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Anime is beloved by fans all over the world. There are anime conventions, professional anime cosplayers, and even anime-themed restaurants. One of the big reasons for the widespread popularity of the medium is that it has some of the coolest characters around.

Some of the most famous characters in the cultural zeitgeist are from anime. Famous actors are seen cosplaying iconic anime heroes and villains while rap artists drop references to them in their lyrics. Of course, many of the best characters aren't entirely original, but rather exist within popular storytelling archetypes. Here are the ten best anime archetypes that every fan should know, as well as the best examples of each:

10 Magical School Girl: Sailor Moon

Magical girls are among the most famous types of anime characters. They're so popular, even non-anime fans know of them (though they might not know the term). But the ultimate form of girl power comes when magical girls are still attending school.

Sailor Moon is both the most famous and popular magical girl series, while its titular character perfectly embodies the genre. The protagonist, whose real name is Usagi Tsukino, is a Sailor Scout--a member of a group of superhero girls who fight evil by moonlight and have mystical abilities named after various astral bodies (in her case, the moon). What's more magical than empowered teenage girls destroying the forces of evil?

9 Pervy Old Man: Master Roshi

This stock character is pretty much the exact opposite of the magical school girl which proves unfortunate for any girl who crosses his path. The pervy old man is a comic trope played for laughs. Generally, such old men are known to have the libidos of teenagers and the hairlines of snow-capped mountaintops.

The best example of this type of character is Dragon Ball's Master Roshi. This old martial artist lives alone on an island with a collection of adult magazines and an unhealthy fixation on any young women daring enough to come visit him.

8 Witch On A Broomstick: Kiki

Witches are one of the ultimate symbols of female empowerment. There is no shortage of these awesome magic users in anime and many of them seem determined to throw off the toilsome burden of common household chores by turning their broomsticks into air speeders.

It's genuinely hard to narrow this category down to just one entry, but at the end of the day, there's no one more memorable than the titular protagonist of Kiki's Delivery Service. She's sweet, funny, and (perhaps most important of all) a lover of cats!

7 Ruler of the Spirit World: King Kai

The realm of the dead is a scary place for most living mortals (as well as for the recently deceased who end up there). Spirits can be manipulative or just downright malicious. As such, the spirit world needs a leader who is capable of overseeing affairs and keeping order.

While he's far from the most orderly example, the Dragon Ball Z character King Kai is one of the greatest monarchs of the spirit world. He lives on his own personal planet and trains dead warriors who go to his realm as they wait for their friends to resurrect them with the Dragon Balls.

6 Small Animal Companion: Pikachu

Small animals are cute. With their little bodies and big eyes, it's no wonder people open up their hearts to them. The internet has built an entire industry around cat gifs based on this premise. Many popular anime also have a tiny adorable animal companion as part of the main cast. Some can speak, others can't, but all speak volumes with just a look.

Of all of these kawaii critters, Pikachu is hands down the best example. He and his owner Ash have a shockingly good relationship. There's a reason this little fellow is the face of the entire Pokémon franchise.

5 Honorable Warrior: Son-Goku

War is a messy business. It's bloody, brutal, and brings out the worst in people. As such, it can be difficult for a warrior to maintain his honor. That said, the best heroes are often those fighters who are both skillful combatants and consistently honorable in their actions.

While anime heroes frequently fit this trope, none is as impressive as Son-Goku. The star of the Dragon Ball franchise is a bit naive but he fights fair, cares about others, and genuinely tries to treat his opponents with fair play. But hidden behind his honesty and good humor is the spirit of a warrior who will go full Kamehameha on anyone who threatens his loved ones.

4 Warrior With A Dark Past: Himura Kenshin

As was stated in the last section, war is an ugly affair. It is all about breaking bodies, devastating nations, and using violence to get what one wants. Few escape unscathed and none survive fighting in a war without being changed in some fundamental way. But many of the best stories allow for redemption and the warrior with a dark past is the ultimate anime hero for tales about doing the best one can after emerging from their dark past.

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Himura Kenshin is the greatest example of a warrior haunted by his violent actions. He's a former assassin who travels the land, helping those in need. He carries a sword for protection, but the edge faces toward him, so he might harm no one with it, except for possibly himself.

3 Angry Disorganized Woman In Authority: Misato Katsuragi

This is a weirdly convoluted character archetype. The person in question is a woman in authority (which itself is a bit of a rarity given traditional Japanese gender roles). This character commands respect, but is also a mess in her personal life. She may be a slob or a drunk or desperate for love, but when it comes time to get to work, no one questions her authority.

Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion is the ultimate angry disorganized woman with authority. She's a strategically calculating and fearless military commander staring down the barrel of armageddon without flinching. She's also a beer-chugging wreck who can't cook, keep a relationship, or perform any of the key skills necessary for adulting.

2 Beautiful Youth: Tamaki Suoh

Known as bishonen in Japanese, these pretty boys take good looks to a whole new extreme. Androgynous in their gender-defying beauty, some are mistaken as women with their clean-shaven svelte demeanor. In fact, a number of these characters are portrayed by female voice actors. Men and women fall for these hot hunks who frequently spread chaos as they break nearly as many hearts as they win over.

Ouran High School Host Club's Tamaki Suoh is the greatest example of a beautiful youth. President of the school host club, he's not just a pretty face, but also a charming entertainer with first-class manners.

1 Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Griffith

This is a variant of the beautiful youth archetype, but one so distinct as to be worthy of his own category. With long effeminate hair, these characters are often soft-spoken, either coming off as a little shy or else as cold and calculating. Many are military geniuses but just as many are aloof pretty boys who have more hair products than common sense.

Griffith from Berserk is the greatest long-haired pretty boy around. He seduces an army, a nation, and a princess with his sophistication and charismatic good looks. Even after turning into a literal demon in a ritual blood sacrifice, he still turns back into a beautiful man again and wins over more people's hearts despite all his crimes.

NEXT: 10 Anime Characters That We Wish Were In Jump Force

Fairy Tail: the rowdiest guild in all of Fiore. They’ve provided a family and a home to people without one for a long time, but long before there was Erza or Natsu or even Makarov, there was one woman. Mavis Vermillion. Though she presents herself as a cheerful young girl, we know she’s a spirit that’s actually over one hundred years old.

Where did she come from? And how deeply is her story tied to the present-day Fairy Tail guild? This list delves into all of those questions and more, as we look at ten things only true fans know about Mavis, the founder of the Fairy Tail guild.

10 WAS MEANT TO BE A GRANDPA

In an interview with Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima in the Monthly FT Magazine, he talked about his original intention for Mavis not at all being what we wound up with. Originally, he wanted her to be an old Grandpa type character, but changed it after discovering that Mavis was meant to be a female name. From there, he decided to hit us with something completely unexpected, which is appreciated since we already had a Grandpa-type character in Makarov.

9 CREATED THE THREE FAIRY MAGICS

One of the things which makes Fairy Tail such a dangerous guild (aside from their surplus of rowdy mages who like to get into fights) is that they have access to a trio of spells that happen to be some of the most powerful spells on the planet. Fairy Law and Fairy Glitter are both incredibly powerful attack spells, while Fairy Sphere is a defensive spell which transforms a person’s bonds and faith into even greater magical energy. Mavis was responsible for developing all three of these spells, and they’re only able to be learned by members of the guild.

8 IS A SOURCE OF INFINITE MAGIC

The big twist at the end of Fairy Tail is the revelation that Mavis’ body has been around this entire time, and is in fact covered in a giant lacrima crystal.

This came from multiple attempts to revive her, which seemed to have “failed” but in reality simply made her a source of endless magical energy. Though we never really see her access it, this energy is enough to make the impossible possible—regenerating from impossible wounds and even altering time itself would be possible with this magic.

7 CAN ONLY BE SEEN BY FAIRY TAIL MEMBERS

Though Mavis is a woman who’s been alive for over one hundred years, her body is kept in a magical lacrima crystal for most of the series. What everyone is actually seeing is a projection of her, though even that isn’t entirely accurate. Only people who bear the Fairy Tail crest are actually able to see Mavis, and to anyone else she can’t be seen or heard. This is even shown in practice, when Mavis manages to “meet” Zeref, who can sense she’s there but can’t actually see or hear her. (They have a conversation anyway, though...)

6 PREFERS BEING BAREFOOT

Looking at Mavis, it’s easy to tell that she doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of footwear. But surprisingly, there’s actually a story behind this that isn’t creepy...at least, not in universe. When she worked for the Red Lizard guild, she used to wear shoes, but then the leader took them from her and offered them to his daughter Zera. When Zera didn’t want them, he simply threw them away. Since then, Mavis has simply learned to go through life without them, even over a century later.

5 KILLED MAKAROV'S MOTHER

Probably the darkest bit of trivia about this otherwise bright spot in Fairy Tail. Mavis had the Curse of Contradictions placed on her the same as Zeref, and it left her unable to love anything without taking it’s life. Initially she refused to believe Zeref, as it hadn’t actually activated on anyone while she was at war. But after the war had settled and she was witnessing the birth of Yuri’s son, she noticed Yuri’s wife getting sick just after she’d touched her. Realizing what was happening, she ran away before the power could kill anyone else, but Yuri’s wife couldn’t survive the curse and passed away.

4 FELL IN LOVE WITH ZEREF

Mavis lived a pretty sad life. When she was young she was treated like a slave by the Red Lizard guild to pay back a debt her parents owed. She eventually formed Fairy Tail, but she used the spell Law incorrectly and as a result found herself with the Curse of Contradictions on her, making her unable to age any longer, and killing anything she loved.

After this spell activated, she found herself unable to be around anyone but Zeref, who initially helped her form the guild Fairy Tail. The two of them both shared the same curse and fell in love with one another, but unfortunately the Curse wound up “killing” Mavis, leaving her in a state that wasn’t entirely alive or dead until Precht started infusing her with magic.

3 THE FAIRY TACTICIAN

Mavis spent years in the Red Lizard’s library, reading the books there and absorbing that knowledge. She’s incredibly well-read, and this information has led to success for her in other areas. Over the years while leading Fairy Tail, she found herself in constant conflicts thanks to wars which were happening around them. Leading her allies to victory time and again, she came to be known as the Fairy Tactician. Even one hundred years later, she's been shown to be capable of leading the members of Fairy Tail out of otherwise impossible scenarios.

