My 10 Favorite Superheroes Right Now
A non-definitive list.
Editor’s Note: We’ve been having another one of our pop culture debates here at GOTD, this time on comics and superheroes. Check out the previous installments in this series by
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This list is going to be at least somewhat arbitrary in the order it is given as it represents how I am feeling at this particular time. If I made this list in the past when I regularly read superhero comics I think it would be different. Probably half the list would be a bunch of X-Men, Spider-Man, and Venom with a smattering of Image superheroes. My tastes have changed. I’ve gone back and read influential storylines from the past and I’ve honed my tastes.
Still, I think only two DC characters will appear on this list. I think DC would get a lot more representation if this list included villains. Batman, Ironman, Captain America, Luke Cage, Black Widow, Gambit, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Rogue they can have honorable mentions I suppose.
10. Black Panther
Hailing from Wakanda, the Black Panther has enhanced strength and senses, but what makes him unique is the political power he holds. The main reason why I find Black Panther so compelling is because he is both a superhero and a benevolent king of an immensely powerful constitutional monarchy with a population of around six million people. The Black Panther thus acts as a superhero and a geopolitical player. He exists in a unique fantasy world as far as comics are concerned. The land he rules is a complex place with political intrigue, its own religion, languages, and culture located in the heart of Africa. The Black Panther must weigh the needs of his people before he performs any action. Because of this unique setting, Black Panther comics can easily discuss bigger issues like immigration, colonialism, and isolationism easily.
9. Professor X
Professor Xavier is a character deeply concerned with ethics. This is a good thing since his telepathic powers have the ability to cause an immense amount of havoc. Professor X’s life goal is to promote cooperation and coexistence between mutants and humans. He is unrelenting in his goals, and occasionally he crosses his own ethical lines for the greater good. His conflicts with his former friend Magneto, who is a mutant supremacist, can be genuinely thought-provoking. Through all of their conflicts, Professor X always understands where Magneto is coming from and usually leaves the door open for Magneto to cross over to his side. The Professor is both deeply understanding and empathetic of others (he can literally read their thoughts) and is a deeply complex and even tortured person himself.
8. Savage Dragon
When Image comics was founded in 1992 I was just starting to get into comics. This new budding rival to DC/Marvel really interested me. One of the first comics I read from Image and the one that I still hold in high regard is the Savage Dragon. In this comic Chicago is being terrorized by gangs of supervillains and the Chicago PD as well as the few superheroes in the city are having a hard time stopping them as they murder and pillage throughout the city. The Savage Dragon is mysteriously found in a burning field by the Chicago PD and is eventually convinced to join the police force. From there the comic becomes part superhero comic and part gritty cop drama. The original mini-series is superb. Overall, the comic goes places neither Marvel nor DC will touch, and partially because of this, the comic holds up very well.
7. Kimiko
The only female member of “The Boys” and the only permanently powered member of “the Boys.” “The Boys” is an overly edgy twisted comic. In the comic version, Kimiko is referred to as “The Female.” It’s really in the show that this character shines.
In The Boys universe, superheroes are generally not heroic and wouldn’t fit on this list. Kimiko however is ultimately heroic. What makes her heroic is that she is perversely imbued with a permanent bloodlust, a bloodlust that she has to try very hard to suppress. However, over time she learns to unleash her vicious bloodlust only on those who deserve it, or those who stand in the way of saving the world. She also has wolverine-esque healing abilities and a deep love for her co-member of the team Frenchie. Overall Kimiko in both the comics and especially the show hits a great balance between tender and murderous.
6. Dr. Manhattan
The Watchmen comic is one of my favorite comics I have ever read. There are almost no actual powered superheroes in the comic. There is one major exception, the exceptional “Dr. Manhattan” is basically a god. Like every character in Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan is in a state of personal crisis throughout the graphic novel. Dr. Manhattan is disenchanted with humanity, he has done so much to improve the lives of humans and yet he has come to not relate to humans at all.
Feeling as though nothing he can do will ultimately save the human race, he isolates himself on Mars. Since the Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan has become part of the proper DC world. Dr. Manhattan can be seen as an interesting counterpart to Superman as Superman is an alien that gains humanity. Dr. Manhattan is a human that becomes an alien.
Dr. Manhattan is nonetheless a well-meaning hero, he just tends to be completely detached from humanity. Will he intervene? It kind of depends on how Dr. Manhattan is feeling that day, or what he sees as the “big picture.” He usually sides with the logic that he should save humanity, but some days he might just conclude it doesn’t matter.
Dr. Manhattan to me seems like how God might view humans if God was just a man.
5. Wolverine
My love of the X-Men compelled me to put in one more mutant besides Professor X. This slot could easily have been Nightcrawler, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, or Jean Grey but I chose Wolverine because the character has some of the most memorable storylines in the Marvel universe. This character’s regenerative powers keep him alive for a very long time as he was born in the 1800s and this has allowed him to be inserted into many historical events and have interactions with many classic Marvel characters.
