Rabbits are among nature's most beautiful creatures, and they play many important roles. In sci-fi, fantasy, and such, they are equally necessary, just as in nature, where they outwit our coyotes, tell our hunters and our ducks which hunting season it is, fend off our cowboys or pirates, and dress up like our female Tasmanian devils.

10. Thunderbunny

In this 1982 comic book, a teenager wishes he was a superhero. Then he finds a crashed spaceship, where he is granted flight and super-strength, but only by turning into a muscle-bound talking bunny.

The lesson is, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get turned into a super rabbit-man.

9. Hoops from Gamma World

In TSR's 1978 role-playing game Gamma World, the apocalypse made bad things happen. Animals were mutated. Robots went crazy. Plants could talk. Best of all, it gave us a break from AD&D for a week or two.

In Gamma World, society was crumbled. Things were rotten. You lived by your wits and fought for your life every day. But no one was prepared to handle rabbits who carried guns.

8. Lepus, Night of the Lepus

"What is the terrifying mutant that strikes from the shroud of night?"

Night of the Lepus is about a giant bunny. Not scary, you say? Have you ever met a giant bunny? Didn't think so.

And check out the horrifying way they pronounce mutant!

Janet Leigh runs afoul of the Lepus. You would think she learned her lesson after taking that shower in the crazy man's hotel.

7. Captain Carrot

Captain Carrot was the greatest of all the animal heroes, because he was a wimpy rabbit who ate radioactive carrots to become a stronger rabbit.

Roy Thomas, a veteran writer who knows everything about comic books, even the ones with bunnies, teamed with Scott Shaw to visit a parallel Earth in the DC Universe in 1982, where superhero animals Captain Carrot, Rubberduck, Alley-Kat-Abra and Little Cheese fought Salamandroid, Dr. Hoot, and Cold Turkey. Everything was an animal-related pun. But I liked the comic anyway.

6. Captain Bucky O'Hare

This rabbit flew a spaceship. Is there anything more excellent than that? Maybe a rabbit who fires a laser gun. The Captain did that, too.

Never has a hero been more resonant with our times than the good captain, who was "a funky fresh rabbit, who can take care of it."

5. Usagi Yojimbo

Stan Sakai's ronin rabbit appeared in comics in 1984. He teamed up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But he lived in feudal Japan, not modern America. So he had no pizza or sewers. He lived outside, baby, and he had a sword, not some girly nunchuks.

4. Hoppy the Marvel Bunny

The power of Shazam compels you! Captain Marvel Bunny first appeared in 1940. He returned in the 1980s to help the non-rabbit Captain Marvel in a story by Roy Thomas.

Hoppy has all the powers of Captain Marvel, but he's a talking bunny. What does a talking bunny do with the powers of Shazam? Whatever he wants.

3. Killer rabbit, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Crusades were a dark time, when society had few things to help them strive forward, such as courageous knights who fought valiantly even though their arms were off.

In this bleakness, crusading warriors were set upon by deadly creatures. This terrifying historical re-enactment is not for the faint.

2. Watership Down

So I'm eight, and a cartoon comes on at night, as cartoons were wont to do in 1978.

It's a heroic quest story, but with rabbits, frolicking in a meadow. So I think "Neat. Bunnies."

Then I sit down to watch and Oh Lord! Killing! Fangs! Blood! Garfunkel!

1. Jaxxon, the Green Star Wars Rabbit

Roy Thomas wrote the first issues of Marvel Comics' Star Wars comic book. So he put a rabbit in it. That man loves him some rabbits.

Jaxxon is a green rabbit guy, which totally makes sense, since the galaxy far, far away has pig guys and walrus guys. Jaxxon is the baddest Star Wars anything that is not a Wookiee. You got that, Boba Fett?

The more serious Star Wars fans disavow Jaxxon's existence, which makes him more awesome. Also, they need to chill out.

If you care not for Jaxxon, there may be something wrong with you.