Dr Kain's Top Favorite DC somethingsomething

[Dr Kain]

So I've decided to have a little fun here and I'm going to be posting one of my top favorite DC super heroes each day for the next 10 days (at least, it is planned to be my top 10 heroes at this time).

So without further ado, let's cover the first and most obvious choice:



I was first introduced to Batman back in 89 by the Adam West series and I thought it was terrible even at 7 years old. I loved the Burton movie and it was the very first VHS tape I bought with my own money. And then came The Animated Series, which just blew me away and was what truly made me a Batman fan. I was there when Knightfall occurred and enjoyed it, but then I kind of fell out of the comics in the late 90's until Batman Begins hit the scene and I went all out with HUSH, The LOng Halloween, No Man's Land and Cataclysm, Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Tales of the Demon, etc. I love many things about each era of Batman, but the version from the 70's has become my absolutely favorite. I just absolutely love the stories Denny O'Neil and Len Wein have written, and the artwork by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano is just gorgeous.

I love the history of Batman, his tragic backstory, and the fact that he is brilliant. He has a back up plan to go with a back up plan that is covered by another back up plan. His gadgets are cool and how can you not like the concept of a man who dresses up as a bat to fight criminals? Sometimes they do seem to make Batman over powered these days, as it seems like he is invincible at times rather than just using wit to win a fight, but when he is done right, he is done extremely right. I don't really think there is anything else I can say about the man that nobody does not know about.

Finally, he has probably the most diverse and memorable cast of rogues out of anyone in the DC universe, or even the comic universe next to Spider-Man. Everyone knows the Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, and Mr Freeze. However, I consider Ra's al Ghul to be his greatest nemesis as the man is the exact opposite of what both Bruce Wayne and Batman together stand for. I also consider Talia to be his true love. Even the lesser rogues such as Scarecrow, Black Mask, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Clayface(s), Killer Croc, Scarface and Wesker, and Calendar Man to mob bosses like Falconi and Thorn are such rich characters you can't help but enjoy what they have to offer.

So with that said, Batman is the first of my top ten favorite heroes of the DC universe.

Check back tomorrow for my next choice.

[klen7]

[king_ghidorah]

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

[king_ghidorah]

[Dr Kain]

And now it is time to reveal another of my top favorite DC characters, this time I look at the good ol’ scarred cowboy:



I was first introduced to Jonah Hex through “Batman: The Animate Series.” The episode he was featured in was pretty awesome and is in my top favorite episodes of the series. One of the things I love about Hex is that he was a confederate soldier but his sense of honor would not allow him to betray the side he had been enlisted in. Not to mention that he has no shame in it and does not care to hide it even years after the war had ended. His back story with his father is tragic, but it is the origin with the scarring of his face that really help drive his character (despite its exact time frame of when it happened changing over the years) as it shows his ruthlessness when it comes to those who do wrong. I also find it interesting to see a man who acts like such an ass also go to lengths to help those he does care about without having to get melodramatic over it.

While Hex does not have the huge rogues that other characters do, I definitely love his confrontations with both Quentin Turnbull and El Papagayo, as they really feel like true villains, especially Turnbull, who wants revenge because he blames Hex for the death of his son.

It is also worth noting, that while the series was ultimately a failure, I did like the concept of Hex being taken out of the Wild West and brought to a post-apocalyptic future. If for nothing else, for the great comment Bruce Timm and gang had him make in Justice League Unlimited when they were fighting against technology from the future.

Finally, another thing I love about the way the comics are written is that the stories are told out of order similar to the way Howard wrote Conan, so one issue you might be reading about Hex in the early 1860’s when he was first starting out as a bounty hunter, while in the next issue, could take place after he married Mei Ling in the late 1870’s to even having issues before that in 1899 with Hex learning from his son that Mei Ling is dead.

OH yeah, and there is NO Jonah Hex movie!!!!!!!!

[Dr Kain]

It is getting hard to hold these back to one a day.



I am a 90’s kids for the most part. Yes, I was a child in the 80’s, but most of what I know about outside of cartoons is from the 90’s, which I feel had superior cartoons compared to the 80’s. However, comic books, are another story.

