NOTE: This post is recycled from my old blog and was originally posted in 2015. I have not edited it to update.
List time again! Today, the top comic book sidekicks of all time, according to me. Now, the rules are: They have to have been an actual sidekick—someone who usually didn’t appear without the main hero, at least at first and for a long time. So, Supergirl and She-Hulk wouldn’t qualify. Second rule: They can’t all be versions of Robin. Or even Batman sidekicks. Because for a guy who was supposed to be such a loner, he sure did amass a lot of hangers-on. Another rule: No animals.
Final rule: I can break any of these if I feel like it.
And a caveat: These are my personal favorites, not necessarily the most important sidekicks—or even the most relevant. If you disagree with me, drop a comment and tell me why!
20. The Brat Pack
It’s hard to find Rick Veitch’s comic about sidekicks who serve as commercial products, and I’m going by memory, but as I recall it was excellent. It won an Eisner. But since I can’t do more research, it’s just placing at #20.
19. Obelix
Sidekicks essentially perform two functions: Humor or straight man. Obelix was the classic humor version. Costello to Asterix’s Abbot.
18. Frenchie
Less a sidekick and more of a chauffeur. Moon Knight’s helicopter pilot was a fan favorite.
Also, one of the first semi-major gay characters in comics.
17. Mephisto
Sure, nobody thinks of him as a sidekick but the dude used to step and fetch for Thanos. Good times.
16. Arthur
Arthur, AKA The Moth, served alongside the lunatic hero, The Tick. Arthur was more than just a “straight amn sidekick,” though, he kept his bungling, egomaniacal hero out of trouble in the same way 99 always looked out for Maxwell Smart.
15. Wong
An appearance by Dr. Strange’s Chinese manservant was always the highlight of Strange’s stories for me. I can’t explain why. He even broke the golden rule of Asian sidekicks by not being a karate expert!
14. Hydra Bob
Remember how I said that some sidekicks fulfill a necessary humor function? Well, Deadpool was already funny. Bob is his punching bag, his whipping boy, a character who does nothing but get the crap beat out of him, issue out of issue. If Deadpool was in South Park, Bob would be Kenny.
13. Harley Quinn
Sorry, fans, but she doesn’t rate higher than this for me. It’s pretty rare that I read her in a comic and enjoy her. Loved her on TV, but this is a comic book blog—not a cartoon one. At the same time, I love the concept of a girl for Joker. A crooked lid for a crooked pot.
12. Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes was a comic (strip), so this counts. We all know that Hobbes was imaginary, just a tool of Calvin’s id, but he seemed so alive to us as readers. In fact, when my son was eight and read every single Calvin and Hobbes book over and over, he insisted Hobbes was real and not just a stuffed animal. Oh, and I know I said no animals—but he’s a stuffed doll, not an animal.
11. Cheeks the Toy Wonder
Speaking of stuffed dolls, in his first solo book Ambush Bug got himself sidekick: A toy doll that he found in the garbage. I loved this book, and never forgot Cheeks. It was good to see Bug having someone he actually cared about, since other than that he was basically a witless psychopath.
10. Lockheed.
Again: I know I said no animals! But Lockheed’s a dragon–not really a traditional animal. And he was a great sidekick for Kitty Pryde.
9. Jimmy Olsen
I hesitated before putting Jimmy on this list because he’s not really a sidekick. He’s more like a damsel in distress, or a supporting character. But I remember his solo book titled “Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.” That sure sounds like a sidekick to me.
8. The Legion of Substitute Heroes
A team created as understudies to the Legion of Superheroes, the LSHs were a group of misfits and weirdos with powers like eating stuff and turning into immobile stone. If they were on the cover, I’d buy the comic. It was one of the only things that would make me buy Legion of Super Heroes.
7. Hit-Girl
I hear you: She’s not a sidekick! But she was. Not to Kick Ass, but to her father. And then she came into her own as the biggest badass teenage girl since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
6. Francine Peters (from Strangers in Paradise)
Was Francine really Katchoo’s sidekick? Go back and read the brilliant Strangers in Paradise and you’ll see why I say she is. She serves as comedy relief when Katchoo get’s too serious or psychotic. She’s a damsel in distress. She saves the day. She provides every major sidekick function. That she’s also a love interest doesn’t mean she can’t also be a sidekick.
5. H.E.R.B.I.E.
I’m talking about the robot butler to Franklin Richards in the wonderful all-ages comic, Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius. The book was a series of minis and one-shots, and was always charming and hilarious.
4. Sam Wilson
Maybe it’s not fair to call him a sidekick, but remember: The Falcon got his start in the pages of Captain America and there’s been several times where the two characters even shared the masthead–with Cap getting top billing.
Remarkably, it took 20 years for him to get his first solo book—and even then, it was just a four-issue miniseries. A great miniseries, but still—way too short.
3. Dick Grayson
What?!? He’s only #3? Yeah. He was a great Robin—providing Batman with a voice of compassion that came from a place that wasn’t completely obsessed. On the one hand, he represents Batman saving his own soul—giving a father figure to a kid who lost his parents. On the other, he’s the counterpoint to Bruce Wayne, who lost his parents and had them replaced by a guy who taught him combat but was also an evil dick.
2. Tim Drake
I know, I know: Two Robins at the top of my list, even after I made a rule about Batman sidekicks? What can I say?
Just this: I could never do better than Chris Sims at explaining why Tim Drake is the best Robin ever.
1. Bucky Barnes
Could there really be any doubt that this is who I’d pick? Of course not. Bucky Barnes was great as a sidekick, especially in the retcon flashbacks by Ed Brubaker where he was revealed to be a violent assassin—someone who took care of business even Captain America didn’t know about. But he was also great when was fleshed out has his own character, first as the sinister Winter Soldier and then eventually taking over the mantle as Captain America.