[Meeting…] Season 3 finale special

Once again, the season of “Meeting…” comes to an end. In total, we have three seasons introducing you to the most diverse comic characters, regardless of the era, nationality, level of popularity, temperament or role they have played in their respective adventures. So, without further ado, let's briefly review what will most likely be the last season of this section.

In total, comrade Martín and I have written about 28 characters, of which he has made 15, the remaining thirteen articles being from yours truly. This time we see three outliers. For the first time, the Japanese manga tops the list of the most commented with 13 articles The second place is occupied by the cEuropean omics with 10, also seeing for the first time how those of Spanish nationality occupy less than half of that figure (until now it had been the majority). The third oddity of the present edition is that North America is in last position with 5 entries, one of them also being from a Mexican comic (the absence of a South American comic is occupied by this one, which ultimately belongs to the bottom of Latin American comics).

It is also worth highlighting the fact that there have been more relatively recent characters, so the average has moved to almost 1985 (1984.65, to be exact), around six years more than last season and nearly ten years more than the first. The honor of being the oldest character falls toSpirou(1938), while the “trophy” for the most recent goes toApollonius(2015).

This situation is due to two reasons. The first is that, in this case, Martín has decided give priority to Japanese manga and relegate American comics to a secondary position to remove him from this lack of representation as much as possible. In second place, I have tried to make my repertoire more balanced than the previous one in terms of nationality of the comics. For those who have not followed the two previous batches, I remember that I had swept quite a bit home, showing a preference for Spanish comics, especially with regard to the characters from the Bruguera tradition of the magazine Pulgarcito and company. That kind of “comiquil chauvinism”, although necessary (many of those characters had fallen into complete oblivion, so it didn't hurt to rescue them), made the variety in the cast suffer a little.

As regards the sleeve, the inseparable stray children have appeared this season Shiro and Kuro; the serial killer Yoshikage Kira; the Straw Hat gang's sniper and compulsive liar Usopp; the incompetent sergeant Keroro; Hattori, the ninja of a thousand resources; the space patrol jaco; the eccentricdetective L; the skilled white collar thiefKaito Kid; the avenging neurosurgeon and fugitive from justice Kenzô Tenma; Pyonkichi, the living drawing of a frog printed on a T-shirt; the sui generis fighter and hero Riki-Oh; the megalomaniac, temperamental and powerful Tetsuo; and the charismatic and comic Joseph Joestar.

Inside the european comic, we have the miner and revolutionary Apollonius; el extraño, retraído y perspicaz inspector Motenson; el frío e implacable Judge Dredd; el bondadoso y, a veces, cínico Lupo Alberto; Spirou, el botones reconvertido a periodista y aventurero; Black Arrow, el “doble” de Robin Hood; la muñeca «para adultos» Noah; Makinavaja, “el último choriso”; Purk, el héroe cavernícola; y el portador de la espada mágica, el egipcio Papyrus.

Los escasos personajes norteamericanos presentados son The Green Spider, “un hombre araña antes de El Hombre Araña”; el conejo Binky; Forever, la Lazarus de la familia Carlyle; la antiheroica tortuga mutante Slash; y Venom, el famoso némesis de Spider-Man.

Inevitablemente, de nuevo nos hemos dejado personajes en el tintero. Martín tenía en su lista a  The Goon, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) y Nekomajin, among others.

En cuanto a mí, me hubiera gustado hablar de Esther, la protagonista de la serie de la que Purita Campos fue dibujante, y la famosa Mafalda del genial Quino, y hubieran caído este mes si no me hubiesen salido otros compromisos. Es una pena, pues la sección andaba falta de personajes femeninos y ambos son importantes en sus respectivos campos. Me gustaría escribir sobre ellas y otros personajes en publicaciones aperiódicas, en este u otros formatos, aunque no puedo poner la mano en el fuego, pues depende de diversos factores.

Sin más, despedimos esta sección y esperamos que Conciendo a os haya entretenido y hecho aprender leyéndolo tanto como a nosotros escribiéndolo.