These days, comic book movies are all the rage, but most of the ones the public knows about come from either Marvel or DC Comics. While there’s nothing wrong with either publisher, they’re not the only ones putting out amazing content.

For years, fans have unknowingly watched movies based on some of the most notable independent comic books ever made. This list features ten of the best film adaptations of comics most people outside the core fandom haven’t read or heard of before seeing the movie.

10 Of The Most Offensive Superheroes In The History Of Comics

10 From Hell (2001)

When most people heard about a new Jack the Ripper film starring Johnny Depp in 2001, comic books were likely the last thing on their minds. After all, most popular comics deal with superheroes and villains, not slasher serial killers from Victorian London.

The movie featured stellar performances by Depp and Heather Graham, who brought the characters to life in a fantastically set motion picture. The story, sets, and high production value place the film fairly high in its genre, but it doesn’t scream “comic book movie” in any way.

From Hell is based on a comic of the same name by legendary scribe Alan Moore of Watchmen fame. It was illustrated by Eddie Campbell, and like most of Moore’s work, it’s a highly praised book many consider his magnum opus. From Hell was published between 1989 and ’98 by Top Shelf Productions.

The compiled series is 572 pages long, which is considerably long for the genre. Moore is notorious for hating film adaptations of his work, and his hatred for the 2001 film is no exception. While the movie received a mostly positive reaction, it deviated enough from the source material to earn Moore’s ire such that he called Depp an “absinthe-swilling dandy.”

9 RED (2010)

In 2010, audiences around the globe gathered in movie theaters to see an all-star cast come together for RED, an action comedy film. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss, and many more — it truly is an all-star cast.

The film follows Willis’ Frank Moses, a “Retired Extremely Dangerous” former black-ops agent who reunites with his old team to take down an assassin who’s put a target on his back. It’s a great mix of comedy and action, and it all comes from a comic book series of the same name from WildStorm and Homage Comics.

The entirety of the series consists of only three issues. Still, two films were made from that limited monthly series (a sequel to RED was released in 2013). The books were written by Warren Ellis, with illustrations by Cully Hamner.

The movie deviated from the comics in several areas, but they are thematically very similar. The level of violence and the concept of government overreach in dealing with its trained killers are all there, even if the plot’s events are relatively different. The movie also introduces several characters not seen in the comics.

8 Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Another subject that doesn’t often find itself in comics these days is that of the secret agent. So, when viewers sat down to watch Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014, they probably didn’t realize they were watching a movie based on a comic book.

The books in question were illustrated by Dave Gibbons and written by Mark Millar, a man whose work has been translated to the silver screen numerous times. He’s the man behind Wanted, Kick-Ass, and many other movies. His 2012 comic book series about a boutique spy agency in London is one of his many properties made into live-action.

The movie stars Taron Egerton as Eggsy, a young man brought into the spy game years after his father died saving an agent named Harry. Once recruited, he goes from small-town thug to a proper butt-kicking gentleman. In the end, he saves the world from Samuel L. Jackson’s version of a crazed billionaire.

The film is a very loose adaptation of the comics, as numerous elements are considerably different. The overall structure is there, but the stories are vastly different, as are the characters, their backstories, and pretty much everything else. At most, the movie is inspired by the books, but it’s still considered an adaptation of the Icon Comics series.

7 The Mask (1994)

The Mask is arguably one of the most important films on Jim Carrey’s CV, as it took a relatively unknown actor and made him a superstar. Granted, it was released a few months after Ace Ventura, and before Dumb & Dumber, so it’s fair to say that 1994 was a good year for Carrey.

The Mask also introduced Cameron Diaz to the world. It smashed records, earning more than $350 million on a budget of around $23 million. It shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that The Mask is based on a comic book series, but the two properties are really different.

Dark Horse Comics published The Mask from 1991 to 1995 as three limited series. The books were created by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke, but it featured several prominent artists throughout its run.

The biggest difference between the comics and the movie is the tone. While the film is a slapstick comedy, the comics are satirical and ridiculously violent. The Mask is also sentient in the comics and is referred to as “Big Head.” Additionally, wearing the titular artifact in the comics leads the wearer to insanity, while the movie helps teach them a valuable lesson.

