Heroes Who Deserve Their Own Movie

*Originally published on 10/14/09




A lot of comic book movies have been made recently. However, there are some heroes that still haven't gotten to make their big screen debuts. I came across an article in mania.com, that listed 5 DC characters who deserve movies. I'm going to try and keep it balanced as far as companies go; however, it might mostly be DC. This is because I'm a DC fan and because Marvel has made a lot more movies so a lot of their characters have gotten adaptations.

A major character who deserves a movie is Wonder Woman, the article agrees with me, but I already talked about her. Next!

For a long time, WB was planning to make a movie called Supermax. This would feature Oliver Queen aka. Green Arrow getting framed and locked in prison with a bunch of DC's major villains. I really dug this idea. People were getting tired of the origin stories and this would give viewers something different. It would also allow for all sorts of cameos from various rogues. Hardcore comic fans would get giddy seeing all the different characters who Ollie would come across. As the article says, it would also go a long way towards universe building. It would introduce villains as well as let you know that all the heroes are out there fighting crime.

Dr. Strange is a character who for some reason hasn't gotten a movie. He's not obscure, while people may not know a whole lot about the character, they get the gist, he's Marvel's resident mystic. From a visual standpoint, as well as a storytelling standpoint, this seems like an easy home run. You can run over Strange's origin in the credits and get to the story with no real trouble. Have him battle Dormammu or maybe some sort of Lovecraftian abomination, it would require a lot of CGI but it could be amazing if done properly. I remember at one point, Marvel Studios was discussing their post- Avengers film roster and this came up. They said that they were talking to Neil Gaiman to write it and hoping to get Guillermo Del Toro to direct it. Perfect sums that up about right, I think.

Black Panther is another character who I think would transition well to the big screen. I don't know a whole lot about him, but he seems like a character people would want to watch. It would also add a bit of diversity to the comic book movie roster, outside of the Blade series, I think it's all been Caucasians so that would be an added bonus.

Aquaman deserves a movie. Yeah, I said it. Other characters have been able to move on from their campy Superfriends incarnations, yet he's still frozen with that image. Even with two stellar animated incarnation in the DCAU and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, he can't seem to shake off the Superfriends stigma. A major motion picture is the only way to clear his name in the eyes of the public. Hopefully there's a scene where he throws a polar bear, yes Aquaman throws polar bears and it is awesome.

While I know nothing of Namor, he could use a movie too. Comic fans often cite him as being more hardcore than Aquaman, I wouldn't mind seeing what the big deal is. One of my friends even posited that Namor could defeat Cthulu, conversely Aquaman would only command him, which one is more impressive is up to you.

Flash has been a movie that has been in development hell for years, along with Wonder Woman. With Green Lantern finally making progress, maybe they will finally get to work on a Flash movie. He's a pretty well known character and he has one of the best rogues gallery in comics. Honestly, it's up there with Batman's.

While it's too big for a film franchise, I wouldn't mind seeing Gaiman's Sandman series adapted into an animated series. It would be interesting to say the least.

Comics have proven to be a gold mine for Hollywood. There is material aplenty with rich characters and decades worth of stories. While there have been plenty of super-hero movies, there are still quite a few that we would all like to see.