The Fourth Day of Classic Comics Christmas '06

[Cei-U!]

Coming in at #9 on my list is Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier's Groo the Wanderer. More force of nature than human being, Groo has been leaving a long line of slaughtered foes, slaughtered allies, slaughtered neutrals, sunken ships, discarded cheese dip containers and former publishers for more than a quarter century. Despite the hilarity, Our Hero isn't so much a parody of the sword-and-sorcery genre as its epitome, mercilessly skewering the mindless machismo and love of bloody mayhem at its heart.

Cei-U!
I summon the mendicant!

[Hintermann]

#9 Captain Haddock: Baboon! Duck-billed Platypus! Iconoclast! Bashi Bazouk! Carpet Seller! Hydrocarbon!! Vegetarian!!! These are only a few expletives from the vast vocabulary of Captain Archibald Haddock of Marlinspike, with whom all Tintin fans will be familiar. Tintin stories definitely moved up a gear when this larger than life character came aboard in “The Crab with the Golden Claws”. Bluff, honest and with a very short fuse, the Captain is a perfect foil to the almost irritating unflappability of the young reporter. The Captain adds spice (sometimes quite literally!) to the adventures, largely because everything that there is to happen seems to happen to him. If there is a hole to fall into or a sandbag is about to land on someone’s head, you can guarantee that it’ll be poor Captain Haddock that’s the victim. There seem to be comic antagonists wherever he turns, in the shape of Bianca Castafiore (the Milanese Nightmare…oops, I mean Nightingale), the brat Abdullah and perhaps worst of all, the dreaded Joylon Wagg. It is a wonder that one of these has not caused poor Captain Haddock to blow a gasket so far. And his interludes with his friend Professor Calculus, who is not really deaf but just hard of hearing in one ear :D, are legendary. But of course, he can always drown out his sorrows in a bottle or three of Loch Lomond whiskey and then really come into his own and yell “Thundering Typhoons!” or “Blistering Barnacles!!” With Captain Haddock around, there is never a dull moment!

[Red Oak Kid]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/redoakkid/swampy2.jpg

9. Swamp Thing

Like several of my choices this one is directly connected to a specific artist. This choice is my tribute to Berni Wrightson. It goes without saying that Swamp Thing is Frankenstein and the Hulk and all those loners who are rejected by society and are misunderstood because of their appearance or just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. But like all of us, Swampy and the others are just searching for love and acceptance.

I know that since his original run by Wein and Wrightson, Swampy has gone on to even greater heights. But I think the 10 or so issues that Wrightson did are just perfect. The art is on an incredible level for the entire run. There are no short cut pages or pages that looked rushed. The art is incredibly rich and atmospheric. For several issues Swampy travels across an eerie countryside encountering all manner of creepy crawly beings, archaic cemeteries and cold foreboding castles. It's a landscape that seems to belong to another long distant time.

It's really a tour de force for Wrightson the artist. I think this art is the culmination of everything Wrightson had taken from the EC and Warren comics that were his influence. He's usually compared to Graham Ingels but there is plenty of Frazetta, Williamson and Krenkel influence in his work.

And he draws the most amazing trees of anyone I have seen.

[Gingold]

9. Jimmy Olsen

The cub reporter, the master of disguise, the crossdresser, the red-headed Beatle, the DNAlien, the Turtle Boy, Hippie Olsen, Doomsday...whatever guise Jimmy's in, if he's at the center of the story, you know you're in for a good time. The Kirby adventures are my favorites, but the Weisenger era stories as seen in the recent Showcase edition are gold too. Jimmy served as a great p.o.v. character at a time when kids were actually the target audience of superhero books. He makes mistakes and often got relegated to guest star status in his own comic, but the heroic adventurer's heart behind the geeky bowtie makes him one of the best characters in comics. And even recent efforts like the brilliant All-Star Superman spotlight how cool Jimmy can still be, if the creators bother to try.

[SamuraiJack]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/SamuraiJack31/GRRWB-TPB-FC-SOL.jpg

GRENDEL!

