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I grew up reading comic books, and while many of those I read were more like Bugs Bunny, or featured a sport such as soccer, I slowly began to get into more ‘serious’ comic books such as Batman and Superman. What intrigued me about them was the fact that they weren’t like the portrayals on TV, but were a lot darker and more sinister and the main heroes were flawed and often didn’t do the right thing.

It was this, combined with the excellent art and storylines that continued to intrigue me as I moved into my forties – as the comic world continues to develop and new comics appear, some of the old classics can still be found in comic stores around the country or online in various forms.

These comics are becoming collector’s items, and while many are very valuable, they still provide a whole host of entertainment for children and adults alike.

Batman is one of my personal favorite super heroes. While he has no real super powers, he does often appear to be super human. He has a keen intellect, and with this he is able to solve many problems and thwart ‘the bad guys’.

His abilities with martial arts sets him aside from most humans; add to this the technological marvels he has at his disposal such as his batmobile, or his batarang and he does become a formidable opponent. If I want one superhero on my side, it’s going to be Batman everytime!

I’ve always been interested in vampires and therefore Blade has always intrigued me. Masterful with the blade, he is an athlete whose prowess in hand to hand combat is legendary. He is immune to the vampire bite and therefore becomes a perfect vampire hunter – he also has the ability to detect supernatural beings.

Sadly for me, the movies transformed him into more of a superhero by giving him superior strength and stamina, but he still is a pretty mean vampire killing machine.

Captain America is one of Marvel’s greatest creations. Being a super soldier and being a master at all combat techniques including the martial arts, he often uses his extreme speed and agility to defeat his enemies.

When in trouble he can also use his trusty indestructible shield that not only protects him but can also be used as a great weapon. He is a natural leader and often inspires others to fight beyond their natural abilities. He is a man who is a true super-hero.

When an accident occurred on a highly secretive space ship, the cosmic rays that bathed the crew changed them at a molecular level. Each crew member changed and had super powers.

Mr Fantastic had a superior IQ and an elastic body; The Invisible woman could become invisible but also could create force fields; The Human Torch could cover his body in flames, shoot and manipulate flames and finally The Thing had super strength, rock covered skin and high endurance.

Singly they were not that effective but as a team they were almost unbeatable, and this was long before the Brady bunch!

My first look at The Flash was on TV; the character intrigued me as he was obviously a super-hero but also had many flaws and idiosyncrasies that are normally associated with mere humans. Out of all the super-heroes, his are perhaps the powers I’d love to have the most – the ability to travel at high speeds, time travel and even dimension travel are among the ‘coolest’ of the super powers for me. This combined with his amazing reflexes make him a pretty decent super hero.

I found the stories in The Flash far more ‘real’ than many super hero comic books and it is probably this ‘reality’ that made The Flash appeal to me so much – he’s amongst my personal favorites.

I was also introduced to the Hulk through the successful 1970s tv series – watching David Banner struggle with his anger and often fail, only to see a giant green ‘hulk’ emerge that was not only fast, savage and incredibly strong, but also was at times extremely gentle somehow echoed society for me.

What made this series so good was that you could actually imagine that something like this could actually happen! The Hulk was a great super-hero, and the duality of characters as he transformed made it very poignant at times.

Yet again we find another super-hero who really doesn’t have super powers, but instead uses his amazing brain and his superb technical prowess to create a suit of armor that seems to give him super powers.

The armor that the Iron Man wears gives him the ability to fly, shoot laser beams, enter a vacuum and it also protects him from harm – oh and it also gives him super strength.

What is most appealing about this comic book is that both the heroes and villains use technology to fight each other and most of the battles take place in a real and believable world – the stories are always exciting and full of action.

Al Simmons, a top assassin for the CIA is betrayed by his colleagues and sent to hell. While there he makes a deal with Maelbolgia to see his wife again. Sent back to earth, he has no memory of his past, is terribly scarred and has amazing powers. Now called spawn he finds out that he is supposed to lead the armies of hell and destroy heaven – however, he refuses this quest and is forced to fight denizens of both heaven and hell while trying to protect his wife Wanda.

Spawn is one of the great characters from independent publishers and with amazing super powers he is one of the toughest super heroes. His abilities include flight, regeneration, teleportation, superior strength, shape shifting and an armored body.

What makes this comic book so interesting to me is the double curse he has – not only is he scarred but even after refusing to destroy heaven he still has to fight enemies from both hell and heaven.

Spiderman is probably one of the most recognizable super heroes of all time. With his distinctive ‘suit’, his ability to climb buildings like a spider, and cast ‘webs’ from which to swing from building to building, he is one of the most exciting super heroes to watch.

He has superior speed and strength, with superb agility – add to this the fact that he has enhanced his abilities with technology and he has become one of the most powerful super heroes of them all.

Spiderman has many adversaries and all have some sort of super power for him to combat – while he exists in our real world, the story-lines don’t really reflect a reality – they are all exciting though!

Superman is another super hero that is instantly recognizable. As Clark Kent he is a normal ‘geekish’ human, but with a quick change into his Superman Suit he is suddenly fearless and strong! Superman possesses many abilities, mostly due to the fact that he was born on Krypton  - he has the ability to fly, has amazing strength.

Superman fights many enemies, the most famous probably being the super villain Lex Luthor. He has one major weakness and that is the ability of Kryptonite to disable him. Superman is a larger than life character and is perhaps one in which most men aspire to be. A great character, great stories and super action!

I first remember The Transformers as fun cars that transformed into robots – however once I started reading comic books they became far more than that to me! When the transformers come to Earth to continue an ancient alien battle, we find their leaders Megatron and Optimus Prime fighting it out for supremacy.

As we learn more about these aliens and find out that the Autobots (good guys) are fighting to stop the Decepticons (bad guys) from destroying humanity, we begin to see a human element creeping in – as the characters of the Autobots are developed, they all become ‘human like’ and it becomes very easy to identify with them.

Out of all of the comic books transferred to a movie, this is probably my favorite.

Out of all the comic books The X-Men are probably the most appealing to me. Essentially mutant humans the X-Men are a collection of ‘oddities’ that have formed together and essentially want to live in peace with normal humans – however, some mutants want to use their superior powers, which they see as a natural evolution of mankind, to dominate and rule humanity.

The X-Men fight against this oppression, while also fighting against prejudice within human society. It’s this moral element of the X-men as well as some of the very intriguing and diverse characters that make this so good, and one of the most appealing to me!

The Watchmen is a relatively new comic book that was published by DC comics in 1986 and 1987. It is a limited series written by Alan Moore and ‘cartoonized’ by Dave Gibbons.

What is interesting about the whole series is that it is more a study of humanity than a superhero comic – the storyline takes part in an alternate universe where superheroes helped the US win the Vietnam war.

As the storyline develops and we see several very flawed super-heroes, we somehow get a feeling of reality that isn’t present in many comic books – as The Watchmen strive to uncover the truth behind a plot to create devastation by a nuclear war, we begin to see the personal development and strife of the main heroes.

For me, the series has everything – action, adventure, sex and subterfuge – it is definitely one of the better series I have read, and with the recent movie (get the extended version) it is beginning to get a decent following.