The Forbes Fictional 15

Frank Rich took the weekend off, so there's no column to examine tonight. And since it is still technically Thanksgiving weekend, we can put off real news until later ourselves.

For a number of years, Forbes has named its "Fictional 15," a list of the fifteen wealthiest fictional characters. I wrote about it last year, too. For the first time, there's a shakeup at the top. In previous years, Santa Claus has been the richest character, with an estimated net worth of infinity. I've never liked that because, in addition to its imprecision, Santa clearly gets his wealth through some sort of magic. He doesn't sell all the toys his elves make, so he must be getting his money elsewhere. Since he has no obvious business of any kind, we can only assume that he's either a counterfeiter (a concept that also has seems to have a few holes, because he never seems to carry cash) or he creates his wealth out of whole cloth. This, however, is not the reason Forbes dropped him from the top. Instead, the magazine claims that they've been inundated with cards and letters from children insisting that he's real and thus disqualified for a list of fictional characters. While I'm not sure how I feel about that, I guess I have to admit that the milk and cookies we leave out for him at our house have been consumed by the time we get up in the morning. But does this mean that he'll displace Bill Gates in next year's list of real billionaires?

The disappearance of Santa Claus, however, leaves the list open for dominance by Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, and I suppose we have to acknowledge the opportunity these days for war profiteers. In second place is C. Montgomery Burns, and there's no point in arguing against that. But he does beat out Scrooge McDuck, whose wealth seems to me vastly underestimated at $10.9 billion. Richie Rich is a step behind him at #4, who also seems too low at a mere @10.7 billion.

Tony Stark is a new addition to the list, which makes sense for the same reason Daddy Warbucks tops the list--it's a good time for defense contractors. But he can't quite edge out Bruce Wayne, who comes in at #7 to Stark's #8. Lex Luthor drops off the list after his unsuccessful attempt this summer to create a new continent in the Atlantic Ocean.