8 Comic Book Characters Hollywood Will Never Understand

5. Batman

Batman, unlike Superman, has only recently fallen afoul of WB's seeming lack of direction, but it's equally diabolical all the same.

The Dark Knight is many things to many people, and with so many varying interpretations of the character, that's always bound to be the case. However, adapting a character to the big screen is a different process altogether; you have to take into account how diverse an audience is, and when it comes to Batman, that means all these different preferences and interpretations coalesce into one. Or they should, rather, because for the last five or so years, Batman on the big screen has catered to only one demographic - those who love Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns.

To be clear, The Dark Knight Returns is a fantastic story, but it's not necessarily definitive. It represents a very specific kind of Caped Crusader, whereas, say, Batman: The Animated Series, takes inspiration from a varying range of sources; that's how you get a definitive version of Batman - one that can boast as broad an appeal as possible - but that approach is yet to manifest as WB target another Batman reboot, sans Ben Affleck.

Batman shouldn't be this difficult to do right, and yet we've gone six - almost seven - years without a compelling onscreen portrayal.