I found a Barry Allen story I liked

On my plane ride back from Comic-Con International in San Diego on Sunday night, I re-read Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and Mark Waid’s 12-issue JLA: Year One from 1998 in its entirety. It’s not the first time I’ve done this; JLA: Year One is one of my favorite trades I own and a story I like to revisit at least once a year for various reasons.

First, it’s wonderfully written as Waid doesn’t just turn in great work per usual, but is wonderfully complimented by Augustyn, who also helped steer his awesome Flash run as both an editor and co-writer. You won’t find many stories that better balance varied action with heartfelt character development while also throwing in resolutions and twists both clever and perfectly “comic book-y” in their fun goofiness.

Second, it’s Barry Kitson at his finest, and that’s saying a lot as I love Barry Kitson. He’s an artist who seems equally comfortable with Silver Age square-chinned heroism and bizarre sci fi flourishes as he is with modern dynamic storytelling and effects, so he’s the ideal choice to bring the tales of the original Justice League from the 1960’s into the present.

(At this point I guess I should note that JLA: Year One is the then-definitive and expanded telling of the Justice League’s first 12 months together with the post-Crisis On Infinite Earths, pre-Infinite Crisis/Final Crisis/New 52 continuity of Black Canary replacing Wonder Woman as a founding member as well as Superman and Batman’s roles having been minimized)

Third, it’s a giant Easter Egg fest with all my favorites from around the DC Universe dropping by in guest roles or cameos so Kitson can draw them, Waid and Augustyn can shoot them some dialogue, and you can get a sense where everything fits. The Justice Society, Superman, Doom Patrol and Green Arrow all get significant screen time—particularly the DP in an awesome two-parter—but there’s also nice bits for everybody from Batman to the original Blue Beetle, plus a funny little subplot with the Blackhawks and little in-jokes involving Ted Kord, Maxwell Lord and others.

Fourth and foremost (so I guess it should have been first), I love stories about super heroes coming together as allies and becoming friends along the way, putting the concept of a shared universe to full use. The five member JLA—Aquaman, Black Canary, Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter—start the series as tentative associates, but have their bonds forged, tested, broken and solidified several times over. I’ve always had a soft spot for team books in comics because I love camaraderie, and I’m a sucker for series like this or Joe Casey and Scott Kolins’ Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes where they take legendary groups that initially had pretty cut and dry “we’re teaming up to fight” origins back in the day and inject some heart and pathos.

However, this time around, I discovered yet another reason this is a great piece of work: It made me really like Barry Allen.

I think my negative feelings toward Barry Allen have become exaggerated over time, both by myself and others. I don’t hate Barry Allen, he’s just obviously not my Flash and as such I’m somewhat predisposed to look at him a bit negatively. I’m not against Barry Allen so much as I’m against anything that prevents Wally West from being the A-1 Fastest Man Alive and thus his flaws stand out to me.

My biggest knocks against Barry have always been that he was kind of bland and his heyday and also that his death was an amazing story but one that rendered him such an untouchable beacon of heroism that as a living character he becomes tough to relate to.

The first note is really a product of the period he was created in more than anything else; as the very first major hero of the Silver Age, Barry predated the more three-dimensional characters that would fill the next couple decades and thus emerged as a weird hybrid of stoic Golden Age champion and nerdy 50’s era science protagonist. He remained this way up through the 80’s and then missed out on getting reinvented the way most of his contemporaries did because he was the big Crisis sacrifice. Geoff Johns has already made inroads in updating Barry with a personality more compelling to a modern reader, but he had an uphill battle; I’m actually thinking the upcoming reboot will helps Barry perhaps more than many as being a couple years younger and having a cleaner slate could really benefit his development.

Then there’s that big Crisis sacrifice I mentioned. Barry Allen literally gave his life to save the multiverse by running so fast he destroyed the Anti-Monitor’s big ass weapon. You can’t really top that as a final act. He was perfectly cast from that point forward as the patron saint of the DC Universe; the role model Wally West can never really live up to and the hero of heroes everybody else speaks of in glowing reverential tones. It’s hard to pull a guy like that down from the heavens and have everybody treat him as just a dude again.

But in JLA: Year One, Barry Allen is years away from saving the multiverse and also anything but bland.

The cast in JLA: Year One is roughly analogous to the cast of a high school movie/TV show; Green Lantern is the cocky jock, Black Canary is the hot girl with an attitude, and Aquaman and Martian Manhunter represent the two stereotypes of foreign exchange student: brooding loner and well-meaning outcast. Barry Allen is the nice guy who lacks the bluster of GL, but is more confident than J’onn and more comfortable than Aquaman; Black Canary shows a romantic interest in him because he’s clearly the most well-adjusted and likeable of her options. If JLA: Year One were The Breakfast Club, Barry would be about halfway between Emilio Estevez and Anthony Michael Hall, which happens to be exactly where I think most readers—certainly myself—would identify themselves (Hal Jordan is halfway between Estevez and Judd Nelson).

Waid and Augustyn retain the heart of Barry’s Silver Age incarnation by showing his work life and having him display his scientific knowledge, but they don’t let his—for lack of a better term—nerd side define him. It’s not hard to figure out why a bombshell like Iris West is interested in him as while he may be chronically tardy, he is demonstratively caring and considerate toward her, not closed off and cerebral with a love interest just because the formula dictated it. Likewise, the dynamic between Barry and Hal makes sense; they may have different personalities, but they also have a starting commonality in this super hero life and look out for one another. I like the scene where Barry super speed paints a machine Hal needs to move yellow to blue so GL won’t be embarrassed that his ring won’t work on it, not because he’s trying to win the cool guy’s affection but because he’s a nice guy and they’re genuinely becoming friends; it’s a little thing, but it makes him more human.

The romantic subplot between Flash and Black Canary is one I enjoy as well. For one, the cool girl gravitating towards the soft spoken gentleman as opposed to the bombastic loudmouth will always be a winner with the geek crowd. But Barry’s end does a lot to flesh him out as well. Of course he’s attracted to the gorgeous girl he can talk to about the things he needs to hide from his fiancée and who is expressing interest in him over the more obvious choices; again, he’s only human. That he weakens, that they share a kiss, builds the drama but also adds a layer of vulnerability and flaw to him that he never had in his original incarnation; that he ultimately chooses Iris makes him a guy we still look up to.

