The ILC Favourite Characters Of All Time

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)!

One one person voted, but gave all his points to Jerry Cornelius before cryptically saying he was off to kill Hitler's grandparents. However he did not finish the sentence because his hand was fading away.

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Looks like Chap was right here.

And seeing your current quagmire, I take pity and have communiqued with teh Time Variance Authority, and they have given me approval to reveal teh results!

34. Spawn

This beloved character ushered in teh OH NO TEH LIEFELD BOTS ARE HERE TO STOP MY MISSIO---BZZZZzzzzz.

34. Robert Crumb (assorted comics by Robert Crumb)

78 points

http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/crumb/crumb_splash.jpg

Like a lot of great comics creators, Crumb is a mix of genius and crank in varying proportions. Unlike many, he's rarely sought to turn his obsessions into any kind of philosophy - in fact the niggling baseness of the stuff that "gets him going" seems to be what drives a lot of his work. Crumb's placing of his stylised self at the heart of his sex stories is often what stops him turning into just a fetish artist: the lack of distance gives his work a grubby vigour that's grotesque and sympathetic at the same time. And when the Crumb horn dies down his grumpy autobiog vignettes and nerd-joy blues obsessions can still trounce most 'personal' comics.

Greatest Moment: I'll leave that to the experts.