Top 10 Failed Superhero Franchises

Superhero films are all the rage these days

You can practically throw a stone and hit a comic book adaptation or would-be tentpole franchise

Well, today, we're looking at some of the less successful entries into the genre

Here are top 10 failed superhero franchises, as well done by you, the viewer

Welcome to Total Nerd Ranked, the show where we rank nerdy stuff. Power of the Duck was created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerick

He rose to prominence in the 70s, where he became the poster child for the, no really, this anthropomorphic animal comic

should be taken seriously movement. In the 1980s, he got a film adaptation

No one laughs at a master of quack fool. Executive produced by George Lucas

and starring Lea Thompson and Tim Robbins. The film was expected to be a massive hit

And then it came out, and all the magic that had made Howard so awesome was nowhere

to be found on screen. Too bad, too, seeing the 1980s version of a comedy starring

Howard the Duck sounds awesome. But dreams rarely do come true. So long, ducky

Tim Vigil is the satanic granddaddy of the laboriously rendered black and white comics

starring totally not Wolverine genre. And his iconic creation, Faust, made it to the screen

in the 2000 adaptation, Love of the Damned. Directed by Brian Usna and written

by Faust's co-creator, David Quinn, the film is. Uh-oh

Honestly, it's not what you'd want a Faust movie to be. Here, little piggies

Welcome to my show. Tons of vigil-esque gore, B-movie stars, and practical effects abound

Unfortunately, it never quite becomes the sleaze fest you really want. It just kind of sits in the spawn-adjacent category

of comic book films. It died a very quiet death. The Crow is the much-beloved cult film

starring the late Brandon Lee. The Crow's Stairway to Heaven is the TV show adaptation

which included one secret ingredient, Mark Dukakis. Yeah, that's right, the guy from Iron Chef was the crow

Today's secret ingredient is... Honey! Scallop! Squash! The show was meant to readapt the movie

and correct some of the wrongs the sequel films had committed. Only problem was that the stuntman passed away on set and after its 22 first season concluded the show was canceled So so much for a small screen reboot The iconic Blade the Vampire Hunter

was originally personified by Wesley Snipes. He appeared in three feature films, all of which

were written by David Goyer. Well, 2006, the much-beloved Daywalker got his own TV show

You can go. You're kidding, yes? Yes. Yeah, bet you don't remember that, do you

Well, it's true. And what's even weirder is that DC Comics head honcho Jeff Johns

was one of the main creative forces behind it, who played old Eric Brooks

Sticky Fingers. Yeah, the rapper and member of the multi-platinum rap group Onyx. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah

You don't remember them? It's OK. No one does. Needless to say, the show didn't quite land the way people had

hoped, and Blade finally met the foe he couldn't defeat, audience indifference

From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse, Silver, the Lone Ranger rides again

The Lone Ranger is an American icon. He's appeared in comics, radio serials, films

and virtually a mountain of merchandise. However, when you have a franchise that's

lasted over a half century, you're going to get some less than good entries, which leads us

to Legend of the Lone Ranger. The legends tell of one who tried

to fight for all the rest. In 1981, a new big budget feature film version

of the beloved Ranger was set to be made. However, the film became embroiled in some controversies

right out the gate. Clayton Moore, the man who starred in the original 1950s

show, was making a living at the time doing grocery store openings dressed as the Ranger

because he couldn't get work. The film felt this wasn't in his rights

and they sued him, which is just a terrible look. They also dubbed all of the new leading man, Clinton

Spillsbury's, dialogue with another actor. So obviously, the film failed because it suuuuucks

After George Reeves' mysterious death, there were a few attempts at getting a new Superman show

off the ground. There was a hot minute where Jimmy Olsen was going to headline his own show, but that never even

made it to pilot. But what did make it to pilot? The Adventures of Super Pup

I can't even really describe how weird this show is. Let's just show the footage

Two makes four. What? Oh, boy, oh, boy. Wow! It super weird Yeah it a live anthropomorphized Superman show

starring all little people wearing papier-mâché heads. It's f***ing ridiculous. I don't even know if this show would have been a success

but all I can say is that personally, I love this idea. It's amazing

It's literally Superman just with dogs? Take me to there. It's kind of hard to overstate the massive cultural force

that Shaquille O'Neal was in the 90s. He was so beloved that Warner Brothers

extensively gave him a Superman movie because he had the House of El tattoo. Literally

