After over 1,000 ballots were cast, YOU the reader ranked your favorite comic book characters from 1-10. I assigned point totals to each ranking and then tabulated it all into a Top 50 list. We're now revealing that list for the rest of November and into December. The countdown begins now...
I used to do sort of "biographies" for each of the characters on the list, but you know what, they're on the Top 100 DC and Marvel characters list, so I think we should be working under the assumption that you all pretty much know the basic information about these characters. Instead, I'll just write about whatever interests me about the character in question, including a notable comic book moment featuring the character.
50. Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) - 239 points (1 first place vote)
After Ted Kord, Blue Beetle, was killed in the leadup to Infinite Crisis, his best friend, Booster Gold, angrily threw away the scarab that had given the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett, superpowers (but had not worked for Ted). The scarab was found by Jaime Reyes in Texas, and the scarab then attached itself to Reyes, as Jaime discovered that the scarab wasn't magical, but was actually alien in origin. Created by John Rogers, Keith Giffen and Cully Hamner, the newly-powered Blue Beetle played a key role in Infinite Crisis teaming up with Booster Gold (Booster went to get the scarab back and met the new Beetle), and then he returned home, where he shared his shocking new powers with his family.
In the years since, Jaime has become a major force in the DC Universe, but at the end of the day, what makes him standout so much as a character is just how down to Earth he is (when he is not way above Earth using his tremendous superpowers), as was shown in the Blue Beetle: Graduation Day miniseries by Josh Truijilo and Adrián Gutiérrez, where Jaime graduated from high school, but was taken away from graduation during the event, and when he returned home, he saw that Superman was at his graduation party. Jaime deals with the simple fact of growing up while feeling like you don't have a direction in life. It's great stuff...
During that series, Jaime met some other characters with scarabs of their own, and suddenly, Jaime is being thrust into a leadership position, all while dealing with a deadly new foe. Recently, Jaime also received his own movie, and Blue Beetle is apparently one of the few recent DC movie heroes who will be continuing into the new DC movie universe.
49. Animal Man - 247 points (4 first place votes)
Due to some alien visitors, Buddy Baker gained the ability to borrow the abilities of animals, like flying like a nearby bird, running like a nearby cheetah, etc. This led to Buddy becoming the hero, Animal Man (created by Dave Wood and Carmine Infantino).
Eventually, Buddy grew tired of the hero game, and settled down with his wife and his two young children. He popped up occasionally with a few other mostly retired heroes in the Forgotten Heroes. After Crisis on Infinite Earths, though, he was back to being retired. However, eventually he got restless and became Animal Man again, even joining the Justice League!!
It was during this time that Grant Morrison wrote Buddy's first ongoing title, where Morrison used Buddy to explore both animal rights and also metafictive concepts about comic books, like acknowledging Crisis and how the series had changed "continuity." Morrison even appeared in the comic, as "The Writer."
After Morrison's departure, Buddy's book became more and more surreal, until its cancelation when, after being absent for a few years, Buddy just basically went back to the way he was at the end of Morrison's run.
During the New 52, Jeff Lemire had a strong ongoing series starring Buddy that managed to toe the line nicely between the surrealism of Morrison's run and having Animal Man still be a superhero (while also actively tying Animal Man and Swamp Thing together more than ever with the introduction of "The Rot"). Jeff Parker continued that approach in the pages of Justice League United, which he had Animal Man join. Animal Man also played a major role in the Dark Knights: Death Metal crossover event.
48. Batgirl/Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) - 249 points (5 first place votes)
Stephanie Brown was introduced by Chuck Dixon, Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna in a clever story where we learn that the daughter of the villain Cluemaster (basically a second-rate Riddler) is intentionally trying to screw up his plans by leaving clues for Batman and Robin to stop him...
She seemed destined for just a clever one-off character until Robin got his own series and Dixon decided to bring her back as a ally/foil. Her guest appearance went over really well and fans clamored for more. She was a breath of fresh air - someone who was a vigilante because she just legitimately LIKED it (while initially it was just to get revenge on her dad, she quickly moved past that).
The problem was that Batman never quite trusted her. She slowly became friends with the other Bat-heroes, though. Finally, she seemed to get her chance when her boyfriend, Tim Drake, had to quit being Robin for a while. She tried to get the job and Batman seemed to say yes, but after less than three issues as Robin, Batman fired her. As it turned out, it was just all a plan by Batman to make Tim jealous enough to become Robin again. One of the dickier moves by Batman, and that guy is ALL about dick moves.
Stephanie then tried to prove herself to Batman by implementing a "War Game" she discovered that he had written that would result with Batman taking control of all of Gotham's gangs. The problem was that the inexperienced Stephanie did not realize that the plan she implemented was incomplete (it required Matches Malone, Batman's fake gang identity, to work properly and since Batman didn't know she was implementing it, Matches was nowhere to be seen). In the end, she paid the price for her screw-up by being murdered by the crime boss, Black Mask. Later we learned that her death had been faked by Dr. Leslie Thompkins.
