Author Archives: JR19759

So, Batman. He's the second oldest character still in publication in mainstream American Superhero comics, having been published non-stop since his debut in May of 1939. He also has unarguably the greatest gallery of villains of any superhero, ranging from the stone cold classics (such as The Joker, Penguin, Two-Face and Catwoman) to the underappraciated gems (Calender Man, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee) to the down right ridiculous (Ten-Eyed Man). And it is also fair to say that he has the best supporting cast of any character in comics, be it his Bat-Family (the various Robins, Bat-Girls and Bat-Women) or his allies and confidents (Alfred Pennyworth and Jim Gordon being the standouts here). So with such scope and range in what to look for, it should be fairly easy to find Batman stories that can be classified as classics of the comic book medium. But which is the best?

As per usual I have given you ten options to start with and you can add your own. You can add specific comic issues if you so please, but try to refer to any multi-issue storylines by name (e.g. Batman #492-511 would be refered to as Knightfall). Elseworlds stories do count, as do any World's Finest or team-up stories provided Batman is a title character (so no The Brave and The Bold stories). We are not including any Bat-family storylines that do not include Batman, nor Justice League or Outsiders, Batman-centric stories only.

We haven't done a "Greatest Villains" List yet, which is both surprising and unsurprising. We've done the top 10 best rogues galleries, but we haven't actually gone in and looked at any of them in detail and ranked the supervillains in terms of how memorable they are and the effect they've had on the readers and the superheroes they plague. And it's somewhat easy to see why. What is the point of doing a Batman count down, you know that the Joker is waiting at the end, it can't be anyone else. Same for Superman, X-Men, Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Thor, Captain America, they all have that one foe that is just head and shoulders above the rest. However, Spider-Man is different. Sure he has some villains who are more recognisable than others, but he doesn't have a distinct "arch-nemesis", if anything, he has three at the very least. So, that's what we're doing this week. As per usual, I've given you 10 options to start with and you can add your own choices. If you do add answers, please give both supervillain name and civillian identity, because some names are carried over by different people.

Sorry I didn't have a Poll Position up for you guys last week, I had a very busy end to the week last Friday, but it isn't going anywhere.

Anyway, this week we're looking at who has given the best performance on any form of superhero TV show, be it live-action or cartoon. As per usual, I've given you 10 options to start with and you can add your own suggestions. Please bear in mind that if you add your own suggestions I would like if you could do so in the format of the options I have given, so actors name - role played - TV show - length of run. And you can add actors twice if the actor has played another role in a different series that you think is worth mentioning (e.g. Mark Hamill is a starting option for his work as The Joker in the DC Animated Universe, but has also been in the two live action Flash series as The Trickster).