Comic book movies are all the rage in cinema at the moment having followed on from the wild success of the Dark Knight Trilogy and the development of the complex, interconnected Marvel universe. But comic movies haven’t always had this meaty budget and, to be honest, they haven’t always been that great to watch.

We all love it when the good beats the boss in the movies (simply take a look at bgo’s article on cult film heroes who have done just that) but what about in comic book film franchises? The following films are examples of how our favorite heroes who win against all the odds shouldn’t transition onto the big screen.

Batman Forever (1995)

This was a strange, strange film. Following on the success of Tim Burton’s Batman films, Joel Schumacher took the helm and created the oddity that is Batman Forever.

Burton’s films were ahead of their time in terms of comic book movies. They were dark and comical at the same time, remaining faithful to the comic books. And then this happened. Schumacher had other ideas and, when paired with the over acting of Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee-Jones as the villains The Riddler and Two-Face, it resulted in a production that cast comic book movies twenty years into the past.

Spiderman 3 (2007)

Venom is a great villain. The sentient alien costume represents the struggle of power all superheroes face and is ferociously popular with comic book fans, with the character (or should that be costume) even securing its own spin off anti-hero comic book series.

So imagine everyone’s disappointment when Spiderman 3 turned out to just be Tobey Maguire battling Toby Maguire with a slightly different haircut and eyeliner.

Still, at least we got to see Toby strut his stuff down the street…

The Spirit (2008)

Sin City was a ground-breaking collection of comics from mastermind Frank Miller. The first movie was great. The second movie was OK, but this spin off movie, in the same style, that came in between, was a slog to get through.

It’s confusing to watch – shadowy, dark and moody – yet the actual acting is dire, light and comical. It’s a juxtaposition that doesn’t really work and perhaps look a bit self-indulgent.

Daredevil (2003)

Daredevil is a pretty badass character. Blind lawyer by day, super hero with super senses by night. It sounds like a pretty good combination and is something that the audience of this film would have liked to see more.

Instead, this movie focussed on the will-they-won’t-they romance between Ben Affleck’s Daredevil and Jennifer Garner’s Elektra.

Even the costumes in the film were a flop. Affleck’s Daredevil outfit didn’t look very superhero-like and looked cheap and nasty.

This movie could have actually been great, but it was a wasted opportunity. Kingpin and Bullseye, in the comics, are interesting villains. Hell, they were even quite interesting on screen, as portrayed by Colin Farrell and the man mountain that was Michael Clarke Duncan (a natural choice for Kingpin).

Still, Marvel made up for their shortcomings by rebooting their character’s on screen career through the much, much better Daredevil TV series.