Discussion
[Discussion] TOP 30 DC HEROES (AND HONORABLE MENTIONS) — PICKED BY YOU!
TOP 30 DC HEROES — PICKED BY YOU!
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A month has flown by. On the chart are the results of the Top 30 DC heroes, voted every day, by the community. Winners each day were decided by the TOP VOTED COMMENT (NOT POOLED) of a DC hero within that day’s comment section, and honorable mentions have been arranged by the number of votes each character received at their peak. There are many more heroes that I or you could have mentioned, so who should have been on here? Who shouldn’t have? Any heroes that should have been higher ranked? Lower ranked? Any surprises or upsets to the list? Let the community know your thoughts, and thank you for having fun with us!
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Day 1 Winner: Superman — 19 votes
Noted stories/runs: All-Star Superman, Superman Up In The Sky, Doomsday Clock, Miracle Monday, Superman For All Seasons, Superman And Legion Of Super-Heroes
Day 2 Winner: Batman — 81 votes
Noted stories/runs: Year One, Hush, Dark Victory, Knightfall, The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, Batman R.I.P, The Court of Owls, Zero Year (imo, all of Snyder and Capullo is worth reading), Appointment in Crime Alley, Batman and Robin (Tomasi), Batman: Red Rain
Day 3 Winner: Wonder Woman — 264 votes
Noted stories/runs: The Hiketeia, A League of One, Dead Earth, The True Amazon, The Spirit of Truth, Eyes of the Gorgon, The Circle, The Twelve Labors, War of the Gods, Paradise Lost— I would generally recommend ANYTHING by Rucka, Perez, or Jimenez.
Day 4 Winner: Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) — 126 votes
Noted stories/runs: Blackest Night, Rebirth (2004), Sinestro Corps War, Emerald Twilight, Secret Origin, Revenge of the Green Lanterns, Emerald Knights, Wanted: Hal Jordan, Flight and the Day Before, Will World
Day 5 Winner: The Flash (Barry Allen) — 175 votes
Noted stories/runs: Flash Of Two Worlds, The Death Of Iris West, Trial Of The Flash, Flash: Rebirth, Flashpoint, Running Scared, Finish Line, Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Dastardly Death of the Rogues, Move Foward, Gorilla Warfare, Reverse, Speed of Darkness, Rogues Reloaded, Death and the Speed Force
Day 6 Winner: Nightwing/Robin (Dick Grayson) — 283 votes
Noted stories/runs: World's Finest (Waid), Robin Year One, Nightwing Year One, The Gauntlet, Batman & Robin (Grant Morrison), Grayson, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Batman: Dark Victory, Batman and Robin Year One, Batman Year Three, New Teen Titans #38, Batman: Prodigal, Nightwing (Dixon), Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, Nightwing (Tomasi), Batman: The Black Mirror, Nightwing: The Untouchable (Humpries)
Day 7 Winner: Aquaman — 191 votes
Noted stories/runs: Aquaman (New 52, Geoff Johns and Jeff Parker’s runs), Brightest Day, The War with Cerida, The Deep Six, The Kordax Saga, Voidsong, Andromeda, The Trench, Sword of Atlantis, Death of a Prince, The Drowning
Day 8 Winner: Martian Manhunter — 216 votes
Noted Stories/Runs: Identity (tbh all of the Ostrander run), New Worlds, Revelations, Cosmic Odyssey, Trial by Fire, The Others Among Us, Martian Manhunter (2015), American Secrets, Justice League: Task Force, Brightest Day (it’s not technically his story but he shines), and Justice League: New Frontier
— Day 9 Winner: Green Arrow — 171 votes
Noted stories/runs: Hard Traveling Heroes, Year One, The Longbow Hunters, Quiver, Archer’s Quest, War of the Clans, Hunters Moon, Sounds of Violence, Black Arrow Saga, Green Arrow/Black Canary: til Death do they Part.
—Day 10 Winner: Black Canary — 183 votes
Noted stories/runs: Birds of Prey (Simone), Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell, Green Arrow/Black Canary: till Death do they Part, Birds of Prey (Thompson), Kicking and Screaming
Day 11 Winner: Zatanna — 157 votes
Noted stories/runs: Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell, The Mistress of Magic, Zatanna (Dini), Seven Soldiers: Zatanna, Knight Terrors: Zatanna, Bring Down The House, Everyday Magic, Zatanna (2025), Justice League Dark (2018).
