Tuesday, June 13, 2006

A Research Question

Kalinara and Ragnell do the important research, I know. Still, this has been bugging me for a couple of days, since the last Titans post made me think about Dick Grayson and Wally West's college experiences.

What are the education levels of the major superheroes (DC, Marvel, etc.)? In other words, who was otherwise eligible (i.e., was raised in a system of primary, secondary, and higher education, and not on an island full of immortal women, not that that's inferior in any way), and

A. only graduated high school,
B. attended/attends college and didn't graduate/hasn't graduated,
C. graduated college, and/or
D. has some post-graduate degree?

These would be academic achievements we've either seen or can infer (imply? I wasn't an English major).

Here's my off-the-top-of-my-head list:

A. Hal Jordan (?), Jason Rusch (?), Steve Rogers, Alan Scott (?)
B. Dick Grayson, Wally West, Johnny Storm, Bruce Wayne (?)
C. Ronnie Raymond, Peter Parker, Clark Kent, Ben Grimm, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Barry Allen, Sue Storm, Jay Garrick
D. Reed Richards, Barbara Gordon, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange (and all the other medical doctors), Adrian Chase, Kate Spencer, Jennifer Walters (and all the other lawyers)

Who else?

7 comments:

kalinara said...

I think Hal would have had to graduate college. He did make Airforce Captain. And I'm pretty sure that requires a bachelors. (Ragnell would know, I'd reckon...)

Kyle Rayner attended art school but dropped out.

Hmm, that's interesting, I'll wrack my brain for others.

Anonymous said...

Prof' Xavier is a professor of something, (lorna dane) and alex summers have a degree in geology (college), iceman is an accountant (college), beast has a doctorate in something (biochemistry?).

Tom Bondurant said...

Kalinara: That makes sense for Hal, although I thought he might have joined the Air Force right out of high school and just worked his way up. Still, I should know how that works; my grandfather was in the USAF.

Anon: Isn't the Xavier school basically a prep school? You'd graduate from Xavier's, go to college, then come back to teach?

Andrew Ironwood said...

Just to elaborate on Prof Xavier, he has doctorates in psychology and biology (at *least*...)

[WORD VERIFICATION: tmjjigol - a jigol with a sore jaw...]

Anonymous said...

Bruce Wayne started took many courses on Universities but never finished any career.

Neil said...

Jason Rusch is attending college, which would put him under category "B." (In Firestorm #23, Jason mentions having to get back to New York to Ghenna and classes. In the preview for #26 http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0606/07/dcfirsts.htm, we see Jason on the campus of "Columbus University").

Tom Bondurant said...

D'oh! Of course Jason is in college -- that was one of the big decisions pre-OYL. And now that I think about it, Ronnie didn't graduate from Vandemeer, did he? His college years were interrupted by the events of Ostrander's run.

That reminds me -- we can add Ray Palmer and Martin Stein to category D.