While I was strolling the floor at Boston Comic Con this Saturday, I stopped at artists’ booths to ask each of them one burning question. A question they probably weren’t expecting:
Who is your least favorite superhero of all time?
I started off at Batman Inc. artist Chris Burnham’s booth. He said that although his friend and frequent collaborator Grant Morrison had done lots of work with the character, he just wasn’t into Bizarro, the backward-speaking zombie Superman nemesis.
“I love the idea of it,” he claims, “just the reverse talking never made any sense to me. I’m always trying to puzzle out, like, ‘what is he saying?’ and it never quite logically holds up, like, he’s contradicting himself half the time and just going with it the other half, I just…,” he cracks a smile, “I hate that shit.”
“Me am Chris Burnham’s favorite character! He am love Bizarro-speak so much!”Next up was Nick Pitarra, artist on Manhattan Projects, who tells stories with a very unique style that he describes as “mashed potato art” and is reminiscent of legendary artist Geoff Darrow. When I asked him he told me that his earliest memory was of Aquaman, however he simply saw no point in him as a superhero.
“I never go swimming,” he says, “I’m not worried about sharks. He’s kind of a nightmare.”
So his least favorite superhero is Aquaman.
“Cause like, he’s got three-fourths of the world, he owns all that, but who gives a shit?” and again, “So yeah, Aquaman, he’s a nightmare.”
If Nick Pitarra had his way.
I moved on to one of my most anticipated visits of the con: Babs Tarr, the up and coming artist who famously redesigned Batgirl’s costume so it was less revealing and more comfortable looking. She will also be the artist for the Batgirl title starting October 8th.
“Everyone’s going to get mad at me, but I don’t really, like, dig Superman.” she stated surprisingly, “He just is kind of too goody-two-shoes for me.”
Damn. You don’t have to beat yourself up over it, Superman. You’re just not Babs Tarr’s cup of tea.
After that was Ming Doyle, the artist of the Image miniseries Mara, and DeviantArt celeb. When I first asked her, she was torn because she “Just loves them all.” However, she did confess that her least favorite superhero was Matter-Eater Lad from Legion of Superheroes.
“He just can eat anything, that’s his power. I’m not for that really, I think it’s kind of silly.”
Scott Wegener, Atomic Robo artist and co-creator, found that there was not a hero or villain in all of comics worthy of his hate. So, he went for what he described as the “human embodiment of pure evil.” And that was real-life supervillain Dick Cheney.
One of my favorite artists of all time, Esad Ribic, the Croatian artist of Thor: God of Thunder, was hard at work painting when I asked him the question.
“Probably that would be, Spider-Man, actually.” he said with a touch of uncertainty, “I hate to draw the fucking web all the time.”
Esad Ribic may render an awesome Spider-Man, but it’s also his least favorite character. Sorry Spidey — he doesn’t want to “draw [your] fucking web all the time”!
Ramon Perez, Marvel/Archie Comics artist claimed it was too hard a question. Then, after a few seconds of contemplation put quite simply:
“Actually, that’s quite easy: I hate Green Lantern.”
I approached comics legend Mark Waid, writer of Daredevil and Indestructible Hulk, with the question and he answered without any hesitation. Although he wouldn’t say that this is his least favorite superhero of all time, it’s certainly the one he would least want to write.
“Thor. I like Thor, but I can’t write that stuff. I can’t write the thees, thous and all that fake Shakespearean stuff.”
Mark Waid to Thor: “Thou girly-haired, tallow-faced mallet-wielding cur!”
Revival author and Batman Eternal collaborator, Tim Seeley admitted to being sick of a character that would shock many people.
“I’m mildly annoyed with and kind of sick of Wolverine,” he told me, “But he’s not my least favorite. I don’t like Punisher that much; I just think he’s kind of boring.”
I’ll be back tomorrow with a new question to ask the remaining artists at the convention. Stay tuned!
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