Although he lost many of his early memories after he was forcibly made even more powerful through the “Project X experiment” that coated his bones with metal. Whether he is getting in a love triangle, begrudgingly protecting a youthful mutant, having adventures in Japan, or getting his metal skeleton ripped out of his body by Magneto, Wolverine is always doing something interesting. It’s always fun to see Wolverine get absolutely obliterated by another hero or villain and just get back up and fight some more. He truly embodies his namesake.
4. Wonder Woman
To me, Wonder Woman is the best DC superhero. From the beginning, her character stood out, although like with many early DC comics, the “comic code” struck and many of the more interesting but weirdly sadomasochistic and sapphic elements of the comic were abandoned.
In the 1980s, her character was revived and expanded. Everything that existed in her original incarnation was still there but the world she inhabited was made far more vibrant and interesting. Heavily incorporating greek mythology and feminist themes, Princess Diana of Themyscira (Wonder Woman) is a perfect example of a lawful-good superhero who isn’t boring. She is always willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good and she is laser-focused on her mission. She is not just merely a female superhero that acts just like the male superheroes, she has her own unique personality more grounded in traditionally feminine traits. She is unapologetically feminine but hardly a stereotype. She is the antithesis to her arch nemesis Ares, the god of war, but that does not make her a pacifist, she knows when to fight and she knows when to show mercy.
3. Daredevil
Daredevil is the embodiment of internal conflict. A blind lawyer with superhuman senses and top-notch martial arts skills is a wild but good premise for a superhero. Add in the fact that he is also a man of deep faith that is always questioning his actions and himself and you have one of the best superheroes of all time.
Matt Murdock is a consistent but complex character. Intensely religious and spiritual but also an active intellectual, a man who is attracted to violence and vigilantism, but who also is tortured by this very impulse, a man who has a deep belief in social justice and who regularly questions what it all means.
The comic can transform from a gritty melodrama focusing on AIDS, to a courtroom drama, to a fantastical story centered around ninjas and ancient magic. It somehow does all of this seamlessly without skipping a beat. This is one of my favorite aspects of comic books as a medium, when done correctly mixing the serious with the absurd is so much fun. If you add the final ingredient which is an intensely relatable protagonist you get an iconic comic book. The television show from Netflix does a good job of bringing the character to life.
2. Spider-Man
Spider-Man changed comics forever. This is really the first comic I ever enjoyed. The original Spider-Man comics are still good to this day. Peter Parker is a relatable, everyday nerd just trying to navigate high school and get into college when he is bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers. The main selling point of this idea is not the origin of the powers but the fact that Peter Parker is a relatable teen protagonist who is not only super-powered but also has to navigate life as a teenager. Can he stop a bank robbery in time to get his homework done?
Spider-Man is made even more relatable because he narrates his own situations, often times pointing out the absurdity of a villain’s fiendish plot or even the silliness of a villain’s powers. Spider-Man was a ground-breaking comic, and it’s a joy to read to this day. The comic has become massively expanded with several alternative Spider-Men existing in the multiverse. Each time, every single iteration of Spider-Man stands out.
1. Invincible
Invincible made me fall in love with superhero comics again. I never thought a superhero comic could ever top Alan Moore’s Watchmen but Invincible has done that and it did it in a very surprising way. In contrast to the noir-inspired, depressing backdrop of Watchmen, Invincible is instead filled with joy.
Invincible is not a cynical take on Superheroes, like “The Boys” either. It is a love letter to Superheroes and comic books in general. This is not to say that it doesn’t get depressing... It gets downright sad. Invincible is filled with blood and gore and moments of heartbreaking loss. The comic is absurdly violent and very much geared toward adults. However, it balances this ultraviolence with earnestness and empathy.
The feeling I got reading this comic was the same feeling I got when I first read Spider-Man. Invincible is a comic that raises the stakes throughout its 144-issue run. It is so consistently surprising, so shocking that it is hard to put down. Mark Grayson (Invincible) is much like Spider-Man in the sense that he is a naive teenager who is newly powered at the beginning of the comic. You get to see his journey from nerdy high school student to super-powered hero and it contains just as much joy as you might find in any silver-aged Marvel origin story, however, it is slowly revealed the cost of being powered and the emotional toll it takes on Mark. If Spider-Man is grasping onto a child’s arm as they dangle off the edge of a building you know that the comic will not entertain the idea of the child actually falling. In Invincible it’s 50/50, sometimes Mark succeeds but oftentimes he fails. What is so remarkable about Mark Grayson is he rarely lets this stop him. It’s ultimately not his body that is invincible, but instead his heart and force of will to do what is good.
For the record, I could make a top ten or even more list of my favorite Invincible characters. Robert Kirkman (who also did The Walking Dead) creates what is essentially something like the Marvel or DC Universe within the Invincible universe. Oh and the comic is consistently funny, and season one of the show adaptation does a pretty good job of adapting the material.