The top 5 Iconic helmets and body armour worn in comic book culture

Part 5

No 1  Star Wars Franchise  "Boba Fett"  
 

Utterly Cool

The "next major villain" after Darth Vader. Fett tracks the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City, where Vader captures its passengers and tortures its captain, Han Solo. Wanting to collect a bounty on Solo, Fett confronts Vader about whether Solo will survive carbon freeze. Vader promises that the Empire will compensate Fett if Solo dies; after Solo is determined to be alive, Vader turns him over to Fett.



Boba Fett stems from initial design concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally conceived as a rogue bounty hunter. While Vader became less a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept remained, and Fett became "an equally villainous" but "less conspicuous" character. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie influenced Fett's design, which was finalized by and is credited to Joe Johnston. Fett's armor was originally designed for "super troopers", and was adapted for Fett as the script developed.

Boba Fett

Boba Fett is primarily played by Jeremy Bulloch in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Bulloch's half-brother alerted him to the role. He was cast as Fett because the costume happened to fit "as if a Savile Row tailor had come out and made it"; he did not have to do a reading or a screen test, and Bulloch never worked from a script for either film.
Filming the role for Empire lasted three weeks. The actor was pleased with the costume and used it to convey the character's menace.


Bulloch based his performance on Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars;

similar to the Western character, Bulloch cradled the gun prop, made the character seem ready to shoot, slightly tilted his head, and stood a particular way. Bulloch did not try to construct a backstory for the character, and said later that "the less you do with Boba Fett, the stronger he becomes".

 

Star Wars Franchise





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The top 5 Iconic helmets and body armour worn in comic book culture

Part 4

2 Tony Stark "Iron Man"

Marvel

An American billionaire playboy, industrialist, and ingenious engineer.  Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and business in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War themes to contemporary concerns, such as corporate crime and terrorism.

Tony Stark

Anthony Edward Stark, the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark, is born on Long Island. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study electrical engineering and later receives Master's degrees in electrical engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company. Tony Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart, keeping him alive. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. But during the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and heads back to rejoin the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.



Stark develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them.

Iron Man

Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; and (briefly)
Mich.

Armor

The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).



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The top 5 Iconic helmets and body armour worn in comic book culture

Part 3

3 "Judge Dredd" 2000AD

Dredd

Joseph Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One. He is a "street judge", empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals.

Dredd is armed with a "Lawgiver" pistol (programmed to recognise only his palm-print, and capable of six types of ammunition), a daystick, a knife and stun or gas grenades.

His helmet obscures his face, except for his mouth and jaw. He rides a large "Lawmaster" motorcycle equipped with machine-guns, a powerful laser cannon, and full artificial intelligence capable of responding to orders from the Judge and operating itself.

Senior Judge Joseph Dredd and his brother Rico Dredd were cloned from the DNA of Chief Judge Fargo, the first chief judge, in 2066. Their growth was artificially accelerated to an apparent physiological age of 5, with all the appropriate knowledge for their age electronically implanted in their brains during gestation. The name 'Dredd' was chosen by the genetic scientist who created them, Morton Judd, to "instill fear in the population".

Man with no face

Dredd's entire face is never shown in the strip. This began as an unofficial guideline, but soon became a rule. As John Wagner explained: "It sums up the facelessness of justice − justice has no soul.

Time passes in the Judge Dredd strip in real time, so as a year passes in life, a year passes in the comic. The first Dredd story, published in 1977, was set in 2099, whilst stories published in 2015 are set in 2137. Consequently, as former editor Alan McKenzie explains, "every year that goes by Dredd gets a year older – unlike Spider-Man, who has been a university student for the past twenty-five years!".



Cool Craze

 The story is centred on the megalopolis of Mega-City One, on the east coast of North America. Within Mega-City One, extensive automation (including intelligent robots) has rendered the majority of the population unemployed. As a consequence, the general population is prone to embracing any fashion or craze they encounter.


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The top 5 Iconic helmets and body armour worn in comic book culture

Part 2

4  "The Spartan Army" Frank Millers 300



King Leonidas

In 480 BC, King Leonidas of Sparta gathers 300 of his best men to fight the upcoming Persian invasion. In what is likely a suicide mission, they and their allies plan to stop King Xerxes' invasion of Greece at the narrow cliffs of the "Hot Gates" (Thermopylae). The terrain prevents the Greeks from being overwhelmed by Xerxes' superior numbers (a military tactic usually called "defeat in detail").
Before the battle starts, Ephialtes, a deformed Spartan, begs Leonidas to let him fight but is rejected due to his hunchbacked form, which prevents him from lifting his shield high enough to be of use for the phalanx. Ephilates gets so desperate by Leonidas' refusal that he throws himself off a cliff.


Athenian

The Spartans and their allies successfully hold off the Persians for two days and nights. During a break in the fighting, Xerxes meets with Leonidas and offers wealth and power in exchange for his surrender. Leonidas declines, and battle continues. Meanwhile Ephialtes awakes from his failed suicide attempt and decides to betray the Greeks by telling the Persians about the existence of a small pass that allows Xerxes to attack them from behind.
 


"Dine In Hell"

Learning of the Persian maneuvers, the Greeks realize their position is indefensible, but the Spartans and a few others refuse to retreat. Before engaging the Persians for the last time, Leonidas orders one Spartan (Dilios) to leave, so that he might survive to tell their story.
On the third day Xerxes has the Spartans surrounded, their remaining allies (Thespians) already dead. He gives Leonidas one final chance to surrender and kneel to him. After some hesitation, Leonidas finally complies and throws down his arms. This, however, is a trick by Leonidas, and signals the Spartans to fight. Leonidas throws his spear at Xerxes, intending to make the "God-King" bleed, and succeeds.

