I'm sticking to comic books here, but for the record, if I could include comic strip characters, Charlie Brown is taking the #2 spot.
1.) Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
2.) Captain America (Steve Rogers)
3.) Superman
4.) Iron Man (Tony Stark)
5.) The Incredible Hulk (Bruce Banner) (includes "merged", child-like savage, and Joe Fixit versions)
If I could make Iron Fist and Luke Cage fit into the same spot together, they'd take the #2 position.
Hopefully, I can break down the why's and how's on my list sometime soon.
(also, I just didn't read much DC as a kid. And yes, I like Batman, always thought he was damned cool, but there's parts of me that just go 'naw, that's too much. Dude is just a man.' That's why my favorite stories are seeing him fatigued, broken, exhausted, sick, but pushing through. I HATE the 'Batman is untouchable!' Batman. That's boring as spit to me.
I want to run through a church, shaking a tambourine while doing flips like I was an extra in
The Blues Brothers, reading this!
I was thinking back on
Batman: TAS and thought about
Justice League/Justice League Unlimited... all classic animated series. But seeing Batman go toe-to-toe with a Darkseid or a Brainiac did nothing for me. It just made the villains look lamer IMHO that they couldn't take out some dude just really into science and Crossfit.
The Batman stories I liked more was him fighting that "Mad Bomber" dude - the one that put bombs on remote control cars and the Gray Ghost guest starred. Or taking on "Wormwood" who was a master of death traps. No major psych-hang-ups like his usual foes. (Yeah, they were nuts, just not super colorful ones.) I like those Batman stories more. Same goes for the comics too.
Unless we're talking about
Batman: Brave and the Bold. That show was the exception, because those stories were all about "the crazier, the better." I mean, he teamed with Space Ghost and it was awesome.
Sorry, I don't mean to bash anyone that picked Batman for there list. Most people I know would have him on theirs, no question.
Jimmy's post had me on a tangent. Blame him, is what I'm saying here.