As a new player to Marvel Heroes, determining the best Heroes in Marvel Heroes is difficult, especially when you consider a variety of factors: fun, skills, depth, visual effects, group utility and much more. I’ve spent a great deal of time over the last few weeks researching the Heroes and their skills and speaking to the community to see which ones stack up and which ones need a little love. Seemingly, what the strength in a Hero it often boils down to is time to kill: how fast can those enemies go down when you’re fighting them. I personally don't like that emphasis and instead have based this simple list on the above factors and whether or not I had fun playing the Hero. 

Regardless of where your favourite Hero ranks on this list, I’d always stress that you should play a Hero you enjoy the most, as almost all of them are viable in some way. Playing any Hero in Marvel Heroes 2015 is a lot of fun and inevitably, this list is always going to be subjective. Please also note that the bullet points below are intended as informational as well as positive and negative aspects. Further, this isn't a static list and doesn't just boil down to who deals the most damage but instead takes into consideration enjoyment of play, the depth on offer, skill variety and if the Hero is entertaining. I expect many will disagree. Untested Heroes include Ice Man, Star Lord, Rogue, Rocket Racoon and Nova. 

If you're seeking an incredibly in-depth breakdown of every Hero in the game, I'd recommend you check out this spreadsheet by Mjoll. It's pretty amazing, though you'll likely be reading it all day!

This guide will continue to be updated as I play the game more and based on community feedback.

Doctor Strange

• Very high damage
• Has considerable depth of play
• Difficult to master
• Lengthy cooldowns

Silver Surfer

• A very versatile Hero
• Lots of damage
• Poor damage mitigation
• He really looks awesome

Iron Man

• Amazing set of costumes
• Fun to play and excellent visuals
• Requires a good PC to make the most of the visual effects

VENOM

• Similarly to Spiderman, he’s lots of fun
• Great visual effects on his skills
• Not particularly challenging to play, nor does he have much depth
• Considered very strong by the community

LOKI

• Great damage and entertaining play style
• Viable in melee
• Has suffered some ‘nerfs’ but he's still a powerful Hero

Storm

• Easy to play
• Available as a starting Hero
• Her voice is annoying 
• Her visual effects on skills aren't as good as others

Human Torch

• Awesome damage and a starter Hero (I really enjoy playing him)
• Great visual effects
• Too much visual effects can slow poor machines
• His voice can be irritating

Ms. Marvel

• Super easy to play
• Great for beginners
• Not really a ranged character

CYCLOPS

• Reasonable fun in a party as he’s easy to play
• Feels quite poor compared to many Heros - I really disliked his slow and static play
• Still looks great

Black Panther

• Good damage and mobility
• A fun variety of skills
• Poor damage mitigation and quite squishy

HULK

• Looks amazing with some brilliant skins
• Amazing leaps and smash skills
• Some great costumes in the store
• Currently considered one of the most powerful Heroes

Scarlet Witch

• Amazing at controlling a battlefield
• Hard to actually bring down
• Some state she’s too easy
• Some of her skills provide random effects

Ghost Rider

• A unique hero (it's a biker with a skull for a head!)
• Looks awesome and has a bike
• Quite a niche playstyle
• Like some other Heroes, his voice can annoy

GAMBIT

• Very versatile
• Amazing visual effects
• Similarly to some Heroes, his voice can annoy
• Who doesn't like Gambit?

TASKMASTER

• A good variety in skills
• Quite tanky
• Really not an exciting Hero to play or look at

CAPTAIN AMERICA

• Great costumes available in the store
• Fun skills and excellent in parties
• His mitigation has been much improved

Moon Knight

• Some great voices
• Can survive for long periods
• Poor mobility
• He doesn’t look particularly great

Spiderman

• Lots of fun and fast paced skills
• Great visual effects
• He’s super squishy

Magneto 

• Huge fun to play
• Some excellent purchasable costumes
• Incredible visual effects
• Good time to kill speed

Nightcrawler

• Incredible mobility
• So much fun to level with
• As a melee Hero it’s incredibly squishy

Wolverine

• Probably one of the best melee Hero in the game
• Poor mobility
• Has AOE potential but it's lower than some Heroes

X-23

• Incredible combat mobility
• Compared to some melee Heroes, she has good survivability - always welcome! 

Invisible Woman

• Good for parties
• A well balanced Hero
• I felt she was a distinctly average Hero that wasn't particularly exciting

Hawkeye

• My personal favourite: great in groups
• Fast kill times and lots of AOE
• Very poor stamina

Mr. Fantastic

• A melee character with some range (stretchy arms!)
• Some good burst skills
• Some of the skills are a little tricky to use

Colossus

• A very strong tank
• Great in a party
• His size makes him feel slow

Juggernaut 

• Looks absolutely brilliant
• Lots of excellent charge and area of effect attacks
• Works excellent in a party
• Lacks range power

Black Widow

• Good voice and a variety of costumes
• Brilliant burst potential
• Feels quite weak after the burst
• Not as mobile as other melee Heroes

Deadpool

• Very enjoyable to play
• Some funny dialogue
• Quite slow attack animations on some skills

Jean Grey

• Phoenix form is amazing
• Good control
• Relatively boring
• Not much depth to play

DareDevil

• Enjoyable skill combo system
• Very mobile
• Very squishy when you run out of Stamina
• One of my favourite Marvel characters

Cable

• A great Hero for beginners
• Very easy to pickup and have fun with
• Relies more on damage over time skills instead of raw burst power

Winter Soldier

• Similarly to Cable, he’s great for beginners but has a high skill ceiling
• Very strong in melee range
• Default skin isn’t great - pickup the 

Thor

• Viable for most parties
• Excellent costumes and voice
• Not enough use of the Hammer for my liking 

Luke Cage

• Fun to play
• Starter Hero
• Lacks fluid play
• Repetitive

Punisher

• A very hardy Hero
• Lots of durability
• Very repetitive to play

Thing

• Reasonable damage considering his amount of health
• Loads of health points
• Doesn’t look particularly great and he's relatively repetitive

Psylocke

• Telepathy skill tree is great fun to usepsy
• Stealth doesn't work particularly well
• A fair amount of bugs with skills

EMMA FROST

• Considered to have a high skill ceiling
• Excels in a group environment
• Pets classes aren’t for everyone
• Many players agree she's in need of some love at the moment

Disagree with the list? Want to recommend a change of places? Have something to say about a particular Hero? Let us know below.