Personally, my role models have changed over time, as have I. If I had to say who my first role model was, I would have to say, The Incredible Hulk. He's green (most of the time) and his alter-ego is a genius. I don't think I thought of what The Hulk symbolizes very much, as a four year old boy. I don't know that I have a role model right now, or even any sort of mentor, which is a bit unusual for me as I have been very lucky to have had people who are well-established in their fields, take an interest in me and whatever I was doing. The most consistent role-model for me throughout my life so, has to be my parent's good friend. He makes his living as a consultant by running seminars based on group-building and conflict resolution. He showed me pretty early on that there are many solutions to any problem and that creating the kind of life that one wishes to live, is not only possible, but is worth making the effort to achieve.
It's funny, because I think the Hulk is still up there for me. I think about this often, and especially when I'm reading/watching X-Men because Beast has always been up there for me too, and I find them to be two sides of the same coin. They're both incredibly intelligent scientists (and/or politicians), which I aspire for, they were both affected by experiments gone awry, they both have extreme personal loathing and anger over their conditions, which are self afflicted, and at the world for the treatment they receive by society for their conditions, and are both entirely solitary, despite that they do find solace in others quite a bit. The most important factor, to me at least, is seeing their opinions on humanity. They're misanthropic as hell, they have deep-rooted boiling disappointment and disdain for the majority of humans... but they respect them and fight to better them regardless. All they do is fight for them, even though they're viewed as monsters, shot at, and attempted to be systematically eradicated. They never fully know why, they just know it's the right thing to do and know that there's hope yet for the betterment of society. They know great things can be done, and fuck if I don't struggle with that daily as well. They're the pinnacle of what we can be as people, and fittingly, they're rejected by the majority either because of that or because of irrelevant factors, and they still do the right thing. I respect that so much and those characters certainly made me a better person, Beast more than Hulk, no doubt, but Hulk has been there too, and in more recent adaptations, he takes on these traits even more.
I don't care too much for smart Hulk but your points are well-taken. It's interesting to me how the further a person deviates from the norm toward an ideal, the less they are seen as fully human. I think that says quite a lot about us as a species though.