After first returning as Spoiler, she took on the identity of Batgirl when her friend, Cassandra Cain, gave up the identity after Bruce Wayne's seeming death. Stephanie excelled as Batgirl, even finding acceptance from Bruce Wayne (after he returned from the "dead") that she was never able to get before. After the New 52 rebooted DC continuity, she was reintroduced as The Spoiler, but then DC Rebirth reverted most of the continuity of the DCU, and so Stephanie and Tim's history was restored.
She recently became Batgirl again, now sharing the role with Cassandra Cain, wearing a costume that merges her Spoiler and Batgirl looks together. She and Tim have broken up.
47. Doctor Fate - 252 points (1 first place vote)
In a company filled with legacy heroes, Doctor Fate is one of the more unusual superheroes, because the whole CONCEPT of the hero sort of means that there all Doctor Fates are pretty much one shared character, which I imagine is why most of the votes for the character were simply "Doctor Fate," although Kent Nelson definitely got the majority of the votes for people who specified which Doctor Fate that they were voting for.
Introduced in More Fun Comics #55 ((by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman), Doctor Fate was initially simply a way for Gardner Fox to tell some magic-themed stories. Fox was a big fan of stories about magic and the occult, like H.P. Lovecraft, and the stories fit that mold for a number of years, although Fox eventually also sort of "dumbed down" the character at one point and made him into more of a traditional superhero, as well.
Fate was brought back to DC in the Silver Age along with the other DC Golden Age heroes, with the revelation that they now all lived on an alternate "Earth 2." Fate was then revamped via a revelation that the helmet essentially housed the spirit of Nabu, the magician who gave Doctor Fate his powers. Thus, the helmet, which was always the central VISUAL part of the character, now became a central part of the character PERIOD, as the Helmet of Fate is what would turn anyone who wears it basically into Doctor Fate.
Still, for years, Kent Nelson remained as Doctor Fate, and in an excellent backup feature in the Flash by Steve Gerber, Martin Pasko, Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt (it is so sad that Mahlstedt is now the only member of that creative team that is still with us), we saw how Nabu's influence was driving a wedge between Kent Nelson and his wife, Inza, leading to a situation where the two literally bonded together when Fate needed more power to defeat a villain...
Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis then did an excellent Doctor Fate miniseries that led into an excellent Doctor Fate ongoing series, and during this period, the idea that Doctor Fate could be different people really became a major aspect of the concept, with multiple people taking over as Doctor Fate during this period. During Zero Hour, Kent and Inza Nelson were both killed, and a new, darker Fate took over, with Fate's magical items becoming knives. That Fate concept was dropped, and the traditional Doctor Fate approach returned, initially with Hector Hall becoming Doctor Fate and then a relative of Kent Nelson.
Most recently, the Helmet of Fate is worn by Khalid Nassour, an Egyptian-American medical student, thus bringing the Fate mythos back to Egypt in a big way. Interestingly enough, while Nassour's stint as Fate might not have been quite as high profile as some of the others, he is now the second-longest tenured Doctor Fate outside of Kent Nelson.
46. Lobo - 256 points (4 first place votes)
Few characters have drifted quite as far from their original intent as Lobo, who was introduced by Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer in an issue of Omega Men as a rather generic mercenary for the team to face off against. He made a few other nondescript appearances, but in one of his last Omega Men guest spots, he received a back-up story by Giffen that re-designed the character, giving him more of a "bad ass" look to him. During Giffen's hit run on Justice League International, Giffen decided to bring Lobo into the series as part of a long-running space storyline where the villainous Manga Khan captured Mister Miracle and half of the team goes off into space to rescue their teammates. Lobo is set after them by Khan. The character was really meant as a parody of the sort of Wolverine-type characters that had become popular at the time, but he was interesting enough that when Giffen launched L.E.G.I.O.N. soon afterward, he included Lobo on the team.
Then a funny thing happened, fans really started to respond to the satirical character, enjoying within him the same basic things that he was parodying! Giffen was working with Alan Grant on L.E.G.I.O.N. and the pair launched a Lobo miniseries in 1990 (with artist Simon Bisley) that was a massive success. People wanted more and so Giffen and Grant just got more and more ridiculous, like the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special, where the Easter Bunny hires Lobo to kill Santa Claus!
And yet it continued to sell like crazy! For a little while there, around 1991, Lobo was so popular that he was included on DC's Christmas stationary, right alongside Superman, Batman and the rest! Eventually, Alan Grant got to write a long-running Lobo ongoing series (plus a series of miniseries) that were a bit more tamer, but still pushing the boundaries throughout the run. During the New 52, DC tried to dramatically revamp Lobo to get rid of some of the excesses of the past, but that did not work out, and the character has returned to his old self.