6 Road To Perdition (2002)

Tom Hanks doesn’t seem like the kind of actor who would take on a comic book character, but that’s precisely what he did when he starred in 2002’s Road to Perdition. The period crime drama features Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig in a tale of vengeance in 1931 Depression-era America.

The movie is based on a graphic novel of the same name written by Max Allan Collins with illustrations by Richard Piers Rayner. Road to Perdition was published by Paradox Press in 1998 and was inspired by The Godfather, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, real-life gangster John Patrick Looney, and a manga titled Lone Wolf and Cub.

There are four stories in the graphic novel, with only the first one titled “Road to Perdition.” Only the first story was adapted for the film, as the subsequent stories take place after the events of the first.

The book and the movie follow the same story and characters. Regardless, there are some differences in terms of tone. The comics delve deeper into the nature of Catholic sin and redemption. The film focuses more attention on the relationship between father and son. Still, for the most part, it’s a faithful adaptation of the source material.

5 Oldboy (2003)

Oldboy is arguably one of the most well-known neo-noir action thrillers to come out of South Korean cinema in the past several decades. According to Roger Ebert, Oldboy is a “powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.”

The movie is centered on Oh Dae-Su, a man imprisoned in a hotel room-style cell for 15 years without explanation. He doesn’t know who his jailers are or why after 15 years, he’s inexplicably released. After this, he goes on a full-on vengeance tour, taking the fight to the people who destroyed his life.

Oldboy is based on a Japanese manga series of the same name serialized in Weekly Manga Action. The books were written by Garon Tsuchiya with illustrations by Nobuaki Minegishi. The comics were published between 1996 and ’98, consisting of 79 chapters collected into eight volumes, and are an exceptional read.

The movie and comics differ in some respects, though unlike the other films on this list, the movie version is far more violent than the comics. It’s also much lewder and harsher on the protagonist, who is imprisoned for ten years (not 15) in the comics.

4 The Crow (1994)

As discussed yesterday in Top 10 Eerie Predictions That Foreshadowed Celebrity Tragedy, just as Brandon Lee’s film career was getting off the ground, he was tragically killed in an on-set accident while filming The Crow. This is what the movie is most remembered for, as it indeed was a tragedy, but the released film was far more than that. It was a fantastic story of violence met with love and vengeance.

The Crow is centered around Eric Draven, a murdered musician resurrected from the grave via the power of a crow to avenge the deaths of himself and his fiancée. The film is dark and features an incredible soundtrack that perfectly pairs with the on-screen action. When it was released, it was dedicated to Lee and his fiancée, Aliza Hutton.

The film is based on James O’Barr’s comic book of the same name, which was published by Caliber Comics in 1989. He wrote the books as a sort of therapy to help him deal with the death of his own fiancée at the hands of a drunk driver. The comic was a massive underground success.

The 1994 movie is a close adaptation of the books that keeps much of the darker, brooding dialogue of the protagonist intact. There are several character differences (Eric doesn’t have a surname in the books and isn’t a musician), and some of the violent deaths are also different.

3 A History Of Violence (2005)

David Cronenberg stepped away from his usual fare of body horror films to direct an action-thriller in 2005. A History of Violence stars Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall, a diner owner in a small town. When two robbers come into the store and begin threatening his employees and customers, things turn… well, violent.

He quickly and easily kills the two men, which thrusts him into the spotlight, which is a problem. He’s soon confronted by a hitman from the Philadelphia-based Irish Mob, who claims Tom is actually Joey Cusack, a hitman for the Mob who disappeared some time ago.

A History of Violence is another movie most people could have gone their entire lives without knowing it was based on a comic book. A History of Violence was published by Paradox Press in 1997 and was written by John Wagner with illustrations by Vince Locke.

The graphic novel and the movie are almost identical up to a point. The first half of the film matches that of the comic, but it deviates from there. While the movie follows the central theme of the book, the plot changes considerably. Regardless, both the film and the movie are exceptional despite the differences.