2 MASTER OF ILLUSIONS

Mavis’ key ability is casting illusion magic. Her illusions are so incredible she can fool pretty much anyone, including herself. For years she convinced herself of a partner named Zera, the name of the daughter of the Red Lizard leader, even though she was actually dead. This actually goes a long way towards answering the question of how a ghost could manage to change clothes as many times as we see her do so in the series. The answer’s simple: all her outfit changes are illusions.

1 SEEMS TO HAVE REINCARNATED

Unfortunately, Mavis was never really able to escape her fate. Zeref was too far gone to be saved any other way than by taking his life, and Mavis only had one real way to do that. She allowed herself to fall in love with Mavis, and in doing so their curses both took one another’s lives, allowing them to pass on. But we see in the series epilogue a woman that looks suspiciously like Mavis meeting up with someone who looks almost identical to Zeref. It doesn’t make sense because that’s not how reincarnation would work if it could (only a year passes), but hopefully they’re able to find happiness in this life.

NEXT: Fairy Tail: 10 Best Relationships In The Series

One of the core members of the current iteration of the Naruto franchise, it’s safe to say Sarada is a fair bit different from her mom. Though they’re alike in some ways, Sarada isn’t really carrying a torch for a guy who’s burned her a few billion times, and she seems to have far more lofty goals than her mother did.

As such, she’s been elevated to the level of deuteragonist in the series, and is focused on almost as much as Boruto himself. One of the most compelling characters in the series, here are ten facts only true fans would know about Sarada Uchiha, one of the most powerful students of the next generation.

10 BELIEVED SAKURA WASN'T HER MOTHER

For whatever reason there’s something of a trend when this new generation being in shock their parents are who they are. After having some tension with her mom for a long time, Sarada eventually begins to believe her mother is someone else. She tries to get some proof about this, but thanks to a conversation with Naruto she comes to understand that a person’s family isn’t just decided by blood, and that she loves her mom nonetheless.

9 HAS HER MOTHER'S STRENGTH

Of course, even if she didn’t think she was her mother’s child (though her forehead should’ve put that concern to rest long ago, that concern was immediately brushed aside in combat in the very same arc. While battling to protect her mother, she shows off the exact same super strength her mother has had since training with Tsunade. But while Sakura had to train to learn how to use this strength, Sarada’s seems to have come from an emotional power-up, meaning hers feels more blood related.

8 RESPECTS BORUTO'S DAD

Every member of the New Generation seems to have issues with their parents. Sarada has issues because she’s never seen her father, while Boruto’s issue is that he knows his father but never gets to see him. Eventually, Boruto comes to respect Sarada’s father Sasuke because he sees him going out doing cool ninja missions to protect the village. Sarada on the other hand comes to respect Boruto’s father Naruto because he so clearly cares about everyone in the village, viewing them all as an extended family.

7 THE MEDIC

Sarada initially had a problem with medic-ninja because of her relationship with her mother. Though she loved her mother, she didn’t too much like the fact that her mother was constantly keeping the truth about their family from her. This distrust eventually extended to all medical ninja, as she believed this was simply a trait common to them. But when Team 7 needed a medical ninja, something required for all Team 7 ninja, Sarada wound up taking the job, and has seemed to have taken to it quite well.

6 HAS THE SHARINGAN

Sarada developed her Sharingan quicker than her father, gaining the eye and its first tomoe when she first sensed her father nearby after having gone years without seeing him. Since then, she developed the second and third tomoe very shortly after being involved in the Chuunin Exams.

As for utilizing it, we’ve seen her capture someone within a convincing genjutsu and use that to gain a victory over a theoretically far more skilled opponent. Though Boruto as a series is often about how the children don’t seem to measure up to their parents, Sarada doesn’t seem to be having that same issue.

5 GOES YEARS WITHOUT MEETING HER FATHER

Much of Sarada’s reserved nature and frustration with her mother comes from the struggles she has concerning her father. Because of Sasuke’s unique status as a ninja, he often finds himself away from home. He goes on dangerous missions, taking advantage of his unique powers to do spycraft that others in Konoha wouldn’t be good at. But of course, none of that matters to a little girl who just wants to see her father. They eventually meet in the series and it seems to solve much of her emotional issues, and she’s always happy to see her dad. But considering Sasuke can basically teleport around and go home when he wants, this just makes him look like even more of a jerk than he was in the old Naruto.

4 ONE OF THE MOST ADVANCED STUDENTS

Sarada is one of the most gifted students in her class back at the Ninja Academy. She’s already mastered both fire and lightning jutsu, just like her father. She was considered third in her class at the academy, and is even considered an elite genin who could become a chuunin with relative ease. Most of this happened before she even decided she wanted to be the next Hokage, and afterwards she only redoubled her efforts. With the intelligence her mother possesses and the talent of her father as a Uchiha, she seems like she’ll be impossible to stop.

3 HER GLASSES

Initially, Sarada believed she was actually Karin’s daughter. While Karin would certainly want that to be true, what she actually did was aid Sakura during the childbirth process. However, after getting sick one time when she was much younger, she started having to wear glasses afterwards.

Those glasses actually came from Karin, and have since become a token part of her look. Still, Sarada maintains a connection with Karin, who once helped save her when her and Team 7 were dealing with an attack from one of Orochimaru’s experiments.

2 THE MEANING OF HER NAME

Some people are under the impression that her name means salad, which is pretty funny even if it doesn’t fit any specific reference like DBZ and it’s love of naming characters after food. Others believe her name is a reference to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge. This lines up more with her personality, as she’s easily one of the smartest ninja in the series. Others still have pointed out she shares a name with Sarada Devi, the wife of Ramakrishna, a 19^th century hindu mystic. There’s no proof of either of these, but they’re both much better references than just assuming she’s named after everyone’s least favorite part of a menu.

1 WANTS TO BE THE NEXT HOKAGE

Initially, Sarada was much like Boruto in not much caring whether she was a ninja or not. But this doesn’t last, particularly after getting to speak with Naruto for a bit. She realizes the role of a Hokage in the village, and comes to admire Naruto so much she makes her declaration known to become the next Hokage. At the same time, Boruto understands and respects her conviction, promising to support her on the way to becoming Hokage.

NEXT: Boruto: 5 Characters Who Can Surpass Naruto Uzumaki (& 5 Who Can't)

Since making his debut, Ted Kord has undergone a lot of changes. Between switching publishers, to his time at DC, to other versions of him, the character has held a very strong presence in comics, whether people realize it or not.

Though there have been other versions of the Blue Beetle character, Ted Kord is typically the version that people think of. Despite his small popularity, the character still has a large pocket of fans who are constantly awaiting his next adventure. Between other versions of the character and the constant changes he has been through, here is our list of 10 things to know about Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle.

10 Created By…

Surprisingly, Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man, is actually the sole creator of Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle. Debuting in 1966’s Captain Atom #83, Ted Kord actually started off as a Charlton Comics character. Shortly after making his debut, Ted would get his own ongoing series, where he would soon introduce another fan favorite character in The Question.

After DC acquired Charlton’s characters in the 80’s Blue Beetle and other characters began to appear in some major DC books. From there, Ted would get another ongoing series and has been the main version of Blue Beetle practically ever since. Nowadays, Ted shares the namesake with the young Jaime Reyes, though each has done a lot for the role in their own right.

9 His Secret Identity

Unlike his predecessor, Ted Kord relies on his brain power instead of the mystical scarab that gave Dan Garrett his incredible abilities. Shortly before Garrett’s death, Ted Kord was revealed to be a former student of the hero. After the duo teamed up to investigate Ted’s uncle, Dan unfortunately died in battle. In his final moments though, he passed the mantle on to Ted himself, though he wasn’t able to pass the scarab on before it was too late.

Because of that, Ted has relied on his intelligence to help him as a superhero ever since. After transitioning to DC, Ted was made into a very wealthy person with the establishment of his company, Kord Industries. Since then, the character has been relatively consistent in his place within the DC universe.

8 He is the Second Blue Beetle

As mentioned previously, Dan Garret was Blue Beetle before Ted Kord. However, Ted would remain the sole version of the character for many years until Jaime Reyes came along. Though Dan and Jaime never met each other, Ted has come to work closely with both of them.

Furthermore, Ted is the only version of Blue Beetle whose abilities don’t come from the scarab. Despite being the most impactful version of Blue Beetle, Ted is also the most unique. With many distinct differences between all three versions of the character, Ted has easily held the biggest impact on the larger DC universe as a whole.

7 His is Incredibly Smart

Because Ted is so brilliant, he has designed and engineered virtually all of his own advanced technology. Likewise, his company has helped develop all sort of tech for the public to use. Though he is not the smartest character in the DC universe, Ted Kord is definitely near the top of the list.

With his intellect, Ted has been a very valuable asset to many teams including the Justice League. Though his personality has still led him to make some dumb decisions, Ted is one of the most brilliant engineers arguably in all of comics.

6 His Best Friend is Booster Gold

Booster Gold and Ted Kord are so close that many fans find it hard to think of one character without the other. Over the years, the two have been on all sorts of wacky scientific adventures together. Going beyond their service as Justice League members, the two have gotten into all sorts of shenanigans involving time travel and scientific discovery.

Generally, the goofy adventures of the two heroes lead to some very hilarious stories. Despite the stakes featured in many of these stories, the dynamic between the two is very charming. Though they may not be the most responsible dynamic duo out there, the two certainly make for a very entertaining read.

5 Nite Owl is Based Off of Him

Like many other Charlton comics characters, Nite Owl of the Watchmen series is actually based off of Blue Beetle. While most believe him to be a rip-off of Batman, Watchmen author Alan Moore originally intended to use the newly acquired Charlton characters for the story. However, due to the very dark nature of Watchmen, DC editorial suggested he make new characters.

Hence, characters like Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl and Rorschach were born. Though there are a few notable differences between Blue Beetle and Nite Owl, the two have very similar personalities and histories. Furthermore, much of Nite Owl’s equipment strongly resembles Beetle’s own. Though Nite Owl is an integral part of the Watchmen narrative, it is very hard to imagine Ted Kord filling the same dark role from the series.

4 He Has Died

Like many other comic book heroes, Ted Kord has actually died and come back to life. Shortly before the events of Infinite Crisis, Blue Beetle was shot in the head by Maxwell Lord, someone who was believed to be on the Justice League’s side. While Ted has always been a smaller-scale character, this moment was still very shocking and had some drastic repercussions for the League.

Though Jaime Reyes came about after Ted’s death and did well making a name for himself, Ted is once again among the living. Since making his return, he has retired from heroism, doing what he can to teach Jaime about his newfound abilities.

