Board 8 > Post a DC Comics character and I'll tell you what makes them great

(+) Yeah! (+)

We need a positive topic about a positive thing, and I'm positive that this is the topic for positivity.

Might do a couple before bed, but this will be a morning topic most likely. Also, one character per person until I've wrapped said character.
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Cheetah
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Condiment King

When do we ever not need positive topics about positive things?

Anyways, how about The Joker?
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John Stewart
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Inviso posted...

Cheetah

Assuming good ol' Barbara Ann Minerva on this one. I have a strange sensation that the answer should just be "bringing Kristin Wiig into the DC house", but I won't cop-out so easily. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than the story of Cheetah and Snapper Carr in Final Crisis: Resist. In fact, Final Crisis: Resist stands as one of my Ten Most Underrated DC stories ever. The beauty of Cheetah lies in giving into the primal and the idea of being consumed by an animalistic nature plays perfectly as the world burns down around these two "last people on Earth." I think my vision for Cheetah as a character is that she easily stands as a villain fish-out-of-water character, where there are better uses for her as a refreshing point of view on the heroic side of DC rather than trapped in the stock basic plots of villainy. DC is best as a universe, and Cheetah gives us a peek into the nature of other species by hybridizing the lenses of both humans and animals. It can be really great stuff.
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swordz9 posted...

Condiment King

Condiment King, in the right hands, is something MARVEL desperately needs. And that is good absurd C-listers. When DC picks up a bottom rung villain and throws them into a story, it really textures the nature of the DC Universe; first and foremost, a good villainous jobber can be light-hearted, played for laughs before a story gets serious. But then you have the tales of a Secret Six, rehabilitated bit players positioned as new underdogs. And fans love a good babyface in peril. So Condiment King fits the role of a two-bit street criminal that fans learn to love. The tapestry of DC is rich with these minor novelties, each one crucial in providing the vibrancy of a bright, flavorful thread.
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MetalmindStats posted...

When do we ever not need positive topics about positive things?

Anyways, how about The Joker?

The Joker, done right, is a force for complete chaos. The Joker, done right, chooses to irreparably screw up one singular thing in any situation, and like removing a single screw in a clocktower, everything falls apart. When the Joker plays a being beyond human, existing as a primal force in the DC Universe, that's the character done right. Often, Superman is given an aloof, knowing personality in team titles. The Joker should receive the same treatment. In a lot of ways, Superman and Joker are complete opposites, truer foils for each other than their own respective arch-nemeses. When I stare down a Joker that enters a story without origin or motive, just the cold laugh pouring from the unreadable face of a mind at work, I fear him. The more the character is given human touches, the less interesting he becomes. This doesn't hold true 100% of the time, however; but the basis of the Joker must always remain grounded in that mythological sense of storytelling. There's a timelessness about a Joker that gives not a single inch in terms of his own thoughts. You as a reader project the worst imaginable ideas on top of him, and the unknown is the greatest foe a writer can present.
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JONALEON1 posted...

John Stewart

The weight on the back of John Stewart after an entire planet died on his watch is something that I enjoy about the character. It doesn't get played up nearly enough. But John Stewart was the military mind, the detailed, constructively-tuned ring-slinger. Watching him wrestle with a major gaffe is a meaningful tale that really was never fully told. Yet, whenever Xanshi is brought up, I get a little excited. In those moments, we see a bit of the weakness in John Stewart. GLs may overcome great fear, but great regret? That's a different story. And the occasional sightings of profound sadness on the countenance of Stewart are quite meaningful to me.
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spoiler
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El Puto Loco!

Oh wait, not actually a DC Comics character, so instead I'll pick the character who gave that nickname, Brutale.
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Beast Boy
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ScareChan posted...

spoiler

I feel like my direction I've taken Spoiler is a far departure for the excellent character developed by Bryan Q. Miller about 10 years ago now. I found that her redemption and subsequent rehabilitation into Batgirl was excellent. Of course, for my DCURPG, she is someone I am quite fond of. Her anchor in that world lies in her insecurity about her position in the ranks of superherodom. Instead of building up those around her, she tears them down, forcing a pecking order where one need not be. At her core, she has to reconcile being a bitch and being a superhero at the same time. It's tough to do when you're not Jean Grey. As far as teen heroes go, Steph is certainly one of the better ones.
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WickIebee posted...

El Puto Loco!

Oh wait, not actually a DC Comics character, so instead I'll pick the character who gave that nickname, Brutale.

