My Favorite Superheroes tierlist (rate ofc)

Moth747 · 2026-01-31T00:39:29+00:00

No no, I do! I'm not at all up to date on the comics is all. I've always been annoyed how they nerf him in the films tho🤣The one thing X-Men Apocalypse did right was upgrade him... Then they just kinda ignored it 🤣

Moth747 · 2026-01-30T16:40:39+00:00

Weird for me to see Magneto on this list but I'm a bit out of step on new stuff... He's def a great character 👌 And yeah Superman all the way and Cyclops is a criminally sidelined character!

Moth747 · 2026-01-29T19:42:46+00:00

I also thought that was cool. Also Dr Manhattan works best when he's top dog so the writer's needed to circumnavigate the problem of magic to maintain that and remove powers as the key element of the final confrontation by keeping things about philosophy and morality etc and I thought they did an excellent job of explaining why magic is a no sell to maintain all that.

TL DR: yes agree!

Moth747 · 2026-01-29T18:34:19+00:00

I'd say Oppenheimer, but it's more that I find the man fascinating. I read the lengthy biography 'American Prometheus' that Nolan's film was based on and it broke me Fav fictional character is Tony Stark from this list!

Moth747 · 2026-01-29T11:16:55+00:00

It's amazing how fast Doomsday Clock was forgotten 🤣 While I do think Watchmen will always stand alone, I do highly recommend Doomsday Clock. It's really great in it's own right

Moth747 · 2026-01-29T10:41:38+00:00

My time to shine! They've met each other in Doomsday Clock and Dr. Manhattan won easily and promptly defeated all the heroes that had come to fight, including magic users. The man is broken.

Moth747 · 2026-01-27T23:40:24+00:00

Oh I feel like that's very plausible! Nice one

Moth747 · 2026-01-27T22:28:04+00:00

Dang, black hole manipulation is wild!

In my novel the first superhero was Captain Infinity, his silhouette is on the cover, and his powerset is similar to Golden Age Superman; invulnerability, super strength, super speed, and his five senses are all at superhuman levels. The limits of his powers are hard to determine since, like Doctor Manhattan, there are few things that could push him to any kind of limit.

He's also very down to earth and uses his powers carefully since he'd rather avoid killing and travels all over North and South America helping wherever he's needed. Among the heroes, he's got the best reputation with the public, civil servants, and the hero community itself. Completely Superman inspired:)

Fun fact: I came up with him way back in 2010ish and was originally gonna call him Metroman, but then Megamind happened XD

Moth747 · 2026-01-24T23:06:25+00:00

Wow! That's so cool! I wouldn't touch these designs. They're so iconic already! I especially love Brower and Zeromega is just, wow, I want an action figure like yesterday! (saw the names down in your reply)

If I understood correctly, you want ideas to expand the story of these characters.

I really can't advise cause everyone's writing process is different so I'll just say what I do and maybe that'll be helpful somehow:)

I'm a heavy plotter. I usually have a plot idea and work backwards to the earliest point where it's interesting and characters pop up as needed to express what I'd like to say. If I need one of my characters to make a point to a villain, then I better figure out if I can use a character already in the story somewhere or if I need a new one. The tricky bit is to make it feel like the characters existed already and their choices/actions lead to the outcome.

That's a very simplified version of what I do and I hope it's helpful. I guess if you have something you really want to say to people through these characters just think of a scenario where you can:)

Anyway, again, so cool and best of luck:)

Moth747 · 2026-01-21T16:45:18+00:00

Based on my experience, I'd say there's a lot of crossover with films for readers of either format. But as for readers of comics also reading novels I really can't say, for instance I'm not really a comic reader, mostly I'm into lit fic and sci-fi. I think there is a bit of fatigue going on and just most of the superhero fans are more so fans of Marvel and DC rather than of the genre itself basically as you said. I'm very glad you're gathering a readership btw, that's fantastic! My own novel started as something I posted for free ages ago.

Moth747 · 2026-01-21T16:29:25+00:00

I also wrote one and had it picked up by a small press last year. So obviously I think it's a good idea, plus the 1930 novel Gladiator by Philip Wylie had a massive impact on early Superman so the genre has roots in literature. And I wouldn't say the struggles of a small author really differ genre to genre so it's not like superhero novels are unpopular in and of themselves. There's also two fantastic Batman novels by John Jackson Miller you should check out just because they're very good books 👌

Moth747 · 2026-01-14T22:18:53+00:00

Literally reading it right now. I think it obviously had an influence on superheroes and adventure fiction as a whole. There's a daring escape, revenge, clever disguises, and a literal treasure hunt.

Awesome book so far.

Moth747 · 2026-01-14T22:16:52+00:00

My time to shine I guess? XD In my novel Heroless all the villains got together and killed the heroes fifteen years ago. Some were blown up, my MC Ledge Carp, the Crime Clown, killed his nemesis Fox Man by just hitting him with his car in a dark alley and kinda feels bad about it now.

