#yes jason is also valid for wanting to kill the joker and wanting to avenge himself??? like

[tallysescape]

Jason Todd is a guillotine and the Joker is Mary Antoinette

also I will die on the hill that Batman’s morals kinda suck. He wants himself up on this pedestal of doing no wrong per say, when if he did one wrong he would prevent hundreds of others. Instead he sits by in his proverbial throne above everyone else like an old man playing chess

…ah okay so. let's talk about why his morals are where they are. as we all know his parents were killed at gunpoint, he couldn’t do anything. this cements a deep, personal distaste towards guns/lethal force/killing. when he becomes batman, when he puts on the cowl and goes out to protect people from that helplessness, to save as many as he can from that pain, he does it without needless, irreparable violence. killing is not an option for him, not after that.

but that doesn’t mean he’s ignorant. that doesn’t mean he wants to be praised or idolized or placed on a pedestal, that doesn’t mean he does no wrong.

bruce has made a ton of mistakes! he’s messed up a lot! big time! he’s flawed and complicated and messy and KNOWS THAT! he knows it when he falls out with dick, he knows it when jason is murdered, he knows it when the Red Hood shows up. he knows with tim and damian too. he’s highly aware of his failures. ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’ are this mans mortal enemy.

bruce cares so deeply and he shows it as best he can. he’s a protector, his work humbles him, he’s his own worst critic. he doesn’t want to be placed on a pedestal and honestly i’m willing to bet he thinks the city would be better off without him! gotham’s villains see the batman as a challenge and that’s why they keep coming. sure yeah, killing the joker or any other criminal would prevent hundreds of crimes, it would save tons of innocent people from hurting, it’s an easy, full proof fix. but that’s not what the story is about.

to bruce, at the end of the day you’d have to live with the knowledge that you can never take it back a lethal strike, and that scares him. no killing is a limit he set for himself, a restraint to keep him from going too far, because if he starts he won’t be able to stop and he knows that.

he tries to instill that belief into his kids, because he knows that they can be better than he is, that they are better than he is, despite all the shit each of them have gone through. he doesn’t want them to loose that light y’know? that hope that they carried with them and brought into his life. because that’s what batman is, right? hope. hope for gotham, hope for people. hope for the future.

but of course, pushing his mortals onto them does a bit more harm than good. it’s what eventually drove dick and jason away. it’s what eventually led to a massive falling out and a heartbreaking murder a very dark time for gotham. because when jason died, that breaks bruce. he is furious and violent and hurt and he takes all of that pain and throws it mercilessly into batman. this is probably the closest he’s ever been to the brink and there’s no one to pull him back, which is when tim drake shows up with his camera and his photos and his wit and his stubborn attitude and his hope.

when jason did come back to life, he wanted vengeance, he wanted to kill the joker, he wanted to get rid of criminals permanently, to make sure no one would be hurt like him ever again. he wanted to kill the joker and bruce wouldn’t let him. he doesn’t agree with jason’s methods, but that doesn’t mean he cares any less. that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t burn down the world for his kids. all members of the batfam want to protect their city and they’re doing it as best they can. each of them have their own method, each of them are their own hero, and yes it clashes with bruce but it doesn’t change the fact that in the end, it boils down to the genuine need to help people, to make life better.

now, about the last bit, just. when has bruce ever been able to sit by and watch? all these kids running around with makeshift capes and iron wills, when has he sat back and just watched it happen? if all bruce did was observe from above, then we wouldn’t have batman. no, bruce sees the violence and stands and does something about it, tries to break the cycle.

he sees dick, angry and hurt and grieving, with a burning need for justice and the drive to go out and find it himself, and sees himself in this ten year old kid. so he does something about it, because it’s too late for him but maybe he can make it better for the kid. he takes dick in and teaches him, watches him make a name for himself. Robin and then Nightwing.

he sees jason, who is literally is trying to steal the batmobils tires. who’s standoffish and weary and seen the worst that gotham has to offer but is still kind. and batman picks him up by the scruff and takes him home and absorbs him into the family, teaching him to be robin and mourning when he’s gone.

he sees tim—or better, tim is the one sees him—with his unshakable faith and terrible self esteem and hopeful, calculating eyes.

he sees stephanie and cass and duke and damian, he sees them all and he teaches each them everything he knows, trains them to the absolute best of his ability and tells them over and over that bats don’t kill, but in the end that’s all he can do. it’s a choice that they have to make when it comes down to it. a bar they have to set for themselves.

bruce is not a cold, unfeeling asshole with a superiority complex. despite the act, he isn’t. he’s just some guy dressed like a bat trying to make this house a home. if he was an unfeeling asshole with a superiority complex, then he wouldn’t go around adopting kids left and right. he could’ve just let them run off on the streets, trying to fight crime and solve mysteries all on their own. but he didn’t. he wouldn’t. and that says something.

