10 Controversial Comic Book Characters We're Never Going To See On The Big Screen

Over the past few years, we've seen heroes and villains on the big screen who it would've been impossible to imagine there a decade ago. This lot though? Hollywood wouldn't dare depict them in live-action.

By JoshWilding - Jun 17, 2016 09:06 AM EST

Filed Under: Marvel Comics

There's nothing wrong with a bit of controversy every now and again, but seeing as we as comic book fans are so passionate, it often doesn't take much to get us riled up with a certain shift in the status quo! However, there are some characters who are so downright offensive or messed up that pretty much everyone can agree their existence is a mistake. That doesn't always stop them making the leap to live-action though, but they're more often than not left unrecognisable during that transition.

What you'll find below are none of those. These are the characters who are so offensive or controversial that there's no way in hell that they're ever going to be put in a movie or TV show. Only a handful of those listed here could be considered "fan-favourites", but even that won't be enough to help them. The rest meanwhile have been buried by Marvel and DC in the hope we'd forget them, but unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. Needless to say, learning about this lot may traumatise you.

10. Tyroc

As horribly racist characters in comic books go, this member of the Legion of Superheroes is probably one of the most horrifying examples. When DC Comics decided to add a black character to the ranks of the team, the extremely racist editor (who had once ordered a colourist to make a black background character white) ensured he was the worst stereotype possible.

You see, in the Legion's universe, all black people had exiled themselves to an island off the coast of Africa, and Tyroc's segregationist backstory - imposed by the same editor - was described as "pathetic and appalling" by Jim Shooter and "possibly the most racist concept I've ever heard in my life" by artist Mike Grell. Determined to make sure the character would fail so they would no longer have to how such an offensive hero, he was put in a ridiculous costume, rejected by fans, and never seen again (until a vastly differently version was brought into The New 52).

Warner Bros. has faced a fair bit of backlash for giving The Joker some tattoos, so can you imagine what would happen if they turned Robin/Nightwing into the next Joker? Driven mad by the death of his parents and the way Batman treated him as a youngster (making him fend for survival by eating rats in the Batcave), Dick Grayson ended up being fired by the Dark Knight and embarked on an elaborate mission of revenge.

This entailed him going through an experimental procedure to make himself invulnerable, and he would go on to become the second Joker. A mass murderer who was even more insane than the original Clown Prince of Crime, Bruce dealt with his former sidekick by throwing him into a pit of lava. Seriously. Not even Zack Snyder would do this to the character (right?!) , so don't expect to see this bastardised version of Dick in live-action any time soon.

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8. Xorn

Seeing as he was creation of Grant Morrison, Xorn being a weird and controversial character really shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. A Chinese mutant with a "star for a brain", he was eventually outed as Magneto, and the villain went completely off his rocker by destroying New York, once again taking away Professor X's legs, and murdering Jean Grey. A later retcon would reveal that it wasn't Magneto at all, something which still makes no sense.

When the "real" Xorn was revealed, he brought with him pretty much every Chinese stereotype there was, while most fans were left asking whether Magneto - who Morrison intended this character to be before Marvel decided they wanted to resurrect the beheaded Master of Magnetism - had spent all those months under the mask putting on a Chinese accent to fool the X-Men. No one wants to see that in a movie!

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7. Tarantula

When Nightwing took up and coming crime fighter Tarantula under his wing, it looked like we would be getting the predictable student has a crush on her mentor/unrequited love type of storyline. Not exactly. Instead, she decided to rape Nightwing after he'd been beaten in a fight despite him weakly asking her to stop. It was one of the darkest days in the hero's history, and other than a couple of blink and you'll miss them appearances, Tarantula has remained on the shelf after being imprisoned for murder ever since.

That's a storyline we're highly unlikely to ever see adapted, but one of the biggest reasons we'll never even see a new version of Tarantula in live-action is because there's no way DC Comics will want young fans to Google the character and see her raping Batman's former sidekick. That's guaranteed to mess up the minds of many impressionable fans...

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6. Shamrock

Who? Well, Molly Fitzgeral/Shamrock was Marvel's attempt to create an Irish superhero. Apparently, that meant she needed to be clad in a bright green costume with a huge shamrock print and have long curly red hair. As if those stereotypes weren't bad enough, her superpower was being lucky (because "luck of the Irish" and all that).

Introduced in the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes: Contest of Champions #1, Shamrock made sporadic appearances and was given a ludicrous backstory which involved everything from IRA terrorists to lucky sprites and a brother named, what else, Paddy. Needless to say, it's easy to understand why fans didn't exactly embrace this character, and her superhero career abruptly ended with a broken leg and the decision to become a hairdresser instead. So, taking that into account, she won't be part of Avengers: Infinity War, right?

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5. Marcus Immortus

Here's where things get really weird. Trapped in Limbo, Marcus Immortus reached out to Carol Danvers and used his emotion altering powers to essentially rape her (there's been a lot of discussion over the years about whether or not what happened here was actually rape, but it was wrong either way), then planted his seed in the hero so he would be reincarnated on Earth and freed from his prison.

Ms. Marvel then unwillingly gave birth to Marcus days later and he almost immediately reverted to his adult state and again used his powers to get his own mother to go back with him to Limbo as...his lover? This storyline was all sorts of messed up, so there's no chance in hell Marvel will adapt that or bring Marcus to life on the big screen in Captain Marvel's upcoming movie. The whole thing wasn't just controversial, but creepy as hell too.

