Back by popular demand (2 people asked me lol) this is our second Favorite Comic Book Character poll. The last one we did way back in 2008 and here are the results of that poll -
To be brutally honest this comic book forum didn’t have that many regulars then and it has even less people now. I’m not complaining because all of our current regulars are awesome and it makes my modding job really easy at times.
Still if you know anyone on SRK that might be willing to participate please ask them to vote. I will try to reach out to as many people as I can.
I’m not going to be checking join dates or anything so new members can feel free to join in on the fun.
Last time our list only went up to 45 characters. It would be nice if we could get that up to 50 or more. Here’s hoping!
Now for the rules. They are more or less the same as last time with a few additions. Because the comic book landscape has changed a bit in the last few years and I apparently like typing way too much…
1. You can vote for as many characters as you want. I’ll limit my choices to 10 but if you want you can go up to, let’s say 30? More than that is fine. If you just want to vote for 1 character feel free. I would like people to vote for at least 10 so we have a nice list, but I don’t really want to tell people how to vote so do as you wish.
2. I’m not going to count any votes until the very end so feel free to edit your votes as many times as you want up until the very end. So if you happen to think of someone else from here to the end then feel free to add them.
3. Voting for characters that didn’t originate as comic book characters - Since this sub forum has its origins as a Street Fighter comic book forum you are allowed to vote for SF characters. This goes for characters like Buffy, Star Trek or Star Wars characters and basically anyone that has appeared in a comic book before. Ditto if they appeared in a manga or mahnwa that’s available in the US in English.
Work the poll the right way and who knows, you may be able to make a list of your favorite fictional characters of all time! Real people have appeared in comics too like Obama hanging out with Spider-Man and even the writer Grant Morrison has shown up in a comic before. Have fun with it!
For Street Fighter note that you will be voting for the comic book variants of the characters. For example, you may think that Retsu in SF1 was pretty bad ass but in the Street Fighter comic Retsu got his ass handed to him by Satsui No Hadou (Dark/Evil) Ryu when Ryu was a little kid oooh…
4. For the above rule artwork of the character doesn’t count. The character must have appeared in an actual story for them to be eligible. Even appearing on a cover is no good if they are not part of the sequential story inside the comic.
So Ingrid who has only appeared in SF art books released by Studio Udon is not eligible. I’m the only one saddened by this LOL! But SF EX’s Skullomania has appeared in Sakura’s comic so he’s eligible. Juri gets a pass because her photo was shown in the SF4 comic so close enough, but no Hakan.
If you are not sure just vote for your favorite SF characters and I’ll let you know.The majority have shown up in comics or SF manga available in English, except for a few SF1 and SF3 characters really.
5. Manga / Mahnwa / Foreign language characters - You are allowed to vote for them if you want. Only since my goal is always to get people into comic book shops, bookstores etc. to support the industry the manga has to be available in English. So if someone thinks that character you vote for is cool then they can go to either a comic book shop or a bookstore and check them out.
The character from the manga also has to be out in whatever the English version of the manga is up to. There are occasions where I won’t be able to tell but some of the bigger stuff I’ll now but please help me out with basic information if you can.
Some manga in the US runs really close in the US is up to nowadays like Naruto and Berserk so unless you are voting for a new character that came out in Japan yesterday you might be okay. For other things we are really behind like Bleach, but we have seen all of the major characters at least.
Also note that the character must have appeared in a manga before. So original anime characters used in filler arcs or anime movies do not count. For Dragon Ball Z fans this means no Brolly. For Bleach fans this means you can’t vote for The Bounts. Okay Bleach fans stop break dancing now… 
Ani-manga books are a no go because they are basically just freeze frames from anime movies with word balloons and not actual comics. In other words NO BROLLY!!!
6. If the character you vote for has several human personas please tell me which one you are voting for otherwise I am going to naturally assume it’s the most commonly known character. For example, a vote for Green Lantern I am going to chalk up as Hal Jordan. A vote for Venom I am going to chalk up as Eddie Brock. And so on, and so on. So in these cases please specify who you are talking about.
