I was sitting around my apartment today, bored out of my mind because I happen to be the only one of my friends that didn't have class today, and I came to the realization that I've never actually ranked all my favorite super heroes. So I put an end to that and without further a due I give you my top 10 favorite superheroes.
10) Hit Girl
I don't know why, but for some reason this characters really stuck out to me. It could be the fact you wouldn't believe a litter girl could kick ass (pun intended), but it's more than likely because this is one of a short list of female heroes that aren't just knockoffs of male counterparts, and of those Hit-Girl is the only one that's actually interesting. Hit-Girl is a little girl who was kidnapped by her father and trained by him to kill in order to fight crime. She is an expert in most weaponry and combat styles, and as an added bonus she has a vocabulary that would make the American Pie cast blush. This created a huge controversy when the movie came out, and has placed her at the top of parents most hated superhero list.
9) Animal Man
The best thing to come out of DC's "New 52". Until recently I thought this guy was a joke, but then the reboot happened and I sampled all of the series, and this one quickly became one of my favorites. Animal Man is an actor who was chosen by a force of nature called The Red to be its champion. Now Buddy Baker has the power to replicate animal's abilities, and most recently he changes physically based on the animal. But what really sealed it is that he doesn't want to be a hero. He wants a normal life with his family, but every time he tries to get out he is forced back in. And as of now it has cost him his marriage, his son has died, and his daughter is the one human on Earth The Red really wants. If you're a comic fan and you aren't reading Animal Man you are truly missing out.
08) Green Lantern
I realize their are literally thousands of Green Lanterns, but my personal favorite is Hal Jordan, mostly because he reminds me of Mal from Firefly, especially the new version of Hal that's the hot shot pilot. I really wanted the movie to be good as well and lead into a Justice League film, but when Ryan Reynolds need to fix the script because the oath is wrong your movie is in serious trouble, though I may be the only person on the planet that liked the costume design for the movie. Green Lantern has a power ring that allows him to create constructs that are only limited by willpower and the wielder's imagination. I'm not a fan of his comic series, but there was an amazing Green Lantern animated series that recently ended and his appearances in other series such as Justice League are quite good.
7) Winter Soldier
Ah Winter Soldier, for almost 50 years James "Bucky" Barnes was the greatest argument against child sidekicks, he died young, and his death haunted his partner for years. That is until the early 200s when he was resurrected as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, the Soviet Union's answer to Captain America, and one of the biggest badasses in comic history. When he finally regained his memories he kept to the shadows until he was chosen to replace his mentor as the new Captain America. Nowadays he is back to being the super spy Winter Soldier, and will be the focus of the next Captain America movie next year.
6) Wolverine
Growing up in the 90s, or the heyday of animated superhero shows one hero really stood out, Wolverine. This is how I was introduced to super heroes and Wolverine just seemed far cooler than all the others. He has been the focus of almost every X-Men movie, and was the best part of the only one that didn't, out of everyone on this list I feel he has the most development. Originally he was a Hulk villain, but he was popular enough to become an X-Men, an Avenger, and the star of his own series. recently however he has made his most shocking development, he has chosen the path of peace and is continuing Xavier's dream of cohabitation with humanity, teaching the X-Men this philosophy in the hopes that eventually they'll no longer have to fight, yet Cyclops, the poster child for the X-Men has chosen the path of Magneto and mutant superiority rekindling the Xavier/Magneto conflict that was the central premise of the early X-Men comics.
5) Batman
This is where I piss everyone off, especially once you see who I put at number 4. I feel I don't need to describe him, but her it goes. Billionaire Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered in front of him as a child so he traveled the world to learn as many skills as he could before finally returning to his city to wage war on crime as the Batman and becoming the one thing all criminals fear. I like Batman, and in fact he was almost my number 3, but I decided I liked my number 3 choice slightly more so Batman was bumped down. Batman has some of the most memorable villains, and allies in all of comic books, and right now he also has my personal favorite comic series from DC, as well as some of the best games and movies of all time. The problem is, all of these things create a legend that the man himself simply can't live up to, coincidentally that's the whole point of Batman. He doesn't score higher on my list because he relies too heavily on his gadgets, when he is more than capable of not needing them, and because he is quite possibly the most depressing guy in comic book history, a lot of heroes are orphaned, get over it.
