As superhero movies continue to dominate the cinematic landscape, and feel-good Marvel Studios continue to duke it out with the latest somber DC Universe title, fans of longtime comic series begin to bemoan the many ways in which their favorite characters have been disrespected, disserviced, and dejected o- screen. For the past 20 years superhero movies have gained more and more momentum and popularity, yet they continue to show gross disparities from their source materials. Superheroes and supervillains alike, with long and intricate histories, often get woefully simplified in favor of audience-pleasing narratives and easily-followed character development. These formulaic approaches, while seemingly pleasing to studio executives and producers, often illicit derision from long time fans who have looked forward to seeing their favorite characters brought to life for some time.
For every Captain America, Thor, and Loki that the major studios get right, there’s about five times as many characters that they get wrong. Sometimes this trend goes on for the length of an entire series of films (like with Cyclops), and sometimes their part is so small that a cameo is the only chance fans have of seeing them brought to life on-screen (like with Crossbones). Important facets of a character are often left on the cutting room floor in favor of what Hollywood producers think will sell tickets, even if it means alienating the fan base for which the movies were made.
25 GAMBIT
Gambit endures as a favorite among comic book and X-Men fans. With his rakish charm, rugged looks, and powerful matter-altering abilities, he has emerged as a fun amalgamation of classic superhero and anti-hero traits. The first on-screen depiction Gambit received was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when Taylor Kitsch and his technicolor dreamcoat took on the role of the Ragin’ Cajun.
In the film, Gambit hasn’t become “Gambit” yet -- he’s Remy LeBeau, a flamboyant card shark with a penchant for wearing the color purple (and also fedoras). He appears in no way dangerous, and exhibits only a bit of the powers that fans have become accustomed to Gambit using. Hopefully the Gambit movie that’s been in development for years rectifies Gambit’s character development.
24 STORM
Storm is one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, yet on-screen only a fraction of her power and charisma have even been tapped into. Considered a deity in Africa, she can control all weather on Earth by creating typhoons, inciting torrential downpours, and calling on lightning strikes. On-screen, she was depicted by Halle Berry in the first three X-Men movies, and then by Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Maybe it’s because most incarnations of Storm depict her as a young woman unfamiliar with how to utilize the extent of her abilities, but so far no Storm has properly showcased her might. As one of the foundational pillars of the X-Men, Storm deserves the respect and care of the MCU.
23 ROGUE
Like her name suggests, Rogue has always been a bit of a loner. Beginning with causing the accidental death of her childhood sweetheart with a single kiss, Rogue soon discovered her powers of being able to absorb the life force (and in a mutant's case, abilities) from anyone she made contact with was a tragic liability. Professor Xavier took the wayward teenager in and after a time at his School for Gifted Youngsters, she became a member of the X-Men.
Rogue has never had a solid presence on-screen, beginning with Anna Paquin’s shy, anti-social depiction. In the comics, she is sassy, charismatic, and in control of her powers. For one of the most popular X-Men members, she’ll hopefully catch a break in future films.
22 SLIPKNOT
Slipknot is a member of the Suicide Squad, with a knack for more than rope-tricks. Once an engineer, he made an adhesive that, when applied to ordinary ropes, makes them indestructible. He uses them (along with his considerable stealth skills) as tools to assassinate, and is a useful member of the ragtag team of former supervillains.
In the Suicide Squad film Slipknot has almost no dialogue to speak of, which is a shame since he’s portrayed by First American Adam Beach, adding to the MCU’s diverse acting cohort. He manages to be released from prison with the rest of the group, but is shot instantly when he tries to escape once back in the civilian world. It was an incredible waste of a much more complex character.
21 KILLER CROC
Killer Croc is a formidable part of Batman’s rogues gallery, often teaming up with more prominent villains such as Scarecrow and The Joker. A wayward experiment turned him into a half-man, half-crocodile mutation who loves nothing more than to feed on human flesh. A member of the infamous Suicide Squad, he is played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the Suicide Squad film.
Unfortunately, Killer Croc doesn’t come across as particularly lethal or dangerous on-screen. He’s relegated to a background player behind Harley and Deadshot, and doesn’t even get to show off the cannibalism that makes others so nervous to be around him. Even other villains know not to stand too close to Croc when he’s feeling a feeding frenzy coming on.
20 EMMA FROST
Like so many other Marvel heroes, Emma Frost has switched allegiances many times over the course of her character’s history. She was once known as the White Queen, leader of the evil Hellfire Club, but has since been reformed as a vital member of the X-Men and love interest for Cyclops. She is a powerful telepath and can assume an indestructible “diamond” state. She’s most notably played by January Jones in X-Men: First Class, who proved to hardly be the diamond standard.
