Why do like that guy?!?!?!

Hello everyone,

I was reviewing some of the new posting and I came across the "discussions" about the Hulk and I find myself wondering, "Why does anyone like the hulk?" To make this post flame-retardent, I thought a more general question might be: "Why do you like your favorite comic character?"
So if you are feeling inlcined, who is your favorite comic character and why do you like him, her, or it?

My favorite has been Iron Man. The concept of a smart guy overcoming adversity and inventing a super hero on top of it has always appealed to me. I have always considered him the thinking man's hero. In fact Iron Man was one of the major reasons I got into engineering in the first place.

So I ask the crowd, "who do ya love"?

Dx :hot-hot-hot:

Hey D,

Firts up: Why is Hulk so popular? I think Hulk got there because he was the penultimate little geekie guy gets revenge. There are actually some decent articles written on this subject for the American Journal of Psychiatry that I might try to dig out later, but suffice it to say, that if your the avergae High Schooler, getting picked on by the bully, a guy who get's mad and transforms into an indomitable, unstoppable tank is going to be a very attractive archetype.

As to my favorites: My actual favorite isn't a good guy. Nor is my second favorite. I wonder what that reveals about me.;)

So, anyway, the top three are, in order, Viktor Von Doom, Magneto and (surprise) Gambit! :mdr!:

Like I siad in response to another of your posts with a similiar question, any guy with the cojones to call a half drunk Carol Danvers "Petit" has got my attention from the start. Now add to that, this guy has the hots for Rouge (Ok, who doen't? But Remy did something about it.)and it shows big brass balls in spades. Add to that the very cool Cajun drawl (my own is no where near so pronounced) and the general moxie and that about covers it.

Gerrod



If electricity comes from electrons; does that mean that morality comes from morons? G. Carlin

My taste changed with age. When I was a little kid it was the Hulk, I even had the ifnlatable rubber balloons that you put under a shirt and pump up and it rips the shirt like when the Hulk transforms (I also had the Bid Wheel but it got stolen). Then it was Spiderman (about the time Spiderman and friends came on the air). I'd walk around the floor on my hands and feet and pretend I was on the ceiling. Then my wife tells me to come to bed I'm to old to be playing around like a little kid. (just kidding, I dont even have a girlfreind).

Now it's the Master of Mysticism, savior and protector of this dimension..........Doctor Strange!!!! (applause). He is the man what can I say. At times the fact that he can do anything anytime he wants gets old, but then he goes into a 5 minute incantion to kill some mega beastie and all is right with the world. Besides you have to love the cape. The ultra cool Doc kinda sucked but it seems as if they have him back at least to semi-normal.



DG X(

Marvel > DC

Daredevil (so long as he's not wearing yellow).
1) Martial Artists kick @#$%&.
2) Black Widow. 'Nuff Said.
3) He's blind.
I just - since the very beginning I've loved the idea of a blind kid overcoming adversity to become a grade A superhero. I just have to respect that - some people are born with power, some people sieze it for themselves - but very few achieve superheroic status out of a simple need to overcome adversity. As a fanboy I'll cheer Bishop, Jubilee and Spider-Man, as an X-Fan I'll respect Archangel and Cyclops - but out of all superheroes everywhere the one I admire most is Daredevil.
He gained his powers by accident and his abilities out of the desire to be more than just a blind kid. He's much like Oracle, who's reaction to getting in the chair was to learn Escrima.
Also, the first time I read about him he was kicking Spidey's @#$%&. You have to respect that.

Are non-Marvel characters allowed (this is a site for the Marvel game)?.

Hi DWS,

Hey, we're eglatarian here. While most of the hero's under discussion are Marvel (no need to ask why*lol*) alot of them are homegrowns and there are long files on DC hero and several on Dark Horse, Malibu and other lines too. Feel free to bring it on... it's all good.