But without a doubt my favorite scene really in the entire series is when the entire team is on the verge of breaking up despite the threat of an alien invasion looming because they feel like they can’t trust each other, as they’re going their separate ways Flash pulls off his mask and then it flips to a full splash page close-up of his face with him saying “My name is Barry Allen. I’m a forensic scientist with the Central City Police Department.” The rest follow suit, revealing their identities, and then the Justice League charge off to save the day.

It’s not running to his death on a treadmill of doom to save countless universes, but it’s still the turning point moment and it’s still The Flash who gets it done.

Barry steps up in that moment because he is the leader of the team, though that’s a fact they’ve only just acknowledged. He’s the leader not because he’s the loudest, the most confident or the most powerful, but because they trust him. Because he’s a good guy. He’s not the token scientist or the guy who gives his life to save reality; he’s just a good, solid guy doing his best.

That’s a Barry Allen I’m very interested in reading more about.

Upcoming in September, a new era begins for The Flash and there’s great potential we could be following the adventures of a Barry Allen more along these lines. He’s going to be younger. Hopefully he’ll be a bit more at ease with himself as he was in this series. Hopefully he won’t have the Crisis sacrifice hanging over his head like a Sword of Damocles forcing everybody around to walk on eggshells around him. Francis Manapul seems like he’s got great enthusiasm for the character so I’m excited to see where he takes him.

And I implore him to check out JLA: Year One.

Kyle Rayner for the Justice League

I’m not saying anything revolutionary or controversial when I say I think Kyle Rayner belongs on the Justice League. I’m well aware of this, but just for kicks, let me state the case anyhow.

In the recent past, I’ve stumped for Wally West to be a fixture on the Justice League not only because he’s my favorite DC character, but also because he has tenure there, has proven value as a member of an ensemble cast, and quite frankly, because nothing else is being done with him and he’s too good to go to waste. Kyle and Wally have been kindred spirits since the former was introduced, sharing the whole successor to Silver Age icons deal as well as a certain demeanor that appealed to my generation, so in a perfect world I can’t see why both shouldn’t be sitting pretty on the Watchtower, but let’s deal with the guy I haven’t talked as much about this time around.

There are four Earth-based Green Lanterns at the moment, and three books in their franchise, leaving one guy the natural odd man out.

My personal least favorite GL, Hal Jordan, has the good fortune of being written by Geoff Johns, who has the uncanny ability to craft gold around even the most unlikable of leads—though I’m well aware plenty of people like Hal—and he’s also got Ryan Reynolds playing him in a movie this summer, so he’s sitting pretty in the catbird seat as star of the lead Green Lantern title. While Hal was a Justice League stalwart for many years, most of his generation has cycled out at this point, and the last thing anybody needs is the current face of the franchise looking like an elder statesman, so him doing his own thing is for the best right now.

Guy Gardner was an awesome and essential part of Justice League International and I’ve always been curious to see how he’d function in a more traditional League line-up, but frankly his personality may be a bit too big for the average team setting. He deserves his own book and is nicely carrying Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors right now; if Justice League: Generation Lost gains a well-deserved ongoing birth of some sort, Guy would certainly be an in demand guest star or late addition there.

Ostensibly, Kyle Rayner and John Stewart share the lead of Green Lantern Corps, with Ganthet and others thrown in for good measure. Of late, however, there seems to have been a resurgence among writers as far as a desire to flesh out Stewart’s character—I’m all for this. There is a lot to explore when it comes to John Stewart. The military man who is socially enlightened, the lost loves, the guilt of letting a planet die, that time he was a Darkstar, that time he was crippled—all fertile ground perfect for a book like GLC where he can share the spotlight with a few lesser players but not get lost in the shuffle of an A-list team.

That leaves us with Kyle, who’s way too solid on his own to be John or Guy’s sidekick, but also unlikely to regain top billing from Hal anytime soon.

So put him in the Justice League.

Grant Morrison got a lot of good years out of Kyle being the rookie Leaguer trying to live up to the shadow left by Hal Jordan. With the nearly fully cycle rotation of the League now being filled with newbies and claimants to legacies like Supergirl, Starman, Dick Grayson as Batman and so on, the once neophyte Green Lantern would have a new role as the young veteran who has been where these guys are. As the more iconic figures return—because you know inevitably they will—Kyle becomes a bridge between generations much in the same way Wally was for him when he started out.

Kyle has always been a wish fulfillment character in my opinion more so than anybody else in the Green Lantern franchise. Getting handed a magic ring is basically a modern day take on the Aladdin fable and one that’s perhaps easier to buy into as a fan because you don’t have to be born with superhuman abilities or be on a mad vengeance quest because your loved ones died; as implausible as Green Lantern’s origin is, strangely enough it’s one we can picture happening to us because it doesn’t rely upon predetermined conditions or personal tragedy, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Despite that, Hal Jordan and even Guy Gardner or John Stewart were still somewhat removed from the average dude since they were selected based on their unflappable resistance to fear; Kyle Rayner became a Lantern literally because there was nobody else and Ganthet happened upon him in an alley (I know there have been debates and retcons about this, but I choose to keep reading it as it was originally written based on my own preference). That Kyle turned out to be a good guy and a great hero without being inherently built for it like Hal made him infinitely more relatable—at least for me—because here was proof that given the right opportunity, anybody can prove to be a champion.

Taking all that into consideration makes Kyle Rayner even cooler as a member of the Justice League. With Hal in there, it’s just another square-jawed alpha male joining the herd; Guy is the malcontent; John is a bit of a cipher; Kyle is us blessed with a chance to be great and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with guys like Superman not because he was destined to, but because he earned it.

Kyle’s an insecure, sensitive artist and also a romantic, all stuff that plays great in a team environment; heck he’s already dating another in a line of hot alien chicks at the moment, but two of his former ladies are on the current League and he’s just the kind of character who seems to have instant chemistry with everybody around him. He’s great as the best buddy, as the workplace crush, as the “little brother” and so on.

For these and many other reasons, Kyle Rayner deserves to be and would be a great fit in the Justice League. Would I love him and Wally West to have their own solo books? I suppose I would, but for some reason, right now I’d like them both in the JLA more. I like the idea of the League being a showcase for those “lost” characters too old to be Teen Titans but who can’t be the alpha members of their fraternities because of the legacy nature of the DC Universe. I dig the League being a hipper group of characters who were once sidekicks or big in the 90’s all grown up like Dick Grayson, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Donna Troy and maybe even Connor Hawke.

