Open Thread: Favorite Comic Character

Since we had such a scintillating comics discussion on the Twilight threads, it's time for a fan thread: who is your favorite comic book character? (Shorter list for less obsessive fans.)

Off the cuff, I'd have to say Wonder Woman for me. I've read zero of her comics, but I like the (possibly apocryphal) story that her creators had quite a few write-in complaints about her being big, tall, strong, and generally Amazonian.

Although now that I say that, I've remembered that Elf Quest counts as a comic, so I'm going to change my answer (without actually editing, because if this wasn't stream-of-consciousness, it wouldn't be Open Thread day) and say my favorite character is Nightfall. She's competent, capable, and totally low-drama awesomesauce.

57 comments:

Maartje said...

When I saw your title, my first reaction was 'Nightfall!'

(And a whole bunch of other ElfQuest folks. I also adore Treestump and Clearbrook and Strongbow and gosh what are they all called in English - I have all the books in Dutch.)

That Wolfrider family pic at the EQ site you linked to? I replicated half of that life-size (Elves about 120 cm high) on my bedroom wall when I was 16. Still miss that, it was awesome.

Bayley G said...

I've always been an x-men fan, though I'm also keen on Batman and Spiderman. I always feel like I should say a female character but honestly I don't care much for Wonder Woman; she seems fairly bland and boring to me, like Superman but female. I prefer my heroes with dark pasts and conflicted personalities; to me, there's nothing interesting about someone who was born awesome, continues to be awesome, and will die awesome.

Maartje said...

Oh yeah, forgot to mention:

In Dutch, Nightfall is called ... *drumroll* ... Twilight.

(Well, 'Schemering' - but that translates directly to twilight.)

Michael Mock said...

I have a weakness for small fuzzy animals who want to take over the world - Dogbert, Scratch Fury Destroyer of Worlds, Brain, and like that.

I have to say, though, that the Jaime Reyez version of the Blue Beetle was an awful lot of fun.

Ana Mardoll said...

I have that weakness as well. Does Dogbert want scritches? Yes, he does. Good little doggie.

Love the idea of the Elf Quest wall painting. That sounds awesome.

Launcifer said...

See, I'm now having to put far more thought into this than I should, if only because I tend to like aspects of characters rather than characters themselves. So I guess my favourite character would be whichever one has Durham Red's place of origin, Mr Freeze's tragic past with a dash of Rogue Trooper added for good measure, who acts like Lobo, dresses like Catwoman (possibly with an edge towards the Jim Balent version (and I now need a shower having typed that)) accidentally raided Batwoman's wardrobe, has a (theoretically) finite span of herodom similar to the original run of Slaine, moonlights as John Constantine's sidekick and talks like Deadpool...

Eh, who am I kidding? It's Judge Dredd.

Will Wildman said...

It has been so, so many years since I got comic books. Spider-man was my favourite then, but I haven't had cause to look again in ages. I did flip through a 'Death of the Silver Surfer' book a few years back, which included a lovely chapter in which the Surfer (on his farewell tour of the universe) runs into Spider-man and ends up giving the entire world a few seconds of absolute empathy and understanding.

I think there's a problem wherein I like superhero concepts more than any given superhero story that gets produced, and thus would never want a subscription to anyone.

I guess there's always Hobbes.

Gelliebean said...

If we include manga, my favorite character is Nabiki from Ranma 1/2. :-) If Akane is the un-cute awkward tomboy, and Kasumi is the consummate flower-of-femininity housewife, Nabiki strikes me as pure confidence in a bottle. She's manipulative, mercenary, smart, and willing to pretend anything (strength, weakness, innocence, vulnerability, love, guilt-trips) to make an opportunity work for her. She's not the nicest person by any means, but I think that makes her more interesting.

My experience with American published comic books is almost exclusively limited to versions of novels (Ender's Game, etc) and the 1970s Superman comics my dad gave me. Out of those, it's harder to pick.... I've always kinda liked Bizzaro Superman for no good reason, and I liked Lex Luthor when he used radio waves, magnets and orange juice to break out of prison. :-p

Dav said...

