Badass Heroes

Top 10 Badass Heroes

The following are my Top 10 badass heroes. Taken from movies, video games and other forms of media these represent the creme de la creme. These are heroes that range from everyman badasses placed in incredible circumstances to those with special powers or abilities that make them infinitely more awesome. You may feel free to agree or disagree but these are the best and brightest ass kicking heroes in my opinion.

Number 10 - Blade



Blade is what is known as a Dhampir, more or less a half-vampire, this allows him to walk around in the day time earning him the nickname Day Walker. This also means he is immune to most of the weaknesses that commonly plague vampires. Due to the fact his Mother was killed by a vampire during childbirth he has a huge vendetta against them and spends his time cutting them to shreds with various bladed weapons (his name is Blade after all). He emerged in the 1970s as one of the earlier African American superheroes and a trilogy of films about the super-hero have been made, starting in 1998 with BLADE which starred Wesley Snipes, help solidify the hero even more.

Number 9 - Indiana Jones



Based on the heroes of old serials from the 1930s Indiana Jones is an archeologist by occupation. Most archeologists don't regularly get into fist fights over artifacts or end up shooting Nazis but Indiana Jones is just that kind of guy. One of the things that kept the character compelling, at least for me, is the frequency at which he gets his ass kicked, he spends much of the movie in various types of peril and ends up bleeding and bruised by the end of the ordeal. This everyman attribute makes for a far more interesting movie - there's nothing immortal about Doctor Jones. Together with allies like Marcus Brody he recovers ancient artifacts with sacred or religious significance and despite being a dyed in the wool skeptic he usually comes face to face with some pretty crazy shit.

Number 8 - Hellboy



Hellboy is a demonic comic book character created by Mike Mignola for Dark Horse Comics. A baby demon who is stranded on Earth during a Nazi experiment into teleportation he is found by several Allied soldiers and raised by paranormal expert named Professor "Broom" Bruttenholm. In the end Hellboy becomes a good guy, he shaves off his demonic horns, takes a liking to pet cats and spends his days fighting monsters in the employ of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. The character really came to life on the big screen thanks to a classic dead-pan everyman performance from actor Ron Perlman. You might think Hellboy has it easy but he gets the crap beat out of him in both Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army - not that he can't hold his own in a fight.

Number 7 - Gordon Freeman



Doctor Freeman is the protagonist in the first person shooter game Half-Life. It truly is amazing how badass a silent character it can be but perhaps its his ability to be badass without corny one-liners that does it. Not only must he shoot aliens, blow up helicopter gunships and hold his own against massive towering Striders but he also has to solve puzzles and think. A 27 year old physicist carrying the fate of the human race on his shoulders while bonking zombie heads with a crowbar, the only thing that could make him more badass is if he finally capitalizes on all that alone time with Alyx.

Number 6 - Drizzt Do'Urden



Drizzt is a Dark Elf featured in author RA Salvatore's books. The Dark Elves live deep underground and only come out to raid the surface Elves at night. Drizzt steps away from his heritage and makes his own path forsaking the ways of his race to live on the surface and be a hero. He wields dual scimitars and is all but unbeatable in a one on one confrontation. Its hard to describe just how badass he is if you haven't read the books. Just go out and buy the Dark Elf Trilogy and Icewindale Trilogy.



Number 5 - John McClane



Hopefully you've seen Die Hard, in fact hopefully you've seen all four Die Hard films. If you haven't than you won't be familiar with this guy. A New York police officer John McClane ends up in the wrong place at the right time an awful lot. He's thwarted terrorists, thieves and all sorts of henchmen and he gets bloodied and beat up in the process. Bruce Willis is one of the most unassuming action stars, he isn't overly tall and he isn't a muscular beast but he's believable as he outsmarts, outguns and outfights the bad guys in each installment. Hopefully he's not too old and we'll get one more adventure before Willis throws in the towel on the character.



Number 4 - Duke Nukem



Duke Nukem is a foul mouthed narcissistic hero who must fight off an alien invasion. His voice is a parody of Clint Eastwood while his manner and lines are variously grafted from films like They Live and Army of Darkness. He is an amalgamation of all of the over-the-top hero stereotypes perpetuated in the 80s and 90s. The character himself, at least on the cover of Duke Nukem 3D, bears a resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Duke Nukem is one of the funniest and most badass heroes in history.

