Brought to You By the Letter F

At Kalinara's site, I volunteered to do a meme in which I’d be assigned a letter, and then I’d write about five characters whose names begin with that letter. If you want to participate, just say so in the comments. I’m writing mostly about comic book characters, since it began as a comics meme, but I won’t impose those limits on you. Follow yer bliss.

Anyhow, my letter was F.

1. Naturally, my first character is Flash. I doubt he was the first superhero I was ever exposed to, but he was the first one I really latched onto, and remains my favorite superhero to this day. Except...

I simply can’t pick a favorite Flash. Barry Allen was the Flash of my childhood, and I still get a thrill whenever he shows up in a story. But his nephew Wally West is the Flash I grew up with, if you get my meaning. As Wally was taking on the mantle of the Flash and growing into the role, I was leaving high school, attending college, and entering the workforce. We became adults together, and as much as my sentiment leans toward Barry, Wally seems much more “my” Flash.

Either way, both Flashes’ adventures offered one thing that really appealed to me: the ability to take one specific talent and use it to maximum effect, in every way possible. It’s to writer John Broome’s credit that every issue of Flash didn’t come down to some sort of race. The never ending supply of speed tricks (a pattern he established, maintained by writers Cary Bates, William Messner-Loebs, Mark Waid and Geoff Johns) kept me coming back for more.

2. Firestorm. I’ve always dug the dual nature of Ronnie Raymond and Prof. Stein, flying around and changing machine guns into Hostess Fruit Pies and such. I also think he must seem absolutely bonkers to anyone who meets him: He talks out loud to the professor, who no one can hear. I have to admit, I’m not really up on the status quo of Jason Rusch, the new Firestorm. He seems like a nice kid, and a suitable replacement for Ronnie, but I haven’t yet read many stories he’s starred in, yet. Is the Professor still with him, or some professor-figure? That’s really the heart of Firestorm, in my opinion—without the conversations between the two, it’s just a whole different character.

3. Foggy Nelson. Daredevil’s law partner and best buddy always seemed like an accident waiting to happen. I like the fact that he’s become Matt Murdock’s rock, the one guy he can depend on through thick and thin. In that way, he’s like Ando in Heroes, even more heroic than the lead simply because he’s not built for the job. Matt sure makes his life a living hell, though, doesn’t he?

4. Fiona Webb. Man, I’d like to see what’s become of her. In the Flash series in the 1980s, she was the neighbor who Barry Allen fell in love with a few years after his wife Iris died (she got better, but only about a month before Barry himself kicked the bucket). After a tempestuous relationship (for some reason she thought Barry was an assassin hired to kill her), she and Barry were engaged to be married. But on the wedding day a) Barry never showed up (at least, not in a tux) and b) the Flash killed Professor Zoom right in front of her, in order to keep Zoom from killing Fiona (as he'd killed Iris years before). Which sent Fiona over the edge, nutty-wise. As far as I can recall, the last we saw of her, she was in the loony bin.

So now that Barry’s coming back, I sure hope we’ll get a chance to see how Fiona has fared in these last years.. and see her reaction to the man who left her at the altar coming back to his no-longer-dead first wife.

5. Fonzie. Sure, he’s not really a comic book character, but I find it fascinating that a character who routinely engaged in off-screen threesomes has become such a symbol of “a more innocent time.”

Ayyyyyy!

Rob
(Remember, if you want to take part in this, just post in the comments and I'll assign you a letter. Then have at!)