Batman movie lead to conversations

[Conquistador]

No spoilers here, discussion today at lunch with 6 co-workers about the movie my daughters (19 and 23) insisted I come watch at Hi-pointe (earlier this week they attended a 3 Batman mini-marathon there) for $5 tickets Thursday.  Very enjoyable.  Conversation at lunch included favorite Superheroes - varied from "I never read comics," to Batman, Green Lantern, and many of the "usual suspects."  Also discussed what makes a "superhero" "Lame."

Girls and I ate dinner after the movie and discussed movie, vigilantes (good and bad,) law enforcement in Spanish California and Spanish Mexico/Southwest,  Law enforcement in "the Wild West..."  Some great insights.  Oldest girl loves Batman, Younger girl (speech and language challenged makes her more receptive to visual learning,) loves Raven and Robin from Animated Teen Titans show.

From http://www.superherodb.com/characters/ I chose some favorites:

Not in order of most favorite to least favorite, * = Tenative,

Batman - a human trained to cutting edge skills with "assisting devices" and technology tools

Black Widow * - not sure why other than cool factor of name

Catwoman - Plays both sides, not totally unfeeling but focused on getting what she wants

Flash II - Speed is life

Phantom - What's not to like about a character called "Ghost who Walks"

Green Arrow -  did some archery as a kid, arrows as non-lethal tools is a plus

Incredibles * - Family of supers, just plain cool

Invisible Woman - most under-rated member of Fantastic Four, power development over time

Robin I/III - what the heck is a kid/teen doing fighting super villains and actually helping defeat them

Zorro - Spanish on my Mom's side, Disney TV show, fencing in college, and SCA sword fighting (prefer axe but...)

There are other "lesser lights" but what are your favorites?  "Why," is optional

Gracias,

Glenn

[The Gray Ghost]

I loved Batman up to The Killing Joke/Dark Knight books.
just the idea He had no super powers, My name is actually one of His allies.
Same for The Phantom, Batman in exotic locales.
The Incredibles because it's what comic book heroes are supposed to be.
Master of Kung Fu, Shang Chi has some of the best story lines in Bronze Age comics and has endless gaming possibilities, also He's the best Bruce Lee rip off.
The Thing, the Hulk without all the grunting, His Marvel Two-in-One comics, (1974–1983),  are worth tracking down if you are interested in scenarios for superhero games.
Almost all my favorites are lesser known s or side kicks.

[MADMANMIKE]

I think it sounds cliche, but Spider-man and Superman were always my heroes. I was four when Christopher Reeves first graced the big screen, and I was hooked. Likewise, I met Spider-man at Six Flags around the same time and was sure he was real.

I spend a lot of time on forums for Role Playing Games and listen to Comic podcasts and one thing that has become quite clear to me is the nature of the fanboy; a fanboy holds onto the magic of that first exposure to their favorite topic and puts it on a pedestal that no other topic (or more importantly no new rendition of said topic) can touch.

So I realize my love of those characters is biased by that early experience. But really, the skinny nerd kid who's webs always run out at the most inopportune time and the seemingly omnipotent dude who stutters in front of the woman he's in love with? Forget about it.

[Conquistador]

Superman was... well, Superman!  I found the Krypronite thing, when it went multicolor, to be a downer.

My first visual Superman was the 1950's TV show.  George Reeves.  Set my expectations.

I like the 1978 movie version too.  Modified my ideas on Super heroes somewhat.

Superman is my wife's favorite hero.  Not playable in a game in my view without modification - Kryprtonite is either too strong or too weird in it's many incarnations for my taste.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Conquistador]

Spiderman.  A good, sometimes great, read (most of the time) but not really appealing to me for gaming for lots of little, almost petty, reasons.

Gracias,

Glenn

[The Gray Ghost]

I think one of the appeals of Superman is he will always do the right thing for the right reason, originally anyway.

[MADMANMIKE]

Superman was... well, Superman!  I found the Krypronite thing, when it went multicolor, to be a downer.

My first visual Superman was the 1950's TV show.  George Reeves.  Set my expectations.

I like the 1978 movie version too.  Modified my ideas on Super heroes somewhat.

Superman is my wife's favorite hero.  Not playable in a game in my view without modification - Kryprtonite is either too strong or too weird in it's many incarnations for my taste.

Gracias,

Glenn

Actually, George Reeves was my first too, but the table flight never convinced me like the cable flight in the movie. I have Asperger's Syndrome, and before I could speak I could do the entire William Tell Overture thanks to The Lone Ranger show.. But the Lone Ranger Movie never impressed me.. Maybe the next one can bring him back..

[Commander Vyper]

Red and blue boy scout no thanks!

Well my comic superheroes of choice:

Batman (Bruce Wayne): Driven, damaged, brooding dark, yet never kills and as such allows others to suffer... work that one out in therapy!

Nightwing (aka BatmanII, Robin I Dick Grayson): Another batfamily member, massive character turmoil, always the light to batman's dark, only recently consumed by his own demons, (owls, annoying little grandson of the demon robins etc...). But with it that holy half full glass batman, approach shines through, the under story between Dick and Bruce (and Jason) has been brilliant to watch develop over the years.

Red Robin (aka Robin III Tim Drake/Wayne): I've followed Tim since Lonely place of dying in the batbooks and watched him mature and grow as a character, loved the direction of travel they where taking him, in almost being the true eventual heir to the cowl. He's dark, driven, focussed, but still maintains his humanity. Gutted at the way the character was treated before the new reboot 52. Wasted and sidelined to a crappy costume in the Titans.