Emma Frost should be an incredibly witty, urbane individual with an intimidating command of her telepathic powers. She should gain traction as an impressive Marvel villain on par with Cate Blanchett’s Hela, to elevate the latest X-Men installments and her reputation.
19 CYCLOPS
While Wolverine represented the anti-authority antihero, Cyclops represented the archetypal superhero and for that, seemed to suffer in popularity. He’s been a member of the X-Men for decades, yet has never been done justice on the big screen. His pulsing red laser-vision mutant powers may be iconic, but his appearances in any of the X-Men films haven’t been.
Cyclops, portrayed most often by James Marsden, was reduced to second fiddle to more prominent characters in the X-Men franchise; he was Ice-Man to Wolverine’s Maverick. Once he gave begrudging respect to the anti-hero, he himself was expendable. Not a cool way to depict the guy who’s been the leader of the X-Men more often than not.
18 SCARLET WITCH
As one half of a famous sibling duo (her brother being Quicksilver) and the daughter of Magneto, Scarlet Witch has the sort of superhero pedigree that warrants respect and attention to detail. Despite having Magneto’s powers over matter and a distinct supersuit (complete with headdress!), her introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron reduces her to a nearly mute teenager frightened of her powers that somehow forms an attachment to Paul Bettany’s much older looking Vision.
Due to complications with Fox and Sony having different rights to the term “mutants”, Scarlet Witch and her brother were labeled “Inhumans” to alleviate any copyright infringement, and along with it alleviated any compelling character depth Scarlet Witch might have had.
17 RONAN THE ACCUSER
Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge success for the MCU because of its heady combination of random humor, feel-good camaraderie, and grandiose action. However heroes are only as good as the villain they oppose, the villain in question was Ronan the Accuser, a Kree supremacist that believed in the complete annihilation of the Nova Corps.
Ronan the Accuser came across as some sort of roided out religious zealot, while in the comics his character history is much more complex. In recent years he has seen himself more of an anti-hero, not a two dimensional villain only interested in galactic conquest. That sort of thinking doesn’t arise from out of the blue.
16 HAWKEYE
Hawkeye may appear the lamest member of the Avengers, but he didn’t have to. He began as a petty thief and villain before Black Widow persuaded him to join the team. An orphan who had spent his early adolescence being an archer in a circus with his younger brother, he had angst to match his skill with a bow.
Hawkeye has received very little fair treatment when it comes to character development in the Avengers movies, and even though Jeremy Renner does a fair job with the role given the material he has to work with, it’s a largely thankless part that doesn’t look like it will be expanded in the future, disappointing Hawkeye fans everywhere.
15 THE MANDARIN
Fans were excited to see The Mandarin show up in Iron Man 3, especially as portrayed by the inimitable Ben Kingsley. A mystical supervillain with ten rings of power that rival Dr. Strange’s Eye of Agamotto, he is one of Iron Man’s most lethal adversaries. The Mandarin they got, however, was little more than a cosmic charlatan doing parlor tricks, a stand in for the real Mandarin.
A genius-level scientist and superior martial artist, The Mandarin can purportedly survive for years without sustenance, subsiding on the power of chi. Though it wasn’t conveyed, his rings have near unlimited power via the warp-drives of alien spaceships. He also has a strong code of honor, and would have been embarrassed by how his character was mistreated.
14 ROBIN
Robin has become a universally hated character on screen thanks to two things: Joel Schumacher's electric boogaloo take on the Batman franchise, and Chris O’Donnell’s weak performance. There have been many Robins in the Batman comic series, who have proven themselves more than capable of being the Caped Crusader’s sidekick, but none of their guts, determination, or athletic skill has been properly captured in the DC Cinematic Universe.
When first introduced in Batman and Robin, Robin comes across as a slick hotshot full of hormonal angst (despite O’Donnell being 27), more interested in getting girls and riding fast on motorcycles than heroics. It doesn’t improve in Batman Forever, which is precisely when he should be exploring his own reasons for being a superhero.
13 BATGIRL
Batgirl has only had one on-screen appearance so far, as depicted by ‘90s "It Girl" Alicia Silverstone fresh off of her success in Clueless. Unfortunately, the ditzy charm she brought to that teen comedy carried over into her portrayal of Barbara Wilson. She never convincingly conveyed why she wanted to become a superhero, other than the fact that she (with the help of her uncle, Batman’s manservant Alfred) found the batcave and wanted to join the cool kids.
