Comics/Graphic Novels

Rec Room: 34 of Your Favorite Superheroes

Swapna Krishna

Staff Writer

Swapna is the Comics Editor at Book Riot. She's a Space Columnist for Paste Magazine and writes for Syfy Wire—Fangrrls, Tor.com, Bustle, and other sites. She co-hosts a podcast called Desi Geek Girls. You can find her incessant ramblings on Twitter at @skrishna. She lives outside Philadelphia.

In The Rec Room, we take a request for a recommendation and turn it over to the Panels community to help with ideas.

This week’s Rec Room is sponsored by On the Origin of Superheroes by Chris Gavaler

on-the-origin-of-superheroesOn the Origin of Superheroes is a quirky, personal tour of the mythology, literature, philosophy, history, and grand swirl of ideas that have permeated western culture in the centuries leading up to the first appearance of superheroes as we know them today.

On the Origin of Superheroes takes readers through the creation of the universe, to mythological heroes and gods, to folklore, ancient philosophy, revolutionary manifestos, discarded scientific theories, and even gothic monsters. You’ll meet mad scientists, Napoleonic dictators, costumed murderers, diabolical madmen, blackmailers, pirates, Wild West outlaws, eugenicists, the KKK, Victorian do-gooders, detectives, aliens, vampires, and pulp vigilantes (just to name a few). On the Origin of Superheroes is a fascinating, often funny, and always surprising prehistory of the most popular figure in pop culture today. It is available now wherever books are sold.

It’s a hard question. An impossible question some would say. But we asked you to share your favorite superheroes—not your favorite run or story, but just the single superhero that is, unequivocally, your favorite. And you answered (some of you with multiples—but that’s okay). Here is a list of what you gave us:

Batman

Supergirl

Oracle

Ms. Marvel

Vision

Hawkeye

Songbird

Wolverine

Storm

Hulk

Wonder Woman

Superman

Batgirl

Daredevil

Spider-Gwen

Green Arrow

Aquaman

Spider-Man

Squirrel Girl

Captain Marvel

The Flash

Lockjaw

The Thing

Firestorm

Tim Drake

Starfire

She-Hulk

Ms. Marvel’s Winged Sloth

Nightcrawler

Iron Man

Doctor Strange

Black Widow

Captain America

Doctor Manhattan