2 Men In Black (1997)

In 1997, a major film franchise was launched with the release of Men in Black. The film was a phenomenal success, earning almost $600 million on a $90 million budget. It elevated Will Smith to superstardom following his past performances in mega-hits, Bad Boys and Independence Day.

Given the film’s subject, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that it’s based on a comic book. The Men in Black was published by Aircel Comics from 1990 to ’91 and was written by Lowell Cunningham with illustrations by Sandy Carruthers.

There were six issues published for the series (broken into two runs of three). When Aircel was acquired by Malibu Comics and subsequently Marvel Comics, additional books were published to coincide with the film, including a prequel, a sequel, and a movie adaptation.

The comics weren’t successful in the underground market, but they gained enough attention for the adaptation, which is very different. The books are dark and have no comedic elements, while the film is most definitely a comedy.

The MiB in the books are more of an extermination force than border patrol agents, and nobody cares about collateral damage. Ultimately, the film is far superior to the comics it’s based on.

1 Ghost World (2001)

2001’s Ghost World is an Academy Award-winning black comedy starring Scarlett Johansson, Thora Birch, and Steve Buscemi. It was a massive critical success, which earned cult film status almost immediately. It took home the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff.

Ghost World is centered around the lives of Enid and Rebecca, both of whom are teenage outsiders in an American city. Ultimately, Their relationship begins to sour as an older man named Seymour comes into their lives. The film focuses on the nature of relationships, loneliness, and an analysis of modern life in America.

The movie is based on a comic book series of the same name, published by Fantagraphics Books from 1993 to 1997. The comics were a commercial and critical success, becoming a cult status in the underground comic book scene. The books were created by Daniel Clowes, who wrote and illustrated them. He helped adapt his work into the screenplay.

The movie and comics are different in various ways, but these are relatively minor. Of course, the existence of Seymour offers the most significant difference, as he isn’t in the books. Despite this, the theme and structure of the story remain mostly true, which is largely due to the involvement of Clowes.

10 Insane Facts About Marvel Comics

Just since the year 2000, when the original X-Men movie premiered, there have been well over 100 live-action movies and television series that featured comic-book-inspired superheroes. Then there are the countless animated movies and television series since then. And yet, the opposite is not true.

Very few of these shows have impacted the comics, and fewer still create characters that become a part of the comic canon. Such rare characters are called canonical immigrants. Here are 10 characters that started out in other mediums but ultimately became recurring characters in comics.

Related: Top 10 Worst Comic Supervillains

10 Batgirl (DC: Batman titles)

For comic book historians, April 14, 1954, was a watershed moment. That was the day Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, a warning that the overt violence and hidden references to sex and drugs in comics could encourage criminal activities in kids. While not the moral screed it is often portrayed, a 2012 study of Wertham’s evidence found that he falsified and twisted data to fit his theories. A week after Seduction’s publication, Wertham appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency which was televised. Wertham told the committee and America that comics were more of a threat to youths than Hitler had been to the world. People panicked, and parents across the nation began canceling subscriptions and throwing comic books in the trash. That summer, 15 comic book publishers went out of business, and the surviving publishers launched the Comics Code Authority to rescue their reputations and sales.

Sales for Detective Comics—better known as DC comics—also took a hard hit after Wertham claimed Superman was a fascist, Wonder Woman was a lesbian, and Batman and Robin were gay lovers. In 1956, to repudiate the latter claim, DC introduced a love interest for Batman in the guise of Kathy Kane, who, like Batman’s alter ego, had inherited a fortune and, like Robin’s alter ego, was a circus performer. And she was also combating crime as Batwoman. In 1961, feeling Robin—who had for 20 years been perpetually a teenager—was left out, DC introduced Betty Kane, a niece of Kathy’s, as Robin’s love interest. Betty also idolized Batwoman and designed her own costume and gadgets to become Bat-girl (with a hyphen). But Bat-girl never caught on, and when the legendary editor Julius Schwartz took over as head of the Batman titles in 1964, he dropped Bat-girl along with other Bat-Family members such as Bat-mite and Bat-hound.^[1]

In 1966, the live-action Batman series debuted on television, and its success re-sparked interest in the Batman titles and may have even saved them. But by the third season, the show’s ratings were dropping, and producer William Dozier—who was also the narrator—came up with an idea to add a female hero to the show to appeal to female viewers. Dozier went to Schwartz, asking him to develop a female character who was the daughter of an already established character, Commissioner James Gordon. Schwartz—along with Gardner Fox, creator of Justice Society and Justice League of America—took that idea and created Barbara Gordon, a librarian by day and Batgirl by night. Artist Carmine Infantino created her look.

