Says who? You? Although there is no doubt that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are the three greatest characters in DC Comics, it is also true that Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern are the other three cornerstones of the DC Universe (as it is mentioned in the "Introduction" to "The Greatest Green Lantern Stories Ever Told". In fact, Aquaman has many times been considered as the fourth most important character in DC Comics after the "Trinity". It is enough to remember the "Superfriends" cartoon.

Aquaman is a founding member of the Justice League, and has been almost in all its encarnations. He was even the Chairman for some time.

Aquaman is respected by the most important characters in the DC Universe. Even Batman.

Although Aquaman's image was not correctly displayed in the "Superfriends" cartoon, it is also true that if your opinion (or the opinion of people who bash him)is based in such cartoon, then you do not know anything.

It is impossible to imagine why he has appeared in popular media since so many decades ago if he wasn't that important.

Aquaman is a perfectly known character, he is part of popular culture. He is at least as important as Flash and Green Lantern, even more. He is definitely an ICON, whether you like it or not.

If he couldn't sustain his own montly title, then it would have been cancelled a long time ago, wouldn't it?

He should definitely score higher. That's a fact.

It does make me more curious to see who is at the top of the lists (although only one of my picks on either list have made it so far).

Perhaps the new Justice League should take their roster from the most popular characters from the current age.

If DC did that, Marvel would sue them over Hank Henshaw, and then DC would sue over the Sqaudren Supreme, and we'd eventually have the DC/Fawcett legel war all over again. It' best not to touch that one.

On a lighter note, I'm glad to see Captain Marvel make a decent showing on the list.

Aquaman is not a DC icon. ... He’s also become his own pop-culture joke, in case you haven’t been paying attention in the past few years. (Exhibit A: “Entourage.”) Plus, he can’t even sustain his own monthly title.

Unless you count the tv series developed about him that only didn't go thru because the network died, or that he's pretty much had a monthly series (under one name or another) since 1991 (The McClauglin series, Time and Tide, the PAD->Jurgins serieas, the current/Sword of series). the only notable gap there was between Time and Tide and the begining of PAD's series, which was due to them waiting til, IIRC, the Death/Return of Superman stuff to wrap up so they could launch the new book with actual publicity.

As for "Peter David can kiss my ass"...I'll just note which version was on JL/JLU....you know..the interesting one.

Maybe we can have Superboy punch him.

Or do an "Ultimate" version.

On a different tangent...
Kid who gains superpowers also gets an adult body, but keeps the kid's mind. Shouldn't DC sue Marvel over Rage?

Good thing this isn't posted in "Snark Free Corner", huh.

Aquaman is not a DC icon. He's just very well-known, particularly because he was on TV, particularly (if inexplicably) on "The Super-Friends." He's also become his own pop-culture joke, in case you haven't been paying attention in the past few years. (Exhibit A: "Entourage.") Plus, he can't even sustain his own monthly title.

Captain Marvel/Shazam isn't a DC icon either, no matter how much Alex Ross wishes otherwise. (Talk about someone fixated on his childhood diet of '70s superhero TV!) Rather, Captain Marvel is a Fawcett icon that DC now owns and doesn't know what the hell to do with. They should've left him on Earth-S. Now that the multiverse is back, perhaps that's where he'll return to, after Final Crisis.

There is no Orin. Aquaman is Arthur Curry, end of story. Peter David can kiss my ass.

Peter David came up with Orin?

I thought another writer did, and David just extrapolated upon it.

My favourite Aquaman is the grouchy kickass King Arthur version from Morrison's JLA through whatever. Obsidian Age, I guess. And how that set up his first appearance in JLU.

No one in this group was on my list.

Coincidentally, I was scanning a rare books list today at work and they'd just posted a Miracleman trade for $500.

I kinda expected Barry to go higher, but on reflection, that's a bit unrealistic for someone who's been gone for over 20 years.

Geoff Johns' work with Power Girl has been the real clincher for me. It's a great metaphor you could only get in comics - she's got lots of power and confidence on the one hand, but on the other, like many of us, she's (literally, in her case) unsure of her place in the world.

Isn't it interesting about Darkseid. Kirby was only with DC for a few short years, but what he created affected the entire DC-U. Dardseid is a major villian in DC. He even crossed over into the Superman cartoon series a few years ago. Kirby just couldn't NOT be a major player. He was just amazing.

A couple years ago someone recommended JSA Classified #1 to me. I read it and immediately fell in love with Kara Zor-L. Her mix of outward bravado combined with such an unbearable loneliness and uncertainty inside really captivated me. From there I went on to read through the whole backlog of JSA and that opened the floodgate. Since then I've spent a lot of resources and even more time poring over decades worth of DC back issues and dozens of blogs to the point where I feel as comfortable in my DC knowledge as someone who's been reading their books for years. And in the process I've come to find myself having more fun reading comics than I ever did when I just stuck with Marvel. All thanks to Power Girl.

That might be really interesting (if unwieldy) as well.

If you want a grim, gritty Captain Marvel, read Miracleman. That's waaaay better than any other current Shazam book. Too bad those trades are not still in print...