My 10 Favorite Superheroes - Part 2

The heroes listed so far on the previous list mean a lot to me. I enjoy reading them, and I enjoy seeing most of them in other forms of media. I suppose that's a part of the reason why I've never been able to accept the popularity of Harry Potter. It's always gonna seem lame to me, when compared with a giant man wearing a black cape and breaking peoples bones in the street. My childhood just seems that much better than the new childhood things. Anyway, this isn't a time to smite that pathetic wizard, this is the time to talk about my TOP 5 FAVORITE superheroes. This list has been a nightmare to make as I've had to short out several really great characters. Please accept my apologies The Darkness, Captain America, The Flash and Robocop. Now let's finish this madness.

5. The Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

I said I wouldn't put Morpheus from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series on my list, and that is no lie, however tying Dream of the Endless into the Golden Age Sandman's story was definitely inspired. The Sandman is a superhero based in the 1930s. It all started when he had a strange dream encounter with an entity calling himself Dream (That's Morpheus from Sandman if you don't know). Afterwards, he gains the ability of premonition in his dreams and witnesses disturbing crimes. Naturally the sleep theme was working for him so he built a sleep gas shooting gun and wore a WWI gas mask to keep it from affecting him, and went out there fighting crime.

What I find really makes him stand out is that his stories aren't just about running out and beating up the bad guys. While Batman claims to be about being a detective, this really is about a detective. Most of the time he is using his gifts to find evidence on the twisted criminals and murderers. The only thing keeping him from just getting his ass kicked are hilariously plain and clever tricks. He actually tied two empty cans together and left them in a dark area near where he was sneaking a look at some documents. The result was him being gone by the time the night security actually got to where he was.

While he was originally a hero from old 30s comics he more recently received a newer DC Vertigo series still based in the 30s, called Sandman Mystery Theatre, and this is where I'm getting my info from. It's a great series, and thanks to it's practicality and realism, I love this for succeeding where Kick Ass failed. 

4. Nightwing (Dick Grayson)

Remember that dorky kid that ran around with Batman in the green speedo back in the day. He was a lame attempt by creators to make Batman more kid friendly, except somehow it worked. He became beloved as Batman's faithful sidekick. The original Robin. He was able to assist the Caped Crusader in defeating The Joker's boner.

However after many years in the overpowering shadow of the bat something changed in Dick. He slowly started to disagree with his surrogate father and eventually decided the time was right to move out. He passed on the mantle of Robin and became Nightwing, named after a legend from Krypton, told to him by another fatherly figure Superman.

Dick went on in the many years that followed to be one of the most, if not the most, loved character in all of the DC Universe. Every hero cared deeply for him as they had known him as he was just a child, and the younger heroes and sidekicks all looked up to him. Eventually him and Bruce Wayne even made peace and came to a point of trust and respect that when the time came that Batman eventually did die, it was made clear that Nightwing was to be his successor to fight the war. The best part of this however was that Batman didn't want Dick to dress up as Batman, but to remain Nightwing, out of respect for his son finding his own path and in some ways being even better than he was. Dick however having the respect he did for Batman insisted that the world needed a Batman and adopted a bat attitude.

It's the evolution that took place with Dick that really makes him special. He doesn't brood like Batman, in fact in some ways he's more like Spiderman, with the wise cracks, however there is no mistaking it, he is arguably as good as The Batman himself but with social skills.

3. Cyclops (Scott Summers)
Let's face it. There are only a handful of writers who can write Cyclops right. Most opt to take the easy and lazy route and just use him as a lame pretty boy that Wolverine can look cool next to. I would dare say all of the X-Men movies are an example of this. It's unfortunate that so many overlook how truly sad his story really is. Cyclops was never allowed to be anything else.  When Professor Xavier picked him up and made him the field leader of the X-Men, I'm sure he didn't realize that it would be something he'd be doing for decades.

As with Beast I saw the best of Cyclops while reading Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, where we see Cyclops as the leader he is. However we also get the quieter moments where he talks to Beast, the only other founding member still on the team. These are the moments when we stop seeing Cyclops and start seeing Scott come out. It's also an interesting dynamic to see that Scott and Beast are best friends, although it sorta makes sense when you think about it. Emma Frost at one point tries to help Cyclops out using her telepathy and actually uncovers that his optic blasts are not firing nonstop because he hit his head as a child, but rather that he is firing them nonstop as a constant reminder to always control himself. To never let anyone down. This is a layered character with real problems.

