The immortal ones are definitely the best, simply because they can't not be the best. They'll always win a fight because they can't die.
HULK DISAGREES!! Hulk has won many fights against those with powers that render them virtually immortal, including a God. Death is not a requirement of losing. Being unable to continue is. Even the likes of Wolverine take time to escape after being wrapped in an I-beam, or as is more likely, stomped into the Earth to the point you have to dig yourself back out after you heal.
But this does make me wonder. All this talk of hero vs God, and immortals, and no one mentioned Thor. Am I the only one that thinks that would have come up if this conversation were taking place in a year? You know, after those without a locked chest full of comics (aka me) get to know the character? Kind of like Iron Man.
He did almost single-handedly destroy 25 years' worth of credibility and the memories of two entire generations of children.
You give him too much credit. The Special Edition of A New Hope left the credibility and memories in a weakened state. It was a soft target by the time he came along.
I don't know... Rorschach punishes any criminal activity with death, and kills anyone who gets in his way while he's at it (though I can't cite a specific example as I'm not familiar enough with the comics). His world is black and white - good lives, evil dies and anyone who allows evil to live is also evil.
To me Rorschach's only difference from traditional heroes is his moral code on death. Even that has a limit as he threatens to only report Moloch to authorities for his illegal drugs. But he has a tendency to use torture, and we at least see threat of death, against those that are complicit in holding him back from solving the big crimes.
But the point is, he has that line you must cross first, unlike Manhattan, who doesn't care, or Ozy, who sees some grandiose picture.
The evil of Ozymandias (and the complicity of the others) to Rorschach is that he kills even one innocent person - whereas the others believe that the deaths will save all of the survivors and that, ultimately, they are doing good. Which is, in many ways, the crux of the message - are you the harsh, uncompromising Rorschach who won't tolerate evil or crime in any form even to the point of his own, inevitably, gooification or are you a fundamentally good person who, when it comes down to it, believes that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Both sides believe they are good, but their foundations are mututally exclusive.
Manhattan and Rorschach are the two that stand out in this situation. Manhattan can see the future and knows that it works, so shrugs it off and decides to see if he can create life elsewhere. Rorschach refuses to allow millions of innocent deaths to be justified.
Manhattan's only saving grace in that situation is that he likely also saw that Rorschach's journal had been left behind, but didn't say a word.
Amusingly, I wouldn't know because I don't read comic books...
No one's perfect. I never played D&D, which severely hurts my geek cred.
But to bring you up to speed: The Fantastic Four were in the public eye when their powers manifested. Their main nemesis, Dr. Doom, is the leader of the country of Latveria, no secret who he is.
Marvel's Civil War storyline revolved around innocent deaths during metahuman fights leading to a government move, led by Tony Stark, to require all metas to register and reveal their secret identities. Captain America stomped out of SHIELD, explaining that isn't the America he stands for, and war between all the heroes broke out. Those in favor of the act made public revelations of their identities. And it all came to a close when Captain America was assassinated on his way to be tried for treason.
) and the Dark Phoenix is so mighty she took on the entire X-Men team (check out the Dark Phoenix Saga Trade paperback, it's wonderful).
