Characters That Have Never Gotten The Screen Treatment They Deserve...

[DrNewGod]

Another thread on these forums talks about Daredevil's rights returning to Disney. Netflix's treatment was the best adaptation DD ever got, in spite of at least two other tries.

It got me thinking about other characters who've been tried, but have never gotten their due.

The Lone Ranger: Westerns are tricky these days, but it could be done. All previous attempts have been embarrassingly hokey.

Green Hornet: one of the great superhero influences. The Crimson Avenger and Sandman were each almost direct lifts from him. His relationship with Kato would require some work, but it could make for a fun retro-noir piece. The less said about the Seth Rogan film, the better.

The Shadow: Green Hornet's progenitor, and contributor to at least 1/3 of Batman's DNA. The Baldwin movie was visually lush, but intellectually shallow, relying too much on Welles' radio incarnation and not enough on the pulp original.

The Phantom: like The Shadow, the Zane film was visually lush, but more than shallow, was downright insulting. This character supplies another 1/3 of Batman's heritage, plus his mythic, generational elements have influenced The Black Panther. Honestly, with so much history, this one might work better as a streaming series than as a cinema offering.

Others?

[90'sCartoonMan]

If we're talking Batman influences, what about the Scarlet Pimpernel? The concept of secret identity starts with him, and while I remember him having a stage presence, I don't think he has a huge history of being on the screen.

[ChrisIII]

Fantastic Four Although they've done OK with Human Torch and Thing at least IMO in most of the adaptations, and at least the Ioan Groffuld version had some of Mr. Fantastic's general social awkwardness. Doctor Doom though, suffers the most.

[DrNewGod]

If we're talking Batman influences, what about the Scarlet Pimpernel? The concept of secret identity starts with him, and while I remember him having a stage presence, I don't think he has a huge history of being on the screen.

Yeah, but the Leslie Howard film was a pretty solid treatment.

[Frontier]

Mary Jane Watson (Michelle Jones doesn't count).

[SpiderClops]

Cyclops. It's so bad at times it seems like they purposefully want us to dislike/not care about him.

Honestly, X-Men too. They've got some characters right. But I've yet to see an X-Men movie that really is about X-Men, the team.

[Jon Clark]

Does the entire Arrowverse count? Because even the characters I genuinely like(d) are nothing like their comic book counterparts. We have yet to see a Supergirl or Flash that can stand on their own thanks to the needs of the shows to have roles for the supporting cast. I'll miss Brandon Routh's presence on the Waverider, but that Ted Kord-ish guy who appeared on Arrow and moved onto Legends was definitely not physicist Ray Palmer. Was Curtis Holt supposed to be the 3rd brightest person in the Arrowverse and Felicity was simply smarter or did they just mistake T-spheres for his actual powers? I could go on but let's just hit the top two:

I loved the character Stephen Amell played for 8 seasons but, it was nothing like the Oliver Queen that hung with the Justice League. And I still want to see that loudmouthed left-leaning archer get a live action appearance.

We've had how many Black Canarys in live-action without any one of them actually getting the full character right? Could we get one martial arts master with a sonic scream named Dinah Lance?

[XPac]

Mandarin I think is a viable pick.

Though I found the twist they did with him sort of funny, I still felt bad for the character.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Avengers - Janet van Dyne

Justice League - Flash/Barry Allen

Batman - Poison Ivy, the Robins and Batgirl

Superman - Brainiac

Birds of Prey - Huntress and Cassadra Cain (should have given her a new name)

Suicide Squad - everyone aside from Deadshot and Harley Quinn

[Frontier]

Mandarin I think is a viable pick.

Though I found the twist they did with him sort of funny, I still felt bad for the character.

At least they seem like they'll rectify that with the Shang-Chi movie.

Avengers - Janet van Dyne

Justice League - Flash/Barry Allen

Batman - Poison Ivy, the Robins and Batgirl

Superman - Brainiac

Birds of Prey - Huntress and Cassadra Cain (should have given her a new name)

Suicide Squad - everyone aside from Deadshot and Harley Quinn

I think Michelle Pfeiffer's Jan does the character justice even if she's stuck not being The Wasp.

Not the big-screen, but I'd say Brainiac was done justice in live-action on Krypton.

[Vakanai]

Batman. He's been in great movies and I've loved a few takes, so I feel greedy saying this, but he's never been done quite right outside of animation. They got the look, the car, the gadgets, costumes, and even the action right, but no version has it all right. He kills, they don't get Bruce right, he talks like the cookie monster, there's just always something off. Maybe next try will crack that nut.

Superman by the same margin. The first two movies got the character, but were limited in the action they could do. Now we get the fight scenes right, but the character wrong.

[Valentis]

Batman. He's been in great movies and I've loved a few takes, so I feel greedy saying this, but he's never been done quite right outside of animation. They got the look, the car, the gadgets, costumes, and even the action right, but no version has it all right. He kills, they don't get Bruce right, he talks like the cookie monster, there's just always something off. Maybe next try will crack that nut.

Superman by the same margin. The first two movies got the character, but were limited in the action they could do. Now we get the fight scenes right, but the character wrong.

Animation Batman is in episodic format. Its not a fair comparison to movies.

[Arfguy]

Cyclops. It's so bad at times it seems like they purposefully want us to dislike/not care about him.

Honestly, X-Men too. They've got some characters right. But I've yet to see an X-Men movie that really is about X-Men, the team.

Agreed. I have not liked a single actor they picked to play Cyclops thus far. I want a towering actor to play Scott "Slim" Summers, where he looms over Logan and the other X-Men (except maybe Piotr or Ororo).

Also agreed on the other X-Men. Not taking everything away from the X-Men movies, as I think they made Mystique pretty cool and they did have a great moment with Days of Future Past with Quicksilver. Other than that, it's been largely Wolverine and the Others.

[Vakanai]

Animation Batman is in episodic format. Its not a fair comparison to movies.

I was talking about animated movies actually, like Under the Red Hood...

[Kuro no Shinigami]

Tonto (Lone Ranger)
Kato (Green Hornet)
Crossbones (Captain America films)