Stories of heroes shouldn't just be cheap, zero-calorie wish-fulfillment. They should prepare people for life. Life IS a battle between good and evil. And it's our responsibility individually and collectively to engage in this battle.
The ultimate hero is the "anti-hero" that must play the necessary monster. I very much like that Jordan Peterson recognizes this too.
It is of my opinion John Wagner's "Judge Dredd" is the greatest of all such "anti-heros", for he stands in the way of everything freedom abhors whilst all the while sacrificing his individuality in service of the collective to protect it from destruction.
Dredd never expects anything in return, thus he never suffers from wishful thinking. His unrequited devotion for his city is tirelessly given. He's relentless. His services rendered go largely unrecognized and even loathed by the very people he serves to protect in doing so, because to do so in his world is to require him to be a monster.
He is bound by the tenets of Justice Dept, an established system of law and governance bound in upholding the basic-right tenets of life for ALL its citizenry under very undesirable circumstances: An atomic-scorched Earth brought about by the Age of Democracy. He does only exercise his self-determined individuality if these basic-right tenets of life for the citizens of Mega City One is undermined due to the Judicial System he so pledges allegiance to does so abuses its power - and of course on occasion his own soul-searching to question his own integrity. These are always his greatest tests of Being: Self determination vs unquestioning faith in allegiance for the sake of maintaining continued Order in a world on the perpetual brink of chaos and collapse.
For a Judge, there must be no room for relationships or desires or fears. Despite being mere flesh-and-blood humans capable of empathy and subject to self-doubt, capacity for love and the need to belong - these must be overcome, hidden behind all that unyielding uncompromising violent exterior in an unyielding uncompromising violent world... All such complexities of persona must take a back-seat: To serve and protect 24/7/365 (minus 10 mins in the sleep machine) - for there can only be room for one love in a Judge's life: the love of Law!
Judges waver, and will often fall on Dredd to lead by exemplary example and exact the most severe of punishments should a Judge be found wanting - a continuous burden weighing heavily upon his shoulders to correct thinking errors and quell the seeds of corruption within the ranks of his brothers and sisters... A great responsibility indeed.
Another point to note: unlike other "heros/anti-heros", Judge Joseph Dredd has not allowed himself to be spurred on due to personal tragedies befallen his past, his childhood, initiating personal, and therefor jaded, quests for justice empowering his will in enabling to remain committed to fighting the dark forces of evil - nor is he susceptible to arrogant notions prompting the pushing forth the wishful "better world" for the future. He consciously restricts himself to dispensing "justice" within the confines of law he is tasked with, and does so out of pure objective duty rooted within the here and now, with such focused intent within the present mastering "thinking fast and slow".
He does not indulge in "I am", yet is deeply in tune to it through the continuous development of responsibility in service to upholding law and order against the ever-evolving uber-complex backdrop of his city and its pent-up citizens.
That's what the message of hero stories should be, at least. Pick up your cross and bear it.
Other than Judge Dredd, no other hero/anti-hero I know of does this in a meaningful tangible way without it screaming of repentant sadomasochism, because they are seldom, if ever, bound to the collective so absolutely and intrinsically within the 2D/3D STS general population... But instead wholly individualistic operating on their own terms memes 'mini-cultures' et al, usually leading a double life which, realistically, would confound problems and corrupt integrity long-term - and, ultimately, answering to no-one but themselves operating within the confines and compatibility of personified shaped morality, putting themselves up on the stand only as a show-of-trust demonstrating 'honour' and 'righteous nobility'.
Pffft! As Dredd well knows: Notions of 'honour' and 'righteous nobility' is a vanity-fest that costs lives and conflicts with getting the damn job done!
Last but not least: Judge Dredd is a virgin! He is rigorous with his celibacy - for sex leads to liability that cannot befall a Judge.
That should say it all for that cross to bear!
Conclusion: It is my firm belief Judge Dredd is the strongest human representative in comic-fiction eligible for STO Candidacy.