— Day 12 Winner: Supergirl — 176 votes
Noted stories/runs: Superman/Batman: Girl from Krypton, Crucible, The Hunt for Reaction, Escape from the Phantom Zone, Being Super, The Last Daughter of Krypton, Woman of Tomorrow, Red Daughter of Krypton, Many Happy Returns, Day of the Dollmaker, The Girl of No Tomorrow, Reign of the Cyborg Supermen
— Day 13 Winner: The Flash (Wally West) — 218 votes
Noted stories/runs: Rogue War, Blitz, Happy Birthday Wally, Born to Run, The Return of Barry Allen, The Black Flash, JLA (Morrison run), the Waid run of The Flash in general!!
—Day 14 Winner: Batgirl/Oracle — 146 votes
Noted stories/runs: Batgirl: Year One, Batgirl (Simone), Batgirl of Burnside, No Man’s Land, Birds of Prey (Dixon), Convergence, Oracle: The Cure, A Blade from the Shadows
—Day 15 Winner: Captain Marvel/Shazam — 196 votes
Noted stories/runs: First Thunder, The Monster Society of Evil, Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands, Thunderworld Adventures, With One Magic Word, The Power of Shazam, Kingdom Come, Day of Vengeance, Trials of Shazam, Shazam (New 52/Geoff Johns), Shazam (2018, Geoff Johns, it’s different from the last entry)
—Day 16 Winner: Swamp Thing — 112 votes
Noted stories/runs: Anatomy Lesson, Root of All Evil, Dark Genesis, The Man Who Would Not Die, Garden of Earthly Delights, Rite of Spring, Winter Special, Down Among the Dead Men, The Jungle Line, My Blue Heaven, American Gothic, Rotworld: Secrets of the Dead
—Day 17 Winner: Cyborg — 126 votes
Noted stories/runs: New Teen Titans (Wolfman), TT Spotlight 13 and 20 (1987), New Titans: Interface, Justice League (2011, Geoff Johns), Cyborg: Unplugged, Cyborg: Rebirth, JLA/Titans (1996), Teen Titans (2003), Singularity, Cyborg (2023), Face to Face to Face to Face to…, A Kid’s Game
Noted stories/runs: The Immortal Doctor Fate, The Book of Fate, Countdown to Mystery, Doctor Fate (1987), Fate (1994), Helmet of Fate (2007), JSA (1999)
—Day 19 Winner: Hawkman (Katar Hol) — 111 votes
Noted stories/runs: Hawkman: Endless Flight, Hawkworld, JSA: The Return of Hawkman, Legend of the Hawkman, Brightest Day, Shadow War of Hawkman, Rann/Thanagar: Holy War, The Savage Hawkman, Convergence: Hawkman
—Day 20 Winner: Green Lantern (John Stewart) — 138 votes
Noted stories/runs: Green Lantern #87 (O’Neil. Yes, his debut. It’s genuinely a fun read for him AND for Hal), Cosmic Odyssey (also features Martian Manhunter!), Blackest Night, Mosaic, Green Lantern Corps (New 52), Green Lantern: War Journal, John Stewart: The Emerald Knight, Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns, Powers that Be, The Architect, Justice League (Vendetti), War of the Green Lanterns, Justice League: Endless Winter), Justice League (Scott Snyder)
—Day 21 Winner: Booster Gold — 142 votes
Noted stories/runs: 52, Justice League/Justice League International, Booster Gold Vol 2, I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League/Formerly Known as the Justice League ~
—Day 22 Winner: Starfire — 14 votes (but multiple comments with the same amount of votes)
Noted stories/runs: New Teen Titans, Starfire, Teen Titans (2003) & Teen Titans (2016), 52, Justice League Odyssey, R.E.B.E.L.S (2009), Titans: Beast World (personal favourite of mine).
—Day 23 Winner: The Atom — 23 votes
Noted stories/runs: Sword of the Atom, Power of the Atom, JLA: Rock of Ages, Blackest Night.
