After over 1,200 ballots were cast, YOU the reader ranked your favorite comic book characters 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 the next few weeks. The countdown continues...

30. Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) 502 points (8 first place votes)

Created by Otto Binder and Al Platino, Supergirl had one of those amazingly condensed origin stories that were so popular in the 1950s and 1960s...

Plastino's Kara is practically a cuteness overload!

Anyhow, that was the status quo for a number of years - Kara operated as Superman's "secret agent." She should have been mad at Superman, because when he finally revealed her to the world, they loved her. "This is what you were so afraid of, cousin?!"

That version of Kara went through many different relaunches until she died during Crisis on Infinite Earths, sacrificing herself to save her cousin. After an alien version of Supergirl came around during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s (and then a weird future version at the turn of the 21st century), a new version of Kara was introduced about twenty years after the Pre-Crisis Kara died.

This version, too, needed to go through a few different relaunches (all within a single book, oddly enough) until it finally settled on a nice status quo...just in time for the New 52 to come around and reboot the character!

Once again, this version of Supergirl went through a couple of different approaches (she was even a Red Lantern for a time!) before roughly settling on an approach similar to the original Supergirl (it always happens like that - they try new takes on the character before they ultimately say, "Hey, the nice teenage female version of Superman is a pretty good character approach - why not just do that?" She doesn't currently have an ongoing series, but with the Supergirl TV series debuting Monday, I suspect a new one will be forthcoming.

29. Red Hood (Jason Todd) - 523 points (5 first place votes)

Jason Todd was introduced by Gerry Conway and Don Newton as essentially a Dick Grayson clone. Honestly, in retrospect, it just seems kind of odd. Dick Grayson was slowly growing out of his role as Robin (mostly because of the great success of New Teen Titans, where Robin played a starring role in a series much different than Batman) so they replaced him with...a young circus acrobat whose parents were murdered and then Bruce Wayne takes in the orphaned circus acrobat. Kind of odd. Eventually Jason becomes Batman's new partner, but without a name (he dyed his hair black to match Dick's - as then-new Batman writer Doug Moench promptly removed the one unique thing Conway had done with Jason)...

Finally, Dick decides to give up the Robin identity and give it to Jason...

Jason then basically plays the Dick Grayson role until after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Then DC decided to revamp Jason and give him a new-non-Dick Grayson origin. Now he is an orphaned streetwise kid who meets Batman when he steals the tires to the Batmobile! Under Jim Starlin's pen, though, Jason gets more and more reckless. This eventually leads to his death at the hands (and the crowbar) of the Joker (plus a bomb)...

When he was resurrected years later, he was a villain for a time. Over time, though, Jason has mellowed and Batman even found a place for him in Batman Incorporated!

Currently he is a flat-out hero in the New 52 in the pages of Red Hood and Arsenal (formerly Red Hood and the Outlaws).

28. Deathstroke (Slade Wilson) - 525 points (3 first place votes)

Marv Wolfman and George Perez created Deathstroke as an interesting menace for the New Teen Titans to face. Deathstroke's son, The Ravager, took a job to kill the Titans. However, he died before he could complete the task, forcing Deathstroke to be honor-bound to complete the task.

Deathstroke was experimented on in the army, and is now a peak human. He is smarter, faster, stronger, etc. than a normal human. He is very tough.

Over the years, while Deathstroke has done plenty of evil things, he seemed to be working under a weird code of honor. Which showed after he worked with a traitor within the Titans, Terra, to capture them for HIVE. Changeling wants revenge, but finds that Slade is not the man he thought he was...

For a time, he was practically a superhero, even being personally recruited by Superman to lead the heroes of Earth against an alien invasion from Warworld.

Towards the end of the Post-Crisis DCU, he had become more and more a traditional sadistic supervillain.

In the New 52, he was more of a mercenary. Recently, in his current ongoing series, he has been de-aged. Deathstroke was also a major character on the Arrow TV series.

Go to the next page for #27-24!