3 In Other Media

Though Ted is considered by many to be the most popular version of Blue Beetle, he has scarcely appeared outside of the comics. In fact, Jaime has received far more recognition in other media than Ted has. Though he has been alluded to in shows like Arrow and Young Justice, Ted has really only made small appearances in shows like Smallville and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

However, Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer character was intended to be Ted Kord initially. It seems as though Warner Brothers and related studios have plans for Ted, but nothing has been finalized to the point where he has actually made an appearance.

2 Has Been a Member of Several Justice Leagues

Though Ted is most known for his time on Justice League International, the character has been a part of several iterations of the team. In one of the more infamous instances, Ted was part of Extreme Justice, a short-lived series featuring a shallow plot and overly-muscular characters.

Over the years, he has been an on-and-off member of the Justice League, sometimes appearing only for an issue or two. Though he has been fairly absent from the comics in recent years, he has always been a very useful member and a valuable part of every team.

1 Currently…

Ever since DC Rebirth, Ted Kord has played many different roles. Towards the start, he was retired from heroism, helping Jaime learn about and study the scarab. Since then, however, he has come to play a very different role. In the recently concluded Heroes in Crisis, Ted helped Booster Gold hide from other members of the League, and also helped him to clear his name.

From there, Ted had briefly appeared as part of the Doomsday Clock series, though he quickly vanished with everyone else because of Dr. Manhattan. At the moment, the character’s direction is unclear, though he always has a fairly strong fanbase ready and waiting for him to return.

NEXT: Green Lantern: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jessica Cruz

Though there are many strong young heroes that have entered UA’s hero program along with Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki is likely the student most ready for the responsibilities of a professional hero.

Though he has some serious trauma to get over when it comes to the events of his childhood and his training with his father, the number two hero, Endeavor, Todoroki is often illustrated to be the strongest member of class 1-A. But just what has young Todoroki been forced to overcome in order to become the bright young hero he is in when first introduced in the series?

10 He Is A Victim Of Abuse

Although My Hero Academia is a series populated by victims of abuse on both the side of the heroes and the villains, it is Todoroki’s story that fans have become most familiar with. During his battle with Midoriya at the UA Sports Festival, fans get an up-close and personal look at the truly traumatic series of events that led Todoroki tow where he is in the series. After illustrating to his father that he is the “perfect” combination of his parents’ abilities, Todoroki becomes the sole focus of Endeavor’s quest to become (or create) the world’s greatest hero. His power leads to abuse of all kinds from his father. From a very young age, Todoroki is beaten by his father among other things.

9 Isolated From His Family

Like with many abusers, Endeavor strove to isolate the young Todoroki. From a very young age, Todoroki was not only isolated from the possibility of making any new friends as all young children should be allowed, but Endeavor even went as far as to isolate Todorki from his own family.

After Todoroki become the focus of Endeavor’s eye, he was no longer allowed to associate with his siblings, the children that his father viewed as failures. Not only was Todoroki forced to take the brunt of Endeavor’s rage, but he was forced to so all alone, which makes it even worse.

8 His Scar Came From His Mom

Though he was isolated from his “failure” siblings, Todorki’s one saving grace was found in his caring mother. Though Todoroki repeatedly expressed his hatred for his father and contempt for becoming a hero anything like the “hero” his father was, Todorki’s mother was always there to lift his spirits and remind him that though his father may not be the hero they needed, there were other heroes, heroes like All Might, that could be looked up to as an ideal. However, feeling more and more pressure and dismay in regards to Endeavor’s training of Todoroki, his mother eventually has a mental breakdown and pours boiling water all over Todoroki’s left side, the side that reminds her of his father.

7 Bred To Succeed

The fact that Todoroki is so incredibly powerful is not a mistake, at least not as far as Endeavor was concerned. After coming to terms with the fact that he would never be able to close the gap between All Might and himself, Endeavor came up with a plan to dethrone the number one hero.

The plan he formulated involved finding a suitable ice quirk user who he could make his wife. After which, with any luck, they would bare children that contained the best of both of their abilities and Endeavor would finally be able to stand proud knowing that he had finally unseated the number one hero, All Might.

6 His Quirk: Half-Hot, Half-Cold

Though his siblings were viewed as “failures” in his father’s eyes, Todoroki himself had, unfortunately for the young boy, manifested the best aspects of both of his parents’ quirks. With his quirk, Half Hot, Half Cold, Todoroki was granted both pryokinesis and cryokinesis (or the ability to control both fire and ice). Being granted both abilities, Todoroki’s quirk is essentially one of the very few flawless quirks in the series, as both aspects of his quirk work in tandem to balance each other out.

5 A Student Of All Might’s Heroic Message

Despite being the son of the number two hero, Endeavor, Todoroki learned from a very young age that his father was no man (or hero for that matter) to be looked up to. Though Todoroki knew that he wanted to become a hero one day, so that he could save people like his mother and the rest of his family, he knew he never wanted to be anything like his father. So rather being driven to dethrone the number one hero as his father had wanted for so long, the young Todoroki found comfort in the number one hero, All Might’s valiant effort and his ability to smile through any situation.

4 Parallels To Prince Zuko

Though it has never been officially confirmed, fans have long since expected that mangaka Kohei Horikoshi took his inspiration for Todoroki form another famous fire-bender in pop culture, Prince Zuko.

It’s a hard comparison to miss. They are both the sons of an abusive and violent father. They both have burns covering their left eye that they received due to their parents. They both wield fire are a weapon under their control. There are almost too many parallels for it to be a coincidence.

3 What’s In A Name?

Any fan of Horkoshi’s work knows that he takes very careful consideration when it comes to naming his characters. More or less all of his characters have names that either directly relates to their quirks or some aspect of their personality. For Shoto Todoroki, that is a pattern that follows suit. His first name Shoto is composed of two parts “Sho” from the Japanese word “Nensho” meaning burning, and “To” from the Japanese “Toketsu” meaning freezing. A perfectly suited name for someone with a quirk like Half Hot, Half cold.

2 His Possible Villain Connection

Ever since Dabi first appeared in My Hero Academia, fans have long theorized that the flame-wielding villain is actually one of Todoroki’s older brothers. While it is rather presumptive to assume that any hero or villain showing up with fire powers much be related to the Todoroki’s there’s actually a bit more evidence than that to support this theory. Many theorists point to the fact that Dabi, Endeavor, and Shoto all have the same eye color, an eye color that appears to be unique to the Todoroki clan.

1 His Equipment

Though Todoroki is not very flashy, like his father is, when it comes to his equipment, he does have some particularly helpful equipment nonetheless. For starters, Todoroki, much like Batman and many other great heroes, has a utility belt with houses metal canisters containing water, pain medication, disinfectants and more. The suit he wears is also made out of special material which is meant to regulate his body temperature and help stave off the effects of using either side of his quirk for too long. Pretty useful features for such a bland costume.

NEXT: My Hero Academia: The Strongest Villains In History, Ranked

It has been a long, strange trip for Barry Allen's family. Since he premiered over a half-century ago as the Flash, every member has been affected by his career as The Fastest Man Alive. This includes his wife Iris, nephew Wally West, grandson Bart Allen, and Adam West, his distant cousin who liked to dress up like Batman.

Truth is, there have been so many tragedies in his life that they could create a live show about it. Maybe pair him up with other DC Comics heroes every year in some sort of grand crossover. It's a wonder no one has done this yet. Nevertheless, to get an idea about the tragedies in Barry's comic book universe, here are the 10 saddest things to happen to the Allen family.

10 Barry's Mom is Killed

When Barry made his Geoff John's-initiated return, something was different about his origin. Instead of being the child of a happy family, his mother was mysteriously murdered. In addition, because the authorities didn't understand the Speed Force at the time, they suspected Barry's father and threw him in jail.

What made it even worse for Barry is it wasn't his father who caused Nora Allen's death. It was his arch-enemy, Eobard Thawne, also known as the Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash. This encouraged Barry to do two things. First, become a forensics investigator. Second, to selfishly change the timeline, thus changing his universe's timeline.

9 Iris West is Killed

Barry and Iris were a rare couple in the DC Universe. They were one of the few duos who were married. Therefore, if someone should know his secret identity as the Flash, they could connect the dots to find out about his loved ones. This is what Zoom did.

He finds Iris at a costume party, vibrates his hand into her brain, then solidifies it to painlessly and instantly kill her. Barry is totally devastated about this. However, though he has a momentary breakdown, he continues to be the hero he was, though he tends to work alone. Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, he doesn't make an appearance on Dr. Phil.

8 Barry Kills Professor Zoom

Eventually, Barry does find love again with Fiona Webb. As the two are about to get married, Professor Zoom steps in to ruin the Scarlet Speedster's life by killing Fiona the same way he did Iris. This time around, Barry doesn't take it sitting down nor standing up. In an effort to stop Zoom, Barry snaps the villain's neck.

What follows is a snowball of tragedy. Fiona, thinking Barry left her at the altar, has a complete nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, the Flash is put on trial for murder just as Justice League gives his membership chair to Brother Power the Geek. Fortunately, he discovers that another part of his Rouges Gallery, Abra Kadabra, portrayed Zoom to ruin Barry's good name. Found guilty, Barry fears spending the rest of his life in prison.

7 He Loses Iris, Again

Though convicted of murdering the Reverse Flash, Barry doesn't spend much time as the fastest shiv creator on Earth. Instead, Iris comes to take him to the 30th century. Turns out, her spirit was whisked away and implanted in the body of someone else. From here, it seems like Barry and Iris will live happily ever after.

Except, you know, that pesky Crisis on Infinite Earths thing. When Barry realizes the white light immersing his future home isn't due to a beautiful sunrise, Barry dons his costume to rescue his adoptive home. Unfortunately, he's unsuccessful. Not only does he lose his one true love for the second time but also starts a journey toward ultimate demise.

6 Barry Dies Saving the Universe

Well, everyone else around him has been injured or met their untimely demise, so why shouldn't the Flash do the same thing. Once Barry leaves the 30th century, he ends up a prisoner of the Anti-Monitor. Here, he's mentally tormented by the Psycho Pirate. Soon enough, Barry is in need of a hug.

Nevertheless, he's still a hero. He breaks the Pirate's spell, beats the livin' spit out of him, and creates a speed vortex to destroy the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon to anti-kill the remaining Earths, In doing so, his life essence is wiped away. The only thing remaining is his tattered costume and the the lightning-embossed ring it was stored in. While Barry's sacrifice ends a 30-year career, it doesn't end his legacy. Nephew Wally picks up the reins to become the new Flash.

