Who is DC's #6?

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

It's pretty clear that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman make up DC's Big 3...

And I'm sure almost anyone familiar with the DC Universe will agree that Green Lantern and The Flash round out the Top 5...

But who do you think is, or at least should be, the sixth most important/popular character in the DC Universe?

Mod Note: Please keep this discussion as "animated" as possible. If you wish to discuss this in terms of the DC Comics comic universe, please move the discussion to the Comic Book Culture forum.

[Zorak Masaki]

I'd say Aquaman, even if as a punchline, he's still pretty much well known and all his animated appearances have him in major roles.

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

Green Arrow is just a really cool human character that, like Batman, has no superpowers and relies strictly on trained skills and weapons. He's become a favorite of mine, but I'm not sure he's #6 material.

Martian Manhunter has been a consistent and important member of the Justice League through practically every incarnation of the team in the comics, but unfortunately, he's still virtually unheard of by generations of the general public, because not until the release of the Justice League animated series has J'onn J'onzz ever graced the screen or even had his own comic book series. I'm glad he's finally getting his due in popularity, even if it is just limited to being a member of the Justice League, but I'm not too sure he qualifies for #6.

Hawkman has the misfortune of being the most screwed up character in DC Comics history. Why they keep messing with continuity and his character in particular is beyond me. But because of this, he's been a former victim of embargo and only recently has been given some repect as far as exposure goes. It's a real shame, because Hawkman is one of DC's oldest and most respected characters ever created. If only he had been treated a little better. Poor Hawkman.

Captain Marvel has been around for quite a long time and at one point was just as popular, if not more so, than Superman. But let's face it, he's a character that was born through another comic company (Fawcett) and was later aquired by DC Comics. This, besides the fact that he can't even have a comic book title or television show with his name in it because it belongs to yet another comic company (Marvel) makes him somewhat limited in exposure, as well as importance and popularity today. Too bad, Cap'. SHAZAM!

Plastic Man just isn't serious enough to have as #6. He works well as a once-in-awhile-type comic relief, but other than that he's just too silly. Besides, he's also an acquisition from another comic company (Quality). Sorry, Plas'.

Black Canary is hot, and for awhile there, DC had her replace Wonder Woman as the founding female member in a retconned version of the JLA, but if Green Arrow isn't going to be #6, she sure can't.


Which leaves...

Aquaman the King of the Seven Seas! He may be the brunt of a lot of jokes, but he's proven himself over the years as someone easily recognized, even if only by name, by the general public. He's had generations of exposure in comics and on television. And even though he wasn't a major team member character on any of the recent animated shows like Justice League, whenever he did show up, it was eventful. People say he's limited to only water, but do they realize that the world is mostly made up of water and he's the specialist in that field. To me, the King of Atlantis, Aquaman, is DC's #6!

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

Mod Note: Please keep this discussion as "animated" as possible. If you wish to discuss this in terms of the DC Comics comic universe, please move the discussion to the Comic Book Culture forum.

Note to Mod: Please understand and consider that although we will certainly try to keep it as "animated" as possible, it is a bit difficult to seperate the comic world and the animated world when it comes to these characters, because of the cross-pollinating influence they have on each other.

I'm sure we'll all try to keep our answers predominantly animation-oriented, but please grant us just a little room to consider and discuss the history and source material of these beloved characters within this thread.

Thank you. :)

Mod Note: A "little room" is fine, but remember this is an animation forum first and foremost. Thanks everyone!

[Rick Jones]

He didn't really get to do much heroic things in the DCAU but it will always be Aquaman for me. Heck, as a kid, before the live-action Flash series, Supes, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman were my top 4 DC Heroes. I love that he's really getting to show and prove on Brave And The Bold and I really loved seeing him take on the Super Family in CO2E. Sure, there are still lots of laughs to be had when he's in the picture but now they're not due to his "uselessness". It's all due to his "spirit of adventure".

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Normally, I'd say Aquaman, easily. However, since we want to keep this as animation-relevant as possible, I'd have to go with one of the seven Justice Leaguers from the show. Therefore, I default to the Martian Manhunter, who was featured on the show and two DTV's (New Frontier and Crisis on Two Earths).

[ABrown]

I think if you held up pictures of every character to ever appear in a DC cartoon, I think people could identify Robin as much as anyone outside of the big three. And to be honest, I think you'd actually get more people who recognize Robin than people who recognize Flash or Green Lantern.

