US magazine, Entertainment Weekly, has produced a list of the ’20 All-Time Coolest Heroes In Pop Culture’ with another Top 20 for villains. And, in true fanboy-baiting style, these lists are sure to provoke one or two exacerbated exclamations and heated debates. I mean come on, what gives? Harry Potter is cooler than Han Solo – did I miss a meeting or something?

You can read the whole story here, complete with explanations for inclusion and a top trumps-style best accessory factoid (like Batman and his Batarangs). But I’ve reproduced the list in full here, too, for those who just want a quick peruse and some validations of taste, or to stock up on some fresh indignation ammunition. So here we go then, Entertainment Weekly’s supposedly definitive ranking of what’s cool…see what you think.

20 All-Time Coolest Heroes In Pop Culture:

1. James Bond
2. Indiana Jones
3. Superman
4. Harry Potter
5. Ellen Ripley
6. John McClane
7. Han Solo
8. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
9. Robin Hood
10. Spider-Man
11. Mad Max
12. James T. Kirk
13. Foxy Brown
14. Will Kane
15. Dirty Harry
16. Jack Bauer
17. Nancy Drew
18. Batman
19. Atticus Finch
20. Sydney Bristow

Ok, so I can see the first two. Bond and Indie are rock-solid icons. And while he’s never been my cup of chai, Superman is the embodiment of Americana. But Potter at four is too much for me. Surprising omissions come in a Schwarzenegger-shaped T-800 hole and a distinct lack of Bruce Campbell’s Ash (both of whom could easily be substituted for Nancy Drew, me thinks).

Buffy The Vampire Slayer up there in the Top 10 must be seen as a modernist nod, but Sarah Michelle Gellar seems a little out of her depth surrounded by such venerable company. And is Robin Hood cooler than Spiderman, Mad Max or Jack Bauer? Not when Kevin Costner’s 80s mullet-fest is taken into account, surely.

Big love goes out to Sigourney Weaver’s Alien slayer, Ellen Ripley, and the Shatner’s James Tiberius Kirk. However, heroes don’t get much more archetypal Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine, who amazingly misses the cut.

The villains’ list is no less controversial ether.

20 All-Time Coolest Villains In Pop Culture:

1. The Wicked Witch Of The West
2. Darth Vader
3. Hannibal Lecter
4. The Joker
5. Alex DeLarge
6. Montgomery Burns
7. Catherine Tramell
8. Voldemort
9. Dracula
10. Nurse Ratched
11. J.R. Ewing
12. Norman Bates
13. Frank Booth
14. Annie Wilkes
15. Snow White’s Queen
16. Hans Gruber
17. Michael Myers
18. Gordon Gekko
19. Alex Forrest
20. Jack Torrance

Once again, no real complaints up top (though for me it’s Vader every time). But seriously, J.R Ewing? He of the ten gallon hat is supposedly cooler than Hans Gruber. Agent Smith doesn’t get a mention, while Hogwarts spook Voldermort sits a heady 8. No room for Tony Montana or Travis Bickle. And what happened to Tyler Durden?

The one thing that strikes me when comparing these lists is the politicised nature of it all. The only star big enough to warrants two entries is Harrison Ford, and there seems to be a certain amount of box ticking going on. A couple of locked certs, check. A few deliberately controversial choices, check. A good mix of genres and decades, check. Chuck in some TV and animation stuff for a bit of balance, check etc… They even threw in a token black vote (here’s looking at you, Foxy Brown).

The lack of any Tarantino is glaring too – there are few directors working today that manage to saturate their films with such sweeping iconoclasm. Find me a recent image more memorable than Uma Thurman’s yellow jumpsuit in Kill Bill, for instance.

So, all in all, two lists probably designed more to generate discussion than to represent ‘fact’. But an interesting subject, nevertheless. Seriously, though, no Rambo?