As I have mentioned before on this blog, I love making lists. Earlier in the year I made a list of My Top 10 Marvel Heroes and I thought it would be fun to expand that list! So here are my top 20 favorite Marvel heroes (20-11)!
20. Elektra: I’ve always been an Elektra fan, but my fandom went way up after I started reading the newest run on Thunderbolts, which I love. What’s not to like about Elketra? She’s a ninja assassin with a badass costume. She is one of my favorite anti-heroes and she is a perfect fit in the new Thunderbolts.
19. Nick Fury: Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. are the glue that holds most of Marvel continuity together. In a comic world that has so many different stories happening at the same time, Fury travels seamlessly from plot line to plot line. He is also really cool.
18. Red Hulk: My love of Red Hulk also comes from Thunderbolts. Although I love Hulk, I find Red Hulk more interesting on a lot of levels. I never found Hulk’s motivations very interesting. He is all about controlling his anger and that is what defines his character. Red Hulk on the other hand seems to be fully in control of his hulk form and his character is motivated from his past misdeeds. Everything Red Hulk does is to atone for his past mistakes and that makes him an interesting character. However, I did put Hulk higher than Red Hulk on this list because I still also love Hulk. I’m just a fan of each character for different reasons.
17. Rocket Raccoon: I admit, I had never even really heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy until the new movie was announced. However once I heard about the new movie I read the all of the new runs of Guardians of the Galaxy with this lineup and loved it all. The Guardians are the quirkiest team in the Marvel Universe and that’s what makes them so amazing. Rocket is by far the funniest member of the team. I love when he gives sass to his teammates and other marvel characters like Iron Man. He also has the best catchphrase in the Marvel Universe. “Every time he kills someone he goes ‘Blam I murdered you’”. Priceless.
16. Punisher: My list is full of the new Thunderbolts because they are all great. The Punisher is another anti-hero that always scenes in each comic that he is in. The Punisher is one of the few Marvel heroes that have no restraint. He is willing to do anything to get the job done, including killing as many people as it takes. This makes his character unique and interesting.
15. Starlord: I was a fan of Rocket Raccoon before I saw the guardians of the Galaxy movie. However Starlord did not interest me too much in the comics at first. But once I saw the Guardians movie Starlord finally clicked for me and I became a fan. Chris Pratt gave a new life to the character and elevated him to one of the best characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rereading the new Guardians run, I liked Peter Quill more. And if Kitty Pryde thinks he is awesome enough to date, then he must be pretty damn great.
14. Captain America: Captain America is one of the most iconic characters in all of the Marvel Universe. In the minds of readers he will always be the definite leader of the Avengers. He also probably has the most morality of any other Marvel character. It’s cool and all that Falcon is becoming Captain America in the comics, but I sure hope Steve Rogers gets his mask back soon.
13. X-23: X-23 is the clone of Wolverine and she rivals her male counterpart in how awesome she is. Like Wolverine she has had a very tortured past. However unlike Wolverine, she is still young and hasn’t fully been able to cope with her past just yet. Her character is always struggling with who she is and what path she should take in life. Since most Marvel characters have been around for decades they don’t have a lot of room to grow, but Laura continues to grow and become more interesting as time goes on.
12. Iron Man: Iron Man is another character that the Marvel Cinematic Universe made me a fan of. Before Robert Downey Jr. put on the iron suit I didn’t know anything about Iron Man really, but Downey sold me on the character. Iron Man is funny and brilliant. He doesn’t have powers so he has to use his brains to compete with other Marvel heroes. He is the Batman of the Marvel Universe if Batman was good spirited instead of gloomy all of the time.
11. Cyclops: Cyclops will always be the leader of the X-Men in my mind and the centerpiece of the X-Men in the Marvel Universe. In recent years Cyclops has been involved in more and more Marvel big events and he is now just as prominent of a character in the Marvel Comic Universe as characters like Iron Man and Captain America. Cyclops was my favorite Marvel character as a kid and he has always remained one of my favorites.
So what do you think of my updated list? Did I get it right? Which of your favorite heroes did I leave out?
