6. Dexter Morgan
The blood-red spattered menace. He is Dexter Morgan and no one lives long enough for him to require an alias... Found as a child in extraordinary circumstances and adopted (Don Draper, Spiderman, Superman?) by policeman Harry Morgan. Dexter is found covered in blood, a traumatic past to say the least. Unsurprisingly, darkness lurks within him, a fascination with blood and death. However, this sinister penchant is recognised by Harry and together they learn to control his urges. When we meet Dexter he occupies that shadowy dark grey area of morality. Is it right to take revenge on those the legal system has failed to deal with. Does killing a killer or rapist create its own moral neutrality? As a vigilante (Batman anyone?) by night, yet a well-adjusted, civil servant with a great loyalty to his sister Deborah by day, Dexter ticks so many of our alter-egotist categories. The key comparison with a Batman is that Dexter sets out to murder, not restore order. Did Jack the Ripper set out to purge the Earth of sinful prostitutes? Somehow, there is not a similar moral condemnation. All the women murdered were prostitutes, and all except for one, Elizabeth Stride - were horribly mutilated. Dexter kills a higher grade of criminal, but a modern audience is not quite as horrified by his clinical dismantling and disposal of his victims. As with Walter White however, when his secret is threatened his (stricter) moral compass is set aside when things get personal. He is also quite happy to use his family if it will help conceal himself even if it scares or humiliates them. The show is much more psychologically explicit about cause and effect than Breaking Bad. Dexters emergence from a scene of slaughter as a boy, his adoptive fathers control of his moments and the internal monologue accompanying his actions all create a much clearer definition between his Jekyll and his Hyde. Dexter knows what he is, it even troubles him. Our crystal-cook, does not seem to care or have the inclination to share anything real with other characters and hence the audience..