Gerrod



If electricity comes from electrons; does that mean that morality comes from morons? G. Carlin

I have major problems in dropping this to one character but here's my top three (in no particular order).
-Wolverine (I don't read any of the X-books but this is mostly due to the movie).
-Wildcat (from JSA. Any character who can kick seven shades of s**t out of an entire supervillain team has to be on the list. Besides I like the idea that he taught Batman).
-Vision (Don't ask me why but I think it might be that the story that introduced him is my alltime favourite comic story of all time).

As a child I adored Batman and Superman.

Pre-teen to teen years: Spiderman, Thing, Human Torch, Silver Surfer, and Captain Mar-Vell.
Twenties to present:*The New X-Men (I look forward to each and every issue; began collecting @ ish #115). Cyke, Jeanie, Logan, Emma, Dr. McCoy, Professor X and all of the interesting mutant students at the Institute.

*Amazing Spiderman, primarilly MJS' storyline.

*Although no longer published I still purchase and read backissues of Warlock and the Infinity Watch to complete my
collection. Drax is a hoot (he watches re-runs of "Alf"), Pip the Troll , Moondragon, Gamora, and of course the man, the myth , and the legend...Adam Warlock. I can take or leave Maxim.

* Same thing with Silver Surfer books and Capt. Mar-Vell books. I just can't get into The New Capt. Mar-Vell (formerly "Legacy" real name Genus, son of Mar-Vell) I have read reviews about the current title but unless one of you fellers confirm as such I just as soon bask in the glory of the 1970's Mar-Vell.

Well Dave, I have absolutely no problem with you posting a non marvel guy or gal, hero or villian. :D

The hulk is the tragic, misunderstood kind of guy. Will level a city block, but help get a kitten out of a tree.

I like Spider-man for his wit. I hate that they keep rewriting his story. Why did they bring back Aunt May? That was an excellent story.

I like(d) Colossus. I think he was a great character, even if underused.

My own favs would have to be Gambit and Spidy....
It does suck how they change the background.
How ever I can see why. It is to make $$$$.
EG:
Change the background to something similar so that todays youths can associate and voila. Instant rehash and market sales.

I believe that the creator would be turning in their grave, getting rich.... one or the other.... unless youre a sadist.



Fangs
>>| |-- ::!o --||<<
"Yes it the Game has bugs"
"I like mine squished"
"Bon Appetite!"

Simple-

My favorite Marvel Title to read right now is eXiles. Morph is just too damn funny. I find the concept behind the eXiles to be rather cool.

I used to really dig Gambit, but then he got over-exposed as the "flavor of the month". To make matters worse, they just keep adding him into the X-Men history (which is just plain stupid.).

The X-Men have suffered the same fate, although it's more due to poor writing than anything else. I mean, how many X-titles can there be?

And for non-Marvel titles, I enjoy Lara Croft Tomb Raider, and Tarot Witch of the Black Rose.

In the words of the immortal Ace Rimmer: "Smoke me a kipper. I'll be back for breakfast."



Well believe me, I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid . . . and I went ahead anyway.

All--

When I was growing up (I'm currently 32 years old, so you can file me firmly under "Child of the 80's"), my favorite character was always Cyclops, of Marvel's X-Men. Initially, like with a lot of kids, I suppose it was the visual attraction--his power--that led me to like him so much. But I grew to appreciate a lot of other things about him as well as I read more--particularly, all the little foibles in the makeup of his personality. His insecurity, the self-control he had to have, with his power working the way that it does, his calm, strong leadership of the X-Men, and his relationship with Jean. All things that made him extremely interesting to me.

More than anything, though, I appreciated his subtlety. To my mind, here was a man coated in thin ice, with raging passions below the surface that he didn't feel comfortable expressing with anyone but his lover. I guess that was something that I really identified with, personally. Something I *didn't* see in characters like Wolverine, who just seemed to pound you over the head with their over-the-top, grim-and-gritty, testosterone-driven anger/angst. So, during those formative years, I learned to love Scott Summers--and intensely dislike Wolverine.

Of course, now, times have changed.

(All fans of the current iteration of the X-Men need read no further. And if you do, please don't bother with the flames--this is just one man's opinion. Everyone's entitled to their own.)

