If History Got a Gritty Reboot

Washington probably couldn't charm bullets, Ben Franklin probably never tamed lightning, and most historians agree that Lincoln didn't invent those wooden Legos. But nobody can deny that our history books are more entertaining thanks to the presumably crazy people who first made those stories up.

We challenged our readers to take history's superheroes back to their gritty basics using the magic of image-manipulation. The winners are below, but first the runners up...