Interesting Characters of the '80's

[pinkfloydsound17]

Continuing/mimicking the similar thread on here, what characters debuted in the 80's that caught your interest?

For me, it has to be Cloak and Dagger. I loved them in PPTSS and recently bought and read the first four issue mini series. I thought it was quite interesting and well written for an origin story for the two.

[Venomous Mask]

The Mask debuted in the eighties:



His debut in Dark Horse Presents was quite...unusual:

[T Hedge Coke]

Grendel (Hunter Rose) and various related characters.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and related characters, including Casey Jones.

Anarky, over the Bat-titles, was a great character and great setup.

The Tick and related characters.

The Crow.

Calvin, Hobbes, and related characters.

[Shawn Hopkins]

I think Andrew Bennett from I ... Vampire is an interesting character, because he's portrayed a hero but he's such a disturbing one for his time. He often has bloody violence inflicted upon him, he attempts suicide, he hypnotizes people, he drinks blood, and he turns into animals. Not exactly your standard goody two-shoes.

[Roquefort Raider]

The Beyonder!!!

I kid, I kid.

The 80s gave us quite a few good characters, even if the decade doesn't really compare to the preceding one. The Sandman and John Constantine were my favorite ones.

[berk]

The whole Love and Rockets cast, from Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar gang to Jaime's Maggie, Hopey, Penny Century, and all the rest.

Clowes's Lloyd Llewellyn and co.

Moore came up with some good ones in Watchmen, V for vendetta, Marvel/Miracleman, etc.

These all seem to be one-offs, or limited to the original creators. I can't think of many from the continuing comics of Marvel and DC. And as much as I like the characters above, I have no desire to read, say, a Penny Century comic written by someone other than Jaime Hernandez.

But when you look at it more closely, even with the continuing, shared Marvel or DC characters, most readers find their favourite characters are really limited to a few particular versions; not always just a single one, it's true, but still. For example, I can't say I've ever really liked a Shang Chi story that wasn't written by Doug Moench, apart from the few that Englehart and Starlin did at the very beginning. There are a few characters who have been lcuky enough to have more than one version I'd consider classic - Doctor Strange, springs to mind, with the Ditko and Englehart eras standing out but with several other worthy runs in between. But it's striking how often, when I look at a favourite character, I realise it's really one particular version I'm thinking of.

[Shellhead]

I wasn't too impressed with Marvel's newer characters in the '80s. DC really came back to life then.

Cyborg, Starfire and Raven, from the Teen Titans. And Deathstroke the Terminator, of course.

I always liked the legacy heroes of Infinity Inc, though they never really lived up to their potential in that series.

John Constantine.

Morpheus, aka Dream of Endless. And his sister, Death.

[Shellhead]

And there were a lot of great new indie characters:

Grimjack.

The Elementals.

Justice Machine.

Kevin Matchstick.

Grendel.

Oh, and Dreadstar, though he started out in Marvel's Epic magazine.

[Scott Harris]

The 80's is when creators really started saving their good ideas due to the creator's rights struggles of the late 70's, which I think is why there's a dramatic decrease in the number of major characters created at DC and Marvel and a huge upswing in the number of great creator owned characters. There have really hardly been any important character created at either DC or Marvel for the past three decades, which is amazing when you think about it. DC has done better, but most of their cool new books and characters are legacy stories, like Jack Knight as Starman or Kate Kane as Batwoman.

The 80's had a ton of cool new characters, but most of them were from indie publishers I think.

[Slam_Bradley]

Ms. Michael Tree. The greatest female detective ever.

[Patroklos]

Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle really were on fire in the late 80's, creating classic Batman villains like Mortimer Kadaver, Ventriloquizt & Scarface, Ratcatcher and Cornelius Stirk in their runs on Detective Comics and Batman.

[icctrombone]

The Badger by Mike Baron.

[Slam_Bradley]

Horatio Hellpop and Judah the Hammer.

[tony ingram]

The DNAgents
Crossfire
Coyote
V for Vendetta
Ms. Tree
Axel Pressbutton
Grendel
John Constantine
Dream
Crazy Jane
Rebis
Kitty Pryde
Emma Frost
Maggie & Hopey
Amanda Waller
The Elementals
Justice Machine
Vanth Dreadstar
The New Mutants
Death's Head
The Special Executive
The Freefall Warriors
She-Hulk
Frog Man
Cloak & Dagger
Dazzler (yes, really!)
Halo Jones
Skizz
D.R & Quinch
Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer
American Flagg
Sgt. Strike
Strike
The Prowler

[Venomous Mask]

Venom came from the eighties. He wasn't as gruesome then: