After nearly 1,400 ballots were cast, YOU the reader ranked your favorite comic book characters of all-time from 1-10. I assigned point totals to each ranking and then tabulated it all into a Top 50 list. We're now revealing that list throughout September. Here is the master list of all the characters revealed so far. The Marvel part of the countdown concludes here...
3. Thor - 2736 points (40 first place votes)
Created by Stan Lee, his brother Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby, Thor is the Norse god of thunder, who was banished to Earth by his father to teach him humility, trapped in the frail human form of Dr. Donald Blake.
However, soon, Blake found an enchanted cane which allowed him to transform into Thor, and Thor was a hero on Earth, using his god-like powers and his powerful magic hammer, Mjolnir, to fight the good fight.
Thor often visited his home in Asgard, and had adventures there, as well, mostly due to his evil half-brother, Loki.
Thor was a founding member of the Avengers, where he served for many years.
Eventually, the Don Blake aspect of Thor's personality went away, although Thor did bond for a time with an Midgardian named Eric Masterson (who even filled in for Thor for awhile).
Thor and all of Asgard were seemed destroyed a few years back, but eventually they all slowly returned, except now the Donald Blake personality was back. In addition, Asgard was now floating about a small town in Oklahoma!
The villainous Loki concocted a scheme to take down Asgard, and the floating city did, indeed, fall to the ground in an assault by a group of villains led by Norman Osborn.
Thor and his fellow Asgardians had hardly had time to grieve for their losses when Odin's long lost brother, the evil Serpent, returned from exile and began his march towards conquering Midgard AND Asgard!
Thor wishes to make a stand with the humans, but what will happen? Will Thor's return to life be a brief one?
2. Captain America (Steve Rogers) – 4062 points (106 first place votes)
Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Steve Rogers was not accepted into the Army, so the next best thing he could do was volunteer as a test subject for a new Super Soldier Serum. The serum transformed the weak Rogers into a lean, mean fighting machine.
As Captain America, Rogers was the great Super Soldier for America against the Nazis, along with his partner, Bucky Barnes. His main enemy was the Nazi Red Skull. Tragically, towards the end of the war, an explosion seemingly killed both of the men, although in reality, Captain America was just placed into a state of suspended animation.
He was revived years later by the Avengers, of whom he soon became first a member, then a leader, and soon a symbol of the very team itself.
He fought alongside SHIELD, which was headed up by his former World War II buddy, Nick Fury. There he met Agent 13, Sharon Carter, who would be his companion for quite awhile.
Soon, he met up with a new superhero named the Falcon. The two would become partners for quite awhile (even having Cap’s book retitled Captain America and the Falcon).
A few years back, Captain America sided against the US Government over a Superhero Registration Act. He ultimately decided he was in the wrong, and gave himself up for arrest. While in custody, he was assassinated by Sharon Carter, who was brainwashed by his arch-nemesis, the Red Skull.
As it turned out, though, he was actually lost in time, all part of a plan that would result in the Red Skull (who at this point in time was without a body of his own) taking over his body. Cap managed to fight him off, though, and returned to the land of the living.
Now back, though, Steve decided to let his old partner Bucky remain Captain America (Bucky had filled in while Cap was thought dead). This was partially because he saw a vision of the future of what would happen if he became Captain America again.
Now just Steve Rogers, he was given control over all the superheroes in the United States. Recently, though, he was forced to return to the Captain America name and costume when Bucky was killed in action.
1. Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) - 181 points (1 first place vote)
Oops, sorry, easy mistake. They look so much alike!
1. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) – 5519 points (277 first place votes)
Created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, Peter Parker was a typical high school nerd who was bitten by a radioactive spider, which gave him superpowers. He used his powers first to gain glory, but when he allowed a crook to get away because he couldn’t be bothered to stop him, he soon learned a hard lesson in responsibility when the crook he let escape went on to kill his beloved Uncle Ben.
Parker then decided he would be a hero, no matter what befell him, and a lot of tragedy has happened to him since then.
He began taking pictures of himself as Spider-Man, and selling them to the Daily Bugle, where J. Jonah Jameson used the pictures to cast Spider-Man in a bad light. Eventually, Peter became a science teacher.
As for the tragedy thing mentioned before, his beloved Aunt May has been sick many times. His first love, Gwen Stacy, was murdered by an enemy. The enemy turned out to be the father of a friend of his, Norman Osborn. His friend, Harry Osborn, then was turned against Peter, as well.
Peter did have his wife, Mary Jane Watson. However, a few years back Peter was caught up in the fight over the Superhero Registration Act. He believed in the cause, so he actually revealed his identity! But when he decided that the Act was NOT a good thing, he was basically screwed, since the government wanted to arrest him so he could not have their protection. Thus, this led to he, Mary Jane and Aunt May being in danger, as Kingpin put out a hit on his life. A sniper took a shot at Peter and he instinctively moved, leaving Aunt May mortally wounded instead. Distraught with guilt, the devil Mephisto struck up a bargain with Peter and Mary Jane. If they would agree to make it so that they would never have married, Mephisto would bring Aunt May back. They agreed, and so now in the Marvel timeline, Peter and Mary Jane never married. They just lived together for a long time before eventually breaking up.
Currently, Peter is continuing to fight crime as Spider-Man, just as a single guy again (he IS dating someone, though, a police scientist named Carlie Cooper).