300

There are references to the Battle at Thermopylae in several of Frank Miller's other comic books. In Sin City: The Big Fat Kill, Dwight considers Leonidas' choice of "where to fight" and manages to loosely recreate the Spartan defense tactics by cornering the enemy gang in a tight alley; they then annihilate them with heavy gunfire and explosives. Also in Hell and Back when the protagonist is drugged he sees his friend as Leonidas with a machine gun. In The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller's "omega" Batman stories, there are references to a character named "Hot Gates" (the literal translation of Thermopylae), an adult film star who first makes a version of Snow White, and then declares herself Dictator of Ohio.

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The top 5 Iconic helmets and body armour worn in comic book culture

Part 1

5  "Rouge Trooper" 2000AD



Rouge Trooper

Rogue Trooper, as British comics readers of a certain age will know, is a blue-skinned "Genetic Infantryman" on a scorched Nu-Earth where North and South are perpetually at war.
 
G.I.s' personalities can be saved onto "biochips" and uploaded into new bodies, and through various quirks of circumstance, Rogue's former brothers-in-arms Gunnar, Bagman and Helm currently reside in (natch) his gun, his backpack and his helmet, functioning both as his companions and critics. The strip was created by Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) and Gerry Finley-Day, and first appeared in 2000AD in 1981




Quartz Zone Massacre

 During the war many forms of chemical and biological weapons have been used, poisoning the planet, and as a result the troops of both sides must live in enclosed cities, and only venture into the outside if wearing protective gear known as "chemsuits".
 
Through genetic engineering, the Southers developed a race of warriors immune to the deadly atmosphere and will therefore be superior troops. The Souther High Command deploy the Genetic Infantry in an airborne assault, but a traitor has passed the secret of the G.I. to the Norts and they are massacred during the drop. This is known as the Quartz Zone Massacre.
 
Rogue, the only surviving G.I., goes AWOL in order to track down the Traitor General. Along the way he thwarts numerous Nort schemes, discovers and inadvertently destroys the only portion of Nu-Earth not contaminated by chemical weapons, and is betrayed by every female character he encounters.

Many elements of the Rogue back-story were inspired by World War II, the American Civil War and the Cold War.

 Norts (Northerner Unionists) fought against generally less-well equipped Southers (Southern Confederates), and several battles were referenced, such as the First Battle of Bull Run, which was retold as the Battle of Mek-Bull Run. The Norts appear totalitarian in nature. While their uniforms have Nazi connotations their dialect and names are mostly quasi-Slavic, as if they represented a futuristic version of the Soviet Bloc, although there is some usage of Germanic names as well, for example General Vagner, Admiral Torpitz.



2000AD

Their conduct and methods of waging war are also more barbaric than those of the comparatively civilised Southers. Although as the series develops the Southers are also shown committing comparably immoral acts as well. "Genetic Infantryman" is a direct homage to the supposed "Government Issue" tag that American troops were nicknamed after.

Grant Morrison has said he will be writing a Rogue Trooper screenplay for Sam Worthington's production company Full Clip Production.

 

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The Top 5 Iconic Women in comic book culture today

Part 5

1 D.C.Comics Harleen Frances a.k.a "Harley Quinn"

D.C.Comics

Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzell, M.D. as an Arkham Asylum psychiatrist who falls for the Joker and becomes his accomplice and on-off sidekick. The story received wide praise and won the Eisner and Harvey Awards for Best Single Issue Comic of the Year.

She becomes fascinated with the Joker while interning at Arkham, and volunteers to analyze him. She falls hopelessly in love nearly instantly with the Joker during their sessions, and she helps him escape from the asylum more than once. When the Joker is returned to Arkham after a battle with Batman, the sight of her badly injured patient drives Harleen insane, leading her to quit her psychiatrist job and don a jester costume to become Harley Quinn, the Joker's sidekick. She later becomes fast friends with Poison Ivy, who injects her with an antitoxin which gives her super-human strength, agility, and immunity to toxins.



Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzell
 

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The Top 5 Iconic Women in comic book culture today

Part 4

2 Uma Thurman a.k.a "The Bride"




The Bride

Beatrix Kiddo (primarily known as The Bride), codename Black Mamba, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the two-part movie Kill Bill directed by Quentin Tarantino. She is portrayed by Uma Thurman and was selected by Empire Magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Entertainment Weekly also named her as one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.

According to Uma Thurman, the character was created collaboratively during the filming of Pulp Fiction, with Thurman providing the character’s first name and Tarantino her last name.

Beatrix Kiddo

Kiddo is a former member of the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad", an elite, shadowy group of assassins. A formidable, ruthless warrior trained under martial arts master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), she served at the right hand of Bill (David Carradine), her boss and lover, a position that provoked the furious envy of fellow Viper Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah).

Kiddo, a master of the Hung Gar style of kung fu, is the only Viper to learn the "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique", a method of killing a person by quickly striking five pressure points around the heart with the fingertips. After the victim takes five steps, the heart explodes and he/she falls dead.

 Pai Mei supposedly refused to teach this technique, which was said to be "the deadliest blow in all of martial arts", to Bill or anyone else. Kiddo's determination wins his respect, however, and he teaches her the forbidden technique - a secret that Kiddo withholds from Bill until they meet for their final showdown.

Black Mamba

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