Whether it's Hunter Rose, Christine Spar, Grendel-Prime, or any of the others to don the black and white, Matt Wagner's Grendel will always make my top 10 list. I love the concept, particularly the future Grendels who are part of a church/cult who worship Hunter's legacy. If you've never read them, I'd suggest checking out War Child and both God and the Devil and Devil's Reign.

Grendel's one of the very few series I can go back and re-read over and over again...

[Simon Garth]

Number 9 - Black Orchid

I have to admit, that with occasional exceptions, I generally intensely dislike DC comics, particularly from the 70s – but there’s the occasional quirky weird series that really captured me. I’ve already talked about the Creeper; I could as easily have picked Shade the Changing Man or Angel and the Ape – but I’ve gone for Black Orchid. Not the character of the Neil Gaiman graphic novel, which, much as I love Gaiman’s work, I loathed; nor the Vertigo series, which I’ve never read, but the little backups from Phantom Stranger comic in the 70s. At the time, she was sort of like a mysterious alternate Supergirl, though far more intriguing then the big blue cheese(cake) would ever, ever be. This is the one that I remember fondly:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c5/BlackO.JPG/394px-BlackO.JPG

She’d appear in some little 5 page story in the back pages of something or other (Phantom Stranger, I think – another one of the oddments of my collection, dictated by the stringent criteria of ‘whatever turned up in the shop when I had money’), confound some criminals and disappear. I loved her costume, though it’s a bit fussy, and I loved the fact that we never really found out much about her.

[Scott Shaw!]

No. 9: THE INCREDIBLE HULK

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=18700&zoom=4

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=19916&zoom=4

And I'm not referring to that abominable-snowman-with-a-metal-yarmulke, "Xemnu The Titan" (although I like him, too!)

Yeah, I dig ol' Jade-Jaws...but I dig a very specific version. Namely, the early Jack Kirby Hulk with the flat head, bangs and tusk-like lower teeth...a super-heroic version of Frankenstein's monster, with an accent on the "monster", although his personality was more like an unpredictable, brooding, treacherous thug. (That recent AVENGERS No. 1 & 1/2 by Roger Stern and Bruce Timm really perfectly captured this version's personality!) For his day, this Hulk's "Ehh, who gives a shit?" attitude was absolutely unique.

My all-time favorite drawing of this Hulk appeared in the first FANTASTIC FOUR annual; it was one of the pin-ups in the FF's gallery of foes. When I first encountered this version of the Hulk (in AVENGERS No. 2, read at the house of my pal Steve Ko), I was absolutely flabbergasted that this ill-mannered creature was considered to be one of the good guys.

I even own a foot-and-a-half tall, green-tinted bronze sculpture of the above TALES TO ASTONISH "Bruce Banner Is The Hulk!" version by Kirby and Romita, sculpted by Randy Bowen. Like the Hulk himself, it's VERY heavy; it practically broke my coffee table!

The child-like, somewhat retarded version of the Hulk, drawn by Herb Trimpe (with inks by Joe Staton) is also one of my favorites.

I think that the Hulk is one of comic's most versatile characters, one who can support just about any sort of story, from comedic, to superhero bash-'em-up, to genuinely tragic.

(I also have always dug the Hulk because he's one of the few "straight" superheroes that's cartoonish enough that I can draw a credible version of.)

"Hulk smash"? As far as I'm concerned, Hulk IS a smash!

Aloha,

Scott!

[Aaron King]

9. Wonder Woman
A big part of my love for Wonder Woman comes from an academic interest in gender. Another part of my love is because of her creator, the sort-of-infamous William Moulton Marston. Mr. Marston was a psychologist concerned with things like truth, power in gender, and sorority hazing. These themes come through pretty clearly in early Wonder Woman stories, and minus that sorority thing, they closely follow my interests. Seriously. I don’t care about sorority hazings.