I love Magneto. And Spider Jerusalem. Who are both sort of terrible people in many many ways. I enjoy Batman, but I think his "no killing" moral divide is a little silly when he spends so much time slamming people's heads into concrete, shattering limbs, etc. Just because the massive concussion doesn't kill someone right at that moment doesn't mean that they're not going to die later in hideous pain.

Ana Mardoll said...

The Hercules Live Action TV show with Kevin Sorbo.

That used to dive me up the walls. DO NOT SAY YOU DON'T KILL PEOPLE WHEN YOU ARE SLAMMING THEM INTO BOULDERS AT SPEEDS APPROACHING MACH ONE. *sigh*

At least Xena was honest about being stabby.

Michael Mock said...

I'd just like to second the love for Nabiki.

Some of my oooooooold comic favorites included Grimjack, and the Eppy Thatcher incarnation of Grendel; and Pellon Cross (also from Grendel) remains to this day my model for an awesome vampire villain.

Dav said...

THANK you.

It's actually one of the things I like about Magneto - he has calculated the cost of murder, and deemed it acceptable. Which isn't the most admirable choice, exactly, except that it's miles better than LALALALA we're good guys LALALALA.

But then I'm the totally annoying person at action movies who will gripe about how a person whose kneecaps are hit with a crowbar is not going to be getting back up any time soon, and I *know* it's just a movie, but no matter how much you want to save your girlfriend, you're not going to be doing a lot of martial arts in the near future if your patellas are totally shattered.

VMink said...

Oh, gosh. When I was asked this question a couple of months ago, I have to admit, a little guiltily (because the series has a lot of problematic things about it) that it was Ambrose Chase from Planetary. Very competent, a cool power, understated, and reliable. And almost in addition to that, I like Jakita Wagner, but again... problematic series is problematic.

Further thought makes me sheepishly admit to liking Spider Jerusalem, in all his anarchic bowel-disruptor glory. (It makes me wonder what my boss and coworkers would have said had I said Spider Jerusalem instead of Ambrose Chase.) But there's a lot of wierdness in Spider that repulses me a bit.

art for anatomists said...

John Constantine, no question! Leftist, chain-smoker, drinker, ex- and still somewhat punk, what's there not to love about him? Ah well ok, yeah, I want to be his friend either...

depizan said...

If we're sticking with American comics, Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. Manga is tougher, since I generally like most or all of the heroes of any manga I like - though, as one might guess from my avatar, Riza Hawkeye would definitely be on the list.

Samantha C said...

It's so hard to chose out of billions, but I think it has to be Harley Quinn.

I'm also an enormous fan of 80s-era Slade Wilson (Deathstroke the Terminator). I know just from looking at all the spikes on his back that the version in the New 52 isn't something I care about. Slade was fascinating, because he was a hunter, an assassin, a villain, but above all a family man. He loved his children and acted for them. He could be reasoned with and bargained with. One of my absolute favorite comics that I own is the end of a three-parter called Trial of the Terminator; Changeling and Deathstroke co-narrate the entire thing, a feud between them finally reaching the boiling point, of Changeling wanting to kill him, Slade taking his mask off and daring him to do it. When he can't, no word of a lie, they go to a diner and have lunch, and talk about Terra. AND IT ALL WORKS. (<3 Marv Wolfman)

Ana Mardoll said...

I love that avatar, by the way. Every time I see it, I feel happy. Riza is all the awesome things.

Cupcakedoll said...

Always a Kitty Pryde fan. She's cute and sensible, with a nonshowy yet very useful power and minimal angst. Though my X-books reading is very sporadic and determined by what the library carries so I bet there are books in which she mopes with the best of 'em.

Fluffy_goddess said...