But the ABC executives needed to be convinced Batgirl was needed in the show, so Dozier created an eight-minute short where Batgirl rescued Batman and Robin from the villain Killer Moth. Batgirl was not allowed to punch Killer Moth because that was too un-lady-like. She instead became a kicker. Dozier then asked Schwartz to introduce Batgirl in the comics to create a buzz for the upcoming season of Batman. So Batgirl appeared first in Detective Comics #359 (January 1967), but only after she was created for television. Since then, several women have worn Batgirl’s cowl, and she is a regular in the Batman titles. She has now and then been given her own title, and work has already begun on a Batgirl movie.^[2]

9 Firestar (Marvel: X-Men titles

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was a Saturday morning cartoon series that debuted in 1981 on NBC and ran for three seasons. It went in an unusual direction by placing Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker, as a college student at Empire State University with two roommates who are also superheroes: Iceman (Bobby Drake) and Firestar (Angelica Jones). The producers originally wanted a fire and ice theme in Spidey’s roomies and wanted Iceman from the X-Men and the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) from the Fantastic Four. But Universal Studios had optioned the Human Torch character for a potential solo project that ultimately never happened. As a result, the Human Torch could not be used by anyone. So the producers created their own character with the ability to manipulate microwave radiation to fly and shoot flames from her hands.

Some of the names the production toyed with initially were Heatwave, Firefly, and Starblaze. One of the writers, Dennis Marks, christened Firestar’s alter ego—Angelica Jones—after an old girlfriend. In the show, Firestar is identified as a former X-Men along with Iceman, but when her backstory was fleshed out in the comics, she is initially trained as a Hellion at the Hell Fire’s Club. One of her earliest missions was to fight against the X-Men. Later she joined the New Warriors, where she became a hero and was even given her own comic-book miniseries.^[3]

8 Jimmy Olsen (DC: Superman titles)

It’s hard to imagine Superman or his alter ego Clark Kent without his BFF Jimmy Olsen, but Jimmy has sat out a portion of Superman’s 83-year history. It’s true that just months after Superman’s introduction in the summer of 1938, Action Comics #6 had an anonymous young man with red hair and freckles arrive in Metropolis staring dreamily at a billboard that declares the city is the “Home of Superman!” He muses, “I’m going to get a job and live in Metropolis. Gee, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I met Superman! But I won’t have that luck.”

Later, DC would retcon that character to be Jimmy Olsen. But in reality, the character wasn’t introduced until Olsen became a cub reporter for the newspaper The Daily Planet during the April 15, 1940, radio program The Adventures of Superman. The radio serials relied almost entirely on conversations and sound effects to tell the story, and Jimmy Olsen—and The Daily Planet’s head editor Perry White–were created as conversation foils for the program. Jimmy became so popular, his comic book persona was introduced in the November/December 1941 issue of Superman #13.

After a few more appearances, Jimmy Olsen disappeared from the Superman titles for most of the 1940s, considered the Golden Age of comics. But in 1952, Olsen was resurrected in the television series Adventures of Superman, and interest in the reporter/photographer reignited. In 1954 and lasting nearly 20 years, Olsen had his own title called Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. Perhaps the title was best remembered for the issues where Olsen was transformed into everything from a monster-sized turtle, a genie in a bottle, a human porcupine, a six-armed octopus (a sextapus?) and Elastic Lad, an early version of Elongated Man. In this title, readers were first introduced to Darkseid, the New Gods, and the cast of characters in the Fourth World.^[4]

7 Phil Coulson (Marvel: Avengers titles)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) encompasses to date 25 movies, more than a dozen television series, and a handful of podcasts. And what actor has had more screen time than any other? That’s right, Clark Gregg playing Agent Phil Coulson. Introduced in the first MCU movie—Ironman (2008)—he appeared in four more movies, two straight-to-video shorts, one web series, and all 136 episodes of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Gregg’s Coulson had a small and easily forgettable part in Ironman annoying Pepper Potts and Tony Stark before helping them thwart Obadiah Stane’s plans to murder them. But Gregg made the most of his role. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury didn’t appear until the post-credit scene of that film, and both he and Gregg appeared in the sequel Ironman 2 (2010).

