Monday, January 02, 2006

Superhero Play-along # 1

Okay, here we go. Just pick your favorite from the lists below and maybe tell why in the Comments. More of these superhero polls will be forthcoming, but this is a start. Obviously, I've left many favs out of these lists, so the last number will always be an "Other", which you can name when you pick. I'll leave my picks in the comments.

Best Spider-Man Villian
1) Green Goblin
2) Doctor Octopus
3) Venom
4) Carnage
5) Chameleon
6) Sandman
7) Lizard
8) Electro
9) Hobgoblin
10) Kingpin
11) Morlun
12) If other, name

Best Spidey Supporting Character
1) Aunt May
2) Mary Jane Watson
3) Flash Thompson
4) Gwen Stacy
5) Captain Stacy
6) J. Jonah Jameson
7) Robbie Robertson
8) Betty Brant
9) Ned Leeds
10) Harry Osbourne
11) Dr. Curt Conners
12) If other, name

Coolest Classic Member of the Avengers
1) Captain America
2) Thor
3) Iron Man
4) Vision
5) Wasp
6) Yellowjacket
7) Beast
8) Hawkeye
9) Hercules
10) Scarlet Witch
11) Black Panther
12) If other, name

Favorite Justice League Member
1) Superman
2) Wonder Woman
3) Batman
4) Green Lantern
5) Martian Manhunter
6) Flash
7) Hawkman
8) Green Arrow
9) Black Canary
10) Red Tornado
11) Aquaman
12) If other, name

Coolest X-Man
1) Wolverine
2) Gambit
3) Iceman
4) Jean Grey
5) Beast
6) Cyclops
7) Rogue
8) Shadowcat
9) Nightcrawler
10) Archangel (Angel)
11) Storm
12) If other, name

Best of Batman's Rogues Gallery
1) Joker
2) Penguin
3) Riddler
4) Catwoman
5) Ra's Al Ghul
6) Scarecrow
7) Two-face
8) Bane
9) Killer Croc
10) Poison Ivy
11) Mr. Freeze
12) If other, name

Best X-Man Villian
1) Magneto
2) Dark Phoenix
3) Sentinels
4) Mr. Sinister
5) Apocalypse
6) White Queen
7) Shadow King
8) Mystique
9) Sabertooth
10) Mojo
11) Juggernaut
12) If other, name

Coolest Obscure (or not so) or Obsolete Marvel Hero
1) Howard the Duck
2) Quasar
3) Nova
4) Adam Warlock
5) Acroyear (from the Micronauts)
6) ROM Spaceknight
7) Killraven
8) Omega Man
9) Sub-Mariner
10) Luke Cage, Power-Man
11) Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
12) If other, name

Eight is enough for now. If anyone wants to suggest other lists that might be cool to pick from, that'd be great. I've got more to come, and also maybe a Tournament of Heroes March Madness type of contest. Anyway, let us know what you think.

12 comments:

Rich said...

Here are mine:

Best Spider-Man Villian
The Lizard

Best Spidey Supporting Character
J. Jonah Jameson

Coolest Classic Member of the Avengers
The Vision

Favorite Justice League Member
Batman

Coolest X-Man
Gambit

Best of Batman's Rogues Gallery
Joker

Best X-Man Villian
Magneto

Coolest Obscure (or not so) or Obsolete Marvel Hero
Nova, the Human Rocket, OF COURSE

Kevin Knox said...

Hey Rich,

I've always been happy just to comment on the Thinklings site (I'm Kevin over there), but the crickets finally drove me to search for other water. I'll play...

I never got much into Spiderman
Spidey Villain:
10) Kingpin (wasn't he Daredevil's, though?)

Spidey supporting:
1) Aunt May
Come on, who could resist Aunt May?


Coolest Avenger:
2) Thor
Hands down. His epic battle with Hercules was my primary read for 4 years or so.

