Everybody loves a good superhero story, even the superheroes themselves! Welcome to Ten Things: Ten Super Fanboys!

Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and Kamala Khan’s Wolverine fan-fiction, Presents:

TEN THINGS: TEN SUPER FANBOYS!

10) STATIC

Lifelong comic fan and power nerd Virgil Hawkins made a bad decision to try and get even with a high-school tormentor, which put him near The Big Bang, a gang fight that was broken up by experimental tear gas that caused strange mutations.  Given the ability to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum by the gas, Virgil became Static, the hero of Dakota!

Also: ‘Static Shock’ was the name of the TV show, not his actual alias. #TheMoreYouKnow

9) SUPERBOY PRIME

In the pre-Crisis universe, Earth-Prime represented “our world”, the place where the heroes of the DC Universe are the fictional stars of comic books. Young Clark Kent thus took some ribbing about his name, but things took a turn when he wore a Superman costume to a Halloween party, when Halley’s Comet sudden activated his Kryptonian powers, proving once and for all that Earth-Prime was not what it seemed. He worked with the heroes of multiple Earths during the Crisis, returning years later as a villain, during which time he was returned to “The Real World” to become a basement-dwelling comic troll on the Internet, reading the stories of the same heroes whom he once fought. It’s very meta.

8) EXCALIBUR

A huge fan of the British superhero community in the Marvel Universe, Dr. Faiza Hussain was delighted when her super-powers were triggered by an alien bomb. Using her ability to disassemble humans on a molecular level (which creates a disturbing vivisection/cross section effect) and the legendary blade Excalibur, she became an agent of MI:13 under the command of Captain Britain. When that team dissolved, Faiza joined The Champions of Europe and fought against the Hydra forces that took over the United States during Secret Empire.

7) HIRO NAKAMURA

One of the only characters of ‘Heroes’ to be happy about gaining superhuman powers, Hiro has the ability to bend time and space in ways that are absolutely story-breaking. An avid otaku, he strives to embody old-school heroism and purity, only to find that a much more challenging task than he had thought, especially given the number of people trying to kill him and his friend Ando for pretty much the entire series.  As he is the only likeable character in the main cast of ‘Heroes’, I’m sure they killed him brutally at some point…

6) VICTOR MANCHA

Programmed by his creator, Ultron, with a love of all things superhero, Victor was designed as a sort of Trojan Horse, with electromagnetic powers that would surface if he ever encountered another superhuman. That turned out to be The Runaways, a group of teenagers whose evil parents ran all organized crime on the West Coast. After a time with that team, he was recruited into the Avengers under the command of Henry Pym, eventually conflicting with his “brother”, The Vision. Last I knew, Victor was a disembodied head once again living in Los Angeles with the other Runaways.

5) FRED

Enthusiastic about everything he loves, Frederick Frederickson IV is particularly enamored of comic books and escapist fiction. A student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, he created his own super-suit to emulate a kaiju and allow him to breathe fire, leap long distances and see in the dark.

And let’s be honest: Who wouldn’t want to fight evil in a giant monster suit rather than study?

4) GOKAI SILVER

A walking encyclopedia of Super Sentai history, Gai Ikari was gifted the power of all the historical Sixth Rangers after nearly losing his life to save an innocent child. Ridiculously powerful even by Gokaiger standards (which is saying a lot), Gokai Silver can transform into any Sixth Ranger (or, indeed, any Ranger for which he has a transformation key) or can combine them all into a powerful hybrid “Gold Mode” that combines ALL sixteen Sixth Ranger powers into one armored form.

The faces on the chest are more than a little bit terrifying.

3) ALTAR BOY

Growing up in the world of Astro City, surrounded by superheroes, Brian Kinney eventually left home to try and become one. After working as a busboy, he caught the attention of The Confessor, a dark vigilante who was looking for a successor. Though not possessing any super-powers of his own, Brian kept up with his new mentor, and eventually took over the role himself with the help of a number of gadgets that may be partially supernatural in nature.

It’s a role he still carries, last I heard, after a particularly tragic end for the original Confessor, whose secret is a real doozy.

2) MARVEL BOY

Vance Astro’s love of superheroes is ironic, as his alternate future self *IS* one, the founder of the Guardians of the Galaxy. After running off to join the circus as a boy, Vance founded The New Warriors with several other young heroes, and eventually worked his way up to the ranks of The Avengers. His own sense of morality was sorely tested when he accidentally killed his own father with his telekinetic powers and was forced to go to prison for the crime of manslaughter. Vance’s encyclopedia knowledge of superheroes is often as useful as his telekinetic abilities.

1) THE FLASH

A sometimes-forgotten fact in the ever-changing realities of the DC Universe is that Barry Allen chose his superheroic alias because of his childhood love of comics featuring Flash, Jay Garrick. That was later retconned as being reality “bleeding” through to his world from an alternate Earth, causing sensitive minds to absorb Jay’s adventures and write them as fiction. (A similar thing happened with today’s #9, as well.) Even though his back story has been changed a number of times since, I’ve always enjoyed the idea that he only became a superhero because he loved them as a kid, rather than being driven by a brutal murder like everyone else.

Thanks to Faithful Spoilerite Dave Adams for this week’s topic. Feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra for more Ten Things madness on Twitter or check out the full Twitter archive here! As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete, if only because comic writers just LOVE meta-textual plot points. Either way, the comments section is Below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!

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