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Your Opinion Of The Most Influential Modern Comic Book Character

Started by NewEnglandGothic,

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NewEnglandGothic

NewEnglandGothic

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Influential implies more than just popular. The most influential book or character would have to be the one that has inspired other creators the most or influenced the medium's output.

 

The Walking Dead is undoubtedly the most influential comic series of the last decade, spawning numerous zombie themed comics to this day. Sure, zombies have been around in comics for decades, but never as popular as they are now. And while Kirkman himself may have been influenced by the increase in zombie themed movies, until TWD, zombies were routinely eclipsed by vampires as a popular horror subject in comics.

 

I wouldn't say the influence is shared by the Rick Grimes though, as anyone not a fan of the the comic book or TV show would have no idea who he is.

This is very interesting too, where the premise and the creator's take on it trumps an actual character in one of these yarns. It makes the point of will we ever have another Superman if stories are constructed this way? Granted, Superman wasn't exactly serialized(the way TWD is)back in the 30's, nor was Spider-Man in the 60's. Is this the problem why there hasn't been a fantasy character that has jumped off the page? Invincible, NYX, Deadpool, Harley Quinn, The Goon, share company with a few others, but are they really household names yet?

 

This is why I created this thread, it's really funny there hasn't been a comic book character that has broken into the maistream in many years. I mean Dilbert, is probably(is) more popular than The Goon. Plus, this thread can't turn this thread into an investment thread of the most popular books, because have your co-workers really heard of NYX, despite having solid 9.8 sales?

 

I've heard solid speculation on Invincible's popularity, but even his Appreciation Thread hasn't been bumped too much. Harley Quinn has her niche too. Any other names come to mind?

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NewEnglandGothic

NewEnglandGothic

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This wouldn't be a character but Marvel's Ultimate line did bring back a lot of comic readership, new and old. It brought me back into collecting/reading again.
Unfortunately, not just a character though. Maybe that's what's the matter here. Characters take a backseat to the new creative forces that produce these event titles. Maybe names(Bendis, Millar, etc) are more important than the actual spectacle of Kurt Cape and the Pajama Kid. hm
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NewEnglandGothic

NewEnglandGothic

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Maybe in this Modern Era, the actual title can be considered the main character now. That's why we get "1st appearance of Chew" or "1st appearance of Locke & Key", etc in some price guides. You see this kind of thing with popcorn movies, the focus on high concept and spectacle, but not the characters. They are there just to move the plot foward.

 

Interesting.

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maloney414

maloney414

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Deadpool has to be in the top three. I think that character has been one of the most popular Marvel characters for a while.

 

Deadpool is definitely more popular than any character named so far. He's been getting the "Wolverine" treatment in overexposure.

 

But he's copper age, not modern. (thumbs u

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maloney414

maloney414

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Influential implies more than just popular. The most influential book or character would have to be the one that has inspired other creators the most or influenced the medium's output.

 

The Walking Dead is undoubtedly the most influential comic series of the last decade, spawning numerous zombie themed comics to this day. Sure, zombies have been around in comics for decades, but never as popular as they are now. And while Kirkman himself may have been influenced by the increase in zombie themed movies, until TWD, zombies were routinely eclipsed by vampires as a popular horror subject in comics.

 

I wouldn't say the influence is shared by the Rick Grimes though, as anyone not a fan of the the comic book or TV show would have no idea who he is.

This is very interesting too, where the premise and the creator's take on it trumps an actual character in one of these yarns. It makes the point of will we ever have another Superman if stories are constructed this way? Granted, Superman wasn't exactly serialized(the way TWD is)back in the 30's, nor was Spider-Man in the 60's. Is this the problem why there hasn't been a fantasy character that has jumped off the page? Invincible, NYX, Deadpool, Harley Quinn, The Goon, share company with a few others, but are they really household names yet?

 

This is why I created this thread, it's really funny there hasn't been a comic book character that has broken into the maistream in many years. I mean Dilbert, is probably(is) more popular than The Goon. Plus, this thread can't turn this thread into an investment thread of the most popular books, because have your co-workers really heard of NYX, despite having solid 9.8 sales?