Number 3 - The Terminator



Originally a villain the Terminator is a machine designed for one purpose, killing things. In the second film, however, the Terminator is sent in to protect John Connor instead of killing him. It must protect John from an even more advanced Terminator known as the T-1000. Arnold Schwarzenegger offers one of the best performances of his storied action hero career as the T-800 Terminator. He is subtly funny when he needs to be and the robotic way in which he delivers some of the movies great lines is classic. He is a cold cool killer yet by the end of the film he's learned a lot more about emotions and what it is to be human. The fact that he manages to hold his own against a machine more advanced than him makes him one epic badass.

Number 2 - Batman




Batman is, first and foremost, a detective. But when forensics and clues fail he turns to beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. Apparently Batman is also an expert in multiple forms of martial arts having studied for years as Bruce Wayne before assuming his bat persona. When hand-to-hand combat fails Batman turns to his gadgets using an arsenal consisting of ancient weaponry like smoke bombs that a ninja might use and high-tech body armor, vehicles and spy equipment. Batman exists in the DC Universe where most super-heroes have super-powers and yet manages to hold his own in a fight, that alone would make him a badass.





Number 1 - Wolverine



Wolverine has been plagued by having one of the worst origin movies ever made but despite this I couldn't ignore how awesome the character actually is. James Howlett (Wolverine) has mutant powers including increased strength, agility, sense of smell, and super fast healing. He also possesses six one foot long bone claws which protrude from his knuckles allowing him to both slice and impale enemies easily. He was part of a top secret program called weapon X that grafted an indestructible metal called adamantium to his bones AND claws. Wolverine is all but immortal being already more than a century old and still appearing as if he is in his thirties or forties. He is definitely the most badass members of the X-Men due to his feral unpredictable nature, claws, and badass set of super-powers in general. Let's hope the next Wolverine does justice to the true ferocity and awesomeness of the character.



So that's it, my top 10 badass heroes list. Here are the badasses who didn't make the list:

King Leonidus
James Bond
Maximus (main character from Gladitor)
Liu Kang
Rocky Balboa
Every Bruce Lee Character Ever
Aragorn
Morpheus or Neo
Spider-Man

Favorite Video Games

Top 10 (Favorite) Video Games

Please realize while reading this that I haven't played every game that was ever made, I can only choose games I've actually played. These are merely my favorites, the games on which I wracked up the most hours of playtime. For some entries I included two games from the same series of games simply because otherwise this list would be dominated by sequels and their predecessors.

Number 10 - QUAKE (1996)



Fresh from creating DOOM and DOOM II (which will both be on the list) ID Software set out to up the ante with far better graphics that pushed the technology of the day to the limits. QUAKE was one of the first video games I ever played and was undoubtedly the first FPS (first person shooter) I ever played. As a teenager this game provided hours of fun despite the fact it was more than five years old when I started playing it (as video games were concerned I was a fairly late bloomer). QUAKE takes place in several realms that look like something from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft, the kind of world where dark lord Cthulhu would be right at home. You play, much like in DOOM, as a survivor of a scientific experiment into teleportation gone wrong. There are four realms to fight your way through and zombies, monsters and possessed soldiers to blast away. Quake was also one of the first games to have a multiplayer mode.

Number 9 - DOOM and DOOM II (1993, 1994)



DOOM was the precursor to QUAKE developed by ID Software. The game has a very similar plot. The unnamed silent protagonist makes his way through military bases, ruined cities and often right into Hell while blasting away demons and trying to find his way into the next area. The tendency of demons to teleport out of nowhere, or to appear as punishment for flipping the RIGHT switch, actually makes the game frightening. DOOM is the grand-daddy of essentially all First Person Shooter games in existence today and remains one of the best games I’ve ever played.

Number 8 - Assassin’s Creed 2 (2009)



Assassin’s Creed 2 is a third person action-adventure game set both in the future and centuries into the past. Employing a device known as the Animus people are able to tap into genetic memories and relive things through their ancestor’s bodies. This puts the player in the shoes of ancient assassin’s and gives them the ability to free run over rooftops through medieval cities. Assassin’s Creed 2 was a huge improvement over the first game and is one of the largest and most immersive free roam games imaginable. The story taking place in the future may be a bit uninteresting but once you get into the Animus you won’t want to get back out.

Number 7 - Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005)



For a Star Wars nerd such as myself (see my Top 10 Movie list) there was nothing better than being put in the shiny white boots of a Storm Trooper and getting to pwn some rebel scum or getting to force throw Darth Vader as Yoda. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is one of the most fun multiplayer games ever conceived and had a robust single player following a group of Clone Troopers up until the fateful day that Order 66 was executed and beyond. The game allows you to utilize many familiar vehicles and play as heroes and villains such as Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett. Star Wars Battlefront 2 remains one of the best games I’ve ever played and despite being over five years old still looks awesome graphically.

