50 GREATEST COMIC CHARACTERS

[aTOMiC]

www.empireonline.com/50greatestcomiccharacters/

Empire online has a feature the boasts the 50 greatest comic characters of all time. Many of the characters produced a "Who?" from me which I guess was kind of shocking but then again if I never heard of them is that my fault or are the books they exist in kind of obscure? Either way It was Amazing that Spiderman barely managed the top 5.

[dANdeLION]

Lots of glaring omissions on that list, especially female characters, most notably Catwoman.

[aTOMiC]

Lots of glaring omissions on that list, especially female characters, most notably Catwoman.

I'm guessing it's a matter of perspective. I don't think Judge Dredd is a particularly fantastic character but there you are. Heck I flipped through the list fully expecting that Iron Man wouldn't have made the grade and was utterly taken aback when he in fact did turn up. I don't have any idea who compiled the list but they seemingly have more familiarity with ALL the world's comic characters than I do.

Again. More times than not I'm like "Who the flip IS this anyway?"

[dANdeLION]

I don't see how Judge Dredd is as interesting as, say, Harvey Dent, who, in case you haven't heard, is Two-Face.

[Fist and Faith]

I was also in the dark with a lot of them. And I guess at least some of them aren't super-hero characters? Well, I don't now. I guess it's possible that my favorites aren't the greatest. Unless the list is simply somebody else's favorites.

[aTOMiC]

Unless the list is simply somebody else's favorites.

I think that's fair.

Fist I'm guessing some of your favorites are some of my favorites and I'm also guessing they are not just great but awesome.
Fact is they never asked either one of us for our opinion.

[Fist and Faith]

Fact is they never asked either one of us for our opinion.

Indeed. They likely think it's better to ignore us, and believe their taste to be supreme, than to ask us, and feel inferior.

[The Dreaming]

No V or Miracleman...

I just really hate superman. I'm tired of Batman always having to take second banana.


(And also, I actually prefer that they represent as many comics as possible. Getting 5 Batman villains would have nudged out a lot of other great comic books. We already know Batman is awesome.)

[The Laughing Man]

funny, I just caught American Splendor on IFC and never heard of Harvey Pekar before now.

[Lord Mhoram]

Seriously, why is The Thing in the top ten? That is a sin. He's just not that cool. And where is Charles Xavier? He should be way up there. I imagine that the presence of both Wolverine and Magneto in the top ten precluded that. Much as I prefer Batman to Superman, Superman's place at the top is well-deserved. He is quite simply the genre's greatest icon.

[dANdeLION]

If you've read the FF as long as I have, you'd understand Ben's ranking. He's the epitome of the regular hard-working Joe; but circumstances made sure he's the guy who can never again even pretend to have the normal life he always wanted. He has always been the most popular member of the FF I think, as he's the guy who got his own title. Well, the Torch had a four or six issue run, but Ben's books (Marvel 2-in-1, followed by The Thing) lasted much longer than that. When Reed quit the FF, it was Ben who led the team. Later, Sue led the FF, but anyway, I think Ben rocks!

[sgt.null]

1 - Superman (agree)
2 - Batman (agree)
3 - Constantine (wtf?) find 10 random people on the street almost all can name the first two character, i bet no one can name Constantine. my wife doesn't know who he is.
4 - Wolverine (no) before Spiderman or Captain America?
5 - Spiderman (should have been third)
6 - Dream (no!) again, what is the priority here? a great character that the average joe will not know. just did not capture the public's imagination.
7 - Judge Dreed (wtf?) more people can name Popeye. give me a break.
8 - Joker (ok, but higher)
9 - Magneto. (where is the Hulk???)
10 - the Thing. (i quit, the list is useless.)

[dANdeLION]

What, my scintillating diatribe on Ben Grimm didn't convince you? Or are you just saying that in order to get me to doubt my powers?

[Cagliostro]

No ROM the Spaceknight? That's a pity.

[dANdeLION]

I wasn't into ROM so much, but Machine Man was really cool.

[sgt.null]

i had assumed that greatest would involve popularity. if a hero can not capture the public's imagination - how ccan they be the greatest?

[I'm Murrin]

Generally, by being better than the ones everyone's heard about.
It's just not possible for every good comic and every good character to gain widespread attention; popularity is not a good measure of how good something is.

The people making this list obviously didn't set out to just name the greatest popular characters--it's clear they deliberately included obscure ones. Disagree with that methodology if you like, but the actual contents of the list should be evaluated on those terms.

[dANdeLION]

i had assumed that greatest would involve popularity. if a hero can not capture the public's imagination - how ccan they be the greatest?

How can you know for sure if they haven't captured the public's imagination? I mean, a lot of the characters on the list may just appeal to younger people.

[Usivius]

sales... it's all about sales.
no?....
(not that it SHOULD be ... but often it is.)

[___]

14? 14?!? Damn Empire online comic geeks; I oughtta smash the whole lot of 'em!