February 14^th is now a full week behind us. The flowers are starting to droop, the chocolates have begun to harden, and the expensive candlelit dinner is now a fading memory. Only the love remains. Well, that and the blasted toothache we got from eating so many candy hearts. (You know who really learns how much we love him in February—our dentist.)

Yes, Valentine’s Day has ended, but endings aren’t always sad things. Take our Valentine’s Day poll, for example. Yes, it’s ended, but that means we can now declare DC Comics’ Most Dateable Super Heroes (as chosen by you, the fans). But first, a little recap…

Last Thursday, we kicked off a new poll asking fans to vote for the most dateable male and female DC Comics super hero. The response was pretty overwhelming and the results were not what many people expected. In fact, in the female category, the competition was too close to call throughout most of the weekend. However, after seven days of voting, we’re now ready to declare our winners. So…which two heroes would you most like to date?

MOST DATEABLE MALE HERO: NIGHTWING

Why, hello Mr. Grayson. Fancy seeing you around here.

Seriously, folks, this wasn’t even close. As far as the guys go, Nightwing destroyed the dating competition. Batman, Superman and the Flash were a distant second, third and fourth, respectively. No one else really even registered. Not Green Arrow. Not Aquaman or Hal Jordan. No one. (Intriguingly, though, Swamp Thing managed to get more votes than Simon Baz, Calvin Rose, Midnighter, Apollo or Cyborg. It may not be easy being green…but apparently, there are worse things when it comes to dating.)

But getting back to Nightwing, is his victory really all that surprising? He’s ruggedly handsome, strong, possesses a great personality and a tragic childhood to boot, meaning that he’s someone who would easily be able to entertain and engage you, keep you safe if you were ever accosted late at night…and require the occasional hug. Plus, unlike heroes like Superman, Aquaman and Hal Jordan, Nightwing isn’t so readily identified as having a current or frequent squeeze. And unlike Batman, he seems to have a good handle on any baggage he may be carrying around.

In fact, the biggest problem with dating Nightwing is right there in the name. He works nights. All of them. Finding time for dinner and a movie may be a little rough. But if you could get him to carve out some time, and turn off all of his communication devices, and find a restaurant without TVs around the bar so he won’t accidentally catch a newscast, you’ll likely be in for a very nice night.

Now, before we get to our most dateable female character, allow us to clarify something. Obviously, we could only include a limited number of characters in our poll, and one of the decisions we made early on was to leave off any characters who are under 18. That’s why Supergirl wasn’t on the list (or any of the Teen Titans, for that matter).

Anyhow, now that we’ve settled that, it’s on to the ladies!

MOST DATEABLE FEMALE HERO: ZATANNA

You’d have to go all the way to the end of your address book to give our most dateable female super hero a call.

Maybe it’s the dark hair. Maybe it’s the just ever-so-slightly visible tattoos. Maybe it’s the fishnets. Or maybe people just figure the conversation will be even more interesting when half of it’s in reverse. Whatever the reason, we were pleasantly surprised to see Zatanna take the prize, and it’s hard to deny that she would make a great date. First, while she’s obviously beautiful, Zatanna still comes off as very down to earth. She’s intelligent and powerful, but she doesn’t wear a colorful costume or go by a super hero name. Plus, she has that edge to her. She’s very much in the hero camp, but she has a wild side and you get the sense that her history isn’t exactly spotless. Those mistakes make her relatable to everyday, imperfect people like us. The magic and rebellious attitude she possesses make her exciting. And her association with the Justice League Dark means that you never know what to expect when you’re in her company.

However, that would be her single biggest problem as well. We’ve all been on dates from hell, but on a date with Zatanna, you could literally find yourself in hell. Or attacked by a necromancer. Or possessed by a malevolent, hungry, fish-demon…or something. It could make for a really memorable night out, but not necessarily a romantic one. Still, if excitement and thrills are your thing, it’s hard to think of someone who more perfectly embodies them better than Zatanna Zatara.

Intriguingly, while Nightwing was the clear winner in the male category, Zatanna’s victory was much narrower. Several other female super heroes would apparently do quite well on the dating scene. Batgirl and Wonder Woman also garnered an impressive number of votes, which perhaps isn’t so surprising considering their popularity. Catwoman, Black Canary and Starfire didn’t fare too badly either. However, there was another female super hero who gave Zatanna a real run for her money. In fact, they were so close that we decided to give her an honorary mention.

HONORARY MENTION: POWER GIRL

We’d be hard-pressed to pick a young female super hero so fundamentally different from Zatanna than Power Girl, which just goes to show that for every person drawn to the dark, mysterious and dangerous, there’s one who prefers their girls sunny, powerful and generally clean cut. Power Girl was a very close second in the female category, and one can make the argument that of the three heroes we’ve discussed, Karen Starr would be the easiest to date. While Power Girl certainly has no shortage of enemies, Kryptonians have a pretty good track record when it comes to dating humans. In fact, Karen herself has already had one relationship in DC COMICS – THE NEW 52. Granted, it was with Mister Terrific, another super hero, but if she could make time for nights out with him, we have to think she could do the same for others. The downside is that it would be pretty hard not to feel out of shape when you were out with her. Still, a little extra motivation to get to the gym isn’t a bad thing, right?

So there you have it. Nightwing and Zatanna are our two most dateable super heroes, as chosen by DC Comics fans! Do you agree? Why or why not? And who did we leave off the list of eligible candidates that you would have included?