10 Movies That Almost Destroyed The Superhero Genre

9. Daredevil (2003)

Spider-Man's been done and you've made X-Men, what's next? The odd answer to that question was Daredevil; in 2003 20th Century Fox decided to turn the adventures of the Man Without Fear in a big blockbuster. Matt Murdoch is an interesting hero in many ways. A blind lawyer who has developed super-senses and fights crime once the sun goes down offers plenty of opportunity for a creative film. And while Mark Steven Johnson tried, his take didn't stand out; fiery calling cards, CGI cityscapes and seeing someone in the rain just didn't cut it. The film's reputation is so low that even though it came out a decade before it was key fuel in the hatred of Ben Affleck being cast as Batman. The problem with Daredevil is that he was an unproven hero. He may have got a boost from an extended cameo in the Spider-Man cartoon, but to the majority of audiences he was new character, making him the first unproven hero of the emergent new age of the genre. And when he didn't excel the question of whether an unknown character could work at all was raised. What saved him: The youth of the genre meant it was just viewed as a misstep.