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

Badass Female Heroes

Top 10 Badass Female Heroes

This is going to be a list of my 10 Favorite badass heroines, female heroes who can hold their own in a fight. There are few things that are hotter than a girl who can kick some serious ass while looking good so some of these characters get extra points for hotness. Originally I was going to do the list of badass heroes first but they'll be time for that later.

Number 10 - Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)



Black Widow has played both the villain and the hero in various comic book stories. Most recently she showed up as an agent of SHIELD in the smash-hit Iron Man 2 in which she was played by the incredibly hot Scarlett Johannson. Along with working for SHIELD she also was a love interest for Wolverine and even took over leadership of the Avengers from Captain America for a time. Let's face it, ANY woman who can take over from Captain America and lead the freakin Avengers would have to be a substantially badass woman.

Number 9 - Sarah Connor



Sarah Connor had an incredible weight put on her shoulders. Much like Mary from the Messianic story in the Bible Sarah gets told that she is going to give birth to humanity's savior. The main difference, of course, is that Satan never sent any robots back in time to kill Jesus, although I'm guessing that would make for a pretty badass nativity scene. In order to turn out to be a great leader John Connor needs to have a pretty great parent and Sarah Connor fits the bill. Not only does she kill the first Terminator and deliver one of my favorite one-liners ever in the process but she returns in T2 with an even more badass and complex version of herself. Hats off to Linda Hamilton for one hell of a performance and making Sarah Connor into a badass.

Number 8 - River Tam



If you haven't caught on by now I'm a total nerd. About five years ago, by the suggestion of a friend, I picked up a movie called Serenity. After I was thoroughly satisfied by its awesomeness he then suggested I watch a show called Firefly, upon which the movie was based. River Tam is a badass character in the Firefly Universe. Sometimes she goes apeshit on purpose and destroys entire rooms full of enemies. The only disadvantage is that thanks to experiments done to her by the evil Alliance she can't always control herself and this leads to her going apeshit on the wrong people at times. Also note that Summer Glau, the actress who portrays Tam, is extremely sexy.

Number 7 - Rogue



Rogue is an essentially unstoppable force, she is a super being whose power is to absorb the powers of other super beings. Any physical contact with any other being can result in such a power transfer and due to this Rogue has essentially contracted every super-power in the book at one time or another. From flight, to super strength to Cyclops's eye blast power you name it she's had it. Rogue also has a southern accent that could drive just about any man wild and, if the image below is any indication, has an ass as uncanny as the X-Men themselves.



Number 6 - Samus Aran



Samus is one of the single most iconic video game characters ever conceived. Beneath layers of futuristic armor beats the heart of one of the most badass females to ever grace video game screens. Samus spends her time blasting aliens, fighting Metroids and massive bosses and collecting various power-ups to help save the day whether it be aboard a space station or on a strange alien planet. Samus rarely removes her helmet. In fact until beating the original Metroid the player was unaware she was a girl until reaching the end of the game which revealed this image.



Number 5 - Princess Kitana



Adopted daughter of the Emperor (Shao Khan) Princess Kitana is one of the most badass female warriors to ever walk into the Mortal Kombat arena. Unlike many of the MK characters Kitana seems to have pure motives and is one of the only purely good characters other than perhaps Liu Kang (though even he turned zombie and sought out his revenge). The only time her true motives were in suspicion was when Mileena, her evil clone, was masquerading as her.

Number 4 - X23



X23 is a female clone of James Howlett (aka Wolverine). She was created in an attempt to recreate the Weapon X program that had molded Adamantium to Wolverine's bones. The problem was that no other mutant test subjects could heal fast enough for the adamantium bonding process to work. So they decided to just clone Wolverine but the DNA sample they had was incomplete so they could only get an X Chromosome, hence the whole FEMALE clone thing. X23 is probably the closest to a villain on the list as she spent much of her time employed as a weapon carrying out assassinations and the like before finally coming to stay with Xavier and the X-Men. Call me a dirty bastard but I have to wonder, if Wolverine sleeps with her is it incest or just masturbation? I mean she is technically a clone...

Number 3 - Trinity



Whether you liked the sequels or not the Matrix is a science-fiction classic and one of the most liked films ever made. It had something for everyone and, luckily for this list, it had a badass female hero named Trinity. She appears in the first scene kicking the ever loving shit out of some cops before escaping the wrath of several Agents. She forms one side of the Christianity-esque, well, Trinity, of Morpheus, Neo and herself.

Number 2 - Alyx Vance



Alyx helps out Gordon Freeman the main character in the Half-Life franchise. In Half-Life 2 Episode 2 she takes an even bigger role acting as a side-kick for Gordon through essentially the entire game. She regularly blows away Combine soldiers, blasts holes into aliens and can kick the head right off a zombie. She is one of the most resilient NPCs you’ll ever play with and her AI is actually fairly intelligent. She seems to have a bit of a crush on Gordon but I have a feeling he’s going to have trouble telling her how he feels.



Number 1 - Ellen Ripley



Anyone who’s been keeping track of my lists thus far knows I love James Cameron films, especially Aliens. Ellen Ripley first appears in Ridley Scott’s ALIEN and while she is a hero there and acts as the voice of reason on the Nostromo it isn’t until ALIENS that she becomes a badass. At first she seems scared of the Aliens but when she realizes she’s the only human being to survive encountering them she takes it upon herself to help the Colonial Marines survive a trip to LV-426. It all culminates in one of the most iconic scenes in movie history, the show down with the alien Queen.



That is my list, those are my top 10 badass female heroes. It was a pretty tough list to make and there were quite a few women who I had in mind who didn’t make the list. Here they are:

Neytiri
Katara
Selene (Underworld)
Lara Croft
Black Cat (Marvel)
Eowyn (Lord of the Rings - she kills the witch king)
Catti-Brie (from R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt books)
Elizabeth Swan
Raven (DC Comics)
Zoe Washburne (Firefly)