best superhero

[Greg C]

I also liked the Punisher and Spawn.

Good choices. Both are in my top five.

[JC]

Really? No one for the TNMT?

I was freakin' all about Casey Jones as a kid

[FKYT]

My favorite was Donatello -- not only was he the "smart one", his weapon tended to be the most powerful and had the longest reach in the video games.

[tbennett]

I tend not to like the massively powered dudes like Flash, Superman, Thor, etc. - it's tough for earthbound gods to be interesting.

Batman and Captain America are two great heroes simply because they punch so far above their weight, as it were - generally human guys who still manage to hang with the uber-powered guys noted above. I give Cap a slight edge in likeability, since Batman as very arguably crazy and fights out of a combination of fear and vengeance, while Cap fights for freedom and justice and so forth.

Spider-Man has always been a great one - how many heroes worry about making rent, have a shitty job, etc.? Pete has always been a fascinating character.

Certain writers managed to catch lightning in a bottle and make certain heroes great while they wrote them - Frank Miller's Daredevil run comes to mind, especially the "Born Again" storyline, or Garth Ennis' Punisher storylines. Hell, Miller's storylines on Wolverine (after the initial 4 issue limited series in the early 80's) and Batman (The Dark Knight Returns) set the stage for those characters for the next 30 years...