Justice League:
6) Flash
Never did any DC comics, but Flash was really cool. Oddly, I had more trouble with the physics of Flash than any other character

X-Man
10) Angel
Don't know of any Archanger? But, Angel I loved from the days when they had those simpy blue costumes with the X belts. The ability to fly within the laws of physics beat everything cold.

Batman rogue:
3) Riddler
Uh, another DC thing. But Riddler always seemed to make me think, and I like that.

X-Man Villain:
1) Magneto
Physics again. I used to dream for hours about being Magneto. SOOO many things to do! make! break!

Obscure:
For the first time, I am truly torn.
4) Adam Warlock
beats
10) Luke Cage, Power-Man
by a little green jewel's width.

Luke Cage was conflicted and simple, and I loved that, but Warlock was tragic at the Wagnerian level. There's no way to beat being empowered by a jewel that does things that make you unable to sleep at night. If there was one comic I would love to read now (if I could afford it) it would be the whole Warlock series.

Rich said...

Kevin,

Great to have you visit!!! I think after January 1st, Thinklings will be alive and kickin' again - not that it's totally dead now. Whenever Jared goes on hiatus to work on his novels, the posts do go down a bit, unfortunately. But I love the site. It's probably my favorite website on the Blogsphere, and the guys there really inspire me (as do many of the commenters:).

Thanks for answering. Growing up, I wasn't much of a DC guy either (although I do have a good bit of DC comics from my youth), but their heroes have really grown on me. However, as a child, it was all things Marvel first and foremost. I was a huge Spidey fan, but belive it or not, Nova, although his comic was short-lived, was my favorite. The Avengers were my group, and my favorite string of comics ever was the Avengers (teaming with the Guardians of the Galaxy) Korvac/Michael saga, where the mystery lasted from about Avengers # 164 through # 177, culminating in the near death of every Avenger. Too cool.

I liked your answers, though, and it's amazing how different people's opinions can be on stuff like this in comics. I would have thought, for sure, everyone's fav Batman villian would be Joker. Just goes to show...

Oh, and that should have read Archangel, not Archanger. Sorry. I'll fix that -- but if you haven't kept up, Warren Worthington is no longer the Angel, now he's Archangel with a few more powers and a different look. I believe it was Apocalypse who changed him.

Thanks again, and hopefully we can generate enough interesting posts to make it worth people's time to visit. 'Course, we're in the same boat Jared's in trying to get our novels done, so we'll just do our best and see how it turns out.

Diabolical Genius said...

Crap, crap, megacrap.

Rich, how do we work together so well when our superhero and music tastes are so different?

Unfortunately, now that I'm posting my list, I guess the game is over. Oh well, here goes.

Best Spidey Villain:
12)Carrion
Taunts/haunts Spiderman throughout their fight with a guilt trip about Gwen Stacy's death. Spidey also has to avoid Carrion's touch and dust.

Best Spidey Supporting Character:
2)Mary Jane
Along with Uncle Ben, who I guess didn't make your list because of his untimely death, they are the primary motivations for everything Spidey does.

Coolest Classic Avengers:
1)Captain America
I liked his run with Bucky and the Invaders better, but the Avengers were cool, too.

Favorite Justice League:
I'm with Kevin here, I much prefer Marvel. But for the poll, it's got to be the Flash, the fastest man alive.

Coolest X-Man:
1)Wolverine. The X-Men would have been really lame without him. Unfortunately, for them his popularity transcends the group. However, if the category had been favorite X-Man, my answer would have been Nightcrawler.

Batman's Rogues:
12)Man-bat
Get it. Batman. Man-bat. He's the opposite. DC character naming was one of the reasons I liked Marvel better.

Best X-Man Villain:
1)Magneto

How can you seriously pick anyone else? Is this crap category just an attempt to get people to agree with one of your picks?

I also have a bone to pick with the X-Men getting two categories, and the Fantastic Four getting no mentions at all. And they had cooler villains, anyway.

Coolest Obscure or Obsolete Marvel Hero:
12)Ghost Rider

No, not Johnny Blaze. Ghost Rider, The World's Most Mysterious Western Hero, who preceded Johnny as Ghost Rider, the biker. His hat and gloves glowed in the dark, and he took no prisoners whether he was fighting cattle thieves or werewolves.

