Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Favorite Marvel B-Listers

STEPHEN at Comic Book Weekness had a quick post on his favorite Marvel B-listers. Well here's a some of mine. Although to most folks these might be Z-listers.


Jack of Hearts



Deathlok



Doctor Spectrum



Starhawk (the guy on the top)


Adam Warlock


Dagger


Killraven



Machine Man


Gargoyle



Darkstar


Monica Rambeau (Pulsar?)



What are yours?


-Swinebread

25 comments:

Arkonbey said...

Darkstar was pretty hot. and Deathlok was pretty cool.

I only have #4 of the Jack of Hearts 4 issue series (my mom cruised the bargain bins when we were sick from school as young 'uns). So, I don't know if it was any good or not.

What is the exact definition of a B-lister?

Would Richochet Rita count? Snowbird? Doc Samson? Volstagg?

Stephen said...

adam warlock, dagger, and deathlock are definitely b-list.

the rest are basically zees : )

although alot of people seem to really dig deathlok. i don't get it he seems so lame. is there any story you can recommend me where he particularly shines?

Dean Wormer said...

Didn't killraven retire and join a travelling company of "Cats" or something?

Dr. Zaius said...

I'm embaressed to admit that the only ones that I have heard of are Deathlok, Adam Warlock, Dagger, Killraven, and Machine Man.

Arkonbey said...

Dr. Z, I think actually knowing of Machine Man and Adam Warlock mitigates embarassment.

And shows your age.

heh.

Steve said...

not b list character but b list comic was the Archie Versus the Punisher crossover

Wish I would have kept that one

Swinebread said...

Arkonbey- You bet she was and she used to be a commie too so that made her even hotter! J

I found the Jack of Hearts Series to be very good. If you do pick up the first three issues get Marvel Team Up #134 too as it leads into the mini-series.

Stephen – You might be thinking of the Dwayne McDuffie version, which is now the popular/established charter in Marvel continuity. His name is Michael Collins and he’s a peacenik trapeped in a war machine. This is a recreation of the original and IMO much better version of Deathlok (Luther Manning) that was created in the 1970s by Rich Bucker. At the time the stories were set in the near future of the 1990s, where corprations took over after an enviromental and economic collapse. (kinda similar to Dark Angel but with a 1970s view of technlolgy). It was very dark and very nihilistic and I loved it. Deathlok works better as a post-apocalyptic character than just some cyborg whose here along with all the other heroes, but then the Manning Deathlok’s future didn’t really come to be, so maybe that’s why nobody cares about him anymore much like Khan and the Eugenics Wars. Wikipedia has a good entry on both deathloks.

I recommend Astonishing Tales #25-36, and a great ending to the series in Captain America #286-288. Classics, much better then the later version Deathlok.

Dean – Well, he had to force out the Martians first

Dr. Zaius – Knowing the characters you do shows me how cool you are. Most of the kids nowadays don’t know who these guys are anyway… Of course if you did know jack of hearts you’d get even more brownie points from me. J

Arkonbey- exactly!

Pidomon – I’ve got that someplace, it worked better than I thought it would. lol

Stephen said...

definitely gonna keep an eye out for those, because post-apocalyptic 90's sound so freaking awesome (i'm a huge escape from new york fan)

Becca said...

Oh wow Killraven seems to have a bit of a ...er...um...fixation...

Freud would have a field day with this guy.

Sleestak said...

These are all 70s A-Listers!

pissed off patricia said...

I never got into these comics, I was more the Bugs Bunny kind of kid.

Randal Graves said...

I barely remember even a few of these. I do remember some of the images from the Marvel Super Heroes game, but that's about it. I guess I read less Marvel stuff that I had previously thought!

Swinebread said...

Stephen – Me Too! Maybe that’s why I like Deathlok so much. I could totally see him in that or a similar movie.

Becca – lol, I think it was P. Craig Russell, the artist, that had the fixation… but it’s a pretty weird pose. Imagine if Conan did something like that!

Sleesak – You’re correct of course, but I didn’t want to alienate the newbies.

POP – that’s cool, were you into Casper the Friendly Ghost, Hot Stuff, or Little Lulu too?
I only ask because Dark Horse Comics has begun reprinting them in paperback collections. (see the links)

Randal – well, it depends on where and when really. Most of these characters had their heyday in the mid 1970s to mid 1980s. If they even had a heyday that is.

Faded said...

Amethyst,Princess of Gemworld... Warlord, Lt.Jeb Stuart of the haunted Tank, Booster Gold, and the Blue Devil...

Faded said...

And my favorite of All time- Lusuphur Malache' of Poison Elves.

rob! said...

Wonder Man, Valkyrie, Dr. Druid!

Unknown said...

Killraven gets a snazzy P. Craig Russell rendering.

Good for him!

Unknown said...

In all the discussion of who or what constitutes a "B-lister," everyone's missing the most important point- where do Moonstar and Karma fall in the Marvel alphabet?

I'm guessing somewhere around "G." But I still love them both.

The Moody Minstrel said...

My favorites are Snabulus, Ladybug, Pandabonium, Swinebread...

Wait, you mean the "B" in "B-list" doesn't stand for "blogger"?

Swinebread said...

Fade – of course they are fantastic B-Listers… some of them are my favs… This post was just my Marvel list.

Rob! – I almost picked Valkrie… I like Wonderman too, but they sure have given him lousy costumes over the years.

Joel – Russell was the arttis on the last few issue of Killraven and on the Killraven Graphic novel.

I almost included Karma too… but I couldn’t find a picture I liked.

Moody – why, thank you!

Thomas Fummo said...

Aaron Stack.
I'm not Machine man anymore, fleshy one. My name is Aaron Stack.

Sigh... I've asked you not to call humans 'fleshy ones'.

Sorry, Monica.





NEXTWAVE!!!!!!

Will said...

I really liked NEXTWave but was disturbed the Ellis turned Machine Man into Bender (from Futurama).
I kept expecting MM to yell "kiss my shiny metal ass"

Thomas Fummo said...

"fear my robot head, fleshy ones" sounds alomst as good ;-)

Anonymous said...

Some really talented and nice people here...but the most underutilized hero ever in Marvel or any comic for that matter, is Captain Marvel, the one and only Mar-Vell.

Hands down.

However I respect all of your decisions, thanks for having me on your site. Take Care and God bless*

Propecia said...

Deathlok is the strongest of them all. He has characteristics difficult to find in another comic books character.