The poor woman has gone through some rough spots, including being relegated to secretary of the Justice Society of America and having her powers taken away to be trained in the martial arts by a generic pan-Asian, she was still an iconic character. For awhile she was the Amazonian ambassador to the UN (and hopefully interacted with Mole Man while in Washington). The entire run, written by Greg Rucka, managed to tie together her politics, her mythology, and her villains… and then petered off as the book was scheduled for cancellation.

Comics for Girls: Wonder Woman Archives; Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia; Wonder Woman (volume 2) #195

Wonder Woman v... Wonder Woman? (http://www.geocities.com/utherworld/comixpix/wwdouble1.jpg)
And by Drew Johnson (http://www.comicon.com/pulse/images/ww_figure.jpg)

[Budman]

9. Martian Manhunter

When I was young, Martians were on the minds of us kids. They were invading villains in the sci-fi movies the TV stations used to rerun. They were friendly and funny in "My Favorite Martian." And one was in the Justice League of America.

I liked J'onn J'onzz - after all, he was a Martian - but I had some questions about him as I was getting introduced to superhero comic books. He seemed to be a lot like Superman, except he was green and fire, instead of Kryptonite, was his weakness. So I wondered if he and Superman were distant cousins or something? Maybe Kryptonians and Martians were related somehow? But Brainiac and Brainiac-5 were green, too! Was J'onn related to them? My mind boggled.

As time went on, the creators at DC made J'onn less a green copy of Superman and more of a strong character in his own right. And during the era when the Justice League titles were humorous, J'onn became a strong leader who was the heart and soul of the JLA and he developed his insatiable appetite for Oreos.

But it was in his own title by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake that J'onn earned his spot on my list. If you do not have a full run of this title, run do not walk to your local comic book store and pick it up! It is one of the greatest comic books of all time. J'onn uses all of his powers in it to their utmost. Science fiction stories and straight-forward defeat the bad guy superheroics were featured. But the book was primarily about character. It explored J'onn's totally alien background, history, and culture. It let us inside his head. And it allowed us to see ourselves as an alien would see us. J'onn explores our world and observes us and interacts with us by adopting a variety of identities, living many different lives at once, and shapeshifting his way into people's hearts. People found their way into J'onn's heart as well. The book could be poignant, tender, insightful, and intensely personal one minute, and then exciting and suspenseful the next. Many times it was more like a good novel than a typical comic book. And always the incredible unchained imaginations of the creative team were on display and at the center of everything was J'onn, a being who really isn't one of us but who walks among us. While reading this comic book, I often got a sense of the holy. One definition of "holy" is "different." J'onn is different than us. He grieves and his grief is similar to ours in some ways, but different in others. He is an instrument of justice, but his justice and vengeance aren't totally like our own. He lets us influence him, but only so much. His goals are not our goals, his way of thinking is not our way of thinking, and his way of life is not our way of life.

No offense to beloved Uncle Martin, but with that comic book series, J'onn J'onzz became my favorite Martian.

[Lone Ranger]

9. Alfred Pennyworth

I think that everyone needs an Alfred in life. Someone who will stick by you through the best and worst of what life has to offer. He is the person who keeps Batman/Bruce grounded, and keeps him from going off the deep end.

Like many readers (and Bruce from time to time), I probably took Alfred for granted. He was simply a nice British chap who made tea at all hours of the night.

From time to time, some writers give Alfred his due and capture his essence of Alfred and show just how important a role he plays in the Bat-Universe. More recently, I was delighted to see Michael Caine do Alfred justice in Batman Begins. He was absolutely perfect.

There are not many comic book scenes that have touched me as much as the following page from Batman: Dark Victory as Alfred gets Dick Grayson settled in at Wayne Manor and attempts to make up for some of the mistakes he’s made in the past. When I first read this, I was absolutely blown away.

It still gets me today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/top12/Alfred-sm.jpg

[Lone Ranger]

The art is incredibly rich and atmospheric. For several issues Swampy travels across an eerie countryside encountering all manner of creepy crawly beings, archaic cemeteries and cold foreboding castles. It's a landscape that seems to belong to another long distant time.


Very well said - I don't think I've ever seen the series summed up so accurately.

