25 Greatest (and 5 Worst) Superheroes

Brought to Life by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Starting in 1961, Fantastic Four — the ultimate expression of two very different flavors of comic book genius — combined the cosmic vision of artist Kirby with the bantering humanism of writer Lee. The result was a superteam that was also a family unit, sparring with supervillains and one another. —Darren Franich

Brought to Life by: Frank Miller
Miller's early 1980s twist on the blind lawyer turned streetfighter ditched much of the good guy's decades-long back story, with Matt Murdoch's sightlessness complemented by newfound ruthlessness (and martial arts skills). Miller's writing and gritty artistry reinvigorated the series, saving the moribund Daredevil from cancellation and positioning him as one of the first heroes to turn anti-hero. —Adam Carlson

Brought to Life by: Sam Raimi
With the help of state-of-the-art special effects and pure geek passion, director Raimi managed to give the stale superhero movie genre some radioactive bite. Meanwhile, Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker was a puberty metaphor with a noble, angry edge. —Anthony Breznican

Brought to Life by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Hulk Smash! Hulk Smash A Lot! And yet there has always been more to Hulk than destruction porn and bad grammar. Inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and A-bomb angst, writer Lee and artist Kirby debuted the Hulk in 1962 as a tragic, misunderstood monster tailored for Cold War America (and beloved by the counterculture). The series was remarkable for Hulk's schizoid internal conflict between responsibility and rage, producing storytelling that was as poignant as it was pulpy. —Jeff Jensen

Brought to Life by: Brad Bird
The premise of a family of superheroes living in bland suburbia, hiding their powers from the world, is pretty brilliant in itself. But writer-director Bird harnessed all of Pixar's ingenuity to push that basic idea in wildly unexpected directions, combining a genuinely thrilling fusion of the superhero and spy-movie genres with dark comedy about midlife angst worthy of a Coen brothers movie. The result is, in a word, incredible. —Josh Rottenberg

Brought to Life by: Joss Whedon
Fresh off his years in TV, Whedon's writing on Marvel's storied world of misfit mutants was typically, well, Whedonesque. That is, it's part off-the-shoulder wit, part chaos, and part ethical and emotional quandary, inventing a ''mutant cure'' that would be later be used in the 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand. This iteration of X-Men presaged the panel-busting speed and scope he brought to the screen with last year's The Avengers. —Adam Carlson

Brought to Life by: Alan Moore
The brilliant British scribe Moore made his name in American comics by taking a monstrous mound of sentient bog moss and making him one of the most soulful, most human, and — astoundingly — most romantic characters in superhero fiction. His groundbreaking '80s run with Swamp Thing challenged readers of this pulpy (we mean that literally) hero by presenting provocative ideas about identity, consciousness, sexuality, and politics. Moore's influential legacy includes the serious (if gloomy) streak that colors so much of today's superhero cinema. —Jeff Jensen

Brought to Life by: John Ostrander and Kim Yale
The wildest thing about librarian Barbara Gordon's transformation from Batgirl into the wheelchair-bound Oracle wasn't that the Joker shot and paralyzed her. It was that writers Ostrander and Yale didn't try to erase that plot point when they brought back the character in 1989 as an all-seeing, hyper-networked hacker hero, proving disability does not preclude power. —Adam Carlson

Brought to Life by: Mike Mignola
Two decades of comics, two feature films, and an array of games, cartoons, etc., all started with a sketchbook séance in 1991. A Comic Con fan asked Mignola for a drawing and the result — a demonic but lovable bruiser with an odd name — raised hell in heavenly ways. At a time when good guys were turning bad in comic book tales, Hellboy was fighting in the other direction — a creature forged from evil, defying his own origin story to fight for the right. —Geoff Boucher

Brought to Life by: Hugh Jackman
From his muttonchops to his husky growl, Logan has always been all man, but Jackman's rock-solid take placed a big, beating heart inside that adamantium metal rib cage. While 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine explored what was going on beneath the surface, the fact that Jackman strength-trained said surface into an intentionally ''freakish'' state of musculature gave fans reason to accept that a whiskey-swilling, cigar-chomping Canadian journeyman could reasonably take out a mob of mutants. (Of course the gigantic razor claws didn't hurt.) —Lanford Beard