Nevertheless, when I was growing up, Wally West was the Flash, but his stories were not the first Flash comics I read. I started to read Flash right around 89-90, but my dad had bought me several issues of Flash that were from the late 70’s and early 80’s, so they all featured Barry. He is the Flash I came to know and love, and the live action TV show helped cement Barry as the Flash for me. While I do not remember much about the TV show outside of the Trickster episode being interrupted because the president had a heart attack or something (and it was so annoying at boring at 8 years old), I remember Barry and nothing but Barry. It was not until Justice League and a few comics throughout the 90’s that I really came to know Wally. As such, Barry is the Flash to me and I am glad to have him in the spotlight once again in the comic world despite his sacrifice in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” being diminished because of it. Then again, when you think about it, being dead in comic books is like calling in sick in the real world. You call in dead for a year or two so you can come back in top notch shape later.

Now Flash has an interesting set of rogues because unlike Batman, whose rogues tend to have some type of tragic past, or even Spider-Man whose enemies seem to be science experiments gone wrong, most of Flash’s rogues are just bank robbers. They just want to rob a bank and reap the rewards from it. Outside of a few like Grodd and Reverse Flash/Thawne/Zoom/whatever you want to call him, his enemies are jut petty criminals. Captain Cold is just a man wearing a coat. He does not have the body of ice. He does not have a dying wife frozen forever. He is just a normal person. Heat Wave is just a psycho path that plays with fire. Mirror Master is just a scientist using his talents for his own greed. Same goes for Weather Wizard. Captain Boomerang is just a man with an abusive father when he was a child who found relief in tossing boomerangs. Trickster is… well Trickster.

Another reason I fell in love with the Flash from the start is because of his powers. It would be so cool to just run at the speed of light and always get there within seconds!!! The time traveling aspect, however, can get hokey if it is not written well, especially during the Silver Age with Flash’s Cosmic Treadmill. That was a little awkward and is something I am glad does not happen in the current comics.

Nevertheless, it was a neat idea for the time.

[Dr Kain]

And now it is time to take a look at another one of my favorite heroes of the DC universe:



I was introduced to Swamp Thing through the original Craven movie and its sequel back in 1990, watched the extremely short lived cartoon series, and had the toys from the toon. I never got to see the TV series, but to say I was not a Swamp Thing fan would be an understatement. My first comic was actually a rerelease of the first two issues from Len Wein’s original series and I loved it.

Sadly, until recently, I only read a couple issues of Alan Moore’s series, but with the current paperbacks coming out, I have been rectifying that. I am not sure what it was that I loved about the character, he just always screamed badass to me. I mean, we are talking about a half man, half plant monster that can use the environment to battle evil. He may not be exactly a super hero, but he is still close enough to be one in my book.

The ability to disintegrate himself and reform anywhere in the world is just down right incredible. I love the issue when he uses his body to turn himself into a mountain to move a river away from a drowned city that became a den of vampires. Then there is also the fact that he is not fully a man, but in reality is an Earth bound creature with the memories of Alec Holland. Alan Moore did a fantastic job of advancing Swamp Thing into something more than just a man mutated by corporate sabotage. Plus, his relationship is with Abigail is very intriguing despite how psychedelically creepy it can get at times (those who have read the most trippy of sex scenes ever will know what I am talking about).

Despite not being a super hero, he does have a nice little set of villains to call his own. My favorite has always been Anton Arcane and the Un-Men, but even the stories where he fought the Patchwork Man and the Fluoronic Man were great battles. The interesting about Swamp Thing is that you can find a way to have him fight anyone or anything be it vampires or racist zombies.

Of course, my absolute favorite moment of Swamp Thing is when he had to travel through Hell to retrieve Abby’s soul and meeting the Spectre, Phantom Stranger, Dead Man, and Etrigan along the way. It gave me a very nice “Dante’s Inferno” feel to it and the artwork was just so gorgeous at the same time. As I said before, Swamp Thing may not exactly be a super hero, but he knows how to kick all kinds of ass and do it in such interesting ways. Don’t piss him off as he will go straight to Hell to get back at you if need be before coming back to Earth.
Lastly, he was definitely one of the positives that came out of the New 52 reboot. If you have not read the newest series, go to Amazon right now and order both volumes!

[MekaGojira3k]

[sentaison]

[Dr Kain]

[sentaison]

[lhb412]

Besides the scarring, Jonah Hex is a pretty archetypal Western character. There are dozens of great movies that, with slight tweaking, could be Jonah Hex movies - it's not like it was some un-tested formula!

