Favorite Heroes and Villains
Of course this pre-supposes the characters are well-written. All of these characters are Marvel. Sorry. Cookie did something like this, so I have to do it too. That's how the internet works.
Heroes
8. Grey Hulk -- The return to his original concept, as a really unpleasant, cunning character. Peter David really made it work. His struggles with Bruce Banner were entertaining. Who could have thought the Hulk could become a Las Vegas bouncer and get a few year's great stories out of it?
7. Magik -- Her personal struggles really made for a fascinating story, as were her relationships with Kitty and her brother, Colossus. Then there was the soulsword. The idea that she was almost powerless in the real world but was Sorceress Supreme in Limbo, with an army of demons at her command was really cool.
6. Captain Britain -- The absolute wrong guy for the job, he struggles to overcome his own inadequacies early on, the abused pawn of Merlin, but he gradually grows into a paragon of superheroic strength and virtue.
5. Nightcrawler -- Fun and flambouyant. He is also very smart and level-headed and compassionate, which I can all relate to. The agility and teleportation really give him a lot of action potential, too.
4. Rogue -- With Ms. Marvel powers. She is just a fun, visually-interesting character. Her aggressive use of her powers has never been replicated in any cartoon or movie, and the Ms. Marvel powers is hard to set up in other media, especially with the character rights spread to heck and back. The torment of her mind being combined with Ms. Marvel's makes her all the more interesting.
3. Wolverine -- There are those who prefer Wolverine to be the dumb guy who's always growling and fighting with his allies, but I'll always prefer the Wolverine who is the crusty old tough guy. He sort of magnifies the whole aspect of Indiana Jones getting the crap beat out of him, but ultimately overcoming the odds, and his healing factor allows him to get battered more than just about anybody else.
2. Spider-Man -- You can't go wrong with Spider-Man! His drama is very interesting, and his physicality is quite interesting. Somehow a lot of weird elements came together to form a character who's more than the sum of his parts.
1. Cyclops -- He's the quiet, socially-awkward, talented loner, so I can relate to him pretty well.
Villains
4. Doctor Doom -- Perhaps the greatest villain of all. It's hard to find fault with Doctor Doom!
3. Juggernaut -- He's unstoppable. I became a fan of Juggernaut after playing the Marvel Super Heroes fighting game, and I just loved how he ignored hit to plow over his enemies. His invulnerability and unstoppableness make it so that people have to find creative ways to beat him, which is always a plus.
2. Thanos -- The Mad Titan never fails to impress. His delusions of granduer and nihilism put him on a different level than the average supervillain. And in the end, he's motivated by unrequited love, and undercut by his own feelings of inadequacy.
1. Magneto -- After X-Men #150, Magneto suddenly became the most interesting villain at Marvel. His attempt at heroism, ruined by his own self-doubts and culminating in a return to villainy, make for an interesting character arc. His power is so flexible, too, that it makes for interesting stories, though most people just have him move around metal stuff. There seems to be a large group of people who prefer him as the raving megalomaniac, but that is just a completely boring character, to me.
Heroes
8. Grey Hulk -- The return to his original concept, as a really unpleasant, cunning character. Peter David really made it work. His struggles with Bruce Banner were entertaining. Who could have thought the Hulk could become a Las Vegas bouncer and get a few year's great stories out of it?
7. Magik -- Her personal struggles really made for a fascinating story, as were her relationships with Kitty and her brother, Colossus. Then there was the soulsword. The idea that she was almost powerless in the real world but was Sorceress Supreme in Limbo, with an army of demons at her command was really cool.
6. Captain Britain -- The absolute wrong guy for the job, he struggles to overcome his own inadequacies early on, the abused pawn of Merlin, but he gradually grows into a paragon of superheroic strength and virtue.
5. Nightcrawler -- Fun and flambouyant. He is also very smart and level-headed and compassionate, which I can all relate to. The agility and teleportation really give him a lot of action potential, too.
4. Rogue -- With Ms. Marvel powers. She is just a fun, visually-interesting character. Her aggressive use of her powers has never been replicated in any cartoon or movie, and the Ms. Marvel powers is hard to set up in other media, especially with the character rights spread to heck and back. The torment of her mind being combined with Ms. Marvel's makes her all the more interesting.
3. Wolverine -- There are those who prefer Wolverine to be the dumb guy who's always growling and fighting with his allies, but I'll always prefer the Wolverine who is the crusty old tough guy. He sort of magnifies the whole aspect of Indiana Jones getting the crap beat out of him, but ultimately overcoming the odds, and his healing factor allows him to get battered more than just about anybody else.
2. Spider-Man -- You can't go wrong with Spider-Man! His drama is very interesting, and his physicality is quite interesting. Somehow a lot of weird elements came together to form a character who's more than the sum of his parts.
1. Cyclops -- He's the quiet, socially-awkward, talented loner, so I can relate to him pretty well.
Villains
4. Doctor Doom -- Perhaps the greatest villain of all. It's hard to find fault with Doctor Doom!
3. Juggernaut -- He's unstoppable. I became a fan of Juggernaut after playing the Marvel Super Heroes fighting game, and I just loved how he ignored hit to plow over his enemies. His invulnerability and unstoppableness make it so that people have to find creative ways to beat him, which is always a plus.
2. Thanos -- The Mad Titan never fails to impress. His delusions of granduer and nihilism put him on a different level than the average supervillain. And in the end, he's motivated by unrequited love, and undercut by his own feelings of inadequacy.
1. Magneto -- After X-Men #150, Magneto suddenly became the most interesting villain at Marvel. His attempt at heroism, ruined by his own self-doubts and culminating in a return to villainy, make for an interesting character arc. His power is so flexible, too, that it makes for interesting stories, though most people just have him move around metal stuff. There seems to be a large group of people who prefer him as the raving megalomaniac, but that is just a completely boring character, to me.