Brought to Life by: Neil Gaiman
This shadowy character from Gaiman's Sandman series is the immortal personification of fantasy. Known by many names, including simply Dream and Morpheus, he was the source of all stories, the forger of nightmares, and the worst boyfriend ever. His gothic saga was a cautionary modern myth about pride, obligation, responsibility, and the refusal to change when change is possible. —Jeff Jensen

Brought to Life by: Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby
Over 82 episodes from 1977-82, the tag team of Bixby as mild-mannered Dr. Bruce Banner and Ferrigno as his raging alterego set the standard against which other Hulks have since been measured — not to mention bringing us the immortal line, ''Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.'' (We kinda did.) —Josh Rottenberg

Brought to Life by: Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum
Jean Grey lived up to her last name in the early X-Men issues. The telepath was the blandest redhead since Jimmy Olsen, but that changed in 1976 when writer Claremont and artist Cockrum killed and resurrected her as Phoenix — who draws her fiery, fearsome power from a cosmic entity with sinister appetites. Possessed by this force, the good girl got very, very bad in the best way possible, challenging the X-Men to turn against one of their own. —Geoff Boucher

Brought to Life by: Carmine Infantino
In a universe of brutes, monsters, and madmen, artist Infantino's revitalization of the Flash in 1956 was the lithe sprinter with the graceful calm of a marathon champ. Infantino (who died this year at age 87) was the perfect track coach with a curlicue style that made the Flash comics a blurred ballet of red ribbons and knockout punches. —Geoff Boucher

Brought to Life by: Max and Dave Fleischer
In 1941, three years after the Man of Steel's first comic-book appearance, animator siblings the Fleischer brothers made a series of nine defining Superman shorts set in a stylish Art Deco cartoon world. They quite literally taught Superman how to fly — getting permission from DC, since in the comics he was still just leaping tall buildings in a single bound. —Darren Franich

Brought to Life by: Ed Brubaker
Cap was born to battle Hitler, spent some time on ice, and came back to modern-day America to fight for a country that was often at war internally with itself. What made writer Brubaker's acclaimed 2004-12 run so striking was how Cap faced real issues of the day not only as a hero, but as the conscience of a divided nation. —Anthony Breznican

Brought to Life by: Christopher Nolan
For a long time, Batman symbolized only two things: 1.) The anti-Superman, a tragedy-frazzled limousine vigilante who fought crime with his wits, fists, and the best gadgets money can buy. 2.) The reason why nobody except fanboys took superheroes seriously (e.g. Adam West; George Clooney.) With 2005's Batman Begins, Nolan liberated the icon of his baggage by fashioning him into a timely, critical metaphor for morally murky justice and hinky hero pathology. Christian Bale made you buy Bruce Wayne's mad fix for a mad world, and then made you feel his true want — to be freed from it. —Jeff Jensen

Brought to Life by: Don McGregor
The noble, fearsome ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda became the first black superhero when he debuted in 1966 (predating slightly the similarly named, Civil Rights-era militant group). But he also pioneered the graphic novel in the early 1970s with McGregor's sensational ''Panther's Rage'' multi-issue storyline. —Anthony Breznican

Brought to Life by: Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Though they butted heads throughout their creative partnership (or perhaps because of it), writer Claremont and artist Byrne produced some of Marvel's most beloved X-Men story lines, such as Days of Future Past, which is being adapted for a summer 2014 big-screen release. The duo deepened the relationships within the superteam, an ad hoc dysfunctional family whose concern for — and occasional mistrust of — one another was as dramatic as any of their high-stakes battles. Bonus points for giving Wolverine the well-deserved spotlight that catapulted him into the ranks of comicdom's greatest anti-heroes. —Dan Morrissey

Brought to Life by: Lynda Carter
The show only ran three seasons from 1976-79, but Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman has endured in the heart of every girl who imitated twirling into the beloved heroine. As Carter herself said in the 2004 book Wonder Woman: The Complete History: ''She is dashing and dazzling. Yet her truest power and beauty come from within.'' And she did it all in high-heeled red boots. —Laura Hertzfeld

