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Favorite Super Hero? Why? Which one is the worst?
Today at my gym two guys actually got in a physical fight arguing over their favorite Super heroes. I'm not kidding, my brothers..we had to separate them before someone got hurt. One guys fave was A captain America and the other dude said Captain was boring. I agree, btw. And it was on!
So...no fisticuffs here, but who do you like? Hate? Which one is stupid? Overrated?
I will begin by saying I am a Spiderman guy. I also like Iron Man/Tony Stark.
Well, my least favorite is Superman. Hes too powerful and it is stupid. What is the point of a superhero who can do anything and turn back time whenever he messes up?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and if you don't care for him that's fine. But your reasoning is based on incorrect data, so I have to comment.
He cannot turn back time and he can't do "anything". Those first two movies are almost forty years old and honestly pretty dumb. They took extreme liberties with his power set, basically to spend more on their effects budget and to drive the story. Ever since the first four movies, no other presentation of Superman, not movie, not tv show or cartoon and definitely not the comics goes significantly beyond the default power set, which has been in play for exactly 30 years now.
Of course he is still amazingly powerful. He isn't supposed to be the guy stops robbers like Batman or Spider-Man. He's the guy who saves the Earth, fights in alien gladiatorial matches, explores other dimensions. He's the guy who helps distract us from the fact that there is a bunch of problems in life that no human could solve. He's basically a secular space Jesus, so his stories are much larger than life. This was pretty much what America wanted for the first 40 years of his existence, and he's now such an icon, they can't possibly change him too much. Unfortunately, Americans became so jaded and cynical and immune to wonder and spectacle that he can't really be cool anymore.
Superman did once reverse the rotation of the Earth in order to go back in time. I think it was to save Lois Lane. And as far as you saying those movies were old, well you gotta remember they were based on the original comics that were even older. The earth reversal bit was in the original comics.
To me Superman is just OK. Never one of my favorites. Actually near the bottom of my list. I don't dislike him I just find him boring. Kent is too clean-cut. I like my super heroes to be flawed. Like Stark.
And Hancock! Another favorite of mine but I didn't mention him in my OP since I'm not sure he actually qualifies as a super hero!
Everyone has their favorite cannon, universe or story line and so on.
The issue of age is kind of an intersting one because many superheroes experience 'power creep' over time. For instance some of the older versions of Superman has his power levels quite reduced than compared to now.
Well, I have read comics since about 82/83 and worked in a comic book store from 97-02. I've never heard of comic-book Superman turning back time. He could enter the time stream from time to time, but usually had problems changing events in time. But it doesn't matter because none of that stuff is canonical now. Saying these incidents count because they were in older comics is like saying evolution is wrong because Lamarck was wrong.
From the 30s-50s, nobody really cared about continuities, and Superman stories were all over the place, and nobody cried fowl. This was just how comics were back then. But from the Silver Age onward continuity was king for the fans, and anytime DC or Marvel screwed up, the fans kept them in check and every change had to be thoroughly accounted for. This turned into a huge problem for DC. They had to create multiple realities to account for some of these changes. This led to different versions of Earth with different versions of heroes.
Eventually, this became seriously confusing, and DC cleaned it all up with the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 85-86. During this story, all of the other realities were wiped out and combined to form the "New Earth" reality. Everything from that moment onward was built around this continuity, and as far as Superman was concerned, everything before that was apocryphal. Since then, things have gotten confusing again, but mainstream continuity is still held above all others. And in mainstream continuity, Superman has a very specific set of powers, and never turned back time by flying against the Earth's rotation. So, with DC, nothing that happened before 86, as well as nothing that has appeared in any movie or TV show that has ever aired counts. Can you imagine if modern Batman had to interact with the continuities of the old 60s show or Super Friends?
I like Iron Man a lot, always have. But I am honestly a little bored with flawed heroes now. It's fine when they are relatively rare or minor, but when they are the majority, it kind of seems like pandering and takes away some of the hope this genre can provide. I might like Stark better than Superman as a fan of comics, but if I lived in a superhero world, I would much rather have Supes defend my city than IM.
Hancock, sure I'd call him a super hero, especially towards the end. I only saw the movie once, when it came out. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I certainly didn't hate it. Might even watch it again soon.