My buddy Sean T. Collins talks about the need for the Justice League to be filled with icons, and I agree with him, but I think if the characters are named Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. anyways, it’s not so much important who’s under the masks. Let Hal Jordan and Barry Allen get the exposure they need from their own books and let the guys who carried the ball shine as cornerstones of the team they’re too busy for right now. A lot of people prefer the Big Seven League because it feels important, but there’s the pitfall of the characters not being able to develop outside of their own titles, but here’s a great opportunity to have your cake and eat it too.

So there’s my pitch: Put Kyle Rayner back in the Justice League. Oh, and while you’re at it, Wally West too, please.

The Problem with the New Teen Titans

It’s no secret to anybody who has read this blog semi-regularly or spoken to me about comics more than once that Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans is not only high among my personal favorites, but in my opinion a shining example of the super hero medium at its finest; I’ve gone on about why at length.

However, as great as the NTT glory years of Wolfman and Perez (and later Wolfman with others) were, they’ve also plagued the characters who starred in those stories ever since.

The prime seven of New Teen Titans—like many I always think of Kid Flash as being more of a core member than Jericho though I believe the latter had tenure—occupied a unique spot in the hierarchy of the DC Universe back in the 1980’s in that they were able to age from their traditional role as kids into older teenagers and still have a place; the Justice League were obviously the adults, but the closest thing to a truth youth movement was going on in the 30th century with the Legion of Super-Heroes, so the Titans had their niche.

In the decades since, a new generation of true Teen Titans has come along while the JLA has remained stationary as far as aging, wedging the NTT into an awkward spot. Folks get their fix of grown-up heroes with Superman, Batman and company; if they want a younger take, they’ll check out Teen Titans; you’ve even got the buffet option of the JSA where the generations match up. The former New Teen Titans have in large part become the super hero equivalent of the townies that graduate high school and then rather than go to college or move on, just hang around their old haunts trying to relive their glory days but often just coming off desperate; they’ve become Matthew McConnaghy in Dazed and Confused or Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights, but unfortunately not always as cool.

The go-to solution to “the Titans problem” tends to be just tossing them in a group together and give them a book, but more than once this strategy has just reinforced how tough it is to recapture lightning in a bottle, particularly when you want your characters to grow and mature. It’s not a conundrum limited to the Titans either, as this went on for years with the New Mutants as well; fortunately Zeb Wells finally found a take that made the New Mutants work again—and I look forward to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning running with that baton—but it took a lot of swings and misses before the bat connected there.

For better or worse, I think the Titans have outgrown one another, at least as far as being grouped together on a monthly basis. When they have reunions, it should be an event, something truly special, but that means keeping the characters relevant and growing on their own in between. Besides: Wolfman, Perez and their successors—as well as predecessors in many cases—created some remarkable figures that really should be seeded across the DC Universe.

Here’s where I personally would put the New Teen Titans in the interest of them living up to their tremendous potential rather than festering in limbo or going through the retread motions.

DICK GRAYSON
The current Batman of Gotham City is exactly where he needs to be right now both as the star of several Bat-books and, more importantly in my eyes, leading the Justice League of America. One of my favorite aspects of Dick Grayson has always been that though he’s Bruce Wayne’s protégé, he also learned a lot from and modeled himself in part after Superman, and in the process really became the best of both. While the prime Batman is too anti-social and intimidating to be a leader but uses his genius-level strategic mind to direct things from behind the curtain and Superman does better as an icon since he can inspire but not really plan, Dick amalgamates those two skill sets and is the best pure leader in the DC Universe, a point that was made for years in NTT and then reinforced everywhere from The Obsidian Age to Infinite Crisis; he’s DC’s Captain America, able to direct his team both on and off the field. One of the best characters in comics, Dick Grayson has never really been hit by any sort of “New Teen Titans curse” and is right where he belongs at the forefront of the heroic community.

DONNA TROY
On the other hand, I appreciate James Robinson’s efforts with Donna Troy in Justice League of America—a book I feel compelled to note I quite enjoy, by the by—but something’s just not working for me. Obviously when you look up “damaged goods” in the imaginary encyclopedia of comics books I just created in my mind, there’s a picture of Donna staring back at you; the character has had her origin broken and glued back together so many times by sweeping continuity changes that along the way her sense of identity shattered and each subsequent fix seems to do more harm than good, regardless of the creators involved having best intentions. While she’s not a bad sub for the Wonder Woman spot in JLA, something about “den mother Donna” from New Teen Titans seeming so angry all the time doesn’t jive; certainly if any fictional character has earned the right to have a chip on her shoulder, it’s Donna Troy, but she also became so beloved lo those many years ago because she was the levelheaded Amazon who would put people in their place with kindness before resorting to throwing fists. You risk aging her by doing so, but it always seemed a natural fit to me that Donna would reside in the permanent mentor/bridge to their past role for the current Teen Titans that Cyborg and Starfire have filled in recent years to limited success. I’d enjoy seeing Donna in the big sister position not to just Wonder Girl, but the rest of the next gen heroes as well, and it would certainly give her a unique spot to fill in the DC Universe as a veteran taking an interest in the future who the kids could actually still relate to—and crush on—in contrast to the octogenarians of the JSA. Or maybe she should just stay in the JLA doing what she’s doing; Donna Troy is always going to be a tough knot to untangle.

WALLY WEST
I’m not going to get into a rant here, but Wally West belongs as The Flash in the Justice League of America. The beauty of having so many guys calling themselves The Flash should be that you can disperse them around where needed and everybody who needs a speedster gets one, plus every speedster gets some love. Barry Allen has the solo book, and besides, a big plot point for him thus far seems to be that he’s having a bit of a hard time readjusting to being around his old friends, so the JLA is no place for him. Wally, on the other hand, is one of DC’s most tenured and talented team players and was a fixture of the League for years; he’s not doing anything else and no starring roles seem in the offing, so put him where he belongs on the premiere team that happens to be led by his best friend. Obviously I’d personally be fine with jettisoning Jesse Quick to accommodate this—no offense to Ms. Quick—but if you wanted you could have both on the team like back during Devin Grayson’s Titans run, where it seemed to work fine.