Cyclops is most known by the average person for his optic blasts that come from his eyes, but what I find interesting is that whenever he does something noteworthy or interesting, it never has anything to do with his powers. This is best shown in Astonishing X-Men, where Cyclops loses his powers, takes up a pistol and leads the team on a severely dangerous mission, ultimately leading to some really badass moments. He's a true leader and where the story lines have taken him recently, I find it interesting to see that after Magneto and Professor X have gotten tired of fighting one another, the responsibility for all of mutant kind falls on the shoulders of Cyclops.

2. The Goddamn Batman (Bruce Wayne)
Oh boy, it's hard to compete with this guy. Let's face it, he is the best. He's one of the most recognizable and one of the most interesting characters ever. He's constantly aggravated, always in a bad mood, and almost never in the mood to joke around. In fact, from what I've seen, joking around Batman tends to get you put into a wheelchair for a few months. Despite how much he sounds like a dislikable guy, he is genuinely the number one person you want at your side.

My friend over at Canons for Crickets really said it all in his little write up, but I want to talk about Batman too. What I always found coolest about Batman is that he really takes responsibility for everything. What started out as a personal crusade eventually became a fight to protect everyone, and ultimately this sense of duty and self sacrifice makes Batman the best of us. He is the one man who walks among the gods. He is the mortal who can tell Superman and Wonder Woman that they are naive and have it taken seriously.

Like any good character, what makes him great is not how powerful he is, but how vulnerable he is. Unlike characters like Wolverine, Batman's arm doesn't just grow back. He has to make it all count, knowing full well that all it takes is one bad moment to end it all. Batman is the best superhero of them all, because he knows loss better than anyone, and is brave enough never to give up.

...but he isn't my favorite.

1. Iron Man (Tony Stark)
If you say you want to be Batman, you really haven't thought it through. A much more acceptable option would be to be Iron Man. You'll have roughly the same amount of money, and 2000% more women! Iron Man is plain and simply more fun than any other character I've been reading for a while. His superpower is not that he has a badass power suit, so much as he can quite literally charm the pants off of anyone. At least that's what Tony Stark wants you to think.

See, what caught me off guard was how well written his books are. Maybe it's just been a fluke, but since 2005 I've yet to encounter one issue of Iron Man that was less than excellent. Let's face it, the writing talent's have been great as have the artists. I talk enough about Warren Ellis on here already, so I'll skip talking about Iron Man: Extremis and how you really should read it(!!!), to instead talk to you about Matt Fraction the current writer of The Invincible Ironman. What I find to be an interesting trend in Iron Man comics is that it's about Tony Stark, and maybe once an issue, if you're lucky you get to see the suit get used. I just read a whole story arch called Stark Disassembled, where for 5 issues, he never once put the suit on. This could seem less than appealing if it didn't work so darn well. Let's face it Tony Stark is an interesting guy. He is brilliant and has a snarky answer for everything.

When you think of Iron Man you think of Tony Stark having tons of fun and not worrying about anything, but as far back as the classic Demon in the Bottle storyline, we've been seeing Tony stressing to himself about certain guilty feelings he has for being rich off of weapons. Ultimately in that storyline, Tony went on to become a really bad alcoholic and had to find help. This is a flawed hero in the most believable way. It's very easy to connect with the idea of pretending to be invincible, but just being a mortal in a suit.

Though he isn't as iconic as Batman (hell who is), Iron Man is my favorite and every lady's favorite. No woman can resist a billionaire with a bad heart.

So there you have it. Yes, I know Spiderman and Wolverine weren't on my lists. I guess I just don't feel much of a connection to Spiderman anymore, however maybe you could suggest a worthwhile storyline for me to read. I gave the best top ten I could with what I knew at this moment. Please tell me who you're top ten favorite are in the comments below. In fact, if you have a blog of your own, write one of these up and post in my comments! I want to read these!

Superheroes are an amazing thing. Though, personally, I can't say that given the choice, I'd be a superhero. I've always been a villain guy. What do you say Canons for Crickets? Villains next week?

