how do you determine grade of character [Archive]

Shellhead

04-04-2007, 10:21 AM

This is just my own ranking system:

A-list: long-running monthly solo title (at least a decade) that has, at worst, only briefly been cancelled. Examples: Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spider-man, Wolverine.

B-list: long-term character (at least a decade in existence) who usually has a solo monthly title, and/or is closely associated with a popular team. Examples: Nightwing, Iron Man, Thor, Wonder Woman, Ben Grimm.

C-list: character that has been around for at least several years, has either been a member of a high-profile team for a lengthy period of time or has at least appeared in more than one mini-series and made guest appearances from time to time. Also, a former B-list character who has slipped in popularity since the time that they were introduced. Examples: Firestorm, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, Black Panther, Nighthawk, Blue Beetle.

D-list: Rarely used by anyone besides the original creator, or only appears once in a great while. Examples: Ambush Bug, D-Man, Beta Ray Bill, Monica Rambeau, Blue Devil.

F-list: Former D-list characters who have faded into obscurity. Examples: Tagak the Leopard Lord, G'Nort, Captain Ultra, Matter Eater Lad.

Omar Karindu

04-04-2007, 10:47 AM

I use three criteria, in descending order of importance:

1. Public visibility via media tie-ins, merchandising, licensing, and general absrption of the character's emblematic elements (Superman's S-shield; Hulk's green skin; Batman's bat-prefixes) into everyday pop-culture referentiality.

2. General publishing centrality and importance: that is, how many events have prominently featured character X, how many spinoffs and team books have they appeared in, how often do they make guest-shots elsewhere, etc.

3. Aesthetics: has this character had a run by some media-mainstreamed artistic or writerly wunderkind -- an Eisner, a Miller, a Steranko, a Moore, a Morrison -- that shifted "the way superhero comics are done" and got their creators on the non-superhero or non-comics map? Do they at least spill from a highly influential writer or artist within superhero comics whose style was widely aped, like Lee, Claremont, Kirby, Ditko, Gil Kane, Infantino, etc.?

A-list characters fulfill all the criteria of point 1, so that Captain America, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Hulk, Joker, Wonder Woman, and Wolverine are definitely A-list. So too are characters who have limited media and merchandising exposure, usually in support roles for the above A-listers and their ilk, but nail every bit of 2 and a sort of sub-3 or 3 categorization. So A-lister Dr. Doom has Kirby and turns up in plenty of adaptations, Magneto has the influential Claremont writing behind him and ties to the X-films and cartoons, Flash and Green Lantern have Gardner Fox and Infantino and Kane and have gotten lots of exposure via various JLA TV series; these latter two also get special credit for their importance in launching the Silver Age for DC. A-list villains are generally defined this second way by me.

A B-list character is usually one that hits some outside-comics visibility and the second or third category is probably B-list (Daredevil hits some of 2 and hits hard for 3), as is a character who hits every point of 2 or most of 2 and all of 3. Thor would be a B-lister in this sense, though Marvel fans tend to lump him as A-list on the grounds that Simonson and Kirby did his book, and he's a player in the MU; I read him as B-list because, while he's quite visible in the MU, he's never been a central character in Marvel's publishing plan the way Spidey, Logan, Cap, et al. are repeatedly and often. The fact that Marvel has gotten by so long without a Thor book says plenty to me, too. The Fantastic Four are probably archetypal B-listers these days.

C-listers tend to be characters who are mediocre in 2 and 3 (Dr. Strange had Ditko and Lee on the art, and gets plenty of guest-shots, but he's never had the centrality of publishing importance nor made a significant mainstream media impact) or widely-seen but otherwise nonessential characters (Namor, for instance, gets plenty of series and appearances, but no one's pointing to his artists and writers or to his non-comics marketability; and while he pointed the way to later developments in comics, he's not exactly influential these days in the way Daredevil is.). Hank Pym might fit here rather nicely; he has the Lee pedigree and shows up everywhere, including the odd adaptation of the Avengers, but there's not exactly a Pym-focus at Marvel.

D-listers tend to be characters who are highly visible in their comics universes, but were never really artistically distinguished and have never been publisher central. These are the guys whose only merch is a figure sold in the comics shop or a pog from the mid-90s. The Man Called Nova and 90% of the decades-old villains in most heroes' rogues' galleries fit here. Luke Cage and the Man Called Nova are almost certainly the patron saints of D-list heroes.

Below D-list, and you're into the realm of characters whom writers often actively avoid using, guys who have never had their own books or had onetime, long-cancelled series and no revivals, and so on. Everything below D-list may as well be Z-list, just as there's no difference between a 40% "F" on your report card and a 10% "F."