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

Well after the amount of male character I have listed, I feel it is time to take a moment to look at my favorite female character of the DC universe. Many people consider their favorite to be Wonder Woman, and while I love Greek mythology, I find the following character to be far more interesting because of the mythos surrounding her:



I was actually introduced to Raven through a series of cards DC brought out back in 1991. In fact, for the most part, that was where my interest in the entire DC universe began. As I said above, I love the mythos about Raven. Being the child of a human mother and a demonic father is just down right awesome. It brings in some interesting characteristics to Raven’s character, especially when she is well written. Being that I was introduced to her in 1991, she donned the white costume, but I definitely feel the blue/black one goes best with her.

In fact, while I did not start out a fan of the series originally, Raven was the main reason I would watch the Teen Titans cartoon from the early 2000s as they did a great job with her. I loved that they adapted so much of her character from the New Teen Titans comics into that show, as the fourth season was truly incredible due to showing the torment Trigon’s arrival had on her. It also helped that because of this, the season was heavily focused on Raven.

Speaking of Trigon, WOW, what a villain!! While some of the characters I have already covered do not have the most impressive list of rogues, Trigon is in a whole league of his own. The dude killed everyone around him during his birth for cry out loud. That is just down right evil as far as being a villain goes. :-p So how bad do you think your family is? Probably not as bad as Raven’s!

Overall, there is not too much I really have to say about Raven. I love her origins, I love the stories that surround her origins as they make her stand out from a robot man, an acrobat that was adopted by a psycho, a boy with the ability to transform into animals, an alien, an Amazon, and a kid that can run really fast. I also love the powers she has with such as telekinesis, the ability to teleport, heal others, and making demon-like creatures out of shadows. She is like the ultimate RPG character in one.

Finally, unlike Swamp Thing, the New 52 has not been kind to her. Her costume looks down right dreadful, and from what I have read about her, she has very little of the personality that made her stand out during the New Teen Titans era of comics.

[Dr Kain]

To think, I am halfway through my top 10 favorite DC heroes. So today is an odd choice because I never really have read his own comics, but more of his adventures with the Justice Society and then of course, the episodes he was featured in in Bruce Timm’s animated shows. So with that aside, here is my next favorite:



My introduction to Dr Fate actually came from a single issue I received in the 90s of Nelson’s wife Inza donning the persona of Dr Fate. The next time I would see the character again was when he appeared in the episode “The Hand of Fate” of “Superman: The Animated Series” and again at the times he would be featured in “Justice League.” I am huge into mythology, especially Egyptian, so his powers using Egyptian symbols such as the Ankh, living in an obelisk, etc., where all intriguing to me. Not to mention the super natural side of his powers all being stemmed from a magical helmet (Helm of Nabu). I think that is one of the coolest things to deal with this character, everything he does comes from a helmet as the helmet is technically the hero. It can bring into that joke, does the man make the helmet or does the helmet make the man?

Nevertheless, even though we have had multiple users become Dr Fate, Kent Nelson is my favorite because of his portrayal in the Crisis on Multiple Earths series that featured the team-ups between the Justice League of Earth 1 and the Justice Society of Earth 2. A lot of the times he felt like the leader of the team and his magic always kicked ass whether it was against Icicle, Faust, or even Anti-Matter Man. As for the other versions of Dr Fate, since there have been plenty of them, I like them, but Nelson will still be my favorite. I love the look of Hector Hall’s costume. I also love that he is meant to be the son of the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who are reincarnations of ancient Egyptians, so his powers fit the Egyptian theme of Fate. On the other hand, the second variation of Fate that was compiled of some guy and his step mom was pretty terrible. I am glad to have missed out on those years because it just sounds bad. The interpretation Young Justice did though, with Zatara becoming Fate was really well done and gave a nice spin on the character.

I think the only downfall of Dr Fate is that, outside of Wotan, he doesn’t really have any enemies he can truly call his own. Everyone else seems to be just normal enemies of the entire Justice Society than just those belonging to Fate. He kind of fought Mordru in one of the Crisis crossovers, but Mordru is still really more of a Legion of Super Heroes villain, so I don’t really count him.

