off-topic-ish: Top Ten Marvel Comics Characters?

Whilst your appraisal on Cyclops is perfectly valid, I would argue the bolded in that Wolverines power is actually immortality that he cant stop. That means he has to suffer with loss of loved ones time after time whilst never aging himself, a crushing reality check in not getting too close to someone.

Hey, I was just mentioning this on the thread right above it! Ain’t dat a coinkydink… I admit I haven’t read many comic-books, so most (not all) of my evaluations are based on what I’ve seen in other media. OK:

1. Spider-Man–the Marvel character par excellence. So much character there to be mined, so many possible stories, very human (a teenager in most interpretations), a great rogues’ gallery. He’s really Marvel’s version of Batman–not really in character, but just in how stories can be told about him. And the powers are a lot of fun: swinging rather than flying, for example, gives him power but also a sense of vulnerability (like Batman, he can fall). And of course Lee and Ditko’s Uncle Ben and “great power” speech have become part of the culture.

2. The Hulk–the movies always want to make him a hero, for understandable reasons, but making him a true monster (sometimes doing good things and sometimes doing bad) ratchets up the tension and the tragedy.

I’m rather fond of Ang Lee’s over-the-top 2003 Hulk, which doesn’t focus on action, or even on Hulk him/itself, but rather on dialogue and character (why many people hated the movie). The problem with Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which the film adaptations (and the musical) have rectified, is that we don’t see events from Jekyll’s point of view until the end–with Hulk, we have a chance to do Jekyll and Hyde with Jekyll as the central focus.

The problem is storytelling–the origin story can be read as a tragedy, but what does one do with the character after that? Best to keep him as Banner for most of it, tell a compelling story he gets mixed up in (mystery, comedy, horror, you name it), and turn him into the big guy at the end.

3. The Fantastic Four–what fun these characters are! You can put them into any kind of story and they’ll work, which is probably why the movies haven’t been able to get a handle on them (like Indiana Jones and Star Wars, the focus isn’t on the characters but, rather, the story around them–they’re outward-facing stories). Has anyone exploited the hilarious absurdity of a stoic, serious, grey-haired scientist getting stretching powers?

The Thing and Hulk are, of course, pretty much the same character, but the Human Torch (amazing powers in a capricious hothead) could be well done. The Invisible Woman should be a Mrs. Peel-esque character. You can do sci-fi, time-travel, mystery, horror, espionage, straightforward superhero action, anything with these guys.

4. Captain America–you’ve got to make him old-fashioned, a traditionalist in an age that has thrown tradition to the wayside. Making him dark and cynical loses the character, and (as the MCU picked up on) the ’40s atmosphere, while I love it, can’t be sustained for more than an origin story, or the character becomes rather dull (like a million other all-American wartime superheroes). So what’s left?

The freezing, though silly, is yet a brilliant story move, as it lets him loose in a world he doesn’t understand. He’s fighting for the old-fashioned virtues in a world he doesn’t recognize, and this sense unintentionally makes him a rebel–again, the MCU picked up on this. I think his arc has been the best in those movies, and I would pretty much write him the same way the MCU writers have written him. And I think it’s a great characterization.

Also, one has to focus on his vulnerabilities; flag-waving aside, he’s not Superman and shouldn’t be treated as superhuman.

4. Dr. Doom–just a great villain all-around. Look at that design! (Did it influence Darth Vader? I never thought about that before.) Listen to the paradoxically simple bombast of the name! (On the other hand, his “real name,” “Victor Von Doom,” is overly goofy and would probably have to be jettisoned.) He’s not as much a character as a visual icon, but how well one could make him Faustian–unlike his nemeses, the Fantastic Four, he could go searching for this power, while they gained it by accident.

5. Magneto–this one’s obvious. I’ve never been the greatest fan of the X-Men, but here’s a character who’s not evil as much as severely misguided–a classical scenario, as is making him the dark mirror of Prof. X. Characterizing him is almost an object-lesson in the dangers of radicalism.

6. Green Goblin–Spidey’s Joker. One of those great themed villains the comics do so well.

7. Namor, the Sub-Mariner–my grandfather read this character’s adventures in the ’40s; I admit I don’t know that much about him, but from what I’ve read he seems an improvement on DC’s Aquaman, a character I’ve never understood (but I hope the movie is good). I like the bizarre design, the anti-heroism, and the Atlantis setting (which I’d make incredibly strange-looking, like in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis–not any other future-city underwater).

8. Daredevil–Catholic Batman! But Catholic Batman is seriously a great idea; one has to approach it almost from a Scorsesean perspective, put him more on mean streets, make him more realistic than Batman, balance it with the religion. Scorsese’s characters often have to choose between deciding to be priests and deciding to be mobsters; give the character the same dilemma, but between religion and superheroing. I admit I’ve never seen the TV show, but it looked good.

9. Cyclops–I don’t know why this is the X-Men character whom I like more than the others, but I certainly prefer him to Wolverine. Maybe because–like “Angel” and unlike Wolverine–he can’t stop his powers (Wolverine can retract his claws), and the laser beams come out of his eyes no matter what. It’s not a power one would really want to have, which curiously makes me connect with him more. The best Marvel characters have a degree of tragedy to them.

10. I’m not sure whom to include here. Uncle Ben? One of the cosmic villains at which Marvel excels? There have been some great Marvel characters–Iron Man, Dr. Octopus, Alexander Pierce–whom I liked largely because of the performances in the movies, not the characterizations themselves. (Redford’s Pierce would probably be the exception–a well-written and well-played character–but I don’t think he’s from the comics.) I’ve rambled enough that I suppose we can keep it at 9, though.

Well not strictly immortal, I was being presumptuous. But he is more or less immortal for the sake of the argument.

I think a lotta readers like Wolverine because he has the bad boy non conformist image wheras Cyclops is the teachers pet kinda guy.

In many ways, Cyclops is a far more tragic figure than Wolverine is continuously made out to be. If the canon gods haven't switched it up on me, I believe that the involuntary nature of his powers has something to do with a brain injury sustained early on during his childhood. He's one of the few mutants in X-Men lore that does not have a power that operates as it was designed to due to irreversible brain damage. He doesn't have any secondary mutations, and he is not ridiculously overpowered to omega-levels which forces him to use his (damaged) brain just as much as he uses his powers.

Gambit
Spiderman
Venom
Wolverine
Magneto
Apocalypse
Rogue
Storm
Silver Surfer
Cable