#dances dances #i’m. very passionate about batman #maybe a little insane even #but yeah #he learns from his children and he learns from his mistakes and he cares and he hopes and he loves #yes bruce has messed up yes he’s done things that hurt the family but he’s not heartless #yes his refusal to kill the joker strained his relationship with jason but that doesn’t mean he was outright DEFENDING joker #yes jason is also valid for wanting to kill the joker and wanting to avenge himself??? like #jason isn’t heartless either #yeah he used lethal force and was willing to kill but that doesn’t mean he cared less about protecting people #he still wanted to keep gotham safe and he did it how he thought was right #the batfam is messy and complicated and their morals are all valid in their own right and it’s wonderful?? #anyways uh #yeah #i like them a lot #i had to have this proof read by my friend bc i didn’t know if. i knew what i was talking about hshdhHSHDF #shout out to my bff jayme for listening to me ramble for two hours

[oifaaa]

so ive just read UTRH and ok. i dont know if jason can ever be comfortable around his family to like, not be an asshole to them? like yes he wasnt an asshole to the batfam in the webcomic Redhood and the Outlaws but the webcomic also nerfed him really hard (they take away his batman funding so jason flies economy rather than just steal money? ok jan).

idk. im having a lot of conflicting feelings about jason. mostly "maybe if you stop being an asshole to your family they'll stop being assholes to you" but also "you should stop trying to seek validation from your family and go back to using real bullets"

See I really don't like any rhato media including the webcomic I just feel like it all really misunderstands Jasons anger and changes his character too much - in utrh Jasons anger is 100% just being angry at Bruce he says he's pissed bc Bruce didn't avenge him after he died especially bc it was joker who killed him the most unredeemable person in existence - then they do something really interesting in countdown where its explored more if Bruce killing the joker would actually make Jason happy and the answer is firmly no which furthers the question why did Jason want Bruce to the kill the joker even though he knows Bruce never would and the answer is simply bc he knew Bruce wouldn't he wanted Bruce to fail bc he needed a reason to be angry at Bruce he needed his anger to be justified bc he never took the time to really examine why he felt the way he did - which leads me to the point I want to make Jason will never be able to play happy families with this other bat's until he does a fuck ton of soul searching to really figure out why he was so angry post resurrection and if there is any possible future where he could co exist with the bat's or if its better that he stays away

#Ask #Anon #Jasons character really was going somewhere before n52 #I even like his pure villain arc #Bc I can twist it as #Even after Bruce died Jason was still angrywl #And instead of putting effort into figuring out why that is #He lashes out at dick and damian #Also did I use this ask to just discuss Jasons character again bc I'm actually feral about him #Mmmm ye

[bigskydreaming]

In the extremely unlikely event that Bruce dies for real, or finally retires, who out of his various children do you think should (not could) inherit the Cowl? Just based on skills and temperament, who do you think would be a perfect fit for the next Batman?

I’m a firm proponent of the Cass For Batman movement. 

Here’s the thing…..I think by the time any of the Batkids are old enough/tall enough to pull off the cape and cowl look….any and all of the Batkids have the skills to be Batman, or hell, even to surpass him. I’ve always said the high concept of the Batfam is that they’re a family of Mary Sues, that’s their point. Put any one of them in a room with any non group of Bats, and they’re all by default likely to be the most skilled, best fighter, etc, etc. But them together….eh, too many people IMO spend too much time trying to rank them when it seems pointless to me…..you put a family of Mary Sues all together in the same room, they’re all still Mary Sues. (And keep in mind, I’m not using Mary Sue as an insult. Obviously. I love them all, lol. And Batman is the original Mary Sue as far as I’m concerned).

So bottom line is, any one of them could be Batman, skill-wise. Cass I think is the only one who has consistently truly wanted to be, temperament and ambition wise.

