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Kenny H's avatar

I made a previous comment but decided to delete it because it was all over the place.

I liked your list. It was excellent. It would be too hard for me to make a list like this because the whole thing just made my mind race.

I could make a top 20 of X-Men alone.

I wouldn't know how to make a list. My personal favorites? Or the most influential that allowed me to have my own personal favorites?

One thing that is certain. Mark Grayson from Invincible would be my no. 1 favorite superhero. Any many characters from that comic would make my personal top 20. I mean if it were my own personal favorites it would be mostly Invincible, and Watchmen characters probably.

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Kenny H's avatar

I am a big fan of the Watchmen and my favorite thing about your list was your writeup on Rorschach. I don't feel like he is a very healthy character to relate to, but that's the thing...he is relatable. He certainly has PTSD, at least thats how I think Alan Moore wrote him.

Most comics are about kind of a power trip and the Watchmen deals a lot with what it's like to cope with powerlessness.

Invincible a comic that supplanted Watchmen as my favorite super hero comic focuses on the all the negatives of being a super hero, of what it would be like to live in a world with a bunch of super heroes everywhere. It takes the tropes of Marvel and DC and instead of subverting and twisting the takes them to their logical conclusion. One caveat to my recommendation is that Invincible is very, very violent. It's by Robert Kirkman of "The Walking Dead" fame and it's better than the Walking Dead comic. Although the Walking Dead comic is good as well.

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David Swindle 🟦's avatar

Thanks Kenny. Greenlight if you want to ever write on Watchmen or Invincible. I've seen it previously and based on your recommendation will make an effort to check it out. Sally and I still need to get our San Bernardino library cards...

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Kenny H's avatar

The show Invincible is good. It pretty much follows a lot of the comic, with some minor changes to kind of clean up the plot.

The comic itself is 144 issues and gets stronger and stronger as the comic progresses. The artwork is initially kind of crude, the comic is an interesting take on something like Spider-Man mixed with Superman but nothing particularly special.

Then there are twists and the stakes are repeatedly raised and it repeatedly surprises you, gets weirdly philosophical.

I would argue that the show is probably the best introduction to the comic, just because it kind of brings the rough edges of the comic to life in a more organized and understandable way.

I read the comic before the show came out but didn't even stick with it. The show motivated me to finish it and I am extremely glad I did.

I would describe it as something that is designed to really appeal to super hero comic lovers. It's like reading comics for the first time all over again. In Spider-Man when he is trying to rescue a child or a pregnant woman or something from say falling from a tall building you know he will succeed, because the comic will not "go there" Invincible does. Absolutely nothing is certain anything no matter how violent or depressing could occur at any moment.

The comic and the show are colorful and vibrant as well as funny. But ultimately you really don't want to be living in a universe with super heroes and you really don't want to actually be a super hero in the Invincible universe.

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David Swindle 🟦's avatar

Go ahead and make a top 20 of X-Men alone and do them as personal favorites. A quirky, idiosyncratic list with unique reasons for your placements tends to be more interesting than attempting to be objective and rank them by the overall cultural phenomenon.

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