Wednesday Top 5: Biggest Badasses

Hello, Fellow Book Worms!

I am happy to be answering my first question from the Goodreads group Top 5 Wednesday. It is a group created by Lainey from You Tube's GingerReadsLainey. As a fan of her channel I was excited to become a part of her book group. Every Wednesday we answer a question and share our answers to the book community. 

I am a bit late answering this one, but I wanted to answer nonetheless. Based on my current reading, here are my choices (hero and villain) from books and comics.

Name Your Top Five Biggest Badasses 

1. Wonder Woman- The Amazon Princess (queen, demi-god and God of War) has always been the ultimate badass in my opinion. In 1985 Len Wein and George Perez re-introduced Wonder Woman to the world after DC Comics relaunched their titles post- Crisis on Infinite Earths. In this new version, Diana was a young and naive woman with an idealistic view of what the world should be like. She did not speak English, was pagan, and was infinitely more powerful than any of her previous incarnations. She could fly, was second only to Superman in strength, and was a victorious warrior Amazon. As the years went by Diana grew to know the atrocities man could commit, hardening her warrior spirit and making her an unstoppable beacon of hope. It was not until the New 52 relaunch decades later that Diana was informed that she was the daughter of Zeus, making her a demi-god. Later on she was appointed God of War. As of today she is possibly the most aggressive and powerful the character has ever been. A far cry from the princess pining for Steve Trevor in the 1940s. Her next evolution begins next month when she comes to the big screen in Batman v Superman!
2. Darth Vader- This badass became the center of many discussions as Disney-Lucasfilm began rolling out novels in their new canon. I read several of these novels last year, but two stood out that made this Sith Lord utterly terrifying: Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed and Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp. In these two novels we see Vader in his prime. He is a relentless agent of doom with galactic conquest on his mind. Even the Emperor is not exempt from Vader's list of those he wishes to end. In Lords of the Sith he pilot his TIE Fighter into battle. When his ship is damaged he breaks out of the ship, uses the Force to propel himself through space, cuts a whole in an enemy ship with his lightsaber, then proceeds to board the ship and slaughter the entire crew. If that is not a badass villain I don't know what is!
3. Silver Blackthorn- This sixteen year old heroine from Kerry Wilkinson's books Reckoning and Renegade is a force to be reckoned with! She is strong-willed, takes crap from no one, and is probably the most mechanically gifted individual in this dystopian trilogy. She is a rebel leader that at often times does not understand why she is a heroine to her people. She wishes her life could be normal, and that she could just be a normal girl. But in her war-torn world she is all that stands between her people and a despotic king who is murdering hundreds of teens that are in his service for sport. I cannot wait for the third book, Resurgence this year!
4. Zebediah Killgrave- This comic book villain is from Alias, a detective-noir series by Marvel Comics. He is a deadly foe for one-time-hero-turned-detective, Jessica Jones. He is also known as the Purple Man. First appearing in Daredevil #4 in 1964, he later became a foil for Jones. Just recently he was portrayed in chilling live-action glory by David Tennant in the Netflix series based on the Alias comics. He has the ability to make people do his bidding with mind control, this includes almost any Marvel hero and villain. He is often a very terrifying villain, who takes pleasure in killing innocents. Jessica Jones is afraid of him, since at one point in her life she was also under his control.
5. Bazine Netal- This intergalactic spy of the Star Wars universe was seen briefly in the Force Awakens. But it was not until the book, Perfect Weapon by Delilah S. Dawson, that we were treated to an actual adventure with her. She is hired by a mysterious man to retrieve a case on a distant world. This case is of the utmost importance to the man, and he offers a hefty payment for its retrieval. She embarks on a journey that has her utilizing all of her espionage and fighting skills. Battling enemy agents, giant insects, and shaking off thugs, Bazine proves her badassness to the very end of the book. I hope we see more of her soon.

Thanks for reading and take some time to read more of my reviews and challenge answers on this Blog.

Because there is always time to read,
Xepherus3

Reading Challenge: http://xepherusreads.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-reading-challenge-update.html

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All written content (c) Copyright 2016 by Thomas Bahr II