Spider-man: always had a soft spot for Parker's wise cracking moxie driven spidey. Followed web, amazing and spectacular for many years. Loved the light hearted, wise cracking spidey, which was a thin veneer protecting him against the loss of loved ones.

Moon-Knight: guilty pleasure, Marvels reversed mirror take on a very classic dark knight, the egyptian link to the god Knoshu was a nice touch, Alfred became Frenchie batcopter to Moonjet, but in all that Charlie Hudson wrote a compelling argument against the erzsat batman references:

'Huston accepted that the two characters had their similarities, but went on to contrast the two by noting in particular differences in origin, motives, and personality. "Bruce Wayne", he said, "fights crime to avenge the murders of his parents", whereas Moon Knight "beats up whoever has it coming because he believes he is the avatar of the Egyptian god of vengeance and it helps him to feel better about all the people he killed when he was a mercenary." Thus, while Batman is motivated by vengeance for wrong done to his parents, Marc Spector is motivated by vengeance as a concept. Huston further notes that Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, takes on other personalities merely to aid in his fight. However, Moon Knight has three alter egos which aid him as much in dealing with personal demons as fighting law-breakers, and which have taken a further psychological toll of causing dissociative identity disorder. In the question of his sanity, Spider-Man remarked "Moony. Rhymes with looney."[

So if you add Iron Man into the mix I suppose I'm a sucker for driven damaged characters with flaws that drive them to do great things.

And we won't talk about Millars nemesis, now there's one truly fecked up individual. 

[Inso]

Thor. I enjoy Norse mythology and what could be better than having the god of thunder turn up as a superhero?

The Silver Surfer. A tortured soul who is always fighting with himself to try to do the right thing.

[Michka]

Is there a connection between Batman and miniatures gamers?

I ask because Batman has always been my favorite. I love him as the perfect leader of the Justice League of America. I love him as the dark and brooding avenger. I love him as the master detective. I love him as a mentor to young heroes. I even love him as a quirky guy who dresses up as a bat and fights crime, because he just doesn't like playing polo. I mostly love him because he can be all those things.

and he has such wonderful toys...

[Hat Guy]

I grew up reading Spiderman and to this day the Ultimate Spiderman series is some of my favorite work from Marvel.

The Punisher (both in his Thomas Jane and Marvel Max incarnations) is a fantastic tortured hero, far more than just a gun-toting madman, he embodies the ultimate progression of Consequence Utilitarianism, not enjoying what he does but continuing to do it because he feels driven to. When Frank even so much as suspects that he's hurt an innocent, he breaks down and contemplates suicide.

The Thing, I mean, who doesn't want to have a drink with Ben?

Captain America. I'm not American, I'm a patriotic Aussie, but the depths of Rogers' compassion and drive to do the right thing are universal. Steve represents the spirit that stormed the Normandy beaches, regardless of nationality.

[Papa Spanky]

Spidey for me also. I grew up on the comic books and that darned cartoon took soo many hours of my young life, and I can remember just about every episode still to this day.

[mondria]

the only comics I ever followed was Spawn and Spawn the undead.
I did followed a far bit of cartoons Batman tas and Spider-man where my favorite followed close to Batman beyond.
like many of you I liked that Bruce is just a normal man just with more cash then we can spent in 2 life times, gadgets are always fun and just love the motorcycles is some of the cartoons and like Spawn the darker side of comics, but I hate Iron Man almost the same but now with a lot of color.

[soapy]

I read so many comics month in and month out that it's difficult to say which character I really like. Especially with characters who are both popular and long standing where, with each new creative team comes a new incarnation of the character. So many people have had a crack at Batman and put their own spin on things adding to or changing the character's motivations, modus operandi and even general disposition whether in costume of out that it's almost impossible to find a character in there. I do like Batman as a concept though. Established comic book characters these days are curious things. There has been so much written about them that it's hard to find something new to do with them so the writers have to keep drawing moustaches on them* in an attempt to keep readers interested. It's one of the things I like about reading a comic book these days, seeing if the writer can come up with something new without breaking everything that came before.

That lot being said, favourites:

Batman coz with enough money and motivation it could (?) happen.

Kyle Rayner, green lantern. An even more 'I could do that hero' than Batman. Just walking into an alley and being handed the most powerful weapon in the universe, yes please!

Captain America

Iron Man, despite all of the monumental moustaches writers have resorted to to keep the character 'edgy'.

* a phrase a friend of mine coined when trying to analyse what happens in comics. The argument went something like:

Everyone one knows the backstory of [Batman for example] so writers keep coming up with things from the past that they've just invented and trying to convince you it's always been there. It's like going through the family album and drawing moustaches on all the photos of your nan and swearing blind she has a moustache now just like she always has had.

I was never sure the analogy held up but I do like the imagery..

[fergal]

I started reading GI Joe, most likely because of the cartoon and action figures.  Turns out my mom was a comic book fan, her uncle owned a news stand in Chicago and would bring home lots of comics with the front covers ripped off.  She was a fan of Thor, so I started getting Thor and loving it.  Still remember this one where he got turned into  a frog for three issues, ended up fighting some rats for control of a park.  Good times.  Then my neighbor Dave moved in next door.  He was a big time comic guy, so I got into it heavy.  Enter the Punisher, Judge Dredd, Alpha Flight, and West Coast Avengers ( Go Hawkeye! ).  I read everything I could get my hands on.  My brother was a DC guy.  It was all just practice for The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles though.  The gritty original comics were the best! 

Give me an anti-hero any time.  I still love Judge Dredd the most I think.  But anyone giving me something different than the usual hero was what I sought out.  Though I seem to have a thing for the bad guys in the comics, could they just be misunderstood?  And give me loads of henchmen for the heroes to wade through on the way to the villains, that's always good!