Is my memory faulty (a possibility) or was it not Dr.Bong who brought in giant floating boulders to attack Howard, saying "everybody must get stoned!"
And I recall Howard (or maybe Beverly) answering something like "I always knew that's what that line in the song meant."

Why did I trade away all my Howard the Ducks in the eighties? (sheer disgust with that movie was part of it)I should buy the trade collection, yes.

As for them being a joke, I don't think so, as they were mostly grouped around other Thunderbolts characters, like Norman Osborn and Venom. I think some folks just really like the Thunderbolts.

I guess Thor's lack of regular series for most of the past few years has caused Loki to fade from memory some.

My guess is that many of them are jokes made in response to the feelings expressed about Penance on this site.

Though Bendis at least took the opportunity to do some different things with the character. He had been in kind of a holding pattern since Miller wrote him 20 years ago.

I completely agree.

Unless the character is an editorial response to a character, which the fanboys just flock to. (Carnage, X-23, etc)

Or if it's a Rob Liefield character.

That said, I really hope Dizzy D is right and the voter meant the Gen X character. Really, really.

Ka-Zar = jungle adventure. If you want a little modern presence in the story, team him up with Black Panther. Just leave him in the jungle.

Except it's the 70s Ghost Rider.

And Penance... sure it wasn't Generation X Penance?

Batman beat Spiderman by over 250 points and Iron Man beat Martian Manhunter by 165 points. But once you get out of the top 11, the difference between Marvel and DC is always 100 points or less. Once you get out of the top 50, it drops to 15 points or less. It probably isn't fair to say that Batgirl is no more popular than Penance (Robbie Baldwin) or that Venom and the Atam are roughly the same popularity. But I guess I just did.

Ghost Rider and Venom are tied?! The 90's would be so proud. I really need to point out that of the most overexposed characters from the Marvel 90's (Venom, Ghost Rider, Spiderman, Punisher and Wolverine), only Spiderman really had staying power.

If you add up all the points to date, the total for Marvel is 22,005 and for DC is 22,014. So, if a lot of votes "disappeared" because they were for characters who didn't make the list, it was in roughly the same numbers for both lists. In fact, if you look at a graph of the two lists, the lines are virtually identical.

The most recent additions of Hitman and Ultimate Thor joined a very small group of characters created within the last ten years. Others include Jessica Jones, Ultimate Captain America, Ultimate Spiderman, Princess Powerful, Bart Allen, and Yorick Brown. Given that 4 of these 8 characters are really just "other world" versions of classic heroes, only 4 "new" characters made the list. I think it shows that as comic fans, we are resistant to change. (If I've made a mistake in this list, I apologize. I just eye-balled it.)

There are only 11 villains for both Marvel and DC. I'm a bit surprised given the great line ups of rogue galleries in both universes. For Marvel, we're looking at 3 X-men, villains, 2 Spider Villains, 2 Fantastic Four Vs, an Avengers V, a Daredevil V, and 2 miscellaneous. For DC, we've got 3 Bat Villains, 2 Superman V, 1 Teen Titans V, 1 JLA, 1 Captain Marvel V, 1 Suicide Squad and 2 miscellaneous. Now, villains tend to float around a lot (Deadshot started as a Bat villain before heading over to the Suicide Squad and everyone gets to fight Dr. Doom.). Still I thought it was interesting that so many X villains have appeared compared to the Avengers when the Avengers were much better represented in the top spots. We got 4 copies of the Flash, but not one of his rogues? Daredevil's classic foe makes the list, but not Captain America's Red Skull? A lot of JSA people made it, but none of the villains so far have really been "theirs".

Looking at Legacies, by which I mean a character who shared a name with another character (including Flash and counting Ultimates but not the characters who have been Ultimatized), we are WELL represented. I counted 18 for Marvel and 40! for DC. Marvel may create a hundred faceless and interchangeable x-villains a year, but DC will recreate or reshape a hundred characters in that same time.

(stupid addendum to Legacies : i didn't count, but wanted to Multiple Man for creating his own "legacy", Dr. Doom for having enough bots to be a "legacy", the Hulk for multiple personalities, Jean Grey for multiple resurrections, Brainiac 5 for multiple reboots, Death for multiple faces, and Batman and Superman (even more times) for their numerous appearances in Otherworld stories.)

I'm also surprised Kingpin, one of Marvel's major villains, has not shown up. I don't think we've seen many other recurring villains- did Apocalypse crack the top 50? I remember he was _it_ as far as X-villains for much of the '90s. I don't recall seeing Kang, the Leader, Mandarin, Zemo, or many other "arch-villains" on the list.

I think he's a good character because he's such a prat, but yeah