Gilda

Let's look at some candidates first:

Batman.

The Frank Miller version in DKR and even more so, Year One is excellent, but I prefer the Denny O' Neal Adams version from the 70's. It's the perfect balance, not too dark and gritty like the post 90's version, not too whimsical like the 60's version, which took clues from the abysmal Batman tv show. Check out Batman: Drawn by Neal Adams--there are two hardcovers--and you'll see what I mean.

Also superior to the Miller version, IMO, is Loeb/Sale in The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Haunted Knight. Batman is more human, more a victim of fate than a master of it, and as a result, he's more sympathetic and compelling. Sale's artwork here is more cartoonish than Adams, but just as compelling.

Spider-Man

The best version of Spider-Man, hands down is the first hundred issues or so, with Lee/Ditko for the first 38 (IIRC) and Lee/Romita for the rest. This is the run that defined the way comics were presented for the next three decades. Well defined action sequences, well balanced villains, and a personal cast to surround the main character that was just as interesting as the super hero battles. Real character growth, and a sense that there was a plan for the whole thing, that it was mean to go somewhere. Immensely well done.

The character was compelling. He was a teenager, not the first in comics (Robin, Johnny Storm preceeded him), but he was the first to helm his own title. He was vulnerable, shy, awkward, and driven by guilt and a compulsion to do the right thing.

Superman

The best Superman stories are the Silver age ones from the 60's, the demi-god Superman who could move planets, who was thwarted by petty thugs with Kryptonite that could apparently be found in the corner drugstore, who had that cool fortress of solitude, and the super dog and a pretty cousin with powers just like his, and an impetuous girlfreind. It had all the elements.

The thing is, the idea of the character was enormously fun, and the stories were often very clever, but the character himself was a bit of a dud, too good, honest, and confident to be very compelling.

Wolverine

The best Wolverine comes from the Claremont/Byrne era of the X-men, when he wasn't overexposed, and was just a tough little guy with supersensitive senses, a healing factor, and claws. There's a scene circa Uncanny mid 120's where the Hellfire club has invaded the mansion, and most of the team has been taken out, and he's facing off against a flunky in a battle suit. The current Wolverine would just kill him without thinking twice, and be done with it. This version takes a moment to analyze the situation, is a little nervous himself, sees that his opponent is scared, too, and talks tough, giving the guy a variation of Dirty Harry's "Do you feel lucky" speech to scare him off, or at least intimidate the guy to give himself an advantage. This is a Wolverine that's compelling, and the one that made him popular.

Wonder Woman

I wanted to be Wonder Woman growing up. Tall, strong, smart, feminine and beautiful, a warrior and a philosopher. Now, I look at those early stories, where she gets tied up every other issue, and I love the very idea of wearing wrist shackles as part of you everyday costume. And she's a princess (technically now, a queen), and what little girl doesn't want to be a princess?

Batgirl is also cool. The greatest hand-to-hand fighter in the DCU is a skinny teenage girl. I love it.

But I'm going to have to go with Spider-Man. Underneath the costume, he's still just an ordinary person, trying to do the right thing. His powers never benefit him, he's constantly getting the snot beat out of him, he's lost his best friend, his girlfriend, his child, and nearly his wife, and yet he keeps helping others simply because they need to be helped and he has the power to do so. He's just like thousands of everyday people who see someone in need and help them because they have the ability to do so. In this way, he's the most realistic Super-Hero in comics.

Oh, and to update Colossus:

He died in Uncanny 390 or 391 by injecting himself with an antidote to the mutant plague, which triggered the antidote, saving all the other mutants but killing him. It was easily one of the dumbest deaths ever.

He's back, though. Joss Whedon brought him back in the first Astonishing X-Men story arc. Apparently, a group experimenting on a method of "curing" mutants stole his body and used it as part of their experiment, the antidote in his body having something to do with what they needed to be able to produce it. I cheered; it makes sense in context, and his death was so stupid as to be ridiculous in the first place.

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