[benday-dot]

Very well said - I don't think I've ever seen the series summed up so accurately.

I echo what LR has written. And it looks as if your list is shaping up to be my alternate list. I swear I wrestled for a spot for Swamp Thing on my top twelve harder than I did for any of the others that didn't make it. The only reason I suppose for leaving him out, is that I'm a relative newcomer to Swampy, and though I love both the Wein/Wrightson and Moore/Bissette versions I'm actually only getting around to reading them for the first time these last few months and a full appreciation has yet to catch up with some of my longer held favourites. Next year this time... I'm sure Swamp Thing would make the grade.

[benday-dot]

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1428/400/1428_4_316.jpg

The Flash … my first DC (and non-Kirby!) choice... First, lets say there are all those great silver age covers. Dan Baily is right when he says they are among the best ever in DC’s storied history. But what of the character himself… To me, it is of nothing more or less than the pure simplicity of him. The superhero world is replete with speedsters, but the Flash is still the best. Super speed. I suppose it’s a power almost too basic, hackneyed nearly. But look at the other side. Isn’t it the most primal of superhero attributes? With the possible exception of flying, the sine quo non of the lot. If there were no heroes out there with but the power of simple, elegant, primitive, and pure ecstatic speed would it not be necessary to invent one?

So basic, so necessary, so damn beautiful. He just goes like no tomorrow. He crushes time. Outraces atoms. The Flash frees himself from himself. His accelerated life, Alan Moore once wonderfully said… “Is an endless gallery of statues.” And what a life, we ought futilely add, to seek to behold just for an instant…

Sure there have been so many versions, but I’ll take Barry Allen, sterling invention of the atomic age. The man who is all streaks of orange. Before we know it he is off the page and blown away of our minds. Run Flash run.

[Kan-Man]

#9... Elongated Man

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/Kan-Man/fighting.jpg

This spot was between Plastic Man and Elongated Man (I never considered Mr. Fantastic - a character who despite his stretchiness remains quite stiff).

Ultimately Elongated Man won by a (twitchy) nose. I can't remember if he was inspired by Dick Van Dyke or Danny Kaye (or neither) but it doesn't really matter because I like them both. For me, his powers are almost secondary - it's his personality that gets my vote. His adventures as a back-up feature in the early 70s have a sort of a Rockford Files vibe to me. A detective with a smirk, if you will. Plus, in the right hands (Giffen-DeMatteis-Maguire for example) his exchanges with Sue are priceless.

So, add it all up and it equals a vote from me for my favorite stretchable sleuth.

[Kan-Man]

Groo the Wanderer

I've always been intrigued by him but have never read any of the comics. Are there any collected trades or issues to recommend?


Run Flash run.

Very close to making my list and I would've gone Barry all the way as well.

PS - yes, I have pulled off my first ever successful double quote.

[dan bailey]

9 -- Valkyrie

The face, to me, of one of the true classic Bronze Age runs, The Defenders as written by Steve Gerber, characteristically convoluted back-story & all.

And, ummm, the hair & breastplates don't exactly hurt, either.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/Valkyrie_001.gif

[Aaron Kashtan]

I've always been intrigued by him but have never read any of the comics. Are there any collected trades or issues to recommend?

It's the same joke every issue, so just pick up any random issue or TPB, and you'll get the idea. ;) (I'd recommend you start with the later stories rather than the earlier ones, though. And my personal favorites are #34-36 and #78, approximately.)

[shjonescrk]

9. Swamp Thing

I'll go with Red Oak Kid but for the Moore version. I have only read one of the Wein/Wrightson issues and I have no memory of whether it was good or not. I only came to Swamp Thing when Moore took over and only then because it was pay day and I thought I'd buy issue 24 as I had the cash. I loved Swampy after that and the Anatomy Lesson (issue 21) is my all time favourite comic.

Steve

PS I would add more but she who must be obeyed is moaning about the clicking of the keyboard. Good night.

