“You know, it’s times like these when I realize what a superhero I am.”

The Scoop: 2013 PG-13, directed by Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, and Ben Kingsley

Tagline: Unleash the power behind the armor.

Summary Capsule: Tony has to hunt down terrorist The Mandarin and answer the question, “When is a bomb not a bomb?”

With Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy now in our rear-view mirrors, it’s safe to say that interest in the Caped Crusader’s ongoing war with the criminal element of Gotham City has never been higher. It’s a good thing that Batman is getting so much press (he deserves it after Batman and Robin nearly relegated him to pop-culture limbo), but the problem is that a majority of movie-goers and television fans think that they know everything about the Dark Knight because they’ve watched The Dark Knight, and that is simply untrue. As good as Christopher Nolan’s trilogy is, the truth is that we have yet to see a Batman movie that honestly succeeds in capturing the true feel of Gotham City’s obsessive guardian (outside of Bruce Timm’s brilliant animated universe). Throughout the decades, Batman has undergone many changes as many different writers have taken on the character, but the essential themes of loss, obsession, justice and vengeance remain constant. These ten gems, birthed from the graphic novels, are not only the single best examples of great Batman stories, but also happen to provide the source material for many moments and set pieces that were blatantly ripped off in Nolan’s films.

Note: Quite a few of these stories have been adapted into DC animated features, so if you absolutely must, you can check those out instead.

“If I could go back in time, I’d meet Snoopy.”

The Scoop: 2001 PG-13, directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, and starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson, and Alan Cumming

Tagline: Here kitty, kitty, kitty…

Summary Capsule: Josie and the girls kick evil ass and play kick ass music. God bless America!

“Kill one, maybe save a thousand.”

The Scoop: 2008 R, directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angeline Jolie

Tagline: Choose your destiny.

Summary Capsule: Guy discovers he’s a super-assassin and doesn’t have much problem with that.

Serial mediums, as most of us know, are very rewarding once you get into them – but getting into them can be a tricky thing. I refer specifically, in this case, to comics, which, as anyone will tell you, are having more and more trouble these days drawing in the casual fan.

This is where the animated TV show comes in. Few mediums in existence have proved themselves quite so complimentary as comics and cartoons, the partnership offering A: a way to introduce a complex mythos to comics newbies in a somewhat less challenging manner, doled out on a weekly basis; B: a way to present characters in an art style somewhat resembling their original conception, and C: a cross-pollination marketing bonanza. Comics plus cartoons equals spin-off cartoon-based comics, which in turn equals greater readership for the original! Good show all round.

So, without further ado, here are my Top Ten Comics That Would Make Good Animated Shows.

“Hello, my freaky darlings.”

The Scoop: 2003 PG-13, directed by Stephen Norrington and starring Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shaw, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng and Richard Roxburgh.

Tagline: Prepare for the extraordinary.

Summary Capsule: Characters from Victorian literature team up to save the world.

Hey-ho, faithful readers! Ready for another Top Ten? Golly-wowzers, I sure am!

In case you’re wondering why I’m in such a good mood, it’s because I get to talk about one of my favorite subjects – characters that I like, but not everyone has heard of.

We’ve all got these. Regardless of your medium of choice, be it TV, comics, movies, etc., you are inevitably going to connect with certain characters over others – and not always the most popular or well-known ones, either. Because this is what happens in any sort of series, or even in a subgenre of stand-alone stories – there are the rock stars of the medium (your Supermen, your Batmen, your Captain Kirks), and then there are the also-rans, the follow-ups, the bands that never quite end up topping the charts.

These are the B-listers, and they are legion – and thank goodness for that, or fiction would be a much more boring place. Big names do not stay big names unless they have lots and lots of people to bounce off of, team up with, and generally put flesh on the universe they live in – and when the big names are off somewhere else, the little guys can have their own adventures. Or sometimes they are the big names in their own worlds; it’s just that they never quite make it in the same way that others did – either way, adventures they have. And they are good ones sometimes, ones that accrue their own fanbases, ones that – to bring us back to the point – just might be worthy of their own movies now that Hollywood is rapidly running through its A-list crowd, hmmm?

So let’s get to it. Ladies and gentlebeings, I present to you my Top Ten B-List Characters who Deserve Movies!

“I am the law!”

The Scoop: 1995 R, directed by Danny Cannon and starring Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, and Rob Schneider

Tagline: In the future, one man is the law.

Summary Capsule: The future of law enforcement has gone downhill since Robocop’s days

I suppose one could call this the finish to an unofficial trilogy of Batman-related articles. It started off with me talking about villains, so it’s only appropriate that I end it by doing the same.

Any character who’s been around the block as many times as Batman has is going to pick up a fairly large retinue of supporting characters – most of which, inevitably, are villains. Also inevitably, there’s a pecking order among these villains, and only a rare few manage to make it into that rarified group at the very top. You all know who they are; they’re the ones that everyone recognizes – the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, etc. They’re also the ones that inevitably get picked for adaptations, thereby entering the realm of cross-medium pop culture recognition. Ah, it’s good to be the top dogs.

Unfortunately, there is a tendency for people to lump the rest of the rogues’ gallery in with the bottom of the barrel. This is unfair. True, there is a bottom of the barrel when it comes to Bat-villains, but it takes a truly wretched creation to permanently stay there. Most of them are somewhere in between, detaching themselves from the primordial muck and rising at variable speeds to the top, where they bob and nip at the big guys’ heels, whining for their chance in little clouds of murky bubbles. (It’s possible I’ve overthought this metaphor.) Some of these will ultimately sink back down and disappear, but there are a great deal of good and interesting characters in that floating, nibbling crowd. Some have already squirmed partway through the barrier. Some need just that little bit of tweaking to pop free and bask in the surface waters of the big leagues. (OK, now I definitely have.)

So since I’ve got my tweakers at the ready, why waste any more time? Ladies and gentlefolks, I present to you my Top Ten Problematic Bat-Villains (and how they could be made movie-worthy)!

“A Jose Conseco bat? Tell me you didn’t pay money for this.”

The Scoop: 1990 PG, directed by Steve Barron and starring Elias Koteas, Cory Feldman and James Saito.

Tagline: “Hey dude, this ain’t no cartoon”

Summary Capsule: Funky martial arts turtles team up with a cute reporter and a weird hockey player to battle the foul foot of evil in NYC.