1. Daredevil's Billy Club Today the vision-impaired are constantly being presented with new ways to navigate their way through the world of the sighted, but no one has yet addressed the need for self protection on the streets of our major cities. Enter the story and equipment of Matt Murdock, better known as Daredevil, who uses his unnaturally enhanced sensory perception as well as his trusty billy club to fight baddies. The multi-purpose device normally functions as a mere walking cane, but when trouble arrives it separates into what looks like a set of nunchuks, a grappling hook, and twin billy clubs used for two-handed attacks. For anyone who might slip up and think the visually-impaired are completely defenseless, the Daredevil billy club would come as a very unwelcome surprise. $900

3. Blade's Boomerang If Van Helsing was the poor man's vampire hunter of old, in recent years Blade has become our template of what a real vampire hunter might look like if New York City (or Moscow) were infected with a massive underground empire of bloodsuckers. Clearly Blade's half-human/half-vamp status gives him a strength and endurance advantage, but what really stands out about him are his meticulously crafted weapons. Chief among these are his distance closing bladed boomerangs, officially named the Bloodbath Glaive. A few years back a friend actually gave me an official Blade boomerang set, and I am here to tell you that it was not only a dangerous weapon, but I very nearly cut off my pinky finger playing around with the thing. $125

2. Thor's Hammer As a child I would rebuke my mother's entreaties to perform chores with faux-Norse-speak that I'd learned from the comics of The Mighty Thor. Now that all the world has been exposed to the awe and majesty that is Mjolnir, a.k.a. Thor's hammer, this might be the time to give would-be thugs pause by taking up a similarly imposing "hammer of the gods." Of course in the comic, the hammer is characterized by its magical ability to give the user the gift of flight, as well as having the ability to return to the user's hand when thrown. That's not gonna happen, but take a look at Mjolnir. It's essentially a mini-boulder strapped to a badass-looking leather-wrapped handle. If you could get in the gym and bulk up enough to even swing the thing, I'd wager you'd have an effective enough weapon. $1,000

4. Captain America's Shield Superhero movie easter eggs are catnip for real comic book geeks. So when Iron Man gave us a peek at Captain America's shield casually laying around in Tony Stark's workshop, it was like the comic book gods had descended and whispered into our collective ears, "Yes, this is just the beginning, oh loyal Marvel fan!" Now there's a Captain America movie coming to theaters, as well as a follow-up for the Avengers. The shield we know today is composed of a mix of an alien alloy known as vibranium, and Earth metals (some writers later added a dash of Wolverine's indestructible adamantium, to the shield's make-up)m as well as other components that allow the user to control its flight as a weapon. Pictured is "heater" shield style you'll see in the movie. $375

5. Doctor Who's Sonic Screwdriver Doctor Who may be one of the most interesting and underexposed comic book adaptations ever, but what the character lacks in television-to-comic converts, he makes up in one of the most versatile weapons ever — the sonic screwdriver. Often employed with the same flair and save-the-day flourish of a magician's wand, the sonic screwdriver fixes equipment, unlocks doors, serves as a medical device and even scans for alien life. The scary part here is that Bruce Drinkwater, an ultrasonics engineer at the University of Bristol, has actually invented a real sonic screwdriver. $20

6. Batman's Batarangs Japan has the mysterious and deadly legend of the ninja, in America we have the Batman. The parallels should be obvious by now: mostly operates at night, adept at hand-to-hand combat, wears all black, oh, and — what's that? — throwing stars! What many have come to know as a "batarang" is, for most martial arts enthusiasts, quite obviously a nod to the Japanese shuriken. If some of our other picks on this list make you feel like you might need too much "super" inspiration, let's be clear, if used correctly, batarangs are actually quite dangerous right here in the real world. $28

7. Green Arrow's Bow & Arrow Green Arrow is one of those DC heroes that gets short shrift by the comic book cognescenti, but he deserves much more respect because his entire repertoire is based on the skilled use of a very complicated, and very real weapon. All you need to know about this hero's weapon, a bow and arrow (and sometimes a crossbow), is that it is infinitely versatile. Rarely does Green Arrow merely shoot a simple arrow. Odds are that, when it reaches its target, it will deploy anything from a net, glue, cryonics, drills, an electro-magnetic pulse, a grappling hook, tear gas and a long list of other surprises. In terms of something we could all use in real life to imbue us with a super-human-like auro, sans actual powers, this is probably the our best bet. Varies