1. Batman

Over the last few decades, Batman has transformed from a blue/gray sketch in a comic, to the campy Adam West, to a dark and brooding puppet of Frank Miller. He’s completely human. Growing up, you believed you could be Batman. You didn’t have to get bitten by a radioactive spider or be born a mutant. His powers were being ripped as shit, smart as hell and richer than God—all things that seem perfectly attainable to the average 10 year old.

He is the quintessential vigilante. Battling a rogue’s gallery of villains crazier than any other hero, he’s multi-layered character that we’ve only begun to fully understand.

2. The Punisher

It’s like the guys at Marvel asked themselves, “How could we make Batman more badass?” Kill his wife and kids, paint a skull on his chest, and give him more guns than a Mexican drug cartel. Yup. That’ll do it.

He’s not as complex as The Dark Knight. But he fights the good fight and has no problem putting two in your dome if you’re a bad guy.

3. Ghost Rider

John Blaze makes a deal with the devil to save his father from cancer. The cancer goes away and then his dad dies in a motorcycle accident. Man, that Lucifer is shifty…

Ghost Rider’s motives are pure, protecting his loved ones at any cost. It’s just that at night, he turns into the most evil-looking superhero ever and spits hot fire out of a shotgun. You might not like Nicholas Cage or Method Man, but you gotta love the Ghost Rider.

4. Rorshach

Rorshach is fucking crazy, a murdering psychopath, but his morals are clearly defined. His mask is made from scraps of a dress designed by Dr. Manhattan for Kitty Genovese. The lines constantly change, but it’s always black and white. To him, being soft on criminals means letting them live. Raised by a whore, Rorschach can’t connect with society. He sees the world as a cesspool of sex, drugs and violence. But still, he seeks to save the world from itself. And he refuses to compromise even in the face of Armageddon.

5. Wolverine

For being such an enduring superhero figure, we don’t know much about Wolverine. His history is shrouded in mystery. We know he has those crazy fucking claws. We know he can regenerate. We know he was born in the late 1800s and his powers manifested early in life. But his backstory is full of contradictions and missing links. So much so that Wolverine spends most of his adventures trying to understand his past.

But anytime you have a guy that was an experimental weapon, an assassin, a samurai and saved the world, you have to be intrigued.

Honorable Mentions

Blade

Blade is a superhero—that wants to drink your blood? That’s just cool. Half vampire, half human, Blade has all their strengths and none of their weaknesses (except, of course, for the thirst. But Kris Kristofferson will take care of that). With an arsenal like The Punisher’s and agility like Wolverine, Blade is by far the coolest vampire ever.

Gambit Abandoned by his family because of his glowing red eyes, Gambit was raised by a guild of thieves in New Orleans. After killing his fiancee’s disapproving brother, he was exiled and spent his life as a thief and mercenary before being picked up by Mr. Sinister (a really, really bad guy). Sinister helped him develop his powers in exchange for violent favors. Soon after, the X-Men took him in and he’s been throwing supercharged poker cars at bad guys ever since.

Spawn

Spawn would deserve an honorable mention, if only because Todd MacFarlane drew the comics. That man could make the Care Bears seem menacing. Spawn is a lot darker than most comics and is considered to be more of an anti-hero than a superhero. He dies, goes to hell and sells his soul to a demon to come back and see his wife one last time. Once back on earth, he desperately tries to hang on to his humanity and ends up doing battle with an insane assortment of evildoers.

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