5 Zoom is Behind all of Barry's Tragedies

Every soap opera needs a villainous mastermind that ties everyone else's life up. For example, in Friends it was the sadistic Gunther. Oh, you thought he was only interested in dating Rachel. Turns out, it was part of an ingenious plan to open Central Perk's sitting area to other customers. He's the one who suggested to Ross that he and Rachel were on a break.

It all comes down to Zoom for the Allen Family. During The Flash: Rebirth, Zoom tells Barry that all of the tragedies in his life were due to his enormous ego, and he's going to put the last nail in the coffin by killing Iris in the past. All is not lost, because Barry and Wally race to stop him. In the end, they prevent Iris' death and, in turn, become the original lightning bolt that transformed Barry in the first place. Unfortunately, like other soap operas, Zoom eventually comes back as a younger, hotter villain who gets his own poster.

4 Barry Loses His Mother, Again

For the most part, Barry is as pure as the driven snow when it comes to heroics. Yet, there are some instance where he listens to those other voices and does something selfish. Case in point, the moment when he went back in time to save him mom from being murdered. While he was successful at that, he completely changed the timeline.

In this new reality, Barry doesn't have his powers, Superman was never discovered by the Kents, and Thomas Wayne is an angry, alcoholic version of Batman. When Barry tries to restore his powers, he's nearly burned to death. Finally, he realizes he made a huge mistake and tries to make things right, losing his mother in the process. Though he does restore his normal timeline it's slightly altered. Okay, it's massively altered to the point DC Comics fans have no idea what happened.

3 Barry Forgets Wally

When Barry decided to change the timeline in Flashpoint he forgot one important thing -- Wally West. The man who took on the Sultan of Speed's legacy for over two decades was practically disposed of when everything rebooted. Rather than going on a search to find him, Barry went on, ignorant of his existence. He even recruits a young Wallace West, son of the New 52's Reverse Flash, as a new Kid Flash.

It's only when the original Wally reaches out from the Speed Force that Barry begins to recognize who he is. Luckily, he does so in time to pull Wally out of his exile, thus allowing all fans of DC Comics to breathe a sigh of relief that the whole New 52 debacle was over. Well, until Wally says the time shift was not Barry's fault. Rather, it was caused by a mysterious being with blue skin who's costume is a black thong. Da, da dum.

2 Wally Kills A Bunch of People

All was glorious for a time. Wally reunited with his Teen Titans friends as he took on a Flash moniker in case a hot swap was needed. Yet, the Allen family luck started to seep in. He tried to get his former wife, Linda Park, to remember their relationship. He ended up with a pacemaker for a time. Barry even got into a fight with him because he wanted to break the Force Barrier thanks to -- you guessed right -- Zoom.

Alone and the only one aware of his former wife and children, Wally enters the superhero rehab known as Sanctuary. While trying to recover, he reviews all the records of the others there, and that makes him lose control of the Speed Force, thus killing heroes like Blue Jay, Poison Ivy, and his Titans' pal Red Arrow. Instead of being sent to jail like Barry, he was assigned to save the Multiverse. Mostly to close some rips in the continuum before it destroyed Prime Earth, plus, it was the de reigueur thing to do in 2019.

1 Barry Becomes the Flash

None of this would have happened if Barry didn't stand in front of that shelving unit of chemicals. Instead, he would have continued his life as a forensic investigator, married Iris, had normal children, and probably ended up with his own spin-off of Bones. Any heroics would have been in the form of getting the right ice cream for Iris while pregnant and changing a stranger's tire.

Then again, if Barry wasn't struck with the bolt of lightning, the Justice League would have been much different. Plus, Earth Two wouldn't have been discovered. Of course, the Teen Titans may have never formed because Wally wouldn't become Kid Flash. Also, the entire DC Universe would have been destroyed by the Crisis, thus leaving comic book readers with pages of white panels. Okay, maybe it was better Barry was standing in front of those chemicals, tragedies or not.

NEXT: Superman: 10 Of The Worst Things That Happened In Metropolis

The Star Wars virtual-reality experience Vader Immortal has released its third and final episode in Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar. In it, the player tries to stop the Sith Lord from draining what remains of life on the planet through the Eon Engine, an ancient machine powered by the Brightstar, a massive kyber crystal, in an effort to resurrect Padmé.

The Eon Engine was created by Lady Corvax, who was so devastated by the loss of her husband that she built device and stole the Brightstar to attempt the same thing that Vader did. She failed, however, devastating Mustafar and trapping Lord Corvax "in a prison of time between life and death." Nevertheless, the portal that she created, the Engine and the Brightstar remained virtually intact for millennia.

Vader Immortal is not subtle in conveying, visually, that the Brightstar and the Eon Engine are the two main components of primitive Death Star technology. The Brightstar looks like a massive, spiral kyber crystal, similar to the ones that the Nightsisters use on Dathomir. The center of the Engine looks exactly like Starkiller Base (basically a massive Death Star).

However, the other side of the coin hadn't been explored: One of the properties of kyber crystals is to promote life -- to a certain degree, that is. Apparently, they can also accumulate enormous amounts of life force, draining it from the environment, channeling it to pierce the veil between the living and the dead. In theory, that's it.

That's spelled out in the game. Mustafar's priestess, a guide who acts remarkably like Obi-wan Kenobi in A New Hope, says, "The Brightstar represents the life energy of an entire world. If the moment presents itself, you must destroy the Eon Engine." But then she adds, as the player approaches the Engine, "It's draining my life force. You must stop it before he drains the vitality of every being in this planet."

The priestess falls to her knees and vanishes in front of the player's eyes. At the same time, Vader speaks to a shadow of Padmé, reassuring her he will try to make her his once more, no matter the cost. "If the energies of this world are not enough, there are countless others," he tells her with his usual charm.

Lord Corvax himself puts an end to the madness, assisting the player to plunge his lightsword into the Eon Engine. "Lord Vader believes that his willpower can achieve what Lady Corvax could not," he says. "Instead, he will tear this world apart to resurrect shadows. The Eon Engine must be destroyed."

Once the Eon Engine is destroyed, the player has a vision not of Lord Corvax holding the Brightstar on another plane above Fortress Vader, but of the lava planet beginning to heal, with the shadows of future trees and plants rising to create a canopy of greenery.

"You have my gratitude. You have freed me from the prison of time, and in doing so, righted our wrongs," says Lord Corvax. "The priestess was right. The energy from the Brightstar now flows through Mustafar. Slowly, our world will begin to heal."

The idea that kyber crystals are associated with life was presented in two sneaky Star Wars animations: one is Rey's adventure in the Star Wars Kids Roll Out YouTube series, and the other one is the Deutsche Grammophon animated music video for John Williams' violin rearrangement of Across the Stars, Anakin and Padmé's love theme. The visuals are strikingly similar: shiny neon objects, issued from technology, surrounded by greenery -- and in some cases, as on Mustafar and Jakku, two devastated planets connected with the dark side of the Force healing it from the inside.

This opens up a world of possibilities. In Rogue One, Chirrut Imwe mentions that, "The strongest stars have hearts of kyber," but could this apply to living planets too? For instance, we know that Ilum, which later became Starkiller, was a massive frozen planet that grew kyber crystals naturally. Did this proliferation of kybers explain its freezing weather (they were retaining all the energy)?

Jedha, on the other hand, was a thriving city on a desert planet that suffered the impact of a kyber asteroid -- did this create life in that place in the first place? What about Naboo, where Queen Amidala and the leader of the Gungans share a large, spherical gem in The Phantom Menace? Is that a kyber crystal too, and does the act of holding it together improve its balance and protect the planet of Naboo itself?

But most of all, because Star Wars tends to make things rhyme across its media, what does this mean for the Force itself? If a powerful Force-wielder was slain, say, Palpatine, or Kylo, or Rey, would that mean that their powers would be released and shared amongst every living being? Have the Sith and the Jedi had a monopoly on the Force for millennia when it was supposed to belong to everyone? If so, what kind of Brightstar or Death Star will be destroyed in The Rise of Skywalker, and where will this concept take the entire franchise?

NEXT: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Reveals the Construction of Starkiller Base

Harley Quinn might be aiming to join the Legion of Doom, but that doesn't mean she can't floss.

The footage from the second episode, which you can see below and was posted by TV Promos on YouTube, shows Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn talking about the latter's plan to join the Legion of Doom. The clip then sees Joker telling Harley Quinn to leave their Legion of Doom table, when the former starts flossing away onto the dance floor.

Developed by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey, Harley Quinn follows the title character as she breaks up with Joker and works with her friend Poison Ivy to become a member of the Legion of Doom. The raunchy animated comedy's first season will feature thirteen episodes and started airing earlier this month.

Flossing is a dance that came to popularity in 2017. The move eventually became an emote in the popular video game Fortnite, leading to many imitating it.

DC Universe's Harley Quinn stars Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Diedrich Bader, Alan Tudyk, Rahul Kohli, Christopher Meloni, Tony Hale, Ron Funches, Wanda Sykes, Natalie Morales, Jim Rash, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Alexander and J.B. Smoove. New episodes are released on Fridays.

KEEP READING: It Took Kaley Cuoco a While to Find Harley Quinn's Voice

Akira Toriyama is most famous for his 42-volume manga Dragon Ball, but that is hardly the only thing manga he's ever produced. Toriyama was also the creative force behind Dr. Slump, a gag manga that ran from 1980 to 1984. Just a few months after Dr. Slump's completion in September of 1984, Toriyama would start work on Dragon Ball. In many respects, Dragon Ball followed Dr. Slump in terms of style. Both were comedic series focused around incredibly powerful children in a world full of science and magic, and both series followed a whimsical set of characters in stories filled with gags and puns.

While it might seem odd considering the action and planetary destruction that Dragon Ball would eventually become known for, Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump felt as though they had been cut from the same comedic cloth in thh=eir earlier years. This is why it made total sense for the two to crossover, which would create an interconnected universe of Toriyama manga that started when Arale of Dr. Slump met Goku and has only grown since then.

Arale Norimaki is the main character of Dr. Slump. However, much like the monster in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, she's the creation of the book's titular scientist. Arale is a super-powerful child android created by Senbei Norimaki, who's nicknamed Dr. Slump due to how he constantly seems to be in a slump. She's powerful and super strong but needs glasses to see and is very naive. She often gets herself into ridiculous misadventures. But due to her incredible powers, she manages to get out just fine.

