I love Marvel Comics characters. Coming on the eve of the blockbuster deal between Disney and Marvel, I’ve decided that I’m going to write about my top 5 favorite Marvel comics characters. In case you’re still wondering what deal I’m referring to between Disney and Marvel, according to the Baltimore Sun, Disney just recently purchased Marvel Entertainment Inc. for a whopping $4 billion dollars. I can’t remember ever hearing about any deals that went for $4 billions dollars. Will this be a marriage made in heaven or a marriage made that won’t make it past a few years? Who knows? Well onto my list of favorite Marvel Comics characters.

Yeah, I know.  You’re probably thinking “Another Wolverine fan boy.  They’re like a dime a dozen.”  Well it’s almost every man’s dream to be a beer drinking, trash talking, women pulling, spandex wearing superhero who likes to destroy bad guys.  Playing by his own rules and respecting authority as much as snakes respect mice, Wolverine has been the fan favorite of the X-Men series and his own solo movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine released earlier this year has helped cement his status as one of the most popular Marvel comics characters in the superhero universe.

Powers/Abilities: Accelerated healing, animal keen senses, heightened stamina and endurance, superhuman strength, high proficiency in various marital arts, and adamantium bones/claws.

Your “friendly neighborhood” hero first started appearing in Marvel Comics in the 60’s and is still kicking butt today as one of the Marvel Comics characters.  Known for his witty remarks and his sense of humor, Peter Parker has grown from a troubled teenage boy with money problems and girl problems to  a more mature adult who’s the husband to his long time crush Mary Jane Watson.  His live action films have made over 2 billion dollars at the box office and a fourth film is slated to be released in May of 2011 according to Wikipedia.

Powers/Abilities: Spidey sense, superhuman strength, superhuman speed and quickness, perfect balance, can cling to walls, and shoots webs from his mechanical web-shooter (comics) or the webs come out directly from his wrist (movies).

Being a billionaire playboy is cool if you have a powered armor suit that gives you superhuman strength and agility.  Created during the Cold War era, Iron Man aka Tony Stark has been one of the most intriguing Marvel Comics characters since he burst onto the scene in the 60’s and the live action film released in 2008 helped renew his status as one of the more popular Marvel characters.  

Powers/Abilities:  Ability to fly, shoot repulsor rays from his hands and chest,  superhuman strength, and cool looking suit.

When you think of Marvel Comics characters with severe cases of bipolar disorder, how could you not think of the loveable green giant?  Born Bruce Banner, the quiet, emotionally disturbed doctor becomes the Hulk after accidentally being blasted by a gamma bomb.  Having the potential for a near infinite amount of strength, the Hulk gets stronger and more aggressive the more emotional he is, particularly the emotion anger.  Bruce Banner is fortunate enough to wear lose fitting pants/shorts that stay on even after turning into the Hulk.  

Powers/Abilities:  Exponential amounts of physical strength depending on his emotional state, accelerated healing ability, insane leaping ability, ability to withstand impacts.

I’ve always loved the idea of being able to surf in outer space while going faster than the speed of light, and that’s why I place the Silver Surfer on my top five Marvel Comics Characters list.  Originally appearing in the Fantastic Four comic books, Norrid Radd or the Silver Surfer was a henchman for the Marvel super villain Galactus.  He eventually decides to rebel against his master and teams up with the Marvel Comics characters group Fantastic Four to save earth from his evil boss. 

Power/Abilities:  Superhuman strength, stamina, faster than the speed of light, can travel to alternate dimensions and hyperspace.