Most superhero fiction endeavors to diversify origin stories so that a variety of character types and superpowers exist within their universe. Just within the MCU, we find: physical/genetic experimentation, alien physiology, random mutation and, with The Hand, what appears to be magic. That’s a lot of origins, and it’s confusing if you have little background in the comic universe. it’s a complicated world. But you have to have multiple unique backgrounds for different characters and superpowers, right? Wrong. It’s not difficult to accomplish character and power variety with simple, unifying world building. Anime does it all the time. Hunter x Hunter and A Certain Magical Index both pull this off with great effect.
Hunter x Hunter portrays superpowers in a much more Eastern, Dragon Ball-ish manner with the concept of Nen, a Chi style life force energy that can be mastered to gain superpowers. However, unlike the simpler Dragon Ball concept, Hunter x Hunter makes Nen the basis for an interesting variety of powers. Different personality types have distinct types of powers that do unique things. Hunter x Hunter categorizes people into six broad types of powers. From there, characters end up with varied powers, within the same universal concept, including super strength, prophecy and shape shifting.
Kurapika using nen to create and manipulate chain weaponry in Hunter x Hunter (2011)
A more recent anime, A Certain Magical Index, tackles super powers in a more complicated manner. Index divides superpowers into two categories: magical and esper (psychic). Esper powers are based upon both created in universe and real scientific principle. The in-universe principle is personal reality in which any person can develop a power unique to him or her trough science. Magic is then explained as invoking a god to recreate what Espers are able to do naturally. This device allows magical power to co-exist in universe. Index is able to portray a variety of powers and powers levels, from god-level characters to normal humans able to make up for lack of powers.
Amata Kihara using a anti-tank rifle against a magic user in A Certain Magical Index Season 2
Both of these Anime are instructive examples of streamlined mythology that still offer considerable room for creativity. Comic book writers could take note for successful world building.
It didn’t take long for Supergirl to cast its Superman. Tyler Hoechlin from Seventh Heaven and Teen Wolf fame will be donning the iconic cape for the series. At first glance, the 28-year-old Hoechlin seems like a surprising choice. Apparently though according to multiple sources the Supergirl / Arrow / Flash team has been looking to work with Hoechlin for a while now. Plus, it appears the Hoechlin was on the radar of the Batman v Superman producers as a possibility to play Bruce Wayne. So while Hoechlin may have not been who the fans were thinking (i.e. Tom Welling) there’s a reason why fans don’t do casting. They’d cast more with their hearts than with their minds. While Welling may have been the sentimental choice it’s nice to see the producers looking for a “fresh face”.
The good
The show certainly needed to add a Superman. The texting, the blurring and the showing of boots wasn’t cutting it. Being six feet tall and athletic, Hoechlin looks the part. It’s imparative for Superman to be likeable and Hoechlin plays likeable well. While superman is an iconic character, this is still a supporting role. His mission is to mentor and backup Supergirl not take the lead. It will be fun seeing how he interacts with Melissa Benoist who is wonderful as Supergirl.
The confusing
Which leads to the question: how much effect will Superman have on the show? Yes, you need Superman in this world, but he shouldn’t be used as a “get out of a jam free card”. Ideally he’s a presence and another confidant but not a constant presence. Maybe he will make up a bit for Cat Grant’s seemingly decreased role next season?
Also, Superman is supposed to be Kara’s older, more mature and experienced cousin. He’s a mentor who’s been on Earth and a superhero much longer than Kara. Trick is Hoechlin doesn’t look much older at all. (In real life he is one year older.) Not to mention that this is probably the first time in TV / Movie history where Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks who is in his mids 30s) looks older than Superman. Mehcad doesn’t look much older but he certainly doesn’t look like “Superman’s little buddy.” Of course some of this can be fixed with makeup and some can be explained away by noting that Kyrptonian’s age much slower and better than regular humans.
The exciting question is: will Superman be limited to Supergirl or will he also be making stops in Star City and Central City? Right now they are in a different universe but we’ve already been told by the “CW powers that be” that Supergirl is going to cross over into these worlds. Does that hold true for Superman too? Could a Justice League be far away?
The conclusion
An interesting choice for sure. Excited to see where it leads.
The first crossover event of the Rebirth Era begins this September! The six-part story is entitled “Night of the Monster Men” and will span the Batman, Nightwing, and Detective Comics books. Steve Orlando looks to be spearheading the event, working alongside each title’s usual writer.
Check out the descriptions and covers for the first three parts below!
