A.) shoutwire is the worst 'web 2.0' site of it's kind out there. A shitty digg.com ripoff with nothing but editorials and political commentary from uneducated 16-20 year olds (or at least people that act like uneducated 16-20 year olds). There's probalby like a thousand regular users and about 15-20 contributers. Great.
B.) Zero from shoutwire is one of the worst offenders. I know this because everytime you go to torrentspy.com there's the top 10 shoutwire stories right there on the front page. Usually one or two of them are by Zero. Usually it's just him trying to sound like Maddox but failing horribly because all he's basically doing is copying Maddox's writing style but somehow twisting it to being something unfunny. That and all he does is jump on internet fads.
C.) Why 9?
D.) I'll agree with Brock Sampson, Batman, and that's pretty much it. Here's why:
Tyler Durden: I don't even know if I'd go so far as to even call him a character in the true sense. He may or may not deserve to be on this list, but considering the slew of badass characters out there in fiction, I'd opt for no. Fightclub was a good movie, but Tyler Durden is no Frank Miller's Marv.
John McClain: Probably deserves to be on this list, but while he does do some awesome shit, he doesn't really have the attitude that usually goes along with good badass characters. I'd opt for Bruce's character in The Last Boyscout instead. "Touch me again and I'll kill you."
James Bond: Mmmmmmm...not badass...not at all. He's awesome, but that doesn't make him badass.
Obi Wan Kenobi: Are you fucking kidding me? There's pretty much nothing badass about him.
Achilles: Yeah, like most characters of his type in Greek literature the original source material kind of makes him sound like a pansy. It's probably a cultural thing, but he cries...quite a bit. Not to mention during the Trojan War (I can't remember if it's in the movie or not) he's just whining like 70% of the time.
Wolverine: While I would agree that he is somewhat badass, how hard is it really to be badass when you have huge ass claws, a healing factor that makes you almost impossible to kill, and a feral personality type. With that combination you've really only got one career option and the only way to accomplish it is to be a bit badass. Batman on the other hand is just badass because he's out there on the same super team as Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern and he's got shit all for superpowers. It's like a cripple making in the nba. Fucking crazy.
Red Forman: From what I remembered he talked a good game, but that doesn't make you badass. He might be, but since there was never an episode of the 70's Show where he had to rescue Fez and Eric from rouge spec ops agents we'll never really know.
Now, substitute:
Tyler Durden ----->Mr. Hyde
John McClain---->Dirty Harry, or aforementioned Bruce Willis character
James Bond---->'Jason Bourne' (from the books not movies)/Solid Snake
Obi Wan----->Darth Vader (Not Skywalker), the Emperor, or pretty much anyone.
Achilles---->Hercules (although he does cry a lot as well), Jason, Ioles, or well...most greek heroes. If you want to go all the way...Kratos.
Wolverine---->Spiderman (constantly gets the shit kicked out of him by people with better powers and keeps coming), The Punisher, Marv.
Red Forman---->Jack Bauer, the guy from A History of Violence, or any other dad you've actually SEEN do badass stuff.
There's a more badass character from each archetype off the top of my head. Imagine what you could find if you think up all the books, movies, and other fictional works you've run across and didn't fit them into these archetypes.
But lets not forget that Winters is the most badass character...fictional or Not.