Everyone knows the time-tested adventures of Superman and the gritty crime fighter/super detective Batman, and who doesn’t know about Professor X’s “secret” mutant school, but just because those are pop-culture icons doesn’t mean they are the best, most powerful, or even close to the most interesting characters in the universe of comic books. Here are a few smaller heroes, who may not be power players (except for #3: Hellboy) but they are some of the most creative heroes ever written.
#15. MIRANDA ZERO
She is the shadowy leader of the Global Frequency, and she is the most powerful woman in the world due to the sheer power of her international web of agents. From Warren Ellis’s series Global Frequency, Miranda Zero is the leader of an agency with 1001 agents across the world who are dedicated to keeping the public both safe and unaware of the darkness and evil caused by nations across the globe. She has the entirety Global Frequency at her fingertips, making her more powerful then almost anyone.
He is the last man on Earth, which, due to what is presumed to be a plague, is now populated entirely by women. In the comic Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughn, a spontaneous disease killed every mammal or animal with a Y chromosome, except for Yorick and his helper monkey. His story is of his travels across the planet being guarded by a special government agent woman and in the company of a genetic biologist who hopes she can find out why Yorick survived and possibly save “mankind.”
A quiet, sensitive, caring artist and the only decent man in Sin City. He, however, is also a Navy Seal. After getting drugged, beaten, shot and kidnapped, he turns to that training to bring down all unholy hell on the scum of the town. With his long, hippy-artist hair, he is unlike most other Frank Miller characters in the Sin City series. Easily one of the only truly honest people in the damn town.
Due to a mix-up with alien technology, a dorky high school kid and a tough bully football jock both gain powers from a magic alien orb only intended to affect one person with super-human powers. Ed gets invincibility, and the Jock gets strength, laser vision and an array of other powers that drive him mad. Invincible Ed, by Ryan Woodward, is unique in the way it portrays its hero as a less-than-popular kid instead of the stereotypical, muscle-bound hero that you see in most other superhero comics.
#11. RICK GRIMES
The undeclared leader of some of the last remaining humans on Earth in Robert
Kirkman’s terrifying and entertaining series The Walking Dead. He was a cop, and now he leads a group, including his wife and son, from one place to another looking for somewhere that they can call home, and possibly start life over again. He is pessimistic, violent and yet severely moral and dedicated to survival and his family. His is the
uber-hero in the vein of the stoic defender.
#10. ALAN QUARTERMAIN
Once a hero of British legend, he is now a decrepit, starved opium addict living in Arabia when Wilhelmina Parker finds him and brings him into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. What makes him so unique is his persistence on getting better and over his addiction, and his undying dedication to chivalry and protection of Wilhelmina. Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentleman sees some of the greatest literary characters come together to battle the forces of evil that threaten England, and
Quartermain is by far the most sympathetic of the collection.
From The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, Dream is the god of dreams and can appear as the personification of story telling, dreams and nightmares. More commonly known as Morpheus, Dream is one of seven brothers and sisters who make up the pantheon of gods. Dream was summoned to this realm by occultists, but he freed himself and the series are different tales of his adventures.
#8. DWIGHT MCCARTHY
A rough and tumble photographer from Sin City, Dwight spends a lot of time snapping shots of cheating husbands and knocking back shots at Kadie’s Club Pecos. He is drawn back into a love affair with his ex who accuses her rich husband of abuse and kidnapping. When Dwight goes to investigate, it turns out that his ex was, in fact, a femme fatale and plugs him full of rounds. After serious facial surgery, he becomes a new man, with a new deadly vision: Taking revenge on the dame who messed up his life. Dwight is similar to a Philip Marlow or possibly Walter Neff (played by Fred MacMurray) from Double Indemnity.
#7. GOON
In a world of mobs, The Goon is a mobster hit man on the human side who works tirelessly to rid the city of the annoying yet powerful zombie mafia with the help of his massive muscles and helpful sidekick Frankie. The Goon, by Eric Powell, is set in a
noir crime age, and although that genre was limited to drama in the films, the comic incorporates dark and outlandish humor in a way unseen in any other comic series.