Part One – Batman #7
On sale September 21
Co-Written by Steve Orlando and Tom King
Art by Riley Rossmo
As a huge storm approaches, Batman, Batwoman and Nightwing try and prepare Gotham City for the worst, but nothing can prepare the heroes for the enormous monsters rampaging through the streets! Batman will need all of his allies to unite in order to stop these mad science monsters from tearing Gotham apart!
Part Two – Nightwing #5
On sale September 21
Co-Written by Steve Orlando and Tim Seeley
Art by Roge Antonio
The Monster Men are stomping their way through Gotham City! How can the Bat-team take on both these monsters and the storm of the century? And when Nightwing goes behind the scenes to discover where these monsters originated, what he finds lurking in the shadows might be worse than the monsters themselves!
Part Three – Detective Comics #941
On sale September 28
Co-Written by Steve Orlando and James Tynion IV
Art by Andy MacDonald
Batman and Batwoman take to the streets in a motorcycle death race against a monster that transforms faster than either of them can keep up! And at Blackgate Prison, something truly terrifying is growing in the prison’s darkest depths… and its eggs are hatching!
— Parts Four through Six of “NIGHT OF THE MONSTER MEN” concludes the storyline in the pages of BATMAN #8, NIGHTWING #6 and DETECTIVE COMICS #942, to be solicited next month.
We are a little more than a month away from the Comic-Con International in San Diego and things are starting to pick up. The exclusives are starting to drop and some companies like Mattel are accepting pre-orders for pickup at the convention. Comic-Con has become more about movies and television than comics in recent years. The studios have started taking advantage of excitable nerd journalists (ahem) who will breathlessly give them a lot of publicity if they announce things. While there is no way to tell exactly what everyone will do, I’m going to make a few predictions based on what we already know and what the studios have done in the past.
1. Doctor Strange Theatrical Trailer
Unless we see a full trailer for Doctor Strange before the convention I would say a full trailer is very likely from Marvel to debut in Hall H. The trailer at the convention will probably have extra content, but Marvel would likely release a high quality version fairly quickly. The director,Scott Dickerson, has already confirmed that they will have a presence at the convention so a full cast panel is also likely.
2. Damage Control For Rogue One (And Maybe A Trailer)
While I think it’s much more likely that the theatrical trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will premiere at Star Wars Celebration in London, a few weeks from now you can be assured that Disney and Lucasfilm will be out in droves trying to negate all of those reshoot rumors. If we already have a trailer it wouldn’t surprise me to see behind the scene footage much like they did last year for The Force Awakens.
3. Suicide Squad Is Going To Be Everywhere
Warner Bros has already said that Suicide Squad is going to have a huge presence at the convention but this is still an interesting perspective. WB is in an interesting place with the original idea being that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was going to be the sure thing while giving Suicide Squad the room to take some chances. Now the pressure is on Suicide Squad to basically justify the entire DC Cinematic Universe. If Warner Bros was smart they would screen the movie for critics and fans at SDCC.
4. Nothing From Fox (Because They Won’t Be There)
20th Century Fox announced a few months ago that they wouldn’t be attending SDCC this year because of the piracy issues in Hall H. So if any X-Men fans were hoping to get a look at the next Wolverine movie, SDCC won’t be place.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 Early Footage Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 just finished filming so it wouldn’t surprise me if James Gunn brought some very rough footage to the convention to show off in Hall H.
6. Wonder Woman Teaser And Possibly Justice League Footage
Along with having a huge presence at SDCC with Suicide Squad WB would be wise to bring some footage from Wonder Woman. If there is a movie that they should be hyping up it’s Wonder Woman, and it’ll be less than a year before release. The movie has wrapped so a first look is likely. Justice League is much less likely, they are still filming, but a short teaser to help hype the movie after the lukewarm reception of Batman v Superman would be the smart move.
7. Captain Marvel Casting
This one is based much more on speculation but there have been rumors around the internet that Marvel is going to announce Captain Marvel casting this summer. It would be a huge boost to Marvel for them to bring out their pick on stage and introduce her to the world. It would make them look good compared to DC, even more so if they come out hard with Wonder Woman news.
8. Luke Cage Trailer Or Pilot
This also seems unlikely since Marvel doesn’t market their Netflix series too far in advance usually, but at New York Comic Con last year Marvel screened the entire pilot for Jessica Jones. A full length trailer is much more likely, but a pilot episode would really get the hype train going for Marvel first black superhero getting his own solo series.
