Drunken Comics Rage

So in Part 1 of my "An Exercise in Hero-ity" saga, I laid out our ground rules.  Each DCR contributor would ponder their favoritestest heroes, then list them out in tiers.  Each tier needed to have a small max number…say 3 or 5…to force us to make some hard decisions and really focus our ponder-age.  The exercise was sufficiently fun and time-wasting that we decided to post our tiers so you too could have fun (umm, maybe) and waste time (definitely) reading them.

Although the other fellows in DCR struggle with rules, reading comprehension, and general laziness (and hence their posts may adhere to the rules, or not, and may actually ever get posted, or not), this particular Monkey does not.  Usually.  Or at least in this case.  Anyway, Part 1 also included by Tier Four heroes; today I unveil the mighty Tier Three, and leave you gasping in anticipation for Tier Two.  (Can one gasp in anticipation?  I'll say yes.)

Captain Britain
Iron Man
Green Lantern
Green Arrow

Tier Three became something like "Dudes I think I really like, but apparently not enough to buy a crapload of their comics."  I also wouldn't fuck with this group in a team up.

I came into Excalibur with pretty much no idea who the hell Captain Britain was.  During a long run, though, he was a dude not to mess with…he had Hulk/Juggernaut/Thor/Wonderman class strength (hey, check the Marvel RPG!), a cool uniform, and he just stuck his nose in and started swinging.  I wasn't really fond of his powers being linked to his proximity to Great Britain, but I got the idea.  Dunno why I dug his uniform, but I really did, in much the same way I dug most of the Alpha Flight jammies.  Clean, sharp, and colorful.  Enduring images: Juggernaut is tromping his way across the UK, and Captain Britain goes out to 'stop' him.  Right.  He gives Juggernaut the whole "I'm CAPTAIN BRITAIN!" thing, fancy font and all.  Juggernaut slaps the crap out of him, creating this huge long furrow in the ground.  Then, naturally, the rest of Excalibur shows up, figures out how to get Jugg's hat off, and the resident psych shuts his brain down (like roughly every other time anybody has taken down Juggernaut).  Enduring image two: at some point the Avengers and Excalibur faced off in one of those Great Misunderstanding situations that superteams invariably find themselves in that serve as excuses for them to punch one another.  Captain Britain and Wonderman make with the punching with great gusto, all the while talking about how hard the other one hits, and how the blows actually HURT, and how rarely anybody can actually hit either one of them that hard…and then finally end up as buddies trading stories once the teams inevitably resolve the Great Misunderstanding and team up to collectively put the whuppin' on whatever bad guy was involved.  Good times.  Glad to see Captain Britain show up in the Ulti-verse, sorta blah about how he was used.

Iron Man…is just Iron Man.  I suppose I like that he's so flawed, and a tech head, and many of the suits have been just flat sweet looking.  Even the ol' gray garbage can one.  I nearly died reading the old, old Avengers issues (via Marvel Essentials Avengers) and seeing Iron Man scoot around on…wait on it…rocket skates.  Fercryingoutloud, that's hilarious.  Anyway, I suppose I'm also drawn to anybody who loves the alcohol and the women like ol' Tony Stark.  Man that red and white suit was goofy though, wasn't it?  I'm still debating how I feel about him now as a member of the Illuminati, a/the central figure in Civil War, and apparently a dude who has options for life on earth as we know it all mapped out in his head and is seeking to guide us all along the right path.  It does make him interesting and dramatically increases his scope, but…dunno.  Sometimes maybe its enough to have the cool ass armor and be interestingly flawed.  Of all the folks on this list, Iron Man might be the one with the biggest, craziest shit in front of him, considering the role he is now playing in the Marvel Universe.  One has to expect a mighty fall after scaling such great heights…if such a fall is fait accompli, then hopefully it is an interesting one.  And don't expect Latin very often here on DCR, folks.  Oh, and I basically wet my pants every time I see a trailer from the movie.  I'm not even really kidding about that.

Green Lantern…I'm still trying to get a handle on GL popping into my brain for this exercise.  And hell, which one am I even talking about?  I s'pose Hal Jordan, although I loved John Stewart in the animated series(es).  I don't have long runs of Green Lantern stuff, and never really was a big DC guy.  I like the defender of the galaxy, Green Lanter Corps thing with Green Lantern.  I dig the willpower, no fear, whoop universal ass thing.  Not a big fan of Hal being a dick, though.  I read the DC equivalent of the Marvel Essentials collection of the early Green Lantern stuff, Hal Jordan style, and genuinely enjoyed them.  You can't hardly beat using that ring to basically do any damn goofy thing you can think up.  And to have his mechanic buddy be named Pie Face…gawd that's hilarious in a terribly, terribly anachronistic and wrong way.  And honestly…Green Lantern is one of those heavy hitters in the DCU, and I always dig that.  I've been casually picking up the wee hardback collections since they brought ol' Hal back from the dead; so far so good with those, and I'm considering picking up the Green Lantern Corps collections, with all of that leading up to the Sinestro Corps stuff and eventually a whole rainbow of Lantern colors popping up.  We'll see how all that works out, though…there must be some good reason that a couple of the fine folks here at DCR think Geoff Johns should eat an atom bomb.

Green Arrow is obviously next then, eh?  Well…turns out I haven't ever read any of their team up stuff, so I managed to have both of these guys pop into my brain based on their own individual exploits and talents.  Green Arrow is just flat out fun.  Boxing glove arrows make me giggle. (When are those going to appear in City of Heroes?  How was that overlooked?  Unacceptable.  This needs to be the #1 item on the future development list, and I refuse to even debate this.)  The whole shoot-three-arrows-at-one-time-to-stick-a-guy-to-a-brick-wall trick also is awesome.  The extreme skill at archery is very impressive (I dug Hawkeye too…although he was a huge asshole in the early Avengers stuff) and appeals to my swords-and-sorcery fantasy-luvin' side.  And I love the minor- or no-powered hero who does the detective work.  Walking the street, patrolling the alleys, roughing up informants…all that's great stuff.  Plus, hey, he killed Darkseid.  His interactions with Green Lantern, Batman, and others were well done and hallmarks of the character, in my opinion.  I've read a couple of the DCU novels (roughly half of which are eyes-bleedingly-bad, but…what can ya do) that gave me new glimpses into Green Arrow's background…his sidekick with all the drug and women issues, etc…that actually helped round out my appreciation for GA.  He's a good character with a strong personality and an interesting-to-me history, and I fondly remember good stories and pretty hardcore content in stretches like the Longbow Hunters.

Next: Tier 2, or "Is he serious? These are the dudes in his Tier 2?"

Filed under: General Comics Rage, Monkey Rage