat and a Rorschach ink blot test mask looks badass. There is a great and no doubt deliberate irony in the fact that Kovas's Mr. A-esque clear cut view of good and evil is questioned within the character himself, since Rorschach's method of brutally murdering any criminal he comes in contact with is certainly in the "grey" area of an anti-hero.
One does not come across a whole lot of comic book characters that are as un-apologetically cool as John Constantine, (Wolverine notwithstanding). One of the only such comic book characters that ages in real time, (at least before the New 52 kicked in), Constantine's personality is rough, brash, and obnoxious, yet his acts are inspired by a sincere need to rid the world of some evil and get some downright good shit done. He also has an "ah fuck it" desire to simply live life on the most dangerous of edges, the mystical and evil underworld of DC. A manipulative and charismatic con-man/sorcerer/detective who is quick on his feet and seemingly completely versed in the goings on of the occult, JC first showed up in Swamp Thing (Vol. 2) #37 and is another creation of Alan Moore. Constantine's origins could not have been more simple, when artists Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben "wanted to draw someone who looked like Sting". Moore took that "go anywhere with it" template and ran, ultimately giving us one of the best and brightest of comic book's anti-heroes.
Few Batman rogues demand the kind of respect that Bane does. He is one of the only few to have actually "won" when battling the Dark Knight, famously "breaking the Bat" in the legendary Knightfall arc. In fact, Bane's epic master plan in said story line, (discovering Batman's identity, letting loose the inmates of Arkham, exhausting Batman physically and mentally in re-capturing them, and then waltzing right into the Batcave and kicking his ass), is arguably the greatest ever executed by any villain in the Batman methos. The conflicting image of Bane looking like a mindless brute, (which was apparently where the Batman & Robin "creative" team began and ended in adapting him), yet actuality being a brilliant criminal mastermind and strategist further enhance the character's excellent dynamics. Bane's origin story is also solid, born in a Santa Priscan prison called Peña Dura and forced to serve his Revolutionist father's life sentence from the go ahead. Bane then reads a whole lot, builds up a impressive physique, gets experimented on with the super steroid Venom, becomes obsessed with Batman, and then escapes to spring forth his epic plan.
Good ole Jack Kirby to the rescue again. One of the rare Marvel characters that Kirby is credited with spawning without the dynamic world bubbles of Stan Lee taking second credit, the Silver Surfer Norrin Radd was one of the first cosmic beings introduced into the Marvel Universe. Granted some of the Power Cosmic by volunteering to become Galactus' latest-at-the-time-herald, Zenn-La astronomer Norrid Radd spared his home planet and left the love of his life to help his mighty new boss find worlds across the galaxies to devour. Then he got to earth, was won over by the Fantastic Four, and rebelled, thus "returning" to the side of good and keeping a watchful eye over us earthlings ever since. The Surfer is just as powerful as most cosmic entities in the MU, if not more so. Besides being invulnerable, invincibly strong, and rather fast, he is also equipped with one of the most bitching accessories in comics, that ever-present and steadfast surf board. A silly name maybe and a perhaps silly gimmick, but due to the Surfer's nobility, awesome powers, and awesome backstory, he has never been one to laugh at.
It took until 1990 before comic books got a roaring Cajun superhero of note, but Chris Claremont and Jim Lee's Remy Gambit LeBeau has understandably stayed around ever since. A womanizing ruff and rugged New Orleans native, (who talks like Dave Mathews, wears a bitchin trench coat, rocks a bō, and controls kinetic energy usually by throwing playing cards), are all some mighty fine ingredients for some tasty superhero gumbo. Gambit was brought into the X-Men universe as a mutant right around when Jim Lee, amongst others, helped usher in the early 90s record breaking era of comic book sales and popularity. A former thief, LeBeau had some redemption issues ala Hawkeye and Black Widow a few decades prior. That and his rocky romance with Rogue served as much of his dramatic backdrop over the years. Many an X-Man or X-Woman have remained very well written characters and Gambits backstory set a very solid foundation to go on. Cool mutant power, cool looking pimp, cool accent, etc. What more do you want?
Morpheus' older sister Death is the most powerful of the Endless, everyone's favorite dysfunctional family of omnipotent embodiments of the known forces in the universe. Death had been personified in the DCU before Neil Gaiman's Sandman book came around, but Gaiman and artist Mike Dringenberg's robo-goth-babe interpretation is by far the most enduring. She remains the most popular character the legendary title has featured, second only to Lord Dream Morpheus "the Sandman" himself. As you would guess, Death's role in the Sandman-verse is to escort the recently deceased to the afterlife, though she also witnesses everyone's birth as well. In the higher goings on of things, Death seems like the only of the Endless whose power is limitless and who also bows to virtually no rules. The few beings who challenge or anger any of the Endless are ultimately only truly afraid of igniting Death's wrath. She can pretty much make any force in all of creation "back off", even immortals. So I guess the saying that "my big sister can beat up your big sister" rings truest of all where this lady is concerned.
