11 Criminally Underrated Superheroes Hollywood Totally Ruined

You might love Keanu, but that definitely wasn't the Hellblazer we deserved.

Constantine Keanu Reeves
Warner Bros.

Though we're all currently lucky enough to be enjoying pretty much the best period ever for comics on film and TV (but not for comics in comic books, somehow), it does help to appreciate every now and then just how dire the genre has previously been on the big screen.

For most comic book characters, receiving a bad page-to-screen adaptation isn't the end of the line: Batman, Deadpool, Spider-Man and Superman have all been given the reboot treatment after noticeable stinkers. They ought to count themselves lucky, since other major characters have fared far worse. In fact for most of the medium's lesser known and underrated characters, the botched adaptations can be a lot more final.

And while quite a few have managed to move on and experience some relative success on the small-screen, often with a more faithful portrayal, the fact remains that, for most of these guys, a return to a big budget blockbuster is totally out of reach. That could be considered a good thing, given how good Marvel's Netflix experiment has been, but even that sort of treatment is beyond some of those killed by bad movies.

Still, it doesn't detract from the fact that Hollywood have made some pretty unforgivable goofs when it's come to adapting some of the medium's less popular properties.

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Content Producer/Presenter
Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.