The ILC Favourite Characters Of All Time

Another Best Moment: Cliff had his own ashes put in a jar to brighten up the room. Also, "Brain Versus Brain".

(73 points)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/flash-723513.jpg

It's no secret that the Flash I like pretty much ended his run with #61 of his current comic, with occasional appearances in JLA since. I was new to the DCU, Wally wasn't, but he was new to what being an icon in the DCU meant. And since the DCU in 1986-90 was pretty much synonymous with the 'new comics', mainstream division, that put the character right in the middle of an approach to superheroing - sometimes realistic, sometimes ironic, sometimes gritty, sometimes whimsical - that counts as my personal Golden Age (OK looking at the Baron and Loebs runs NOW I can see some of the influences, 'specially Gerber and Englehart).

The first year of the FLASH series is honestly up there for me with Amazing Spider-Man as a fantastic kid-with-powers series that's grounded in its time and the issues of its time. Wally West grapples with money, sex, drugs, computers, and a fair number of goofy new villains, and pretty much every episode is a joy. Loebs' run is gentler and more playful but the character development continues. The Waid run takes that development on logically - Wally ends up a true hero, unfortunately for my money not a very interesting one.

(& the big setpiece Waid stories are all too much about hammering home that Wally is a REAL HERO NOW - not a sin Waid alone was guilty of in the mid 90s)

Greatest Moment: This is a very personal choice, I've been reading The Flash since I was ten years old, so I grew up with this character. I also liked him when he was with the New Teen Titans. Finest hours -

Loser Wally (Messner Loebs era) - The issue where he goes to Captain Cold's birthday, I think messner loeb's idea of turning the Rogues Gallery into a JLI-esque supporting cast was the best way to deal with their silliness.

Superhero Wally (Waid era) - Coming back from the speed force in "Terminal Velocity"

Alternative timeline Walter (not Wallace) West - Flipping through the pages of the Flash comic book and saying goodbye to Angela in the last issue of the "Flash from the future" arc that came after "Chain Lightning" (Iodine)

Speed Force tho = k-rub (we've had that discussion before).

...then I'd be quite grateful.

*& not an elf.

Does anyone know which run of Flash this was, who was the author etc? And if its available in one of those DC comps?

Ok, I've done the first bit.

36. Astoria (Cerebus)

(77 points)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/astoria172-725765.jpg

Astoria is the first woman Dave really thought hard about when writing Cerebus, and it shows. She starts scheming, manipulative and power-obsessed, and ends scheming, manipulative and power-obsessed. She is the true Power Behind The Throne in Cerebus' rise to high office, and the power behind the schism of the feminist movement between Mothers and Daughters. Never mind threatening to sleep with Cerebus, this woman slept with Lord Julius (and Lord Gerrick) just to be close to power.

I suppose her most famous moment is the 'rape' scene. In it, Cerebus 'rapes' her after she encourages him while she is chained in jail, to be tried for killing the Pope of the West - although Astoria admits to him in Reads that she entirely manipulated him into doing it. (In case you're wondering, Cerebus marries them so they can have sex then divorces them, so it's not legally rape under Iestan law, hence 'rape') Deni tried to rationalise it that it was Dave having a go at her now they'd split up, but she forgets that she was happy with Dave during High Society where Astoria does something very, very similar to Cerebus (she pretends to be drugged and tries to seduce him, but is shown to have been in complete control all along and only trying to trap Cerebus) and didn't say anything about it there...

So I prefer to think of her best moment as when she reveals the truth to Cerebus about his hermaphroditic nature. Indeed, Astoria seems to be the non-aardvark with the best grasp of what the inherent nature of the aardvark actually is and as such is present in the throne room at the conclusion of Reads (that is, the end of the Second Third) along with Cerebus, Cirin and Suentius Po (the three living aardvarks). She knows she's possibly witnessing the end of everything, but for once is not thinking of herself and rather of what might happen if everything survives. (aldo_cowpat)

Astoria's something of a comics archetype--the Bad Character Working Toward Good Ends--but her way of going about it is almost entirely behind the scenes and political. When we first see her, the comedy of her relationship with the Moon Roach is played up so high that it's easy to miss what's actually going on: she's controlling a demented thug to perform political assassinations for her. We see her mind at work as she controls Cerebus's rise to power, and we gather that she's got an uneasy relationship at best with the political establishment as it is, but we don't find out quite what her goals are for a few years--and they turn out to be democracy and women's suffrage. But the essence of Astoria is that she's always, always, always in control of the situation, or, rather, that she always sees the shortest way to turn any situation to her advantage. When we see her again in Church and State II, she's chained to a wall in a dungeon, and she's still in control--even more than we realize at the time. (Douglas Wolk)

I think The Wuffa Wuffa Guy was in the running at one point.

but she walks out of the series forever the second she realises that it's really getting her anywhere or making her happy...

*6 months later?

35. Emma Frost (X-Men)

(78 points)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/efrost-731901.jpg

Being a bit of a hippie, and suffering – as many do – from excessive empathy with villains, I’ve always greeted bad guy redemption stories with a great deal of joy and anticipation. Emma Frost is one of the most convincing cases of this happening (because she was never a – ahem – black and white character to begin with), so I get a kick out of that. Also: rowr. (Daniel Rf)

Someone else in their comments called Emma Frost "Morrison's Kitty Pryde", which may explain why I always 'hear' her as British, and she's - for now at least - the most lasting legacy of his X-Men run. Witty, morally ambiguous, deadly sharp, passionately comitted to mutants in general, and part of one of the few emotionally convincing superhero romances, we should celebrate her while she's still relatively unspoiled. Morrison's greatest achievement may turn out to have been in making her so enormously fun for other people to write.

Finest Moment: "Riot At Xaviers"

Right, time to catch up on the last 3 weeks of ILC.

There's doubt about her citizenship? Crazy!

Well, really I'm just reviving this in the vain hope that Tom will let us know some more choices.

It's TOM 3WWWWWWWWING: THE OTHER!

He was diagnosed w/ the bird flu & killed by Tarkus! Now he must choose between The Business Professional and The Interweb Mentalist! And this choice will affect him FOREVER (because he'll be getting a new costume, and fancy new powers)!