Oh, I was only off by four hours....

Hey, that was a great guess!

MAN. Why they gotta harsh on Batman's boyfriend like that?

Don't you mean Lex's boyfriend? Honestly, shrift, one would think you'd never heard the term "cocksickle"!

Superman is Batman's boyfriend.

Clark Kent is Lex's boyfriend.

Usually not at the same time.

Yep, Black Summer a bit more on the epic ultra-violence while Sellouts was more cosmic, I think...

Bush To Pope Benedict: "Thank You, Your Holiness. Awesome Speech"

Is that a confederate battle flag behind the Pope?

Is that a confederate battle flag behind the Pope?

The Pope is trying to appeal to NASCAR dads?

Now I wanna see the Catholic Church sponsor a NASCAR car....

OK, best parodic superhero/supervillian?

I'd probably put The Tick before Venture Bros. There's also Ennis's The Pro, Moore's The First American, & Veitch's Bratpack.

Is that a confederate battle flag behind the Pope?

I think it's the Mississippi state flag: [link]

Don't you mean Lex's boyfriend? Honestly, shrift, one would think you'd never heard the term "cocksickle"!

It depends on which incarnation of Superman we're talking about! Sometimes he's Lex's boyfriend, sometimes Batman's. Occasionally he belongs to Lois or Nightwing!

Miracleman, I guess I haven't been exposed to enough Captain Marvel, so can you expound upon why he makes your list? (I'm not challenging his inclusion; I just don't know enough about him.)

Because he's awesome.

Okay, that's the overly simplistic answer.

Part of it is his history...back in the day, Fawcett Comics jumped on the "Yea, super-dudes in tights!" bandwagon and C.C. Beck and Bill Parker came up with Captain Marvel "The World's Mightiest Mortal." He was fun...he was all superpowered and could fly and stuff like that AND there was humor and whimsy in his stories. He was so fun in fact that he rapidly outsold DC Comics Numero Uno, the Man of Steel Hisself.

So, natch, DC tossed a big ol' lawsuit Fawcett's way alleging copyright infringement. Massive legal battle, blah blah and Fawcett was forced to go under.

So, right there, you got the guy who kicked holy hell out of ol' Supes just by existing. And that's fun.

He's a great kids' power fantasy. Batman...a rich adult who became what he is because his folks were killed. Not a blast for a kid to contemplate. Superman...a super-powered alien from another planet.

Captain Marvel was a kid who became a superhero by saying a magic word...but, at heart, he was a kid. And then he got his friend and his sister in on the act. How awesome would that be? Being a kid and getting your pals together to turn super and kick some evil scientist ass!

There's the whole (largely bullshit) mythology connections. The Wisdom of Solomon, the Strength of Hercules, the Stamina of Atlas, the Power of Zeus, the Courage (read: Invulnerability) of Achilles, the Speed of Mercury...the ultimate synthesis of mythic and legendary heroic archetypes.

There's the lightning! Captain Marvel made lightning cool! Lightning is usually a scary thing that can kill you and black out your house. NOW it can give you superpowers! (Yes, as a kid I would run outside during lightning storms shouting "SHAZAM!" and hoping. Stupid, I know, but statistically less likely to kill you than tying a red towel around your neck and tossing yourself off a house hoping you will fly.)

And he was just...friendly. Batman was grim, Superman was stern...Captain Marvel was always smiling! He always seemed to be having such a BLAST just bein' a superhero! Which, I tell you, is something I really dug.

I mean, don't you think you'd have FUN flying around and doing superheroic stuff? I sure as hell would. I'd probably end up being not as effective as Supes just because I'd be stopping in the middle of an alien invasion to say shit like "Isn't this fucking GREAT?! DUDE! This is so frickin' AWESOME! Hey, when we're done with this, let's go find Lex Luthor and egg his house from SPACE! Huh? Wouldn't that be the BOMB? Watch me knock this mothership into the sun...no, watch, this is gonna be hella cool!"

Hell, that's a large part of Spidey's appeal...he's funny! He's having fun! And so is Captain Marvel, even if he's not generally as witty as ol' Webhead.

So I have great fondness in my heart for the Big Red Cheese.