I’ve been having a grumpy day. Rather, a series of grumpy days. There’s a lot of Very Serious Stuff that I should be dealing with and writing about, but I’ve got a responsibility to my Blog@ folks too. So I was eating dinner and thinking–what can I write about that will put me in a better mood, and my readers, too?

And then it hit me. A highly subjective list of my favorite comics characters! I don’t claim to have read everything out there, or even a decent cross-section. So this list contains no superheroes, only one super-villain, and is mostly drawn from Vertigo. I will not apologize for that–it’s what I like. But I WOULD love to hear everyone’s favorite characters and why they love them. There will be no “right answer” here.

Everybody ready? OK….

10. Catwoman, Batman & her own series, various.

Catwoman is a far more interesting character than most women in superhero books to me. She’s a villain, but she’s Batman‘s love interest and the only person who could ever really understand him. In a world where characters are all too often good or evil, she’s equal parts both and that makes her ten times more complex. Plus, I love the outfits. (Please do not mention that Halle Berry atrocity to me, kthx?)

9. Megan McKeenan, Local, Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly

Megan is the most authentic character I’ve ever come across in comics, and one of the most authentic in fiction. She’s not super-gorgeous or super-smart or super-anything. She’s just a real girl, growing up, making mistakes, burning bridges, but always making her own decisions. Local is a series about choices, about those pivotal turning points in your life where you can go one way or another. Megan is me, and she’s all of us.

8. V, V for Vendetta, Alan Moore & David Lloyd

Alan Moore’s done so much for comics, but I think the most iconic image he gave us was the man clad all in black save for the Guy Fawkes mask. V for Vendetta has so much to offer, and it would’ve been so easy for V to be just a caricature, an oversized walking Idea rather than a character, but Moore made us feel his pain and his anger, and did it all without the aid of facial expessions. To make you feel sadness from a character whose face is always smiling takes no small skill.

7. Morpheus/Dream, The Sandman, Neil Gaiman & Various (but always, in my mind, Jill Thompson)

It is his series, and it is my favorite series, and so you must wonder why he’s so low on the list, right? I love Dream for his rigidity and moral certainty at the beginning, and for the lovely way he learns to bend and then realizes that he’s bent as far as he can, and that any further and he will indeed break. Dream is at times eclipsed by other of Gaiman’s fantastic creations–I could’ve filled this list just with characters from Sandman and it wouldn’t be wrong. But when you read The Sandman, though it’s a story about stories, an ensemble book loaded with outsize personalities, it is still Dream that you love.

6. Tank Girl, Alan Martin & Jamie Hewlett & various.

Do I have to explain this? Really? Because the picture in this case truly is worth a thousand words:

5. Lucifer, The Sandman & Lucifer, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & various.

Oh, Lucifer. Can you tell that I love complicated bad guys? In the first Sandman arc, Lucifer appears like a junkie Bowie-inspired angel, and only grows more compelling from there. “Season of Mists” vies with “Brief Lives” for my favorite Sandman tale, and Mike Carey then took what Gaiman gave him and ran with it, turning Lucifer into just enough of a romantic hero to keep readers on his side, while maintaining that independence and, well, deviltry that left us always wondering what he was going to do next.

4. Delirium, The Sandman, Neil Gaiman & Various (but most definitely Jill Thompson)

Again, there are so many wonderful characters to have come from the pages of The Sandman that it’s hard to choose, and I’m sure people will be shocked at the choices I’ve made. But Delirium is my favorite Sandman character for many reasons. Yes, she’s the crazy little sister, but when she pulls it together she’s wiser than any in her family. Her look is always changing, yet iconic, and unlike the rest of her often-scheming siblings, Delirium is refreshingly honest, simple, even. She wants what she wants, when she wants it, and her loneliness and pain are palpable. (I would LOVE to see Jill Thompson do a Delirium book the way she did her Death book…)

3. Spider Jerusalem, Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson

I often tell people that Spider Jerusalem is the reason I’m in journalism school. That’s not entirely true, but what is true is that when I get down on my chosen career field, I pull out the Transmet trades and remind myself of both the fun and the vital importance of journalism. Ellis was clearly inspired by Hunter S. Thompson when he created Spider Jerusalem, but the character goes far beyond Thompson’s mannerisms. Spider has a heart as big as his mouth is foul, and as the book went on, the layers peeled away and the facade breaks down and all that is left is his determination to get the job done, bust the bad guys, and protect the people he loves.

2. Tulip, Preacher, Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon

This feminist adores Garth Ennis, and one of the biggest reasons why is Tulip. Sure, Preacher is about Jesse Custer. But it’s as much about Tulip and Cassidy as it is about Jesse, and Tulip is a hell of a character. She avoids the obvious “strong woman character” cliches–she’s a hitwoman, but she screws up her first hit, and continues to be confronted with the consequences of difficult choices she makes over and over throughout the series. Preacher is a love story, and it’s not a boy-meets-girl love story, it’s a far more complex explanation of what happens to two people who have already fallen in love. Usually, when the couple gets together, the story is over. But here it’s just beginning, and Tulip saves Jesse as often as he saves her. She’s the real reason I love this comic.

1. John Constantine, Hellblazer (and many others), too many excellent writers and artists to name.

Have you recognized the themes in my favorites yet? The bad boys, the complicated screwups, the “anti-heroes” (and heroines). So you knew that I didn’t just post that picture at the top of the post because it was good art (though it is, of course). Yes, John Constantine is the love of my comics-life. I sometimes let him wait for the trades, because I don’t want to burn myself out on him, but I always end up regretting it.

Constantine would be terrible for me, yet I lust after him. Girls who fall for John most often come to a bad end, but I can’t resist. I could change him, I think. Could keep up with him when he went running off to try to save the day (only to end up leaving things worse than he found them). But would I want to change him?  Would I love him if he were capable of having a quiet night in, if he wasn’t tempted to go mess with things beyond his control, match his manliness against whatever evil came his way?

I wouldn’t. And neither would you. We love him exactly the way he is (even if that is constantly being redefined by yet another extraordinary Vertigo writer.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Comic Books, News & Views, Vertigo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.