10 Superhero Actors Who Bounced Back From Poor Performances

Daredevil Batman It's been around a week now since they announced the news about Ben Affleck's casting as Batman, yet people are proving ferocious in their disapproval. It's a rare casting that can inspire letters to the President €“ who I assume will never, ever read anything to do with the whole furore €“ but Affleck's future foray into caped crusading appears to have managed to rile the geek populace into anger not seen since the heady days of X-Men 3. But really, why are we all annoyed? Affleck's a hell of a choice €“ an Oscar-winning filmmaker with terrific range and a great love of the source material, he's possibly the best choice we could've hoped for, given that Man Of Steel didn't go down as well as everyone expected an that whoever stepped into Christian Bale's mighty shoes was always going to experience a huge fan backlash. It's not as if Affleck needs Bruce Wayne €“ remember, he's just come off releasing Argo, and effectively has Hollywood at his feet once again. Really, we should be thankful that he's taken up the role as the Dark Knight. Yet still, people will not let this one lie, and from what I've seen, the majority of grievances all come back to one role €“ Daredevil. Oh sure, you could possibly include Gigli in the pantheon of reasons why people think Affleck's a poor choice, but the more coherent arguments seem to stem from the logic that he bungled superhero-dom once, so he's going to do it again. Well I'm sorry, I don't think we should use Daredevil as a stick with which to beat Affleck. Yes, it was a bad film, but it was over 10 years ago €“ in that time, actors tend to pick themselves up, dust themselves down and get on with another role. Really, that's kind of their job, and much like all of us, they're capable of learning from their mistakes. The irony is that if we were being truly objective, we could apply this past role Affleck-logic to all the other actors to have taken up superhero roles. After all, nearly everyone who's donned a cape in Hollywood has at some point has made a stinker at some point, but it didn't stop them from killing in their comic book roles. So without further ado, lets look at 10 superhero actors who put a poor performance behind them to rock geek-dom with their superhero turn. If these guys can do it, I'm pretty sure Affleck can too.
Contributor
Contributor

Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.