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The Most Mismanaged Comic Book Franchise Adapted to Film

The Overlord

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What comic book franchise do you think was the most mismanaged by movie makers who adapted it to film?
 
Good question. There have been quite a few, but if I had to single out one... I'd probably have to go with Superman after Superman II. Superman III and IV are both awful and cheap-looking movies (the latter not even looking like a professional film) where it's clear that the producers didn't know or even care where to take the character. From there, Superman was in limbo and you had a lot of false starts on projects (Superman Lives, Ratner's Superman, Abrams' Superman) interspersed with some moderately successful TV shows (Lois & Clark, Superboy, Smallville). When Superman Returns finally came out in 2006, it was obvious that WB thought the only way to make the character work on the big screen again was just to copy what Richard Donner did (but instead of just remaking the film, they dressed it up as a sequel that basically follows the same plot beats) and the results were lackluster. So then they hit the reset button and it looked like they had a surefire winner since Chris Nolan was onboard. But they hired Zack Snyder to direct, and while I like MOS, I can't deny that the movie was divisive and rubbed a lot of fans and critics the wrong way. And so then you had BvS, which started out as a Superman sequel but ultimately became a Batman movie where Superman was reduced to background character. And next up with have Justice League, and we have no idea how prominently Supes will factor into it.

Such a disappointment. The original superhero deserves better than this. Now, don't misunderstand me here... there are certain posters on this forum who claim that people who feel the way I do "want" the DCEU to fail. That couldn't be farther from the truth. As angry as I may be with WB and Snyder over BvS, I desperately want JL to be good and for Superman to really shine in it. I want more solo Superman films. But will that happen? Right now, "maybe" is about the most hopeful answer I can give.
 
DC comes to my mind first, no explanation needed. Doesn't matter if the future films are gonna be awesome, they are off to a very bad start, WB is lucky to have these CB properties that the audience are still anticipating the upcoming fillms despite two back to back bad movies, nevermind they also released Catwoman/Batman&Robin/Green Lantern and the lukewarm Superman Returns in the past. Then Sony's Spider-Man. Like three Spider-Men in less than 20 years, oh dear. Then I guess them X-Men, I hate what they are doing with the X-Men right now, boxing them into the past!
 
Well my answer is the Fantastic Four, at least with Superman, Batman and the X-Men there have been some good films, the FF have never gotten a good film, despite 3 attempts (4 if you count that weird no budget movie from 1994 that was never shown in theaters).

Ghost Rider was pretty badly handled, one bad movie and then a reboot that produced another bad movie. Punisher got 3 bad movies in a row, but at least he is getting a chance to shine on Netflix. Its a shame on WB handled Green Lantern so poorly, that movie could have started a DC movie universe back in 2011, but it was so bad instead it postponed those plans and resulted Green Lantern franchise being set back by a decade.
 
Fox completely destroyed the Fantastic Four. Since SM2 DC has also done a terrible job with Superman so far and they clearly mishandled Green Lantern. Sony ruined Ghost Rider and seemed determined to do the same with spidey.
 
I don't really see much debate here. It is clearly Fantastic Four. Four films over two plus decades and they are all abominations.
 
FF. As The Incredibles proved, the source material is just loaded with everything you need to make a successful superhero franchise. Cool powers? Interesting characters? Real life relationships? Awesome technology? A-List villains? Check, check, check, check and check.

Though its a shame FFINO ever saw the light of day, the fact that the film both killed the franchise and salted the earth beneath it gives me hope that the rights will revert and I will see a well made FF film in my lifetime.
 
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Great thread idea.

Like everyone else said, what popped to mind first was the Fantastic Four. There's no debate here. At the very least, Fox has their hands on what is easily one of the greatest comic book villains of all time and have made him more and more laughable with each attempt. That alone is irredeemable.

As a Spider-man fan I'm especially appalled at how poor the past three movies have been with what I believe is one of the greatest fictional characters ever created, so I'm comfortably going to put that second.

The entirety of the DC stable (save for Batman) is up next. Outside of the Nolan trilogy they haven't made a hit movie that I've enjoyed since 1989, and cranking out dreck like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Green Lantern has done them no favors. Still, WB does have the Nolan trilogy and a few promising movies in the future, so they could be worse off.

X-men would probably be last. I've enjoyed four of the five Singer movies, but the most recent one almost made me start believing in superhero fatigue.
 