[MWGallaher]

http://home.comcast.net/~vicoscia/images/Two.jpg
Harvey Dent, Two-Face.
The bat-creators must have known they had something special when they came up with this genuinely sympathetic villain, because they didn't run him into the ground. The three Golden Age Two-Face stories are among the best of the entire Batman run, as we see Harvey's unfortunate maiming, his fall from grace, his cure and redemption, and sadly, his eventual irrevocable return to madness. An unforgettable design, a memorable gimmick, it all adds up to make my favorite Batman villain.
It occurs to me that I may owe the Comics Code Authority, because it surely kept Two-Face off the pages during the era when so many Bat-villains devolved into buffoons.
I first met Two-Face when Jim Aparo drew his second appearance in the Bronze Age; with that and the earlier Adams Batman re-intro, and a 100-page Super-Spectacular that reprinted the original saga, I found myself up-to-date with a villain with pedigree to rival the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, Catwoman, a villain that was better than all of them! I even had hopes for a Two-Face series when The Joker started its bimonthly run.
In the years since, Dent has been, unfortunately, overused--and even worse, misused. It's not a novel observation that many of the great Batman villains are archetypes of mental disorders: Joker is psychopathic, Penguin overcompensates for an inferiority complex, Riddler is obsessive/compulsive, but Two-Face is not the archetype of Multiple Personality Disorder, although too many writers have depicted him that way. The Two-Face of those first five stories didn't hear voices, didn't change his personality depending on the fall of the coin, rather, he obeyed the rules he imposed on himself: coin lands good side-up, be generous, or merciful; bad side, be...well, bad. Two-Face is bipolar disorder embodied and personified, and the coin is the unpredictability of mood swings, not MPD.

[Dr. Hfuhruhurr]

Luther Manning was killed by a grenade in 1985. That's when his life got interesting. He awoke to find that he had been the subject of a cyborg program and that his flesh had been re-animated and joined with a mini-computer implanted in his skull. A former colonel in the U.S. Army, Manning had been trained in all sorts of military weapons and tactics. His cyborg form provided him with increased strength and damage resistance, among other things. Manning was a tortured soul, and one of the first "anti-heroes" I read in comics (along with the Punisher).

His run in ASTONISHING TALES started strong, but got more uneven towards the end. His subsequent appearances in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT and MARVEL TEAM-UP were fairly poor attempts to wrap up the series, and the MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE appearances were awful, especially when Luther was "lobotomized" from Deathlok.

The subsequent DEATHLOK series with Michael Collins did nothing for me. He didn't have the charm of Luther's earthy banter with his internal 'Puter.

http://www.diamondgalleries.com/product_images/1/1163/001_big.jpg

[zilch]

"Does he or doesn't he? Only Clairol knows for sure..."



9. Captain Marvel (Mar-vell)

I originally saw him in a forgettable, coverless issue early in his run. Gene Colan's artwork was weird for me, but i loved his costume. White and green, with a Superman style symbol on his chest, cool half hemet. Alien spy, white haired.

Then Roy Thomas and Gil Kane got ahold of it. They revamped him from the ground up, beautiful red and blue costume, dropped 30 pounds off his frame, hooded him up with Rick Jones in a twisted tribute to the original CM (thank heaven that they didn't try to link him to the Fass version). Four or five cool issues later and he was gone, a supporting character.

Then he was back. Marv Wolfman and Wayne freakin Boring, for Ghod's sake!

But he was due for greatness. Jim Starlin began stretching his creative legs and brought along Al Milgrom.

They took it to a whole 'nother level.

Captain Mar-Vell finds Eon, a one eyed tree thingee and gets "Cosmic Awareness", gets his 30 lbs back and his hair goes... blond. His newfound "Awareness" lets him know his hair is blond even before he sees it. Handy talent, that. He's part of a big mulitissue/series crossover (that begs to be collected) and ties the Marvel Universe tighter.

Nitro, Trial of the Watcher, Super-Adaptoid (with some cool Austin inking!) as the series starts to lose focus and then cancellation.

His story ends up in the first Marvel Graphic Novel as he dies of cancer.