 

I've heard solid speculation on Invincible's popularity, but even his Appreciation Thread hasn't been bumped too much. Harley Quinn has her niche too. Any other names come to mind?

 

I wouldn't read into that too much. There hasn't been much speculating here on the boards with Invincible yet. If some of the frequent talkers were hoarding & selling them you'd see more bumps. Plus, it doesn't have a TV show or movie.

 

Seriously, The Walking Dead thread (most bumps) rarely talks about the comic's storyline. It's to the point where if you do talk about the comic some people complain you need to do it in spoiler tags because that's not the norm. lol

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maloney414

maloney414

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Maybe in this Modern Era, the actual title can be considered the main character now. That's why we get "1st appearance of Chew" or "1st appearance of Locke & Key", etc in some price guides. You see this kind of thing with popcorn movies, the focus on high concept and spectacle, but not the characters. They are there just to move the plot foward.

 

Interesting.

 

The title can definitely be the most recognizable thing. (thumbs u

 

You can add The Walking Dead & X-Men for that matter to the list. I'm sure there are tons of mainstream people who have heard of the X-Men but wouldn't know Cyclops.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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Here's a different kind of speculation thread, it's based on opinions of what Modern Comic book character is gonna be the most iconic of this era from our actual enjoyment in reading.

 

My guess is pretty obvious... Owly.

 

But, seriously I've been noticing books with "everyman" Bruce Willis heroes(flawed, but dedicated) are the most popular in Moderns. So by this reasoning Rick Grimes, Yorick Brown, Tony Chu types are the most obvious choices to me in this kind of trend. I mean, it seems like our new heroes in the floppies don't wear tights, capes or hundreds of pouches on their ammo belts anymore, but are handless, cannibals and have a pet monkey. They feel more catered to the adults in the hobby.

 

What are your choices and opinions?

 

:popcorn:

 

in my opinion, Hellboy has had a pretty big influence on modern comic books.

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NewEnglandGothic

NewEnglandGothic

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So in Moderns, the Big Two only tends to make only a comic character(Harley Quinn, NYX, Deadpool etc). Independent examples would be Invincible, Hellboy, The Goon, Spawn etc. But independent comic's titles can also be a "character" all by itself(TWD, Chew, Locke & Key etc.) that don't really spawn notable characters that could become household names.

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

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So in Moderns, the Big Two only tends to make only a comic character(Harley Quinn, NYX, Deadpool etc). Independent examples would be Invincible, Hellboy, The Goon, Spawn etc. But independent comic's titles can also be a "character" all by itself(TWD, Chew, Locke & Key etc.) that don't really spawn notable characters that could become household names.

Honestly the new most influential characters are characters that come from videogames.

halo3masterchief.jpg

gears-of-war-jpg-6.jpg

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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So in Moderns, the Big Two only tends to make only a comic character(Harley Quinn, NYX, Deadpool etc). Independent examples would be Invincible, Hellboy, The Goon, Spawn etc. But independent comic's titles can also be a "character" all by itself(TWD, Chew, Locke & Key etc.) that don't really spawn notable characters that could become household names.

Honestly the new most influential characters are characters that come from videogames.

halo3masterchief.jpg

gears-of-war-jpg-6.jpg

 

That's absolutely true, and something that needs to be taken into consideration for the future of 'investment collecting'. (e.g. Will the original Halo comics someday be considered valuable?)

 

But the question was: Most influential COMIC BOOK character.... :makepoint:

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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Halo is/was already a comic book. Think it was received in a pretty ho-hum fashion. Geeks don't like to mix their milk and meat sometimes.

 

Which means it's cheap right now... could it someday, due to the popularity of the game and characters from it, become desirable?

Probably not.

But as no one is hoarding them (well maybe somebody, but not many), it might slightly have potential.

Maybe.

Just throwing that out there.

 

But I still don't count it in this discussion because it was a game first! :grin:

 

 

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