They heard he was a massive fan and were like, do you want to work on a project? And he was like, yeah, I want to be Steel

Famous last words, my friends. Famous last words. The film, which predated the superhero boom

by at least half a decade, feels like something made by someone who's never actually read a Steel comic before

However, his costume's pretty dope. Shaq might not be able to act his way out of a paper bag

You want to know what you can do to help? What? Anything. Don't tell grandma

But he sure looks like a superhero. Honestly, this movie would have been way better

if just Phil Jackson had directed it, and then the cast would have been made up exclusively of the 97-98 Lakers lineup

Just saying. The Fantastic Four is Marvel's flagship title. They're the iconic quartet that travels to other dimensions

battles megalomaniacal Eastern European dictator shaman scientist dudes, and people love them

Chris Evans was even in one of those just-okay mid-2000s movies. But that's not what we're going to talk about today

We're talking about the other Fantastic Four movie. Genetically transformed, they become

the most powerful superheroes of all time. Yeah, looks really bad, right

Well, it's because it's really bad. No, really. The producer who had the rights, Bern Eichinger

who produced the aforementioned big budget version, was going to lose the rights if he didn't make a film

So he did. And he just never released it. Yeah, he pumped in over a million dollars into this movie

that was never going to be released. But here's the twist. He didn't tell anybody that it was never going to be released

So the whole cast and crew thought they were making an actual movie. Man, who'd to twist the knife

Will Eisner is one of the most important comic professionals of the last century. In his book, The Spirit, his pseudo superhero comic

from the 1940s Eisner was well known for his inventive layouts and his idiosyncratic characters The strip was bold and sentimental and deeply emotional focusing on people with flaws along with punching out bank robbers

That's what you got to do in a superhero comic. So when it came time to make a feature film adaptation

of the beloved Denny Colt, the producers hired someone with an emotional connection to the material

Maybe someone who knew Eisner. Maybe someone who was like his protege. Someone like Frank Miller

Wait about that. Ah! I'm going to kill you all kinds of dead

Damn, I've got no time for this. My city screams. Yeah, I heard Frank Miller

This movie is just so not what a Spirit movie should have been

It's also just so bad. That's plain damn weird. Needless to say, we're not going to hold our breath

for the Spirit 2 electric boogaloo any time soon. In the 1970s, Marvel and famed Japanese production company

Tohei made a trade. Tohei got Spider-Man, Captain America, and the iconic Tomb of Dracula

Marvel got Sun Vulcan, Robo Dengard Ace, and Choudenchi Robo-Combattler V. Marvel used these properties

to create the iconic Shogun Warriors comics and toy line. Tohei made, well, they made the greatest adaptation

of Spider-Man the world has ever seen. And the most bizarre Captain America

anyone could ever think of. And the very subpar adaptation of the classic horror

comic Tomb of Dracula. Tired and famished with a hunger of 500 years

Dracula desperately needs money for food. He sees his chunks. You get your money in my pocket

You're killing him. Oh, help! Murder! Written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Cullen

Tomb of Dracula ran for 70 issues. It basically defines what a comics adaptation should look like

It's atmospheric, murky, filled with interesting characters, and is laboriously rendered. It's a timeless classic

The pairing of this with an anime adaptation should have been a home run

But it kind of feels like the animators were asleep while they were drawing

This could have been one of the greats, but instead it's relegated to interstitially working YouTube

links and bootleg DVDs in the back of hotel conventions. Is it worth a purchase to witness the 2D train wreck

That's up to you. If you're into all things Dracula and spooky, I'd say yes

Mostly so you can lord over your friends that you have such an encyclopedic knowledge of all

the ye olde dark lord. Here, sir! You look like you must be starved to death

ZOOT! Don't be a fool