My Top Comic Characters, Part 2

Here is the second part of my long winded ramblings about which funnybook characters I like, this time fom the House of Ideas. Each profile is once again followed by my creative dream team for that character.

10. Reed Richards: If I were doing this list a year ago he wouldn't be anywhere near it. I honestly didn't get the Fantastic Four when I was first collecting comics. But in the past year I've had the chance to read most of Mark Waid's run on FF and all of Ultimate FF and my feelings on ol' Stretcho have done a 180. He's not the nerdy father figure with the uninteresting powers he was in my youth. He is the Marvel universe's foremost genius, an unparelleled intellect with a strong moral code. He is, on so many levels, the father figure of the entire Marvel U. He's smart, compassionate, he leads by example, and he is fiercely protective of his family and friends. He is almost everything a father should be.
Dream Team: Warren Ellis & Doug Mahnke

9. Daredevil: He is, to me, Marvel's foremost "dark" hero. Spiderman goes through some heavy shit, but there is always a sense of light off in the distance. Not so with Daredevil. Everything in his life seems to be pain, and suffering, and torment. Spiderman can quip his way through a crisis. Daredevil just seems to move a little closer to the line that divides genius and maddness after each incident. On the other hand he gets more, and better, ass than any other comic character. (only Nightwing comes close in this regard) Is it worth all the suffering? That's a question I'll leave to the philosophers.
Dream Team Robert Kirkman & Tony Harris

8. Beast: I really can't decide which version of the Beast I like more. The cat-like bounding ball of fur that made the first issue of X-Factor I ever bought so much fun, or the dignified Lion-man that he became under the watchful eye of Grant Morrison? Either way, he's a great character; erudite, jocular, nimble, but oh so loaded with pathos at times. Casting Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy in the third X-Men movie was spot on note perfect.
Dream Team Brian Michael Bendis & Ed Benes

7. Phoenix/Jean Grey: You know, I'm not sure if I like the character of Phoenix as much as I like how other characters work with her. She seems to bring out the best in the other members of the X-Books, probably because she's had more funerals than I've had pairs of boots. Jean is also, through her relationship with Cyclops, related to just about every character in the Marvel universe. The Dark Phoenix Saga is rightly regarded as one of the great epics of comic history and one of the first stories I read as a kid, it really made an impact on me and helps earn her a place on the list. It may also be due to the fact that I have a thing for redheads.
Dream Team: Chris Claremont & Greg Land

6. Emma Frost: No Marvel character has improved more in the last decade than Emma Frost. In the skilled hands of Scott Lobdell, Grant Morrison & Joss Whedon Emma went from being a fairly one dimentional attempt at fanservice to being my favorite X-Man right now. She has the distinction of being the outsider in a team of outcasts. She can get away with saying and doing things that no other X-Character can. She still dresses like a dominatrix, albeit a very expensive and trendy one.
Dream Team: Greg Rucka & Frank Cho

5. Archangel: Archangel is on this list more for the past (now the fairly distant past) than any sort of present accomplishment. In fact Warren Worthington III isn't even on one of the 6 or 7 X-Teams now. But one of the first comics I bought was an issue of X-Factor focusing on a blue skinned, razor winged former playboy going through his own presonal hell. And I was hooked. I feel that the decision to turn Angel into Archangel was one of the best decisions Marvel ever made, and the decision to revert him to the blonde, blue eyed and feathered was just as egregous. Even though Archangel was a grim 'n gritty character, I still loved him. The visual of him swooping down, wings ablaze with reflected light, was sketched (badly) in innumerable notebook margins during my school days. I still hope to write comics someday. I still hope to write X-Men comics someday. And when that day comes, the razor wings will return.
Dream Team: Ed Brubaker & Jim Lee

4. Thing: "It's Clobbering Time." Simple. To the point. Catchy. Fun. Everything I just wrote can apply to The Thing's battle cry, or the man himself. The concept of a man residing in the form of a monster is an old one in literature, but there have been few iterations better than Benjamin J. Grimm. The Thing is the master of the emotional roller coaster. He'll have the reader in stitches one moment, and in tears another. He is flawed and strong, comic and tragic. He is the Marvel Universe's big brother, embodying protection, guidance, fraternity, love and a smattering of mischeviousness all in one big rocky package.
Dream Team: Dan Slott & Mike Weringo

3. Wolverine: Yes he is over used and overexposed. But he is still, at times a great character. At his core he is a man struggling with demons. He is a killer that seeks peace. He is a savior that must slay. The best Wolverine stories are not about him fighting ninjas, or cyborgs, or government funded projects. The best Wolverine stories are about the Man, the noble samurai, fighting the Animal, the berzerker, inside of him to answer the big Question: "Which is the real, true Logan." Part of the problem with Logan the past few years is these themes have fallen by the wayside in a flood of hacked limbs and gore. Wolverine can be a fun, bloody, larger than life romp, but at times you have to come back to the core of the character.
Dream Team: Alan Moore & John Romita, Jr.

2. Spider-Man: Like all of the great Marvel characters Spidey is equal parts pain and pleasure. The genuine joy he seems to feel while swinging through New York, the fun he has webbing up muggers, has to be tempered with the Pain. Whether that Pain is familial, physical, or emotional, it's always there, even if it is temporarilily sheathed with a skin of quips and puns. He is an icon, an archetype, and for good reason. "With great power comes great responsibility" is the line that helped change superheroes from golden, unassailable gods, into flawed but still magnificent men.
Dream Team: Gail Simone & Phil Jimenez

1. Magneto: I have this image in my mind of Magneto, in all his glory, floating down to confront an army of X-Men. What little of his face can be seen through the helmet betrays no fear, only resolve, confidence and a hint of sadness. He is to me the ultimate complex villain. He isn't a Darkseid that is evil for evil's sake, or a Joker who is the human mind without boundaries. He does evil, but for good and noble reasons. Some people are willing to kill for a cause, others are willing to die. Magnus is willing to sacrifice his soul for the sake of Mutantkind. His history, as a survivor of the Nazi holocaust, as a mutant freedom fighter and as a terrorist gives the character a foundation that few characters in comic history can match.
Dream Team: Alan Moore & Rags Morales