Hard to beat Optimus Prime for cartoon leader-hero.

Willing to put your life on the line for others is very heroic. Willing to actually die for others on your team is another thing altogether.

Willing to jump in front of a Serpentor snake spear and slip into a coma so your half-brother Falcon can move some cartoon movie related merchandise using Don Johnson's voiceover? Not sure if Duke is on a level playing field...

Editorial comment: If only the Duke of the early comics had held true throughout the comics and the cartoon. That angry, "I'm going to shoot down a Rattler with my .45 side-arm" John Wayne meets a drill instructor with a Preparation-H problem. Now that would have been quite the fella...

Even then, it would have been hard to top 'ole Optimus. Then of course, they brought him back from the dead, and all that...