Wow! Good post, man. You know your comics, I'll give ya that.
I loved Hancock and can't wait for the sequel if there is one.
I agree with you on Shoes being more reliable than Stark. In fact he is probably THEE most reliable, with Batman and Spidey being up there too. But those two have seemed to be local rather than global.
Since you know so much I would like to ask your take on another favorite if mine, and a guy who is very controversial.
I love the Surfer, easily one of my top 10 heroes.
Sure, some of the things about him are kinda lame, especially his names. Silver Surfer? Norrin Radd? Seriously?
But I love his look, his character and his powers. I know a lot of people think he is overpowered, but this isn't typically an issue since most of his enemies are cosmic powered and or entire armadas of space ships.
Sometimes he's portrayed poorly because writers forget about some of his powers, or just don't get how to use him. But those stories obviously aren't his fault.
I also love the Surfer, and his appearance is one of the coolest things about him. His story is really one of the deepest I think in all of comics, with a lot of allegory going on about the nature of us, redemption, and the fight between choosing good over evil. The allegory also entails the entire nature of war, of serving masters--or governments--whom you believe at first are good, and you a patriot--but later discover are not.
And I Do like his name. I think it is a cool play on words, and a shout out to Surfer Culture. (I am a surfer, too.) The word "rad" is short for "radical" and is a staple in surfer vernacular, to denote something truly epic or awesome.
And I can't wait till we get those hover boards! The real ones, not those bogus ones that came out last year and kept catching on fire!
So yeah, the Surfer makes my Top Five, I think. which looks something like this..........
Iron Man
Spidey
Silver Surfer
Hancock
Batman
The Hulk (lots of allegory their too, with Bruce Banner)
So, with DC, nothing that happened before 86, as well as nothing that has appeared in any movie or TV show that has ever aired counts.
Well depending on which metric you wanted to compare. For the general discussion I would assume most folks want to keep the matches to more contemporary times. Its best to keep apples with apples...that is not force mismatches like the one you allude to;
Can you imagine if modern Batman had to interact with the continuities of the old 60s show or Super Friends?
I think thats a premise of a College Humor clip, Robin fom the 60's comes to help todays grim Batman.
As an aside...The silver age of comics was a pretty interesting time concerning censorship. The book "Seduction of the innocent" had done some damage through sheer pseudo science assault. Comics were a mess back then and some pretty embarrasing moments ensued. Mr. Myxlplyx for example.
If someone were to pick a 'worst' hero from any time line or universe that era is ripe for the taking.
And more to your point, I think I disagree with you on your stance concerning flawed heroes. To see a knight in shining armor win over adversity is inspiring but in a way that focuses on their virtures. Seeing a flawed hero that is still capable of doing good can possibly give hope that the average person can do good despite their flaws.
Heroes with flaws can have more in common with the reader more relatable than shiny epitomized heroes. I guess it makes sense too that more heroes would be flawed (Iron mans alcoholism etc.) than a collection of pillars of virtue, that seems highly utopian. Not many heroes that start that way maintain that as Supes has.
I guess everyone loves a winner...or in my case doesn't hate him at least. To me he just seems to unbeleivabley written/powered to be interesting. I think Martian Manhunter does a better job with this archetype than SuperMan.
First, let me say how refreshing it is to converse with someone who actually knows their way around a comic :) These days, everyone thinks they are an expert on superheroes without having actually read any comics. It can be exasperating for me sometimes. So, cheers to you!
Well depending on which metric you wanted to compare
I'm a geek so I always refer to the official continuity. I mean, I love the Star Wars expanded universe, but George Lucas has officially identified the vast majority of that as non-canonical, and Disney has upheld that ruling. Or if a Sherlock Holmes movie deviates from Doyle's original writings, it isn't official canon.
Mr. Myxlplyx for example.
Well, Mxy actually predates the Silver Age by a bit. The original version began in 44. He was pretty much what we know, but decidedly more "Forties". The new version was 11 years later and a bit more like Rumpelstiltskin. This character may be goofy, but he keeps coming back around since he's one of the relatively few characters who can properly challenge Superman.
And props on referring to the Elite storyline. One of the best Superman stories yet.
