My Top 5 Comic Book Antiheroes

With the amazingly successful Deadpool movie coming out this month, I would now like to add an additional honorarium to February. No longer just National Heart Month and National Black History (and Future) Month, from henceforth, the month of February shall be known as National Antihero Month.

In the spirit of this newly branded month-long holiday, let’s take a look at some of the best (in my humble opinion), superheroes out there.

Just so we’re on the same page, let’s review our key term: an antihero is someone who is the front-runner in a story, who doesn’t necessarily retain the traits that we usually associate with a hero. He or she may seem unscrupulous to a third-party eye, whereas she would say that she is perfectly consistent in her own scruples. Such characters may be lacking in idealsim, courage, nobility, fortitude, morality and altruism.

Let’s start with the bottom of the barrel, shall we?

5) Marv (Sin City)

A loveable brute. Marv doesn’t really give much talk about idealism or altruism, but he takes care of what he values emotionally. Such as Goldy. He’s reckless and brutish, but he has a good heart that we can all identify with. And above all, he’s confused and having an existential crisis of his own, with the only shining light being love. Who can’t relate to that?

4)The Punisher AKA Frank Castle (The Punisher)

Yeesh. Talk about sorrow. This guy lost his wife and his two children in a mob shootout. But instead of giving into despair, he does what any average joe would…he wages a war on crime using coercion, extortion and…torture. OK. When we talk about dark, you can’t really get much darker than The Punisher. His name alone is dark, let alone his tactics. But again, we can’t help rooting for this guy, because he has his own comic book series and a heart of gold/lead/coal/nitro glycerin(?).

3)Cat Woman AKA Selina Kyle, and others (Batman)

First appearing in Batman #1 (1940), Cat Woman is one character who has constantly oscillated between villain and antihero. In some cases, she’s been directly opposed against Batman and those that we would typically think of as “the good guys”; in other cases she’s allied with them. The Dark Knight Rises film does a pretty good job of encapsulating this. She’s more than just a love interest. She’s an agent of change with her own agenda. And she knows how to kick.

2)Rorschach AKA Walter Kovacs(Watchmen)

Poor Walter Kovacs. So absolutist. So brutal. He’s almost childlike in his worldview of right and wrong, good and bad. It’s something that makes his character simultaneously appealing and alienating. But he’s also a BA. Remember that one scene when the police are coming to his apartment to take him in?

He’s a perfect example of a character who, for better or worse, doesn’t abide by the laws of the world around him, but by his own.

1)Deadpool (Deadpool)

You probably saw this coming. Deadpool is one of my favorite comic book heroes…ever. He combines the quick wit of Spiderman with the agility of a ninja, the ruthlessness of a hungry T-Rex, and the foul mouth of a Quentin Tarantino character, and he’s got moves.