As requested by the overlord @King Zaid.
As you guys know, I read comic books, watch superhero tv shows and movies. So it's no brainer I'd have bunch of favorites. I haven't done a huge list in a while, my last one was Top 50 Best TV Shows of All-Time but I can't deny a King Neptune request. So I'm gonna do my very best to explain why I love these superheroes so much. One thing I'll point out is that some of these heroes have done villainy or anti-heroic stuff before but the point of the list is to point out these characters' growth or them skewing more into a heroic side. So I hope I explain this well.
This is gonna be a long list and I love to ramble (sorry), so I'm gonna split this list into three parts. Part Two and Three are coming tomorrow and the day after. Consider this as an Eid celebration, even though I'm the only active member on SBC who celebrates it afaik lol. Anyways Eid Mubarak and let's get into it.
WhoBob's Top 25 Superheroes of All-Time List
(Part One)
#25: Doctor Fate (Khalid Nassour)
As you guys know, I'm a muslim. I may not be a religious person but I was raised in a islamic society, so characters like Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel or Monet/Penance will mean so much to me. The obvious pick would be Kamala Khan but I haven't read her original material to have a huge opinion on her, though I plan on changing that. However I read Khalid Nassour's comics. 2015 Doctor Fate run by Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew. And the character has stuck with me ever since. He has similarities with Kamala, a young muslim american doing superheroics. Although in Khalid's case, he's much more magic based, he's Egyptian and he's not like a superhero fanatic like Kamala is and he's an physician. He's one of the late legacy superheroes introduced, one of the many people holding Doctor Fate title. And it's so entralling to see him trying to learn to be a hero without someone to guide him. And as you read his journey more and more, he proves himself to be the person earning Doctor Fate title. Although eventually he'll learn that he's grandson of the original Doctor Fate, Nelson Kent and learns a few things from him, becomes a member of Justice League Dark (magic based superheroes) and Justice Society of America. And he's great because of proving himself to be worthy of being a superhero.
#24: Monica Rambeau
Monica has had many codenames over the years. Captain Marvel, Spectrum, Photon. But no matter what title she picks, she'll always be one of the greatest. She was the main character of Avengers in 80s (Roger Stern's run) and unfortunately she lost her recognition in 90s and 00s (with the exception of appearing in Nextwave) up until Al Ewing decided to put her in his titles and make her a standout. I love Monica cuz she's a character that has been screwed over in her history but she always comes back up and is one of the most powerful characters ever. Throughout 10s, it's cool to see Monica become an immortal being and how that means to her overall. And how that eats her up which was an interesting theme to tackle with her give she is a living light. I like her defying the circumstances that made her miserable and become such an important character in the end. And I always hate that MCU reduced her to Carol's niece cuz that does not serve the character at all. She's much more badass, self assured and interesting in comics.
#23: Roy Harper
The first sidekick to Green Arrow/Oliver Queen. Being Speedy as a teen, eventually growing into Arsenal, then becoming Red Arrow and becoming Arsenal again, the character had multiple names over the years. What I love about him is that he's a character that Oliver let down so hard. In his absence, Roy decided to take on heroin which resulted in him lashing out to him. And he had to find a way to get sober thru help of Black Canary but he was still a mess overall. He had a child at a young age with villainous Chesire, so he had to learn how to be a single father but he eventually proved himself and he went from being a Titans member to being a Justice League member. Right now he's back to being a Titan but Roy will always have a special place in my heart for how much he overcame his trauma and struggles.
#22: Black Panther
T'Challa is one of the first black characters in Marvel Comics and one of the most popular superhero characters ever. My first exposure to him was MCU's Civil War followed by Black Panther movie, played magnificently by the late Chadwick Boseman and I came to love the character but I didn't know much about the comics version until I read Jonathan Hickman's Avengers saga and I became a fan of the character from comics. And I eventually read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther run, Don McGregor's Jungle Action, Eve Ewing's Black Panther and I'm currently reading Christopher Priest's Black Panther. Each have their own unique take on T'Challa. He became the king of Wakanda (a well advanced African country) as a kid after his father's death, he's a calculating superspy who is ten steps ahead of everything, he's the protector of Wakandans, he eventually grapples with how to be a king and what monarcy means to him, he later stops being a king and becomes the vigilante of Wakanda. Some of the reasons why he's a favorite of mine and why he means so much to many people.