Regardless of the lack of villains, the mythos and magic behind Dr Fate are what really set him apart from other super heroes for me and is why he is one of my top characters.

[Dr Kain]

Let’s take a trip to the 90’s where oddities were happening in the DC universe. Superman was dying, then resurrecting and four random people (three with dumb origins) arrive claiming to be Superman. Bruce has his back broken and is out of action so Azrael can for some reason replace him instead of Dick. Then we have Hal Jordan with white sideburns in his hair killing off Green Lanterns. WHAT?! That is dumb!! However, if it weren’t for that, we would not have my next favorite hero of the DC Universe:



I was there for the first issue of Kyle Rayner. I got it, I read it, I loved it. I read it several more times. And then you had Kyle and his worst enemy ever, the refrigerator!! Such a tragedy, but it was one that really advanced his character. I was a big Kyle fan. Yes, I did not know too much about Hal Jordan, as I never really got into the Green Lantern stuff until Kyle was the lead character, but I liked what I read. In fact, to this day, I am still buying individual issues of Kyle’s run because I either lost a bunch of them or because they don’t seem to be collecting them in paperbacks, and at this point, they probably never will. They are too busy collecting the “Adventures of Character Assassinations” with the New 52 than they are with the stuff that made Kyle a hero.

I know many people hated him, but that was the same reason people hated Rodimus Prime, he was replacing their favorite lead character. The best thing about Kyle was his inexperience. He was not afraid to be afraid. He did what he could to the best of his abilities. It also helped that he was an artist, so he had far more imaginable than Hal did when it came to making constructs out of his ring. Of course, it did not help that he seems to get into bad relationships whether it be with Donna Troy or Jade (who died).

Next to the refrigerator, Kyle’s villains pretty much just carried over from other series. He had Mongul to contend with, obviously he had Major Force, but I cannot really think of anyone brand new for him to battle off hand.

Unfortunately, after DC brought Hal Jordan back in the mid-2000s, it seemed like they were not sure what to do with Kyle. They tried to make him into a new hero named Ion, which was just stupid and failed. The aspect of him being possessed by Parallax in the Sinestro Corp War was kind of interesting, but this also took away from the concept that he is unaffected by yellow because he can feel fear, and instead, made it that the rings were just no longer affected by yellow at that time. It kind of ruined his character a little.

And now, I really do not know anymore, as I stopped reading “New Guardians” after about 5 issues because I really hated where they were going with him. Nevertheless, Kyle Rayner remains to be my favorite lantern character over Hal, even though Hal is high up there because of his adventures with Green Arrow in the 70s and for most of the stuff from Rebirth until Brightest Day. I have nothing against Hal, he is a great character, but Kyle is vastly superior to him in every aspect be it personality wise or creativity.

[Dr Kain]

Who is next? That is

[Dr Kain]

Next is a character with a mixed history of both good and bad. Sometimes he can work being a hero, other times, not so much. After all, I’m not so sure you really could call him a hero, because he is the spirit of vengeance when portrayed properly:



My introduction to Spectre came from the “Infinite Crisis” mini-series back in 2006, but I really did not enjoy the character until I read both “Crisis on Multiple Earths” and “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” In those issues, the Spectre is more of a super hero, but it was his fight against the Anti-Matter Man that made him stand out to me. The guy grew humongous and was fighting the Anti-Matter Man in space, which was pretty awesome. And then again when the threat of the Anti-Monitor appeared.

Nevertheless, I really like the idea of the Spectre being the spirit of vengeance, which is why I was glad to get to see him portrayed as such in both “The Brave and the Bold” and in the animated Showcase short found on “Crisis on Two Earths.” I loved the entire style the Showcase short was as it harkens back to what I have read from the 70’s “Adventure Comics” portrayal of him. I have nothing against him being a hero type character who teams up with other heroes, but Spectre is at his best when he is the spirit of vengeance. I do wish DC would collect his earliest stories in a paperback since the big Showcase collection only collects those from the mid-60s through the early 80s. It is also interesting to see Jim when he is written as more of a tortured soul because he can never truly rest in peace thanks to him having to be the Spectre. The issues whenever Gwendolyn Sterling constantly hounds him into loving her back, wanting marry him, and when he does come back to life only to be killed again pages later, really bring more into his character than others. Sure, you have characters like Deadman that are in search of redeeming their souls, but for Jim, he knows that no matter what he does, there is no end to having to avenge those who have been wrongly murdered.