I'm just bored with all these flawed jerks with daddy issues running around. I'm not saying they are all bad or should be done away with. But I like to see a few heroes here and there who are reliable, dependable.
Nothing really more to see. A good post from you yet again.
My personal favorite is Martian Manhunter. This started in the mid-80s when I was a little kid and just getting into comics. At that time my favorite series was Justice League, and he was the leader of the group for quite a while. Furthermore, when he was on his own, he was shown as being the hero of Denver. For decades before that, he lived in Middleton, a fictional suburb of Denver. Since I'm from Colorado and he was one of the few heroes associated with the state, I couldn't help but dig him. Plus, I was still a little kid and my favorite color was green, and so him having green skin didn't hurt.
Fortunately, in the late 80s and the 90s he gradually developed. Before that he was kind of two-dimensional and his early history was mostly uninteresting, and his costume was always questionable.
But as he went on, he developed a unique, distinctly alien persona. He was a bit of a philosopher, but he also had humorous habits. His big conceit was that he was like how Superman might be if he had been an adult when he came to Earth. Somebody who has had grown up, lived a full life, had a family, then saw it all taken away from him and had to live with the trauma. And, as powerful as he is, he has a serious weakness to fire in most version. This is easier to identify with than Kryptonite because a) fire is real and shows up a lot in the emergencies he is sent to and b) I also happen to be weak against fire.
Plus, I love his powers. He has all the same powers as Superman (Strength , speed, durability, flight, super sences, x-ray vision, heat vision- but all somewhat weaker than Superman's) and he has a bunch of even cooler powers- powerful telepathy, vast shapeshifting abilities, and can turn invisible and intangible. Mix this with his skills (philosophy, military tactics, detective work and manhunting, above average scientific abilities and knowledge of alien technology) and you have a very capable and competent, albeit kind of weird, superhero who is just as good at cosmic style adventures as superman is.
My least favorite? Well, as far as well known heroes, I'm going with Gambit. Everything about him is stupid. Most of the people who write him have probably never met a Cajun and don't are super clumsy and inconsistent about writing his dialog. They would have been better off modeling him after someone like Lando Calirisean and leaving it at that, but tried to toss every Cajun stereotype they could thing of so we could NEVER forget the dude is from Louisiana. And he's honestly just a scumbag, untrustworthy, unprincipled, a total womanizer and way too cocky. He's gotten a lot better about all of this over the years, but every five years or so some writer chooses to make him go back to his old ways and start the path to redemption all over again.
And his costumes have always been lame, but his first few were ESPECIALLY bad? Why was he one of the only male heroes to ever wear pink prominently? Why would a dude who was born and raised in Louisiana wear a trench coat in Louisiana during the summer. Why would a guy whose attack style was highly acrobatic wear a trench coat at all? And why did he have little bubbles all over the place? What were they made out of? Was this seriously the best armor he could steal? And why did he (and a few of the other X-men) wear a "mask" that exposed his whole face? His later costumes have been better, but the only did so by becoming pretty generic and boring.
And his powers? From the standpoint of a physics nerd, the notion of transforming potential energy into kinetic is pretty awesome and seemingly very versatile. But he just uses it to blow stuff up. That's great in combat, but pretty dangerous for your allies, and yourself. And let's say you are stranded on a roof of a ten story building with a bunch of orphans. How are you gonna get them down? Blow everything up. Half the other X-men can solve this problem, but Gambit? He's just gonna creep them out and talk in half-French.
Also, do you think the X-Men have to take a detour to Wal-Mart on their way to each mission so Gambit can stock up on playing cards?
Gambit's not the worst example of why 90s superheroes were so terrible, but he'd probably make the top ten.
I never had heard of Gambit before and did some research after reading your post. Yeah, a bit lame and maybe even gay, but also sorta interesting. But those cards ARE cheesy. You might be interested that he's getting his own movie next year! Tatum Channing.
He's been really popular in the X-books for a while and a favorite in the video games. His fan base have been vying for a movie ever since the his contentious appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was supposed to come out late this year, but they haven't even finished the script yet and are already having money problems. If it comes out, I'll check it once it hits blue ray. But I can't imagine it would be any good. Then again, I don't really like Deadpool and his movie was awesome, so who knows.
