15 Bravest Creative Decisions In Comic Book Movie History

Making a comic book movie is so much more challenging than just adapting any regular book: comic book fans are famous for their near-insane level of devotion to their most beloved characters, and their unrivaled ability to nitpick everything from plot points to the most mundane details hidden in the background. As a result, it's typically the most meticulous and respectful filmmakers who rise to the top of the pile, while those who don't care to indulge the fanboys end up on the receiving end of hateful Internet bile. That said, sometimes a creative choice is just a huge, even irresponsible gamble, regardless of the talents of the people involved. Sometimes no matter how skillful and respected the writer or director might be, it's just difficult to see how an idea can work, though of course, only when the lights go down and the movie starts do we find out once and for all. Some of these ballsy ideas went against the grain and worked, while others were admirable failures, and some just outright sucked, but they all at least earn a point for their ridiculous, often idiotic bravery, even if fans didn't always appreciate the effort. Did we miss any hugely daring creative decisions in comic book movies? Let us know in the comments!

15. Killing Off Cyclops, Jean Grey & Professor Xavier - X-Men: The Last Stand

Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand was nothing if not a brave movie, perhaps stupidly so. Ratner clearly didn't care too much about rattling comic book fans, and decided to kill off three of the franchise's most beloved characters in one fell swoop. Cyclops (James Marsden) is the first on the chopping block, being disintegrated by Jean Grey aka Phoenix (Famke Janssen) at Alkali Lake and essentially dying off-screen, before she later disintegrates Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) as well. Finally, Jean urges Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to kill her and stop her destructive path, causing him to fatally stab her. Did It Work? Not at all. The Last Stand majorly angered fans of the series, because, for one, Cyclops lamely died off-screen, and these were simply characters we didn't want to see written out of the X-Men mythos. Ratner at least knew that killing Xavier was a terrible idea, because he confessed in the DVD commentary that the comatose patient we see in the post-credits scene is supposed to be Xavier's twin brother, allowing him to be resurrected. Thankfully Bryan Singer retconned this mess of a movie with the recent Days of Future Past, but we'll get onto that later...