After nearly 1,100 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 revealing that list throughout the rest of the month (and okay, maybe a little bit into November). The countdown continues now...

15. Shazam – 773 points (12 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. For a while there in the 1940s, Captain Marvel was actually THE most popular superhero comic book PERIOD, selling even more copies than Superman for a little bit (they were both selling well in the millions at the time, so it wasn't like Superman wasn't selling a whole lot, as well). In fact, after some contract shenanigans led to a Superman film serial getting canceled, the company turned to Captain Marvel next and so he actually became the FIRST superhero to get a major motion picture (well, film serial, but still). It was actually that film that pushed National Comics (now DC) to sue Fawcett, claiming that Captain Marvel infringed on Superman.

Fawcett eventually lost the case and ceased publication of their superhero comics. In the 1970s, DC began to license the characters and eventually, DC just purchased the character from Fawcett outright. Initially, DC 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 while continuing to call him Captain Marvel inside the comics) 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 instead of Captain Marvel, as DC is embracing the fact that they can't call him anything BUT that in marketing. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank revamped the concept entirely, and now Billy is a member of a foster family and after he gained his powers, he was able to transfer some of his powers to his foster brothers and sisters (Mary and Freddy are two of them).

Shazam recently received his own hit superhero film, continuing the tradition he started in the 1940s!

14. Robin/Red Robin/Drake (Tim Drake) – 813 points (13 first place votes)

Created by Marv Wolfman and Neal Adams (Pat Broderick first drew him in an actual comic), Tim Drake was introduced as essentially the personification of a fanboy. He used attention to minutiae, obsessive fan behavior and, of course, a desire to have things go back to the way they were when he was a kid, to both figure out that Dick Grayson was Robin (Tim had memorized a move Dick had done as an acrobat and then saw Robin do the same move) and that he had quit. He became obsessed with having Dick become Robin again.

Instead, young Tim found himself as the new Robin. Not before training for seemingly twelve years before Batman let him go into action as Robin (and yet Batman let Jean-Paul Valley become BATMAN with pretty much no extra training).

One of the most interesting aspects about Tim Drake was that he was one of the few superheroes with both parents still aliv...oh wait, never mind, his mom was just killed by the Obeah Man (the Obeah Man should never play a significant part of your character's back story. That should be a rule) Okay, so Tim was one of the few superheroes with at least one living paren...oh wait, never mind, his dad was just killed by Captain Boomerang. Tim Drake, like every other superhero ever, lost both of his parents to tragedy.

Tim as Robin became basically the best sidekick a guy could ask for, probably even more so than Dick Grayson, in the sense that Tim never had the temper tantrums that Dick was having constantly (the only time Tim ever gave Batman any crap was when Batman was a super jerk to him - like the time that Batman made up some elaborate ruse involving time travel just to screw with Tim as a "test." Sure, Batman, a "test").

Tim had a series of impressive moments as Robin, so it is hard to pick out a single moment, but how about the time that he took on KGBeast, the same guy who was so tough that Batman had to lock him in a room to starve him to death rather than face him head on, all while trying to protect a badly injured Harvey Bullock...

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Over time, Tim's prowess extended beyond the Bat-circle, as well, as he became the leader of first Young Justice and then the Teen Titans.

During a period that Bruce Wayne was believed to be dead, Tim decided to take on a new identity, Red Robin, as he needed to do some slightly unsavory things in his mission to prove that Bruce was not really dead (while at the same time, protect Bruce's legacy against bad guys like Ra's Al Ghul, who Tim had a dramatic confrontation against)...

Tim was proven right about Bruce, but he also realized that Darkseid WANTED Tim to figure it out, so he had to keep the Justice League from helping him rescue Bruce while an alternate plan had to be devised (as Darkseid knew all along that Batman would find a way back home, so he rigged it so that Batman's return would destroy the universe - that Darkeid, always thinking ahead!).

Then the New 52 happened, and Tim got rebooted. He went through a number of different versions before they eventually returned him to more of a classical take on the character. Recently, Tim helped reform Young Justice, a team that he was on in the past with Impulse, Wonder Girl and Superboy. Tim has decided to just embrace his last name and take on a new superhero identity of simply Drake.