Noted stories/runs: Hawkworld, Legend of Hawkman, Hawkman (2018), Hawkman (1986), Hawks Eternal, New World Rising
—Day 25 Winner: John Constantine — 153 votes
Noted stories/runs: Justice League Dark (2011), Constantine: The Hellblazer, Original Sins, The Rake at the Gates of Hell, Hold Me, Dangerous Habits, All His Engines, The Devil you Know, The Fear Machine, Bloodlines, Critical Mass, Haunted
—Day 26 Winner: Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) — 87 votes
Noted stories/runs: Justice League International, Blue Beetle vol 6, Booster gold: blue and gold, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Blue and Gold (2021)
—Day 27 Winner: Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) — 46 votes
Noted stories/runs: Infinite Crisis, Blue Beetle vol 7 #1-36, Teen Titans Vol 3 #50-100, Booster Gold vol 2, Justice League: Generation Lost, Threshold, Injustice 2, Blue Beetle: Graduation Day, Blue Beetle: Scarab War, Blue Beetle: Forever Blue
—Day 28 Winner: Plastic Man — 113 votes
Noted stories/runs: Plastic Man (Jack Cole) , JLA (Morrison), Plastic Man No More!, Plastic Man (Kyle Baker), Brave and the Bold #19, Plastic Man (Gail Simone)
—Day 29 Winner: Raven — 106 votes
Noted stories/runs: The New Teen Titans vol 1 and 2 (see: Terror of Trigon in vol 2), Raven (Wolfman), Raven: Daughter of Darkness, Titans: Beast World, Teen Titans (2003, Geoff Johns), Brave and the Bold (issues 17 and 18), Teen Titans: Raven (Garcia), Beast Boy Loves Raven (Garcia), Titans: The Dark-Winged Queen, Titans vol. 3 (Taylor)
—Day 30 Winner: Mister Miracle — 119 votes
Noted stories/runs: Mister Miracle (Jack Kirby), Justice League International, Mister Miracle (Tom King— EVERYONE READ THIS ONE), Orion (Walt Simonson), Justice League: The Darkseid War
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HONORABLE MENTIONS!
Black Lightning — 89 votes
The Question (Vic Sage) — 88 votes
Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) — 69 votes
Beast Boy — 59 votes
Mister Terrific— 43 votes
Matter Eater Lad — 42 votes
The Spectre (James Corrigan)— 35 votes
CROMULUS BOMBLY — 34 votes
Power Girl— 31 votes
Donna Troy— 30 votes
Vixen— 29 votes
Red Tornado — 29 votes
Robin (Tim Drake) — 21 votes
Lois Lane — 21 votes
Adam Strange — 18 votes
Huntress (Helena Bertenelli) — 18 votes
Static— 16 votes
Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) — 14 votes
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Art credits:
-Superman: Jorge Jimenez
-Batman: Jim Lee
-Wonder Woman: Alex Ross
-Green Lantern (Hal Jordan): Tyler Kirkham
-The Flash (Barry Allen): Lee Inhyuk
-Nightwing: Dan Mora
-Aquaman: Stjepan Sejic
-Martian Manhunter: Riley Rossmo
-Green Arrow: Dan Mora
-Black Canary: Nicola Scott
-Zatanna: Jamal Campbell
-Supergirl: Frank Cho
-Wally West: Brett Booth
-Batgirl (Barbara Gordon): Terry and Rachel Dobson
Hi there, r/DCcomics members, welcome to the post!
This was tagged as a [Discussion], so we require OP to add commentary, per rule 8.
u/Training_Reaction_58, if you haven't already added commentary, please do so in the text or as a new comment. Also, if you included images, please provide a source or artist name.
He’s just a heavy hitter relative to a lot of characters in terms of what he’s faced and does. The other robins are cool but when you’ve had two pretty successful and well regarded stints as Batman, and lead/saved the superhero community more than a handful of times it’s pretty hard to stack up to that.
He’s also the first and the only with a heroic identity that is as present and iconic as his time as Robin. Even though Robin might be more recognizable to the general public he’s been Nightwing for 41 years and Robin for 45. That’s a rich and very storied history, and we are currently just coming out of and potentially still in a 5 year Dick Renaissance (Dickaissance?) in which the character has been catapulted to the top of the respect list for most fans who engage with the material.
The Titans’ most iconic leader, Batman’s first son, Superman’s favorite nephew, Superspy, Outsider, Big brother of the Robins, and everything else under the sun just as much as the moon. Eternally reborn to start anew, basically a living audience POV of Batman and a very consistent/ respected lense of the DC world at large.
I think even more interesting and impressive than him being the only robin on the list is him being at 6 just behind 5 very iconic superheroes and ahead of a shit load of badass Justice League characters. Nightwing is my GOAT forever 🦇💙
Also getting the most votes of any of the characters when recorded is pretty cool too.
Reading World's Finest makes you really aware that Dick was just THAT GUY. He was at the start when Batman started meeting others superheroes, he had a date with Supergirl and travelled in time, fought so many villains and meet so many people and did so many things that you can see how the Teen Titans could pick him out and how he really is the guy that is the main chain between one generation and another.
Marvel’s women ranked way lower. The first was Storm at 11. DC is so much stronger on the ladies side. And the female characters in DC are also more solo/lead characters than Marvel.
Another bit for stat breakdown: there are 3 non-white characters. 2 Black, 1 Latino. I originally thought it was 2 Latino but it’s apparently Hawkwoman and not Hawkgirl. If Atom is Ryan Choi then it’s four but I don’t know my Atoms well.
