Phantom of the Opera....YES! Saw that on broadway....Crawford was AMAZING as the phantom! I like all the classic monsters....frankenstein, Dracula, etc....too.
I love the Joker. Really, anything that deals with madness. Because... I'm intrigued by insanity or even just functional madness. Yes... "functional madness"... that sounds like a great phrase to use. A lot of my faves share that in common. Like, Mr. Nobody from the villain group "Brotherhood of Dada" from the comic Doom Patrol. Or just the Doom Patrol group in general, for that matter. Or Mok from Rock n Rule.
severus snape love his deep voice sherlock holmes bbc want to slap his cheekbones till I cut myself and he is sarcastic and intelligent
This is in comics, right? Dream and death from Sandman Hellboy Lord Fanny and King Mob Flex Mentallo I'm feeling terrible that I can't include a single character from any of Alan Moore's works. I adore all of his works, but find it hard to isolate a character from them to venerate above the others. At a push, I'd say Detective Abberline from From Hell, just because he's such a realistic and tragic depiction of a man struggling with class guilt, duty and impotence in the face of evil.
What's so intriguing/cool about Hellboy? I only took notice of the movies but there I really don't see the appeal of this character. Maybe the focus/portrayal is rather different than in the comics?
They seemed to have gone more "Pop" with the movie version and less cerebral than the comics. Then again, I never read the comics, so I could be completely wrong.
I wouldn't necessarily say that there's anything unique to the character of Hellboy. Much like say, batman and superman, he's an archetype that is common to storytelling in general, he just happens to be my favorite iteration in comics and to exist in my favorite world. He's essentially a kind of "Blunt tool" character, he gets confronted with dangerous and complicated situation and responds in a uniformly simplistic way (i.e. he punches things.) he's part brawler and part hardboiled noir detective. His hook is that he's struggling with his predetermined fate (bringing about the end of the world) and his desire to maintain links with the human world despite knowing that they do not trust him etc. The film switched the focus somewhat by making him an outcast who has to hide away from humanity. In the comics, no one is ever surprised by his appearance, he's more or less an open secret. Also the love interest angle isn't there.
Anton Chigurh: Focused, intelligent and painfully self aware. Martin Brundle: Evolving, intelligent, deranged and 100% morally justified in every action he takes, given his very existence. Tyler Durden: He's a ghost; a figment of your imagination who knows every dirty secret. He's that image in the mirror you pretend to see. Time Traveler: Mr. Magooish, willfully ignorant, genius and a pitiful romantic. Actually, he's a lot like George Taylor from Planet of The Apes, only different political ideologies. Good thread, sure I'll add more later. edit: oops, just noticed this is comic related.
Vin Diesel (Riddick) from The Chronicles of Riddick Powerful, the consummate outsider, very much misunderstood
In further defence of Hellboy, the artwork is some of my very favourite in comic books. Mignola has this visual style based around each frame containing pools of complete black, theres no shading, just partially illuminated figures looming out of complete darkness. Plus all of the plot points are based around a great mixture of authentic european folklore and lovecraftian cosmic horror.