[Dr Kain]

Hey, I'm going by my DC Encyclopedia. They say Livewire came about in 1958, I have no reason to not believe them.

[WhiteRanger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

Hey, I'm going by my DC Encyclopedia. They say Livewire came about in 1958, I have no reason to not believe them.

Ok if i no more of that livewire it my help under stand more but so fare live wire I know first appeared in comics in 2006 and in superman the animated serise cause moste Lilly he was one of the lost and forgotten characters

[Dr Kain]

The final hero of the list was a tough one to make. Not just because there are so many great heroes to choose from, but rather, because I was not sure he was on my list. In fact, until I made this list, I would not have considered him to even be here, but when I looked at my comic collection, I realized he really was. And without further ado, I bring you:



I will say it straight out, there are things about Superman’s personality I do not like. I find him to be way too positive, way too heroic in the sense that he is as Batman calls him, a boy scout. He will do nothing wrong and makes very little mistakes. I normally dislike characters like that. I also do not like how writers can just make up any power they want him to have to suit the plot (like changing time by reversing the rotation of the planet).

However, when this character is written well, he is truly well written. One of my favorite stories of Superman is Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” It brought an incredible light on Superman for me and gave a nice “finale” to the character as if the series was over. That comic can be placed in any time line if you want a definitive ending to your Superman as it goes great. Another one, which is also featured in the hardcover and was adapted into an episode of JLU was “For the Man Who Has Everything.” That one shot story was just down right incredible and gave us an insight to Superman’s persona beyond the happy go lucky façade.

Continuing that, Bruce Timm’s version of Superman is really my definitive version of the character because he was able to do so much with the character and keep his powers streamlined so they did not just go out of control. There was no lifting up a Kryptonite island in his world. There were no super kisses to wipe out memories.

And of course, it helps that Superman has an interesting set of rogues to go with him in the likes of Lex Luthor, Zod, Parasite, Metallo, Bizarro, and of course, Brainiac. However, I definitely felt the minions of Apokolips were also a great set of villains for Superman as they were strong enough to hold their own against him, and in some ways, were better than him. It is nice to see when Superman has to use his brain to defeat Darkseid with his muscles instead of just the muscles. In fact, that is what I meant by when he is well written. There are stories where Superman does just use his muscles to win, and I find that to be boring. I prefer it when he has to outsmart the opponent. That is one of the reasons I love Metallo. The man runs on a piece of Kryptonite, so Superman cannot just attack him with his fists blazing.

Finally, one of the things about the character I never thought of until “Kill Bill” was that Clark Kent is really Superman’s disguise. When you put it into that perspective that also makes the character more interesting.

Now to be fair, I actually like his New 52 costume a lot. I am not a big fan of the red underwear, and while I understand it is iconic, I like the idea of his costume being nanites from Brainiac’s ship a whole lot more than it being made out of a blanket. That must have been one large blanket since he can get his entire costume torn apart and have had more to spare.

So with that said, that is the end of my list of my top ten favorite heroes of the DC universe. I am not completely done, as what better way to compliment my heroes list with my top favorite villains? Not to mention Sept is Villains Month for DC, so it works out great. The only problem is, not all of my favorite villains have made it to toy form, so I’m going to have to find some other images to use for those characters.

[Dr Kain]

September is Villains Month according to DC, so what better way to celebrate it than to start listing my top favorite DC villains of all time. I will be posting my favorite DC villains throughout the month, just not every day as I did so with the Heroes.

And with that said, let’s kick start this list with:



While I knew of his existence beforehand, it was through “Superman: The Animated Series” that I truly learned about this character. I loved how they introduced him through the episode with in a similar fashion to the way Ra’s al Ghul was introduced years prior in “Batman: The Animated Series,” but it was really his work at the tail end of “Father’s Day” and then everything in “Apokolips Now” that made me love the character. He was a villain that was not meant to be trifled with. He was a true threat, even more so than the likes of Brainiac, and throughout the series, Superman never truly defeated him. I also love the fact that he does not have to have some complicated backstory to be evil, he just is evil, and at times, that is a better threat than someone who has a motive to be a villain.

Afterwards, it seemed like Darkseid became an even bigger threat throughout the DC universe as he and his minions started becoming big time villains throughout the more recent books with Darkseid being the main villain in “Final Crisis.” In fact, even in the New 52 reboot Darkseid essentially became the first villain the Justice League fought against.

I enjoyed what I have read from Jack Kirby’s original comics, and while I would love to have seen what Kirby had in store as far as a conclusion goes, in some ways, there were huge benefits for there not being one. Who knows if Darkseid would have been around past the 70s had Kirby completed his “Fourth Worlds” storyline. Sure, being dead is never really gone forever in the world of comic books, but you never know what would have been in store for the tyrannical god in Kirby’s original vision.

Nevertheless, outside of Darkseid’s psychopathic desires to destroy all life, I also love the amount of characters that resolve around him. Be it Granny Goodness and her insane Furies, Steppenwolf, who is Darkseid’s uncle, to his sons Kalibak and Orion, and all of those that surround even New Genesis such as Mr. Miracle, Metron, and Big Barda. Even Apokolips has an interesting mythology about it and its origins. Jack Kirby was a genius when he created this character and it was nice to see even more genius used when it came to Bruce Timm and his gang to utilize it.