RAVEN
I don’t dislike Raven’s current role as a revitalized—i.e. young again—member of the Teen Titans, but I could also see her doing more in the DC Universe at large, and with the character supposedly getting a CW show in the near-ish future, that seems like a good idea for all concerned. Given the substantial amount of younger mystic heroines already kicking around—Traci 13, Black Alice, etc.—Raven could be nudged back up into her late teens as she was when NTT wrapped and perhaps establish herself as the next level up from those ladies but still a bit beneath Zatanna or Doctor Fate. In the same way that Doctor Strange is the go-to guy whenever any Marvel hero needs magic help, Raven could be the DCU’s guide to the mystic realms and become a valuable guest star that stars in the occasional miniseries when somebody has a good idea. This may seem redundant given the folks I already mentioned, but with her demonic heritage, Raven is a more sensible shepherd than stage magician Zatanna or the still-novice new Fate when it comes to exploration into other dimensions or whatnot; she could be akin to Daimon Hellstrom in some senses, but she’s got a far richer background and more years of good stories to her name. In short, I think a break from the Titans would benefit Raven and give her a chance to grow into a vital part of the heroic structure of the DCU rather than just serving as a plot device to spawn new Trigon-related threats for her old teammates.

CYBORG
In recent years, Cyborg has become one of the science experts who get called in when Red Tornado gets broken or Arsenal needs a new arm, which has never rung true with me as it seems totally out of line with the core of the character. Vic being a smart guy should certainly be an aspect of his persona, but not the dominant trait; he shouldn’t just be played as Mr. Terrific with cool robot parts. I’m not suggesting Cyborg should be in angry young man mode indefinitely and certainly he no longer has the giant chip on his shoulder he had back when NTT kicked off, but even as recently as the Grayson Titans, he still had a healthy bit of attitude and street smarts to go with his burgeoning brain. I’m glad that the character has grown, but it feels sometimes like they went from point A to point Z skipping all the steps in between. I’d love to see Vic as a strong-willed team leader, rather than just the muscle, tech support or even mentor for a group. With the Outsiders name going into limbo again shortly, it would be neat to see some of DC’s true outsider characters, the ones who have been screwed over by normal society, band together—which is honestly how I’ve always wanted to see that name used—with Cyborg at the helm as a guy who found friends, family and acceptance, but also knows what it’s like to be desperately seeking.

STARFIRE
Of all the New Teen Titans characters, Starfire is the one who was among the richest back in the day, but has aged most poorly. Unfortunately, so much of what made Kory work when she was introduced was that naiveté and her raw displays of emotion that made her so alien even amongst a fantastic cast; she was the hot foreign exchange student and it worked great. However, when a character has been around for 30 years, you can’t write her as if she’s fresh off the bus—or spaceship—so a lot of what fueled Starfire has been stripped away and she’s too often played as bitter to try something different or falsely bright-eyed in attempt to recapture the glory. She’s at her most interesting around Dick Grayson playing off their long history, but he has evolved so much since they were seriously together that she’s almost like an anchor. I’m not sure quite what to do with Starfire, but I do feel she has too much untapped potential to waste. Her current spot in R.E.B.E.L.S. has some merit, but I think she’s more interesting as a stranger in a strange land on Earth. Perhaps with the Outsiders group I already mentioned? Serving as one of Oracle’s Birds of Prey and bonding/feuding with the other love of Dick Grayson’s life could certainly be interesting.

BEAST BOY
Gar Logan is another tricky fix as he embodies the Titan who is probably still a bit young to be in the big leagues—sure Supergirl is technically younger, but she’s more iconic and that carries with it a weird illusion of security—but comes off a bit as the skeevy college dropout who moved back home on the Teen Titans. A lot of Changeling was wrapped in being the “baby” of the NTT, but as with Starfire, it’s unrealistic for him not to have grown since that era. Geoff Johns and Ben Raab actually did a great job breaking Beast Boy out when they penned his miniseries, moving him up the dial a bit in large part by introducing his even more irresponsible cousin Matt for contrast and giving him a less experienced hero like Flamebird to provide guidance for. I think the Titans L.A. pitch that never was remains a good place for Gar and would like to see him heading up something like with guest appearances in the Titans book and elsewhere and whatever side projects the characters can support.

Five Favorite (Non-Flash) Speedsters

Since I spent some time last week waxing on how awesome super speed would be, it only seems right I now list off my favorite practitioners of said ability in comics, right?

To make things a bit more interesting though, I’m taking my obvious number one, Wally West, out of the—pun intended—running. To make things even more interesting, I’ll also remove anybody called The Flash (or Kid Flash) just because. And finally, I’ll endeavor to make this a list where it’s more about how the characters relate to and reflect the ability of super speed than their overall coolness, but of course the lines will inevitably blur.

Dig? Cool.

Honorable Mention: MEANSTREAK
No real discernibly cool personality, but I always just thought he had a rad codename.

Honorable Mention: JOHNNY QUICK
I like Johnny, but I haven’t read enough of All-Star Squadron to really know him as anything else but the dude from The Golden Age, and one story alone—even a really good one—doesn’t get you on the list.

5. XS
Combine your typical overexcited and oft-insecure teenage girl with the hyper kinetic nature of a person with super speed and you get XS, a bundle of fun from the 30th century. I always got a kick out of how Jenni would be incredibly enthusiastic over everything to the point where she spoke fast than her teammates could hear and then immediately flipped to extreme embarrassment once she realized just what she had done. Very endearing character and I hope she gets some play in Legion soon, as every team can use a good speedster.

4. MAKKARI
The Eternals’ Makkari combines my love of speedsters with my love of mythology in one gaudily-but-awesomely-costumed package. Mak’s the most inquisitive and adventurous of the Eternal bunch as befits an immortal god-type who can run really fast. Rather than cool his heels in Olympia with the rest of the gang, he made frequent incursions into the mortal world, be it to teach Plato philosophy or serve among the Marvel heroes of the Golden Age. Besides just the fact that he’s fast, I’m a fan of Makkari since he’s always on the move, jumping from one thing to the next with a natural curiosity that matches his ability to physically accelerate—he’s the James Franco of the Eternals.

3. JESSE QUICK
They don’t really play it up at all these days, but the era where Jesse Quick was not just a super hero but also a high-powered business executive always seemed an appropriate and interesting use of a speedster character to me. Of course whether they used their powers or not somebody with super speed like Jesse would be ideal in the corporate world where deadlines and innovation are key and of course she’d be a workaholic able to create more hours in a busy day because those are her powers and the environment she likely grew up in given her parents creeping into her personality. Her status as a headstrong female character who in my mind was assertive but certainly not the b-word also made Jesse Quick a favorite of mine during her Flash and even Titans stints.