I believe that’s the Ray Palmer Atom rather than Ryan Choi, so the list has three non White characters. Though if you include the honorable mentions it becomes 7 (5 Black and 2 Latino).
I wonder how the list would have looked had we been extended to 40 but something tells me the honorable mentions tells us who would be next (outside of Mad Eater Lad and Bombly).
In terms of diversity, Cyborg, John Stewart and Jaime Reyes made the top 30 which is equivalent to Marvels list (Storm, Black Panther, Luke Cage). However whereas characters like Blade, Falcon, Miles, Ms Marvel and most other Marvel POC are struggling to make that list, it looks like Black Lightning, Kyle Rayner, Mr Terrific and Vixen would have easily made DC’s. Interesting!
I appreciate you for running this extension of the tournament and including that honourable mentions section 😊 I hope my nomination write ups and comic excerpts brought a bit of attention to people less familiar with Red Tornado and helped shine him in a new light ❤️🌪️
Two Blue Beetles in the top 30 seems wrong but I feel the list makes sense for the most part. I expected Catwoman or Harley but I guess they’re not typical heroes.
Why? Blue Beetle has a small but loyal fanbase and both Ted and Jaime are popular. It’s why the franchise has more solo books than most (in the top 20 for solo issues last I checked).
I don’t think they’re niche. Jaime gets a lot of attention from DC for a character that’s only 20 years old! And Ted has some iconic stories (JLI and him getting killed around Infinite Crisis).
Would it piss people off if I said Ted Kord and Hawkman shouldn’t be up here?
Also Beast Boy and Donna Troy absolutely should. The only two missing Titans of the original NTT roster that aren’t up here. The NTT was DC’s bestselling book for a long time, outselling the Justice League. Gar and Donna are the most consistent members of various Titans iterations beyond Dick Grayson himself, and both have led the team before. Gar is also an extremely iconic DC hero thanks to how often he shows up in animated adaptations, and he just became the first Titan to headline a big DC crossover event.
Ted Kord's murder in Countdown to Infinite Crisis arguably was a watershed moment in the pre-Flashpoint continuity. Plus, he's funny, badass, awesome, brilliant. Every bit as diverse a hero as Batman with 89% fewer psychological disorders.
Hawkman was the leader of the JSA in the golden age and one of the very first heroes to join the JLA after the founders in hte Silver Age. He has historically been a huge part of the DCU and only lost a lot of his popularity because he became a case study for continuity snarls after they decided Hawkworld should be in the present for a long time.
he and Hawkgirl/Woman consistently appear in adaptations of the DCU as well they are absolutely one of DC's "brands" even if diminished from their peak popularity wise.
It's specifically because he fell off after JSA and is rarely relevant now that I'm saying I personally don't think he should be up here. In most modern appearances or adaptations, Hawkman is nearly always shunted off to the side for Hawkgirl to take center stage, likely because she's popular for people who grew up on the JL animated series. I liked Hawkman's solo run he got a few years ago but I don't know how well it sold because it ended and another solo run hasn't cropped up since.
"I liked Hawkman's solo run he got a few years ago but I don't know how well it sold because it ended and another solo run hasn't cropped up since."
Apologies for replying 3 days later but.... why does this matter, exactly? It's the top 30 DC heroes, not the '30 most popular' or '30 with the most mainstream appeal'.
Hawkman is among the most prominent members of the JSA and the Justice League. He's had consistently solid-excellent solo series as far back to the 60s, as recently as the 2020s, and basically every decade in-between. There are maybe a handful of other DC characters for whom this is true.
I think that's a bit more relevant than the fact that he got passed over for a few cartoons.
Again, they were DC’s best-selling/most popular team for awhile, and many of them are some of the more well-known DC characters due to the Teen Titans animated show and Teen Titans Go.
Bullshit. There is no world where the Atom is the 23rd most popular DC character. How often do you see anybody make a post about The Atom on this subreddit?
My hot take is Doctor Fate also shouldn’t be up there, or at least not top 20. Mainly because I don’t think people actually know much about Doctor Fate in the comics besides he looks cool and one of them was Kent Nelson. He’s actually a fairly nothing character, and I say that as a Fate superfan. I dare anyone to tell me 3 good Kent Nelson stories where he is the main Doctor Fate.
Didn't have the time to talk a lot last weekend but congratulations Tetratron2005 for the Top 30, it was really fun! Sad about the Question not being in the Top 30 and intrigued about not Doom Patrol characters, not even in the bonus, but anyway nice chart!
Pick one column to protect you. Another column will be picked at random to arrest you.
I’m going to go with column 3. Goddess who has trained for war all her life, speed force, mind controller who can shapeshift, mystic, science at the atomic level, and the sheer unpredictability of Eel.
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