Again, my rendition of this character in the RPG I host is vastly different from what little information there is about the guy. But I absolutely adore the deluge of DC costumed criminals that are low-to-no powered. Brutale fits in this category perfectly. Again, I refer to that tapestry. Great moments in DC are borne out of scope, and DC can play host to massive battles where the stakes are massive but the players are not all-powerful and all-knowing. You don't need a Thanos to set the world spinning off its axis. Characters like Brutale can fill a panel with the vibrancy you only find in a cartel of supercriminals. Brutale himself brings that magical South American Scarecrow vibe, mixing knives and a mask only a Halloween connoisseur could admire. But the end result is a very striking visage that plays well on the delivering end of a hit or a robbery or a well-timed murder.
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Hawkgirl
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Harvey Dent
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Cody11533 posted...

Beast Boy

Beast Boy is best as a heart to a team. As the Titans aged up, the soul of the team was too often in danger of being torn asunder by the weary travails of grown-up problems. Gar fills the ever necessary role of keeping the Titans young. Much like Plastic Man can keep the Justice League humble, this is a crucial function for fans, letting the characters remain childish enough to not stand out as the Big Guns in the top tier team. At the same time, however, Gar is a competent hero, clearly one ready to take on an A-List superspot at any point. In fact, he'd likely fill that Plastic Man position someday should the need arise. And we have so few characters with earnest hearts that also play up the innocence of naivete and can commit to being class clowns at the same time. It's wonderful, wonderful stuff.
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Vicki Vale
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Raven
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Nightwing

Booster Gold
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Cassandra Cain
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Booster- dammit

Brainiac(the villain)
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Maxwell Lord
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Isis
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Kite Man
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Adam Strange
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JONALEON1 posted...

Hawkgirl

Kendra Saunders is a fairly unique spin on the reincarnation motif that lines the pages of your better Hawkperson fare. The unwillingness to accept a destiny intertwined with Hawkman plays wonderfully in a world where gender roles have been changing with some volatility. Her aggressive, capricious nature is a traditionally masculine attitude, and it clashes well against the same personality embodied in the always warrior-like qualities of Hawkman; so when you put the two in the same room, there's a lot of potential for explosion. For me, I think that's why the character of Kendra worked so well all those years ago when she first debuted. Since then, writers have let Kendra dive into a more conservative representation of a superhero, but those wilder first days were something magnificent.
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MetalmindStats posted...

Harvey Dent

Duality of man. Harvey Dent presents that classic battle in the mind between the fiery, mercurial emotion of chaos and the serene, measured morality of order. And neither way is right. That's the best part of Harvey Dent. Two-Face always plays as the absolute wrong for Batman, but time has presented a strong argument that the dominance of an ordered personality can be just as devastating for Gotham. Harvey Dent is always a monomaniacally focused man; the argument can be made that Two-Face is the same way. The pull between two agendas, two end goals, two motivations in one body is at its best here because that pull ultimately comes from the same mind. The man himself isn't divided; the personality of the man is fractured. But those fractures run deep and can often present as if there are two men involved in the decision making process. It's a subtle but distinct difference. In any event, Two-Face is the primary representation of a motif that fills every nook and cranny in Gotham. Batman plays dual roles as both the Dark Knight and Bruce Wayne. The Ventriloquist physically differentiates two distinct personalities in his gimmick. The mask of Scarecrow creates a physical outer shell for Jonathan Crane, promoting an entirely different sort of dual persona. The examples run deep in DC. It's awesome.
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Jesse Custer
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Anagram posted...

Vicki Vale

An original attempt at a Batmanesque Lois Lane, Vale has turned into a mix of Lois and Rita Skeeter over the years, and that's totally fine. Vicki Vale has become a tool for storytelling, a functional necessity when news needs to travel. Her own attitudes are fairly materialistic; break stories, get famous, leave a mark on the biggest city in the world. Sadly, that kind of character doesn't jibe too well with a host of Batman tales, but is that a bad thing? Not at all. When every minor character has their own motivation, they can move independently of the stories around them. Writers breathe life into these characters and then release them into the wild. They cut their way through the DC Universe and end up with remarkable histories lying in their wake. That's why I love DC.
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Inviso posted...

Raven

Raven gives the Titans an outlet to explore the more mystical side of the DC Universe, and that's where the fun in DC really happens. Marvel never gets quite as bonkers as DC with its magic. DC dives deep into the darkness that accompanies the mystic arts, and that air of danger, walking a line with good and evil nipping at your heels, is intoxicating. It creates that bloody, twisted romantic allure for so many great DC characters, from Constantine all the way back to a more traditional hero like Raven. There is simply an unquestionable draw for readers to these characters that seem to sip from a cup of ultimate, primordial power. Magic is a very, very special thing in comics.
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Barbara Gordon
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bullhogderbaxer posted...