2. MAX MERCURY
This is the flipside of my number one, but there is of course the aspect of super speed that allows you to live each moment as if it stretches a lifetime, so the idea of a “zen master of speed” such as Max Mercury both appeals and makes a lot of sense to me. After you pass the just running fast period of being a speedster, you’re going to get bored, and while frustration is one response, it’s cool that at least one guy took the road less traveled and spent the extra time his power affords him learning as much about it as he could. It’s neat the way Max has a better intuitive understanding of stuff like the Speed Force and also how he counters pretty much every other person with a similar ability set by having also learned near infinite patience and becoming the ideal mentor figure (though Impulse forced that “near” qualifier pretty well). There’s also a lot of untapped potential in Max Mercury as far as his crazy origins and not-fully-explored traipses through time, so an appearance by him is always welcome.

1. QUICKSILVER
In the years since Pietro Maximoff was introduced and then fully fleshed out and then further fleshed out as a character, there have been other speedsters who do the “I’m a total dick because I’m perpetually frustrated by how slow the rest of the world is” routine, but none as well, and of course inarguably none who innovated it. Quicksilver is a great character because cool powers aside, you really do have to find a reason to root for him; sure he loves his family and does generally save lives, but he’s also a former terrorist with a superiority complex who tends to lose his mind every so often. Probably no writer did him a great service than Peter David in X-Factor when he established the idea that Pietro isn’t a tool for no reason at all, he’s really just annoyed for the rest of us to figure out how to work an ATM machine. Kurt Busiek also had the great bit in JLA/Avengers where Quicksilver finally meets somebody faster than him in The Flash and rather than embrace him immediately becomes jealous, insecure and obsessed with winning a race. Quicksilver isn’t the most likable character and never will be, but he’s wonderfully layered and, more than that, probably a pretty realistic depiction of how most folks would handle super speed once the initial buzz wears off.

Why super speed beats flight

If you ask most people what super power they’d like to have, most will say flight. Yes, some pervs will say telepathy and Tim Dillon will say the ability to generate and manipulate ice, but seriously, on the whole, two out of three times, you get flight. Not entirely sure why, but so it goes.

Not me. Hands down the answer has always been super speed.

It’s been this way for me since I was little. I always thought being able to whiz by everybody on the ground seemed much cooler than hovering thousands of feet above them. Perhaps it’s because I crave human companionship and feel flight would be an extremely lonely super power? Maybe it’s that while being in a plane doesn’t fully simulate the experience, it comes closer than, say, a car being able to replicate true super speed? Whatever the initial reason, I dressed up as The Flash when I was five, not Superman.

But of course, there’s the rub: Superman can do more than fly. Really there are very few comic book characters that can only fly because while it seems initially neat, it’s fairly weak in terms of the offensive capabilities it can provide. Guys like Superman or Martian Manhunter or Captain Marvel (either one) or dozens of others have flight as their “showiest” power, but then always have the requisite super strength plus loads of other stuff piled on to make them more formidable.

The traditional “flight only” characters in comics, Hawkman and Angel of the X-Men, even got beefed up when it became evident just being able to kick a guy from slightly higher up wasn’t much of a tactical advantage, getting centuries of weapons training and razor-tipped killer wings in the bargain.

But getting away from super heroics and back to as close to real life as a post like this can get, super speed has it all over flight in the practicality department, and that’s the reason I’ve stuck with it beyond my formative years. There would certainly be a “wow” factor in terms of being able to go up into the clouds the first few times, and no doubt you could elicit some attention from members of the opposite sex (provided you don’t drop them), but once the novelty is gone, you’re going to get bored among the birds, so to say.

However, if you’re incredibly fast, your life will always be better. You will never be late again. You will be able to travel lengthy distances without being bored or inconvenienced. You can acquire awesome gifts and goodies for your friends, loved ones and the objects of your affection in an eye blink.

And that’s just with running!

Per the lame joke I have made many times to groaning response and once for the world to see when I interviewed the Motor City Machine Guns and asked this very question (Alex Shelley said he’d want Jamie Madrox’s powers for similarly convenience-minded reasons—truly a man after my own heart), I would not want to just run fast, but do everything fast, except that one thing (kids, ask your parents). That’s how guys like The Flash have always rolled, and so it would be for me in this fantasy land I have constructed for myself.

My room is dirty? Nope, now it’s clean. I need to do some reading? I just did it. Afternoon of errands to run? It just became five minutes of errands to run (albeit probably having stolen multiple items rather than paid for them).

Unlike flight, super speed makes everything in everyday life easier!

And yes, were I somehow to find myself as an adventurer fighting the good fight, I could punch the bad guy 100 times in a second and he’d be done as opposed to staying two feet above his reach until somebody actually useful came along to help.

To end on a poetic note, if super speed is indeed like a Geoff Johns-written Flash comic, it would be pretty neat to be able to literally dance between the raindrops, watching them each as they slowly fall to the ground and the people around me go by in slow motion; actually, that second part sounds somewhat terrifying, but the first part sounds pretty.

And so concludes one of my nerdiest posts to date. Which says something.

Art Attack: Anniversary/Birthday Present

I am blessed for so many wonderful things in my life, but nothing more than my amazing wife, Megan. A few months ago, we celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary and coming up next weekend is my 29th birthday; to commemorate both, Megan commissioned me an amazing piece of art from our buddy Todd Nauck...
It's me and Megan surrounded by my very favorite characters, Nova and The Flash, as well as her namesake, Miss Martian. Oh, and also Captain America (Megan wanted to include another Marvel icon). We're all chilling at the spot Megan and I took photos following our wedding in Newport, Rhode Island with us in our tux and dress.

I'm fortunate enough to have a great many original art pieces from Todd, but no question, this is my favorite yet. His incredible talent is undeniable and wow does he draw a wicked Flash.

In conclusion: I may be getting up there in the years, but I'm a luckier dude than ever! Thank you Todd and I love you so much, Megan!

Green Lantern's Glo Balls

Rickey found these at the store and put them on Twitter. I couldn't help but share:

Put them in your mouth!

But seriously, I guess someone was impressed by all the Green Lantern stuff at the licensing show this year, huh? By one way or another, DC's whole rebranding of their biggest heroes as the four guys is getting a chance to shine. Apparanty, they also have Flash Cakes:


But I didn't put them in the headline of this post because they didn't make me giggle because I'm 11. But hey, I guess there's some kind of "get yourself on a comic cover" promo from Hostess going with this once these things are out in full force for Halloween. I actually did love to enter contests like that when I was a kid (or, you know, ordering X-Men specials off the back of pizza boxes and what not) so that's nice I guess.