In my mind, they're a hair's breadth away from *ruining* the X-Men, beyond any writer's hope of redemption. But aside of a general indictment of the book, I want to focus on just Scott. Cyclops is *not* the hero I so loved as a child/young man. Neither is Jean, neither is Wolverine. Everything's different. In what is to my mind the most *heinous* retcon in comics history (opinion, again), Classic X-Men #1 destroyed the sanctity of Scott and Jean's relationship by indiscriminantly deciding that she held some kind of a torch for Logan (despite the fact that she openly *hated* him in true continuity). What did Scott do? Effectively, nothing. Read your Byrne/Clairmont run of X-Men and you'll see what a blatant mischaracterization THAT was. Furthermore, they eventually had him running out on his wife and child, then subsequently sacrificing said child to Apocalypse. Later, they had him remorselessly killing a young mutant with an optic blast. And now? Now they've puportedly got him sleeping with the White Queen (a rather transparent excuse, IMHO, to hook Logan and Jean up...and one completely cutting against all three characters initial grain).

Slowly, over the years, they've replaced the character I loved with someone I don't like one bit. This is why I cannot read the X-Men any longer. It's too gut-wrenching for me. To reconcile the matters that I percieve as wrong, a writer would have to work YEARS on that book. And frankly, that's not going to happen. So I had to turn my back on the X-Men--and Cyclops, forever, I'm afraid.

So where now?

Well, now, I run an online Alpha FLight (a team I became infatuated with, way back in X-Men 120, when they first appeared) Role-Playing Game, as most of you know. In doing so, of course, I do an exorbinant amount of research through old issues of AF (I really only consider the John Byrne run, #1-28, to be canonical; my game takes place directly after that point, ignoring all future continuity). In doing so, I found myself attracted more and more to another character. Guardian.

Yeah, I know. He died in issue #12. They've really raked him over the coals in future retcons, de-aging him, cybernetically enhancing him, making him a quasi-villain. Heather's put on the suit, calling herself Vindicator (yuck), dated Puck, and turned her back on Guardian. But still, I only consider #1-28...so I'm insulated from most of that.

Guardian is a lot of what Cyclops wasn't. Warm. Outwardly emotional. Devoted and expressive towards his wife, Heather. I can't exactly say why, as an older man, I like such a diametrically different character, but I do. Maybe it's the passion that they have in common. You can see it in Guardian, where it was invisible in Cyclops--but still there, nonetheless. Maybe it's that they were both terrific team leaders. Maybe it's the neat visual powers, harkening back to my youth. I dunno. All I know is that I admire his intelligence, his grace, and the strength of his personality. Beyond that, I really don't need to elaborate, do I? He's supplanted Cyclops for #1, in my books.

Anyway, failing all those things, he also has, IMHO, the coolest costume in super-hero history. ;)

Wow. Looking back at this post, I've rambled a lot. I'll shut up now. This is beginning to resemble a senatorial filibuster.... ;)


nocturne
Administrator, Department H

I actually think Cyclops has regained some of his appeal in Grant Morrisson's current run. I agree with you, he's seemed like a spineless weakling without morals for far to long, but I don't think the current version of him makes him look that way.

He seems a bit distant, perhaps even traumatized (which would be understandable -- I understand he's been possessed by something for rather a long time, right?), but he's also portrayed as a man with a great sense of responsibilty and genuininly caring. Unlike Morrisson's Jean Gray, who just seems to be overly compentent and, frankly, a bit of a bastard...

Detonator: I feel I'll have to go with an entire team. The Fantastic Four, all of them, are my constant favourites.

The group's internal relationships are constant and unchanging, while at the same time providing endless opportunity for character description, melodrama and plot devices.

I'd even say that their roles in the team are almost archetypical. Reed is the all-knowing Patriarch, Ben the noble, but melancholy Warrior, Johnny the flamboyant, hot-tempered youth, and Sue the Mother and sexual focus of both Ben and Reed. All the building blocks of good, classic melodrama.

Or I could be persued to go with Nightcrawler as my favourite.

I mean, come on, the guy has blue fur! How could you not like a guy with blue fur who goes "Ungalublisch!" all the time?