10 Bad Comic Book Villains Who Were Still Better Than Steppenwolf

Almost 15 years on from its Valentine's Day 2003 release, it's easy to forget how much optimism greeted Mark Steven Johnson's Daredevil. In the wake of Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man, the first wave of Marvel Comics blockbusters was at full force, and hopes were high that the first big screen outing for the Man Without Fear would prove a similar success.

The fact that it turned out to be the Man Without Fear's first and last big screen outing (to date, at least) pretty much tells you all you need to know. While it isn't necessarily the unmitigated disaster some have declared it to be, Daredevil is at best a middle-of-the-road superhero movie which badly miscasts it lead: Ben Affleck swore off spandex for just over a decade. As for how he fared when he put it back on for that other superhero role... well, that's not what we're here to talk about.

Daredevil does deserve some credit for having the guts to cast the late Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin; a role which, skin tone be damned, he was ideal for. A bigger question mark hangs over Colin Farrell's casting as Bullseye. A deadly opponent in the comics, here he's just a bit of a clown, not helped by his weird nu-metal get-up and quirky scar.

Still, it was the first time Hollywood allowed Farrell to play a major role in his native Irish accent, and he certainly seems to be enjoying himself, even if he leaves the audience cringing.