[Dr Kain]

It is time to discuss another of my favorite villains in the DC universe, this time, let’s look at the clown prince of crime:



This may come as a surprise to some, but I actually did not care for the Joker all that much until about 2000. I hated the character in the Adam West show. I hated him on those Scooby Doo episodes. I thought Jack Nicholson was all right and I still was not a fan of his even in “Batman: The Animated Series.” It was not until “Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker” that I started to like the character as that was my first time seeing the character actually be downright insane. Afterwards, I read “The Killing Joke” and “Death in the Family” (the real one, not the recent joke using that name) and that is where I started to take an interest in the character.

However, I still was not completely a fan of his until 2005 when I read Denny O’Neil’s “Joker’s Five Way Revenge” and Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns.” Now, I absolutely love the Joker and the portrayals he has received over the recent years. I still cannot say I completely like the version of him in BTAS, but I have found new enjoyment in those episodes he was featured in (especially in episodes like “The Laughing Fish”). Most all, I love the adaptations we have had with him in “Under the Red Hood,” the Arkham video game series, the movie version of “The Dark Knight Returns,” and of course, Ledger’s performance of him in “The Dark Knight.”

One of the things I have grown to love about Joker is how he is the exact opposite of Batman. Batman will do what he can to not kill anyone or to let someone die. Joker, on the other hand, does not kill, he will kill anyone or anything that gets in his way. He will do what needs to be done to get at Batman. Plus, he has also done the most damage to Batman by killing Jason and paralyzing Barbara out of any other villain.

While I consider Ra’s al Ghul to be Batman’s ultimate nemesis due to his, Joker is the most dangerous villain due to his savagery. Ra’s will think his actions through and plan, Joker will plan, but he will improvise as the situation needs regardless of who he hurts in the process. This is what makes Joker a formidable opponent and why he is one of my top favorite villains in the entire DC universe.

[Dr Kain]

The next villain is a strange one to some, because he doesn’t seem like he would be a Flash villain, and yet, he is. Why? Well Flash normally fights petty criminals that would rather rob a bank than kill someone. He fights people who use weaponry that have the capability of slowing him down. Plus, all of his villains are usually just standard humans. This villain, on the other hand, is much more than that:



Gorilla Grodd is really a strange one, but I think it is also because at the time he was created, Flash was also battling aliens and beings from other dimensions. So maybe in the late 50s, it did not seem strange to have a talking gorilla. Nevertheless, Grodd is one of my favorite villains in the DC universe because he does stand out from others. I mean he is a talking gorilla. A TALKING GORILLA!!

Nevertheless, I find him to be pretty cool because he makes me think of the movie King Kong at times. Not to mention the performance Powers Booth did of him in the Justice League cartoons really helped seal him as a favorite character of mine. His abilities are simplistic, he uses mind control to stop his enemies and to get people to work for him. So what makes him special enough to be one of my top favorite villains? He just is. I like the idea of there being a city of intelligent gorillas hiding from the human world so they can live in peace. Once again, I love the original “King Kong” and think bad ass gorillas are awesome, especially when they are intelligent and try to take over the world.

Plus, as I said earlier, he really stands out from the rest of Flash’s rogues because he is not a petty criminal. He doesn’t care about robbing banks or stealing Scooby snacks. :-D Unlike the other rogues, he DOES want to take over the world. He is a dangerous enemy to fight hand to hand with because he is a gorilla, so Flash usually has to be smart about battling this character more than anyone else.

[Dr Kain]

As mentioned previously, Joker may be Batman’s exact opposite, and killing sociopath, but it is this man uses his intellect to combat Bruce, which to me, makes him the more dangerous threat. And that man is:



Like many others, I was introduced to Ra’s al Ghul through “Batman: The Animated Series.” However, not only did this series help propel Ra’s into being one of my favorite Batman villains of all time, it also helped me discover the comics written in the 70s by Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano. The Ra’s al Ghul saga that is collected in the “Tales of the Demon” paperback is by far one of my most favorite Batman collections ever. I love nearly every minute of the story telling and the artwork found within is just phenomenal. Not to mention we got the introduction to Batman’s beloved Talia.

What is there to say about Ra’s? His name is Arabic for The Demon’s Head. He is the leader of the League of Assassins. And he has been alive for hundreds of years. This brings him a multitude of experience and knowledge of the world around him despite how narrow his views may be. Of course, are his views narrow or is he just using the wrong means to “fix” the world? This to me adds a layer to the character that no other Batman rogue can touch. Yes, he is just a man, but a very strong one at that thanks to the Lazarus Pits and his wit. On the other hand, he is very arrogant, which usually leads to his defeat, but that cannot be helped at times.

One of the other things I love about Ra’s is that he is not over used like some of the other rogues Batman faces are. As much as I love the likes of Joker and Penguin, there are times when they are used way too much that sometimes my thoughts are, “Oh, another Joker story.” Thanks to this, it is always a treat when Ra’s is featured. Unfortunately, I fear what DC will do to him soon as I don’t believe he has made an appearance yet in the New 52 universe. Obviously, he has to exist, as Damian and Talia exists (ed), but it does not mean DC is going to find some way to really mess up his character as they seem to be doing with many others. Next thing we know, the Ra’s Batman has been fighting against over the last 40 years will turn out to be an imposter.

Nevertheless, Ra’s al Ghul is my favorite Batman villain to date, not to mention one of my favorite DC villains, and I doubt that will change any time soon.