Top Ten: Comics' Best Dads

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Reed Richards

Honestly, there's an argument here to include Reed on the worst dad's list. He allowed Doom to name Valeria? He's pretty self-absorbed and borderline emotionally neglectful on occasion. And he probably wouldn't chart high on best husbands, either. Still, the time that he does spend with the kids is generally cool and adventure packed. What pair of little kids ever had a playground like the Baxter Building and the past, or playmates like The Thing and Lockjaw? That kind of mitigates the recurring "Dad is in the lab again" theme.

Roy Harper

Any dad who lets his daughter live with him at Titans Tower is pretty awesome in our book. But Roy has always been a doting father to his daughter Lian, despite having to raise her on his own. After having the child hidden from him by her mother, Cheshire, Roy saved the girl from her mother's villainous life by becoming a high-profile single dad. And best of all, even after changing all those diapers, Roy proves that a dad can still look good enough to get all the girls.

Jim Gordon

We always knew Jim Gordon was one of the good guys, but his recent revelations to his daughter, Barbara, have confirmed it. As Barbara was recovering from surgery, she admitted to her father that she had been Batgirl, and was now Oracle. Not only did Gordon accept his daughter's dangerous career choice, but he revealed that he had already known she was Batgirl. Always supportive and now willing to let his daughter pursue her own path, even if it means risking her life, Gordon's the kind of dad we'd all like to have.

Bigby Wolf

OK, we admit that Bigby gets extra points for being so daggone cool. But his dedication to Snow and the kids since they moved to Wolf Valley at the Farm should be an example to any dad with a litter of seven kids. As any Fables reader knows, they're a bit of a handful whether wolf or human. Plus, his acceptance of his seventh child, the invisible baby zephyr he named Ghost, was something only a loving dad could do.

Jack Murdock

It's true that his choices for his own life weren't the wisest. But when it came to his son, Jack Murdock didn't let being a single dad stop him from making sure young Matt was raised well. Despite being a boxer himself and going through some rough patches with Matt, he's the one who encouraged his son to hit the books and instilled in the boy a respect for non-violence. And it was his father's murder that inspired Matt to turn dad's boxing robes into a vigilante costume and fight crime as Daredevil. Thanks, Dad.

Rick Grimes

Any time a reader of The Walking Dead starts thinking he's got it rough, all he has to do is think of Rick, and life doesn't seem so bad. But faced with a zombie apocalypse, Rick doesn't go off the deep end like many of his co-survivors. Instead, he serves as an example for his son Carl by acting as their leader. Along with that, he ignored the protests from others and taught his son to shoot a gun at zombies, and that's a skill that just might come in handy as the two fight for survival in the coming months. And most recently, Rick's raising of Carl is yielding benefits, as the son now must help the father to cope after the horrible tragedy they recently lived through.

Animal Man

Buddy Baker comes off as an all-around great father. He's even-tempered and has real talks about real issues with his kids. We recall one strong moment under Grant Morrison's pen when he explained to his son the justifications of why the family should be vegetarian while still allowing their cat to have meat in its diet. That's the kind of caring, intelligent conversation that one welcomes from an involved dad.

Wally West

When the public's knowledge of his identity led to his wife's attack and the miscarriage of their unborn twins, Wally was so traumatized that he begged The Spectre to make his identity a secret again, wishing to try to recover from the loss alone with his wife. But after a twist in time meant the two children were born alive, Wally didn't take them for granted, making their health and happiness the center of not only his home life, but even his time as a superhero, sharing costume time with Jai and Iris.

Uncle Ben

While he's not the biological father of Peter Parker, Uncle Ben certainly had the pivotal male role in the raising of the future Spider-Man. His words on "great power" become the mantra that Spidey lives by. Honestly, inasmuch as we've always viewed Uncle Ben as Pete's father figure, the first Raimi film drives it home. When Tobey Maguire declares, "I had a father; his name was Ben Parker," you can't help but nod in solemn agreement.

Pa Kent

A narrow win, but Pa Kent remains the Gold Standard for Comic Dads. Pa Kent represents the notion of nurture-over-nature, as his (and Ma's) warmth and strong values serve as the strongest influence on the worldview of Superman. It's accurate to say that Pa Kent is iconic in his own right; the character has been judged worthy to appear in nearly every iteration of Superman media, including the serials, the first episode of the '50s series, Superboy, the brief '80s cartoon, Lois and Clark, and obviously the first Reeve film and Smallville. His gentle nature, constant optimism, and wisdom make him the only choice for #1 on our list of the Best Dads.