[Rick Jones]

I think if you held up pictures of every character to ever appear in a DC cartoon, I think people could identify Robin as much as anyone outside of the big three. And to be honest, I think you'd actually get more people who recognize Robin than people who recognize Flash or Green Lantern.
You'd probably get more people that recognized Robin than Wonder Woman, too.

[EmaHalJordan]

6-Aquaman!

6.1-Robin/Batgirl/Supergirl/Superboy

7-Martian Manhunter

8-Green Arrow

9-The Atom

10-Hawkman

11-Hawkgirl

11.1-Aqualad/Kid Flash/Wondergirl/Speedy

12-Shazam

12.1-Starfire/Cyborg/Raven/Changeling
12.2-Cap.Marvel Jr/Mary Marvel

13-Black Canary

14-Plasticman

15-Zatanna

16-Red Tornado

17-Firestorm

18-Elongatedman

19-Dr.Fate

20-Spectre

[ryandcow]

It's gotta be Martian Manhunter, animated, he was a core for about 6 years. After definitly Aquaman, especially because of the Brave and the Bold show.

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

I think if you held up pictures of every character to ever appear in a DC cartoon, I think people could identify Robin as much as anyone outside of the big three. And to be honest, I think you'd actually get more people who recognize Robin than people who recognize Flash or Green Lantern.


Wow! Great point! Robin certainly does qualify as a possible #6.

I mean, he was a member of the Super Friends and he was on Scooby-Doo.

[Kenny E. McCall]

If they had Robin in the Justice League show instead of Hawkgirl, and instead of having him on Teen Titans over the years, it would have been a very interesting dynamic on JL, especially with him relating to the John Stewart Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter.

So, Robin really deserves to be #6.

Now Zatanna on the other hand, and Aquaman, should be #7 and #8.

[DisneyBoy]

What Zorak said. Although, I do think that between JL/JLU, Smallville, Co2E and whatever else comes up for him, Martian Manhunter has been getting a LOT of good screentime and development in the last few years. Today's generation, if they're watching these things, are almost certainly finding him cool.

[Christo]

You know, if we're considering Robin, that means we're leaning more towards 'well known' than powerful. If that's the way we're going, that'd put Supergirl, Batgirl and even Lois Lane into the mix.

Also, just to play devil's advocate ... 'well known' doesn't mean 'heroic'. I'd wager The Joker beats out Green Lantern and The Flash, even.

However, if I'm going to take the topic (and the poll) in the way in which it was intended (which I think was to find a 3rd character to complete a second DCAU 'Trinity'), my vote would be for Green Arrow. He played much more of a role in JLU than the other folks on the poll, and I always wished we'd had a good John Stewart/Ollie version of 'Hard Traveling Heroes' in the DCAU.

[Ned McDodd]

i think when it comes to the question who is well known, i think Catwoman or Robin should be mentioned.

[theRedDeath]

Aquaman, definitely. Whether played strait or as a joke, everyone knows about Aquaman.

Robin's cool and all, but he's only popular because of his association with Batman. If you say "Dick Grayson" or "Nightwing", which are all the SAME character, and he'd be far LESS recognizable than Aquaman to most people.

As far as Martian Manhunter goes, even in Justice League he has always played a back seat to the other characters. They never used his hero-name because it's too embarrassing, they always stuck him in the background, and they eventually wrote him off the show altogether.

---

[BigFatHairyDeal]

I'm in friendly debate mode, so I'm going to defend my pick while rebuffing a few others.

"Family" and rogues gallery characters shouldn't count, or at least they should be mentioned in the same breath as the main heroes with whom they're associated. Robin and Catwoman might have their own comic titles these days, but they are otherwise dependent upon Batman. If we include those two, for instance, then you better start including characters such as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor.

If we want to talk about the 1992-2010 DCAU, there's no way Aquaman is ahead of J'onn. Yeah, J'onn was written out of season 3 of JLU, but at least he appeared in the beginning and reappeared at the end. Aquaman was off-limits to the writers for that season. Aquaman had some nice appearances throughout the JL shows, but he was a guest star and MM appeared in every episode of the first two seasons, several of which centered around our Martian friend. The show began when J'onn summoned the heroes who'd become the League together. If you want to count the DTV's, he had bigger roles in New Frontier and Crisis on Two Earths than Aquaman. Within the time frame mentioned above, MM's role kills Aquaman's.