My no-thought-required answer is Wolverine, though this is purely due to two things: awesome fanfiction, and: Hugh Jackman gave us Wolverine doing high-kicks and camping it up. I saw the movie because I loved the extras so much. (And I watched those extras because youtube linked me off Jackman singing at one of the Tony Awards ceremonies in gold pants, so, you know, I'm weird.)

With thought inserted, Agatha Heterodyne. And possibly half the cast of Girl Genius, seriously.

Lea Rebecca said...

I prefer my heroes with dark pasts and conflicted personalities; to me, there's nothing interesting about someone who was born awesome, continues to be awesome, and will die awesome.

What about Huntress? I have always thought her to be a much better character than Batman; she doesn't draw arbitrary moral distinctions and then assert her superiority, after all! (Catwoman is a close second, in Gotham, but she enables Batman's abusive dominance over the city in uncomfortable ways, by reaffirming that it's all just a "game".) Or Spoiler - there's another ladyperson not willing to take any of Bruce's bullshit.

For me, I've always been a New Teen Titans fan, so I really enjoyed the 1980s Starfire and Troia. I also love the Legion of Super-Heroes: Imra Ardeen is a capable leader, Nura Nal is a wonderful idealist, and Lyle Norg just needs a lot of hugs. But DC has been failing a lot on gender of late, so - thank you, Marvel Studios - I've turned to the Avengers, where the movieverse has brought us Black Widow, Pepper Potts, Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis in unending heights of awesome.

redcrow said...

My relationship with/knowledge of comics are based on - pretty much in that order - 90s cartoons, movies, Wikipedia and a certain blog I won't name here to avoid possible legality-related flamewars. So, going by cartoons - She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Black Cat, Mary Jane, Magneto; by movies - Catwoman; by what I've seen on a Certain Blog... Stanley and Monster, probably. (I'm not sure yet if I like Batwoman - I need to see more of her to deside.)

P.S. I'm tempted to cheat a little and to name Darkwing Duck - after all, he does have his own comic book. But he didn't start as a comic book character, so he probably doesn't count...

Rikalous said...

Harley's been mentioned, and she got her start in the cartoon.

Some good ones that haven't been mentioned: From DC, Booster Gold, who goes from a basically decent guy from the future who happens to want fame and fortune for his heroics to the defender of time who has to maintain his wealth-and-glory-seeking-idiot image from earlier to avoid being preemptively whacked by any time-traveling villains.

From Marvel, Moon Knight, who hallucinates that Spiderman, Wolverine, and Captain America are all helping him out with his heroing.

From Girl Genius, the Jaegermonsters, badass bloodthirsty supersoldiers and great lovers of quality chapeaus.

From PS238, Cecil Holmes, who rocks a trenchcoat at the tender age of eight, believes the local secret superhero elementary is full of hostile aliens (only a couple of the students are aliens, and neither of them are hostile), and thinks that getting Cthulhu tentacles on a dimension jaunt is really cool.

Loquat said...

I had a teenage crush for a while on Nightcrawler - the fact that he was drawn to be the epitome of blue hotness at the time didn't hurt, of course. Was very disappointed when whoever was writing decided his biological father should turn out to be an actual Satan figure; part of the point of the character was that his demonic appearance was due to the vagaries of mutation and had nothing to do with who he was as a person.

Since someone mentioned Mr. Freeze, I'll promote the Batman cartoon that, iirc, ran on WB for a couple seasons, the one with Mark Hamill voicing the Joker. Very well-written, and made a habit of showing the tragic/human side of villains - the key ones I remember being Mr. Freeze with his dying wife and a beautiful but criminally insane actress who was convinced she was horrifically ugly because she could only see her flaws.

Also, Amazi-Girl is immune to criticism.

redcrow said...

I know, but she didn't start out as a star of *her own* cartoon, for the most part unrelated to Batverse.

But if DW qualifies for the list anyway, I'm only happy with that.

KingsburyDoor said...

