Do we like Bruce Wayne?
A character from Detective Comics (Batman) (1939)
Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He spends his fortune and his nights protecting a city that isn't always grateful, and he won't kill. He's also moody, secretive and hard to be close to.
Bruce Wayne is the heir to one of Gotham City's richest families. As a child, he watched his parents, Thomas and Martha, get killed by a mugger outside a movie theater. Britannica notes that Batman first appeared in Detective Comics in May 1939.
Bruce turns that grief into a lifelong mission. He trains his mind and body to a peak, then returns to Gotham as the costumed Batman. In public he plays the carefree playboy philanthropist, which keeps anyone from suspecting him. He becomes the centre of a close circle that includes his butler Alfred and his ally Commissioner Gordon, and he takes on the city's strangest criminals, such as the Joker and Catwoman.
We score him an 8 because his values stay solid even though his methods are rough. The character is defined by a firm code against killing, and he is a mentor to the young people he takes in, such as Dick Grayson, who becomes Robin. What holds him back from a 10 is the brooding obsession, the habit of keeping everyone at arm's length, and the fact that he treats a one-man crusade as the only answer.