27. Robin (Damian Wayne) - 551 points (2 first place votes)

Grant Morrison, Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang introduced Damian Wayne, the bratty son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul. Damian continued to be a bit of a thorn in Batman's side, especially when the kid (who was trained by the League of Assassins) tried to nearly kill Tim Drake so as to replace him as Batman's Robin.

Damian is seriously injured and leaves with his mother to be treated. During Batman R.I.P., Talia and Damian return to aide Batman in his fight against the Black Glove. Soon after, though, Batman is presumed dead.

Dick Grayson takes over as Batman, but with Tim Drake now becoming Red Robin, Dick needs a partner - enter the slightly more matured Damian Wayne...

The two became a great pair, with Damian's darkness and arrogance being softened by Dick's lighthearted nature and his enthusiasm. In effect, they were the reverse of the traditional Batman and Robin role.

When Bruce Wayne returned, Damian began to partner with his father. When his mother began attacking Batman and all of his friends, Batman tried to keep Damian out of the fight, but he was not someone you could pin down. Here, he re-teams up with Dick, who is back to being Nightwing...

However, his mother allows Damian to be killed as he sacrifices himself to save an innocent girl...

Eventually, through a distillation of Darkseid's Omega Power, Damian returns to life - but now with superpowers! He currently has his own solo ongoing book, Robin, Son of Batman, with his old abilities, as his superpowers faded away.

26. Rorschach - 559 points (5 first place votes)

Rorschach was created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in their classic mini-series, Watchmen.

Based on Steve Ditko's The Question, Rorschach was a ruthless investigator who believed in absolutism and objectivism, and also was probably more than a little bit insane.

It is Rorschach who leads the drive of the murder mystery in Watchmen, as he attempts to discover who killed the former superhero, The Comedian.

In issue #6, Rorschach is thrown into prison (because he has been operating as a vigilante illegally for years). That issue becomes a Rorschach spotlight, as he slowly consumes his own prison therapist in his madness...

Rorschach is known for his mask, which is based on the Rorschach psychological test.

25. Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson) - 633 points (18 first place votes)

Created by C. C. Beck and Bill Parker, Captain Marvel was originally published by Fawcett Comics, and told the tale of a young boy named Billy Batson who, when he says the word "Shazam," transforms into the world's mightiest mortal - Captain Marvel!

He gains the wisdom of Solomon; the strength of Hercules; the stamina of Atlas; the power of Zeus; the courage of Achilles; and the speed of Mercury.

It's one of the coolest origins of all-time...

Soon, Billy was joined by his sister, Mary Marvel, and another boy, Freddie Freeman, Captain Marvel, Jr.

The Marvel Family fought on the side of good for many years.

When DC purchased the character from Fawcett, they mostly kept the Fawcett characters in their own universe (in the same time, Marvel had taken over the trademark on Captain Marvel, so DC couldn't even sell comics CALLED "Captain Marvel" - they had to use the name "Shazam!" in the titles) but eventually tried to integrate them. Jerry Ordway did a good Power of Shazam series that integrated them well while still keeping them sort of unique.

Towards the end of the Post-Crisis DCU, though, they were even further integrated, with mixed results.

In the New 52, the whole concept was rebooted and now Billy Batson turns into Shazam, as DC is embracing the fact that they can't call him anything BUT that.

24. Booster Gold - 634 points (11 first place votes)

Created by Dan Jurgens, Michael Jon Carter was living a dead-end life in the future when he decided to steal some artifacts from a museum he was working at and travel back in time to the 20th century to become a superhero.

Using the artifacts, Carter fashioned himself a superhero suit, complete with a force field, flight and laser beams. Originally meaning to name himself Goldstar, he accidentally answered his nickname Booster (from when he played football) and while trying to change it to Goldstar, instead got tagged with the name Booster Gold.

Booster was obsessed with wealth and fame, using his superhero powers to make him money.

He eventually joined Justice League International, where he became good friends with Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. The two men had a number of money-making schemes, including their infamous casino plot...