#21: Hawkeye (Clint Barton)
Clint Barton is a regular guy learning to be a standout hero amongst some of the most powerful people ever. He's a cool character that MCU did dirty. He was once a leader of Avengers and later Thunderbolts, proving himself as an important figure. And I came to love the character thru Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye run where we look into him being just a normal person, doing stuff outside of superheroics. And he's such a mess. Can't carry a relationship, struggles being a mentor to Kate Bishop, second Hawkeye, life punches him over and over. But he always cleans his shit together and that's why he's so cool.
#20: Quake
I'm gonna talk specifically about MCU version and not the comic version cuz I never read her important story in Jonathan Hickman's Secret Warriors, although I plan on doing it one day. But I couldn't leave out her cuz I think she is one of the best characters in that show and deserves a recognition. Idk If anyone wants to watch it atp but I'll lay out the twist of s2 which is that she was a hacker character named Skye that got recruited by SHIELD but eventually she realizes that he real name is Daisy Johnson and she is an inhuman who posesses the power of vibration. She goes from being a cool hacker to being one of the most ass kicking characters ever. I really like her compelling narrative with her finding out who her parents here, her trying to grapple with her new powers, eventually becoming addicted to a higher being and then sobering up and beating the obstacles every step of the turn.
#19: Batman
Perhaps the most popular superhero in the entire history but why is he low on the list? Well cuz when written badly, I find the character to be a bit insufferable or that I find him to be overexposured. That being said there's a reason why he's so beloved and why I love him so much. He has some of the best superhero adaptations. Batman: the Animated Series, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, Matt Reeves' The Batman and some others like Batman: the Brave and the Bold, Tim Burton's Batman movies, 00s Batman series and some more I never watched. But he also has some of the best comic books of all-time. You cannot go wrong with Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: The Man Who Laughs, The Dark Knight Returns etc etc. But perhaps my favorite Batman stuff is in Grant Morrison's Batman saga where he becomes larger than life figure, overcoming death of his parents, becoming a father to Damian Wayne, overcoming every obstacle on the way and cheating death. And all of it was gone masterfully until it all clashes down spectacularly. And he's an inspiration to many heroes and has impressive rogues gallery (Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Ra's Al Ghul, Bane, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, The Penguin), a really cool batfamily (Nightwing, Batgirls, Robins, Batwoman, Oracle, Red Hood, Signal, Huntress, Alfred Pennyworth, Catwoman etc) and some of the best supporting cast you can imagine (James Gordon, Lucius Fox, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montaya/The Question, Leslie Thompkins). He's a man dressed as a bat to fight crime, so no one has to go through same tragedy as he did when he was young. And that's why he's the greatest considered by many people.
#18: Batgirl (Cassandra Cain)
Cass Cain is a character that debuted in 00s but I have never had exposure to her deeply until last year when I read Batgirl by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott and I became a fan of the character. She is a character that was raised to be an assassin by her father. Only using body language and never speaking, she became one of the most powerful martial artists in superhero comics. And she was quite a killer until she came across to Batman, becoming adopted by him and mentored by Barbara Gordon, once was a Batgirl and now a hacker named Oracle. Thanks to them, she became a superhero and took the codename Batgirl. She's important because of her disabilty to speak minimally or in broken language. She shows her emotions through her body and facial expressions and she's able to read people thru their bodies. And she's a kickass fighter, going toe to toe with a deadly assassin named Lady Shiva who is her mother and surviving their deadly battle. She was an important character to Batman lore until because of continuity reboot, she had been erased from history until a few years later she came back as Orphan which is a silly codename for her and then becoming Batgirl once again and sharing the codename with Stephanie Brown, formerly known as Spoiler. And now she has her own title again by Tate Brombal and Takeshi Miyazawa and it has been great so far. She is a great character because she managed to escape her abusive father, learned to be a hero without killing anyone ever again and defied her mother's cruel tactics.
Part 2 (#17-9): March 31st
Part 3 (#8-1): April 1st