Courtney Crumrin (she's kinda like Mandy, from the Grim Adventures of. .. at age 11ish)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtney_Crumrin

Also, Destruction. Mainly cause the few times we see him, in modern day, he's pretty laid back, and I kinda like the big guy philospher types.

KingsburyDoor said...

oh, um, somehow I'm logged into a different account. I have no idea how that happened. I usually post as Rowen.

Mime_Paradox said...

Y'know, it makes me sad that this is the way that Superman and Wonder Woman come across, and that DC allows this interpretation to inform the way they handle the characters.

Yes, Superman's shtick is that he is impossibly good, and optimistic to the point of foolishness (I kinda see him as the Barack Obama of the superhero community, in that he's unwilling to accept that supervillains aren't just potential good people led astray). This doesn't mean he can't be interesting, or that he doesn't have flaws, or that he's boring. It just means that he's hard for most writers--or at least, most writers DC hires to work on him--to go. But still, I find him fascinating, and attempts to make him "darker" or more "complex" often leave me banging my head against sharp objects.

Likewise, it annoys me when Wonder Woman is written as a female Superman, or thought of in that manner by writers, because she's not. She can't be, given her upbringing and mission and the people's reaction to her. She was brought up in a culture that knows full well how evil people can be, and knows full well that it exists and must be dealt with. Also, the fact that she was brought up in an nontraditional dynamic--an island full of women--also means that she would be more attuned to things such as discrimination, whereas Clark is a creature of relative privilege. He's not a homophobe or sexist, but he's been raised in an environment where both were present, and has come to see it as unfortunate but somewhat normal (although he will check his privilege when prompted). Diana, on the other hand has lived under the shadow of oppression all her life, and I imagine her reaction to the discovery that the world is worse than what he wants it to be was much more visceral than Clark's. She is also unique, as part of a narrative where women created their own savior out of their own will and strength. It's why I'm now super-disappointed that the new version of Wonder Woman has been retconned into being a daughter of Zeus, particularly given the comments by the writers that it was done because (and I paraphrase) "everyone has a father".

So yeah. I can totally understand why you or others could find the characters boring--DC has been doing a disservice for way too long. This doesn't mean there isn't loads of material to mine about both of them.

As for actual favorite characters? Happily, my list would be infinitely long. I love comics.

Andrew Cumming said...

The non-specific approval of Wonder Woman did make me think of the latest in Kate Beaton's Wonder Woman comics - third one down, specifically!

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=328

chris the cynic said...

Of all the inconsistencies in Hercules, that's sort of low on my list.

Hercules died before the Trojan War, so how is he contemporary with Jesus, and weren't the wise men from the east? Iolaus comes from Greece, which is west of Bethlehem. How can Xena hang out with Hercules, Julius Caesar, and Caligula (and Beowulf and so forth) when in her life there is only a single timeskip that lasts but 25 years? (Note that said timeskip took her from the reign of Augustus to somewhat later during the reign of Augustus.)

Time and space and whatnot don't work right in those shows, so things like inertia and force and being slammed against boulders presumably work differently too.

If you really want to get into the weirdness, consider that, since we're taking a myths are real approach, Hercules should be more than twice as tall as Caesar*, yet Xena is about the same height as both of them.

I never really had too much problem believing that half-god man living in the age of myth with the laws of the universe shattered into a thousand pieces to allow people from vastly divergent times and places to show up could slam people into rocks without too much in the way of negative consequences. After accepting all of the other necessary absurdities, that doesn't feel like going too much further.

-

* A fairly basic belief of the mythology was that heroes were larger than life in a rather literal way, and over time humanity got smaller eventually reaching life sized. A 13 foot skeleton was believed to be of Orestes, Orestes would be three generations further into the shrinking process than Hercules.

--

So I wanted to check some things and stumbled onto the fact that apparently Xena is wholly responsible for the fall of Lucifer, which she orchestrated for the sole purpose of escaping responsibility for her actions. Pretty sure I'd stopped watching by that point because I think I'd remember that.

Ana Mardoll said...

