Take of those rose-tinted glasses folks, and gaze upon the list of 10 movies Marvel really wants you to forget.

10. Daredevil (2003)

These days, the so-called Man Without Fear (or eyesight) is a bit of a Hollywood darling, thanks in no small part to the utterly stupendous Netflix TV series. However, back in 2003 it was a long overdue vehicle for Ben Affleck to make the transition from Academy Award Winning writer to action hero extraordinaire, and man did it stink.

The film was so terrible in fact that it’s hard to even pin point any one major failing, but I suspect it had something to do with the God awful, camper than a row of tents, fight he has with Jennifer Garner’s Elektra on a child’s see-saw. That scene is so horrible I can’t bring myself to re-watch the movie. None of it. Not even Colin Farrell’s mildly entertaining turn as Bullseye. The whole affair could be improved by simply adding Septa Unella from Game of Thrones, shouting “Shame” for 103 minutes.

Let’s just be thankful then that Ben Affleck gave up trying to become a superhero after this stinking turd. I mean, imagine if he’d tried to become Batman or something…

9. Howard the Duck (1986)

Some people consider Howard the Duck to be the worst film ever made. Personally I love it, and think there are far worse films out there than this. However, no amount of me saying “I love Howard the Duck” in various features on this website, will ever change how Marvel feel about the early LucasFilm effort.

8. Fantastic 4 – The 20th Century Fox Era

You can take your pick here. Despite being the series that kick started the fabled Silver Age of comics, Fantastic 4 has never had anything close to a decent movie adaptation.

There was the original 1994 Roger Corman version, the sucktastic 2005 big budget reboot, the so-so 2007 sequel and the 2015 relaunch which only came into being because Fox didn’t want to lose the rights back to Marvel.

Here’s hoping that the terrible box office figures for the most recent movie is enough of an impetus for Fox to give Marvel another crack at breathing new life into these iconic characters.

7. Hulk (2003)

If modern Marvel has taught us anything it’s keeping Hulk to a minimum is the right way to go, which is why he’s been used so sparingly in the modern era. Sadly, Ang Lee (who was brilliant pre-Hulk), felt differently and gave us the worst incarnation of the character ever committed to film.

Firstly the character spent much of the movie moping around in his pants, like a giant, green Emo. He was also animated using really poor CGI, even by 2003’s standards. Not only that but you would be forgiven for thinking Lee had actually made a live action Shrek flick, as the two characters were seemingly separated at birth. A wise cracking Donkey would probably have been the only thing that saved this movie.

6. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Let’s face it, we all had high hopes for the 2014 follow up to The Amazing Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield had been great. The script was fun and the action felt strangely based in reality. Cut to 2014 and the sequel was overloaded with bad guys, poorly written and we already hated Garfield. At least it took us 3 movies before we wanted to squash Toby Maguire with a rolled up newspaper.

The film wasn’t even close to being a flop (it made over $700 million), however with Tom Holland taking on the mantle of the wisecracking web-slinger, Marvel would rather we forget this whole mess.

5. Captain America (1990)

Imagine if Bill Dauterive was a real person. Now imagine if he somehow ended up portraying The First Avenger in his very own movie? Well, imagine no more dear friends.

Who needs muscles, a square jaw and devilish good lucks when you can be an overweight, dad at a fancy dress party, Captain America instead?

4. Elektra (2005)

Ever heard the phrase, you can’t polish a turd? Well, despite Elektra being terrible in the aforementioned Daredevil film, she was still given her very own movie. And guess what? It sucked.

Any memories of this horrible adaptation have thankfully been eradicated by the Netflix TV series.

3. Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D (1998)

A decade before Samuel L. Jackson first appeared as Nick Fury in what we now call the Modern Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was actually portrayed by the much whiter (in every sense of the word), way less hip David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff. Although let’s face it, he certainly looked the part!

Imagine how different Marvel’s fortunes might have been had the former Chief of the LA County Lifeguard’s been at the helm of the Helicarrier, leading the charge against H.Y.D.R.A. There’d be way more bathing suits, that’s for sure. And boob jobs. Lots and lots of boob jobs.

Hmmm, I wonder if we can get a Kickstarter going to reinstate Hasselhoff in the role?

2. Dr. Strange (1978)

Long before Bublesnuff Crispysnitch, the equally hilarious named actor Peter Hooten starred as Marvel’s most powerful sorcerer, in a long buried, better left forgotten feature length pilot.

Those who’ve seen it claim Dr Strange was pretty good for its time, and it was apparently a pet project for Stan Lee when it first came about. However, the fact that it looks like a cheap porn version of the comic probably had something to do with Marvel’s decision never to release it, and encouraged a blanket ban on bringing it up in conversation.

1. Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978)

When I was a kid, my parents bought me a Spider-Man outfit. It didn’t fit properly, the mask was Gimp-like in appearance and I had absolutely zero muscle definition. Despite all of this, I was still a way more convincing Spidey than the poor idiot who found himself cast in the titular role of this.

There was nothing amazing about this early version of Spider-Man, except perhaps the amazingly bad action sequences that made the original Adam West Batman TV series look like Fight Club.

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