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These lists shouldn’t be immutable though. As new stories are written about the different characters, their relative positions [i]should[/i] change. Whether Ms Marvel or Power Man are on the list in 10 years will depend on whether there are interesting stories about them in the next 10 years.

Whoo-hoo! Adam Warlock was my #1,

Here’s Andy Turnbull on why he had Warlock #1…

I feel like I must have my first post on CSBG now, as mine was the third #1 vote for Adam.
Even if I found him only by chance, as here in Italy was the backup of Fantastic Four during the 80s, he was one of my favourites from the start.
And Andy summed up almost perfectly why.

Wow, I wouldn’t have gone back that far, but maybe a shout out for the Inferior Five wouldn’t be out of the question.

Luke Cage and Ms. Marvel are more or less around i’d expect them to.

I’m surprised Colossus finished ahead of both Rogue and Iceman, and i think if he made it that high, at least Wolverine (duh!), Beast, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Magneto and Cyclops are sure bets to be on the list. Although except for Wolverine, i don’t see any of them in the top 10.

Just for the record, I’m really enjoying the format as is. Thus far, if I’m not seeing genuine greatness, I’m definitely seeing a ton of (often unexpected) coolness. Which, in re: mainstream comics, is still saying a lot.

But the real top spots will probably need support of old and new fans though.

Right. I’d also point out, re: the ‘trendy’ argument, that at least three of the Fantastic Four came out lower than Adam Warlock – despite the whole ‘blockbuster movie starring Jessica Alba’ gig. Clearly, even if these are the trendy picks of the moment, there’s some thought been put into why.

And I gotta point out that the problem of exposure is MUCH worse for DC, just because there have been many more DC comics published than Marvel books.

I think Sugar and Spike is an absolutely fantastic comic book. But in order to read it you have to spend lots of time and money, ’cause most of S & S has NEVER been reprinted.

And even Sugar and Spike is FAR more available than much of DC’s Golden Age output. How many of us can judge the effectiveness of the Terrific Whatzit as a character?

So, yeah, I think that having even a FAIR historical knowledge of Marvel or DC is a silly criteria to expect of people. (Because, well, I don’t think I have a fair historical knowledge, and I certainly feel qualified to vote. ) There’s just too damn many comics, and too few of them in print.

They won’t be on this list ten years from now, either.

Yeah, but then we’ll see trendy favorites like Captain KingBadAssInfinity and the Qwueueueuevu%l.

DanCJ said:
“Adam Warlock? Who??”

And there we have one of the main reasons* that I did not send in any of my selections (although I did write up a great list).

I knew that far too many readers today do not have the “historical grasp” on SO MANY great characters that might be “before their time” or out of their X-fan interest.

I’m enjoying the article as a cross-section of what’s “popular” today, but still, I know it won’t be a “true” representation of great characters.

Still, Brian Cronin deserves a LOT of credit for his efforts and the work that must have gone into compiling the list after tabulating the data.

SO, I’m enjoying this countdown for what it is.

——-

*BTW…One of my OTHER reasons was that I desperately wanted to add ROM to my list, but he’s a formerly licenced character, and thusly, void.

~P~
P-TOR

I understand your point there, Peter, but I’m a bit confused as to what you thought it would be, otherwise. Right from the get-go, it was pretty clear that yes, this IS a popularity contest.

And that’s the point – to see which characters are the most popular from a (fairly significant) cross-section of folks who read Comic Book Resources, which I am pretty sure are a pretty good cross-section of the people who read comics and follow comic content on-line, which was once the province of the devoted, and now seems to have become more of a generalized thing, to the point where lists like these probably DO match “general” views a great deal more than a similar list would have, say, ten years ago.

And that’s interesting to see, no? Who DO “the people” like RIGHT THIS MINUTE, September 2007?

It seems sensible that the more recent stuff has reached the largest percentage of voters.

I suspect for example Iron Fist’s new series helped him get far more votes than he would have prior to its start. His presence in New Avengers doesn’t hurt either, I’m sure. That just seems sensible that it’s how this should work. Hence Ms. Marvel and Luke Cage make the list, where they may not have just a decade ago.

But the real top spots will probably need support of old and new fans though. Daredevil will probably do well because of the people who love Brubaker’s take combined with the people who love Miller’s (hopefully there’s a large intersection there).

Even my post-1961 reading has lots and lots of holes in it. Things I’ve read only in part or not at all. And I don’t pay attention much to what’s been going on this past year.

The list is certainly telling us about the voters, but it’s supposed to. Brian was pretty explicit in the instructions that “favourite” didn’t mean “best”. People could come up with their own criterion and pick the characters that meant the most to them. So in a sense the point of the exercise was to tell us about the voters. I think you can tell a lot about a man by what characters they choose.

It seems to me the instructions didn’t call for a separation between characters and voters. Because somebody making this list reveals something both about the strength of the character and the people who voted for that character. I think these things are inseparable and should be. It’s all part of why I find this a valuable exercise.

That’s what I think.