The business in being an anime fan is usually a short one. Most fans hang around for a couple of years and flounder off once the show that brought them in starts to fade off. However if you manage to stick out for longer than that, maybe even ten years like some of us, you’ll find that your fandom tends to evolve from what it starts out as. Part of this may be because you get older, it might also have to do with the amount of shows you watch naturally grow and you tend to get a wider variety of shows that you see. For some, myself included, there is a point where you want to deeply hold onto those early favorites of when you first got into the fandom. This is completely understandable. No one would ever tell you that something doesn’t mean a lot just because it happened a long ago. Newer isn’t always better and reflecting on past favorites plays with this invisible balancing line where you need you figure out when a show is still worth your time or needs to take a back seat to better things.
Basically what spawned this whole article is something that spawns most of my content. I spent way too much time thinking about how Code Geass was my favorite anime since it came out on adult swim in 2007. It stayed my favorite show until 2012 or 2013, I can’t really remember. What I do remember is saying for about a year that it was still my favorite anime when it was in fact not. Also I’m having trouble with that same situation right now and need to evaluate Neon Genesis Evangelion and see if it still means enough to be my favorite show, or if there is something better to take its place. For some reason I have this knee jerk reaction when it comes to taking a show off of my favorites list, and I have a few ideas why this may be and will share how my affections towards these shows hasn’t really diminished, but evolved. This can also tie into the nostalgia factor so I kind of want to address that as well since it sort of ties into this topic.
Okay to start off I’ll bring up what I went through when it came to a show like Code Geass. For me I think it felt like I was admitting that I was wrong for so many years up until that point. I didn’t want to think that I wasted so much time focusing on this one show that now paled in comparison to other shows that I had watched. On a bright side though, it showed how I had grown as a person and a fan. There was a clear difference in a show like Code Geass and others that I used to hold up, and the ones I do now. This was sort of enlightening. Now while not everyone’s fandom has to evolve in such a way. It was ultimately beneficial for someone like me who had decided around that time that writing was a passion to be focused on. I also was deciding that I wanted more out of my entertainment and wanted to feel those deep emotions, sort of like what I did with Code Geass, but I wanted them to be lasting and not as shallow and fleeting. You see the more I got into anime the more greedy I became. I started wanting more of all the things I liked and wanted them to be well made since that is what I expected from myself as a writer. It was sort of jealousy if anything. Whenever I would see a poorly written show I would get mad since I was trying so hard to make my writing good and here is a horribly written story getting published and praised. Sure it sounds like I was a little conceited, but what artist isn’t when it comes to their creations. Anyway I played with calling Code Geass bad, but I quickly thought this to be overkill in trying to cover up my tracks of holding up such a “meh” show. I then had to watch it over again to see what I could get out of it now, and voila. I found myself appreciating it for its sheer density of things it had going on and how it struggled to keep them together. I loved how all the situations are complete nonsense but played with so much heart and care that its compelling. In a way it was all the things I liked about the show to begin with, I just liked them in a different way now. Except for Kallen and CC, my love for them stayed just the same as it did when I was 15.
This is where the whole nostalgia love comes into play. Sometimes you just need to admit that things aren’t as you once saw them. But that’s okay because now there is a chance to appreciate them in a different light. I’m a believer when it comes to art, some things are better off forgotten. There are things that will eventually hold no value for you as a person and you need to let go of them. Pretty deep stuff for anime trash that I love, but still. This is not something that I think anyone else needs to agree on with me. Some may say I don’t really care about things from the past by saying such things. Honestly, yeah I don’t. I used to be super into Digimon when I was a kid and early teenager, but now I look on it and shrug it off as something I once liked. I certainly can watch some Digimon but the feelings I had for it as a kid are long gone, because I don’t need them anymore. Just like with Code Geass, there are some things you don’t need in your life anymore, or at least not in the same way. Sure I haven’t given up on Code Geass, but if that one day does happen, it’s no skin off my back. I feel like I am sounding super pragmatic, but it’s actually quite the opposite. I care so much about these dumb shows that if I don’t feel some kind of connection with it anymore, I throw it away and make room for newer and better things.
However I wouldn’t really think of it as throwing away things either. Just like you eat food to get nourishment. Art is nourishment for the mind and soul. You use it and let it fill you with whatever you need at the time and once you don’t need it anymore, you move onto the next thing that will give your life nourishment. I didn’t really mean for this simple topic to go this far down the rabbit hole. Some of the things I said probably don’t need to be said but its at least a better understanding at how I view the vast amount of anime in the past and the vast amount to come. All I want is to have this deep emotional connection with a show so I can truly call it my favorite, and like I’ve experienced with Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion might not be that show anymore.
