Recently CBR.com posted the results of a poll of comic book readers to determine the top 100 Marvel and DC characters. Using just their list of the top 50 for each company, I present my top 10…
10. Namor – 539 points (7 first place votes): There was a summer when I was a kid in elementary school that I thought that Namor was the coolest cat walking swimming. He looked like Spock, was a Prince, could breathe on land and sea. Yeah, Namor was the man.
09. Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)- 452 points (3 first place votes): I’ve read fewer stories with the Black Widow than any of the other characters in my top ten, but I like this character. The first time I really noticed her potential was in a black and white magazine that featured her in a story drawn by Paul Gulacy. Around the same time, Frank Miller put her to good use in Daredevil.
08. Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) – 1495 (17 first place votes). Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Trevor Von Eden and Jock all have worked their riffs on the Green Arrow. I’ve enjoyed all versions… especially those without the trick arrows.
07. Luke Cage – 633 points (3 first place votes): I can still remember picking the first issue of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire off the newsstands, reading it and thinking, yeah, this is how it would in real life if someone got super-powers. When I was in junior high I had a “shop” class and one of the things we had to create were business cards. It had to be for a business that wasn’t real and we couldn’t use our own names. My card read “Blackjack Joey – Hero for Hire.” So you can see the influence that Luke Cage had on me. Bonus points to anyone who can figure out where Blackjack Joey came from.
06. Question (Vic Sage) – 382 points (6 first place votes) Although I never read the original Question stories, I really dug the Denny O’Neil / Denys Cowan / Rick Magyar stories. Add in the covers by Bill Sienkiewicz and you have a top ten character.
05. The Punisher (Frank Castle) – 995 (17 first place votes) I’m talking about the real Punisher. You know the one who appeared in the mini-series and graphic novels by Steven Grant, Mike Zeck and John Beatty. You can throw in a bit of Miller and Romita Jr’s riffs, but count me out when the Punisher becomes a substitute teacher or starts hanging out with Microchip or any other sidekick.
04. Daredevil – 2280 points (71 first place votes): If Frank Miller wrote Daredevil and either he or David Mazzucchelli drew the series, I’d be a lifetime subscriber.
03. Wolverine – 2728 points (54 first place votes) Wolverine during Claremont, Byrne and Austin’s run was the coolest character ever. His biggest fault was he became too popular and was everywhere. Miller’s mini-series was cool. Chaykin has done some neat stuff with Wolverine as well. Unfortunately, too many people tried to work their magic on Logan and I lost interest. I’d still return to read stories about the runt if the right creator took the reins.
02. Nick Fury – 619 points (7 first place votes): I remember buying an issue of Nick Fury: Agent of Shield off the stands when I was elementary school. I’d never seen a comic that looked so cool. Steranko was is amazing. When I attended my first comic convention, the first items I purchased were a complete run of Steranko’s Nick Fury comics [and an issue of his publication, MediaScene]. Someone find a way to get Steranko to do covers for a Gulacy drawn, Doug Moench written Nick Fury series set in the 1960’s. The time is right.
01. Batman (Bruce Wayne) – 6585 points (313 first place votes) It doesn’t matter who draws Batman [Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, Jim Aparo, Frank Miller, etc.], what kind of stories [funny, serious, set in any time period or genre], Batman works. That has to make him the #1 character… at least in my book.
