Monday, January 10, 2011

Ditko's Greatest!


With six votes out of the fifteen cast, Spidey is the clear winner of this competition. There's no doubt that Spider-Man is far and away the most financially successful of all of Ditko's creations, but alas that success seems to be something apart from Ditko's intentions for the hero. But nonetheless, Spidey does have that Ditko gene laced into him deep down.


With two votes Mr.A ties many others for second spot in the poll. Mr.A is the purest in philosophy of all the Ditko creations on the poll I think, and he got my vote.


Dr.Strange garnered two votes too, and is Ditko's other great contribution to the Marvel mythology.


The Question produced for Charlton, is version of Mr.A, and a successful one too. I have no idea what DC did with the character, but in Ditko's hands he's compelling. He got two votes also.

Static is the surprise on the poll to me. He got two votes, and I don't begrudge them to him at all. Static is one of Ditko's later creations appearing in Charlton books, but debuting in the Eclipse comic book line.


I thought the Creeper might do better. With one vote he at least shows up. Creeper is one of my favorite Ditko characters and one who is truly bizarre while retaining the core elements of true Ditko type.


No votes for Captain Atom, Ditko's first great creation (along with Joe Gill), but I'm not startled. The Captain is a product of another time and place, and fun as his adventures can be, they are of another time and place.

The Blue Beetle caught not a single vote, and that did surprise me a bit. Ted Kord as Blue Beetle was a fully rendered character, to my mind Ditko's most complete superhero.


Shade the Changing Man didn't get a vote, and I'm not startled. Shade is fun, even memorable, but not of the caliber as the others on the list.

I did think Hawk and Dove might get at least one vote, but they got none. Ditko wasn't on these heroes long, and they are a bit dated in many ways, but the purity of the original concept is still an intriguing one.


So there you have it. Ditko's greatest identified for all to see in a poll which has the scientific accuracy of nil, but interesting I hope nonetheless.

Rip Off

2 comments:

  1. An impressive portfolio from Steve Ditko spidey was excellent with the great characterisation of Peter Parker likewise with Dr Strange and Ted Kord, the creeper and Sade great reads and sadly cut short Killjoy not given enough time not read Mr A or Static, but obviously in that era The Question is a clone of those various characters and is my favourite particularly Mysterious Suspense Number 1 my favourite comic book ever, gets my vote, missed out some I know particularly Captain Atom killed off at a time when stories were great in my opinion. getting back to Blue Beetle was there a Question story done for number 6?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Missed Hawk and Dove again limited time but interesting characters, I think sometimes Steve was a little bored with his creations and wanted to create something else. If you asked him his favourite what would he say?

    ReplyDelete