The Web Haunt of Ryan K Lindsay

I though it might be fun to work out who my favourite comic characters were, and why. There are literally thousands to choose from, but only a special few that really jump off the page and live on for me. Though many automatically write themselves out, I wans’t going to run with The Gibbon, or Toad. In fact, most animal themed supers suck big time.

It’s very interesting to note that all of my choices are fellas, make of that what you will.

Billy Butcher – The Boys

This guy just cracks me up. I’ve been following The Boys since the first issue and there’s a fair few good characters but I have to admit that I am completely intrigued by Butcher. He’s got a lot of power, but mostly he just gets around swearing and laughing at Wee Hughie. Butcher steps up as my favourite character in this series because of the way he reacts to things. For a big time he hasn’t done much, but he doesn’t have to. His presence usually does all he needs. I like a character who’s more conversation and laughs than just action. It’s a change of pace, for the good.
Top Moment: Issues 19-20 – Talking all roll about chicks and shit with the Homelander. Butcher stands and listens through most of it, but the Homelander is pretty bloody powerful and yet he doesn’t do anything because he knows he can’t. Butcher has his number. Butcher doesn’t prance about and flaunt this fact, but he knows it. The tension is awesome, a very well written scene. When these two do finally scrap it is going to be insanely huge.

Favourite Quote: That would be the one in the image at the top. Butcher always comes across as so jovial, but the minute you come close to screwing him over he’ll take you down.

Eric O’Grady – The Irredeemable Ant-Man

What was he? The third Ant-Man? But man did he do something different with it. The sort of creepy fanboy crap that people love to secretly read, Eric O’Grady used the suit to spy on girls in the shower, and get dates, and basically sate his base urges. He was such an unredeeming character but I loved him anyway. He was interesting and I could have followed his series for a lot longer. That first pocket-digest is still one of my favourite little reads to pop open when I have ten minutes spare. I can only hope that he continues to be used in the Marvel U.
Top Moment: O’Grady goes to his friend’s funeral, who he kind of is responsible for dying, and then proceeds to take a run at his missus on the grave site. Low class.
Favourite Quote: I’m telling you, Nick Fury is an urban myth. That’s why they invented this one-eyed superman. We think we’re working for the coolest guy on Earth. We’re content. (On why S.H.I.E.L.D. fabricated the persona of Nick Fury)

Nick Fury – Strange Tales

I have to admit that I always find Nick Fury to be an intriguing character. He’s been a bit lopsided over the years, but overall his character is pretty damn cool. He started off as a bit of a lunk-head, but now he’s bad as black and cold as ice. He’s got the coolest name ever, he’s got all the gadgets, all the ladies, and all the time in the world. I have the first ten issues in the run where he finally meets HYDRA, and it’s as awesome as you want it to be. Fury kicks ass, takes name, and doesn’t even think about chewing bubble-gun because he knows he’s all out. It also helps that he had Jim Steranko making him look good for so long. I will say, however, that I am a purist and believe that the 616 Fury is the only Fury, As ‘cool’ as it is having Samuel L Jackson play him, I am disappointed they didn’t rope Clooney into doing it real justice.
Top Moment: Has to be having one of the best cover collection in all of comicdom. You could run an art show on his different stuff easily.
Favourite Quote: I gotta admit, a lot of the old Fury stuff makes me laugh, but not always in a good way. I did like the bit in Secret Invasion where he looks down the Skrulls and says “My god has a hammer.” That’s pretty textbook Fury.

Rick Grimes – The Walking Dead

This series is good, but it has to be admitted that a great deal of that is because of the ‘main’ character. Rick carries the heart and soul on his heavy shoulders and it’s very interesting to watch it all slowly take its toll on him. I’m ten trades in and I’ve watched him lead them to glory, but also to tears. He’s gone from the leader to the man who doesn’t believe he can lead. He’s a very real character and that makes the situation of zombies that much more real. And that’s how I like my zombie fiction, real.

Top Moment: There had been plenty little things leading up to my love of Rick. He was a great leader, but then I slowly saw that he was a shrewd one as well. He let Tyreese kill the boy that helped his daughter commit suicide, and then left him with the zombie version to work over even slower. He beat the living shit out of the serial killer who had been knocking them off in the prison. He may have broken a few fingers in the process but the guy had teeth and bones everywhere where they shouldn’t be in his face. But the final slice of awesome came after Dexter was forcing them out of the prison. A massive zombie riot erupts and Rick uses the confusion to shoot Dexter and blame it on a wayward bullet in the fray. That’s where I could see that Rick would do anything it took to survive. That’s where he gets the respect.
Favourite Quote: We are the walking dead. (An obvious one but it really marked a turn in a lot of character perceptions in the book)

Casanova Quinn – Casanova

I couldn’t go past Casanova because he is such a crazy and alluring subject. He’s not the usual lead character, he’s his own evil twin, in a way, and but he’s making it work. He does things completely different to the way you would expect them to be done, but he also lives in a world that is totally different to the one you would expect, even for a spy series. He’s even good enough to be able to leave, kind of, the title for the second arc and it still represents. There’s plenty of smirk worthy material in the book, and Casanova is one funny character. He could almost be overwritten, but his character makes it all just believable.
Top moment: The leap out of the helicasino is pretty damn sweet, I will admit.
Favourite Quote: Whatever – he’s an arrogant special effect and I’m gonna fuck him up for money. (In reference to Fabula Beserko)

Man, some of these characters make me glad that some comics just go on forever, and others make me so sad that a story has to end. It absolutely crazy to think how much you can know a person by a few speech balloons, some thought captions, and a few sketched out pictures of their reactions.

These are just the ones rounding out the top ten. The top five are gonna be killer, literally in one of their cases. See you then.

Posted on September 16th, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: comics, Uncategorized