If you want to log out and log in and repost, I can delete these three posts. (The first error, and the one explaining it, and this one of mine here.)

Ana Mardoll said...

I was just startled that Caesar and Eros were the exact same guy. (And I was probably the only person in that Lord of the Rings showing who nearly squeaked out a surprised EROS?! when Eomer came on screen.)

I never really understood the show's insistence on trying to shoehorn Christianity into the show. It doesn't make the conservatives happy because they're still torqued about Zeus existing at all (and let's not start on Aphrodite's on screen... presence) and it makes the liberals irritated because I WOULD LIKE TO GO FIVE MINUTES WITHOUT HEARING ABOUT JESUS, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. *lol*

hapax said...

YES!!! KITTY PRYDE LOVE <3 <3

She was the first superhero character I actually *cared* about -- I mean, what's not to love about a neurotic Jewish teenager who walks through walls, was trained by a demonic ninja, and had to stay home from saving the universe because she had a cold?

Also enormous adoration for Lockheed the Dragon, who got a second life in Jamie Robinson'sLEAVE IT TO CHANCE.

I followed her through her entire career until I gave up completely on US superhero comics, but particularly liked her stint as a Chicago politician. In my dream universe, *she* would be Obama's chief of staff.

Of comics I still read... Hmmm. Maybe Haruhi Fujioka of OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB, because I love her unflappable cluelessness.

Thomas Keyton said...

Do tie-in comics count? I think Iroh cameoed in that AtLA comic filling in the details of Zuko leaving the Earth Kingdom after season 2.

If not, Aaron Stack as he appeared in Nextwave.

Ana Mardoll said...

They killed Discord? Geez. I liked her in the, like, ONE EPISODE she was in, as far as the early series went. Talk about mixed-up values if Ares was the humanized one and Discord was the one worthy of being killed off. I'd call sexism, but I'd stopped so far in advance of that point that I really don't know -- maybe they gave her a Moral Event Horizon to cross.

Kish said...

I kind of thought she sailed across the Moral Event Horizon in the first episode she appeared in*, when she bragged that she'd taken over the castle she and Ares were meeting in by driving the inhabitants mad and making them kill each other.

Which isn't to say Ares was any better, morally speaking. In fact, while I have few to no qualms about killing Discord, I have many more about the way both Xena and Hercules start treating Ares like he's not unambiguously evil.

*I may be misremembering which appearance was her first.

Ana Mardoll said...

I could be misremembering -- it's been forever. I really only remember her manipulating some warlord (she had an amusing line about how she's been taking lovers since the dawn of time and he couldn't even being the count the notches on her bedpost) and I remember Bruce Campbell describing her as "kind of sexy in a time-me-up-and-hurt-me kind of way".

So, yeah, do not remember the murder thing AT ALL, but that would be a pretty big MEH. (Good grief, is that really the acronym for Moral Event Horizon? Inappropriate Acronym, FTW!)

Ares, as you say, was an irredeemable absolutely horrible no-good person. I can see the Draco In Leather Pants because his actor was very attractive, and also a bit of the Worf Effect / Villain Decay (if he's so powerful, how come he can't accomplish anything??) but his *canon* actions were DREADFUL.

Also, didn't he team up with Dagon (sp?) and Gabrielle's look-alike-daughter to destroy the gods? Not wise, Ares me old mate.

kitryan said...

Kitty Pryde was closest to who I was when I started reading comics (brunette precocious Jewish kid) and I liked that- as well as the fact that being able to *literally* sink through the floor sounded really nice :)
I loved John Constantine- so bad ass!
However, I adored Multiple Man. I'm a huge introvert and being able to make my own company! I'm always having to do stuff by myself that would be much easier with a partner- if I could make my own...
He also sends his dupes out to learn stuff. You could have one of you go to med school, law school, engineering- and all at the same time, as well as being able to add on extras to clean up, run to the library, make dinner, and so forth. You'd never be totally lonely and you'd never have to wrestle a love seat out of a van into the elevator all by yourself.

