As far as I'm concerned, there is only one superhero and that's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Let's examine the facts, shall we?
Buffy is a superhero by birthrite and calling. Buffy's powers come to her because, into every generation, a slayer is born. She's a teenager when she is called to fight the demons and vampires that threaten to destroy the world and she manages, even with her slight stature and ironic blonde hair (think back to any horror movie you've ever seen, and you'll get what I mean by "ironic"), she kicks demon butt and saves the world a lot. But what makes Buffy the most powerful is that she's a girl (and she's always a girl, the slayer that is, whether she's ten or twenty, black or Asian, blonde or bald). Here, we actually have a superhero (not villain) who is female and is powerful beyond measure, finally providing young women everywhere a positive, powerful female role model who doesn't smoke, doesn't hurt people (only monsters), and who has a strong work ethic. Hurray, Joss Whedon for creating such a powerful (and necessary) icon. But let's consider some of the other female superheroes, shall we? How do they stack up against the Buff?
Let's take for instance, Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman, an alleged powerful Amazon queen, comes to the world to fight evil but somehow (and suddenly), her Amazonian strength is gone, replaced by a lasso (please) of truth (how pathetic can you get?). DC Comics had a chance to make a wonderful, powerful female superhero and what do they do to her? They slap her in a star-spangled unitard, give her a lasso of truth (no gender stereotyping there), and take away her Amazonian prowess. DC Comics should hide in a closet somewhere, because someday, Gloria Steinem is gonna get you.
How about Supergirl? Another DC Comics let-down. Well, for starters, she only gets to be "girl" and not woman, even though her second cousin twice-removed who works at the Daily Planet gets to be a super MAN. This fits very well with Batgirl, too, the female counterpart to the gadget-laden BatMAN. At least Batgirl stopped a few crimes before DC Comics decided she'd be better off paralyzed (as all female superheroes seem to be in their world) and had the Joker shoot her in the spine in 1988. What's up with that? At least Buffy would have super-healed and been dusting vamps again in no time. Although, in all fairness, DC did create a Batwoman years later, but apart from hardcore comics fans, who's heard of her? No, no. We all remember the red-wigged Police chief's daughter with all her girlhood charm.
Then there's X-Men (men, again) with Storm, Rogue, and who can forget Jean Gray. Another shot at creating powerful women and what happens? Storm is a woman whose power is connected to weather and nature (again, no gender stereotyping there either, Mother Earth and all). Rogue's power is to sap others of their power, like a parasite. And Jean Gray, well I grant you that as Phoenix, she's one powerful mother, but what'd they do? They give a woman all this power and she has to have rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, too. Superman handled all his superpowers just fine, and he could turn back time. No power-induced mental illness for him.
Okay, okay. I think you get my point. What I'm trying to say is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most powerful superhero because she's a she and her powers are not gender-stereotyped. She's superstrong, fights monsters, saves the world, and she's a young woman. She's not a boy bitten by a radioactive spider or an alien who just happens to look like an Earth-based white dude.
Now, the next step for superheroes? Multi-cultural icons. I know they exist, but I'm talking icons whose fame reaches the same proportions as Wonder Woman and Buffy (I mean, everyone knows their names). I want to see a black woman superhero, a Hispanic crime fighting superhero, an Arab with a secret super-identity. And I want them to reach the same level of broadcast as Buffy and Wonder Woman and Superman and Batman. Enough with the white men, already, superhero people? Let's broaden our horizons a bit. Okay?
Thank you Joss.