Art by Joe Shuster.
Art by Jerry Ordway.
In honor of a new SUPERMAN movie swooping into theaters, we posed a question to our friends and foes, but only our friends replied, so we will have to thwart their evil plans later. For now, enjoy these responses to the question…
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE SUPERHERO?
Art by the late, great George Pérez.
JON ABRAMS
Give me a moment to work through this question. I’ll show you my math. Let’s start at the top.
My first favorite was Batman. I loved Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) and Superman (Christopher Reeve), but when I was little, it was Batman that I wanted to be. I’m dating myself… (We’re going steady. We’re Venom.) But this is the early ‘80s, when Batman was in after-school reruns. My buddy Pauly and I used to fight over which one of us was Robin. (If you’re reading this Pauly, it was you.)
It’s probably the 1989 BATMAN movie that helped rocket me into reading comics, because movies were my love before comics, even though I loved to draw. Go figure! At first, I think I loved Captain America best, particularly since he was being written as a kind of Indiana Jones when I got in. Also because he fought the Serpent Society, who I’ve mentioned many times on this website. Hilarious and touching to me that so many people who loved to dress up like the most obscure species of snake were able to find each other.
I always loved the monster guys. The Hulk was cool, but whenever they’d throw down, I was always rooting for Benjamin J. Grimm, better known as The Thing. More on my love for him here. There’s always angst with the monsters, and I could relate, but The Thing was funnier. I also loved The Beast from the X-Men, although I hate the Kelsey Grammer casting. The Beast was a jock who also happened to be a genius (like my uncle!), not a pretentious guy who pretends to do a British accent. I loved the 1990s X-Men cartoon, but that’s probably to blame for the casting choice. In the 1970s and the 1980s the Beast was a swinger, literally, and he dated all kinds of people, including the Dazzler!
I loved Black Panther, because he gives you everything you get from Batman, Iron Man, and even James Bond, but he looks even cooler than all of them! I’m so happy that movie was so great.
I loved the X-Men. I loved the misfits. I loved Rogue, because in a way she was the misfit of all misfits. She was a villain at first, and by the nature of her powers, she was a loner. But she also had one of the most dramatic glow-ups in pop-culture history, which I could also relate to as a late bloomer. And I loved Storm, because she looked the coolest, and because she has the same weakness I have (claustrophobia). I loved She-Hulk, because she was funny, and long before Deadpool was doing it, she was self-aware and recognized that she was in a comic book.
But who am I kidding? It’s Spider-Man. I’m Spider-Man. The beauty of Spider-Man is that everyone can see themselves as Spider-Man. But not everybody has people stopping them on the streets of New York and calling them “Spider-Man.” They do it less now that Tobey Maguire has given way to Tom Holland, but it still happens. And maybe they’re right to do it! I’m a geek with strange and awful enemies who hate him for preposterous reasons. I’m a jokester who dates way out of his league. I’m a neurotic who never feels he’s done enough to help people. I’m a fighter who stands up for the outcasts and the underdogs, despite being constantly over-matched. I don’t give up. I can’t. I don’t know if I see myself in the comics, or if the comics helped to make me who I am, but there it is. I’m Spider-Man.
By the way, that’s exactly what I would say if I was just trying to throw you off the trail and if I was really Batman.
Art by Adam Hughes.
Art by George Pérez.
STEPHANIE CRAWFORD
My favorite is Martian Manhunter.
Art by Kevin Maguire.
Art by Pablo Villalobos.
Art by John Byrne.
Art by Jim Lee.
BRETT GALLMAN
The X-Men!
Because it’s truly impossible to choose only one favorite superhero, I’m going to cheat a bit and go with Marvel’s band of mutants. I’ve gravitated toward these characters more than any others during my various comic-reading stints, and my fondest memories involve various ’90s storylines: Fatal Attractions, Age of Apocalypse, Onslaught, etc. As a kid, I was obviously drawn in by the menagerie of cool characters and abilities, but they resonated beyond that in quintessential Marvel fashion, serving as an allegory for the historical treatment of marginalized people. While their stories often involve the fate of the world, universe, or multiverse, their eternal struggle to simply exist and be accepted as human beings endures beyond that. Like so many Marvel heroes, they’re misfits who have had responsibility foisted upon them, and they fight for people who hate and fear them. That’s real heroism, true believers, and it’s something we should all aspire too.
Also, if I’m pressed to narrow my favorites to a select few, it’d look something like this: Wolverine (of course), Gambit (yes), Magik, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Havok, Forge, Sunfire, Dazzler.
Also can we take a moment to acknowledge how vastly cool the X-Universe is? From the Savage Land to the cosmic corners, it really offers something for everyone, and, if I had it my way, the MCU X-Men would inhabit their own universe composed of various teams, environments, and villains before everything came together for an Avengers-sized crossover.
