11 Criminally Underrated Superheroes Hollywood Totally Ruined
2. The Spirit
Will Eisner was one of the great pioneers of the comic book medium, and at the summit of his many (many) achievements rests The Spirit, a serialised comic strip printed for the Des Moines Register's Tribune Syndicate. The Spirit - a masked vigilante and former detective - is the archetypal vigilante, and probably one that Frank Miller should've stayed away from. Especially post-Dark Knight Miller.
2008's The Spirit really is a woeful film - one that's derivative, cliched, and even dismissive of the character's roots. Ultimately, neither The Spirit or A Dame to Kill For could stand up to Miller's work in 2005's Sin City, with both relying too much on the heavily stylised inflections of his artwork, diminished with a now unremarkable and distracting monochromatic filter.
Word on a potential reboot has been virtually non-existent since 2008, so it looks as though The Spirit's one opportunity for cinematic success has come and gone - some would say for the better.