Since X-Men blew up at the box office back in 2000, we've been inundated with countless comic book movies ever year, and there's no doubt that it's incredibly gratifying to see our favourite superheroes brought to the screen. For every Christopher Nolan Batman and Bryan Singer X-Men, though, there's a portrayal that doesn't work; even if the rest of the film is actually pretty decent (though it usually isn't), screenwriters often drop the ball by daring to tamper with a beloved comic book character. With this week's controversy surrounding Iron Man 3's daring portrayal of The Mandarin, it's time to look at 10 comic book staples that were totally butchered by the filmmakers who dared to take them on...
10. Deadpool (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
And we start off with one of the most infamous all-time comic book butcherings, though frankly, the opening moments of the film actually started off pretty encouragingly. When we first meet Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), he's every bit the quick-witted, wise-cracking Merc with a Mouth who became so popular in the comics; even if he didn't perform his customary fourth-wall breaking antics, it seemed like Reynolds was a great fit for the character. The problems arise at the film's finale, when Reynolds' character is transformed into the weaponised mutant killer pictured above; he more resembles Baraka from the Mortal Kombat video game series, and the whole point about sewing shut the mouth of The Merc with the Mouth sat most insulting with the character's fans. This is one particular comic book film that really went out of its way to misunderstand the material, and the result was a lot of angry fanboys. A standalone Deadpool movie has been in the works for some time that would ignore this travesty, though I remain pessimistic that it will ever amount to anything.