When Kord was investigating some bad events, Booster went to help his friend, but was incapacitated, so was unable to be there when his friend, Ted, was murdered by Maxwell Lord, a man that Ted and Booster thought was their friend (and the organizer of Justice League International).

Booster then helped Rip Hunter basically save the entire multiverse, and was then tasked with becoming a watchdog over famous superheroes, traveling through time to make sure that no bad guys kill heroes before they BECOME heroes. To do so, Booster had to remain anonymous, so no one knew what he was doing (and thereby draw attention to it). As a result, Booster Gold - the man who loves fame, could tell no one that he was one of the greatest heroes on Earth. During this time, he had a particularly painful adventure where he tried to fix things that he WASN'T supposed to change, like Barbara Gordon being shot. Each time it went horribly wrong, as time wouldn't let him fix it...

The New 52 rebooted Booster Gold, but eventually he gained the ability to travel the multiverse and went on an adventure with his Pre-New 52 self during Convergence, where the pre-New 52 Booster becomes the new Waverider (a sort of time cop).

Go to the next page for #23-21!

23. Zatanna - 669 points (7 first place votes)

Created by Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in a cool storyline where she visited a number of DC books looking for her lost father, Zatara. Zatara was a famous magician, and his daughter followed suit.

Zatanna is a world famous stage magician, but that belies her real power, which is as one of the most powerful magicians on Earth. She casts spells by saying words backwards.

Zatanna spent most of her time in this state - doing stage work and occasionally doing some hero work, but that changed when she joined the Justice League for a long stretch (almost 100 issues worth!).

After she left the League, Zatanna basically went back to relative obscurity, although due to revelations that Zatanna had mind-wiped some bad guys years ago, she played a major role during Identity Crisis and its aftermath.

She was also one of the Seven Soldiers in Grant Morrison's awesome Seven Soldiers crossover!

In the New 52, she was a key member of the magic-inspired Justice League Dark.

22. Swamp Thing (Alec Holland-ish) - 700 points (15 first place votes)

Swamp Thing was created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, as a scientist who was almost killed in an explosion, but somehow survived, mixed in with swamp plants, etc. and became the Swamp Thing.

The book had a few different takes on the basic concept of a man who became a swamp monster, but fought for the side of right!

In a later series, which opened with Swamp Thing trying to stop the Anti-Christ, writer Alan Moore took over, and revealed that when Alec Holland "died," he REALLY died, and Swamp Thing was an elemental made up of the actual plants from the Swamp who THOUGHT they were Alec Holland.

Moore's run was legendary, specifically on the relationship between Swamp Thing and his wife, Abby, and the introduction of John Constantine, who helped spur plots along by convincing Swamp Thing to help him out on various tasks.

One especially poignant moment was when Abby and Swamp Thing decide to have sex...

Once they've begun, their sexual experience is shown in a series of double page spreads. Here's one of them...

Eventually, Swamp Thing became an Earth Elemental. Right before the New 52, Swamp Thing was sort of brought back and in the New 52, he has fully returned to mostly the pre-Alan Moore state, as Alec Holland mutated into Swamp Thing (although much of the Alan Moore set has been maintained, like the Plant Elemental stuff).

Swamp Thing served with Justice League Dark during this time.

21. Sandman (Dream) - 719 points (18 first place votes)

Dream or Morpheus, of the comic series, Sandman, was created by Neil Gaiman and artists Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. He is one of the Endless, a group of powerful siblings who are personifications of aspects of the universe. Dream is the lord of, what else, but dreams (and stories, for that matter).

Dream lives in a castle at the heart of his world, which is called the Dreaming.

He basically busies himself with the world of the Dreaming.

At the end of the Sandman series, Morpheus "dies" and is replaced by a new Dream - Daniel.

Early in his run, we learn that he had been imprisoned for decades. He must get his objects of power before he returns to take over the Dreaming. One of them is owned by a demon. So he must battle with the demon for it, with amazing results...

Such great work by Gaiman.