3. Daredevil
What Is It? Son of boxer Battlin Jack Murdock, Matt Murdock was struck with radioactive waste as a child which, although blinding him, enhanced his other senses to superhuman levels. Devoting his life to his studies, Matt opened a law practice with his college roommate, Franklin Foggy Nelson. By day, he defends the innocent in the courtroom and by night, he prowls the streets of Hells Kitchen as the vigilante called Daredevil. Created in the 1960s by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, the character really came to prominence during Frank Millers seminal run on the title in the 80s, where he set up longtime Spider-Man enemy the Kingpin as a primary antagonist for Daredevil. He also went into more depth with Matts backstory, introducing his blind mentor, Stick, and his former lover and current assassin, Elektra.
How To Do It Right? Both Daredevil and Elektra had their turns at the box office, and neither one was very well-received. Before the rights reverted to Marvel, Joe Carnahan was developing a Daredevil reboot for 20th Century Fox, but this ended up falling through. Despite all this, the property has a lot more potential as a TV series. The problem with Daredevil is that a movie cant really convey everything there is about Matt Murdocks life. Thats why the movie felt like it tried to do far too much and why Foggy was criminally underused. But with a TV series, you can focus on lots of smaller elements. You can focus on Matts work as a lawyer, in addition to his life as a vigilante. You can also lay the groundwork for adapting some of the stories that require build-up, like Millers famous return to the series with the Born Again story. But its important to not maintain a slavish devotion to Millers run. Yes, it was great, but its almost become a cliche to do a Frank Miller Daredevil. Instead, try and strike a balance between some of the different great runs, including Brian Michael Bendis run and Mark Waids current, more swashbuckling take on the character.