The Great Hero Showdown (First Round Voting Results Up!)

[Melkor Lord Of ALL!]

104. Gilgamesh

The epic tale of Gilgamesh was the first epic hero tale, originating as far as 2100 years BC in ancient Sumeria. He was the prototype for mythological heroeses, two-third God, one-third human, he was cursed by the godess Ishtar but managed to undertake the quest for immortality. Currently the film adaptation is being created.

 

[The Serge]

Bio: The Ringbearer of the War of the Ring of Middle-Earth, Frodo Baggins was charged by fate to carry The One Ring across Middle-Earth into the Land of Mordor and destroy it by casting it into the fires of Mount Doom wherein The Ring was forged. Aided by the Fellowship of the Ring and ultimately by his friend and confidant, Samwise Gamgee, Frodo was overcome by the weight of The Ring at the last moment. Fate again played a hand when the former hobbit, Smeagol/Gollum, still lusting after his "precious" bit off Frodo's ring-finger and The Ring and fell into the fires of Mount Doom, destroying The Ring and its master, the Dark Lord Sauron. Frodo, once gravely wounded by Sauron's chief servant, the Witch-King of Angmar, never healed from his travails and, after three years in his beloved Shire, he was rewarded as one of the few non-Elves to travel into The West in the light of the Ainur.

Frodo is essentially a Christ-Figure at the highest calibre. He undertook something due to faith and responsibility despite the fact that he and his fellow hobbits were not perceived as integral participants of Middle-Earth's conflicts. He put not just his life, but his soul, on the line in order to save all of Middle-Earth. Indeed, he carried the burden of the entire world until the moment The Ring was cast into the fire. His ultimate failure is mitigated by the fact that of all the Ringbearers and those exposed to The Ring, he was the only one (aside from Sam) to overcome its effects long enough to complete the task set before him. Frodo is a true hero and his sacrifice earned him a place in Tolkien's heaven.

 

[Renton]

106. Gordon Freeman

Mild-mannered, mute and goateed, Gordon Freeman is the hero of "Half-Life." As a generic labcoat-garbed, government-employed scientist, Freeman is a protagonist nerds across the country could finally identify with. Gordon's story began when a normal day working in an Area 51-style secret government lab known as Black Mesa unleashed alien invaders upon the unsuspecting scientists. Freeman was the only person able to fight wave after wave of aliens, zombies and Marines, and fight them he did. Later, Gordon is transported to the future to help the citizens of the futuristic and Orwellian "City 17" escape the oppression of their mysterious rulers.

(From http://www.dailyorange.com/media/pa...ick/Character.Bio.Gordon.Freeman-945528.shtml)

 

[Renton]

107. Vlad Taltos

"I’d rather be running the game than playing it."

Vlad Táltos is the central character of a series of novels written by Steven Brust and set on the planet Dragaera. First introduced in the 1983 novel Jhereg as an assassin and mobster, Vlad has, over the course of nine subsequent novels, acquired many friends and enemies. Notable among these are his familiar Loiosh (a jhereg), and his (ex)-wife Cawti.

Although the majority of the citizens of the Dragaeran Empire are modified humans, Vlad is not. Since Dragaerans cannot grow facial hair, Vlad typically has a mustache, as an act of defiant individualism.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_Taltos)

 

[DarrenGMiller]

108. Ralph Hinkley - The Greatest American Hero

Ralph Hinley was a mild-mannered shoolteacher who was visited by aliens who gave him a suit that granted him superpowers. Unfortunately, he lost the instructions for the suit, which resulted in him learning its powers as he went along. When he flew, he flailed his arms and legs wildly through the air.

Believe it or not,
I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free eee eee.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

109. Paladin - The Man In Black

A former cavalry officer during the US Civil War, this hero lived at the Hotel Carlton in Frisco. He loved the arts, fine food, brandy, cigars, fine clothes and beautiful women. He could quote Shelley, Socrates or Shakespeare when appropriate. He spoke several languages, played piano and could compose symphonies.

When he changed into his black, with the silver chess piece on his holster (did I mention he could emulate the strategies of great military commanders in games of chess), he was all business. He was a champion of justice who was always tried to do what was right. He was a great fighter and there was no match for him with a gun.

He was the inspiration for Stephen King's Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger of the Dark Tower series.

 

[Melkor Lord Of ALL!]

110. Rambo

The toughest soldier America ever had.

 

[Renton]

111. Severian the Torturer

"Indeed, it often seems to me that of all the good things in the world, the only ones humanity can claim for itself are stories and music."

Severian, a member of the guild of torturers who are the implementers of justice in the vast, decaying Commonwealth. As a journeyman, Severian falls victim to the great sin of his trade, mercy, as he eases the death of an upper class woman who has brought him both love and knowledge. He slips the Chatelaine Thecla a knife so that she may take her own life, and is banished by the guild to the provincial outpost of Thrax. Severian takes his leave of the boundless waste heap that is his home city of Nessus, and the game is afoot.

Urth has reverted to near barbarism, a vast autarchy of medieval squalor, where great ideological blocs labor at endless war. All rests on the shoulders of a single man, a man with a perfect memory, who wanders the Wastes in search of a destiny he barely understands.
(from: http://www.strangewords.com/archive/newsun.html)

 

[DarrenGMiller]

112. Sam Emerson

Forced by his mother to move in with his grandfather in Sata Carla, the "murder capital of the world", a place where if "all the corpses were to stand up at once" there would be no room for the living, Sam Emerson is totally unprepared when he learns that his older brother Michael is a vampire. To find out how to combat the vampires of Santa Carla and save his brother, Sam wisely visits the comic book store owned by the parents of Edgar and Alan Frog. Together with the Frog brothers, Sam fights for "truth, justice and the American way."

 

[DonTadow]

113- Wolverine- Little is known of Wolverine's past, save that it was fraught with pain and loss. Long ago, he trained as a samurai in Japan; later, he became WeaponX, an operative for the Canadian government. Today, Logan is an X-Man--using his animal-keen senses, healing factor and razor-sharp claws to help protect a world that fears and hates mutants.

Logan's life is shrouded in mystery, peppered with half-truths and anecdotal reports of unconfirmed sightings. His healing factor seems to act against the effects of aging -- which would explain why, as a man of more than 120 years, he appears to be in his mid-30s.

He now knows little of his past, except that he was working as an operative for the Canadian government when he accepted Professor X's offer to join the X-Men. Logan chose to stay on partly due to his belief in Xavier's vision for the co-existence of humans and mutants, and partly because of his attraction to Jean Grey. During his time with the X-Men, Logan has worked to regain his lost memories, but virtually every answer leads him to even more new questions.