Kevin Reviews Uncanny X-Men 
I still have a hard time liking Cyclops, because he seemed like such a wiener when I was growing up (and the movies didn’t do him any favors), but having followed your blog, I’m starting to see that a lot of that was probably done to make Wolverine seem so much cooler in comparison and Scott wasn’t always such a wet sock.
(I should note that my main exposure to X-Men as a kid came not from the comics, but the old cartoon on Fox, where Storm seemed more like the real leader of the team than Cyclops, who appeared to exist mostly as a prop for Wolverine to take out his sexual frustration on. “I GO WHERE I WANNA GO!”)
Yeah Cyclops was always a bit annoying in the cartoon shows and in the movies, but he is great in the comics!
He also looked really badass as Erik the Red!
haha very true.
Interesting list, I admit I smiled when I saw X-23 in the list. I personally would’ve replaced starlord with Groot, but I haven’t seen the movie yet so…
I do love Groot, but I personally think that Rocket and Starlord are more well rounded characters than Groot. Groot is definitely in my top 30 Marvel heroes though!
I love that Rocket Raccoon makes your list! After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, I have a newfound love for that awesome character! I also have really loved the film version of Cyclops, but that might have something to do with how much I like James Marsden 😉
He is pretty awesome! And I am also a James Marsden fan but I wish his version of Cyclops wasn’t so whiny or get killed off. I blame the writing and not Marsden for that though.
Yeah, I felt like he kept getting the band end of the stick too. It almost seemed like they were trying to making his character the opposite of Wolverine’s so Wolverine would have someone to react to. I would agree – it’s a writing issue!
Yeah I wish the movies could have found a way to make Wolverine AND Cyclops cool. There needed to be a better balance between the too characters.
At least at first, the Prof is leader of the X-Men and Cyke is second. It’s like a sports team; X is the coach and Cyke is the team captain.
Cyke and Wolvie have a natural antagonism that sometimes flares up. Cyke is authority, and Wolvie is a rebel. They were both interested in Jean, too.
I’m a big fan of Cyke, too, but at times in his long career he has sometimes seemed whiny; whereas Wolvie never is.
Also, Iron Man is a great businessman and genius designer-engineer. He’s not the pure scientist that Reed Richards or Hank Pym is. Also, he’s got obvious and often devastating flaws which make him interesting. He’s got ego, temper, substance abuse problems (alcoholism), and often poor choices in girlfriends. There were times in his career when he was so dysfunctional that it was Rhodey in the suit being Iron Man while Tony Stark tried to come back from his problems!
Yeah Professor X was the original leader of the X-Men, but he hasn’t had a role of authority in the X-Men for a while now in the comics. Wolverine and Cyclops are now the leaders of 2 separate factions of the X-Men. At least until Wolverine dies this fall.
I love Scott in the 2000-2003 cartoon “X-Men: Evolution”. He’s definitely awesome. Maybe it’s because of the X-Men stories I grew up with, but I never understood (or liked) the concept of making Scott look like a loser/boring guy in comparison to Logan. I like both of them.
However, I haven’t really been enjoying the latest Uncanny X-Men stories. Generally, I’m not a fan of the split of the X-Men, and I also don’t like either the writing or the artwork that much. Scott character comes across as annoying rather than interesting. I’m going to go back and read more of the earlier Uncanny X-Men issues (especially Claremont’s run). Maybe I will like them better.
I am enjoying new title Cyclops, though it’s only 3 issues in so far, with younger Scott spending time with his dad. I didn’t expect to like it, since I don’t usually like space/Starjammers storylines in the X-Men, but it’s just such a fun and sweet story. He’s much more like the Scott I remember and love.
Steve Rogers/Captain America is awesome. The movies got me interested in him. I love that he’s a moral character and am really enjoying Uncanny Avengers. He’s the one to read when I’m tired of all the grim/gritty/anti-hero stuff (which can be interesting, but gets tiring after a while).
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made me a fan of Hulk and Iron Man as well.
X-23 is really interesting, and I want to know more about her.