Nightwing

A traditional devil-may-care swashbuckling, smile-in-the-face-of-danger character, Nightwing has always embodied the light that Batman lacks. When you look back at his career, especially as of late, the darker Nightwing gets, the less fans enjoy his stories. He's the counteragent to the gloom of Gotham, a bright light to a Dark Knight. It's way he so easily can assume the leadership role of a team like the Justice League (or of course the Titans). You need those confident, undeniably charming characters. They may not carry the same gravity as the more iconic superstars of the company, but they sometimes a preponderance of weighty material can be a turn-off to the fans of the lighter, fun adventures. Nightwing also is one of the DC Brat Pack; raised in the heart of the superhero community, Nightwing doesn't know a life outside of superheroics. His entire generation has such a unique view on the career lifestyle of masks and cowls. It's a great perspective to put up against the foundational generation of folks like Batman and Superman.
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Damian Wayne
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Harley Quinn
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Celsius
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Dr Manhattan
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John Constantine
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Booster Gold

Booster is one of my all-time favorite characters, and that actually started prior to Geoff Johns' revitalization of Carter in 52. I always love heroes that are heroes in name only, and Booster is selfish, rude, immature, and unreliable. This makes him EXACTLY what I need in a superhero. He's the cure to the common Spider-Man. Instead of this false realism that secretly is just a dream life for fans, Booster has real personal iniquities to overcome. And he doesn't always do that. When Booster is finally given the chance to be a true hero, the gimmick is that he'll never be recognized for what he does. A hero that history will forget. That's the most thankless job in the world, but the catalyst for change is a heavy emotional loss that an ever-present connection to his best friend, the late Blue Beetle. Watching Booster change over time is organic and such a slow build that it really hits me emotionally. But younger, more immature Booster is still a precious treasure to the superhero community. Michael Scott wouldn't be as beloved if he didn't have a mountain of weaknesses to climb over, and the same is true of Booster.
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Murphiroth posted...

Cassandra Cain

Early Cassandra Cain is a beautiful artistic exploration of the power of body language and facial expressions. The fact that someone decided Cass should ever speak was one of the most bone-headed creative decisions at DC. In place of a complex, thoughtful presentation, some writers prefer simplicity. "I can't write a mute!" they say. I wholly loved the quiet intensity of Cass, one of the most original characters in Batman's mythos. I would love to go back to those days and really dive into Cassandra as a character. Watching her use her hands to communicate with Oracle was such a beautiful set of sequences. Not often do I see something that by its very nature is moving.
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Penguin
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Felicity Smoak
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Kilowog
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Natwaf_akidna posted...

Booster- dammit

Brainiac(the villain)

Brainiac matters in a way that no other Superman villain can. Zod is a very physical link to Superman's past, but nothing is more tangibly connected to Kryptonian heritage than a being that functionally has served as the biographer of an entire race. So you start immediately with Superman at his most emotionally vulnerable. Then you add in Brainiac's most important gimmick - the inscrutable countenance that hides the greatest mind in the galaxy. That supercomputer in his head actually tests an aspect of Superman people forget - one of his powers is superintelligence. There are so few characters that can really play around with the mental acuity of the Man of Steel. When Brainiac is allowed to be completely untethered from the constraints of smaller minded writers, it creates these ridiculous battles of wits that can really be impressive.

Side note, the 80s version of Brainiac with the Brainiac Skullship is the best version.
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Mega Mana posted...

Maxwell Lord

The greatest used car salesman character of all time. Max Lord is a fourth generation trust fund baby who, in one year, took the dying Justice League Detroit and turned it into the UN-funded global peacekeeping force that was the JLI. That alone is quite the political and diplomatic accomplishment. The fact that he was able to pull that off and play himself off as a fool all the while spying on every superhero to suit his own needs as the leader of a secret underground global espionage organization is even better. Nothing about Max Lord stinks. He can manipulate you verbally and mentally thanks to his bizarre charm, and if that doesn't work, he can use his ACTUAL mind control to really screw with you. His greatest trick? Turning Wonder Woman into public enemy #1 by convincing the world she murdered him. She did, by the way.

Max still came back and screwed with the Justice League later. He's great.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Isis

Despite only existing for a mere 10 months in 52, Isis ended up being a fantastic vehicle to show every possible side of Black Adam in the span of 30 or so issues. I never really bought Isis as a legacy piece of DC lore. In the 70s, she shared a series with Shazam, of course, but it never really translated into a comics role until the 21st century. Despite going from origin to death in under a year through a serious of functional flashbacks, her legacy definitely persisted past the 52 story arc. The Rebirth Era could really use more characters with flavor like Isis.
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Power Girl/Karen Starr

Not that I need you to tell me why she is great
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Oh man I actually read that old Isis stories lol

And hell yeah Brainiacs skull ship
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Killer Croc
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