For every lame super hero that we've quickly forgotten over the years, the bad-ass favorites have filled the void with their larger than life abilities. Since super heroes became popular way back in the early decades of 20th century, few have stood the test of time to be considered necessary heroes. Since the super hero universe is becoming an expanding sea of super goodness, with new heroes cropping up all over the place, there are only a select few the world can't live without.

From purely a character standpoint, the super hero world, and metaphoric real world, is a much better place with certain heroes defending the planet. Here's a look at 5 Super Heroes We Can't Live Without:

Witchblade (the many women of)

Although you hear a lot more about other female super heroes, it’s hard to argue that the one in possession of the Witchblade might be the most important of them all, especially if you look back through history. Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, Queen Isabella, even Wonder Woman, were all possessors of the Witchblade, which proves that the world can’t live without it and its hosts. For any hero who has worn the ancient artifact/weapon, the Witchblade is like a Swiss Army Knife of gauntlet gear you’d find at Tiffany’s. Not only is it intelligent armor that can produce a multitude of necessary weapons, its female host/hero can create any weapon needed for battle, bring the dead back to life, heal wounds, and experience the lives of its past possessors. As far as females super heroes go, whoever is possessing Witchblade is everything we need to keep the world safe, and then some.

Spider-Man

Would the mild-mannered Peter Parker be as cool without his Spidey persona? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s what makes him so cool. The fact a lonely, inadequate, under-the-radar geek can go on to become one of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen lends even more credibility to his "amazing" tag. Spidey proved that all unpopular high school computer nerds have their own unique special powers similar to Peter Parker. Although Spider-Man’s super-strength and spider-esque powers made him extraordinary to the average world, he’s a hero who’s also had to rely on his own wits and resourcefulness to enhance his abilities. In that regard, Spider-Man serves as an inspiration to all lonely geeks (and the geek within all of us) with the message that having a super power is equally about finding your own abilities to enhance your identity. With power comes great responsibility, no matter what special ability you possess. We have Spider-Man to thank for that.

Iron Man

Okay, here’s where the list gets a little weird. If this was 2003 instead of 2008, we doubt Iron Man would be making many "can’t live without" lists. Can the world live without Iron Man? Maybe. But since Tony Stark made such a huge debut this year on the big screen, it’s obvious the present world can’t live without Iron Man... and won’t be for at least a few years and another movie or two. So, to even suggest that the world could live without Iron Man when industrialist billionaire Tony Stark is among the new and elite generation of cinematic super heroes would be insanely contradictory to the newly created public demand that resurrected the hero from obscurity. No matter how you look at it though, Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. made Tony Stark and his Iron Man alter ego even cooler than he was in the Marvel panels.

Batman

Perhaps the more important question might be... Do we want to live without Batman? It’s obvious that Batman’s popularity in the comic book world is clearly defined and established, and has been since his debut in 1939. Batman gained even more popularity as a hero during his stint on TV back in the ‘60s when Adam West took on the live-action persona of the caped crusader and then went on to even bigger reinvented heights when he received an edgy comic book makeover in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns in the ‘80s. After the huge success of Tim Burton’s big screen Batman in 1989, Bruce Wayne ran out of cinematic gas after the 1997 film Batman & Robin over exposed Batman and killed any interest in the hero as a feature film super hero. Living on in the comics and in animated form after the live action movies, Batman was resurrected in 2005 by director Christopher Nolan for Batman Begins, which only reinforced his popularity as a timeless hero. Now with Nolan’s The Dark Knight about to explode into theaters, as the most anticipated movie of the year, it’s obvious the world can’t live without Batman.

Superman

Although the question of Superman being the most popular super hero of all time seems to divide comic book fans like a hot knife through butter, Superman has endured all of the criticism. No matter how you look at him, Superman is the most iconic super hero of all time. He’s transcended the comic book pages to become part of our pop-culture fabric. Superman ranks up there with Elvis, The Beatles, Campbell’s Soup, the Atari 2600, the iPhone... you name it. He’s a Norman Rockwell type super hero. Despite becoming somewhat of a walking (or flying) cliché over the years, Superman still stands for all that is good and wholesome in the world, even if the world has changed around him. We can’t think of any other super hero who has had more of an impact on the world over eight generations than Superman. Is he the coolest super hero? To some fans, he is. Is he the most powerful? Not anymore, that’s for sure. Can the world live without him? Absolutely not. Besides, DC tried to kill him off in the 1990s and the entire industry is now finally getting back on its feet.

• Time to travel from your house to your neighbor's house. (a) 2 Wheeler - 4 years (b)4 Wheelers 700 Years (c) Big 4 wheelers - 3752 Years (d) If you plan to park - Impossible
• There are no roads in Bangalore. Vehicles travel in the gaps between houses. They fondly remember it as roads even though there is no trace of tar on them.
• While they claim to speak Hindi and speak something they think is Hindi - its not Hindi. Unless the scale of reference is Madras - Bangalore has no hindi speaking population. Yes! there are many north Indians who have settled down in Bangalore but they dont own shops, drive autos or work in Govt buildings.
• Tamil isnt spoken in Bangalore either.
• Did I say they dont have any roads in Bangalore?
• Commercial establishments are open 4 hours a day. They also break for lunch for 4 hours.
• Houses in Bangalore have the shitting pot in the center of the bathroom. You have to cross it to get the the bath area and when you come back out of the bathroom you have to cross it again.
  