Ana Mardoll said...

Chris, you have officially broken my mind. o.O

chris the cynic said...

It does seem very mind breaky.

I do think I have to amend somewhat, Ares is usually quite evil, but he does tend to have times when he's not. Apparently these times were coincidentally in the parts of the shows I remember best. Still, looking over his biography, the evil seems to be the norm.

Cupcakedoll said...

re Kitty-- in one of the AUs she becomes President of the United States. =) And everybody else dies, but that happens in all the AUs.

re Lyrical Nanoha-- I looooooved the anime, despite how weird it is if you actually think about it. She basically makes friends by beating them up. Weird. But technomagic and talking items and ooShinyCool! But I could not get into the manga because no matter how hard I tried I COULDN'T TELL THE DARN CHARACTERS APART! ;_; They really need to animate Vivid so people can have hair colors.

+1 love for Nabiki.

My favorite manga character would have to be Shiina in Narutaru for how she holds onto her cheerfulness while everything falls apart around her. Also she has blue hair and a somewhat spooky flying critter. (Warning: series is TW pretty much ALL OF THEM. Read with caution.)

Silver Adept said...

From the pantheon of all possible places? Delirium, by a landslide, followed closely by her sister, Death.

If from something more mainstream, I think I have to go with the Jaegermonsters, too. Het!

malpollyon said...

Man, I was wondering why no-one had mentioned Death of the Endless yet, she's definitely my pick from western comics.

If we're allowing manga characters too, I'd probably go with Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. I think she and Delirium would get along very well.

WanderedIn said...

What, specifically, is problematic about Planetary? I mean, it makes serious reference to old pulp stories, which can be problematic, but Warren Ellis is generally good at these things.

Rakka said...

Nightfall rocks pretty hard, but I prefer Dewshine and Kahvi, although I think that the latter episodes needn't have been written, it's like there was a strong "everyone cool must be a wolfrider" sort of thing going on... and ElfQuest totally loses in the "credible climate transition" department. Ah well. Everything can't be perfect, and I must give EQ all the points it deserves for really great, natural showing of sexuality, and being the first literary work in my life to point out polyamory as one option among others. No doubt I'd have realized it at some point anyway, just not at 13 years old.

Of webcomics... Ed, the ultimate woobie hyena from Digger. And Shadowchild. And the statue of Ganesh. And Digger herself. Actually, about everyone in Digger. Go read it, it's awesome.

Also Kushana, from Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. Even with the unfortunate Eowyn implications that a woman can't be warlike without some sort of trauma... she's tough, smart and devoted to her men. The film is cut unfortunately short, but the manga gives her a lot of depth.

depizan said...

Oh, wow, someone else who read Leave it to Chance. I forgot about that short lived series until now. Cool!

Kitty Pryde would make an awesome Chief of Staff.

Francis D said...

Barbara Gordon/Oracle.

Barbara Gordon was (the second) Batgirl, and more or less dropped from stories by the mid 80s. In 1988, The Killing Joke had her shot by the Joker and crippled from the waist down.

But that wasn't the end. She neither dropped out of the story nor relied on magic/superpowers to undo the damage. Instead she worked out what she could do while confined to a wheelchair, used her photographic memory, knowledge fo the community, and some contacts and hacking skills, and became Oracle. First taken on by Amanda Waller (and there's some criminal character assassination between the nuanced Suicide Squad Amanda Waller and Noughties villain Amanda Waller) as an apprentice after she got too cute with her hacking and was caught, and running the Suicide Squad. Then when the Suicide Squad was wound up she went back to Gotham and served as Batman's information broker for a while (and occasionally the JLA's) before founding her own team - the Birds of Prey. And just as she'd needed to rebuild herself after being crippled, the Birds was about taking female heroes who needed the help (starting with Black Canary (if you don't count the flashback backstory)) and giving them the place and help to rebuild themselves.

