Arbitrary list of Irish comics characters

Hail glorious St Patrick, dear saint of our isle!

Okay, the isle next door to me. My Irish heritage leads me to throwing together another listicle. This time in honour of St Patrick's Day.

So who are the best Irish characters in comics? And, no, Irish-American does not count. Sorry Daredevil, Hitman and Spider-man 2099. Although Captain America (Steve Rogers that is) is the first-generation son of Irish immigrants so would qualify for an Irish passport if he so wished.

Banshee

First appearance: X-Men 28, 1967

Irishness: Redhead, banshee-related powers, owns a castle that housed ACTUAL LEPRECHAUNS.

Best thing: Popular character over his history, even becoming a major character in the First Class movie.

Worst thing: I mentioned the leprechauns, right? His daughter is also a banshee-themed superhero and his cousin Black Tom Cassidy is a baddy.

Silver Banshee

First appearance: Action Comics 595, 1987

Irishness: Banshee-related powers, owns a castle.

Best thing: Was responsible for introducing the post-crisis Superman to his vulnerability to magic.

Worst thing: Making me type that nerdy sentence above.

Cassidy

 

First appearance: The Vertigo Gallery: Dreams and Nightmares 1, 1995

 

Irishness: Took part in the 1916 Easter uprising. Emigrated to New York. Drunk.

 

Best thing: A vampire that cheats at arm wrestling. The true heart of Garth Ennis' Preacher.

 

Worst thing: Giving in to his animal nature in ways that Jesse Custer could not forgive. Go read Preacher.

 

Kev Hawkins

First appearance: The Authority: Kev, 2002

 

Irishness: Recognised as an enemy of the IRA and the UDF. Drunk. Honestly, this list should only be Garth Ennis characters.

 

Worst thing: Making a joke about Apollo and the Midnighter being "a couple of poofs"....

 

Best thing: ...and waking up in hospital.

 

Shamrock

First appearance: Marvel Superheroes: Contest of Champions 1, 1982

 

Irishness: Redhead, shamrock-themed costume, "the luck of the Irish" is officially her superpower.

 

Worst thing: Contest of Champions was a story pitting heroes from all over the world against each other. This meant (as 90% of Marvel characters were American) creating lots of new characters from lesser-visited areas of the Marvel 616 world. Which meant the creators using a LOT of lazy stereotypes. Seriously, "the luck of the Irish".

 

Best thing: Does not appear often.

 

Fiddle O'Diddle

First appearance: The Dandy, 1994

Irishness: I... just... I mean COME ON!.. LOOK AT IT! AND it's called FIDDLE O'DIDDLE!!!

Best thing: Drawn by Tom Paterson, so at least had funny pictures.

Worst thing: Literally everything. It makes me want to apologise to the Irish on behalf of all British comics readers.



So that's that.

 

This may become a tradition...