The ILC Favourite Characters Of All Time

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.

Vic is OTM, although Mr. Natural's pretty great as well.

(I can forgive people for not remembering what this poll was about, I admit.)

"Crumb’s only real character was himself; only the
hilarious sharpster Mr Natural came close to having a
life apart from his creator. Crumb’s early attempts at
self-analysis now seem dated and self-indulgent, but
by the ‘80s he’d evolved into a great artist, fully
capable of stepping back to fully appreciate his own
nature – that of a rather unpleasant and neurotically
self-absorbed man."

(81 points)

http://www.gamerevolution.com/oldsite/games/ps2/action/fantastic_four_ben_grimm.jpg

"Great visuals, and balances angst and gags better than any Marvel hero." (Pete)

"It breaks my heart to say this considering how much I love Jack Kirby, but was there ever a more annoying whiner in the entire history of comics? Get over it already!" (JD)

The Thing is the finest example of a particular Kirby type - the tough reg'lar guy who Gets Things Done. Think Dum Dum Dugan or Terrible Turpin, and then give them rocks. Muscular, street-level, simply heroic, he's almost like the last Golden Age hero as well as one of the lynchpins of the Marvel Age - though the "why am I a monster?" plot could really have done with being dropped after FF#51, rather than remaining as fallback characterisation ever since. He's also a bullshit detector and a guide to the outlandish, and almost any time he's in a 'serious' story his character doesn't work - what more could you ask for?

Greatest Moment: "I know everybody loves "This man, this monster", but to me, the best-written Ben Grimm would be the one Mark Waid did, especially in the last issue of his run. That issue also features my favorite Reed Richards ever." (iodine)

(82 points)

http://pc59te.dte.uma.es/cdb/series/max/bitmaps/jessicajones.jpg

"Hard smoking, hard drinking, lumpily drawn." (Pete)

Greatest moment: "Explaining that she can fly, yeah, she's just always had some trouble landing..." (Douglas Wolk)

xpost

I like Reed more than Ben btw.

Ben Grimm is Jewish? That never occurred to me.

Black panel borders: dud.

still... greatest comic book punchline ever?

(83 points)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/DrManhattan.jpg

Alan Moore's take on a cosmically powered supercharacter is at heart a standard what-is-this-thing-called-emotion story arc (tho with a last issue twist of sorts) but Dr M is so well realised you hardly care. His mechanistic perspective on the universe maps nicely onto the hyperformalism of Watchmen, and what's more he was naked for pretty much the whole series.

Greatest Moment: "Watchmen #4 in its entirety" (Vic F)

Haha, yes.

60. Opus
59. Roy Race
58. Corto Maltese
57. Martian Manhunter
56. Guy Gardner (Giffen/DeM)
55. Spider-Man (Dan Slott)
54. Acid Archie
53. Manhog
52. Mo
51. Black Lois Lane
50. Spider Jerusalem
49. Optimus Prime
48. Flex Mentallo
47. Marv
46. Darkseid
45. Hellboy
44. Mek-Quake
43. Tharg The Mighty
42. Mona Lisa Ludacristits
41. A Homosexual
40. Cassidy
39. Tara Chace
38. Robotman (Grant M)
37. Wally West Flash
36. Astoria
35. Emma Frost
34. Robert Crumb
33. The Thing
32. Jessica Jones
31. Dr Manhattan

"Stand by" for #30 on!

(88 points)

http://www.unificationfrance.com/IMG/jpg/xmen_beast.jpg

"One of the few marvel mutant characters to break out of the narrow field and into the larger fictional world, he's changed with the times, remaining on, or at least slightly behind, the forefront of cool. Early experiments with 'beat culture' changed to full-on hippiedom, drinking and 'alleged' smoking of dope. When the mutant comics became angst-filled, meandering plots-that-go-nowhere coolfests, he was there too, tragically losing his supermind by degrees before being replaced by his own evil twin from an alternate Earth! And for the new century, he reinvented himself again as a smooth-talking metrosexual." (Vic F)

"If the X-Men, more than about race or sexuality, are about plain old-fashioned teenage alienation, surely Hank McCoy is one of the best role models the series can muster. He’s been dealt one hell of a rough hand – unlike most of his fellow mutants, his powers are not hidden and he doesn’t look like an extra from “Melrose Place” – and yet he whines about it considerably less than most of his colleagues. Which pays off – first x-man to join the Avengers, respected member of the scientific community, Beast has adapted to real life as well as anyone in his crew. The Marvel universe’s proof that you can be both a giant nerd and the life of any party, and that smarts, wit and bonhomie make up for a hell of a lot." (Daniel_Rf)

Greatest Moment: "At the Coffee-A-Go-Go he is made king of the
Beat-niks. His road to ruin begins here." (Vic F)

(89 points)

http://www.grovel.org.uk/reviews/darede01/darede03.gif

The Stan Lee Daredevil is yr standard garish romp, twin brothers and fights with the likes of the Owl. But - maybe accidentally, maybe alchemically - Lee had hit on a character with massive symbolic freight: a lawyer, a vigilante, living the high life, from the mean streets, and get this he's blind! The result is the hero probably best able to sensibly carry the weight as comics got darker and grittier - DD's campy past never preys on him like it does on Batman, there's rarely the lurking shadow of the ludicrous. Which means that when Daredevil's comics get grim it doesn't feel so affected. Of course this might be hindsight because Miller and Bendis did what they did so well - but it seems to me that they found something that was already there.

Greatest Moment: Playing russian roulette with a comatose Bullseye (Daredevil #191) (I think this was Leee's pick)

(89 points)

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/news/silver-surfer/silver-surfer-movie.jpg

In Kirbyworld, the Surfer was a cold, alien figure incapable of understanding human emotion yet capable of sacrificing his freedom to save the human race – a postmodern take on the Christ story. In Stan Lee’s hands, he was a bit more mundane, and prone to sleep-inducing lectures – yet the fascination of the character remained. (JD)

Greatest Moment: Over to you!