1. Ryan Reynolds
For Marvel: Wisecracking ex-vampire turned vampire hunter Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity. Wisecracking mutant mercenary turned super-weapon Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine
For DC: Wisecracking pilot turned intergalactic law enforcer Hal Jordan in The Green Lantern
How did the change work out? As his career shifted from TV star to supporting actor to movie leading man, Ryan Reynolds has pretty much stuck to playing the charismatic loudmouth and thats the element that unites all his comic book roles. Blade: Trinity was a tedious mess of a movie with tax evading star Wesley Snipes only back for the money and Blade 2 director Guillermo del Toro replaced by writer David Goyer (also the man responsible for scripting the recent adventures of Batman and Superman), whose talents did not cross over behind the camera. Reynolds was one of the few elements to emerge positively from it, at least providing the film a little levity. If anything, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a worse sequel than Blade: Trinity. Reynolds seemed perfectly cast as fan favourite fourth wall breaker Deadpool until the movie decided to take the merc with a mouth and sew that mouth shut before decapitating him. None of which, oddly, prevented a Deadpool spin-off going into development. That project never materialised, in part due to Reynolds having a better offer to star as one of DCs premiere heroes, Green Lantern. Reynolds solo performance in claustrophobic thriller Buried shows he has what it takes to lead a movie, but Green Lantern overwhelmed him, and the audience, with bad CGI effects. Since then, Reynolds has starred in a run of flops including Men in Black-alike RIPD and snail racing toon Turbo. A return to the wisecracking sidekick role is probably in his not too distant future. So, what does this mean for Affleck? Well, less than half the actors on this list have successfully made the crossover, so in that sense it doesn't look all that positive for Affleck. Partly, though, this just reflects the sheer number of below average comic book movies that are out there. The noteworthy thing about those that succeeded is that their DC movies were all so bad that they were soon forgotten when they switched to Marvel. If, like these actors, you can leave one flop behind, you can reinvent yourself in the audience imagination. Given that, it's probably all for the best in terms of Affleck's chances of cementing himself in people's minds as Batman that his Daredevil wasn't more successful. Like Fassbender coming from Jonah Hex to X-Men, it gives him much less in his own career to compete with.
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