In honor of Mother’s Day, I’ve compiled here a list of 10 mothers from the world of nerd-dom and why they were great. Maybe not great mothers, but great in comics, films and TV anyhow.

10) Stephanie Brown – Number 10 on the list is the Spoiler, from the Bat-family of comics. Even though she was the fourth Robin, she mothered a child early in the Robin series and had the maturity to give it up for adoption because she knew she was too young and still wanted to pursue a career as a crime-fighter.

9) Maureen Robinson – Lost In Space was one of those shows that I would watch as a young robot quite a bit. I thought I might have been able to learn something from the Robot on the show. I didn’t. But one thing I did learn was how important mother’s could be to the dynamic of a mission. Played by June Lockheart, who doesn’t remember wanting to be 10 years old and Lost in Space?

8 ) Shmi Skywalker – Shmi Skywalker immaculately conceived the nicest little boy in the galaxy who, in turn, turned into the most evil badass in the galaxy. She was able to let her son go to fulfill his destiny, whatever that may have been, even though that in the end it meant she was going to be gang raped by Tusken raiders.

7) Mystique – Mystique is actually one of the most prolific mothers on the list. Having birthed both Nightcrawler and a son with Sabretooth, Mystique also acted as foster mother to Rogue. Yeah, maybe she was a terrible mother, but her birth canal was in the right place at the right time, I suppose.

6) Hippolyta – The mother of Wonder Woman and the matriarch of Amazonian society, Hippolyta represents everything there is about strong female characters in the history of nerd-dom. She could certainly kick the asses of all of our dads, robots or otherwise, with one fell swoop of her Amazonian sword.

5) Kee – Children of Men was one of the best sci-fi movies to come out in a very long time. Those of you too stupid to remember or that made the mistake of skipping this one, Children of Men is about a world where everyone is infertile. No one can have children and that’s what makes it so astounding when Kee is pregnant. She’s a strong and interesting character, shepherded on her journey by the always astounding Clive Owen.

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4) Martha Kent – Arguably, the mother of nerd-dom Mothers, Ma Kent was the driving force of insistence that lead to the Kent’s adoption of Kal-el, nee young Clark. Over the years as his power developed she nurtured his morals and sewed his costumes, knowing that the world needed a hero more than she needed her son safe from harms way. In fact, as bad as the Doomsday arc was, the most heartbreaking moments in it involved Ma Kent’s anonymous presence at his funeral service.

3) The Queen Alien – “Get away from her, you bitch!” is probably one of the best lines in the Aliens franchise, and it’s because the Queen Alien has so much personality and character infused into it by Cameron’s direction and Stan Winston’s practical suit. But she’s arguably the most bad-ass mother on our Mother’s day list.

2) Aunt May – I know she’s not a mother, but she’s practically a mother to Peter Parker. And I’m not sure which incarnation of Aunt May we’re talking about, but the one I like the most is Ultimate Aunt May. She’s less a 75 year old geriatric case and more feisty 50 year old. But in any incarnation of her, she’s a wonderful old lady and everyone has a relative (I’m sure) that reminds them of the kind sweetness of Spider-Man’s aged aunt.

1) Padme Amidala – Padme went from Queen, to Senator/Action hero, to mother in the arc of the Star Wars prequels. And whatever your feeling toward the prequels, no mother in nerd-dom had children that affected nerd-dom as much as hers. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are two of the most iconic characters in the history of film and their birth was a key turning point in what I consider to be a great film. The fact that she gave her life during child-birth adds a level of sacrifice that made me want to put her at the top of this list more than the others. (That, and I really, really like Star Wars.)

If anyone has anything to add do it below. If you feel someone on the list shouldn’t be, let me know that, too. And thinking about it, I wonder if there’s any Mother’s from video game’s I’ve missed….