Art by Marc Silvestri.
Art by Mark Bagley.
JOHN HORGAN
Always torn between Spider-Man and Batman. They both have great villains and they are somewhat vilified themselves by portions of the populace. I’ll go with Batman, because he has had the best films, I think.
Art by Ramon Perez.
BRAD MILNE
Art by José Luis García-López.
KATELYN NELSON
Art by Bruce Timm.
Art by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
ZACH OAT
Two of my favorite superheroes are Captain America and Iron Man — as you can probably guess, Marvel’s Civil War was a big deal for me, both the movies and the comics. And as we saw in the Civil War, Iron Man and Captain America have dissenting viewpoints about a few things.
Like Spider-Man, Iron Man is a big believer in responsibility, having done things (or having been manipulated into doing things) that had deadly results. In the comics, he fought an Armor War to reclaim the dangerous technology he had created; in the movies he was responsible for creating Ultron, who destroyed most of Sokovia; and in both he struggled with his past as an arms dealer, as well as a serious drinking problem. So if someone has done something wrong, including himself, he wants there to be consequences; it’s why he agreed with Superhero Registration after some low-level heroes caused a villain to blow up a school in the comics, and why he agreed to the Sokovia Accords on film.
Contrarily, Captain America is a believer in freedom. Sure, he’s a symbol of America, or at least the America of the past, but he’s also a critic of modern America (and the international agency SHIELD) whenever freedom is threatened. In the comics he has quit being Captain America multiple times; in the movies, he turns on SHIELD when they unleash a plan to identify and target threats before any crime is committed. Plus, he believes in second chances: in the comics he enlisted the criminal Hawkeye and “evil” mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the Avengers, and he dated Serpent Society member Diamondback; in the movies, he stood by Bucky, even after everything Bucky had done as the Winter Soldier. It’s why he didn’t want superheroes to have to register with an untrustworthy government — one mistake does not make someone a criminal.
Both are flawed characters: Iron Man is marred by his past excesses and oversteps, while Cap faces daily challenges to his entire superhero identity. I love them both, but I like them better when they’re friends.
Art by Gene Colan.
SAMANTHA SCHORSCH
Blade.
One of the first movies I saw wildly under the recommended age range was the adaptation of BLADE. It was cool, it was “gorey”, the soundtrack was kickass, and it absolutely had nothing to do with a large swath of my goth interests moving forward. Wesley Snipes devoured that role and the idea of a half-vampire vampire hunter is obviously a well-trod trope at this point, but I dare say none do it with as much style and panache as the depictions of Blade.
The comics are admittedly a blind spot for me, but I could watch the first two movies every day for the rest of my life if I had to and I am waiting with mounting impatience for the videogame adaptation set in Paris.
Blade, man. So f***ing cool.
Art by Mike Zeck.
EVAN WEINBERGER
I’ve always been a Captain America guy. He’s a much more complex character than people think!
Art by Ryan Brown.
Editor’s note: Yes, that’s Captain America as a werewolf.
Art by Alex Ross.
JAY ALARY
Okay, my favorite is Batman (followed closely by The Flash, Superman, and Green Arrow—growing up, I was an avowed DC kid when my friends were strictly into Marvel, the poor, deluded boys), but Doctor Fate is my favorite among DC’s longtime stable of supernatural/mystical heroes. The Phantom Stranger is retro cool for his mock turtle neck-and-fedora-and-cloak ensemble and The Spectre and Deadman look cool/ghostly too (they ought to be for being a Vengeance spirit and a dead trapeze artist with the coolest alliterative name, Boston Brand), but Dr. Fate has a freaking GOLD HELMET (aka the Helmet of Nabu). His unique appearance caught my immediate childhood attention in the back pages of a Flash comic book and I became a fan for life. When he finally got his own book in the late 1980s, I devoured each issue. Whether it’s the OG Kent Nelson, the pairing of Eric and Linda Strauss, Hector Hall, or the latest to wear the helmet, Khalid Nassour (we don’t speak of the mid-1990s helmet-less Punisher-wannabe, Jared Stevens), Dr. Fate is DC’s oldest and greatest mystical hero, continuing to fight evil at the behest of the Lords of Order or Egyptian gods (he’s got a convoluted history, which seems appropriate)—he’s the true master of the mystic arts (sorry, Doc Strange)!
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Tags: Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, Batman, captain america, Columns, Comic Books, Comics, DC Comics, Gene Colan, Jack Kirby, Jim Lee, John Byrne, Jon Abrams, Kevin Maguire, Marc Silvestri, Marvel Comics, Mike Zeck, Pablo Villalobos, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, Superman, The Big Question, wonder woman, Zach Oat
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