Plainly speaking, Jesse Custer has the most awesome fucking superpower of all time, the "Word of God". When used, his eyes go all red, (as does his text), and whomever he is speaking to is forced to do exactly what he says. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher title could have therefor essentially lasted a single issue if Custer, (the book's main protagonist and title character), just went "fuck yeah!" and utilized such a gift to became the sole ruler and commander of the free world for the rest of his days. Thankfully and instead, Ennis and Dillon came up with a ten volume spanning arc that is easily near the peak of excellence in the comic book medium. Which is Custer and his small yet loyal crew setting out to find God and tear him a new asshole. As "the Preacher", Jesse Custer actually uses the Word sparingly and as a character he is undeniably a badass, yet prone to uphold a code of honor that often backfires on him. Anyone who decides to take on God himself certainly has to have balls of holy steel as well as a stubborn willpower to see such an all-encompassingly momentous task through. Case in point here.
Frank Miller said that before he took an ultimately successful gamble at re-introducing Wilson Fisk as Daredevil's arch badie, that the character may as well just have been called "Fat Man". There is truth to this in the fact that before Miller, no one at Marvel had fully realized what they had with the Kingpin. Fisk's body mass, though deceptively rotund looking, is made up of sumo-wrestler worthy muscle, proven by the fact that he once almost made Captain America pass out with a bear hug. I used to actually hate Kingpin when I was younger, mostly because I thought he was a lame, generic, and hefty crime boss, (and he beat up Red Skull in a hand to hand match once, the nerve of some people). It was not until I read Frank Miller's DD run that Kingpin's awesomeness really smacked me upside the cranium. A vastly resourceful and feared mobster at the very top of the organized crime food chain, Fisk's complex and delicately planned scheming and manipulating of events to suit his needs and increase his vice-like stronghold over New York City makes him as formidable of a foe as Earth-bound heroes can possibly have.
What is it with super villains all being super geniuses? It has been a given in virtually every single scenario that the smarter the bad guy, the more dangerous he or she is. In that regard, Victor Von Doom is as dangerous as they come. The real name may be one of Stan Lee's goofier moments of creativity, but the character has endured for five decades and counting. Debuting in Fantastic Four #5, Lee and Jack Kirby struck gold yet again with Doom, an iron-clad, super brilliant monarch, inventor, scientist, and sorcerer. The combination of being a scientific mastermind with hardly a human peer to match his intellect coupled with his mastery of dark and evil magic is what I love most about him. It is a wonderful pairing of old and new school type methods of evil. Doctor Doom's accomplishments have been many over the decades, (stealing the Silver Surfer's powers and resorting Ben Grimm back to his human appearance to name but two), and he has remained the Fantastic Four as well as possibly the entire Marvel Universe's most resourceful and menacing villain. Not to mention the most iconic. All hail Doom!
Gotta love the Hulk, simple as that really. As Marvel's undisputed, ultimate smash-em-up character, the angry green giant is the strongest anything in the entire universe. So long as he stays and continues to get angry, the Hulk will relentlessly break and smash the ever-loving shit out of any and everything until there is nothing more to break and smash. No one and nothing can kick his ass and that kind of raw, uncompromising power is wholly admirable. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby unveiled what would become possibly their very most enduring creation ever in The Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962. Inspired by both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, (as well as the Cold War, nuclear bomb fears of the times), Lee and Kirby threw it all together in the origin of mild-mannered physicist turned, (originally), grey super brute. Banner has continued to be chased by the United States armed forces for his rampaging ways, has suffered numerous psychological trauma, has an understandably turbulent relationship with Betty Banner, joined forces with a number of super hero teams such as the Defenders and the Avengers, and even manages on occasion and for extended periods of time to merge his non-Hulk intellect with his non-non-Hulk massive form.
Batman has many excellent rogues and I have several more on the way. With a name like Scarecrow, Dr. Johnathan Crane is naturally one of the more terrifying and definitely one of the best. Going way back to 1941 for his first appearance in World's Finest Comics #3 and similarly to Two-Face, Crane only made a very small amount of appearances for his first few decades. He eventually came back and got a permanent spot on the Batman baddie list during the Silver Age in 1967. Scarecrow has always been a gimmicky villain, as so many spawned from that era were. Yet it just so happens the gimmick here is awesome. A lanky, brilliant of course, former teacher and, (of course again), scientist, Crane uses toxins and drugs to essentially scare the fuck out of his victims, making them trip balls in the process. The look has changed gradually over the years too by growing more grotesque and creepy. Crane's psyche as well has become more problematic due to his long term exposure to his own fear toxins. He is a villain not so much hellbent on robbing banks or dominating the world, but one who simply and sinisterly lives for terrorizing people. Good evil stuff.
As far as I know, I am not alone in being one of a few of us out there who used to not give a fuck about Daredevil. That was until I read the Frank Miller run. Miller took over the book as writer after having already been assigned to drawing it in the early 80s. Straight away, he began to ditch most of what was already canon about the blind Hell's Kitchen lawyer turned crime-fighter Matt Murdock. One of, if not thee, grittiest reworkings in Marvel's history for a somewhat major player, Miller turned DD into a tough crime drama rooted more in realism. He brought in the Kingpin as arch-villain and similarly reinstated Bullseye. But his greatest input of all was essentially making Daredevil a major and completely compelling character. The premise of Murdock being a lawyer did not fully work, so Miller broke it down. He also brought complexity to a previous "straight good guy", with such acts as dropping Bullseye from a roof and toying with him in a game of Russian Roulette, to give some examples. Then there is all of the tragic love interests, tragic daddy issues, and the traumatic childhood event that took his site in the first place. All of those ingredients and you have a tortured, noble hero with few peers.
