3. Howard the Duck

This could easily be my number 1 but i decided to save the top 2 spots for something equally special in their own way.

It's day 10 already?

#3 The Shade #1-4 (1997)

Spun out of James Robinson's Starman.



It took me a while for me to warm up to James Robinson's Starman. At first, he seemed like Robinson was trying too hard to be cool. By the time I finished it, it had grown into a profound experience. It was characters like Shade that reeled me in. This brilliant reinterpretation of a Golden Age Flash villain as a complex anti-villain. Quite possibly the most charming rogue in the history of comics, he could be friend or foe, a perfect gentleman or your worst nightmare. Robinson delved further into The Shade's contradictions in this '97 mini-series and later on in a 2011 series. 

Day 10 - Death

First appearance - Sandman #8
Talking about The High Cost of Living

Yes, again. 



It was genius to personify Death as a cute, smiling goth chick. And while this series wasn't what I'd expected, it was a warm, touching day in the life story. Sure, there was a plot of sorts, even a bad guy, kind of. But it was more about the journey than the destination. And while I didn't warm to the viewpoint character, I did come to like Mad Hattie and even Mrs. Robbins. Plus, there are 2 scenes that still hit me pretty hard. First there's Sexton meeting a girl in a club


On the one hand, she's opening up to Sexton and he doesn't listen. Told you I didn't like him. But more importantly, it's about choosing life, no matter how much it sucks. This just makes Sexton's thoughts about suicide seem more shallow. Then there's the bit after Didi dies, when Death greets her. I still choke up a little at that. 

A good character in a good comic. A comic starring Death that affirms the value of living. There's a reason so many of us are picking this one.

Day Ten (#3)
Elongated Man (Detective Comics)



I never saw Elongated Man when he made a splash in the Flash, but early in my Detective Comics days, he became the back-up to Batman and a favorite of mine right away. By that time, he had established his rep as a crimefighter... but of a very different type.

No mask.

Ergo, no secret identity.

Also ergo, no pestering Lois Lane/Lana Lang/ Vicki Vale girlfriend trying to out him in front of the world.

Despite all that, no worries about bad guys using their knowledge of his superheroic identity as a way to get to his friends and family.

No city that he patrolled as a guardian angel-type.

No intimidating costume meant to terrify superstitious lots.

No buff build.

No standard secret identity name out of the country club member ship book, like Hal Jordan, Bruce Wayne, Lamont Cranston, Oliver Queen or Arthur Curry. He was Ralph Dibny. Ralph! Like Ralph Kramden. Dibny. Like dipsh*t! He had a name like the guy next door your dad would borrow a hedge-clipper from.

No fetishistic arch-enemy wearing a bizarre costume trying to control crime in the city or rule the world.

No job other than being a super-hero. Well, it wasn’t a job, a responsibility, a duty to the world, a crusade, or an innate desire to see justice done. And it was definitely not a relentless pursuit for revenge, vengeance or retribution.

It was more like a hobby, a pursuit, maybe even a bit of an addiction.

Other factors made Elongated Man even odder in the context of all that we knew and loved about superheroes in that phase of the beloved Silver Age...

He had a wife! He had the beautiful, bright, independent Sue Dearborn for a wife! A rich heiress of wife! A wife he loved and with whom he had a mature relationship. A rich wife he loved and with whom he had a mature relationship who also didn’t bother him about his eccentricities or interfere with his hobby. And they roamed around the world for the fun of it because they could. No guilt, no debt to society, no worries.

(If the comics code had allowed it, they would have taken the “Thin Man” homage one step further and enjoyed three-martini breakfasts together, too)

Unlike the fearsome types of super-heroes, who could often be ten runs ahead against most crooks just by showing up, Elongated Man had a power that, let’s face it, made him look ridiculous.

And his costume was purple, maybe more like lavender, with blue accessories. And in what I always thought was a funny in-joke, his boots were depicted as baggy, the exact opposite of what you’d think a stretchy guy would wear, and certainly completely unlike all the skin-tight footgear favored by other meta-mutant-superhumans.

And if, like me, you didn’t known Jack Squat about some Golden Age guy named Plastic Man, the only stretchy guy you’d seen was “Mr. Fantastic,” who kept his stretching fairly standard – reaching his arms from here to next Tuesday, flattening his body into a sail or a carpet – and he forestalled any laughs at how silly he looked by filibustering about the dangers of introducing a cosmic molecular vortex nullifier into our reality.

Meanwhile, when EM needed to eavesdrop on some crooks, he extended his ear down the chimney and right into the room where they were sitting.

When he smelled a mystery, his nose twitched like Ray Liotta’s during the chase scene in “Goodfellas.” And the mysteries were clever and fun, from the likes of John Broome and Gardner Fox, always beautifully complemented by the art of some of the best, especially Carmine Infantino, who was perfect for Ralph, whose bizarre powers lent themselves to absurd contortions and imaginative layouts.


The crooks were right out of DC Central Casting by way of the “Superman” TV show: standard-issue fedoras, sports jackets and ties, and .38 revolvers, all scheming to rob banks, cop jewels or counterfeit five-dollar bills.

Ralph was a guy who was happy in his own skin, no matter how long, thin, springy, pliable, knotted, or elongated it was. He laughed at himself, realized how ridiculous and lucky he was and basked in the fun of the life he had. Imagine Batman doing that? Or Superman? Certainly not Green Lantern. Super-heroing is serious business. Enough with the fun, straighten up and fly right, Ralph, they must have thought.

And yet, he was a valuable ally to the Flash and Batman who could be counted on in the occasional fight.

Big mistake putting him in the JLA, I thought. And then there was all that later stuff with Sue that I made me retch when I read about it.

Just before COIE happened, Ralph and Sue should have moved next door to Jordan and Lois Lane Elliot, winked at us and enjoyed their life as they were supposed to do.

We don’t charge by the word. You can write more , if you want…

Did I mention DC Silver Age shenanigans earlier in my list? Well, here we go again, because at #3, we've got...

#3. Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen

One of my favourite creators, British writer/artist Paul Grist, has said that his dream comics assignment would be a Jimmy Olsen series, and I 100% understand that. Jimmy is one of the best characters in the entire DC Universe. It doesn't matter whether we're talking original Silver Age flavour, Jack Kirby, the 'Mister Action' era or modern re-visitations, there's something endlessly entertaining about watching what passes for an 'ordinary teenager' hanging out with Superman, fighting crime as a member of the Legion of Superheroes reserve, solving strange mysteries, getting twisted and transformed into all sorts of sci-fi weirdos, travelling in time, and desperately trying to get out of dire predicaments ("How can I be on time for my date with Lucy Lane when I'm a (gulp) WEREWOLF?") with only his pluck, creativity and resourcefulness (and his handy-dandy Signal-Watch!) to rely on.
Kurt Busiek once said that 'Marvels' and 'Astro City' were all about addressing, "not so much what would superheroes be like in the real world, but what it'd be like to visit theirs!"
It's why I'll always have a soft spot for Mister and Mrs.Olsen's little boy.