To my surprise, I had a much harder time coming up with Marvel heroes that I could call favorites than DC, even though I'm more familiar with Marvel characters. I tend to like offbeat and genre characters, and DC has a ton of those, so maybe that's it. I dunno.

Anyway, my shorter list:

1. Captain America
2. Vision
3. Hawkeye
4. Dr. Strange
5. Nick Fury
6. Thor
7. Red Sonja
8. Rom
9. Ghost Rider
10. Night Nurse
11. Deathlok
12. Iron Fist
13. Kitty Pryde
14. Forge
15. John Kowalski

#8 Dr. Strange - Stephen comes in at #4 on my list, as I love the mystical aspect of his story.  Sadly, no one has been able to do much of anything with him in the past 15-20 years, and he is now relegated to being part of the Avengers family instead of standing on his own, battling the forces of darkness in the MU that others would wet their pants at facing.  Maybe the upcoming movie will change all that and he'll get another ongoing, but I somehow doubt it would last long.

#7 Storm - Ororo is a bit lower on my list, checking in at #19.  She's my 3rd-favorite X-Man, and my favorite from the non-originals, as she was built up as a strong leader of the team, particularly after Cyclops checked out.  Not thrilled with how they've handled her recently, particularly the marriage to T'Challa that seemingly came from out of nowhere, but that may also have to do with my general lack of interest in the X-books over the past few years.

#6 Iron Man - The man in the iron mask (and suit) is #2 on my list.  I love the fact that Tony was reliant on the suit in the beginning just to keep himself alive, but instead of just making money designing weapons and being a playboy, he decided to do those things as well as be a hero.  The original alcoholism storyline was one of the first doses of reality for me in comic books, which I think endeared the character to me even more.

#5 The Thing - The ever-lovin' blue-eyed Ben Grimm is #6 on my list, as I feel he is the soul of the FF (Reed is brains, Sue is heart, Johnny is...I'm not really sure).  Every time Ben leaves the team, there is a definite hole there, and I'm drawn to his story of trying to retain his humanity even though he looks like a monster. 

#4 Captain America - Steve is the #1 spot on my list.  I've always loved the character, because he's been about doing what's right and not doing what people (particularly the US government) think he should do.  Maybe he's too much of a Boy Scout at times, but I find the character fascinating.  As others on here know, my big accomplishment last year was finally completing an entire run of CA in floppies from #100 up, something I probably would not do with any other character.

#3 Black Panther - T'Challa is in my Top 10, making the list at #9.  I feel that he's been underused at times, and mischaracterized at others, but the former leader of Wakanda always has been interesting, whether it be in FF, Avengers, or his solo books. 

#2 Wolverine - The diminutive Canuck does not make my Top 1000 Marvel characters, as I hate Wolverine with the burning passion of one million exploding suns.  His schtick was overplayed long ago, and I just tired of it. Had the PTB kept him limited, my feelings might be different, but the fact he showed up everywhere, regardless of whether it made sense or not, just turned me off. I'm glad he's "dead", although it won't stick, which makes me sad.

#1 Spider-Man - Peter's #5 on my list, although if I had done this list 15 years ago, he probably would have been #1 or 2.  I loved the character for a long time, but that started to change around issue #375 of ASM and I never got back to the same level of interest.  I gave up on him around issue #400 and outside of a few short runs here and there, I've never gone back to him.  He's a great character to be sure, but he just doesn't resonate with me the way he used to.

Great stuff, Doctor Fate.  I really enjoyed seeing your list, reading your explanations, and having a chance to share. 

I'm thinking about doing another list this time, this time I will list 50 of the Greatest Comic Book Teams of all time. That's includes Superteams from DC COMICS, MARVEL COMICS, IMAGE COMICS, and every single comic book organization that I can think of.

It be coming your way in a week or two (perhaps longer) and it will be worth your wait.

It will be more a pictorial format than written that I been doing with the 50 Favorite DC and MARVEL Characters that I just did in the past month.

My top 5 would have gone like this:

1. Havok

2. Nightcrawler

3. Angel

4. Hank Pym

5. Iceman