I loved drawing his chest symbol, still doodle it occassionally.

[Graham Vingoe]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o156/grahamvingoe_2006/2048_4_046.jpg

9 SCORPIO

SImply put, issues 48 to 50 of Defenders are, to me , the ideal way to demonstrate that villains are humans too. the in-depth exploration of what makes Jake Fury tick in these issues turned him from a man that could reasonably be described as a cipher, and gave him flesh, bones and a soul. By his suicide in 50, I was rooting for Jake Fury like I've never rooted for a villain before, because to me, he was now real and his motives believable.
Everyone should hunt down those 3 issues, I strongly recommend them

[SamuraiJack]

Wow- once again we're being treated to some great choices! Valkyrie almost made my list, as did The Flash, but other folks nudged them out (barely).

MWG- your artistic talent is amazing. I don't think I've seen a sketch of Harvey I've liked as much as yours in years! I'm sure it's because this is one of my favorite covers ever http://www.answers.com/topic/batmanannual14-png

LR- as usual, your choice floors me. I remember that scene well, and it moves me too.

Cei-U- Awesome to see some Groo love. Aragones' work has always held a special place in my heart, and your choice of avatar appeals to one of my other favorite barbarian heroes as well.

You guys all rock, and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's number one choice (even if they're all Batman!)...

[MDG]

#9: The Thing

Only Marvel character you'll see on my list, but he's a great character (though I can't speak to anything from after 1982 or so). The most unique and differentiating aspect of the original FF, and probably the first superhero to see his power as a curse rather than a gift. A great counterpoint to the rest of the team.

Another thing (no pun) that endears him to me is the feeling--which i believe is at least partially justified--that there's a lot of the "real" Jack Kirby in the personality of the Thing.

Also, I can't see the Thing now without hearing Paul Frees' voice for him from the original FF cartoons.

MDG

[Aaron King]

The Thing is truly a character find. You should consider picking up the recent Thing ongoing, cancelled after eight issues, and now all collected in one TPB. It's just a lot of fun.

[dan bailey]

The Thing is truly a character find. You should consider picking up the recent Thing ongoing, cancelled after eight issues, and now all collected in one TPB. It's just a lot of fun.

I second the recommendation -- & the choice of Mr Grimm as one of Marvel's greatest characters. Not exactly sure why he didn't make my list (especially since just last week the postman brought me the Freakshow & Startling Stories: Night Falls on Yancy Street minis, obtained via eBay), except that the roster's pretty female-focused (with the exception of Volstagg at #12, today's pick & -- as this is typed, anyway -- my top two).

[Slam_Bradley]

My number ten pick isn't even a supporting character. He's an alter ego. And his name is Jim Corrigan.

While I've liked The Spectre off and on, it's his alter ego that has always held more fascination for me. Corrigan was the type of tough hard-boiled cop/PI that has always fascinated me. And he just happened to be tied to one of the most powerful beings on Earth (whatever earth it happened to be).

I really started to love Corrigan during the Fleisher/Aparo Spectre run in Adventure. There was a major hint at the great potential of the character. That potential was fully realized by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake in The Spectre vol. 3 (one of the best DC books of the 1990s). Corrigan was a very real ghost, full of more life than many of the cardboard characters that we were seeing in a decade of excess. Corrigan grew and changed, realizing that the old methods no longer met the needs of a modern age.

Jimmy Corrigan was finally allowed to go to his reward. And I'm much the better for having known him.

[Aaron King]

It's also great to see the wonderful Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre and Martian Manhunter series(es?) mentioned. Great books. Anyone who liked them should read The Kents.

[Nate C.]

# 9 Uncle Scrooge

Allright, now we are into my passions. These last nine really matter to me.

