Throw a stone at your local multiplex and you'll more than likely hit someone on their way into a comic book movie. When I grew up I had to make do with Nicholas Hammond as Spider Man and Bill Bixby as The Incredible Hulk. We didn't have any of that CGI sorcery in those days, you know. Today's audience is treated to a smorgasbord of costumed cinematic mayhem every other week, be they acne-ridden teens or life-ridden adults. Such is the hold that Marvel and DC exert on the box office the non-spandexed competition is squeezed out like a frankfurter from the bun of an overloaded hot dog. 1989's Batman changed the rules of filmic conquest, and since then studios and indies alike have wanted a bite out of that super-powered pie. The solution is clear to a lot of filmmakers - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. However they don't necessarily need a source comic to do it. Here we find those movies that look like a comic book, sound like a comic book, but aren't ripped from the panels of a book itself. Some are amazing. Some are decidedly earthbound. Yet all of them owe their existence to those hardworking writers and artists with their hunched backs, clawed hands and allergy to opening the curtains. Let's turn the page...