Still, the only contest I'm really interested in in all this is Todd Casey's challenge to Rickey to eat a box of Glo Balls on video.

Do it, Rickey. Do it.

My Five Favorite Flash Figures

While I don’t own every Flash and Flash-related action figure ever created, I’ve done pretty well for myself over the years in that department…

Around when I got bumped up to my Staff Writer position at Wizard around 2005, I almost immediately set about populating my desk with as many action figures I could cram on that surface. It was an example set by our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, Pat McCallum, who had about every Marvel Legend created to that date plus a slew of DC Direct products crammed on the window sill behind his desk, and a tradition I felt proud to join.

While I amassed many figures of all kinds from Marvel to DC to pro wrestling to Mexican bootlegs I couldn’t quite identify, Flash had always been one of my favorite characters period, almost certainly my favorite character visually, and Nova didn’t have any toys (or so I thought until “Commander Awesome” himself, Jesse Thompson, proved me wrong), so Wally West, Barry Allen, Jay Garrick and their friends and foes became the dominating force on my desk.

After I left Wizard for Marvel in 2007, I figured my Flash collection probably wouldn’t blend in well at the House of Ideas, so I relocated it to a space of honor on one of our bookshelves here at the apartment in Saddle Brook and have continued filling said shelf since.

I tend to value my Flash collection in quantity over quality for the most part, but nevertheless, here are the figures I subjectively consider the best of the best.

But first, a pair of honorable mentions to two items that only I own…

Marvel Legends Dracula Flash
The aforementioned Sir Patrick McCallum surprised me one day by dropping this sucker off at my desk unprompted, because he was just that kinda boss. Seriously though: how fucking awesome would The Fastest Lord of the Undead Not Really Alive be? This remains one of my most prized possessions.

Justice League Unlimited Black Flash
Rickey made this beauty for me a couple months back and gave it to me for Christmas. Look at how much work went into this bad boy? My boy smothered this guy in black and gave it a creepy zombie look a line like JLU was never quite intended to have, but that’s what makes it rock so hard.

Ok, Top Five proper…

5. “The Batman” Shadowtek Flash
I dig the Justice League Unlimited figures plenty, but sometimes they’re a bit too streamlined for my liking; the toys that came out of the Shadowtek line from “The Batman” after the Justice League appeared on that cartoon presented kinda the next step up, adding a nice amount of detail to that template, but not so much you lose the bouncy energy of the animated style. I’m of course partial to the Shadowtek Flash, with a really neat face sculpt, the overblown upper body and those fleet little legs ready to kick it up to light speed.

4. DC Direct Super Friends Flash
The “Super Friends” cartoon was a bit before my time, and while I did catch the reruns on Cartoon Network later in life and watch the DVDs (worth it if for no other reason than to watch Geoff Johns geeking out in his Aquaman shirt on the extras) and certainly appreciate the fun and overblown innocence of the show, I’m no devotee. However, this figure is somehow instant nostalgia for something I have nothing to be nostalgic about and just makes me smile. And how could I not given that big toothy grin on Barry Allen’s face! It’s not the most well-sculpted or articulated job by any means, but there’s just something warm and welcoming about this guy.

3. New Frontier Flash
Speaking of fun and nostalgia, you’ve got this guy, from the second series of figures released based on one of my all-time favorite stories, Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier. I’m not the world’s biggest Barry Allen devotee, but I was a huge fan of Cooke’s romantic swashbuckler take on him and everything I liked from that characterization is transferred perfectly into this figure. The face is so perfectly Cooke, with the rounded head, bushy eyebrows and exaggerated smile, while the twist of the arms and his neat little backpack accessory (not pictured above) make it clear he’s ready to kick Captain Cold’s ass or run a bomb into a giant sea monster. I also like that the figure is lithe, so Barry really does come off like a true runner.

2. JLA Classified Flash
On the extreme other end of the spectrum, you have Ed McGuinness’ bulky, thick take on Wally West, bursting with muscles and not looking like he could do much speeding, but sure seeming as if he can kick plenty of ass. I love McGuinness’ art and the way he makes every character he works on stand out and seem to leap off the page, and a nice side bonus to that style has always been that his designs look great as toys, something DC Direct has clearly clued in on over the years, putting out dozens of figures based on his work. Is this a practical looking Flash? No, of course not, I believe I just covered that. Is it an awesome looking Flash? Hell yeah! Just check out how dope McGuinness gets the details on his costume and how perfectly that little smirk comes across.

1. DC Direct JLA Series One Flash
The 2006 JLA series of figures from DC Direct is one generally overlooked by my estimation, which is a shame, because in my humble opinion, it’s one of the most well-done lines ever and produced what I feel is the best Flash figure of all-time. Though it wasn’t hugely touted, the designs were based on the work of Carlos Pacheco, who did the box art as well, and the results were awesome. Pacheco is one of comics’ master draftsmen and has a degree of skill in his pure craft that is virtually unmatched, so the composition of these figures don’t look gimmicky or goofy, they just look right, Flash particularly so. Pacheco strikes the perfect balance between the thin Cooke Flash and jacked-up McGuinness Flash to create a Wally West who doesn’t look ready to throw haymakers with Superman, but clearly keeps himself in shape with those global marathons. Toss in a nicely-muted shade of red and you’ve just got a good-looking, well-done figure that looks great no matter how you pose it.

Comics Coupling: Almost Weres

The seconds are ticking away rapidly before Valentine’s Day weekend concludes (and President’s Day begins!), but before it all came to an end, I wanted to commemorate not by looking at the best couples in comics or most romantic moments or whatever, but instead the pairings that could have been…but weren’t. Y’know, those characters you were rooting for to get together, but then due to a writing change or because it made no sense in the first place, it just didn’t happen.

I promise these will not all just be Nova and some girl (not all of them).

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE SCARLET WITCH
Right before and carrying into “Avengers Disassembled,” long-time teammates Captain America and the Scarlet Witch began striking up an unlikely romance in the pages of Captain America & The Falcon which would then be touched on briefly in Avengers. Ultimately I believe the whole thing turned out to be another symptom of Wanda Maximoff’s hastening trip off the rails on the crazy train, but I thought there was definitely something there. In those Cap & Falcon issues, writer Christopher Priest touched on some interesting stuff with Wanda basically telling Steve Rogers flat out he still thinks of her as a little girl because that’s how she was when she first joined the Avengers, but she’s a woman now and he should be able to see her as such. I don’t really have a dog in the whole “older man-younger woman” romance race in the real world (I’m only a couple years older than my wife), but the idea in fiction of a female character’s ultimate “coming into her own” moment being telling the guy who thought he was her father figure “Hey, I’m pretty hot now, and if you want to give this a shot, it’s not weird” has always intrigued me. What does that say about me? Who knows, but I did think this would have been an interesting break for both characters, as Cap doesn’t generally dally with fellow costumed heroes and Wanda was married to an android for years (there was an interesting What If? one-shot that further explored it).

