Joss Whedon |

The rest of the world is often thrown into a tizzy trying to figure out the appeal Whedon's series'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' holds for the geek universe, where whatever Whedon touches turns to gold, be it his TV shows, indie films or comic books. His coolth can be measured by the dynamic way he uses English, which often changes the way all of us speak it: adding suffixes -y to make adjectives out of nouns ('listy' ) and -age to create new words ('lurkage' ), and getting rid of the 'out' from phrases like 'hang out' and 'freak out'. Whedon is perhaps the most influential figure in pop culture today, besides being a strong feminist and a selfconfessed mommy fan. What's not to love?

Batman |

Despite his lack of ostensible and visible superpowers, or more probably because of it, Batman is the favourite superhero of a superhero-loving population. Geeks love most caped crusaders, but Batman, with his angsty, brainy appeal, his nerdy friends and his love of gadgets - not to mention Gotham City, one of geekdom's favourite alternate universes - holds a special place in their heart. And we are talking about the comic book, not the films.