Favourite Marvel Comics Character

And just because we have a thread for DC characters and I want to be even handed: who is your favourite Marvel Comics character or team, and why? As with the DC one, there's a poll, but feel free to choose someone not included in it; narrowing several hundred characters down to just ten poll spaces is pretty much impossible...

For me, it's Captain Britain. Just because, well, he's ours. And he's a real character rather than a walking cliche (sorry, Captain America...)

It has to be the FF for me - as good as Cap Brit is, no FF no Cap. (Plus Jack Kirby had some minor input to the FF, I believe...)Simples!

How did I know you'd say that?

I will never apologise for feelings about Jack Kirby - he was the best. And people still rip off his style, layouts and Krackle!! The proof of his tremendous input is shown in the way he is ignored by the companies and people who have benefited the most. It's the same with JFK - who benefited the most by his death?

He was amazing-though I think Fanrtastic Four only really got into its stride after it been running awhile. The first year's worth at least bear little resemblance to what came later, either art or script wise, and Kirby's style seemed to change radically after that. Look at these two...

Early FF. The figures are still reminiscent of Kirby's forties and fifties work, I think. They're slimmer, less exagerratedly muscular than a lot of his later stuff.


Avengers, not much later. Now, we have the distinctive, rather blocky characters he's better known for...

Don't forget - in the early stages of Marvel, Jack was doing EVERYTHING and so he only got to do 'layouts' - that's why the inking is so crap. When Marvel were established Jack 'just' drew 21 pages of FF, 21 pages of Thor and 10 pages of Cap PER MONTH...as well as doing layouts on Fury, covers and other things...the man was a phenomenon and a genious. AND Stan (bless him) had the foresight to let Joe Sinnott do most of Jack's inking...
'Nuff said!
Note how many of those early covers have always have a tilted 'New York' skyline behind the. Another Kirby invention!

I've never actually noticed that before! Two random covers and, you're right-the tilted NY skyline appears in both! You learn something new every day...

Spider-Man, no contest. It's hard to say why, except that he means something to me that the others don't. It's almost like he's an old friend, whereas the other Marvel characters are more like celebrities I admire from afar.

Close second is Cyclops, but yeah, he's no Spidey.

I think Cyclops has been rather spoiled as a character by more recent writers. I find it hard to imagin e the Cyke from the 60's/70's stories behaving as ruthlessly as the current incarnation. It's as though he and Wolverine have switched personalities.

Yeah, I'm none too pleased with what they've done to Scott either. I like the growth he's gone through (his being more confident and less hard on himself is actually one of the most refreshing changes I've ever seen), but I don't like the tangents, like his forming of X-Force. Claremont's Cyclops (the version that really commands my fondness) would never even consider such a thing.

If he were a real person, I'd blame the company he's keeping. Claremont's Scott wouldn't be sleeping with the White Queen, either!

Oh yeah. . .I tend to block Emma from my mind when thinking of the X-Men. I forgot about that. I think it's puzzling that she wasn't just shown, but was outright STATED to have taken advantage of Scott when he was mentally vulnerable (I think Jean stated it, if I remember correctly), and yet we're supposed to root for them as a couple. Were the genders reversed, I imagine things would be much different.

To be honest, I don't really much like any X-Man added after Kitty Pryde. I think Rogue's introduction was where the series started to go downhill for me. I've never liked the Emma thing, can't stand Gambit and I've tried very hard to block people like Bishop, Maggott and Marrow from my memory completely.

tony ingram wrote:To be honest, I don't really much like any X-Man added after Kitty Pryde. I think Rogue's introduction was where the series started to go downhill for me. I've never liked the Emma thing, can't stand Gambit and I've tried very hard to block people like Bishop, Maggott and Marrow from my memory completely.

Ah, well, Rogue and Gambit were two very iconic members during my childhood, so I have difficulty disliking them or even thinking of them as "new". When I first learned that they weren't even in the team until, what. . .the '80s? It boggled my mind. How could you have X-Men without THEM?

Of course, I soon learned that you could have it VERY well, thank you. I still wonder what the cartoon would've been like if only they'd used the Claremont/Byrne era's team, and also why they didn't. That was the team that pretty much built up a permanent "credit" among fans, after all.

Actually, Gambit didn't debut until July 1990. To me, he'll always be "new". I also still have difficulty thinking of Psylocke, Longshot and Dazzler as X-Men since that wasn't what any of them were created to be. I'll probably never forgive Clarem ont for what he did to poor, sweet Betsy Braddock...

My favourite Marvel characters include: Howard the Duck, Elf with a Gun, Foolkiller, Madame Hydra/Viper, Deathlok the Demolisher, Shang-Chi, Sir Clive Reston, Black Knight, Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll. HTD would probably get my vote.

A fellow child of the 70s, I presume? Starlin;'s original Warlock saga, MOKF, the Deathlok series in Astonishing Tales and pretty much everything Steve Gerber wrote for Marvel are some of my favourite comics of all time. I loved Gerber's Defenders run, and the Elf was a big part of the reason why (as were the Headmen). They don't write comics like that anymore.

I was born in the 60s but started reading comics in the 70s.

Technically also true of me (November '69).

I picked Captain America. But to be fair, I've not regularly read anything Marvel since about 1967...except occasionally.

 Oh, and you spelled favorite wrong!   

Silogramsam wrote: Oh, and you spelled favorite wrong!   

I think you'll find you spelt favourite wrong!  

Where I come from, this is "spelt."

Silogramsam wrote:
Where I come from, this is "spelt."  

