What type of main character do you like better?

I prefer well-made characters, ones that provoke any emotive reaction in the reader. But I will admit that characters that are push-overs do not appeal to me unless that is the point of their creation.

Of all the types, I have to say I like best "the reluctant hero."

Memorable characters: Shadow from American Gods, Spencer from Dark Rivers of the Heart, Sita in The Last Vampire, Agent Pendergast in The Cabinet of Curiosities and the rest of the series titles, Eve Dallas & Roarke of the In Death series, John Constantine of Hellblazer, Larry Underwood of The Stand, Phoenix (i.e Jean Gray) of the X-Men, Doctor Strange of Strange Tales (#110), and my favorites: The Phantom of the Opera and Dracula.

I know this sounds sticky, but I like lovable characters-- honest, well-meaning people with a sense of humor about themselves.

Or, if the character doesn't have that, I like the feeling that the author knows it. If a character is dishonest or humorless, I can enjoy the work only if the author seems to notice, to understand that what the character is doing is dishonest, or that he's being stupid or not getting it.

It's important to me that behind the book, there's a sense of an adult with a firm moral stance who's in charge.

Example: Kathleen Mallory, NYPD detective, is close to amoral, socially inept, and pretty much humorless. But telling the story is Carol O'Connell, or one aspect of Carol O'Connell as narrator, and that narrator sees clearly who Mallory is and what's going on.

Even in a first-person book, you get a clear sense of 'someone there', someone who knows what's going on when the narrator is unreliable.

Parametric said:

And yet ... every time, I fall for the Muffin. However much of a walking cliche he is, and however much I want to smack him upside the head.

Mmm, Muffiny goodness.

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Just for you: "Muffin Man" by Frank Zappa.

Parametric said:

This thread is not complete without reference to Sarah Rees Brennan's Snacks Theory of Main Male Characters, which posits that all main male characters can be divided into these categories

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Mmmmmm.......... pastry.......
I like heroes who come across as unlikeable initially, but aren't essentially doing anything "bad". Then once you get to know them, they're either a sandwich or a muffin, albeit maybe a sandwich or a muffin that has olives in it or something. They're an acquired taste.

It really depends on the type of story. In general, I'd say the hero with a dark past. But for horror/fantasy stories, I prefer a character who's an everyman/everywoman because you get to experience normal people reacting to a very abnormal situation.