I was a big fan of Dickbats, when he wore the cowl. He was good at it, both times, after Bane and then when Bruce was believed dead. He’s Bruce’s eldest and has been by his side the longest of all of them, there’s a degree to which part of me wants to say it should always go to Dick after Bruce, just in acknowledgment of all of that, but honestly? It shouldn’t IMO - again, I liked the Batman we got when Dick wore the cowl before, but it took a toll on him from a character standpoint, because he’s never wanted to be Batman is the thing. He wants to be his own person, of his own design….yeah, he stepped up and made being Batman work for him, on his terms, but it was never his first choice, and IMO never would be, and I’m all about Dick getting to choose. So no, it shouldn’t be him.

There’s at least one Earth in the DC Multiverse where Jason became Batman and was good at it. But with Jason its all about temperament. I honestly don’t think Jason wants to be Batman, not anymore. He wanted to be Batman during Battle for the Cowl, but that Jason was written extremely OOC then and by Morrison as well after that, IMO. He cared more about making a point to his family - or at least Bruce (or even just the ghost of Bruce) - than he cared about innocents, and that’s never been a take on him I find convincing or compelling. I’m fine with Jason killing, I’m behind him on a lot of occasions, but that’s only a Jason who kills out of empathy for the victims who will never see justice otherwise, because a broken system just flat out doesn’t care about them. 

And I think ultimately Jason’s biggest grievance with Bruce is he sees Bruce’s refusal to kill his murderer as proof that Bruce ultimately doesn’t care about Jason, based on an inverse of the same logic - and with this being something that Jason has trouble just flat out owning up to in that specific sense (at least after UTRH), because he refuses to be a victim, and Bruce has already made his choice there once, as far as Jason’s concerned, and Jason is too proud to beg or ask a second time. But during the Battle for the Cowl era, Jason wanted to be Batman, but to prove a point, that his way of being Batman is better than Bruce’s, and like I said…..that just never felt like Jason to me. His conflict with people is often based on him believing he’s right, but its not truly about proving that or needing to, IMO….he just believes he is and does what he does. He craves being avenged, not being validated.

So bottom line is, I don’t think Jason in this main Earth would ever really want to be Batman, because BFTC aside…..I think he’s perfectly aware and comfortable with the fact that his way is not Batman’s way. That who he is by choice is not who Batman is, or would really choose to be. And he’s fine with that. The thing about Jason, as far as I’ve always seen it, is he’s never been upset that Batman wouldn’t kill the Joker, his murderer, that Batman wouldn’t avenge him. He gets why Batman wouldn’t. The thing that he can’t ever really reconcile is that Bruce, his Dad wouldn’t avenge him, whether as Batman or just as a grieving father. And that ultimately has nothing to do with Batman as a concept, as a hero or anything with someone who is not Bruce under that cowl. And thus who and what Batman is, ultimately has nothing Jason really needs or wants to be.

Tim, just like the older two, is more than capable of being Batman…..but he doesn’t want to be either. He’s afraid of who he might be as Batman, ultimately. He’s more than once been shown visions of a future where he’s Batman, or faced time traveling future versions of himself as Batman, and its never been a pretty picture. Tim as Batman, in the various futures he’s seen that come to pass in, almost as a warning, is someone who in each of them has kinda gone full Dark Side, embraced the idea of vengeance over justice, or total control over even the chance of chaos befalling someone he cares about, etc. Because Tim does have these tendencies, I’ve always maintained, and he’s not oblivious to them either. He doesn’t deal well with loss, and has a tendency to lose himself in his refusal to accept loved ones as being gone (even though yes, admittedly he is sometimes right to), or just….a denial of the way things are. 

And Tim, like any of the Batkids, is more than capable of circumventing the way things are, by virtue of genius inventions, time travel, etc, or manipulating powerful beings into acting exactly as he needs them to in order to achieve some end, etc. So the thing is, any of the Batkids losing themselves to their refusal to accept things the way they are, the natural order of things, is a potentially dangerous thing, because there is very little they aren’t capable of when they put their minds to it, but Tim is the one who is most afraid of this possibility. Dick rejects the possibility as willfully and stubbornly as he can, when people try and force it on him. Jason has at times accepted it and not looked back until much later if at all. Cass has lived it and found it to be her worst nightmare, and Damian was taught to embrace it and had to unlearn that.

