10 Comic Book Characters You Wish You Could Be

The aspirational and the inspirational.

wonder woman
Warner Bros.

If you’re a comic book fan, then you’ve probably been one since you were a kid... and at some point you'll have daydreamed about being a superhero. What it'd be like to have their power, their looks, their agency and influence. A lot of comics have been sold on the strength of adolescent wish-fulfilment over the years.

But this article isn't about the rampaging Hulk inside every shy science nerd, or the lonely teenage misfit in you that related to the X-Men and their struggle for acceptance in a world that seemed to hate and fear them. No, this is about the comic book characters you'd actually 'Freaky Friday' with in a heartbeat... the heroes you wish you could be, just for one day.

A fair few evergreen list-hoggers have failed to make the cut here, because it's not about the most popular, the greatest of all time, or even the biggest or baddest. Some are all too boy scout, too goodie-goodie, and others are the smokin’ hot heroes people fantasise about being with, not about being. Then, of course, there are the grimdark anti-heroes that no one in their right mind would want to be (they’re not terribly happy people).

This list also acknowledges the debt that today’s perception of comic book characters owes to their depiction in movies and on television in the last few decades. Superheroes aren’t just for comic geeks anymore. Like the guys who used to beat you up in high school, they’ve gone wide since you were a kid...

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Contributor
Contributor

Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.