Any comic book fan is spoiled for choice in 2015. Gone are the days of the occasional comic book adaptation that only has snippets of the original source material. Sure, Tim Burtons Batman was great and Richard Donners Superman made us believe a man could fly but these films were few and far between. Now comic book adaptations are TV and Movie studios' bread and butter. By 2019 Marvel studios will have released 21 films and possibly 8 (or more) TV series and thats just one studio! DC are hot on their heals with their own film and TV show slate. As the two big companies (DC and Marvel) continue to churn out property after property for the masses there is a risk of stagnation and complacency. Marvel in particular has shown during Phase 2 of their movie slate a particular repetition of structure and antagonist archetype. How many times can audiences watch an Avenger save millions of people from a super weapon powered by a maniacal thespian? DC appear to be trying to buck this trend and early buzz around Suicide Squad and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice suggest they may be on to a winner but until these are actually in cinemas we have no way of knowing whether these properties will be treated differently from the rest. Not to say that Marvel are all bad, far from it, as Marvels Daredevil proved, superhero adaptations do not need to be full of bright colours and over the top characters. For the moment there is still an appetite for these characters, stories and mythologies and therefore we will continue to be treated to big and small screen adaptations of them. The real problem is that both DC and Marvel are running out of popular characters they can adapt and without an Iron Man, Captain America or Superman they will soon find themselves delving deeper into their archive for the next big property. So here is where lies the problem, Whos Next? The following is a suggested list of perhaps overlooked superhero properties that DC and Marvel should consider for future live action adaptations.