Giancarlo Esposito, Gus Fring himself, is joining Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Paul Dano in Bong Joon-Ho’s next sci-fi thriller, Okja. Joon-Ho directed the incredible breath of fresh air Snowpiecer a couple of years back, and Okja promises to be just as weird and inventive as that was.
“[Okja] centers on a young girl named Mija (Seo-Hyeon Ahn) who risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend — a massive genetically manufactured pig named Okja.
Swinton (who is reuniting with the Snowpiercer director) is playing the head of the corporation (and her twin sister!) while Gyllenhaal is a zoologist. Dano is an animal activist looking to expose the corporation’s dastardly dealings. Esposito will play Swinton’s character’s right hand man.”
This has the potential to be just as nuts as Snowpiercer, which any fan of sci-fi should see. Seeing Swinton in twin roles will be great. Okja is being produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B, with Netflix planning on releasing the film.
Fans of the wonderful BBC America series Orphan Black will be sad to know that it’s nearing the end of its run. It was announced today that, while the show has been renewed for a fifth season, the upcoming season will be its last. John Fawcett & Graeme Manson, co-creators of the show, had this to say:
“We are excited to deliver an epic conclusion to the tale of Sarah and her clone sisters. The past four seasons have been a phenomenal adventure and we are eternally grateful to our loyal fans who have loved the twists and thrills of our weird little show.”
For those who haven’t previously been part of the Clone Club, Orphan Black is a fantastic sci-fi series about a young woman, Sarah Manning, who gets thrust into the crazy world of cloning. Each clone is played amazingly by Tatiana Maslany, who has received many award nominations (though no wins, as of yet). The Season 4 finale airs tonight (June 16th, 2016), and the final season will be arriving in 2017.
From Zombies To Superheroes, We Look At How Zack Snyder Became Fanboy Public Enemy #1.
Film director Zack Snyder has been working in Hollywood since roughly 2004. Debuting with a remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead‘, the stylistic director has since become one of the most polarizing names. Not since Michael Bay has America collectively torn into a director with such anger. Snyder’s film with the lowest score on Rotten Tomatoes is ‘Sucker Punch‘ at 24%. The next being 2016’s ‘Batman v Superman‘ coming in at 27%. Speaking of, the latest DC film gained so much hate from audiences that there was even a petition to get Snyder fired from future films.
Where did all of this hate come from?
First, we have to start by pointing out what people say in reference to his work. To sum up Zack Snyder as a creator, it would simply be “style over substance”. Reviewers and viewers all say he cares more about the look than the heart of the film. This usually leads to complaints about his lack of character development and the reliance on filmmaking tricks.
“I think I just have a natural operatic aesthetic. I can’t help it.”
-Zack Snyder
Sure, Snyder loves his slow-motion or a saturated color palette but these are trademarks that keep his projects on brand. To claim these quirks takeaway from the heart of the story is an unfair assumption. An aesthetic can be just as important as the drama in filmmaking. The director of 60’s horror film ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane‘ claimed he shot the movie in black & white because “color would have made it too pretty. Tragedy should never look pretty”. I feel that way about Zack Snyder films. If you change the visuals of the films, they become far less impactful.
Another major complaint is that Snyder’s film are far too dark, a complaint that was further vocalized when he was given reign over DC’s cinematic universe. After his 2013 Superman movie ‘Man Of Steel‘, there was no going back in the eyes of critics & fans. Hardcore DC Comics fans despised his interpretation of Clark Kent while critics felt the movie lacked the happiness that they expected in a Superman film.
Things would get worse for him with follow-up ‘Batman v Superman‘.
Seemingly out to make the most Zack Snyder film possible, he threw all of his filmmaking tricks at the wall. Snap zooms, slow-motion, brash colors, and brutal violence were on display in this ‘Justice League‘ prologue. Let’s not forget that Snyder also set this DC film in a political post-tragedy world. More so than any film before, I believe ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘ reflects our times so vividly that it made most viewers uncomfortable. Hell, even Nancy Grace showed up.
Look, I’ll admit ‘BvS‘ has filmmaking problems like some choppy editing and cartoon-ish visual effects but there seems to be a bigger issue rooted deeper than those superficial complaints.