Number 6 - Portal (2007)



Portal is a puzzle game developed by Valve. Like many first person games it follows a silent protagonist, an android named Chell, as she navigates her way through multiple test chambers at the behest of a computerized task-master named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). The premise is simple but the game can be quite painful on your brain the first time you play.

Number 5 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)



I was never a big Call of Duty fan until this game. Up until that time I’d played Medal of Honor games religiously but when Activision and Infinity Ward brought Call of Duty into the modern era I jumped on the bandwagon. The game offers a realistic and downright awesome single player mode following the adventures of two soldiers as they deal with world altering events. COD4 also boasts one of the deepest online multiplayer modes ever conceived that provided my friends and I with hours of fun. While not flawless by any means the game set the bar for war related games and even, finally, coaxed an attempt at a modern war setting from Medal of Honor just a few months ago.

Number 4 - Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 (2008, 2009)



In 2008 Valve took a break from the adventures of Gordon Freeman (more on that later) to delve into the world of zombies. The product was Left 4 Dead, the story of four survivors neck deep in the undead, or the infected at least since I’m pretty sure these zombies aren’t the Romero kind. Instead of the standard lumbering ghoul we get grizzly pale-green-gray zombies more interesting in clawing their way through your skin and punching you into oblivion than on indulging in a meal of gray matter. Both games excel at putting you right in the middle of the action and when played with friends the game shines as an excellent cooperative, or competitive game. The ability to play as the infected, who have begun mutating and gained some odd abilities that help them snare survivors, is a stroke of sheer genius on Valve’s part, but what else would we expect from them right?

Number 3 - Half-Life (1998)



A decade before Left 4 Dead Valve cut its teeth on what remains one of the best FPS games to date. Half-Life was built from the same basic formula as QUAKE and tells a fairly similar story. You play as a silent scientist, a young Doctor named Gordon Freeman who, after an experiment causes aliens to teleport into the secret facility where he works, must fight his way to safety and try to save the world. The game features both alien and human enemies in the form of a military team sent in to exterminate the witnesses and destroy the facility. Using both normal fire arms and some futuristic sci-fi style weaponry Gordon Freeman eventually makes his way to the alien world.

Number 2 - Red Dead Redemption (2010)



Red Dead Redemption, developed by Rockstar games (of Grand Theft Auto fame) tells the story of John Marston, an outlaw trying to redeem himself in the dying days of the Old West. The story takes place in the fictional setting of New Austin and also features parts of Mexico all of which are, by the end of the game, entirely open to exploration by the player. The game is incredibly immersive and there is as much to do outside the main storyline as there is to do within it. A player can quite literally get lost out in the wilderness, its that massive. The sandbox element is only part of it, the story itself is also excellent and has plenty of emotional depth and things to say about humanity and society as a whole. Its also one of the longer story-modes of recent times. Lately many game companies have been lazy and have included single player modes that only take a few hours to beat but Red Dead Redemption will keep you busy for way longer than a few hours.

Number 1 - Half-Life 2 (2004)



We’re back to Valve once again, what can I say I am a sucker for Valve games. Half-Life 2 was the hotly awaited sequel to the first game, how hotly awaited was it? Well it took SIX YEARS for Valve to finish the game in an industry where the turn around is usually only two years, maybe one year for sports games like Madden. Half-Life 2 shines in everything it does, the graphics are some of the best ever done, the physics engine is outstanding, the characters are interesting and engaging and the plot is one of the best science fiction stories ever told in any artistic medium. To top all that off the game includes some pretty awesome weaponry and combat that shifts between being surrounded by zombies, shot at by soldiers and trying to shoot down a helicopter with laser guided rockets while being atop a lighthouse. I’ve probably played the game two dozen times by now, partially because of how awesome it is but also because Valve has been agonizing slow to churn out the next part of the saga. Knowing Valve, the wait will be worth it.



So that’s my list of top 10 games. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below with your own top 10. Here are those that didn’t make the list but still deserve honorable mentions:

ESPN NFL 2K5
Batman Arkham Asylum
Assassin's Creed
Diablo II
Grand Theft Auto III, IV and the others in between
Metroid Fusion
Pokemon Gold and Silver Versions (don't hate, Pokemon games are the shit)
Mortal Kombat: Deception
Medal of Honor and its various expansions (not the new game)
Warcraft II (because it was the first PC game I ever played)