Alicia Silverstone was just 21 when she strapped herself into the batsuit, and while batgirl was traditionally young in the comics, she has always been portrayed as a resilient, wise-beyond-her-years young woman with a resolute head for justice (especially since her uncle is Commissioner Gordon).
12 GREEN LANTERN
The Green Lantern was supposed to be a fascinating tale about the thousands of interstellar policemen that protect the Power Rings from the cosmic terror that sounds like a laxative. Parallax, a yellow fear-based energy threatens to usurp the green energy produced by all living beings, and the Guardians need the Green Lantern Corps to stop it.
Enter Hal Jordan, roguish drone flying ace played by the surprisingly dour Ryan Reynolds, and newest owner of the green Power Ring courtesy of a crash-landing alien. Hal is charming and witty in the comics, yet comes across flat here, and inherits a completely unearned superhero title simply because he’s the apex dude by Earth standards, and carries none of the mantle of responsibility.
11 GREEN HORNET
The Green Hornet was a return to form for superhero movies defined by the era in which their source material was created -- full of pithy dialogue, zany bad guys, and perilous shenanigans. The Green Hornet is a masked crime fighter with no particular powers, the wayward son of a media mogul that decides to become responsible when his father dies unexpectedly.
Like The Rocketeer, or Dick Tracy, the Green Hornet belongs in a different era where it won’t be overshadowed by superheroes with super powers. Seth Rogen didn’t make a very believable gentleman-turned-masked vigilante, and the repercussions of the Hornet having to appear as a villain to infiltrate the criminal underworld is never explored as it would have been in an edgier superhero film.
10 ANCIENT ONE
The Yoda of superhero mythology, the Ancient One is the 50-year old being that possesses the power to harness extra-dimensional energy and uses his knowledge of sorcery to protect Earth from the evil forces that threaten it. He is the Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, until such time as he takes on a worthy apprentice (Stephen Strange) to pass the title to. He is depicted as a Celtic sorceress in Doctor Strange, played by Tilda Swinton.
Casting a Caucasian actor eliminates opportunity for an Asian actor to play the role. However, the character is originally from Tibet, and the anti-China politics of the nation meant casting a Tibetan actor would alienate the largest global box office draw, thus putting Marvel Studios in a bind.
9 DR. DOOM
An iconic adversary of the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom is an enigmatic villain motivated by retribution for his facial disfigurement, yet bound by an unwavering code of honor. Covered by an imposing metal mask in the comics, he went mostly unmasked in the Fantastic Four film of the early ‘00s, as producers didn’t believe audiences would want to see a villain who spent the majority of the time concealed.
Julian McMahon had previously been famous for playing the lead plastic surgeon on the television series Nip/Tuck, which made the irony of him having his face mutilated particularly strong. However, Dr. Doom came across as incredibly petulant and ineffectual, rather than egomaniacal and dogmatically dangerous.
8 STEPPENWOLF
Justice League was the highly anticipated DC Cinematic Universe answer to the Avengers films, about five years too late. As ambitious as it was to pack together larger than life heroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, it was even more ambitious to put them up against a villain like Steppenwolf, an adversary that needed to be truly epic in scale yet seemed utterly inconsequential from his first appearance.
Steppenwolf is a New God. He’s the uncle of Darkseid. He has near unlimited powers of carnage and yet he is frequently beat to a pulp by superheroes one fourth as powerful as he is. He’s also not a particularly memorable villain, even with the authoritative inflections of Ciaran Hinds.
7 ARES
Based on the God of War from Greek mythology, Ares is a supervillain in the DC Universe that has been the main foe of Wonder Woman since Wonder Woman #1. Ares opposed the Amazon philosophy of compassion, unity, and love, and tried to overthrow his father Zeus, who protected the Amazons on the island of Themyscira.
Though Ares is a god with incredible powers, the Wonder Woman film depicts him as a bureaucrat (played by David Thewlis) during WWII that is only interested in escalating the war. When he is revealed to be Ares, he grows about 40 feet (with a horrible mustache under his gladiator helmet), spouting banal dialogue about how pathetic humankind is, before engaging in a truly anticlimactic CGI slogfest.
6 JUGGERNAUT
For some time, Juggernaut got shafted in his on screen manifestations. An avatar of the immortal entity Cyttorak whenever he possesses its gem, he is able to summon mystical force fields, shatter mountains, and use buildings as weapons. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Like something you’d want to see?
Too bad. Whether played by Vinnie Jones in X-Men: Last Stand or a motion-captured Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2, about the only thing similar to the Juggernaut of the comics is that he’s physically unstoppable once in motion and possesses super strength. Any portion of his human self as Cain Marko, or his mystical powers, is completely left out.