My 10 Favorite Superheroes - Part 1

Alas, the time has come. My friend Gary over at Canons for Crickets dared ask the question that only the mightiest dare ask. What are my top ten favorite superheroes? After breaking his nose in three places, I thought about it for quite a long time and have decided on the following list.

Also, a disclaimer is needed. What do I define as a superhero? Well, it's a hero who does things outside the realm of our everyday lives. Superpowers aren't needed and you will probably see a bat related gentleman somewhere on this list. Also, these are from comic books and as such I'm only taking the classic hero types as opposed to Spider Jerusalem, Morpheus and Jesse Custer. So let's begin.

10. Daredevil


While I may not know the character as well as some others on this list, I was fortunate enough to jump in during Bendis' run and it left an impression. Knowing the basics Daredevil is very cool. His powers are the ability to sense the world around him, which is helpful because he's blind. He's not super string but he is agile and always aware of his surroundings and his stories tend to be very gritty and easy to get into. It's cool to see a costumed hero deal with lowlife street thugs.

9. Wonder Woman


I really hate that so many think she is a cheesy character. It is unfortunate because she is, in my eyes, perhaps the most badass of all of DCs big 3. She dares make the decisions that Superman and Batman won't make. I recall watching her snap a guy's neck because it was the only way to resolve the situation. Batman and Superman had the nerve to resent her for what she did and in some ways she did too, but if you are in a situation where things are really bad, Wonder Woman is the one who makes the hard decisions.

8. Superman


Yeah, I know, I just said I was with Wonder Woman over Superman. You see the thing is, while girls should strive to be strong women like Wonder Woman, I was never a girl. Superman is a lame boyscout. Everyone makes fun of him for it, but I learned to appreciate him through Batman. Superman and Batman have a lot of the same rules and ideals but they use different methods. Superman is the paragon of all that is good and Batman, as far as people know is a lunatic in a cape. Batman needs to hurt people badly to build his reputation, and Superman does not. The point of all of this comparison is that Batman and Superman don't agree on much but they respect and trust each other enough to not question one another's methods. They are THE SUPER-FRIENDS, and though it's silly to say so they are the two BEST SUPERHEROES (just not my favorite).

7. Hellboy


Hellboy is so easy to love. I've hardly read any of it yet, but he is such a likable character. He is a demon from Hell meant to destroy us all, except he was raised by a good father with good values. It's that simple, he deals with amazingly imaginative things but somehow there is usually a very natural sense of humor to it all. Here is a great example

6. Beast (X-Men)


This may surprise people who know me. He's a big blue furry genius. That's the point. He's agile and strong but his mind is most important to him. I feel he is so easily relatable because he is such a brilliant and kind hearted character who hates nothing more than the way he looks. For great examples of Beast written right read Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men.

Ok that is part 1 down. Tune in next time for my top 5!

The Dark Knight Returns

I've been talking a lot these days about Warren Ellis. Yeah I know it's probably getting old, but I haven't seen the comic writing thing done in a more natural way. You almost never see thought bubbles or naration. That's left up to the artist and intelligent dialogue. It leaves us feeling our own feelings as witnesses to the situations, as opposed to being told what we are supposed to feel.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Frank Miller. Let me just say, I thought he was brilliant...at first. I read a few of the Sin City series and thought the man was a great comic writer. Sure it had lots of inner monologuing, but that only added to the noir atmosphere. As I'm sure most readers of this will know, Sin City had a few of it's stories adapted wonderfully into a movie (and Robert Rodriguez announced a second one coming soon too). At this point I found myself seeking more Frank Miller books. Rabidly I devoured almost all of the Sin City stories. Then I heard about, *sigh* All Star Batman and Robin the boy wonder. It was to be written by Frank Miller and drawn by the amazingly talented Jim Lee. This came at a time when Frank Miller's ego was commencing a thermonuclear meltdown of arrogance. He wrote this in a way no one could believe. Batman is running people down in his Tank Mobile, terrifying a little boy who just watched his parents die and making him eat rats! Oh and of course when poor little Dick Grayson asks him who he is, he has the infamous reply:

Naturally I found myself swiftly facepalming and crying myself to sleep. This was written by the guy who apparently wrote the best Batman story of all time! Alas, after avoiding it for years after that terrible series, I finally today read the so called epic The Dark Knight Returns.