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4. Gabriel And Sarah Stacy

As a huge Spider-Man fan, the sight of Norman Osborn seducing Gwen Stacy is going to haunt me forever, and as that's a moment which almost certainly will never be put on film, you can bet your life that their two children will also be left on the shelf. The story here was that Gwen took them to Paris and hid them form Norman, but he discovered their existence, murdered her, and had them raised in secret to replace Harry as his heirs.

That probably doesn't sound too bad, but the Goblin serum in their veins caused them to age rapidly into adults and they later returned to New York to murder Peter Parker. Gabriel went completely batsh*t crazy and ended up being chained up in a room by Sarah. She wasn't all there either, and later attempted to seduce Peter, a man she grew up believing was her father. So, yeah, don't expect to see this in the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel!

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3. Dell Rusk

As villains go, Dell Rusk was actually pretty great. After disguising himself as a member of the government, the reveal that Rusk was actually the Red Skull proved to be an awesome twist, especially as that name is an anagram which spells out his true persona. However, the problem here is that the Nazi created a poison gas designed to kill only minorities, and in a world where we have a Presidential candidate talking about building walls and banning people from entering the country, it's fair to say that a story like this simply won't fly in a movie.

The controversy and backlash any sort of "Red Zone" adaptation would generate would be undoubtedly huge, and as a result, Dell Rusk is probably someone Marvel will avoid when it comes time to resurrect the Red Skull (even though it would be extremely cool to see Black Panther punch off his jaw like he did in the comic books).

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2. Superior Spider-Man

There are those who argue that the whole Superior Spider-Man debacle ended up being a pretty good story, but I'm not one of them. Seeing Otto Octavius swinging around in Peter Parker's body attempting to seduce Mary Jane Watson, murder criminals, and lust after his aunt wasn't in any way an example of good storytelling, and chances are that Marvel and Sony won't want to try and recreate this tale for the big screen.

After all, the initial backlash was huge, and the relief that the real Peter would be returning was even bigger. While there's no denying that something interesting could be done with this version of Spidey (Chris Yost's infinitely better Superior Spider-Man Team-Up series proved that), chances are that we're not going to see a "Superior" version of the wall-crawler on the big screen in the near future, especially as such a large majority hated this status quo.

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1. HydraCap

The newest (and possibly most controversial) character on this list, if you think Marvel Studios would want to in any way recreate the sheer amount of backlash a single comic book panel did - which has yet to be addressed in the second issue as I write this - then you must be as mad as the people who threatened to murder the writer of this tale. If the past month or so has taught us anything, it's that fans of Captain America have no desire to see him portrayed as a murderer who has seemingly turned his back on his country at a time when he's needed the most when you take recent news stories into account.

While there's no denying that there's an interesting story here to be told, HydraCap being the star of a Marvel movie would generate the kind of bad publicity the studio isn't used to and most certainly doesn't want, so regardless of what the future holds for Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, this won't be it.

Do you think any of these controversial comic book characters will appear in a movie? Have we missed any who stand an even smaller chance of being portrayed in live-action? Share your thoughts below.

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86 Comments

1 2 3

LarryDee - 6/17/2016, 9:10 AM

Superior Spider-Man was a great storyline (except the rush ending). Suck it, haters.

MonsterSquad35 - 6/17/2016, 9:12 AM

" A Chinese mutant with a "star for a brain", he was eventually outed as Magneto, and the villain went completely off his rocker by destroying New York, once again taking away Professor X's legs, and murdering Jean Grey. A later retcon would reveal that it wasn't Magneto at all, something which still makes no sense."

This paragraph gave me a headache.

SuperCat - 6/17/2016, 9:26 AM

LOL! Tyroc.

Quicker - 6/17/2016, 9:26 AM

"When Nightwing took up and coming crime fighter Tarantula under his wing, it looked like we would be getting the predictable student has a crush on her mentor/unrequited love type of storyline. Not exactly. Instead, she decided to rape Nightwing"

she decided to rape Nightwing

rape Nightwing

kallel - 6/17/2016, 9:34 AM

@Quicker - she can rape me anyday. good times

Quicker - 6/17/2016, 9:40 AM

@kallel -

kallel - 6/17/2016, 10:11 AM

@Quicker - hahaha you love it

Quicker - 6/17/2016, 10:13 AM

@kallel -

kallel - 6/18/2016, 11:01 AM

@Quicker - Hahhaaaa :) yes

Quicker - 6/17/2016, 9:30 AM

"Marcus Immortus reached out to Carol Danvers and used his emotion altering powers to essentially rape her"

used his emotion altering powers to essentially rape her

rape her

WHY THE [frick] IS THERE SO MUCH RAPE IN COMIC BOOKS?!?!?

Darth258 - 6/17/2016, 12:28 PM

@Quicker

1 2 3

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10 Controversial Comic Book Characters We're Never Going To See On The Big Screen

Over the past few years, we've seen heroes and villains on the big screen who it would've been impossible to imagine there a decade ago. This lot though? Hollywood wouldn't dare depict them in live-action.

10. Tyroc

9. The Joker (Dick Grayson)

8. Xorn

7. Tarantula

6. Shamrock

5. Marcus Immortus

4. Gabriel And Sarah Stacy

3. Dell Rusk

2. Superior Spider-Man

1. HydraCap

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