I have to say though, I love that puppet cover!

For that matter where’s Aquaman? If nothing stands out from the Super Friends era, I at least think an early one from the Peter David era should be considered. I think that these four covers today may be iconic for these characters, but not really for DC as a whole.

When I think of DC, I think of the plethora of heroes, not a million covers depicting every aspect of one hero like Green Lantern or the Flash. I would rather vote for an iconic cover of 10 heroes than vote for 10 iconic covers of one hero (although I do understand Superman and Batman showing up so much). That said, I’d like to see covers spotlighting the likes of Catwoman, Aquaman, and Lex Luthor to name a few.

Could you give us your definition of iconic?

Sure.

Iconic being determined partially subjectively by what covers are called to mind when one thinks of DC Comics, but first being determined with a prominent objective standard of whether a cover is homaged a lot or featured a lot in histories of DC Comics.

There, now that you know the definition, I am sure that will stop the griping.

Could you give us your definition of iconic? I think this is the source of much of the griping here. My understanding of “iconic” is that the image something is quickly and easily recognizable by a very large percentage of the audience as indicative and/or conveying of a certain character or theme. If a large number of respondents greet a certain image with a “huh? I’ve never even seen that before”, that would seem to instantly preclude said image as iconic. The comic book industry is very self referential. Just because something has been homaged, aped or parodied doesn’t make it iconic. I think many of the covers you are calling “iconic” are simply “gimmicky” or “unique” or “great covers”, but not instantly recognizable and indicative of a certian subjkect.

I liken this to the best argument I’ve ever heard for a similar topic – what qualifies a player for the Baseball Hall Of fame. The answer is as soon as you hear the name, you instantly think yes, Hall Of Famer, the list should be limited to the names that roll f your tongue. By definition it seems to me a very few things can be iconic of an entire medium. A list of 75 seems forced and contradictory.

The 2 Green Lantern covers are very similar and variations of that theme have been done many, many times.

Both covers HAVE been done many, many times – but they were done for the FIRST time with those two covers, hence their iconic status. A bunch of Lanterns thrusting their rings into the sky and depicting an actual CORPS of Lanterns/showing a Lantern with more than one ring had not been done before Bolland did it on those two covers (the latter cover was so notable that Bolland himself basically re-did it less than a year later for the third issue of Tales of the Green Lantern Corps).

The rest? Meh. They don’t do it for me. They look…played out and poor.

The Flash 184 doesn’t mean as much to me, though perhaps it should. And I’m with Luis on the Green Lantern covers – the situation is iconic, but I don’t find the visuals all that compelling. They’re certainly not close to Brian Bolland’s best work; both have a rather boring symmetrical composition.