Your favourite 1970s DC hero?

A mere month ago, I asked you to name your favourite Marvel hero who was created in the 1970s - and you did just that.

But that means I now have to do the obvious and ask the identity of your favourite DC hero who was created in that self-same decade.

I must admit I have marginally less knowledge of DC's 1970s output than I do of Marvel's, so it's going to be harder for me to come up with suggestions this time round.

I was a huge fan of the 1970s' Spectre, Manhunter and Shadow revivals but none of them were created in the 1970s and the Shadow wasn't even a DC creation, so they don't really count.

On the other hand, DC did give us such idiosyncratic battlers as Swamp-Thing, Kamandi, Mr Miracle and OMAC.

The world of barbarism gave us Claw the Unconquered, the Warlord, Stalker and Beowulf, while the world of Gotham gave us a Man-Bat who wasn't always sure if he was a hero or not.

Admittedly, DC didn't actually create Beowulf, nor was he technically created in the 1970s but I do feel that, like Marvel's version of Thor, he was sufficiently different from the source material to be counted as a new entity.

The world of right-on hipness gave us Prez who wasn't a super-hero but he did exist and was clearly a force for good, so I feel duty bound to mention him.

On the female front, DC gave us Black Orchid, Wonder Woman's sister Nubia, Power Girl, Big Barda and the Thorn.

The Legion of Super-Heroes gave us ERG-1 who quickly renamed himself Wildfire, while Wikipedia tells me the 1970s also gave us the similarly dramatically named Black Lightning and Firestorm.

Of all of these, I think I have to go for the Thorn who I don't remember that much about but I always liked the idea of a heroine who only went into action when she was asleep and thus never knew she was a heroine.

But it does strike me, from the above list, that it seems like thinner pickings than Marvel's equivalents from the same era.

Then again, that could just be down to my ignorance and there may be a zillion and one great characters I've not mentioned here.

Either way, feel free to name your own favourite, in the comments section below, because there's nothing the internet likes better than a heated debate about life-or-death matters.

Your favourite 1970s Marvel hero.

As we all know, the 1960s were a fertile breeding ground for Marvel Comics, with the creation of a host of all-time great heroes... ...and Ant-Man.

But, if the 1960s were fertile, what did that make the 1970s?

Liberated from the constraints of their previous distribution deal, the company was free to churn out as many titles as it wanted - and it seemed like every month it was unleashing eight million new crime-thwarters upon the world.

Oddly enough, although there were more of them created than in the 1960s, they generally had less impact and few of them attained anything like legendary status. After all, just how many of Marvel's successful movies have been based on characters who first saw the light of day in that decade?

Then again, it's easy to forget that the first successful film franchise featuring a Marvel character was Blade, without whose success, perhaps none of those 1960s heroes would have got their big Hollywood break. So, it seems the 1970s must have got something right.

Therefore I have to ask the question that's been torturing humanity for lo these last four decades. Just who was your favourite Marvel hero who was created in the 1970s?

Obviously, when it comes to successes, there was Conan the Barbarian, introduced right at the start of the decade but, given that he was first created in the 1930s, I think Marvel would struggle to take the credit for him.

Then again, there were the likes of Nova, Omega and Skull the Slayer.

The world of Horror gave us a slew of monster protagonists, such as Dracula, Werewolf By Night, Frankenstein's Monster, Morbius, Ghost-Rider, the Son of Satan and Man-Wolf but they weren't really heroes and not all of them were what you could call original.

Outer Space gave us Star-Lord and Monark Starstalker.

The future gave us Killraven and Deathlok.

Science gone mad gave us Woodgod and Man-Thing, while the X-Men gave us Storm, Nightcrawler and a whole host of other mutants.

Homicidal idiocy gave us Wolverine and The Punisher.

The quest to admit that women don't have to be there just to be told to shut up by their scientist boyfriends gave us She-Hulk, Shanna the She-Devil, Spider-Woman, the Cat and Red Sonja, while the quest to prove they didn't all have to be white gave us Shang-Chi, Luke Cage, Black Goliath, Brother Voodoo and the Sons of the Tiger.

Also, our desire to see bad guys get kicked in the face gave us Iron Fist.

Our need to see the supernatural thwarted gave us Gabriel the Devil Hunter and Bloodstone, an immortal caveman in a safari suit. Who could have thought that such a character could ever fail to catch on?

But there were more, many more, more heroes and heroines than I could possibly ever hope to name or even remember.

In the end, off the top of my head, I have to go for Nightcrawler as my favourite, as I've always wanted a forked tail and teleportational abilities.

You, however, may have other opinions; opinions you feel the need to record in the comments box which lurks below this very post.