4) Red Hood
Before you send your hate mail, hear me out. Jason Todd's parents were also victims of crime, however unlike Batman Jason had no money and ended up on the streets. He had to work hard for everything, he became the second Robin, was trained by Batman, was then beaten to death by the Joker. Was resurrected and trained in the same manner Bruce was, but by all the greatest underworld figures on the planet, whom he killed afterwards to stop them. He then returned to Gotham to see that nothing has changed since he started. Thus he came up with one of the greatest plans in comic book history, take down crime by becoming the greatest criminal ever. He is willing to get his hands dirtier than Batman for the same goal, making him something criminals fear even more than Batman, in short he's a better Batman. The downside however is because due to horrible writing he is prone to bouts of insanity that conveniently last long enough for a story arc to finish. If you haven't read or seen Under the Red Hood I highly recommend you do both, the movie in particular happens to have casted one of my favorite actors as Jason Todd, and Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing.
3) Daredevil
Daredevil is an interesting hero, honestly if
not for DC I believe this guy would have been called Batman, or at
least Bat something. As a child Matt Murdock was blinded, which
heightened his other senses to super human levels. When he got older he
started to clean up his neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen, by working as a
lawyer during the day, and fighting crime as the vigilante Daredevil at
night. I'm one of the few people I know who liked the movie, though to
be honest the director's cut is far superior. I fell in love with this
character when I was young and he made a guest appearance on the
Spider-Man cartoon, everything about him was cool, his costume, his
weapon, his other life, this guy would have scored higher if I made this
list back in middle school.
2) Superman
I am a huge fan of Superheroes with uncompromising values. Superman is a being so powerful nothing on Earth can stand up to him, not even Batman so please shut up about it, yet he chooses to use his powers to protect mankind. In recent years Superman has been treated unfairly because of how powerful he is, and he's not a bad boy as opposed to darker heroes like Batman or Wolverine. In comics today he doesn't even have a decent series in the mainstream universe, and if I was new to comics I would probably hate him. But I'm not and over the years he has demonstrated his superiority time and time again. Superman has even died saving the people of Metropolis and has never compromised his morals to achieve his goals, not even Batman can say that since he did kill Darkseid...with a gun, breaking two of his own rules at once. If you read my editorial a few months ago you'd know that I feel the best way to revitalize Superman is to focus on his internal struggles, since he is so powerful on the outside, problems like that make him conflicted on the inside, it would be far easier to appeal to a wider audience this way, like how the Earth One series did, than to go the route DC took with the New 52 and simply constantly put him up against powerful enemies with no real consequence because DC won't ever raise the stakes.
1) Captain America
Captain America is like Superman in that he is uncompromising and always doing the right thing. The difference however is why he is at number one instead of Superman. Steve Rogers was originally a frail kid who wanted to stand up for good so bad that he underwent an untested process to make him strong enough to do so, he wasn't born with powers like Superman, or money to travel the world to train like Batman, he simply really wanted to do good. Captain America has started out as a propaganda comic during World War II, but Marvel acquired the rights in the early 60s and since then he has been the poster child for the Avengers. In the mainstream universe he became the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in the Ultimate universe he became the president of the United States, however I prefer the mainstream despite the fact he's weaker, but of all of them the movie version is my favorite because he is the most uncompromising. The image above is the concept suit for the upcoming movie Captain America:The Winter Soldier, and is based off my favorite costume from the comics. Fun fact, the movie version is possibly the only movie superhero who is a virgin, think about it he started tiny, his first girlfriend was Peggy, and they only kissed once, and then he was frozen until the Avengers. Much different than his comic book counterparts who have been known to be involved in affairs with married women. Cap is the ultimate everyman hero as well as the ultimate role model. Another fun fact, he has fought Batman to a standstill on two different occasions, the latest one Batman admitted Cap would eventually win, both these fights are confirmed as cannon by DC. He also has the only villain so evil most other villains refuse to work with him, including the Joker in a 1960s crossover.
I just realized a lack of diversity on my list, this wasn't intentional, in fact Black Panther and Miles Morales almost made the list and should be considered honorable mentions. As for Spider-Man, I always thought he was a bit too whiny until recently when life finally started to go his way, but a few years of awesome can't make up for decades of annoyance. Agree with my list? Disagree? then feel free to leave a comment below.
UPDATE: I realized that I like Daredevil a lot more than I listed him here, so I moved him up to a more appropriate position. Besides, thanks to the Not-So New 52, I hardly read DC anymore, just reboot it again already.
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