While some call him an anarchist, and others call him a terrorist, the smooth, educated, knife-wielding, bomb-planting violent activist of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta is unlike any other hero in comics. You agree with him, but just barely because of the severity of his actions, but his rationalizations, his flair, is genius and his background inexplicably command you to root for him, even during his most violent acts.
#5. THE GREAT MACHINE
The man who can talk to machines, Mitchell Hundred, is known as The Great Machine. Elected Mayor of New York after preventing the second plane from hitting the WTC by talking to the plane itself, Mitchell gives up the mantle of “superhero” to focus on task of Mayor and out of shame that he was unable to save both towers (instead of just the one). His weakness turns out to be a simple device, a bow and arrow, which is too basic to be controlled by him. The Great Machine appears in the comic Ex Machina, written by Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris. Mitchell’s ability to control things with his words and thoughts are noticeably similar to Jesse Custer’s “voice of God” power (see: #1). The series, as a whole, is very enjoyable.
#4. MARV
A resident of Sin City making a third appearance on this list is Marv. He is a tough-as-nails street thug, built like a the bastard love-child between a Linebacker and a mountain. With startling strength, impressive athleticism, and ability to get hit with boxes of bullets without dying, Marv is easily the deadliest person in the town, and is even used by Dwight McCarthy (see: #8) to storm the mansion of Dwight’s murderous ex-lover. He has a penchant for old cars, saying that most modern cars look like electric shavers, and a love of old country rock. He is the quintessential anti-hero who makes you feel kind of guilty for your whole-hearted support of his violent, bloody tactics.
#3. HELLBOY
With skin as red as embers, filed horns that make him look like he’s sporting aviator goggles on his head, and a giant, indestructible stone hand that was intended to bring about the end of the world,
Hellboy is one of the most creative and enjoyable comic books characters to have ever been invented.
Hellboy, created my Mike
Mignola for Dark Horse comics, incorporates
Lovecraftian lore and authentic cultural myths to create a believable, enjoyable series that has everything from bashing monsters to killing Nazis.
Hellboy is a brooding yet affable hero wresting with his inner turmoil over his supposed apocalyptic destiny and this subtle inner-conflict, mixed with his fast-paced,
immersive adventures, makes him easily the most readable character in comic books.
#2. DOCTOR MANHATTAN
Another character with unusual skin, Doctor Manhattan is one of the most powerful characters in comics, and certainly the most in the comic Watchmen, by Allan Moore. Created by a horrible accident involving the process of pulling apart atoms, Dr. Manhattan has control over everything as a subatomic level. He is basically apathetic towards most of human affairs and is incredibly distant from human involvement, but somehow he is a
likeable, incredibly readable character. From creating people to braking things down to their atomic level with him mind, he is capable of anything, and for that alone he is worthy of being known as one of the greatest superheroes ever.
# 1. JESSE CUSTER
The character with the most horrifying background, the strangest friends and the most original power of any character in comics. He has “The Word.” He can command people to do anything he wants them to do. He is the host for the disembodied offspring known as Genesis, the result of the coupling of a Demon and an Angel. Genesis is more powerful than God himself, and he is now in the body of Reverend Jesse Custer. This puts him in the cross hairs of The Grail, a secret organization dedicated to the protection of the bloodline of Jesus, an invincible old west gunslinger known as The Saint of Killers, with perfect aim and endless bullets and even God, who is evil, scared and pathetic in comparison to how awesome Jesse is. Preacher, by Garth Ennis, is one of the most original and disturbing comics ever written and is a must-read for any graphic novel fans with a strong stomach and thick skin.
Cell Phone Gun- Flip phone takes on a whole new meaning when the phone is flipped into a gun. Point the antennae at your target, squeeze the buttons on both sides of the phone simultaneously, and plug a few rounds into the man you’re hunting. It makes that killer umbrella gun looks like nothing.