Like Dr Fate, there have been multiple people who have donned the name Spectre, and my favorite is Jim Corrigan. I went back and read some of the stuff when Hal Jordan was the character and he just did not work for me at all. It just seemed like a weird move having a former Green Lantern be the spirit of vengeance, especially one of Hal’s caliber. The stories with Crispus Allen were not bad, but they weren’t exactly stellar either. Still, he was essentially my first introduction to the character, so I do have to give him credit there.

Another similarity to Fate is that the Spectre also does not have any true enemies to call his own. Most of his enemies only reside when he is part of the Justice Society or something like a zombie outbreak, but other than that, there is no one really outstanding to mention.

Overall, I love all of the mythologies surrounding the Spectre and his tormented soul. I love the entire concept of his character and the methods he uses when exacting his revenge be it turning a man who created killer manikins into a manikin himself that was then tossed into a fire or turning an evil fortune teller into glass and shattering him. There is no out running this ghostly vendetta when he comes after you.

[klen7]

Dr Kain,

When you get through the top 10, would you mind going back and recommending a few story arcs/trade collections that you think are the best for the given character? I am interested in picking up Spectre and Swamp Thing, but I am not really sure where to start. One of the main reasons i dont buy a lot of Marvel or DC books is all the cross over issues, i find it hard to keep track of and it throws off the rhythm of the story... anyway, I would be curious to see what you recommend.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

The final hero of the list was a tough one to make. Not just because there are so many great heroes to choose from, but rather, because I was not sure he was on my list. In fact, until I made this list, I would not have considered him to even be here, but when I looked at my comic collection, I realized he really was. And without further ado, I bring you:



I will say it straight out, there are things about Superman’s personality I do not like. I find him to be way too positive, way too heroic in the sense that he is as Batman calls him, a boy scout. He will do nothing wrong and makes very little mistakes. I normally dislike characters like that. I also do not like how writers can just make up any power they want him to have to suit the plot (like changing time by reversing the rotation of the planet).

However, when this character is written well, he is truly well written. One of my favorite stories of Superman is Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” It brought an incredible light on Superman for me and gave a nice “finale” to the character as if the series was over. That comic can be placed in any time line if you want a definitive ending to your Superman as it goes great. Another one, which is also featured in the hardcover and was adapted into an episode of JLU was “For the Man Who Has Everything.” That one shot story was just down right incredible and gave us an insight to Superman’s persona beyond the happy go lucky façade.

Continuing that, Bruce Timm’s version of Superman is really my definitive version of the character because he was able to do so much with the character and keep his powers streamlined so they did not just go out of control. There was no lifting up a Kryptonite island in his world. There were no super kisses to wipe out memories.

And of course, it helps that Superman has an interesting set of rogues to go with him in the likes of Lex Luthor, Zod, Parasite, Metallo, Bizarro, and of course, Brainiac. However, I definitely felt the minions of Apokolips were also a great set of villains for Superman as they were strong enough to hold their own against him, and in some ways, were better than him. It is nice to see when Superman has to use his brain to defeat Darkseid with his muscles instead of just the muscles. In fact, that is what I meant by when he is well written. There are stories where Superman does just use his muscles to win, and I find that to be boring. I prefer it when he has to outsmart the opponent. That is one of the reasons I love Metallo. The man runs on a piece of Kryptonite, so Superman cannot just attack him with his fists blazing.

Finally, one of the things about the character I never thought of until “Kill Bill” was that Clark Kent is really Superman’s disguise. When you put it into that perspective that also makes the character more interesting.

Now to be fair, I actually like his New 52 costume a lot. I am not a big fan of the red underwear, and while I understand it is iconic, I like the idea of his costume being nanites from Brainiac’s ship a whole lot more than it being made out of a blanket. That must have been one large blanket since he can get his entire costume torn apart and have had more to spare.

So with that said, that is the end of my list of my top ten favorite heroes of the DC universe. I am not completely done, as what better way to compliment my heroes list with my top favorite villains? Not to mention Sept is Villains Month for DC, so it works out great. The only problem is, not all of my favorite villains have made it to toy form, so I’m going to have to find some other images to use for those characters.