An antihero is a story’s protagonist who holds values and exhibits behaviors against that of the archetypal hero, who nevertheless elicits a significant amount of admiration and sympathy.  In the wild and wonderful world of the comic books, called graphic novels by some, antiheroes are everywhere. With the recent explosion of comic book movies and their resulting popularity, even John Q Public has been exposed to some of the genre’s best anti-heroes of all time. The list below includes some of the most murderous, violent, misanthropic, psychologically damaged characters ever created.  Alcoholism, drug use, infidelity and more are all part and parcel for many of the infamous names below, but despite all this, readers have come to love them. The fact that the average person can identify with them much more intimately than the traditional ivory hero is what makes them so popular.  The reader can relate to and even sympathize with them. In the end, they are all too human and more like us than Superman could ever be. Written more than 2000 years ago, Aristotle’s “On the Poetics” claimed the best literary heroes were those who were flawed for this very reason. It seems the Aristotelian hero is alive and living in the comic universe.

1. Wolverine

2. Rorschach

3. The Punisher

4. Conan the Barabarian

5.  The Submariner

6. The Incredible Hulk

7. Catwoman

8. Ironman

9. Deadpool

10. John Constantine

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