I'm not gonna give a long winded explanation on why Scrooge McDuck is a great character. Most of us here love the old coot. I'm just gonna say this. He was with me from the beginning. The duck books were my earliest comic books (how lucky was I?). Even when I could have read any funny book that I came accross in those Whitman 3 packs, I kept coming back to the old bird. He was my favorite. One reason I'll list is this- Whereas the real Ebeneezer Scrooge (one suspects) transforms from a curmeodgeny (msp) bastard to a reformed saint by the end of "A Christmas Carol", and later works would have surely had him as lilly white, Scrooge McDuck maintained BOTH heart and greed at the same time, and in every story. That depth and duality always appealed to me. Yes, Scrooge will swindle you out of your last nickle, but he'll do it honestly, through hard work, and he'll do it with style. And then once in a while, he'll do something humane with his massive resources. I hated Scrooge McDuck sometimes, but I always wanted to be "like" him (i.e., have his money! HA!).

What you should Read-

Any of the stories by Barks or Rosa.

[Slam_Bradley]

It's also great to see the wonderful Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre and Martian Manhunter series(es?) mentioned. Great books. Anyone who liked them should read The Kents.

I love The Kents.

[DarthAstuart]

9. James Gordon

Batman doesn't exactly live in a city with many good cops--at least, if the Dark Knight's nightly war against criminals that the police seem to somehow miss is any indication.

But there is one good cop in Gotham, one great cop in fact, and his name is James Gordon.

http://static.flickr.com/3/3628610_5fff392503_m.jpg

okay, so, not so much THAT one. but he was my first exposure to the character, through the sixties Batman TV series, which I watched in reruns as a child and took totally seriously.

Then I came to know him through the comics, and respected what a stand-up, truly great character he is. Especially in a few seminal works by Frank Miller, Year One and Dark Knight Returns.

My favorite uses of Comissioner Gordon feature him as almost a partner to Batman, not just someone quietly waiting for the Caped Crusader to do the heavy lifting. He's a cop who wants to do his job as best he can, but who realizes that the crime and corruption in his city is far beyond the meager force he leads.

My favorite image of him is the classic one--standing in a trenchcoat on the rooftop of police headquarters, bathed in the glow of the Bat-Signal, looking skyward--not just for the Bat, but also for the hope he needs to make it through another night on the beat.

[Budman]

Oops! i think I tried to post on the wrong day! Sorry!

[Chris N]

So... I like angst. Why I'm a Marvel fan. I like that tragic hero. Perhaps with something they're trying to atone for. Perhaps their strength is also their greatest weakness. Hence, Rogue. Reformed villain. Once robbed a woman of her powers and essence (though she seems okay these days). Incredible powers, but because of them she can never know the simple joy of human touch.

9. Rogue

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o1/CocaC0la99/uncannyx-men269.jpg

This is also partially a vote for X-Men. There are easily a dozen X-Men I'd put in a top ten characters list. I decided to pick one to spotlight other loves. But I'll always love those outcast heroes, supposedly fighting not against villains as they always tend to, but rather for something, an intangible dream, but never knowing how, and feeling they are constantly losing the fight. Trying to be heroes. Trying to survive. Trying to figure out what it means to do the right thing.

EDIT: Essential X-Men 1-7 are all great reads all the way through. 4-7 feature Rogue. If you can get your hands on Avengers annual 10, that's her first appearance and the classic encounter with Ms. Marvel. Uncanny X-Men 269 pictured above deals with her coming to terms with it and leads into the Savage Land story arc in 273-277 (approximately) which teams her with Magneto, as they dealt with their blossoming love and questions of heroism and morality

[Chris N]

Anyone who liked them should read The Kents.


Anyone who likes anything should read the Kents.


IMO.

[Rob Allen]

9. The Silver Surfer

I bought his first appearance off the newsstand for 12 cents. In an era when I avoided giant-size comics (why buy one comic when you can get two and change for the same price?), I paid 25 cents for issue #1 of his book. The Surfer was just incredibly cool - shiny, flying, powerful, intelligent, tragic. I hope the movie does him justice.

