1) Batman: Bruce Wayne is numero uno in my book when it comes to humans. He is basically the human animal perfected (yes, Captain America and Black Panther have uber-human perfection, but Cap is due to the super-soldier serum, while T'Challa is due to the Wakandan heart herb. Bruce, on the other hand, is 100% primo human with no enhancements of any kind). Plus he has applied himself to everything. And the fact that he is the premier (together with Superman) icon in DC gives him several brownie points, as well as being one of the best selling.
2) Matt Murdock (DareDevil): Matt would be number one in my book, were it not for his radar sense. If Marvel had left his enhanced senses as that ....enhanced ....then it would he would easily have been number one. After all a blind man who can kick butt with the best of them. The radar sense basically brought an aspect of a 'power' to him, since it was beyond enhanced senses (eg olfactory, auditory, tactile) that DD got by being blind. The radar sense was caused by a radioactive component in the chemicals that blinded him. Anyways, Murdock is still a very strong number 2 (he would have been number one, easily, had his abilities simply been better than normal hearing, taste, smell, touch etc etc, plus kick-@$$ fighting ability .....but sans the whole 'radar sense' thing. For example if DD was more like Stick).
3) T'Challa (Black Panther): This dude has access to stuff even Batman would fawn over! Were it not for the Wakandan heart herb component (which is really not needed for his character since he is bad @$$ with or without it), T'Challa would definitely be at number 2 (or even number 1).
4) Captain America: The All-American. He would be higher were it not for the super-soldier serum. At times he bores me with his boyscout ways (that even make Superman seem like a skinhead from liechtenstein), but well written Captain America is pretty cool.
5) Tim Drake (Robin): There is something about THIS boy-wonder that is quite interesting. He has a lot of potential, arguably more than even Dick Grayson (NightWing). This is the guy who after all deduced who Batman was (yeah yeah, a bunch of other people have, but been ranked with Rhas Al Ghul is never a losing position). And Bat's did say in Hush that someday Drake would be the world's greatest detective.
6) Batgirl (Cassandra Cain): Cassie is an enigma. Trained to be the best assassin ever, by age 8, she is a one-girl army. Arguably the best 'normal' fighter in DC, she is able to do moves that are simply out of this world. For example dodging a cascade of bullets .....from point-blank range, and been so skilled that CIA agents thought she was superhuman (they measured her at 2.6 times human strength and 4.2 times human speed, while it was simply skill). Oh, and she can read your body movements like a book. In terms of physical ability she is a fine candidate to take over the Bat's mantle, HOWEVER her lack of honed detective abilities (plus her lack of the extensiveness of Bruce's knowledge) relegates her to this position.
7) Elektra Natchios: The thing I love about her is that she was left as pure human (unlike DD who, although human, had the radar sense thing to him). Now, there are some writers who have given her mild psi powers, but I think making her even midly psionic just dilutes the richness of her character. There is nothing wrong in having a FULLY HUMAN and NORMAL (lol, well, as normal as a comicbook character can be) woman with no 'enhancements' that can wipe the floor with your regular Venezuelan army platoon while armed with nothing but a chicken wing and chilli sauce! And anyways, if you need a psionic ninja you can always dial 1-800-PSYLOCKE.
Yep ....that's more than 5.
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Last edited by spetznaz on Nov 10th, 2005 at 08:16 AM
Gender: Male Location: Training for the Fanboy Olympics
1. Batman no doubt the first the greatest.
2. DD/NW. Both are like virtually equal
3. Tim Drake. HEs a great fighter and a great detective
4. Batgirl. Shes a fighter better than Bats but isn't as good of a detective as Tim.
5. Punisher. Hes a great fighter and all but the killing isn't really as cool as defeating enemies like Joker and Prometheus and Kingpin and Bullseye (for DD) without killing.
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I wouldn't really say that Wolvie or Gambit would be considered vigilantes, per say. I mean, they're part of a well-established, world-reknown team afterall. Sometimes with government funding as well.
If you don't kill criminals, you're just not a vigilante in my book. Plus he fights crime out of a van. Do you know how Bad-Ass you have to be to drive a van and still scare people???
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Anybody who takes the law into their own hands is a vigilante. Captain America being part of a government funded orginization (Wolverine and Spiderman are also Avengers remember.) are upholding ther law of the government, hence they are not vigilantes.
Yea but Wolverine has taken the law into his own hands many a time, and he wasnt always an Avenger and has taken leave from the X-Men. And Spiderman has always been on his own until now.
I think the thread stated human vigilantes. While Wolverine and Gambit are 'human,' they are mutant as well (and technically according to Marvel they are not homo Sapiens Sapiens but Homo Superior). Technically it would be like comparing a modern day human with Homo Erectus, or maybe Neanderthal man. Similar, but not the same thing (a better analogy would be to include donkeys in threads pertaining to horses).
Wolverine and Gambit do not qualify, since one is a little man with adamantium pig-stickers in his arms and a healing factor, while the other is some Cajun with weirded-out eyes and the ability to put kinetic charge into anything he throws (or touches).
Human? Well, not like Batman most certainly.
Even Spiderman is highly questionable. This is a guy who is basically a spider made man (in terms of strength, speed, agility etc etc etc). Plus a spider-sense. Is he human? Well ....he is definitely not a mutant (actually he is, since the bite mutated his genome enabling him to acquire his powers, even though he may not necessarily have been born homo superior) ......but Peter Parker is definitely not human in the same way Frank Castle (Punisher) and Dick Grayson (NightWing) are.
The guy is freaking walking upside down from ceilings and tossing volswaggens for goodness, while Gambit makes cards into explosives, and Wolverine has a metal skeleton and ginsu knives popping out of his hands!
Human? Well, definitely not as human as Frank Castle or Bruce Wayne.
And putting them definitely adds the possibility of bringing people like the Flash into this. After all W. West is human .....all he has 'extra' is 'just' the ability to tap into the speed force and move faster than thought!
And Billy Batson is human ......all he has is just the 'little' ability to say the word SHAZAM and become the world's strongest mortal!
Or take Johnny Thunder for example (of the JSA). He is just your normal human. However when he says Cei-U he takes control of a 5th-dimensional genie (think mr mxyzptlk , but with much much more power) and he can do anything he wants, including making the said mr mxyzptlk cry uncle through sheer magical force.
Yes, they are 'human.' But again not in the same vein as a Tim Drake or a Frank Castle.
In the same way Wolvie, Spidey, and Gambit are more than human.
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He has killed over two thousand criminals, all these other dumbass vigilanties cause more damage than good...they repeatedly let these criminals go to kill again and again and again...these dumbass vigilanites are just as responsible for the killings as the bad guys...