I don't doubt that Aquaman is a more famous character than MM, and if you go back before BtAS and even into the comics then Aquaman's legacy dwarfs MM's. However, strictly from the major DC animated stories starting in the early 90's, J'onn is the winner of the two.

[theRedDeath]

If we want to talk about the 1992-2010 DCAU, there's no way Aquaman is ahead of J'onn. Yeah, J'onn was written out of season 3 of JLU, but at least he appeared in the beginning and reappeared at the end. Aquaman was off-limits to the writers for that season. Aquaman had some nice appearances throughout the JL shows, but he was a guest star and MM appeared in every episode of the first two seasons, several of which centered around our Martian friend. The show began when J'onn summoned the heroes who'd become the League together. If you want to count the DTV's, he had bigger roles in New Frontier and Crisis on Two Earths than Aquaman. Within the time frame mentioned above, MM's role kills Aquaman's.
Notice in that entire paragraph, you never once used the character's actual SUPER HERO NAME?

Even people who watched Justice League, would probably have no idea who "The Martian Manhunter" is if you asked.

---

[Rick Jones]

If we want to talk about the 1992-2010 DCAU, there's no way Aquaman is ahead of J'onn. Yeah, J'onn was written out of season 3 of JLU, but at least he appeared in the beginning and reappeared at the end. Aquaman was off-limits to the writers for that season. Aquaman had some nice appearances throughout the JL shows, but he was a guest star and MM appeared in every episode of the first two seasons, several of which centered around our Martian friend. The show began when J'onn summoned the heroes who'd become the League together. If you want to count the DTV's, he had bigger roles in New Frontier and Crisis on Two Earths than Aquaman. Within the time frame mentioned above, MM's role kills Aquaman's.

I don't doubt that Aquaman is a more famous character than MM, and if you go back before BtAS and even into the comics then Aquaman's legacy dwarfs MM's. However, strictly from the major DC animated stories starting in the early 90's, J'onn is the winner of the two.
All it might really take is one strong DTV movie to change that, which Martian Manhunter might unfortunately never get but it might not be an impossibility for Aquaman.

[Silverstar]

As far as Martian Manhunter goes, even in Justice League he has always played a back seat to the other characters. They never used his hero-name because it's too embarrassing, they always stuck him in the background, and they eventually wrote him off the show altogether.

---

Actually, J'onn was called by his superhero name once; Temple Fugate called J'onn the Martian Manhunter in "Task Force X".

[ryandcow]

I think Luthor Called him it mockingly once.

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Notice in that entire paragraph, you never once used the character's actual SUPER HERO NAME?

Even people who watched Justice League, would probably have no idea who "The Martian Manhunter" is if you asked.

---

Nonetheless, we know the character, we know his background, you see the image on screen you know him by some consistent name (J'onn, the Martian, and in very rare cases the Martian Manhunter). At least they didn't flip flop his character design from one show to the other (see Aquaman from StAS to JL).

Until we get an animated Aquaman feature, MM is way ahead in the animated universe race for #6.

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

Of course, anybody can use whatever criteria they'd like when deciding who their pick for DC's #6 is, but...

Even if not considering the character's place and history in comic books, I personally am considering the character's place and history throughout all of animation, not just with the advent of the DCAU.

Therefore, Aquaman having been a member of all incarnations of the SuperFriends on television, as well as having his own animated series in the sixties, has the advantage over Martian Manhunter by having generations of wider exposure and a place in public consciousness. Martian Manhunter may have become more prominent and had more screentime in the last ten years, but Aquaman has had decades ahead of Mr. J'onzz.

Even Marvel's somewhat similar Atlantean character, Namor the Sub-Mariner, who actually predates Aquaman in creation, has not had the kind of exposure and public awareness that Aquaman has. When people think of underwater heroes, they think of Aquaman. People who don't even read comics or watch "cartoons" know who Aquaman is and all the jokes about him on how he talks to fish or how he's useless out of water (which is actually not true). For generations, a lot of kids growing up would wrap a towel around their neck and pretend they were Superman, but when it came time to take a bath or go swimming in a pool, they'd pretend to be Aquaman. I know, I was one of them. :)