[MWGallaher]

MWG- your artistic talent is amazing. I don't think I've seen a sketch of Harvey I've liked as much as yours in years! I'm sure it's because this is one of my favorite covers ever http://www.answers.com/topic/batmanannual14-png

Thanks, SJ. I might have had that Adams cover in the back of my mind, but then again, when you're doing a portrait of Two-Face, that's the most obvious approach. I meant to mention that annual, which is one of the best Two-Face stories ever done. The final page (or somewhere near there; the one about the silver dollar), which tells the true origin of Two-Face, is a real punch in the gut. That is the way to amplify a character's unlikely origin (plenty of folks get disfigured without turning to crime...that awful twist in Harvey's childhood experience...it gives me chills just to think about it again!)

[Lone Ranger]

Slam - I agree with what you said about Corrigan. I've always liked the Spectre, but a big part of it is Corrigan.

Rob - I too am a big Surfer fan. I even like all 18 issues of the original run, and I know that's not a popular stance among the 'I hate whiners' crowd. I can see the over the top melodrama now, but when I first read those - it was one of the first series I'd read with fairly 'big' thoughts. I actually much of the Starlin/Lim stuff circa 1990 too. 10 years ago, the Surfer would have made my list, but he's fallen a bit.

Darth - Gordon nearly made my list, but I thought it would look too much like a Bat Family list. Like Alfred, Gordon is very important to Batman - he provides balance to the characters in Gotham. Gary Oldman did a superb job as Gordon in Batman Begins - best Gordon ever.

[Joe Rice]

9. Plastic Man

Eel O'Brien's another fella I loved from early, early on. As a kid, I enjoyed his humor, his powers, and his cartoon (I think). As I've gotten older, I still appreciate the humor intrinsic to the character, whether it's external (as in the Cole books) or all around (as in Baker's brilliant run).

http://es.geocities.com/heroecom/weblog/feb05/plas8.jpg

I do so love a superhero who doesn't take the thing too seriously. And shape-changing's an awesome power. It's no surprise that great creators are attracted to him, nor is it any surprise that lesser creators get him so very wrong. Deadbeat Dad Plas is one of the retardedest manglings of the point of a character in quite some time. But, hey, the good stories are still out there.

[Lone Ranger]

9. Plastic Man


Joe - Plas got some serious consideration for my list as well. He's probably only top 20, though. Too many good characters from which to choose, I guess.

I was thrilled to meet Ramona Fradon last year at a convention here in Toronto. I had her sign a copy of Plastic Man #12 (1976) for me and chatted with her about the character. She said he was one of her absolute favourites to draw, as she could push the limits in terms of creativity and imagination.

Her run with Steve Skeates on that mid-70s version is very, very solid. Much more Cole-ish in nature than most of the other DC versions.

It's not as good as the original, nor the Baker version - but it's fun and one of the hidden gems of the 70s.

[Joe Rice]

Joe - Plas got some serious consideration for my list as well. He's probably only top 20, though. Too many good characters from which to choose, I guess.

I was thrilled to meet Ramona Fradon last year at a convention here in Toronto. I had her sign a copy of Plastic Man #12 (1976) for me and chatted with her about the character. She said he was one of her absolute favourites to draw, as she could push the limits in terms of creativity and imagination.

Her run with Steve Skeates on that mid-70s version is very, very solid. Much more Cole-ish in nature than most of the other DC versions.

It's not as good as the original, nor the Baker version - but it's fun and one of the hidden gems of the 70s.

Here's hoping they collect it, then. Fradon art is great whereever you can get it.

[prince hal]

#9: Hamnet Shakespeare, from THE SANDMAN #19, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I had to find room somewhere for this haunting little boy, William Shakespeare's son. He only appears in a few panels in the story (perhaps the one comic I'd take with me to a deserted island if I were forced to choose), yet his aching desire to be with his father, the poignancy of his plight and the lingering sense of loss make him, and the story, unforgettable. To tell any more would spoil things for anyone who hasn't read it. You don't have to know Shakespeare to appreciate the story, but the more you do know, the more resonant it is.

Ironically, it is Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale that comes to mind when I think of young Hamnet. He reminds me of Mamilius and his response to his mother when she asks for a story: "A sad tale's best for winter..."