Too obscure? Here's a link that further describes this hero:
http://www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com/ghost-rider.html.

Diabolical Genius said...

My oldest son actually has the gall to disagree with my picks. So here are his in his own words:

Best Spidey Villain:
12)Man-Wolf

Why? Because he's a werewolf! And he's JJJ's son.

Best Spidey Supp. Char.:
12)Human Torch

Because he's good friends with Spidey.

Coolest Avenger:
12)Ant-Man/Giant-Man

Every superhero team needs a shrinking and growing guy.

Favorite Justice League Member:
12)The Spectre

He's kinda of like a ghost, he's just cool looking.
(Ken's note: How did the Wonder Twins and Gleek not make your list, Rich?)

Coolest X-Man:
10)Archangel

He just is. And a 16-foot wingspan comes in handy.

Best of Batman's Rogues:
8)Bane

He's big, he's strong, and he's bound on the destruction of Batman.

Best X-Man Villain:
3)The Sentinels

They definitely take the cake. They look cool when the X-Men destroy them.

Coolest Obscure or Obsolete Marvel Hero:
9)Sub-Mariner

Because he can breath underwater and stand the water pressure.

Rich said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rich said...

Oh yeah,

Along with Uncle Ben, who I guess didn't make your list because of his untimely death

I thought long and hard, well, at least 10 seconds, about this. After my lengthy deliberations, I figured the "character" would be more the ghost, or spectre, if you will, of Uncle Ben than the man himself. And I didn't think the haunting spirit of Ben was a best character, even though he is Spidey's reason for being.

Satisfied?

Kevin Knox said...

Ghost Rider! Doggone, I had completely forgotten about him. Yes, he was some kind of cool.

DougALug said...

Rich,

Sub-Mariner was an avenger.

My favorites:

Iron-Man
Thor
Spider Man
ROM
DareDevil
Silver Surfer
Shang-Chi
Green Lantern (Yes DC Comics has one goody).
Fantastic-4... Thing rocked and the human torch was great... especially in my Thing Versus Hulk issue...

All of the Marvel Female superheroes... they were mysterious, enchanting, endowed and mesmerizing to a young boy, I would have been the happiest sidekick or gopher for any of them.

Am I mistaken? Did Dr. Doom show up on any of your lists? Sigh... Doom was awesome!


Obscure Addendum:

Captain Marvel was pretty big with me too.

Swamp-Thing

-Doug

Rich said...

Doug,

Namor was a Defender, right? He might have been an Avenger for a little, but I think his main group work, along with the Hulk, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, and Dr. Strange, was with the Defenders. Silver Surfer, another of my favorites that you mentioned, sometimes worked with them.

DougALug said...

Rich,

Did I mention Black Widow... The Avenger? Yes she was the coolest... well hottest... of all Avengers. She showed up in a lot of Daredevils as well.

Nemo is a clone of Prince Namor, the legendary Sub-Mariner. He was created by the Atlantean scientiest Vyrra. Namor had visited the banished scientist when the Prince was a boy. Vyrra acquired a skin sample from Namor and, in 1942, was able to generate a successful clone. In 1942, the clone escaped and made his way to New York City. He was found by Bucky, Toro, and the other Young Allies and inducted into the group. The team thought that he was simply another Atlantean like Namor. The clone adopted the nickname that they gave him, "Subbie", as his own.

He is part of the 1958 Avengers:

"Communists, aliens, terrorists. As the nation faced these many dangers, President Eisenhower brought together the greatest heroes of the day."


Namora the Hybrid was also part of that Avenger group, as was Marvel Boy. Gorrila Man, 3-D Man, Venus, Human Robot, Captain America, Col Warrior, and some dude named Bucky. I think that is all of them... i could be sadly wrong.

-Doug

DougALug said...

Another cool Marvel Obscure

Ghost-Rider

I also like the Scralet Witch.

-Doug