Ten of the sexiest comic book superheroes

Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan

*Note: This list originally ran on August 3rd, 2007

Since most of the talk about the new Watchmen movie seems to be about the fact that Doctor Manhattan is naked most of the movie, we thought we'd ask: Who are the hottest comic book crimefighters?

Here are my top ten. (And note: I'm sticking with superheroes, otherwise I'd be stuck finding room for Yorrick Brown, John Constantine or David Qin.)

Legion of Super-Heroes' Karate Kid

The Legion of Super-Heroes has long been a favorite of gay comic fans for its (traditionally) optimistic view of the future, large cast, wild concepts, inclusive values and strong women. Val Armorr was part of one of the Legion's many supercouples, eventually marrying the regal Princess Projectra, who came from the medieval planet Orando. When Val died saving Orando from the Legion of Super-Villains, it was one of the most tear-invoking moments in the Legion's history. (Check out the key pages here and try to keep your eyes dry.)

When Val initially appeared in 1966, he looked as white as the other Legionnaires. However, after Dave Cockrum (or did this happen during the Mike Grell years?) started drawing Val to look like Bruce Lee, readers learned that he was half-Japanese, making him one of the earliest hapa superhero characters and one of the few who actually looked multiracial (unlike, say, Connor Hawke who has Korean and African ancestry, but spent years with pale skin, blond hair and green eyes), an added bonus for a hapa comic reader like myself.

Nightwing

Sorry, I know a crush on Dick Greyson an old cliche for a child of the 80s. As the former Boy Wonder who had grown out of the youthful role, Nightwing was the perfect imaginary boyfriend -- smart, caring, acrobatic and darkly handsome to a ridiculous degree. Since getting a solo title, however, his character has become less perfect as everyone who regularly works with Batman now turns a little dysfunctional.

Burnout (Gen¹³)

WildStorm's Gen¹³ was a super team with its ups and downs. The series was initially regarded as emphasizing art over story but struggled to find its voice after popular artist Scott Campbell left the series. After a run as a more standard superhero title or as an unfunny sexplotative comedy, the distinctive Adam Warren took over. Warren, the kind of writer who can mix highbrow and lowbrow cultural references with ease, brought some equal opportunity to the title's eye candy, with the guys losing articles of clothing as easily as their female teammates. (Warren also gave a huge amount of depth to the bisexual Sarah Rainmaker.)

Bobby Lane was a pretentious music snob with a guilty love of Soundgarden. After his return to San Diego, Bobby began a cute romance with Trauma Queen, a member of The All-You-Can-Eat Defenders (also known as the Mongolian Barbecue Hoard and the $8.99 Dinner Defenders), a group of superpowered slacker teens, which was cut short when Warren killed the entire team after cancellation. As is typical for popular superheroes, Bobby and his teammates eventually recovered from dying.

Cosmic Boy

In the 1970's the Legion all got sexy new outfits, including some of the most revealing male costumes in mainstream comics. Most memorable is what now is referred to as "that strapless number" worn by Cosmic Boy. Not only did he fill out that costume nicely, he was a capable leader and, as one of the founders, a calm and wise voice.

Jamie Madrox

Able to create many duplicates of himself, Madrox has lately been characterized with a sexy world-weariness, having lived and absorbed many lives through his duplicates.

Kyle Rayner

Yes, I did fall for the emo himbo Green Lantern. I found him rather cute, especially since he could draw.

Vortex (elementals)

In 1984, a small publisher gave us elementals a comic that influenced superhero comics for years afterwards for its attempt to push the envelope on how the genre dealt with issues like violence, sexuality and religion. Vortex, a former Coast Guard pilot was the handsome team leader. The series hit some dark notes that aren't easily forgotten (such as the chilling origin of The Rapture, a villainous team made of religious zealots) where it seemed more like a horror comic with superhero characters. Unfortunately, the series fell apart as the creator sold the rights and the publisher struggled to stay in business. The less said about that, the better.

Snapper Carr (Justice League/Young Justice)

While not a superhero, himself, Snapper got to hang out with the Justice League for a time. Later he was mentor to a group of JLA protegees, dubbed Young Justice, and was often seen sporting cool outfits inspired by other superheroes, like the time he made a Liberty Belle t-shirt look sexy.

Cypher (X-Men)

True, Douglas Ramsey's appeal lay in his Teen Beat looks, but, I was in the Teen Beat demographic when he started appearing in X-Men comics. Able to understand texts in any language

Eclipso (JSA)

Traditionally, Eclipso has been a particularly dark villain, one responsible for the death ao a large number of superheroes no one was using. However, Alex Montez (the brother of one of Eclipso's victims) tried to use the source of Elcipso's power, a black diamond, to turn Eclipso's powers against the shadowy entity. Eventually, it became too much for him to contain and Alex killed himself rather than let Elcipso take control of himself.

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