Looks like wheat, to me...

it is wheat but healthier that common wheat; I understand if you've not heard of it as its only been around for about 5000 years.

Silogramsam wrote:it is wheat but healthier that common wheat; I understand if you've not heard of it as its only been around for about 5000 years.  

Yes, but we don't really use the word in that sense, here. Spelt is the past tense of spell.

This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

Lucy McGough wrote:This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

I thought it was because of my breath.

tony ingram wrote:

Lucy McGough wrote:This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

I thought it was because of my breath.

try using spelt wheat, should improve the breath and perhaps loosen up the belt a bit too!

tony ingram wrote:

Lucy McGough wrote:This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

I thought it was because of my breath.

On the internet, nobody can smell your breath (at least, not yet).

MajorHoy wrote:

tony ingram wrote:

Lucy McGough wrote:This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

I thought it was because of my breath.

On the internet, nobody can smell your breath (at least, not yet).

then you should invite ultron7 over here

Silogramsam wrote:

MajorHoy wrote:

tony ingram wrote:

Lucy McGough wrote:This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

I thought it was because of my breath.

On the internet, nobody can smell your breath (at least, not yet).

then you should invite ultron7 over here

Oh, does he have a problem with that? Shame.
I'll remember that...

Oh, as to favorite / favourite, it varies from age to age, but I'll cheat a little and chose a combination of The Invaders and the Liberty Legion.

You could also add The Crusaders, too.

So basically, The All-Winners Squad?
(they were a combination of Invaders and Liberty Legion members with, according to a 70s retcon, one former member of the Crusaders standing in for Captain America).

tony ingram wrote:

Silogramsam wrote:

MajorHoy wrote:

tony ingram wrote:

Lucy McGough wrote:This is why any new members of our forum quickly leave.

I thought it was because of my breath.

On the internet, nobody can smell your breath (at least, not yet).

then you should invite ultron7 over here

Oh, does he have a problem with that? Shame.
I'll remember that...

No idea...but why take chances?

tony ingram wrote:So basically, The All-Winners Squad?
(they were a combination of Invaders and Liberty Legion members with, according to a 70s retcon, one former member of the Crusaders standing in for Captain America).

A very small combination of the two teams, and those members from the Liberty Legion were essentially part of The Invaders anyway when they were operating on the homefront (the U.S., that is).

tony ingram wrote:I've never actually noticed that before! Two random covers and, you're right-the tilted NY skyline appears in both! You learn something new every day...

I've visited New York City.

It actually is tilted!!!  

It wouldn't be if British people had built it

Lucy McGough wrote:It wouldn't be if British people had built it

If my district council had built it, it wouldn't even be finished yet...

Ha! Yes

karatattoo wrote:

tony ingram wrote:I've never actually noticed that before! Two random covers and, you're right-the tilted NY skyline appears in both! You learn something new every day...

I've visited New York City.

It actually is tilted!!!  

Only if you're from the other side of the Mason-Dixon.

(For those of you outside the U.S. who may not be aware, karatattoo is from Georgia in the Southern U.S., while I've lived all my life not far from New York City.)

The tilt is relative to your location. I'm southwest of NYC, while Major is northeast. So the city tilts either toward you or away from you. It all depends on where you are.

Personally, I blame the Dutch. They were, after all, the original settlers of that area, when it was known as New Amsterdam.

karatattoo wrote:The tilt is relative to your location. I'm southwest of NYC, while Major is northeast. So the city tilts either toward you or away from you. It all depends on where you are.

But I grew up about 20 miles (32 kilometers?) or so west-northwest of Manhattan.

MajorHoy wrote:

karatattoo wrote:The tilt is relative to your location. I'm southwest of NYC, while Major is northeast. So the city tilts either toward you or away from you. It all depends on where you are.

But I grew up about 20 miles (32 kilometers?) or so west-northwest of Manhattan.

Yes, when you lived in New Jersey, but aren't you in Connecticut now?

karatattoo wrote:

MajorHoy wrote:

karatattoo wrote:The tilt is relative to your location. I'm southwest of NYC, while Major is northeast. So the city tilts either toward you or away from you. It all depends on where you are.

But I grew up about 20 miles (32 kilometers?) or so west-northwest of Manhattan.

Yes, when you lived in New Jersey, but aren't you in Connecticut now?

Yes I am, but still only about an hour's drive outside of the city, and my NJ years were my "formative" years. (I still often think in terms of being from NJ, even though I've now lived a little more than half my life in CT, and I'm still living in the metropolitan NYC area.)

Myfirst exposure to Captain America (and Bucky) was in Fantasy Masterpieces #3 (I tried to cut-and-paste the cover but it's not working for some reason) - stories by Simon and Kirby from the early 40s.  I imagine my preference to Cap over other Marvel heroes was because of this more than anything else.  And, as a kid, Cap and Bucky seemed a lot less complicated than Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man or even Thor and the rest.

And they continued that good old comics tradition of reckless child endangerment!  

(at least until more modern writers decided Bucky was actually not a kid and was also a trained killer. Bastards)

Yeah, they should've made him a child and a trained killer, like Damian Wayne. It's not like the country Captain America represents has any qualms about endangering children, or they'd reform their gun laws.

Lucy McGough wrote:Yeah, they should've made him a child and a trained killer, like Damian Wayne. It's not like the country Captain America represents has any qualms about endangering children, or they'd reform their gun laws.

Lucy, if children didn't have access to guns, how would they be able to protect themselves from the other children with guns?