Tim is distinct in this regard, in the sense that he’s the one most afraid of being tempted by it, and afraid that he could be tempted…….its not so much that he’s walked a fine line with this in the past, he’s never really done all that much in terms of becoming the future versions of himself he fears, here and now in the present….but he is aware that something about him and his choices attracts the likes of Ra’s al Ghul’s attentions the way Dick attracts the attentions of Slade, Cobb and various other assassins. Ra’s tends to focus on Tim and trying to get him to side with him, more than he really ever does the others, not because any of them couldn’t be just as deadly were they to side with them, but rather I’ve always viewed it a matter of temperament……I think Ra’s has always viewed Tim as being the one he has the best chance of convincing to side with him or try things from his POV…..because he knows or believes, or at least Tim sees it that way, as Tim being the one who could be potentially sold on the idea of total control. Of having the power to ensure nothing harms anything that he is protective of, that he has power enough to stop even death from reaching his loved ones.

But, at the same time, Tim is also the Batkid who is most invested in…..kinda….preserving the idea, and the reality, of the Batman who has been his hero since he was a kid. The Batman that he tracked down and sought out in order to try and help him in any way he could when he was only thirteen. To try and keep safe and to keep from becoming the darker version of himself he was becoming after Jason’s death in his grief. 

Like….to Dick, Batman was always just Bruce, his partner….he wasn’t someone he had a lot of preconceptions about before he met him. He’s never really been anything but Bruce to him, and thus he’s never actually been some larger than life figure. He’s known him as his guardian and father figure as much as he’s known him as his mentor and teacher…they go hand in hand for him, not really much of a time gap in between him being the one and becoming the other. So in as much as Dick has always looked up to Bruce from an early age, Batman has never been any kind of mythic ideal for him….its just Bruce in another guise. His guardian, friend and eventually dad. 

And then to Jason….I’ve talked about this before, but I think Jason and Dick are both the reverse of Tim and Damian because the latter two came looking for Batman and stayed for Bruce, but the older two came to trust Bruce first and only came to trust Batman because of that. And so to Jason, Bruce was his dad even before Batman was his mentor and partner, and no matter how much Jason may have enjoyed being his partner at times and wanted to impress him as Robin, it was always Bruce that Jason valued far more than Batman. If he had to choose between the two, he’d choose Bruce every time, and at times I would describe their conflicts even before his death as being the result of Batman kinda getting in the way, when Jason just wanted to talk to Bruce, his dad. 

But to Tim….even while its not like Tim as Robin was naive or had this unrealistic view of Bruce or the fact that he was as human as anyone else….and even though its not like he didn’t value Bruce for who Bruce was aside from Batman, and eventually see and value him as his father……there’s always been a difference to the way he speaks of Batman, the idea of Batman. He’s the first of the Batkids to ever really approach viewing the cape and the man underneath it as something….necessary to Gotham. That the city or even the world needed, the way Batman was before Jason’s death, and that Tim felt driven to try and bring him back to. Dick and Jason were both aware of Bruce’s good qualities and all the things Batman did to protect the world of course, but while to them that was more or less just Bruce doing things in the way that made the most sense to him or worked best for him, Tim’s the one whose first real glimpse of Batman and view of him was formulated at a distance, where all he could really see was what the Batman presented to the world and thus represented, before he was close enough to see the man behind the mask. 

So he’s the one to first or most wholly truly grasp the symbol of Batman….and that’s what I’m trying to get at there. He respects what Batman stands for, the necessity of that, the Batman he’s dedicated so much time and energy and his own life to safeguarding and preserving that heroic/protector spirit of his as much as he has prioritized physically guarding that Batman’s back as Robin…..like, Batman as Tim wholly believes Batman should be, matters far to much to Tim to ever ‘jeopardize’ by giving into Ra’s temptations, or his own dark visions or future glimpses of who he might become. And so no, Tim would never want to be Batman either, because he’s afraid of the Batman he might be, and its too important to him that Batman be what Tim believes the city and the world needs Batman to be.