I will say that Netflix has managed to save some of the previous mismanaged characters, Daredevil and Punisher had fairly unimpressive movie presentations (Punisher got it worse, 3 bad movies vs. 1 bad Daredevil movie and Daredevil was just mediocre, so was the first 2 Punisher films, but the 3rd Punisher film is truly awful) but got a chance to shine on the Marvel Netflix shows.

I think with characters who can work with a low budget, they may be better off on TV rather then in films, with Daredevil and Punisher, in a TV show we get more time to develop them as characters and give them a more layered stories.

Its too bad the FF and Ghost Rider can't work on a TV budget.

Edit: you can argue that Catwoman is among the most mismanaged comic book franchises out there, but I'm not sure she should have gotten a movie in the first place, she seems more like a good supporting character then a protagonist.
 
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The Fantastic Four by a landslide.
 
Fantastic Four. 90s Corman movie, not released, cheap, and awful. The Tim Story movies, awful. The Trank movie, one of the worst CBMs ever.
 
Ghost Rider also got raked over the coals.
 
Spawn - so mismanaged it only got 1 shot at liveaction.
 
I'm going to buck trend and go with Superman, just because of the length of time it's been mismanaged. Like... pretty much ever since he started flying backwards to turn back time, I think the property has been handled badly. I think there's been more tries too, all things included, to get it right.

Fantastic Four is the most spectacularly bad, by far.
 
I feel like I can make a very strong case for X-Men. No other franchise feels as embarrassed by it's source material. Superman and Fantastic Four have produced some truly awful movies but at a moment's glance at least it looks like Superman and Fantastic Four. Whereas the X-Men movies look NOTHING like the source material.

Also it was bad enough that for a time they made Wolverine the central character, now it's MYSTIQUE !
 
Well most obvious one is Fantastic Four...
But im gonna go with Superman here, to me theres hasnt been a great Superman movie since the 80s, its really mind boggling how WB hasnt been able to make a comeback like they did with Batman, im sure some people like MOS but its not a highly praised film like Begins was back then.
 
Ghost Rider also got raked over the coals.

Oh yeah. That might even be worse than F4. With F4, I at least made it all the way to the end of each of their terrible movies (other than the Corman one... never saw it). With Ghost Rider, I only made it through about halfof the first one and you couldn't pay me to watch the sequel.
 
Has someone mentioned Fantastic Four? ;)

Its worth noting that Fantastic Four is the only franchise here where the ashcan Corman film, made for pocket lint and never released, is nonetheless the high point of the series.
 
Superman has been mismanaged ever since the Salkinds fired Marlon Brando and started the chain reaction that killed the franchise, but at least Superman has several movies that are at least watchable in addition to the 1978 classic. Heck, I'd even watch Superman III over ANY Fantastic Four movie. And I think Fant4stic is the worst CBM ever made. Even the 1990 Craptain America was better than that. Dragonball Evolution was better and it was atrocious. At least it had a decent Piccolo. There is nothing redeeming in Fant4stic.
 
I feel like I can make a very strong case for X-Men. No other franchise feels as embarrassed by it's source material. Superman and Fantastic Four have produced some truly awful movies but at a moment's glance at least it looks like Superman and Fantastic Four. Whereas the X-Men movies look NOTHING like the source material.

Also it was bad enough that for a time they made Wolverine the central character, now it's MYSTIQUE !

I don't think your personal dislike for how they have handled the source material makes it a mismanaged franchise. The X-Men franchise has been on the whole very popular and successful.
 
Easily the Fantastic Four. Easily.

The Superman franchise has been a giant mess post Superman 2, but Superman still has STM and SII. Two of, if not THE two most influential CBMs of all time. Critically acclaimed films that people still like to this day.

The Fantastic Four doesn't even have that. Every single live action FF film has been bad. Every.Single.One. And that's a damn shame considering that they're the first family of marvel, and one of the most influential and innovative comic books of all time, with arguably the greatest supervillain of all time. Yet, they've never gotten it right.
 
I think most of us can agree that the overall worst is Fantastic Four. However I've never been a huge fan except for Doom.

So my more personal answer is the X Men. I think that this cinematic universe is a complete muddy mess. The complete lack of respect for characters and the source material is a crime. There are numerous examples but let's just take Angel as one. Warren is an original member of the X Men. He shows up in Last Stand and is about 25 years old give or take a few. Future past happens and now it's 1983 and he is 25 years old again. Time travel doesn't work that way. Then the way they handle him. Just horrendous. It's just stale and old now.

Next is the DCEU. Why you would chose these interpretations of these characters to start your cinematic universe, I have no idea. The actors are great but I have no love for these versions.
 

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