THE FLASH (Barry Allen) & BLACK CANARY
Wow, two in and my running theme seems to be girls with daddy issues, awesome—don’t judge me! Anyhow, I haven’t been shy in the past about saying I don’t find Barry Allen to be the world’s most interesting character. However, I never enjoyed him more than in Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and Barry Kitson’s JLA: Year One re-imagining of the Justice League’s formative year together, where he was the true blue and calming central hero steering the team through that awkward “getting to know you” phase. His burgeoning “opposites attract” friendship with Hal Jordan was part of that, but the sparks between him and the young Black Canary were certainly another. Barry was the consummate straight arrow of course, dutifully devoted to Iris West, but he fell into that all-too-familiar trap of the bombshell at work—Canary—showing interest and him not knowing how to handle it. For her part, young Dinah was overwhelmed by following in her mom’s footsteps and looking for a stable port in the storm which reliable Barry filled much better than obnoxious Hal. The way Waid and Augustyn played this “office romance” felt very genuine and though you knew it could never work (in part because we know Green Arrow has to show up at some point), it gets you wondering what that path would have been like, but also realizing the reality probably never could have lived up to the potential.

ICEMAN & ROGUE
Just after the Age of Apocalypse, there was a period in the X-Men books where Rogue and Gambit were split up because she had kissed him just before reality went all wonky and learned all his dark secrets (basically that he had worked for Mister Sinister). She went off to discover America on some sort of road trip (really she was just trying to learn more about Gambit by following his memories) and Iceman came along to keep her company. From what I can remember, all signs seemed to point to Rogue and Bobby hooking up, but the writers and editors pretty firmly denied this in letter columns and whatnot, saying theirs was more of a brother-sister relationship (there was some reference to Luke and Leia in “Star Wars” in one reply, but I can’t remember if it had to do with Rogue and Bobby or a reader saying he thought Gambit’s secret was he was Rogue’s brother). Regardless, it went nowhere steamy, but I was hopefully both because it was something different and because I was a huge Iceman fan, so I wanted to see him end up with one of the hotter X-Men ladies. A decade or so later, the two characters got together not in the conventional comics, but on the big screen as well as in Ultimate X-Men, so apparently I wasn’t alone.

NIGHTWING & DONNA TROY
Speaking of “brother-sister” relationships that could have gone the other way (what is wrong with me?!)… This is one I know many folks have thought about over the years, both because the two characters have always been so close and also because it’s the mini-version of Batman and Wonder Woman getting together (though I guess these days it would be half of the full-version of Batman and Wonder Woman getting together). Around the mid-90’s, both these characters were so damaged in the relationship department, what with Donna being divorced and then almost immediately widowed and Dick Grayson coming out of a decade-long (in our world) thing with Starfire that ended horribly. One potential direction would have been for these two close friends to see something more in one another and leapfrog into romance. It would certainly have created some dynamic tension with their shared friends and former flames (Arsenal, Starfire, Oracle, Kyle Rayner, etc.) and made for some sweet moments and hard choices. The “best friends-turned-lovers” route is one we see a lot in real life and explored more often than not (though not so well) on TV, so I’m a bit surprised this has never happened, but I guess the stars have just never aligned—maybe now that they’re both on the JLA…

NOVA & FIRESTAR
Ok, gimme just this one. There’s actually a really emotional and well-done back-up story written by Fabian Nicieza in New Warriors Annual #4 where Firestar’s friend is a victim of date rape and after going after the dude and feeling powerless to do anything about it, she heads back to the Crash Pad and Nova ends up being her shoulder to cry on as he’s the only one there (and Justice is still in jail). The New Warriors were such a small, tightly-knit team with three set couples (Nova-Namorita, Justice-Firestar, Night Thrasher-Silhouette), so as a fan it was only natural to wonder about the possibilities of partners being traded (not in a weird way). The idea of alpha male Nova with nice girl Firestar as opposed to brash Namorita, and Angelica Jones swapping smart and sensitive Vance Astrovik for the more down-to-earth Rich Rider intrigued me more than any other potential pairings, and this story just reinforced that. Hey, I’d still like to see this!

Well, writing this has made me feel oddly dirty. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend, freaks…

Hallmarks of the Silver Age part one

Obviously the Golden Age of comics is where it all started, so it’s always going to have that going for it. In the 80’s, revolutionary work by guys like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, John Byrne and more turned the industry on its ear and forced it to grow up while the underground underwent a revitalization as well. The 90’s was the era of access and the past decade has been nothing to scoff at with leaps and bounds both creatively and commercially.

But after all is said and done, no period in comic industry proved as pivotal and creatively fertile as the Silver Age.

From 1956 to 1969 (which is what we’ll be classifying as the Silver Age for our purposes), dozens (if not hundreds—maybe hundreds) of iconic comic book characters were created and a generation of incredibly talented creators picked up their pens and pencils to make their mark. These were the years that established comic books—and the super hero genre in particular—were here to stay as a fixture of pop culture that would spread like wildfire over the second half of the century in beyond into all facets of media.

The other day, Rickey and I were having a conversation about some of the more incredible concepts that sprang out of the Silver Age and how amazingly rich they’ve proven for a time often considered simplistic until you take a closer look. That chat prompted me to do a little digging, figure out what characters debuted when, and try to tag year-by-year what I thought were the most innovative, dynamic and influential creations to emerge over that 14-year stretch; here’s 1956 through 1962.

1956: The Flash
Though I’ve made no secret that the Flash has long been one of my favorite characters (though since we’re talking Barry Allen here, that’s more in the broad, abstract sense that I love the costume and powers in this case), he doesn’t need my personal endorsement to be the undisputed king of 1956, the year that kick-started the Silver Age. Make no mistake: had Julius Schwartz not rolled the dice and commissioned Robert Kanigher, John Broome and Carmine Infantino to give DC’s old Golden Age Flash concept a sci-fi-heavy sprucing up, and had Barry Allen not succeeded, there may not have ever been a Silver Age, and comic books might all still be about war and romance to this day. So yeah, in addition to being the character of 1956 by a long shot, the Barry Allen Flash is also in my mind one of the top five most important super hero characters of all-time.