13. Martian Manhunter – 835 points (12 first place votes)

Created by Jack Miller and Joe Certa, J'onn J'onnz was brought to Earth by a scientist who was attempting to communicate with Mars. Tragically, the scientist died soon after J'onnz arrived here, so J'onnz was stranded on Earth. That was not THAT big of a deal, as J'onnz was actually the last survivor of his Martian race.

He quickly acclimated to Earth, and used his power of shapeshifting to appear as an Earthling. Going by the name John Jones, he became a detective. He would also shape shift into a form of his actual alien form (although more human in appearance) and use his other Martian powers (flight, telepathy, strength, heat vision and more) to help fight crime.

J'onnz, as the Martian Manhunter, co-founded the Justice League of America.

He took a good deal of time off from the League, but returned and was a stalwart member of the League, seeing it through the dissolution of Justice League of America and the formation of Justice League International.

One of my favorite Martian Manhunter moments is when Despero returns from the seeming dead to hunt down the last Justice League that he fought, which had Gyspy and others on it. He kills Gypsy's parents and is about to kill her...

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J'onn was a stalwart member of the reformed Justice League during Grant Morrison's run. After that League ended, though, J'onn floundered for a few years and was even temporarily killed off. He was one of the heroes brought back to life during Blackest Night.

In the new 52, J'onn started off as a bit mysterious (and a member of Stromwatch after a disastrous time as a member of the Justice League) but he has slowly but surely rounded into the hero we always knew him to be. He eventually ended up on the Justice League again, as that is where he is sort of destined to always be.

12. John Constantine – 856 points (8 first place votes)

Created by the classic Swamp Thing creative team of Alan Moore, John Totleben and Steve Bissette, John Constantine showed up in the pages of Swamp Thing to advise Swamp Thing on supernatural matters, but mostly, he was there to con Swamp Thing into doing stuff Constantine wanted to get done. Luckily for everyone on Earth, Constantine mostly wanted to do GOOD things.

He soon became so popular that he graduated into his own title, which ended its run at #300 as the then-longest running DC Comics title.

Constantine is basically a con man who uses magic to get his way. One of his most famous deals was when he learned that he was dying of lung cancer. He sells his soul to three different devils and then opens up his wrist with a razor - this is all done to force the issue amongst three "devils" (remember, since this book shares a universe with Sandman, Lucifer is not in the picture anymore down there) to go to action, because Constantine has promised his soul to all three of them. Therefore, if he dies, they'd have to go to war over his soul. They realize that is not the best thing for them, so they are "forced" to keep Constantine alive...

After some painful cancer surgery...

What a brilliant encapsulation of what makes Constantine work as a character.

Constantine mostly does magic as a rush, but he does get a lot of good things done, too. All while usually wearing his trademark trench coat, white shirt and black tie.

When DC Comics relaunched their titles in the New 52 in 2011, John became more a part of the DC Universe proper, even being part of a Justice League team (albeit Justice League Dark). He currently is set to return to the world of mature readers comics with a new Hellblazer series (while maintaining his presence in the DC Universe proper, of course).

11. Green Arrow – 871 points (8 first place votes)

Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, millionaire Oliver Queen was basically like Batman-lite throughout the Golden Age. It was only during the Silver Age, when writer Denny O'Neil decided to change Arrow around that Queen became a standout creation.

O'Neil decided to strip Queen of his fortune, and make him a liberal "man of the people," who would clash with his friend, Hal Jordan, who was cast as the more conservative of the pair.

The two would travel America, trying to explore it and see its people from a way impossible when you are hanging out on the moon.

Around this time, Queen began a relationship with his fellow Justice Leaguer, Black Canary. The two remained together for many years, with some time apart.

In the late 80s, writer Mike Grell recast Queen as a more serious, older hero. Grell used Green Arrow to explore various political themes in a pretty mature manner for comics.

After Grell left the title in the mid-90s, Green Arrow was killed off and replaced by his illegitimate son, Connor Hawke, for a number of years. Later on, Queen returned, and took up the hero game again. He and Black Canary even got MARRIED!

In the New 52, however, Oliver was rebooted. He's was a lot younger and didn't have connections to either Canary or Hal Jordan. Around this same time, he helped launch the CW universe of shows with his solo show, Arrow, which is coming to a close soon. After DC Rebirth, Green Arrow began to adopt more of a classical look (including a relationship with Black Canary).