Gerry Conway was born September 10, 1952.

I was thinking that Gerry Conway deserves a “top 10” list—but he’s written so damn much, it seems impossible. He wrote the death of Gwen Stacy. He wrote the first Marvel/DC crossover: Superman vs. Spider-Man. He booted up Marvel’s first Dracula comic. Hell, if a Marvel comic book series existed in the early 1970s, Gerry wrote for it at one time or another. He was the only person to write issues of Spider-Man, Superman, The Avengers and Action Comics all in the same month–and created the first DC/Marvel crossover for the two flagship characters. He launched one of DC’s earliest villain-focused monthlies, Man-Bat’s solo title, and rebooted Challengers of the Unknown.

He created DC’s Steel character. Heck, he created dozens of characters that didn’t make my top ten below, like Vibe, Gypsy, Grizzly, The Atari Force (which came with your Atari 2600 game system), some decent Ghost Rider villains, Killer Frost, Hammerhead, Jack O’ Lantern and Killer Croc.

So a top 10 reading list is basically impossible. But what about a list of my favorite Conway creations? Now that’s doable. Hence…

THE TOP 10 CHARACTERS CREATED BY GERRY CONWAY

10. Werewolf By Night, the first Marvel “monster” character to have true independent depth—and whose series gave birth to Moon Knight!

9. Mister Fear, who looked like Taskmaster before there was a Taskmaster, and spawned many versions.

8. Mockingbird—a chick who hits people with batons. Technically, he didn’t create Bobbi Morse–who existed as a SHIELD Agent–but he did turn her into her superhero self.

7. Jonas Harrow, the best-named mad-scientist type in comic book history.

6. Power Girl, who is Superman with boobs. Big, splendid boobs.

5. Jason Todd, the Robin DC fans hated so much they were willing to pay 900# fees to vote him dead. So Joker beat his head in with a crowbar.

4. Tarantula, who was the villain in the first comic I ever bought (Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #1)—and who had cool stiletto toes.

3. Firestorm, whose fiery hair and literally split personality was the perfect metaphor for the instability of nuclear power. He basically had the same powers as Green Lantern, but he wasn’t nearly as stupid.

2. Man-Thing, cocreated with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, who is so much cooler than Swamp Thing but who suffers for never having had a comic about him written by Alan Moore.

1. Punisher, who kills creeps. You might have heard of him.