“I’d say the purest experience for the movie is not to have read the book because I think when you’ve read the book you’re just ticking off boxes. I think that after you see the movie, reading the book is a cool thing. I always say the movie’s not meant to replace the book. That’s ridiculous. I’m a huge fan of the book.”
–Zack Snyder
Does the above quote spell out exactly why fans dislike Snyder? Is he the anti-fanboy director? I personally applaud a filmmaker who respects source material but allows it to shape a different vision with these established characters. But it seems like any shift of these beloved characters can cause some serious backlash.
And the critics? Are they being paid off by Disney like the Internet loves to joke about or are they just comfortable with the status quo of superheroes movies?
These are questions that are not easily answered but should be asked. Hope he’s not destined for Uwe Boll status for the rest of his career. I think Zack Snyder still has time to redeem himself in the viewer’s eyes with his upcoming 2017 ‘Justice League‘.
The “Buddy Action” duo, often colored by comedy, has become its own genre. It’s crucial in these settings that the duo is mismatched – an Odd Couple thrown into precarious situations. And eventually, in the best of these films, the two fundamentally different characters find common ground.
From the early 80s, all the way to this weekend’s Central Intelligence, here are the 10 best, most balanced, most convincing and well-conceived Buddy Action duos in cinema.
10. Matthew Sykes and Sam Francisco (Alien Nation) – What’s often a criminally overlooked, allegorical sci-fi thriller, Alien Nation deserves another look. Especially given our current national conversation about immigration and crime. James Caan is tough cop Matthew Sykes, and Mandy Patinkin his extraterrestrial partner Sam Francisco. Sykes is a little racist (towards aliens), Francisco relatively straight-laced, but they eventually come to an understanding as they infiltrate the criminal underworld of these “Newcomers.”
9. Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash (Tango & Cash) – Don’t tell me Tango & Cash isn’t a damn near perfect movie when taken into context. Fresh on the heels of Lethal Weapon success, Sly Stallone and Kurt Russell tried their hand playing two tough cops framed for murder. It’s trash, but fun trash. Stallone’s Tango is tough but organized, Russell’s Cash is tough and disheveled. The movie travels through some truly unusual prison scenes and some hyper-violence, all the while Russell appears to be pulling the typically dreary Stallone out of his shell.
8. Detectives Lecce and Reimers (Stakeout) – Call me crazy, but I enjoy BOTH Stakeout and Another Stakeout. The original, however, is a special combination of Richard Dreyfuss’s uptight Lecce and Emilio Estevez’s laid back kid Reimers. The team has to keep an eye on the girlfriend of an escaped convict – the great Madeleine Stowe – and eventually love complicates things. Dreyfuss and Esteves have a comedic chemistry that I would never have expected from those two.
7. Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman (Hot Fuzz) –Hot Fuzz had the interesting approach to send up the very movie in which it becomes in the end. While satirizing buddy action formulas in film, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Angel and Butterman eventually become honest-to-goodness crime fighters in the sleepy London town of Sandford. Pegg and Frost had some better pairings, most notably in Shaun of The Dead, but that doesn’t take away from the timing and the pitch-perfect satire they show here.
6. Ivan Danko and Art Ridzik (Red Heat) – Another overlooked late 80s action classic. Red Heat is often considered “Minor Schwarzenegger” since it somehow came and went without much fanfare. Arnie plays a USSR policeman on the trail of a heroin dealer. He’s rigid and humorless, so naturally he’s teamed up with slovenly Chicago wiseass, detective Art Ridzik (Jim Belushi). What’s so entertaining about the pair is how they really never find that common ground so familiar in these stories. Ivan isn’t going to loosen up, and Ridzik isn’t ever going to stop giving him shit. “You think Parakeet is feminine?”
5. Jackson Healey and Holland March (The Nice Guys) – Even though it’s only been out for a few weeks, the duo at the center of The Nice Guys absolutely deserves to be on this list. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling’s Healey and March are perfect as the straight and funny man, and March even has a Lou Costello moment when he stumbles across a dead body. Thanks to the razor-sharp words from writer/director Shane Black (we’ll be discussing him quite a bit in these next few entries), the Godfather of Buddy Action cinema, Crowe and Gosling absolutely sing.
4. Joe Hallenbeck and Jimmy Dix (The Last Boy Scout) – Consider the duo in The Nice Guys as the distant cousins of Shane Black’s Secret Service burnout Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) and disgraced QB Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans). The Last Boy Scout is a cruel and nihilistic – but often super funny – action movie. It hurtles haphazardly through insults and shootouts and car chases with blatant disregard for any sort of political correctness. It could never happen today, and that’s why it should be treasured.
3. Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond (48 Hrs.) – Nick Nolte and Edie Murphy invented the Buddy Action duo with this 1982 gem. Walter Hill’s gritty cop thriller is elevated by a young Murphy infusing his crude early comedic timing into a story about a racist cop begrudgingly working with a paroled crook to bring down a killer. Nolte’s Jack Cates is yet another time capsule character, offensive and racist, and Murphy is more than able to put him in his place by the end.
2. Jack Walsh and Jonathan Mardukas (Midnight Run) – 1988 was the height of the Buddy Action Duo in Hollywood; there are four entries on this list alone. Martin Brest’s story about a bounty hunter (Robert De Niro) tasked with bringing in a former Mafia accountant blends the Buddy Action story with a road film, a chase film, and a well-crafted action adventure. It’s appreciated over time, so much so that the Hollywood Nostalgia Train has decided to make a sequel with Brett Ratner (groan).
1. Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh (Lethal Weapon) – There was ever another option for number one. Even though the adventures of Riggs and Murtaugh didn’t birth the Buddy Action subgenre, Richard Donner’s film (from the screenplay by, of course, Shane Black) is the first film literally everyone thinks about when they think about these films. The Lethal Weapon franchise improved in the second one, then got worse in 3 and 4, but the success of this franchise and the manic energy between Gibson’s crazed cop and Glover’s family man was paid the greatest compliment: years and years of ripoffs.
The Flash is a character that’s been around since 1940, the Golden Age of Comics. Over the years, four men have worn the red-and-gold, and each one has made an impact on DC Comics’ history.
We polled Twitter users to find out who they thought the best* Scarlet Speedster was. The results are below:
Bart Allen – 3%
Bart Allen is the grandson of Barry Allen from the 30th century. He is also a descendent of Barry’s archnemesis Eobard Thawne, Professor Zoom, which makes family reunions somewhat awkward.
Bart started his career as Impulse before becoming the second Kid Flash. After Infinite Crisis, he was aged by the Speed Force and took over the role of Flash with Wally West presumed dead. His career was short-lived but no less important to speedster lore.
The younger Allen’s measly 3% isn’t too surprising considering he’s had the least mainstream exposure. He most notably appeared several times on Smallville.
Jay Garrick – 4%
Jay Garrick is the O.G. Flash. He pioneered the title, and is one of the longest lasting superheroes in history (he first appeared just one year after Batman, and two years after Superman). Garrick was also a major player in introducing the multiverse, which is something that’s become central to all superhero comics, not just DC’s.
Without Jay, who knows what the modern landscape of comics would look like? The other speedsters on this list probably wouldn’t even exist.
Yet he received only 4% of the vote. People need to learn better respect for their elders.
Wally West – 24%
Wally West is the Flash of a generation. Introduced as Kid Flash in 1959, Wally took over the Flash mantle following Barry Allen’s death in 1985. He would hold the title for over three decades, even after Barry’s return in 2009. Wally is also the Flash that fans know and love from the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series.
He is the epitome of “legacy” in comics, the one sidekick who fulfilled his destiny, which is why Geoff Johns put him at the center of DC’s recent Rebirth special. If you got into DC superheroes between the mid-80s and early-00s, Wally is your Scarlet Speedster.
But West’s celebrity among millennials wasn’t enough to propel him to victory; he garnered just under a quarter of the total votes.
Barry Allen – 69%
Much like Jay Garrick was a pioneer of the Golden Age of Comics, Barry Allen was a pioneer of the Silver Age. Technically, he was the pioneer; his debut in Showcase #4 is considered the start of the Silver Age. Since then, Allen has been at the center of DC’s biggest world-shattering events.
Barry has every quality that a good hero should have. He has heart, and a strong moral compass that rivals that of Superman. He’s an inspiration to readers, yet he remains totally relatable. And although he’s been a fan favorite for almost 6 decades (October will be his 60th anniversary), Barry’s popularity is only increasing thanks to his leading role on CW’s The Flash.
It comes as no surprise that he won the poll, but the margin by which he won is a bit staggering.
— Monkeys Fight Robots (@monkeys_robots) June 15, 2016
*”Best” is a relative term that in this case more accurately reflects “most popular.”
Thanks to everyone that voted. Do you agree with the results? Let us know in the comments! And vote in future fan polls by following us on Twitter @monkeys_robots!
