Sampson and Jonah: antiheroes

[morbo3000]

I'm a comic book reader, and one of my favorites is Hellblazer. Constantine is a private detective of sorts whose specialty is crimes and problems associated with magic, usually dark. In modern literature he is considered an antihero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_hero
"In popular culture the typical antihero is viewed as being selfish and is driven by self-interests, usually in the form of revenge.[16][17] They lack remorse for their bad decisions, however for every antihero there is a line which they will not cross and this separates the antihero from the villains.[16] for example; the antihero is not opposed to killing to obtain his revenge, however he only kills those he feels deserves to be killed. The other attribute which separates an antihero from a traditional hero is their resemblance to the everyman."

I was thinking recently about why I'm drawn to his character because the anti-hero seems to have no place in Christianity. Then I realized that Sampson and Jonah were both anti-heroes. Often, people will identify themselves with David, Peter or Paul. People's appreciation of them is usually as an excuse or peace for their sinful behavior. "I'm sure glad we have the example of David to see that we can be a person after God's own heart even though we are sinful." They are flawed heroes, which is not the same as an anti-hero.

We should never accept sinful behavior, whether it is embodied in Peter or Jonah. But while everyone identifies with Peter, no one identifies with Sampson. I think a lot of this has to do with the inability to be real in most churches because we'd be judged if people knew the real us. So we excuse the worst parts of ourselves as "not being _that_ bad."

What do you think? Can you name some other Bible characters who fit the definition?