The series introduces Senbei as a failed inventor, whose inventions are often extraordinary but flawed in some way. Later on, the manga introduces a villain named Dr. Mashirito, who apparently is based on Toriyama's real-life editor. Still, even though this villain is a major antagonist, the series isn't about action. He's more comparable to the goofy, mostly fun Pilaf than any of Dragon Ball's other more serious villains.

When Dr. Slump ended, Toriyama started right away on Dragon Ball, which, at the time, bore a great deal of similarity to Dr. Slump. It seemed inevitable that Goku would eventually take a trip to Penguin Village, where Dr. Slump took place.

There are numerous references to Dr. Slump throughout Dragon Ball -- especially early on. Various characters make short cameos throughout the series. Arale appears on TV and posters in Bulma's capsule home multiple times in the early series, and other characters can be seen as faces in crowd shots.

King Yemma is one of Dragon Ball's odder references to Dr. Slump. Yemma first appears in Dr. Slump in generally the same role as lord of the other world. However, the King Yemma who appears in Dragon Ball during the Saiyan Saga looks completely different, even though the worlds seemingly share a continuity.

Furthermore, when Dr. Slump returned briefly in the mid-90s as The Brief Return of Dr. Slump, the manga included brief cameos from Goku, Pan, Trunks, and Giru (all in their Dragon Ball GT appearance) in the Grand Tour Spaceship. This is the biggest -- possibly only -- canon reference to GT in the manga continuity.

Arale has also appeared in multiple Dragon Ball Z video games. Most notably, Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3, which featured Arale as a playable character.

The first of two major crossovers happened early on in Dragon Ball in the General Blue Saga -- a subset of the Red Ribbon Army Saga, one of the first big arcs in Dragon Ball. As Goku collects the Dragon Balls to stop the Red Ribbon Army, he travels to Penguin Village, where he encounters Arale. It's clear that this crossover takes place slightly before the end of Dr. Slump, as evidenced by the fact that Arale has yet to become mayor of Penguin Village.

Arale proves to be even stronger than Goku at this point, throwing herself at the Red Ribbon soldiers with childlike zeal. This event motivates Goku to train even more in order to surpass Arale in terms of strength. This moment was adapted again in the 1997 remake anime of Dr. Slump.

Years later in Dragon Ball Super, however, Goku would meet Arale yet again in a brief crossover in Episode 69. This is where things become a little odd because it manages to apply the gag reality of Dr. Slump to the more structured world of Dragon Ball Super. The reoccurring Dr. Slump villain, Dr. Mashirito, appears in Super as a ghost who has escaped from Hell and is causing all sorts of discord and chaos. This results in Goku and Vegeta being forced to fight Arale, who, despite last time being only stronger than Kid Goku, is now on par with Super Saiyan Blue.

Of course, the odd thing here is that, despite 30 years of canon passing between appearances, Arale, Senbei, and the rest of the characters all look even younger than the last time they appeared. Then again, considering that Vegeta multiple times refers to Arale as a "gag character" in this series, perhaps we as the viewers aren't meant to take this seriously.

While Dr. Slump is the most noteworthy Toriyama anime to crossover with Dragon Ball, it isn't the only one. Ignoring brief special crossovers, like Cross Epoch where Goku and friends meet the Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece, the continuities of other projects Toriyama has worked on have truly been woven into the continuity of Dragon Ball.

The most notable example of this is Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, a gag manga by Akira Toriyama that ties into Dragon Ball by the manga's conclusion. Since then, it has become further woven into the canon of Dragon Ball Super, starting with the Resurrection F arc.

However, before that, there was the slightly lesser-known manga Nekomajin, a Dragon Ball parody series that featured multiple Dragon Ball characters. Throughout eight one-shot chapters released sporadically between 1999 and 2005, the series features its titular Neko Majin Z, a strange cat creature who exists in the short aftermath of the Buu Saga. He ends up meeting lost Saiyans, Frieza's son Kuriza and Vegeta, and he claims Goku as his mentor and master.

Due to existing in the nebulous post-Buu Saga Time Skip -- even further beyond Super's current timeline -- it's unknown if Nekomajin will ever tie into Dragon Ball Super. Though, interestingly enough, Vegeta's line about never fighting gag characters in the Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball Super crossover is lifted from Vegeta's appearance in Nekomajin.

While all of these Toriyama characters still exist together in a loosely connected universe, they're all defined, to some extent, by his irreverent sense of humor, which keeps the Toriyama voice from taking itself too seriously.

KEEP READING: Dragon Ball: Why Does Super Saiyan Hair Change Color?

In "Reason to be Excited," I spotlight things from modern comics that I think are worth getting excited about. I mean stuff more specific than "this comic is good," ya know? More like a specific bit from a writer or artist that impressed me.

Today, we look at Archie 1955 and how well it shows the elastic nature of Archie Andrews as a lead character.

In a Look Back earlier this year, I discussed how Harry Sahle tried to change things up in his last few issues of Archie Comics before he was replaced on the series. One of those things was to introduce the first example of Archie and his cast of characters being placed into a different time periods. I wrote at the time...

"Sahle wrote and drew the opening a story in the comic, which was "Archie in the prehistoric age," the very first of the now-classic "place Archie and the gang into different time periods" stories...

It demonstrated how powerful these archetypes were that they could hold up in different eras like this. We still get the love rivalries...

and Archie in trouble with Mister Weatherbee (or "King Bee")...

Well, it's 75 years later and the concept is still going strong.

Last year's Archie 1941 by Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid, Peter Krause and Kelly Fitzpatrick (with lettering by Jack Morelli) was excellent...

However, I think it is fair to say that Archie 1941 was a bit of a distinctive concept. You know, do an Archie comic set in the time that the Archie comics were originally set, but take the idea seriously. That's a really great idea. And they did it very well. That, though, is a whole other story than "Do the whole thing again in 1955," ya know? Once is normal, but doing it twice is a lot harder and yet, as we have seen since Sahle in 1944, damned if Archie doesn't translate really well into every era! He really is one of the great archetypal comic book characters.

In Archie 1955 (by Augusytn, Waid, Tom Grummett, Glenn Whitmore and Morelli), it's now about Archie and his band getting a chance to break into the music industry upon graduating from high school in 1955...

One of the hardest things to do in comics is to depict music and yet Grummett, Whitmore and Morelli really NAIL it, right?

But when the opportunity presents itself to Archie and his friends...

the question becomes, "What kind of music does Archie WANT to make?"

That's answered when his friend Chuck brings him to see a black rhythm and blues singer, Big Earl Dixon...

Well, in the next issue, Archie is impressing everyone but still doesn't know how to cut a demo...

when Pop Tate steps up in a touching scene...

and Archie and the Dales are created, but he's singing Big Earl Dixon's song!

There's a wonderful scene where his parents hear the song on the radio...

but then a not-so-wonderful moment when Chuck hears it...

Augustyn and Waid beautifully bring in the way that a lot of this early music was taking "black music" and making it acceptable to the mainstream by having white people cover the songs. Archie is not a total jerk, though, so he promises to look out for whoever he gets the songs from initially, but as he is wooed by Veronica Lodge and her father to sign a contract, we all know where this is headed.

Even though it's a familiar story, it's a good story, and we're still early in the overall tale, so who knows how we'll be surprised.

In any event, it continues to impress me how malleable Archie is as a lead character. It's great to see.

Okay, this feature is a bit less of a reader-interactive one, as I'm just spotlight stuff in modern comics that specifically impressed ME, but heck, if you'd like to send in some suggestions anyways, maybe you and I have the same taste! It's certainly not improbably that something you found cool would be something that I found cool, too, so feel free to send ideas to me at brianc@cbr.com!

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for John Constantine: Hellblazer #1, by Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, Jordie Bellaire and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.

John Constantine: Hellblazer #1, published under DC Comics' and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Universe, treats readers to a relaunch of the classic, long-running horror noir comic. The first issue is a refreshing return to what made the original series so great, featuring an emphasis on body horror, supernatural intrigue and the chain-smoking protagonist's cheeky dialogue and occult expertise.

John Constantine first appeared in 1985's The Saga of the Swamp Thing #37, the acclaimed horror series written by comics legend Alan Moore. He served as a source of exposition for readers, an expert on magic that helped explain what was happening to the grotesquely deformed Swamp Thing. It was the first instance in a long tradition of the sorcerer's dealing with body horror, a defining element of Constantine's adventures.

Constantine later starred in his own series, Hellblazer, at first written by Jamie Delano but which later hosted a line of writers looking to experiment with mature, horror-driven stories. The book featured John Constantine lying and bamboozling his way through a host of demons, serial killers and terrors of the night, all while alienating himself from his allies with his morally ambiguous methods. That constant tension of wondering how far Constantine was willing to go before eventually turning into the monsters he fought was what made the series so compelling. It's also what made the character's eventual inclusion within the mainstream DC superhero universe so confusing.

In 2013, DC ended Hellblazer after three hundred issues and replaced the title with Constantine as part of the New 52 reboot. The series positioned John as the leader of Justice League Dark, a superpowered team dealing with supernatural threats. However, Constantine eschewed the previous incarnation's occult noir and body horror in favor of a more traditional superhero tone, an unwelcoming direction to people who were used to years of gritty horror stories. This is why John Constantine's return to the world of haunting, skin-splicing devilry is so exciting.

The first issue of John Constantine: Hellblazer immediately begins with a spectral horde of razor-fingered "angels" skinning a group of drug dealers alive. This is followed by a drunken Constantine getting thrown out of a bar for telling a crass joke about the British royalty. The entire opening is vintage Hellblazer. In addition, a man covered in hideous sores arrives looking to take revenge on John for mishandling a chicken pox spell, signaling a gleeful retread of Constantine's haphazard relationships with the people he associates with.

The main plot centers around a gang of drug dealers called the Ri-Boys headed by the grimy K-Mag, a mystic who can see visions in the entrails of sacrificed animals, which is known formally as a haruspex. K-Mag claims that he's giving his boys a purpose under a British government that doesn't care about the poor and downtrodden, but in reality, he's eagerly willing to sacrifice his gang members for his own selfish means. He demands that Constantine investigate the grisly killings that have occurred on his gang's turf, threatening the life of one of his followers if John doesn't cooperate.