• Autos cheat in Bangalore.
• Dont yell at other vehicles on the road if they violate road rules (which is extremely rampant in Bangalore). Its not Madras where they listen to you yelling 'idiot' and continue diving like a domesticated cows. Auto drivers in Bangalore are just looking for an excuse to pick up a fight.
• It is the only place in the world where people drive 2-wheelers on pavements. I swear I have never seen anything as uncivilized as this. These people are the so-called software engineers, who are stupid and uncivilized.

In short living in Bangalore is like living in a foreign country, with strange language and stange habits, but with horrible living standards. If you cant live in your home town there is no point returning.

As for me, I grew up in an atmosphere that allowed me to question dogma in all forms. A transition from an absolute belief in God, and the sanctity of religion to the all-encompassing warmth of spirituality marked the initial phase of youth’s quest for immortality. The final shift to atheism was not out of choice; I believe it sprang out of a greater and wider understanding. Never having succumbed to any kind of conditioning, my mind was receptive to a variety of ideas, encompassing various aspects of science and spirituality. This led to a phase of emptiness, for without being aware, the conditioning of society around me had instilled a concrete pillar of faith within my psyche, now crumbled to dust with the awesome might of reason. Haphazard ideas born of delving into nihilistic texts only served to increase the void I now felt within. Overcoming the initial despair of the ideas of being and non-being was possible once again by bringing in rational thought into the process.

I love my thoughts. They are the vehicle that lets me span galaxies in seconds; I can touch infinity, always recoiling in awe and something akin to dread at what I glimpse, I can also believe in spirits of the Earth existing in parallel realities to ours; all this while maintaining a firm atheistic outlook, without finding any conflict in my mind. There’s so much beauty in life, that seeking solace in an afterlife or searching for a repository for our thoughts (I haven’t found the ‘thinker’, so as an imperfect spiritualist, I shall continue with the use of ‘thoughts’ rather than ‘soul’) seems a terrible waste of time. While the limits of our perception most definitely affect our perception of reality, it gives us enough to appreciate beauty in all forms – a smile, the rain, birdsong, and as humans are a subjective lot, in my case some contemporary music as well. We’re equipped beautifully to live, to reason and most importantly, to love.

She hasn’t heard the silver tones of seeing everything, yet

With her eyes to the stars, the wind raising her hair in enchanted trails,

She yearns for the magic long denied to her, shackled in chains of sorrow,

Hearing the call of heaven on the wind, through the skies, on to the morrow.

The purple haze deepening to a more somber black, the vault above blurs.

And like beacons on the shore for lost mariners of souls infinity, the stars

Frame the feathery wisps of midnight black that move as if the air

Were ocean currents softly encompassing the strands of hair.

Eyes of shining keenness capturing the beauty of eternity above

Reflecting the quest within, a search for the soul, a search for love

The dark of eternity captured within a mind unaware, yet equally vast.

The chorus of voices reach her ears, flooding her awareness past

Any point of return, she clings on to her faith and finds

The rock of her life, her beliefs, no longer binds

Her to herself, set free to reach beyond the end of the universe,

Or the depths of her soul, both unfathomable, for hers

Is a mind unique, an ocean contending to deal with rigid lands.

Speaking to pebbles with diluted waves, moulding the sands.

I sit here in this small room of wonder staring out at the city lights listening to some old 70's rock and count the stars as if they were minutes leading to a new year.

This is going to be one of the longest year i have ever experienced. Far far away from family and friends as an alien worker in a foreign land. Although the title sounds so interesting, its absolutely the opposite. I am struggling for an identity for 4 months now.

I still sit here in this room of wonder trying to analyze and realize the past as i listen to some old 60's rock and roll and count the stars as if they were minutes leading to a new year.

I analyze that we have reached great heights in every thing that we have done. The only problem is that whatever we have done has led to some kind of destruction. Was it that we came to end something that was created? Was it that we were destroying things so that someof us could recreate it in a better and a more secure way? These are just passing thoughts.They pass through your mind and makes you realize that what we have done has only led to a zeppelin of destruction.

By now you might think that I am a humanist, which i am not, nor am i a communist. I wish i was a poltergeist but i am not that too. I am what i think. 'Cogito Ergo Sum' is the motto i live by. The only power that i posses is the power of thought, and that is what drives me on.

I continue to sit here in this room of wonder trying to make sense out of nonsense as I listen to some old 60's rock and roll and count the stars as if they were minutes leading to a new year.

How can we classify people into groups? Everyone thinks differently, everyone has a different point of view. So why do we curtail their freedom by classifying them into certain groups? Is it correct? Is it right? Are we not completely curtailing someones freedom at the very outset? Are we not defining what freedom means for an individual? How can we change the meaning of an universal term like freedom from person to person? A list of questions unanswered is the reply !!

A constant battle between the id, the ego and the superego results in this state of complete confusion that i presently am in. Sometimes i get confused about my very existence. A world split apart by so many divisions of culture, creed, race, religion. A world torn apart by war and infighting. Is this what the creator desired? Did he create destruction so that he can recreate when its all gone? Is it just a way that he has to keep himself occupied? Or is it us the human kind that have manifested this evil nature of destroying? If yes what for?

Contentment is the birthright of all but revoked by most. Maybe that is what is the root cause of all evil. To achieve utopia, contentment should not be a thought, it should be a way of life. I know it is impossible to achieve this with people who have already seen greed and lust and competition. The only way out would be to breed a new generation in a distant land with the concept of contentment as the answer to all evil. I maybe totally wrong, but is there a better way out?

And there it was, the final tolling of the bells !! It had come !! It was there, and someoneone somewhere knew that i was right !!!