And then there’s Damian, who again, is more than capable, at least by the time he’s an adult, and unlike pretty much all the others, has spent most of his life intent on becoming Batman. He’s always viewed it as his birthright, his destiny…….but that was before he came to Gotham, met his father as well as his brothers, and was Robin to Dick’s Batman. There’s a lot of reasons why I think whether he’s even totally realized it yet or not, I don’t think Damian still wants to become Batman even as of this point. Such as the fact that with the right writers, he’s discovered that he likes the freedom to choose who he might be, the unknown of it all rather than the certainty and thus the restrictions of being confined to an inevitable destiny. Various events since he’s come to Gotham, like him dying, discovering his grandfather intended to try and use him as his new younger vessel, etc….many of them to different degrees have made him view fate as being just as likely to be a trap as it is to bring the freedom and power he once thought his fate promised him. He’s still young (and he’s still written by a bunch of shitty writers who see him and think “Oh, this is a brat with an attitude and a history of violence, that means he’s basically the Antichrist like that other Damian was, yes?”) so there’s a lot of stopping and starting with this character growth, but the growth is there, if you focus on it and not just the writers who are like “I see a kid named Damian, I write that kid named Damian as pure evil, cuz I gotta, its the rule.”

But also……there’s an endless number of ways in which Dick and Damian are the mirror of Bruce and Dick at their beginning, and this is just one more of those to me. Because I think deep down, Damian no longer wants to be Batman, not all that dissimilar to how Dick never wanted to be Batman. Because it was never that Dick didn’t respect everything Batman stood for, and I don’t think it was ever that he was afraid of drowning in the darkness typically associated with the mantle….because Dick was the one who was truly in the dark spot when he first met Batman. Batman was his light before Dick ever climbed out of his depression, reignited his own inner light, and became Bruce’s light too. So Bruce’s Batman didn’t ever equal just darkness to Dick in the first place. No, Dick’s real issue with being Batman was always just that it wasn’t him…it was his dad. He didn’t want to wear his dad’s old clothes, he wanted to be someone that was uniquely and distinctly him.

And I think its the same thing for Damian at this point. Even though he’s been Bruce’s Robin as much as he was Dick’s, Dick was Damian’s first Batman, the one who made him Robin in the first place. And I think despite what Damian grew up thinking Batman was….when he came to Gotham he really only had enough time to grasp the fact that nothing he thought he knew about Batman or his father was accurate….before Bruce was believed dead. So the new image he formed of Batman, of who and what he was, the Batman that replaced those false impressions…..was Dick’s version of Batman. And now, I think, that’s forever kinda immortalized in Damian’s mind as what Batman is supposed to be, and so I don’t think he wants to be Batman anymore, because that’s not him. 

And not even because of insecurity, like he wouldn’t be capable of being that Batman, but rather because I think Dick is the one who taught him to seek more for himself than just what he’d been told was his destiny by others, to choose it for himself….and so I think Damian would never truly want to be Batman at this point because to him, Batman is forever the guy telling him to be his own man, something new, something he hasn’t even thought of yet…..not just some other version of the identity he’d thought was his destiny since he was old enough to talk.

Duke also would be more than capable of being Batman, and I could see certain AUs where it might end up being him, and I’d like to see some of those AUs, but ultimately I don’t see him wanting it either for much the same reason as most of the other boys: Duke’s someone who’s also found power in finding himself in his own identity, building his own mantle and persona and name for himself from scratch as The Signal, rather than step into the shoes left by someone else. I’m short changing Duke here, as he deserves more than just that sparknotes paragraph, but this post has more than gotten away from me already and its late, so I will happily come back to that at a later time if anyone wants.

But that brings me back to Cass. As I said, its not about her being the best fighter of them, like, that making her inherently more suited for the cowl skill wise or whatever….since any and all of them are hyper-competent across the board and possessing their own various specialties. So they’re all more than skilled enough. But its a temperament thing, the thing she has marked off in the pro column of “Why I Should Be Batman” that none of the others do. Its that of all of them, she’s the one who truly wants it, and for the right reasons. Who sees power in it, for herself, the kind of power that she would choose to wield in defense of others, power that she wants to be the kind that defines her and who she is as a hero. As opposed to the boys who see it as something they’re leery of, or that they feel embodies a sense of self that just isn’t them. 

Any of the boys as Batman, just like Dick did, would likely do better at it than they thought. They would likely do so through each of them subtly redefining it in their own ways, making it their version of Batman, a Batman each of them could comfortably be, without losing themselves in it. But the same isn’t true for Cass, I think, because that’s the point: she wants to be the Batman that Batman already is, to her. 