Left with no choice, Constantine investigates Peckham Rye Common, deducing that the "angels" murder anyone engaging in criminal activity. In the issue's climax, the spirits physically infest the body of a heroin addict with "a legion of -- somethings" as Constantine helplessly watches. These swarms feed off the addict's innards and shockingly transform into tiny creatures that pop out of the poor guy's body. It's vile, disgusting, horrifying -- and a triumphant reflection of Hellblazer's body horror roots.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Jamie Delano was able to allow Hellblazer to function as a political commentary on Britain in the 1980s. For all its horror influences, the comic was a lens into the seedy underbelly of London, where the city was at a dangerous crossroads with Thatcherist governance and rampant cruelty. It looks like Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell are following a similar route for 2019, mentioning the impact of gentrification and ending his first issue with a naked prime minister engaging in some sort of mysterious lude act in the company of masked men. What it all means is still up in the air, but rest assured that it looks like John Constantine is revisiting the world of brash observations, political anger and, more than anything, occult madness.

John Constantine: Hellblazer #2 goes on sale Dec. 18.

KEEP READING: Hellblazer: Spurrier & Campbell Bring Constantine to the Sandman Universe

A new promo for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker provides a new look at the upcoming movie, including a scene in which General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) holds her family's lightsaber.

The TV spot features a voiceover from Luke Skywalker and uses a lot of footage that's already been revealed, though there are some scenes that have not yet been released. The lightsaber Leia holds is the one wielded by her father, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and Luke, her brother. Rey has used the blue lightsaber in the sequel trilogy after retrieving it from Maz Kanata.

Fisher played Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars in 1977. The actor passed away in 2016. Fisher's last on-screen appearance will be in The Rise of Skywalker, with the production using previously unseen archival footage from the filming of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Fisher's family giving their blessing to incorporate that footage into the film.

Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film arrives on Dec. 20.

KEEP READING: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker RealD 3D Poster Channels A New Hope

Break out the Uno cards this holiday season for some harmless fun. Mattel just released a "non-partisan" version of the popular game that has neither red or blue cards so you "don't have to take sides."

Mattel's new version of Uno, promises fun for all. The official description reads, "Whether you lean a little left or a little right, one thing we can all agree on is how much we love UNO®!" Mattel reminds players that "Without Red or Blue cards the focus can stay on the game. And remember to yell 'UNO!' before you reach across the aisle and play your last card!"

Red and blue are the colors most closely associated with the U.S's two main political parties. So, Mattel switched to orange and purple cards to avoid any tensions that could arise by association.

In addition to the color change, Mattel has also instated a "veto" card you can put down if things manage to get a little heated.

The game is still hugely popular, selling out at Walmarts (the only major retailer to carry the game) across the country.

KEEP READING: Bad Toys 4 Life: Bad Boys Gets in on the Funko Pop! Action

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Avengers #27 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and Cory Petit, on sale now.

After the Marvel Legacy relaunch, the Avengers established a new base of operations in the form of the massive, cosmic body of a dead Celestial. Thanks to its ancient but highly advanced nature, the Celestial offers plenty of room for Earth's Mightiest Heroes, as well as useful defense systems and technologies they never had access to before. While it's big enough for each of Marvel's heroes to have a room of their own, it's also a heavily fortified and weaponized fortress that can house and protect hundreds of refugees if Frost Giants or other giant-size foes come knocking.

Another piece of the technology that comes with living in a dead Celestial is revealed in Avengers #27, which sees the super-team head off into space for a new mission. As they do so, they use a new means of traveling through the cosmos that seems remarkably similar to a method that we've seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As this new team of Avengers prepares to head off into space, they board their new spaceship, which is docked inside one of the Celestial's fingers. After blasting off into the atmosphere, Captain Marvel activates the "Celestial Warp Tech," and the ship disappears into a Kirby-esque portal etched in the starry sky. As we understand it, the Celestial technology now enables the Avengers to open portals to travel from one corner of space to the other, instead of taking the long way around.

This technology is remarkably similar to what the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy use in the MCU. In James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy films, we were introduced to the principal mode of long-range travel in the cosmos at large: jump-points.

These jump-points are essentially a network of portals that are scattered throughout space, and they allow spaceships to reach one sector of the galaxy to the next. Movies such as Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame continued to show the use of these jump-points, while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 gave a memorable warning of what happens when one ship uses them too much.

Avengers #27's Celestial Warp Tech isn't exactly the same thing as the MCU's jump points, but the two are similar. After all, both open up portals that allow spaceships to travel from one point of space to the other. It's been useful in the films, and it's bound to become even more useful in the comics.

While Marvel's comic book heroes have never seemed to have much trouble traveling into deep space, these portals essentially put the galaxy at their fingertips, much like the X-Men's Krakoan portals to the Moon and beyond. Even though they're just starting to use this technology, the Avengers can reach their destinations much faster, which is bound to open up even more stories in the farthest reaches of the Marve Universe.

KEEP READING: Avengers: Infinity War Concept Art Shows Cut Thanos/Doctor Strange Battle

Today, I pay tribute to the extensive world-building at the hard of Phillip K. Johnson's new hit series, The Last God, from DC's Black Label.

As the say, "it takes a village" and it seems like it takes a village of people to put together the world of Cain Anuun in The Last God. Johnson is the creator of the series and the writer, but the interiors are by Riccardo Federeci and Sunny Gho, with lettering by Tom Napolitano. Then there is Steve Wands on the back matter in each issue and Jared Blando on the cartography in the comic. What other comic book series has a CARTOGRAPHER? That's how much Johnson is going all-in on the world building of this comic book and all that work pays off in how in-depth this horrific world is and why it is such a compelling world to see some heroes fight against unspeakable evil.

The concept of The Last God is a simple, but powerful one. When the series open, we see that there is a King who has been in charge for thirty years due to his heroism of getting rid of the evil "Last God" of this world...

He's not a particularly NOBLE king, but eh, it's better than the horrors that happened due to the Last God. However, by the end of the issue, we discover that the king had lied and that the Last God still lives and that's bad news for EVERYONE...

In the second issue, then, we kick off the main narrative of the series, which is a dual narrative. In the present, the survivors try to fix what their parents' generation screwed up...

While we see a flashback to what REALLY happened thirty years ago...

Sunny Gho's competing color schemes are important to the process.

There is back matter in each issue explaining the little bits of culture of this world...

And, of course, there are maps...

Johnson created such a thoroughly detailed hellscape of a world that it is almost simple, in comparison, to set his players loose upon this game field that he has created.

The dual narrative approach is a clever one and the characters, so far, have been interesting (I especially like the contrast of King Tyr from the awful present to his more heroic past), but it really is the world that has impressed me the most about this comic book series from DC's Black Label.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman/Superman #4 by Joshua Williamson, David Marquez, Alejandro Sanchez and John J. Hill and Hawkman #18 by Robert Venditti, Patrick Olliffe, Tom Palmer and Jeremiah Skipper, on sale now.

The six infected DC heroes have been fully revealed by the Batman Who Laughs, along with his machinations to make the core DC Universe just as twisted as the dark multiverse. Yet, while it was largely darkness that already existed in the heroes that was targeted for corruption, the corruption of Hawkman into Sky-Tyrant has a deeper connection to the greater DC multiverse.

The Infected Hawkman was tiwsted partly by his newly restored memories of his time on one of the darkest Earths in the DC Multiverse: Earth-3.

The six heroes infected by the Batman Who Laughs finally make their move in Batman/Superman #4. While the Scarab corrupts the computers within the Fortress of Solitude, his new allies -- Sky-Tyrant, Deathbringer, and the Commissioner, aka Hawkman, Donna Troy and James Gordon -- attack the remaining heroes. While fighting Batman and Superman, the corrupted Hawkman and Donna Troy try to use their memories and emotional connections with the two heroes to distract them and bring them down physically. Hawkman attacks Batman, playing up his inherent dislike for the Dark Knight.

During their short battle, the warped Carter Hall reveals that exposure to the Joker toxin brought back more of his memories of his previous lives across the DC multiverse. This includes a period where he was living on Earth-3, which he favorably compares to this world because Owlman was alive there.

Earth-3 is a ruthless version of the DC Universe. Just the memory of living there would be enough to make anyone darker, explaining a lot of the brutality that the new Sky-Tyrant brings to the fight. The moralities of people on Earth-3 are turned inside out, which means crime and pain are citizens' core motivators instead of kindness and love.

This corrupted world is controlled by the Crime Syndicate, a twisted version of the Justice League that rules with an iron fist. The Crime Syndicate eventually fought the core heroes and villains of the DC Universe during Forever Evil and were largely wiped out over the course of multiple events. Among their number was indeed a version of Carter Hall, although he didn't appear until recently.

This version of Carter Hall was also known as Sky-Tyrant. However, he eventually died in battle against the Justice Society of All-Stars. .He lived briefly again in his own timeline, before being murdered and having his powers stolen by the Alexander Luthor of his world.

Hawkman #18 reveals that the core Carter Hall persona still exists within Sky-Tyrant. Carter initially tries to control the villain within him from attacking civilians. But the persona from Earth-3 is helping fuel Sky-Tyrant's attempted massacres. All those new memories might mean that, even if the Infection is removed down the line, Hawkman will have to contend with the darkest version of himself remaining in his psyche and memories -- something that could deeply impact him down the line.

KEEP READING: Batman Reveals He Has A Secret Prison Under The Hall Of Justice

Boruto has it tough. Not in the series, as he’s one of the most powerful and gifted young students ever to work in Konoha. But in real life. His dad Naruto is one of the most beloved anime protagonists of all time, because of his devotion to his goals, the hard work he put in, and his willingness to reach his hand out to help any other person who had been abandoned by society like him.

By comparison, even if Boruto was a saint it’d be hard for him to take his father’s place in the minds of anime fans everywhere. But for anyone who’s curious about Boruto the series that was a major fan of Naruto, this list will give them everything they need to know about him.

10 HAS THE JOGAN EYE

No, not the Jagan, that’s a different anime. While Boruto’s mother is a Hyuuga and has the Rinnegan, Boruto is gifted with a completely different eye technique. Supposedly, the Jogan is a technique that comes from the Otsutsuki group, and it tends to activate when the owner happens to be around particularly dangerous people.

The Jogan lets Boruto see the flow of someone’s chakra, allowing him to tell if their chakra has changed in a significant way. With this power, Boruto has been able to deal with multiple threats in the earlier parts of the series, though after the anime got through the Boruto movie arc they seem to have left it behind.

9 TOO TALENTED FOR HIS OWN GOOD

Unlike his father Naruto, Boruto is incredibly gifted. He’s got large chakra reserves as a result of being the son of a Hyuuga, but he’s also got an actual parent around to teach him in Hinata.

Because of this, he was able to naturally excel in anything scholarly, and he’s also a natural at martial arts as well. While Naruto had to bust his backside to stay at the same level as his comrades, Boruto can stay at or ahead of them without even trying, which results in him being frequently lazy about putting effort in.