So from a costumed vigilante, crippled and permanently in a wheelchair she rebuilt herself to an important member of the JLA and founded a team to help others do likewise (Black Canary was elected chair of the JLA shortly after leaving the Birds). And saved the world a few times. All while being one of the few genuinely disabled heroes in comics (no, Daredevil doesn't count as blind except on a technicality. Oracle didn't leave her wheelchair for more than 20 years realtime).

(I don't consider post-Infinite Crisis to count due to some hideous storytelling after Gail Simone left BoP - and Barbara has been reverted to Batgirl as of the DCnU).

And does anyone want to post a potted history of Wonder Woman through the years?

Silver Adept said...

@malpollyon:

Osaka and Delirium would get along swimmingly and compatibly. Probably Yotsuba as well.

Lots of favorites from the mangaverse, so I couldn't list them all out at once.

J. Random Scribbler said...

I was also wondering why none of the Endless had gotten a nod yet when I ran into Silver Adept's post. I'd put Death before Delirium, though-- and then Destruction, another brilliant subversion of the usual cliches. Death is definitely my no-thought answer to the thread question.

There are probably even more interesting answers I could come up with, if my brain wasn't still boggling from that Xena summary. I don't think there exists a flat enough WHAT to express my reaction. Xena was a guilty pleasure of mine for a while, and I'd been meaning to get back to it in the hopes that the big bizarre Heaven-and-Hell episode was just a momentary lapse. Thanks, Chris, for the warning! Now know not to watch any more so I can keep my memories of the earlier seasons without that later... stuff... smeared onto them. *still boggling*.

Rikalous said...

On the subject of genuinely disabled heroes in comics, Moon Knight's battle partner is deaf, and without any actual superpowers. That in no way prevents her from kicking ass and taking names.

Ana Mardoll said...

I'm having a similar reaction; I'd been thinking to buy the box series someday, but now... I've heard folks online say that everything after Season 6 (I think?) is complete fan- discontinuity...

Lonespark said...

I'm confused about what we're including. Do graphic novels count? \

If so, my fav is Fruma from Hereville. She's a non-evil stepmother! She likes to argue both sides! She's the Wise Mentor who takes no crap. Chekhov's Skill is knitting and/or arguing! Go read it now! And send more exclamation points!

Mime_Paradox said...

Ooh, I totally forgot! Amanda "The Wall" Waller, from the Suicide Squad comics. It's not usually that a a woman who happens to be both a) African-American, and b) fat (btw Ana how do you feel about that word here? I know Shakesville deals in making the word value-neutral, and that you follow the site, but this is not Shakesville) gets to kick ass, and she does it with such aplomb--she's stared down Batman!--that I can't help but lurve the hell out of her. The fact that the recently rebooted comics have turned her into a slim, sexualized figure--you know, like every other woman in the 'verse--is an absolute crime.

Ana Mardoll said...

I'm all about value-neutral Fat. :)

* For those who aren't up on all the lingo, some people (myself included, thanks to Kate Harding's influence) prefer the term "Fat" to the clinical "Obese" because they see Fat as a value-neutral descriptor (anyone can be "fat" relative to someone skinnier), but Obese as a problematic line drawn fairly arbitrarily by a medical community that has a history of marginalizing people. Both terms are welcome here based on personal preference.

Will Wildman said...

Having now read the entirety of Scott Pilgrim over Saturday night and Sunday morning, I'm now trying to decide between Ramona Flowers and Wallace Wells for post of Favourite Comic Character ever, although most of the cast was in the running.

Ana Mardoll said...

SCOTT PILGRIM!

Have you met Wallace Wells, my Cool Gay Roommate? :P

One of the rare movie characters who I liked better than the literary version, if only because he was allowed a wider range of facial expressions. :D

Silver Adept said...

@Lonespark

Ah, you have been exposed to the 11 year-old Orthodox Jewish troll-fighter. Good to know.

Caravelle said...

Yoko Tsuno
Or was that US comic book characters ?

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