She wants to fill those shoes, because of all of the kids, she and Tim I think are the closest here, in that they’re the two who never fully stopped seeing the larger than life symbol of Batman, even after getting to know and love the man underneath it….but while for Tim, that symbol was more about what it represented to Gotham, what it could be for the world….for Cass, that symbol was more about what it represented to her. Batman was her hero, before she ever saw him be anyone else’s…..he was what saved her, that made her believe she was worth saving, and Batman, that Batman, is what Cass in turn wants to be for other people. The hero for them that he was for her.

At his best, Bruce has been many things to his various children, as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman. He was the light that first showed Dick the way through his trauma, he was the father that Jason never had, he was the symbol that Tim believed in from afar and that lived up to that promise even when Tim met the man underneath, and he was the legend that Damian heard and wanted to be.

But for Cass, and only Cass….he was all of those things at the same time.

And that is why I think Cass is ultimately the only true successor to the Batman that is, (or at least, the Batman that he is, when at his best aka not written by Tom King or those of similar ilk). Rather than a successor who would become a Batman in name, but with their own individualized take and reinterpretation of the cowl and what it means or stands for when worn by them. And its why I think Cass is also the only one who truly wants to be that successor, and for reasons she finds fulfillment in, rather than seeing as baggage that weighs her down or keeps her mired in the past, in grief, stuck walking the same path someone else already walked. She knows who Batman is to her, and what his symbol represents, and she knows that its everything she wants to be, and nothing that she would feel trapped or limited by, rather than empowered by.  

I think any and all of her siblings have the potential to someday mirror their own pasts with Batman and Bruce, and who he was to them:

For Dick, being who and what Bruce was for him when he needed him first - that means being Dick Grayson, with Batman merely a secondary title. Just like it was Bruce Wayne he had needed, with Batman merely incidental to that….and all of this being born out as true with Damian, when he ultimately responded to Dick’s efforts to reach him far more than Dick-as-Batman’s.

For Jason, being who and what Bruce was for him might mean being a father someday - and with who he is as the Red Hood potentially being the thing that gets in the way of that, just as Batman was what sometimes got in the way of him and Bruce. And thus with the Red Hood being the thing he might have to choose to hang up and put behind him, if he truly wants to learn from the mistakes his father made with him.

For Tim, being who and what Bruce was for him at first, would ironically mean being the darker, grief-driven version of himself that needed someone else to remind him of who he was…..a version of himself for some precocious would-be hero to save the way Tim had once been determined to save Bruce from himself.

And for Damian, being who and what Bruce was to him at first, would unfortunately mean being in someone else’s eyes no different - and no more approachable - than the legend Bruce originally existed as for him. It might mean being distant and out of reach even as what someone really needed was for him to be there and in the flesh. And thus by extension meaning that given the choice, Damian would likely prefer to be for that someone what Dick taught him to be, what Dick was for him…..real and present for that someone else, even if they weren’t that person’s first choice.

And so only for Cass, would being who and what Bruce was for her, mean Cass being someone’s hero. The person who saved by inspiring, just as Batman had saved her by inspiring her. Protecting her by the mere act of proving that he wanted to protect her. Who gave her a new life just by showing her what was out there and what that life could look like.

That’s the Batman that Gotham’s future needs. The same Batman she needed, and the one only she can truly be because of that.

And that’s why IMO it should be her who ultimately takes their father’s place as Gotham’s Dark Knight.

[rkfstudio]

Top Ten Comic Characters of All Time (according to me)

Introduction/disclaimer:

This list is mine and is based on my personal and subjective criteria. My choices are based on what I have read in comics as opposed to other media. For instance, one of my favorite superheroes, Squirrel Girl, is not on this list because I have read next to none of her comics and my love of the character is based almost exclusively on her concept and her appearances in other media.

Also, some people might want to fault me and my list for a lack of “inclusiveness” or “representation” or whatever. Full disclosure: I’m a straight white dude and I tend to relate most to the straight white dude characters that have historically dominated the comics world. Thus, I’m more likely to be drawn to stories about those characters. I do not apologize for my tastes. If they radically differ from yours, feel free to make your own list and tell me why you like the characters you like. That would be awesome.