Brought to Life by: Christopher Reeve
When Reeve took on the daunting task of starring in 1978's Superman, he imbued the character with a salt-of-the-earth humility while delivering the wow-factor goods of an alien ass-kicker. He also nailed the alterego Clark Kent, playing him as the meek, benign bumbler that any true superbeing would consider a spot-on impression of humans. —Dan Morrissey

Brought to Life by: Robert Downey Jr.
With 2008's Iron Man, Downey took the uptight, law-and-order-oriented Tony Stark and made him Hugh Hefner in a fancier suit. This version of Iron Man adds humanity, playfulness, and a lightning-quick dry wit that makes Stark not only relatable but likeable. Tack on a wisdom that Downey's age (and eyes) bring to the role, and he becomes the live-wire center of the Avengers, fully charged and constantly pulling others to his charm, much like metal to the electromagnet that sits within his chest. —Samantha Highfill

Brought to Life by: Joss Whedon
As quick with a quip as she is with a stake, the wonder of Whedon's vamp vanquisher, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, is that she's both super and human. Put it this way, how many heroes have a distinctive, relatable enough personality to make a night in the library appealing? Of course, that's without mentioning her protection against a never-ending parade of Hellmouth horrors. With Buffy, that's merely a friendship perk — not the point. —Lanford Beard

Brought to Life by: Year One
The influence of Frank Miller's 1987 series can't be overstated, casting its dark, sinister shadow over every Batman iteration since. It's practically a Western — as the lawman, (future commissioner) Jim Gordon, and the outlaw vigilante (wearing a bat suit) join forces to clean the human scum from stinky, crime-infested Gotham streets. —Anthony Breznican

Brought to Life by: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Perhaps the first comic book hero who wasn't so different from readers, the webslinger is a skinny kid who drastically parted ways with the Golden Age of muscle-bound good-guys — and better for it. Lee and Ditko's marvelous wall-crawler foreshadowed the counter-culture youthquake of the '60s by reinventing the modern superhero as young, funny, geeky, struggling, and flawed. Peter Parker's crimefighting is a guilt-fueled redemptive response to his failure to do a small good (stop a crook) that would have prevented a much greater loss (the same crook's murder of his beloved Uncle Ben). The timeless life lesson that glues him together — ''With great power comes great responsibility'' — has never been more sticky with relevancy. —Jeff Jensen

NEXT: The five worst superheroes ever...

Ruined by: Adrianne Palicki
Fans of Wonder Woman deserve better. What made David E. Kelley's cheesy 2011 TV pilot so dispiriting is that hopes were so high. When people saw leaked footage featuring Palicki's Halloween-costumed hero, they said the same thing as NBC executives: ''No thanks.'' —Emily Rome

Created by Hanna-Barbera for the 1977 All-New Super Friends Hour TV cartoon, one twin could shapeshift into an animal and the other into...water? Pretty drippy. —Anthony Breznican

Ruined by: Halle Berry
We're allergic to Berry's version of the clawed minx, whose special power seems to be a ridiculous push-up bra that astonishes bad-guys before she cracks them with her whip. A dominatrix with a taste for tuna? We're sure somebody's into that, but it's not us. —Amanda Taylor

While most of these worsts are just silly, The Punisher actually started strong — a vengeance-driven vigilante who represented the thin line between hero and villain. But during the '90s, when comics thought they were being '' adult'' and ''mature'' by being cynical and edgy, The Punisher came to typify a disturbing (and tiresome) trend toward hyper-violent ''heroes.'' Satire? Whatever. Get over it, already. You've punished us enough. —Jeff Jensen

He eats things. He can eat anything, in fact. That's his power — chewing through stuff. And he's from the planet Bismoll. Seriously. He was created in the 1960s and, this is just a guess, but maybe somebody at the DC office had the munchies that day? They were clearly smoking something when they came up with this absurd hero. —Geoff Boucher