8 HAS BEEN CURSED

The Boruto: Naruto the Movie storyline saw the ninja world once again under the attack of the Otsutsuki Clan. They found their way to the planet and had every intention of eating the world’s chakra tree so they could continue their immortality.

But thanks to the efforts of Naruto and Sasuke, the group was repelled. Boruto got to land the final blow against them though, and as a result Momoshiki placed a curse on him for “defeating a god”. This curse mark has recently awakened in the manga, and it allows him to absorb jutsu with the seal.

7 WANTS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED BY HIS FATHER

Unlike Naruto, Boruto has grown up in a world where he doesn’t have to do everything to be accepted. He has a loving mother and sister, he has friends and is respected at school. Despite this, he constantly acts out, committing some of the same foolish acts of rebellion that his father did when he was much younger.

This all comes down to Boruto’s desire to be acknowledged by his dad. Since becoming the Hokage, Naruto never has any time for him, and it’s resulted in a rift in his relationship with his son. The two eventually patch things up, but it takes Naruto nearly dying at the hands of the Otsutsuki for it to finally happen.

6 HAD NO DESIRE TO BE A NINJA

One of the things which the early parts of the anime cover is that Boruto has no desire to be a ninja. While his father was willing to risk his life again and again to be considered worthy of the title of Hokage, Boruto wants no parts of it. Much of this comes from him viewing being Hokage as a stuffy title which involves never being around for the people who care about you the most.

He eventually decides to become a ninja in the arc leading up to the Ninja Academy graduation, and decides to support Sarada in her desire to become Hokage.

5 DEVELOPED A NEW RASENGAN

Naruto’s quest to learn how to do the Rasengan was a major part of his development. After spending so long relying solely on the Shadow Clone jutsu, this was part of him finally getting another technique added to his arsenal. But even then, in the end Naruto could often only make the Rasengan by using multiple clones to shape the chakra.

Boruto hasn’t had this trouble, and in fact found a way to add elemental energy to the Rasengan and change it into the Vanishing Rasengan, a technique that disappears only to reappear at the last moment and inflict massive damage on the enemy.

4 TRAINS UNDER SASUKE

With Boruto having so many problems with his father, it’s unsurprising that he has no desire to actually want to learn from him. And even if he did, there’s no way Naruto would have enough time as the Hokage to do so anyway.

But someone who occasionally has time is Sasuke, a ninja Boruto looks up to because of how he’s always seen doing the ninja work he thinks his father doesn’t do. Sasuke agrees to train Boruto, and with his help Boruto was able to learn the Vanishing Rasengan. Hopefully one day he’ll also learn how to do the Chidori as well.

3 IS BEST FRIENDS WITH INOJIN AND SHIKADAI

Naruto spent much of his younger years being rejected by literally everyone in the village. It’s kind of the point of the early part of his story that the only person who accepts him is Iruka, because everyone else just thinks he’s the monster with the nine-tailed fox inside him. Fortunately, Naruto grows up to become the Hokage, and his family no longer has such a shadow over it.

Boruto’s then free to make friends with plenty of people, and has grown close to two of the other boys of the New Generation of ninja, Inojin (Sai and Ino’s son) and Shikadai (Shikamaru and Temari’s kid). The three of them are constantly hanging out at burger joints playing video games when they’re not asked to do missions.

2 GENTLE FIST MASTER

Boruto’s talented at seemingly every part there is to being a ninja. Of the group, he’s got access to more ninjutsu than probably any other member, but he’s also a pretty awesome hand to hand fighter. His taijutsu style comes from his mother’s side of the family, as he learned the Gentle Fist style of combat from the Hyuuga Clan.

Currently we haven’t seen him use the Eight Trigrams technique, which requires the Byakugan’s 360° vision. Without the Byakugan, merely knowing the Gentle Fist might be the limit of his ability.

1 LOVES HIS MOM AND YOUNGER SISTER

Boruto has a pretty troubled relationship with his dad for most of the series, for obvious reasons. But that doesn’t mean he has a problem with his entire family.

On the contrary, he loves and respects his mother Hinata, who’s always been around to take care of him. At the same time, he cares deeply for his sister Himawari, even going so far as to threaten his dad to make sure he’s around for Himawari’s birthday. Being a good big brother is one thing, but being enough of one to threaten the Hokage is pretty crazy.

NEXT: Boruto: 10 Things Only True Fans Know About Chocho Akamichi

My Hero Academia has been a massive hit of a series. So it’s really no surprise that fans have been taking the time to deep dive into all of the characters and their backgrounds. With that in mind, we want to talk about one character in particular. Kai Chisaki. Though perhaps you’d know him better by another name; Overhaul.

Kai Chisaki is a character only recently introduced (relatively speaking) in the anime. But fans who have been reading the manga know all about him, and what exactly he’s up to. Before the anime gets any farther along, here are ten facts you should know about this antagonist.

This list contains spoilers for My Hero Academia season 4 (from the manga).

10 History

Kai Chisaki was brought into the Yakuza at a very young age. His fierce loyalty to Shie Hassaikai resulted in his willingness to kill anyone who dared to oppose the leader. Naturally, this means that he led a rather bloody life – and he has been perfectly content in that fact.

Kai Chisaki's violence has become so extreme that even Shie Hassaiai himself has made the attempt to curb the behavior. But you can see how well that worked out.

9 Overhaul

Kai Chisaki has a quirk that earned him his villain name – Overhaul. This quirk gives him the ability to disassemble or reassemble as he pleases. As long as he can touch it, he can directly affect it. There doesn't seem to be any limitation to what he can manipulate, as we've seen him alter his opponents, allies, himself, and the objects around him. It's a terrifying quirk and one that has gotten him a well-earned reputation. It's also the reason why the League of Villains had so much trouble standing up against him.

8 Fusion

One terrifying thing Overhaul has learned to do with is quirk is to create fusions. That means that he can merge two (or possibly more) characters together in order to create something better or stronger (though he could theoretically do the opposite as well).

We've seen Overhaul fuse with two different characters, Shin Nemoto and Rikiya Katukame. The first fusion gave him two extra arms along with spiky claws (and more). The second fusion gave him a stone-like body with clawed hands. Apparently he likes claws when he creates fusions.

7 Stats

Kai Chisaki is a fairly well-balanced antagonist, all things considered. The Ultra Analysis Book (an official book full of stat rankings for most characters in MHA) has a lot to say about his particular skill sets.

Kai Chisaki comes in at a six out of six for ambition (of course), a five out six in both intelligence and technique (the skill in using one's quirk), and a four out of six in speed. His lowest stat is power, which is ranked at only a three. That might be a bit hard to believe, given the damage he can create.

6 Scar

It may be hard to believe that a character like Kai Chisaki would ever get a scar – but that is exactly what happened here. Overhaul features a very small scar over his left eye, on his forehead. This is a scar he got relatively recently, during his battle against the League of Villains. You'd think that he would just reset himself to remove the scar – and perhaps he meant to, but just never got around to it. That or he was keeping it in order to make a point.

5 Plague Mask

Overhaul's plague mask isn't just for style – though we've got to admit it is an iconic look. Kai Chisaki is actually extremely germaphobic. He has several fixations and obsessions surrounding the concept of cleanliness. And it has reached the point where he doesn't like being touched by others or doing anything he considers to be unsanitary.

And that includes breathing in the same air as other humans. That's where the mask comes into play. His plague mask has a built-in air filter, which is a throwback to the original purpose of a plague mask.

4 A Debt to Be Paid

Kai Chisaki grew up on the streets, and you can imagine just how horrible and lonely that experience must have been. But it was Shie Hassaikai, the leader of the Yakuza, who personally took Chisaki in and made sure he was taken care of.

As such, Overhaul strongly believes that he owes a debt to Shie Hassaikai. This man is perhaps the only person that Kai Chisaki truly cares about. It's also one of the many reasons that Overhaul is trying to eliminate quirks (no quirks means the Yakuza could come back into power).

3 No Value in Humans

This fact is probably apparent to anybody that has spent even a minute watching Kai Chisaki's behavior. He has no value in regards to human life. It is not precious to him, nor does he care about anybody (possibly including himself). The only exception is the man he believed saved his life and turned things around for him (see above).

Chisaki looks at humans almost as if they were pawns – things he can use and discard as he pleases. It's a dangerous outlook to have, especially given how damaging his quirk can be. Though it certainly explains his treatment of Eri.

2 His Strange Beliefs

This may be a bit counter-intuitive, but Overhaul strongly believes that quirks are directly responsible for the condition of society today; as in he resents quirks and believes that they should be completely eliminated. Ironic, considering how often we've seen him use his own quirks.

There's a complicated reason for his feeling this way. For one thing, he thinks that they encourage people to become heroes of villains (again, ironic). For another, he believes in the theory that quirks came from rats, and as mentioned above he's a little particular about the concepts of cleanliness.

1 Ultimate Fate

Skip this last section if you don't want spoilers for what is about to happen in the anime!

Kai Chisaki is an ambition character, there's no doubt about that. But sometimes those with the most ambition fall the hardest. And Overhaul managed to upset a lot of heroes, including Lemillion and Deku. And that is never good for one's health.

It probably won't surprise to hear some fans that Overhaul was properly taken down during the impending fight (we'll save the who and why for your viewing pleasure). After he was taken down, the League of Villains intercepted his police car to enact their own form of revenge. And to get their hands on the quirk removing weapon he'd created. They also took his arms, and thus his ability to use his quirk. It's a brutal end to Kai Chisaki's run, but he certainly earned that treatment.

NEXT: My Hero Academia: 10 Things You Need to Know About Ochaco Uraraka

Sidekicks are a venerable institution in superhero comics. For nearly as long as there have been superheroes, those heroes have been finding orphans or people with similar superpowers to train. Some of these sidekicks have went to make their own names and get out from under their mentor's shadow, becoming important members of the superhero community.

Then, of course there are the ones who have never been able to do that. Some have fallen from heroic status. Others just have never been able to distinguish themselves on their own. This list is going to highlight the best and worst of the sidekicks.

10 Better: Tim Drake (Robin III)

Tim Drake was the third Robin, but he's easily one of the best. He was able to deduce Batman's secret identity all on his own, no easy feat for, well, anyone. Among the teenage superhero community of the DC Universe, Tim was always one of the leaders, leading Young Justice and the Teen Titans. What makes him better than Batman is that while he has been through a lot of the same things as Bruce, he has never let it darken him to the same extent.

