{"id":5700,"date":"2010-05-19T02:35:18","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T07:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=5700"},"modified":"2010-06-26T20:05:47","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T01:05:47","slug":"most-requested-figures-dc-fan-poll-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=5700","title":{"rendered":"Most Requested Figures: DC Fan Poll Results"},"content":{"rendered":"


Twice now, Mattel and ToyFare have teamed up for DCUC fan polls. I\u2019ve made no secret that I\u2019m not a fan of, uh\u2026 fan polls. I don\u2019t have an inherent problem with them. It\u2019s just that the characters are rarely selected with care. Often enough, the winner can be guessed before polling even begins. I don\u2019t have any ill will towards the two characters that won their spots in DCUC; I wanted them too. But I also wanted to see Mattel do a fan poll where a savvy reader wouldn\u2019t instantly know the outcome. I wanted some suspense! <\/p>\n

So, we tried to make some. For March, IAT quietly featured a poll between eight lesser known DC Characters. We cheated a little bit. We didn\u2019t ask which one of the eight you most wanted to see in DC Classics. Nor did we tell you that the winner would be featured as the DCUC Request in Round Two. We simply asked which of the eight you could provide a sentence of back story on. We figured that would allow everyone to vote on the eight characters as independently as possible. Sorry if you feel a little hoodwinked. <\/p>\n

We tried to choose carefully, to avoid picking any one character that would easily mop up on the others. Some we picked because we wanted them, some because we thought it\u2019d be funny, and some just to see if anyone but us knew who they were. We had a good time watching the results and we were legitimately surprised by the winner. That was nice. <\/p>\n

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The poll featured the DC Characters Dr. Occult, Sargon, Tommy Tomorrow, Sarge Steel, Lady Cop, Starfire, Blackwing, and Gangbuster. We tried to choose roughly equivalent characters: appearances vs. notoriety, popularity vs. age, etc. We expected the results to be close. They weren\u2019t – our poll still produced some significant gaps. One character even took a quarter of the vote. We still achieved suspense, I suppose, because we wouldn\u2019t have guessed that. Here are the results with that sentence or two of back story about each character provided by us. <\/p>\n

In eighth place, with 3%, is the most obscure representative on our poll: Blackwing. Charlie Bullock grew up in Earth-2 Gotham City, was trained by Wildcat, and worked at the same law firm as E-2 Huntress and E-2 Robin. Becoming fed up with growing gang activity, he donned a Batman-inspired costume and failed miserably. He was saved by the Huntress after being caught and unmasked by the villains he was chasing. <\/p>\n

In seventh place at 5%, is Lady Cop from First Issue Special #4. Liza Warner watched her roommates get murdered by an unknown assailant and joined the police academy to seek justice. She goes on to become a capable police officer disarming several criminals, saving lives, and offering STD counseling in the issue. Recently, Lady Cop appeared in the All-New Atom<\/em> as the Chief of Police for Ivy Town and assisting the now deceased Ryan Choi Atom.*<\/p>\n

*- Bad form, DC. Bad form.<\/em><\/p>\n

For fifth place, we had two characters tie at 11%. Tommy Tomorrow and Starfire (no not that one). <\/p>\n

Tommy Tomorrow was a futuristic space police officer published throughout the 1950s. Tommy\u2019s had three distinct eras in his life. His early appearances featured him as a renaissance man living in the far flung future of the 1990s and taking on various assignments for the Science Bureau. Later, he was pushed back into the 2050s and treated more as the police officer he\u2019s remembered as. Finally, in Crisis, he was rebooted to be Kamandi in a universe where the Great Disaster never occurred. <\/p>\n

The Starfire in our poll was the 70s swordswoman. Starfire\u2019s race had been divided by civil war and was easily conquered by invading aliens that turned them into slaves. Starfire stood up to her oppressors and led a slave revolt and underground movement to free her planet. Her final fate has never been revealed as her series was cancelled and she\u2019s rarely revisited. <\/p>\n

In fourth place, with 13% of the vote is Sarge Steel. Originally a Charlton character, Sarge was brought into the DC Universe with Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, etc. Unlike those heroes, however, Sarge has always been an odd fit. His mechanical left hand has been a constant part of his character, but beyond that he\u2019s been portrayed as a private eye, a secret agent, a bureaucrat, and a cabinet official. He also has the habit of getting mind controlled a lot. Poor guy. <\/p>\n

In third place, with 14% of the vote, comes Sargon the Sorcerer. Sargon is a golden age character that was part stage magician and part crime fighter. He carried a jewel called the Ruby of Life that would let him manipulate objects he was in contact with. He was used sparingly in subsequent years and appeared as a villain, an honorary member of the JLA, and ultimately sorta permanently died in Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em>. <\/p>\n

In second place, is another Golden Age mystic, Dr. Occult. Doc pulled 17% of the vote. Occult was a golden age gumshoe with a mystical twist. He appeared consistently for a few years in the thirties, but was packed away until the All-Star Squadron brought him back in the 80s. In his updated version, Occult carried a powerful mystical weapon, the Symbol of Seven, and shared his body with his once girlfriend\/partner, Rose. He\u2019s been used a few times off and on since his return, primarily in the stories that deal with magic like Black Baptism<\/em> or Reign in Hell<\/em>. <\/p>\n

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Finally, the leader of our little poll with 26% of the vote and given the honor of being the DC Classics Most Requested character for Round Two: Gangbuster. <\/p>\n

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Why did Gangbuster do so well? We honestly can\u2019t tell you. If I had to hazard a guess, I would cite two things. One, he was recently featured in the weekly DC book Trinity back in 2008. We didn\u2019t catch that at the time. But, I think it might be his importance around the time of Superman\u2019s death and his appearance in the The Legacy of Superman<\/em> comic. Then again, no one remembers Sinbad, so it might not be that either. <\/p>\n

Gangbuster was created in 1987 by Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway. Much like Blackwing, Jose Delgado grew up in Suicide Slum (the Gothamiest part of Metropolis), was trained as a boxer, became fed up with gang violence, and donned a costume to do something about it. He fought crime in the pages of Adventures of Superman and Action Comics through the last few years of the 80s and in the early 90s including the time while Superman was presumed dead. One of the more interesting appearances that I remember was, as Jose Delgado, he investigated someone else using his Gangbuster identity that would turn out to be an amnesiac Superman. Gangbuster has only appeared a handful of times since those wild and crazy 90s. <\/p>\n

So what do you think? Gangbuster? We were surprised, so here’s our question. We polled you under the pretense of gauging your knowledge about the characters and let you choose as many as you were able to remember a sentence of backstory about. We tried to remove everything except for awareness of the character. But now that you know we were asking you to choose a Most Requested Nominee, would you choose differently? Would Gangbuster still beat out the other seven? Or would the results be different if we asked you to play favorites instead of polling your knowledge? Here’s your chance to tell us.<\/p>\n

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