It was written in 1986, and it's a safe bet that that was when Miller was just starting his Sin City writing style which would likely take place for the rest of his life. Truth be told it's pretty good, minus some frustrating moments. It really shows Batman in a different light, for the time, though baffling choices were made. The Robin in this story is terrible, especially considering the slight trash talking of Dick Grayson who must of molested Miller in his younger years. Also, you can see the coming standby Frank Miller hangups developing, including but not limited to, all women being lustful or prostitutes, racism and homosexuality being a trait only of the wicked. Despite those hangups, which become much more defined in the more recent years, like I said, this is a pretty good story, unlike the horrible sequel. The side effect of this book however was that it made Batman brutal and nasty, which did attach itself to the dark knight over the next 15 years, leading to many better interpretations. Sadly, I don't like Frank Miller's Batman, as much as it's influence. My Batman on the otherhand has the right amount of badass and compassion, and looks like this:

Getting back into comics.

Growing up I read a lot of comic books. I especially loved the X-Men in the mid 90s. I also read Spiderman, Batman, occasionally Superman and other random books I got my hands on. I would never say I was more of a Marvel kid or a DC kid growing up, though I'm sure I bought more Marvel. During that phase I stopped collecting in the very late 90s.

Years later, my good friend and I got back into it full force. At that point I was collecting everything DC and a small amount of Marvel. If Batman was involved, so were we! This was a fun phase in my life, as I finally discovered that comics had reached a new level. In the 90s you had little word bubbles explaining what was obvious in the pictures and the dialogue. They got rid of that, thank the heavens. For me it is almost hard to read the old stuff seriously, with a few exceptions. What I found was a world of comics that had come closer to legitimate great story telling that no longer relied on good guys fighting bad guys, cause that's what they do. Though the older stuff is still great, it evolved with me, as comics tend to do.

Eventually I stopped reading but not before reading a beautiful book called Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis. It had a great character driven story about Tony Stark a real man with a guilty conscience, who sometimes is Iron Man. Adi Granov's art was also tremendously expressive, though Stark was clearly Tom Cruise. When I stopped due to financial reasons I made sure to finish up the 6 issue arch and was tremendously satisfied. Like that it was gone.

Five years later I was sitting and reflecting on how great Iron Man: Extremis was. I wanted to read it again, so I decided to order a nice hardcover of the collected story to keep it in nice shape. After reading it, I remembered not only why I loved that story, and Iron Man, but comic books in general. After that, I found myself mostly ignoring current storylines and the comic book format itself and only collecting trade paperbacks or sexy ass hardcovers. Since this move, I find it easy to believe I can semi collect comics forever.

Iron Man: Extremis was a gateway drug to me. It showed me how a comic can be mature and how badass superheroes can be. The maturity side lead me to amazing stories that everyone should read like:

Fell- also by Warren Ellis, the story of a detective moving into a really bad part if town to try to earn a quick promotion. Seriously, what's up with that nun?
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- by Alan Moore which couldn't be any less like the movie...thankfully.
Sandman- by Neil Gaiman which is insanely good. It's not so much a story as it is a beautiful mythology.
Preacher- by Garth Ennis which is also extremely good, given the reader has the guts for it, which I do cause I'm mad hardcore.
Jonah Hex- by Palmiotti and Gray, has some of the best straight up western stories I've seen. Pick up any issue. It's made for that.
Maus- by Art Spiegelman, a true holocaust tale framed through the eyes of the son of a survivor. If you want to just pick something special up, grab these two volumes. Anyone would enjoy this.
Planetary- once again by Warren Ellis. I just finished this about ten minutes before writing this. It starts out like chaos, but by the end it all becomes so clear.

Granted there are many more books that I've read these are the ones that have left the best impression on me, though I have enjoyed a few great Iron Man and Batman stories and Joss Whedon's brilliant Astonishing X-Men run followed by, yet again, Warren Ellis. If it seems like I'm a fan, I am. The man writes the most naturally flowing comics I've seen. I also strongly recommend Scott Pilgrim, wherever that fits, it is a masterpiece.

So if you still have that feeling of wanting to get into comics, there are many options. Amazon is well priced and comic shops are happy to recommend something that you will enjoy. It's still a great medium and as long as they are on paper, they'll always be there for you.