TOP 10 SUPERHEROES BEFORE AND AFTER PART 3
Hey guys!
Welcome back to top 10 nerd.
Guess what?
We’ve got a guest today!
It’s Charlotte!
So today we’re talking about superheroes before and after.
Part 3.
Whose your favourite superhero Charlotte?
ANSWER
OKAY AWESOME LET’S GET INTO THIS LIST YAAAAAAY.
10 Beast Let’s start off this list with
one of the most adored X-Men characters, Hank McCoy aka Beast.
While we didn’t get his full origin story until 1968, when we were first introduced
to the hulking blue mutant in 1963 in X-Men Volume 1, he wasn’t blue at all.
Just very large and big boned.
It wasn’t until Amazing Adventures 11 in 1972 that he would get his furry blue appearance
in an attempt to make the character more visually striking, and to further let Marvel profit
off of the success of Werewolf by Night.
Stan Lee has stated that he wanted Beast to be the most articulate, eloquent and well
read of the X-Men in order to contrast with his brutish exterior.
9 Doctor Strange For this number, we’re taking a look at
the cinematic adaptions of the character.
If you didn’t already know, there was a 1978 Dr Strange made for TV film starring
Peter Hooten and Jessica Walter.
(can you guys include a hilarious archer or arrested development clip here?)
It was a bit of a bomb, many perceiving the title character as a bit of an idiot, and
CBS chose to not pick it up as a series.
Benedict Cumberbatch had much better luck, despite a few mixed reviews.
Needless to say, Cumberbatch’s costume was arguably more representative of the comics,
and less afro bling ninja.
8 Cyclops Another character who made their debut in
The X-Men #1 in 1963, Scott Summers aka Cyclops has experienced many suit variations over
the years, and even one that exposed his brown locks of hair, but has generally had an undeniably
consistent aesthetic over the years.
And a handful of alternate universe variations that were pretty damn cool.
He’s a character who has typically been portrayed as the archetypal hero in American
pop culture, a foil to the rough and tough anti-heroes like Wolverine that emerged after
the Vietnam War.
Yet the character has become morally ambiguous over the years, especially after the birth
of Hope Summers and the events of Schism, where his actions have made characters and
fans alike view him as villainous at times.
7 Daredevil For years Daredevil has been synonymous with
his red horned suit.
It’s iconic.
But aesthetically speaking, when he was first conceived by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, he
looked quite different.
The horns were still present, but the character donned a very different yellow, black and
red suit that had a very acrobatic feel to it.
Jack Kirby had a lot of input on the character design, and was even the one who came up with
the idea to give him his billy club.
His suit wouldn’t change until issue #7 of volume 1, where he fought the sub mariner.
6 Sam Wilson - The Falcon Sam Wilson has gone through many an aesthetic
change over the years.
From the publication side, he was the first mainstream black superhero, and the first
to not have the word black be part of his superhero alias name.
First appearing in Captain America 117 in 1969, he donned a green and orange leotard,
and also dug the whole shirtless look when hanging out with his pet falcon Redwing.
The late 70’s introduced us to another Falcon costume, this time with wings and a different
colour palette, featuring detachable jet powered glider wings made of lightweight titanium
ribbing and mylar that used solar power.
After 2004 when that harness was destroyed, he got himself a pair of holographic hard
light wings.
These days he’s been given the MCU cinematic treatment, and his 2017 threads now that Sam
Wilson has given up Captain America mantle are much more sleeker.
5 Blue Beetle Blue Beetle isn’t the only one on this list
whose had multiple characters pick up the mantle.
The first Blue Beetle first appeared in 1939, created by Fox Comics, then bought by Charlton
Comics.
This Beetle was Dan Garret, who got his powers from a vitamin.
But that didn’t last long - the source of his powers were soon changed to a sacred scarab.
When Charlton was bought out by DC, a new Blue Beetle by the name of Ted Kore would
pick up the mantle.
And eventually, the Beetle we know now as Jaime Reyes came to be in 2006.
Jumping back to the first Beetle though - he was said to have been penned by Will Eisner,
and was a rookie cop who wore a bullet proof costume.
He also had his own radio show.
4 Green Arrow A millionaire playboy that isn’t Bruce Wayne?
Why yes, it’s Oliver Queen, another golden age hero.
First debuting in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941 with his sidekick Speedy (who would later
become a heroin addict, fun fact), Green Arrow’s aesthetic started off very robin hood before
acquiring the stealthy armoured archer appeal we all know and love today.
Aside from the obvious robin hood inspiration, creators Mort Weisinger and George Papp credited
the movie serial The Green Archer as an influence.
He wouldn’t get his Van Dyke beard until 1969 when Neal Adams took over the character.
Now the character is the focus of the super successful CW show Arrow, which launched other
CW DC television shows, including The Flash and Supergirl.
As of this recording, Arrow has been renewed for a sixth season.
3 Namor the sub mariner Another character who was created back in
the Golden Age, Namor first hit the scene in April of 1939 in Motion Picture Funnies
Weekly, which was never actually released.
But then he appeared in Timely Comic’s very first comic book - Marvel Comics #1.
And as you guys probably already know, Timely would eventually grow into Marvel.
The company.
Not the comic.
Anyway, Namor was the first known comic anti-hero, and actually started off as an enemy of the
US, and his schemes included the likes of sinking Manhattan.
But when the US entered world war 2, the character shifting alliances, and aided the allies against
axis power and adolf hitler.
#comicshatenazis anyone?
2 Storm African goddess to one of the most iconic
members of the X-Men, Storm has been regarded as Marvel’s most prominent female superhero.
First appearing in Giant Size X-Men #1, Storm was a part of the second generation of X-Men
introduced by Len Wein, and started off as an amalgam of two characters created by penciller
Dave Cockrum - The Black Cat and Typhoon.
In Giant Size X-Men #1, she’s introduced as the storm goddess, being praised by people
in Kenya.
She’s recruited by Charles Xavier and her backstory wouldn’t be fleshed out until
Uncanny X-Men #102 by Chris Claremont.
These days, she’s gotten the big screen treatment, first with Hallie Berry portraying
her, and most recently Alexandra Shipp.
And in the comics?
She got her own solo series in 2014, and even got hitched (then unhitched) to Black Panther.
1 The Sandman Some of you may be most familiar with Neil
Gaiman’s Sandman, but the original character was completely different from Gaiman’s Dream
aka Morpheus and DC’s Wesley Dodds from Sandman Mystery Theatre.
First appearing in Adventure Comics no 40 in 1939, Sandman first hit the scene as Wesley
Dodds, created by Gardner Fox and Bert Christman.
Wearing a green suit, fedora and gas mask, he would use a special gun that released sleeping
gas to sedate his foes, who were criminals.
Later on, he was given a makeover, equipping him with a cape and sidekick aptly named Sandy
the golden boy.
After the 1940’s, the character died off like many other golden age heroes, and Dodds
would occasionally make cameos in other DC properties.
But The Sandman alias didn’t die with him - Garreet Sanford and Hector Hall took it
on, and the character eventually evolved into Dream.
There’s a lot more we’d like to talk about concerning this character, but only so much
time per video, so if you guys want more about Sandman, let us know in the comments below!