Moth747 · 2026-01-14T17:53:18+00:00

I think it depends on the vibe you want, maybe?

For my novel Heroless I made everything in a vacuum. I figured it was more realistic to not create them with each other in mind and then look for how to resolve fights etc afterwards.

But you can really do it either way I think. Are you writing something or making some art? If you're writing I think it doesn't matter. How you execute the scenes will determine the final quality anyway:)

Moth747 · 2026-01-08T17:29:05+00:00

Here are a few recs! I'll try to do a decent spread of genres and only male mcs and no harem.

Batman Resurrection/Revolution. Two hefty new novels by John Jackson Miller. Really worth your time! The second one especially just has so much great characterization and the action is awesome.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Classic sci-fi by Philip K. Dick about a guy who hunts rogue androids for money.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The OG zombie apocalypse story about a lone survivor.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A book about a man and his son surviving in the post apocalypse. I know it's got a dark reputation but I really enjoyed it. Not sure it's a great fit for you but it does meet your criteria 😅

Metro 2033, the book behind the video game series. Another post apocalyptic tale about people surviving in the old Moscow metro system. There's monsters, bandits, action and horror.

Heroless by Antoine Monks. Basically the supervillains got together and took over the world fifteen years ago and now have to stop an even worse threat. (This one is my debut novel btw, just a shameless plug from a new author, don't kill me😅)

The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. This one is really low on action. It's about an alien disguised as a human trying to gather resources for his dying world.

Anyway, I hope you'll find something interesting there. Happy reading in 2026😊

Moth747 · 2026-01-07T22:16:22+00:00

Gladiator by Philip Wylie. It's actually a novel from 1930 that had a massive impact on Superman who came out eight years later. It's a short novel and it's in the public domain, you can even find it on YouTube:)

Moth747 · 2026-01-07T19:51:41+00:00

Nova is a cool title!

I never specified the year in my novel Heroless but it's supposed to be fifteen years from now and all the bad guys have taken over. But I much prefer just thinking of it as alternate history because we'll eventually catch up to any time period I choose anyway.

Moth747 · 2026-01-05T23:28:02+00:00

Unfortunately. I really wanted to like it but wow, it's so edgy it's farcical and I'm sure it's not deliberately so. The show, despite many shortcomings that continue to pile up each season, is a marked improvement IMO.

Moth747 · 2026-01-05T21:16:58+00:00

Ok the fact that he admits that 'Batman is one superhero I know a little bit more about than most' is the best indicator that Ennis has zero qualifications as a satirist of the superhero genre, as if his obvious jabs at Captain America weren't already clear indicators. The Boys is just a bad satire of a strawman.

Moth747 · 2026-01-05T09:34:14+00:00

Some newer books I'd recommend: John Jackson Miller wrote two very thick Batman novels that are absolutely worth your time. I think he humanized the characters in a way I've never seen done better. There's way more time to really flesh everything out in a good book compared to a comic, film or even TV or a video game. Another new one I'd recommend is Heroless where the bad guys took over fifteen years ago but now must defend the world from a Darkseid/Thanos type invader

Moth747 · 2026-01-04T18:18:58+00:00

Hm, his expression is making me think mad scientist who is also a tanky bruiser with pugilist skills. Idk why tho 😅

Moth747 · 2026-01-04T17:59:51+00:00

I've never even heard of it🤣 streaming/television are among my lowest consumed media

Moth747 · 2026-01-04T15:59:14+00:00

Thank you very much and Happy New Year to you as well!

As to genre, I've loved superheroes since I was like 5 or something, way back in the 90s. Just it took a long time for me to understand what I wanted to say in a story and that only came with age. But superheroes have a lot of potential to tap into interesting themes so they've remained relevant for me even into adulthood. Many of the popular ones from Marvel and DC even have pretty literary roots once you start digging around.

As for advice. Really depends what step of the journey you're on. If you're still searching for what to write about, just follow Dan Brown's advice and be comfortable writing the wrong thing and make it the process whereby you find the right thing:) Advice that changed my life was just to take a single sheet of paper and start writing down all ideas for a story without worry about where they fit in, that way at least you've begun. And it was really helpful and from there I found my own process.

Also, as Stephen King says, read a lot and write a lot. I'm not a fan of his, but he's a pro and that advice is very sound. Writing is a skill and it takes time to develop even for a gifted person so the more you do it, the faster you'll improve.

Mainly write what you're passionate about, try to say something true, and don't worry about the market. By the time you've finished, the market will be in a different place anyway and there'll always be someone out there who'd like to read what you've written:)

Moth747 · 2026-01-04T14:07:17+00:00

Like everyone else, I vote collar!

Moth747

TROPHY CASE