The only downside to Tim has is that he's mostly been known just as Robin. While other Robins have gone on to take on new mantles, Tim has been stuck as Robin (or Red Robin) his entire superhero career.

9 Worse: Damian Wayne (Robin V)

Damian Wayne is the offspring of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al'Ghul and will never let anyone forget it. A formidable fighter and strategist, Damian's abrasive nature has rubbed many the wrong way. He's the classic example of a spoiled rich kid, except that he has the skills to back up boasts. That said, it's doubtful that he'll ever become a paragon of the superhero community in the same way his father has.

Damian does show some restraint around certain people. His relationship with Dick Grayson was one of mutual respect and Dick was able to get Damian to come out of his shell. His friendship with Jon Kent, Superboy, also has humbled Damian, but just a bit.

8 Better: Falcon

Captain America is one of those heroes who picks up sidekicks like other heroes change their costumes, but his best one is Sam Wilson, the Falcon. Joining him in battle against the Hate-Monger, Falcon would go on to join the Avengers and eventually, take up the mantle of Captain America himself. Falcon didn't have the same enhancements as Steve Rogers, but always put himself in the forefront of every fight, surpassing his mentor in a lot of ways.

His time as Captain America was a great success, as he led teams of Avengers and was in the forefront in the fight against Hydra Cap. He would eventually go back to being Falcon, but he will always be a true hero.

7 Worse: Bucky/Winter Soldier

A lot of what happened to James "Bucky" Barnes wasn't his fault. He never asked to be captured and experimented on by the Russians to become the Soviet Union's top assassin, the Winter Soldier. However, even before that, Bucky had fallen below the superheroic standard set by Captain America. During WWII, Bucky would do all the wetwork that Cap wouldn't, killing many Germans while putting on the facade of a happy go lucky teenager.

He would eventually be redeemed and become Captain America while Steve was "dead", but will never be as great as his mentor.

6 Better: Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)

Saying Batgirl is better than Batman is a controversial thing to say, but when one looks at her career, it makes more sense. Batman may be one of the biggest heroes in the DC Universe, but his personal relations with other heroes have been strained, at best. Batgirl, on the other hand, is a different story.

After being paralyzed by the Joker, she became the Oracle, a source of information and support for any hero who needed it. Her relationships with the heroes of the DC Universe are great across the board, unlike those of her mentor.

5 Worse: Red Hood (Jason Todd)

Jason Todd is another hero who didn't have a chance. He became Robin after stealing the Batmobile's tires and then was killed by the Joker. He would be resurrected and then turn to a life of crime as the Red Hood. He would eventually redeem himself, but his methods would stay extreme.

Batman never kills, but Red Hood doesn't have a problem with that sort of thing. He's also even more rude and taciturn than the Caped Crusader, if such a thing is possible. He won't be winning any popularity contests among his fellow superheroes and his own heroics have always fallen short of his mentor's.

4 Better: Wally West (Post-Crisis)

Barry Allen died fighting the Anti-Monitor in Crisis On Infinite Earths and Wally West would take up the mantle of the Flash, in honor of his uncle. He would go on to redefine the mantle for a new generation, discovering the Speed Force, getting married, and starting a family.

Wally was the first sidekick made good. He took on the mantle of his predecessor and surpassed him as a hero, no easy feat when the boots he was filling were those of Barry Allen. He would become the fastest Flash of them all, before temporarily disappearing post-Flashpoint.

3 Worse: Impulse (Bart Allen)

Bart Allen is Barry Allen's grandson from his time in the 30th century. Raised in a VR simulation, he would come back in time and take on the superheroic identity of Impulse, being mentored by Max Mercury, Wally West, and the original Flash, Jay Garrick. With a pedigree of mentors this great he should have went on to big things.

After Wally West disappeared following Infinite Crisis, he would take on the mantle of Flash. His time in the big leagues would be lackluster at best and would end in his death. He would be resurrected, but never again progress into the big leagues of superheroism.

2 Better: Dick Grayson (Nightwing)

Dick Grayson was the first Robin. He would spend years as Robin, become a founding member of the Teen Titans, and become one of the most beloved heroes of them all. Eventually, he would drop the Robin mantle and become Nightwing, the first sidekick to completely step out of his mentor's shadow. He would take up the mantle of Batman twice, the second time with Damian Wayne as his own sidekick.

Dick Grayson is a better hero than Batman for a lot of reasons, but the big one is simply that he is a linchpin of the DC Universe. Every hero likes him and know they can go to him for advice or whatever they need. On top of that, Dick's fighting and tactical skills put him in the same rarefied air as his mentor.

1 Worse: Wally West (Post DC Rebirth)

After having been missing during the entirety of the New 52, Wally West returned to much fanfare in DC Rebirth #1. Fans had been clamoring for his return for a long time and said return was supposed to symbolize a return to a more hopeful time for the DC Universe. He would join his old Teen Titan friends in the Titans and have thrilling adventures with them.

Unfortunately for him, he could remember the old world and his family, and no one else could. This would drive him crazy and he would seek refuge in Sanctuary after the Flash War. While there, he would snap and accidentally kill a bunch of heroes (including his friend Roy Harper, Arsenal), framing Harley Quinn and Booster Gold, before trying to commit suicide. He would be stopped and imprisoned and while he was sorry for what he had done, his sorrow would never erase the stain of that day.

NEXT: Ranked: 10 Alternate Versions Of The Flash (That Aren't Barry Allen Or Wally West)

Though My Hero Academia is a series filled with some of the most powerful and unique heroes in fiction, fans would be remiss to overlook some of the incredible villains that populate the world of My Hero. Villains like Shigaraki Tomura have been terrorizing the young heroes of My Hero Academia since nearly the beginning of the series.

But how did Shigaraki become the villain that fans have been introduced to in the series? What led him down this dark path bent on the destruction of society as a whole? Well, let’s find out. Spoilers for the anime and manga ahead.

10 He’s Related To A One For All User

Though this fact is a secret known only to very few people (including All Might and All For One), Shigarki Tomura was originally born Tenko Shimura. Fans may recall that Shimura was also the surname of the hero, Nana Shimura, who would eventually pass on One For All to the young Toshinori Yagi.

In fact, All For One specifically chose the young Tenko Shimura to take up his cause because he knew how much it would hurt All Might to be forced to fight the family of the woman who had given him everything.

9 He’s A Victim Of Abuse

The reason the Shigaraki’s true identity is a secret to so many is because of the fact that after Nana Shimura gave birth to Tenko’s father, she would give him up in order to spare him the repercussions of being a hero’s child.

His father would then grown up with a deep disdain for heroes, viewing them as people who would abandon their own family in order to save complete strangers. This rage is something that Tenko’s father would never let go of, and after becoming a father he would begin to take out his rage on Tenko.

8 He Killed His Entire Family

After years and years of abuse at the hands of his father while the rest of his family stood by and did nothing, the young Tenko would eventually have his revenge. After his quirk manifested, Tenko, along with the rest of his family, were completely unprepared to deal with the power of the young boy.

Unable to control his ability or really even comprehend what was happening until it was too late, Tenko would go on to kill his entire family. His father, mother, maternal grandparents, and sister would all fall to the young boy’s power.

7 Tenko Shimura No More

After the young Tenko had completely destroyed his entire family, he was left devastated in the wake of a tragedy he didn’t mean to commit. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for the rest of the world, this is where All For One Would find the young boy and take him under his wing.

Had any heroes been available to lend a hand to the traumatized kid, things might have turned out completely different for the young boy. However, it was All For One that found him and went on to give him his new name, Tomura Shigaraki.

6 Keeping His Family Close At Hand

Though his family was completely destroyed, Tomura had destroyed every bit of their bodies except for their hands. All For One Would then use these hands to decorate the young boy with the sins of his past. Though he had destroyed most of his father, there was one hand left behind, which Tomura would use to cover his face.

The rest of his family, along with two unnamed thugs’ hands, would decorate the rest of his body. Tomura has expressed that wearing the hands both disgusts him and keeps him calm.

5 Japan’s Most Wanted

The world of My Hero Academia is a world heavily populated with villains. When nearly everyone in the world has a quirk, is almost impossible to avoid a few villains here and there. While All For One was previously the most wanted criminal in all of Japan (and possibly the world) after his capture, his protege, Shigaraki, becomes the number one villain in Japan.

There’s an abundance of street-level baddies that hold up shops and steal purses and other such things, but Shigaraki has made it his mission to openly and violently attack the institutions that heroes are meant to stand for. This fact just makes him all the more dangerous in the eyes of both heroes and Japan.

4 His Quirk: Decay

With his quirk, Decay, Shigaraki is able to disintegrate anything he touches with all five fingers of his hand. This is the power that would rob a Shigaraki of his family and any possible future he might have had with them.

While this quirk is incredibly powerful and devastating to anyone who comes into close contact with Shigaraki, it must make his life very complicated at the very least. As there is no “off switch” when it comes to his quirk, he’s got to be very careful when holding anything. Food plates, his phones, and anything else Shigaraki may need to handle are all at risk.

3 Enhanced Durability & Strength

Though Shigaraki’s quirk is the ability to disintegrate anything that he touches, he’s also got some pretty impressive stats when it comes to his strength and his durability. For instance, when the League of Villains kidnaps Bakugo, the student unleashes a violent explosion in the face of Shigaraki, something Shigaraki barely even seems to feel.

Even as he holds Deku captive with a single hand to his throat, Deku seems unable to break free of his grip. And yes, he was likely trying to avoid activating Shigaraki’s quirk, but even then, with One For All, he certainly could’ve made a break for it.

2 Awakening His Quirk

Though there are some very specific conditions that need to be met in order for Shigaraki’s quirk to be activated, that all changes for Shigaraki later down the road. While fighting Re-Destro, the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, during the M.L.A arc, Shigaraki loses three of his fingers, which should have made it impossible to use his quirk with that hand.

However, Shigaraki manages to awaken his quirk and use it even though he only has two fingers remaining on that hand, though there is a significant reduction in the speed at which his quirk works.

1 He’s Based On A Character From Horikoshi’s First One-Shot

Though mangaka Kohei Horikoshi can often be seen pulling inspiration from all over pop culture, from American comics to manga, film, and anime, for Shigaraki, Horikoshi pulled from a much more personal place.

For his main antagonist, Horikoshi's inspiration for Shigaraki comes from his very first one-shot, Tenko. It was about a young boy who could turn anything he touched with both hands into dust. This young boy was on a mission to destroy all the swords in the world, much like Shigaraki is on a mission to destroy the heroes.

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