Finally, there are half a dozen characters outside this Top Ten that could jump into it at any moment. This list represents my Top Ten at the time I wrote this and is subject to change.

Still with me? Cool! Here we go!

 10. Wolverine

               Most people would put Logan aka James Howlett aka the Wolverine much higher on their lists, and I completely understand why. He is “the best he is at what he does” ™ and is one of the most complex and interesting characters in comics. He also, until his death a couple of years ago, was perhaps the most overexposed character in all of comics. He’s a down to earth guy who mostly just wants to be left alone, but neither the comic world nor the comic industry is willing to give him a break. With a cool and dark backstory and super cool powers, he’s one of the legitimate badasses in the Marvel universe.

9. Blue Beetle/Jaime Reyes

               “What is this blasphemy?! Jaime Reyes ranked higher than Mr. Snikt?!” Yes. This is my list and I say Jaime gets a higher spot.

Hear me out on this. Beetle gets this spot on my list mainly due to his introductory arc during DC’s “One Year Later” event and his recent “Rebirth” run. Both runs are well written with great character interaction and dialogue. Jaime’s just a regular high school kid who also happens to be a superhero. Not the most original concept (*cough* Spider-Man! *cough*) but he pulls it off in what feels like a fresh way. It also doesn’t hurt that he was a show stealer in his recurring role in the “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” cartoon a few years ago. But his comics just shine to me.

8. Batman

               More controversy! Batman is only at number 8! I realize most people place him much higher because he’s one of the more relatable members of DC’s top-flight heroes in that he’s just a man in a world of gods. For me, he suffers from the same kind of overexposure that Wolverine has had over the years. I also don’t tend to find him as interesting as the characters he deals with, whether his allies or his rogues' gallery. He’s a darker, more brooding Iron Man (I realize Batman came first, but I think the comparison is still valid). I find him at his best when he’s forced to play with others, especially Superman, because the tension between the “solitary crimefighter” and the “super team” dynamics can be so fun. Recommended reading includes the Justice miniseries by Alex Ross and Co. and the Justice League: Lightning Saga story arc.

7. Captain Marvel/Shazam!

               For the five of you that are still reading, this entry might be the last straw. Bear with me. Batman is the dark, brooding hero of the night. Captain Marvel (or Shazam for those willing to give up the ghost of Fawcett Comics) is the polar opposite of that: he is bright, colorful, and full of whimsy. Whimsy and wonder are both things that are in short supply in this post-Watchmen comics world, and that’s a shame. It’s that harkening back to the core of how comics began that is a large part of his appeal to me. Interestingly enough, it’s a couple of his more recent stories that have made me love him as a character. Jeff Smith, of Bone fame, wrote an origin miniseries for Captain Marvel called Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil and it’s wonderful. Also recommended is his part in the previously mentioned Justice series.

6. Captain America

               This is a more conventional pick. Cap makes this list for similar reasons to the previous Captain on this list: he represents the values and sentiments of a bygone age. In particular, his refusal to compromise his beliefs regardless of the personal cost is a breath of fresh air and too seldom seen anymore. Leader, soldier, champion of liberty, that’s Cap. Look up his run in the New Avengers series up through the Civil War arc to see exactly what I’m talking about.

Also, Hydra Cap never happened. Just no.

5. Joker

               You know how the last two choices were upstanding, almost squeaky-clean citizens?

              Yeah, good times.

              For someone completely different, Number Five gives us the Joker. He is, bar none, the most fascinating supervillain ever, responsible for some of the most twisted moments in mainstream comics. Jason Todd? That was the Joker. Barbara Gordon? Yep, that was him, too. Harley Quinn? Mistah J says, “You’re welcome.” The Joker is sick, twisted, and downright evil, and he embraces it like no other. Sometimes, a villain isn’t misunderstood; sometimes a villain is just a villain. And the Joker does “villain” with a style all his own. Required reading includes the Justice series (can you tell I like this series? I do.), the Dark Knight Returns, and, of course, The Killing Joke.