7. Today not everyone reads comics in comic book stores so that’s all well and good. Online comic book characters are fine but please be specific with links if possible because there’s a high chance I won’t know who the heck you are talking about.
If there is only an online comic for the character like say, Nathan Spencer / Bionic Commando and you like playing him in MvC3 then hey go for it.
Digital comics are fine too. Nowadays most digital comics are the same as print, but there have been occasions in the past, particularly with motion comics of stories that have never seen print. If there are any original characters from those feel free to vote for them. Again be specific and help me out as much as possible with regards to info on these characters.
8. Characters from promotional comics, that are available as pre-order bonuses for games are not really allowed because not everyone has access to them. This goes for say the Spyborg comic and Soul Calibur IV comic from Udon.
If you got the promotional comic that came with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 all of the Capcom characters featured in that comic have already appeared in comic books before that book came out so they are fine. All of the Marvel characters too obviously.
9. For fun other Capcom crossover characters - Since this isn’t really a rule I’ll spoiler tag it for people not interested ROFL -
Capcom crossover characters you can vote on
[details=Spoiler]The UMvC3 characters that you cannot vote for are Strider, Amaterasu, Viewtiful Joe and Ms. Tron. Everyone else has shown up in either a comic book or a manga released in the US. Arthur gets a pass because of his old Gamepro comic book appearance. Firebrand gets a pass because of the SVC Chaos mahnwa (as does the entire cast of SVC Chaos). MMX Zero appeared briefly in Dreamwave’s Mega Man comic.
Oh and us of right now – 11/8/11 - the entire Capcom cast of SFxT has appeared in comic books before so they are all eligible. There have been Tekken comics but I really don’t know too much about them. So any help is appreciated.
For Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars the entire Capcom side is fine except for PTX-40A (there was going to be a Lost Planet comic but it never saw the light of day), Megaman Volnut, Viewtiful Joe, Saki and the final boss Yami. I’m not too sure about the Tatsunoko side but since there has been a comic based on Gatchaman AKA Battle of the Planets feel free to vote for Ken The Eagle, Jun The Swan and Joe The Condor.
For Capcom vs. SNK 2 the entire Capcom roster is fine. There is a Shin Akuma in the SVC Chaos mahnwa which is a little different but you can vote for that version at least. For the SNK characters it varies but there have been a few mahnwa and manga released about KOF and Samurai Showdown so just ask. Off the top of my head I can tell you that Hibiki and God Rugal are not allowed.[/details]
10. Comic strip characters are fine since they are basically an extension of comic books and a lot of their trades are available in comic book stores. Once again, remember that the character must have appeared in the comic strip to be eligible. For Boondocks fans this means no Thugnificent, A Pimp Named Slickback or Gangstalicious. AIN’T GOT NO THUGGIN’ LOVE.
11. Regarding different versions of the same character - This is more of a ‘play it by ear’ rule and can change regarding how people wind up voting. Just me I’m not really down with seperating votes for say Ultimate Spider-Man and 616 Spider-Man when they are both Peter Parker. Now if they are DRASTICALLY different like Ultimate Nick Fury and 616 Fury that is fine.
Last time around votes for Ultimate versions of characters wound up hurting more characters than it helped. Ultimate Captain America made the list so there was that I guess. Well it doesn’t seem like the Ultimate line is as popular as it used to be. Also if you must vote for Ultimate Captain America just remember that Jeph Loeb got his hands on him once…
Comic Book Resources recently had their favorite character polls (one for Marvel and one for DC) and they did keep votes for Ultimate Nick Fury and Nick Fury as one in the same, a vote for Nick Fury is a vote for Nick Fury. They did honor identities first and this really helped Dick Grayson since he has been Robin, Nightwing and Batman. I’d like to do the same especially if it helps out one of my favorite DC characters.
12. The deadline is December 12th and the final vote will be tossed up on December 14th. Remember, you can’t bitch about how lame our list is if you don’t participate!
I’ll toss up my choices in a bit. Have fun!
STILL the shit!!