Steeped as I am in comic book lore, it may be a problem related to an embarrassment of riches. My brain doesn't even want to go to some other medium where origin stories would necessarily be less epic. But which superhero origin do I pick? Examined with a "favorite" criterion, they all seem somehow lacking!
Superman's origin might as well be Moses'! Having your family killed was only ever fine the first time it happened, but then Batman's origin dovetails into a silly bat flying through the window. Wonder Woman mixes Greek myth and gun rituals and most unhealthy manner. Green Lantern... nobody thought it was strange for a flight simulator to take off? Flash's is entirely too convenient. Who let Firestorm's constituents walk into a nuclear reactor?! Oh and Marvel heroes? 80% of the ones not "born with them" (BORING!) are exposed to, or shot up with, radiation. So do I go for crazier, more convoluted, more obscure origins? Super stunt-suits melded to one's body by eldritch energies, that kind of thing?
You know what kind of origin I actually love? Heroes inspired by other heroes. All the 2nd/3rd generation guys from DC's post-Crisis era. I love that. I can relate to having a mentor and being a mentor, and it shows how a hero can have a major positive impact on another life. But that's not a very sexy answer, nor does it narrow things down enough for me to pick only one "legacy hero".
So here's my answer instead: Jonah Hex.
Ok, on the surface of it, it boils down to the dude getting hit in the face with a heated tomahawk and surviving with the "Mark of the Demon". Leaving aside the fact that THIS IS CLEARLY AWESOME, what I really love is the tendency Hex once had to invent all sorts of glib answers for people who dared ask about it. This trick was poached by Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, but Jonah was there first! Here are a series of potential origins for Hex's scar from the Joe Lansdale Vertigo comics starring the character. Let me know which is your favorite.
Comments
And Spider-Man's origin works as a lovely balance to Batman's. Bruce Wayne the happy child with the ideal childhood, having his family snatched away from him in a way that he could do nothing about. Whereas for Peter, it is ALL his fault. Batman is motivated by a desire to make sure what happened to him doesn't happen to anyone else. Peter is motivated by guilt.
And I also love how Peter is the first "modern" superhero. Dude gets superpowers, so what does he do? Fight crime? Help the downtrodden? No, he becomes a pro wrestler.
My least favourites are the "chemical accidents" like Barry Allen's. And I love Wally West for the same reasons you said (legacy heroes), but his origin is equally silly, unless you add in some of the later retcons.
I can answer that! Professor Martin Stein was allowed in because he was the chief scientist in charge of the plant, he designed the thing. If anyone was allowed in, it was Marty. As for Ronnie Raymond, though, he was a new kid at his high school trying to fit in, so he chose the path so many kids do: he joined a radical nuclear protest group that broke in and planted a bomb. Of course Ronnie objected when he discovered his new buddies were using violent means, so they knocked him (and Marty) unconscious. You can see where this is going. Also, this is what happens when DC tries to be Marvel.
Anon: Yes, I know it well. My problem isn't them walking into the building, but into the reactor itself. I haven't looked at the comic in a while, maybe it's ok (give or take some lax security).
God, I love Jonah Hex.
As for origins, I think that Guy Gardner's is one of my favorites, because it sets the tone so well for things to come. He's perfectly happy, until Hal waltzes in, and hands him his ring,without so much as an explanation, while Hal flies off to Oa, to find out why the darn thing is malfunctioning. Naturally, it is the battery which promptly blows up, blasting Guy into the clutches of the Phantom Zone, and then into Sinestro's clutches, whose torture of Guy puts him into that famous coma and all of his brain-dead shenanigans that follow.
Poor Guy. And all because of Hal.
But that's why Fridays are so Questionable...
Roger
The Phantom Stranger's current DEFINITIVE origin a complete bollocks though.
- Mike Loughlin
Or, Booster Gold: got in trouble gambling, stole a time machine. Happens to all of us . . .
Which seems a bit weird, in retrospect ...