4. Superman

               Honestly, I thought Supes would be higher on my list. He’s the first superhero and still, to me at least, one of the best. I realize most folks find him to be too powerful to be relatable, and there’s no small amount of validity to that point. But the best part of this character isn’t his ability to punch planets out of orbit or “leap tall buildings” or any of that. It’s his... well, his character. That middle-America farmer’s son upbringing, with its sense of right and wrong that has so seldom failed him, is what makes Superman more than just the Last Son of Krypton. To borrow from Kingdom Come, it’s the “man” more than the “super” that makes him special. It’s what makes him a symbol of virtue and excellence, a standard to which we can aspire. It’s Clark Kent, rather than Kal-El, that I want to be like. Some good reading includes the aforementioned Kingdom Come, The Superman/Batman Supergirl arc (this is actually a good Batman read, as well) and, you guessed it, Justice.

3. Hellboy

               Sadly, this is the only non-Big-Two character on my list. For now. I’m just starting to branch out so future lists might have more.

               Anyway, Hellboy makes the list because he isn’t what you’d expect him to be. The son of a major league demon and destined to bring about the apocalypse, he should be an earth-shattering villain. But he’s a hero because of his upbringing by a paranormal expert. Nurture triumphing over Nature. The monster as the hero. Also, he’s just a fun character and his stories are good stuff. Of particular note, mainly because this is what I’ve read, is the recent Hellboy and the BPRD 1950s series.

2. Rocket Raccoon

               If you’ve read this far, this pick really shouldn’t surprise you. Sometimes, we want heroes to inspire us to be better people.  Sometimes, we just want a raccoon with a big flarkkin’ gun. Rocket’s recent string of short series, both solo and with Groot, are just fun reading.

1. Hulk

               This was the one pick I didn’t need to think about; Hulk was at Number One from the start. The concept of a super smart guy who turns into a raging monster when he loses his cool resonates with me on an intensely personal level. While he has had quite a few strange turns in his comics history, the big guy really came into his own during the Planet Hulk series, where he was shot into space by his best “friends” to a planet full of enemies and dangers that only the Hulk could survive. His development from monster to gladiator to fugitive to king, and then to vengeful conqueror in the following World War Hulk, is one of my favorite arcs in all of comics. Whether big and kind of dumb or big and super smart or somewhere in between like in the stories I’ve mentioned, Hulk is my Number One comic character of all time. At least until the next time.

                So, that’s my list. But what’s a list like this without some honorable mentions?

Honorable Mentions:

12. Rorschach

               This is the obligatory Watchmen pick. While I don’t like the story, I appreciate the historical impact it’s had on the comics industry. Rorschach is the only character that I can call anything close to a “good guy” despite his extreme homicidal tendencies. His refusal to go along with the alien invasion story covering Ozymandias’s murder of millions of people “so billions might live”, his refusal to accept the lesser evil, shows an integrity that is perhaps outdated but no less laudable for being outdated.

13. Renee Montoya/the Question

               The first woman on this list and it’s neither Wonder Woman nor fan-favorite Kitty Pryde. Renee Montoya is, to me, a more interesting character than either, mostly because she’s very flawed. She’s rough around the edges; she drinks to excess; she has doubts about her abilities and her value as a detective. I gather most of this info from her run in DC’s 52 series, which is a great read on its own.

16. Lex Luthor

               This guy.

               This guy right here.

               He’s the stereotypical “evil businessman” and yet he is so much more. A legit genius who inevitably uses that genius to fight petty grudges rather than help humanity reach claims potential like he claims to care about. Kingdom Come, Justice, you know the drill.

19. Iron Man

               Some characters combine seriously cool abilities with personalities that are seriously hard to like. Iron Man is cool; Tony Stark is just an egomaniacal jerk. It’s also worth noting that Tony often has to use Iron Man (and the Avengers) to fix problems of his own making. He’s a great character, but he’s not a good one.

25. Deadpool

               Because Wade was going to kill me if I didn’t put him somewhere on this list.

               Seriously. He’s standing right next to me while I’m writing this.

              Help me.

30. Death of the Endless

               I’ve honestly only read one issue featuring Death, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, #8. But that one issue is probably my favorite single comic issue ever. It’s stark, poignant, and beautiful. My list had 29 characters and I immediately thought of her for Number Thirty, but I’m sure she’ll move higher if I ever read any more of her stories.

               Well, that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this strange trip through my comic book preferences. For real, to all who’ve gotten this far, I’d love to read your Top Ten. I find the reasons why different people like different characters fascinating.

              Till next time, cheers, y’all!