1957: Challengers of the Unknown
Compared to 1957 with the Flash’s dynamic debut, 1958 was a pretty lean year for comic book creations, but Jack Kirby did produce one standout concept that would end up being even more notable for influencing his more high profile work down the line in the Challengers of the Unknown. With the Chals, Kirby became one of—if not the—first creators to delve into protagonists who weren’t just square-jawed good guys getting into fist fights with society’s undesirable elements, but rather a quirky group built around a family dynamic whose adventures emerged from their ongoing quest to chart the undiscovered regions of our world. And the whole “living on borrowed time” because they survived a plane crash together thing? Pretty cool.

1958: The Legion of Super-Heroes
Super hero teams were not an altogether new idea when Otto Binder and Al Plastino introduced the Legion of Super-Heroes into Superboy’s life in 1958, but whereas the Justice Society of America and Invaders had set a certain precedent, the Legion broke new ground. Unlike those aforementioned teams, the Legion did not come about from a company taking all its biggest name characters and using the surefire recipe for success of putting them all in the same book, but consisted instead wholly of new characters who appeared for the first time as part of a pre-existing team. Obviously this approach stemmed from the original intent of the Legion being to supply Superboy with fresh supporting cast members, but the group proved so rich and popular that they would eventually supplant their ostensible lead in terms of popularity and even longevity. Also making the Legion unique from the start was their membership consisting solely of young characters that represented the ultimate wish fulfillment fantasy for readers and their setting in the future putting them completely apart from the rest of the DC Universe.

Honorable mention for 1958 has to go to another character that came into existence via Superman: Bizarro, who has proven the most popular and enduring in a long line of “evil twin” villains.

1959: Green Lantern
The thing that got this whole ball rolling in terms of the conversation I mentioned between Rickey and I was Green Lantern, who was DC’s next big Silver Age pillar three years after the Flash, with John Broome and Gil Kane stepping even further into the realm of sci-fi for this twist on an old favorite. Honestly, I don’t think Hal Jordan on his own would necessarily have been a hugely impactful character, but the incredible mythology he helped his creators introduce into the DC Universe is virtually unparalleled in terms of grand scope. While Batman and the Flash both have superior rogues galleries, the idea of 3600 space cops from every alien race the folks writing and drawing could imagine has produced some truly amazing characters and stories over the years. Beyond that, the huge ideas behind the Guardians and their Green Lantern Corps have beget such monumental contributions to the DC Universe as Krona, Qward, the Manhunters and so on and so-forth; no franchise has done more to enrich the vast galaxy beyond Earth than Green Lantern, and as the success of the Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night as well as the seemingly endless parade of new ideas Geoff Johns keeps churning out demonstrate, it continues to be incredible relevant and productive.

Believe it or not, I did think for a moment about giving Sgt. Rock the nod for 1959 as he was the character who first pulled war comics through into the Silver Age, but ultimately Nick Fury became a far more prominent character and Rock can’t hold up against Green Lantern besides. Supergirl was also introduced this year and has merit as the first female version of a male character to really last as well as on general popularity and visibility, but she falls just short as well.

1960: The Justice League of America
Really the decision by Julius Schwartz and Gardner Fox to unite their seven most marquee heroes as the Justice League in 1960 wasn’t particularly innovative since it was just the Justice Society done over, but it was undeniably smart from a business standpoint and has certainly provided immeasurable entertainment for fans over the last half century. Unlike the Flash or Green Lantern, the JLA didn’t deviate much from the JSA formula of simply bringing huge draws together, but there’s no denying the impact of the group or that the success of this launch would raise the stakes as far as team books and thrown down the gauntlet to DC’s competition.

While certainly dwarfed by the events that took place around him during his first appearance, Snapper Carr was one of the first truly non-powered characters to earn himself an active spot as the Justice League’s trusted mascot. Also, Elongated Man never quite achieved headliner status, but his publicly-known identity—a major problem for him way down the line—as well as his more lighthearted persona and well-adjusted romantic life made him a unique creation.

1961: The Fantastic Four
I’ve written at some length before about the huge importance of the Fantastic Four in terms of changing comics and super heroes forever—and for the better in my humble opinion—so I’ll direct you there rather than rehash too much, but to touch on the big stuff, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed the game by introducing a group of protagonists who actually had flaws and distinct personalities and who didn’t always get along; in other words, they were human. With Lee, Kirby took his basic formula from the Challengers of the Unknown and raised it several echelons with the FF in terms of building on the idea of a family of heroes as well as a group that was concerned with exploration first and incidental do-gooding a close second.

1962: Spider-Man
Speaking of game-changers, when I spoke about Barry Allen being one of the five most important super heroes ever, Spider-Man is ahead of him on that list. While the Flash may have begun the Silver Age and the Fantastic Four gave comics its first feet-of-clay heroes, I don’t think I’m overstating that when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man, they spawned a character that ensured the survival of their industry. For the most part, comics have always been the realm of young men when it comes to who is making up the fan base, and while guys in their tweens, teens and slightly above thrilled to the adventures of Superman and company, they connected with Spider-Man in a way they never had any other character. First and foremost, this was a young character who was not playing sidekick to an older hero, he was out there on his own the way the kids reading him longed to be. Second, while the FF had their flaws, Spidey practically made them look like the Justice Society; yes, at his heart Peter Parker is a fundamentally good person who wants to do the right thing and that has driven the success of Spider-Man for over 40 years, but he was not born with this innate nobility, he had to learn it through a series of costly mistakes, the same way most of us do in the real world. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Peter Parker was an outcast in the same vein as many of his fans. Sure Clark Kent was a nerd, but only because he pretended to be, and besides, he was still a hugely successful reporter; Peter could not escape his put-upon persona unless he put on a mask—and even then his life was hardly bed of roses—and he was constantly bombarded by life’s mundane villains, from trouble with girls to bullies to making ends meet financially. I’ve not always been the biggest Spider-Man fan myself, but I could never doubt the nearly-unparalleled and universal appeal by virtue of being relatable the character has among a huge chunk of fandom and the amazing—pun intended—impact he has had on comics.

In any other year Thor or the Hulk would have a good shot due to bringing high fantasy to comics in a way not accomplished prior and the strength of a great Jekyll and Hyde dynamic respectively, but as far as this list goes, they had the misfortune to be “born” in 1962.

To be continued...