A year later, it looked as if the MCU was finally going to be launched with the release of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger before the release of an Avenger movie in 2012. But the script for Thor was scrapped just weeks before principal filming, and writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz were tasked with quickly writing a new screenplay. While piecing together the story, Miller and Stentz decided that they needed S.H.I.E.L.D. to be involved. But Samuel Jackson was still negotiating his contract to play Fury, and with time growing short, they turned to Gregg’s Coulson. This led to a pivotal role in Avengers (2012) and the lead in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. beginning in 2014.

Coulson had become so popular with the first two Ironman movies that he appeared in comic books for the first time in issue #6 of the 2011-2012 series Battle Scars that delved into Nick Fury’s backstory. Coulson was an Army Ranger serving in Afghanistan, fighting alongside and saving the life of Marcus Johnson, Nick Fury’s son. In the comics, Coulson was given the responsibility to work with superhumans because he collected their memorabilia and studied their strengths and weaknesses. This made him exceptionally gifted in dealing with challenging personalities such as Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool).^[5]

6 Sakura Kasugano (UDON: Street Fighter titles)

It may not seem so remarkable that Sakura Kasugano did not originate from comic books. After all, if you know who she is, you most likely encountered her in one of the many other mediums she has appeared in, specifically a Capcom Street Fighter game from 1994 onward. In 2017 when Street Fighter turned 30, Capcom polled fans to see who was the most popular out of the 109 playable Street Fighters they’d introduced both in the mainline games and spin-offs. After more than 150,000 votes, Sakura topped the list. Her boyfriend and mentor Ryu, considered the protagonist of the Street Fighter series, only made 9th place. Of the dozen original characters from the first Street Fighter arcade game, Sagat was 7th, Ken 15th, Gen 30th, Adon 33rd, Eagle 60th, Retsu 69th, Geki 80th, Birdie 87th, Joe 96th, Mike 99th, and Lee 100th.

Sakura’s creator Akira Yasuda gave her an unusual look, a Japanese schoolgirl uniform with a mini-skirt, sailor blouse with a yellow scarf tied in front, red sneakers and red combat gloves, and a white headband Ryu gave her. Her personality was also made to be relatable to a young audience, as she was a teenager and awkward, yet skilled in Ryu’s “Shotokan” fighting style. She has appeared in at least 21 different video games, almost all of them as a playable street fighter. She has also appeared in anime and American animated television productions. She was a lead character in a straight-to-home video live-action movie, the subject of a manga series, and appeared in at least 70 issues of Street Fighter comic book titles.^[6]

5 Rocksteady and Bebop (IDW Comics: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles)

Of all the villains the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) face, Shredder and Krang are the most formidable. But the most beloved are the giant warthog and rhinoceros Bebop and Rocksteady. When Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman created and published the first TMNT comics in 1984, it was inspired by characters such as Marvel’s Daredevil and the New Mutants, along with Frank Miller’s Ronin, and the self-published comic about an anthropomorphic aardvark named Cerebus. For instance, the turtles—like Daredevil—have a Ninjitsu mentor, their archenemy was the Foot (a play on Daredevil’s the Hand), and are mutated by a mysterious liquid in a container that fell off a truck. While a parody, the story in that first comic was adult, featuring dark subjects such as the beating of a girlfriend, revenge, drug and arms smuggling, and murder. There was little room for comic relief characters such as Rocksteady and Bebop.

In 1987, while negotiating with Playmate Toys for a line of toys based on TMNT, Eastman and Laird were asked to develop more characters for the line. Laird developed Bebop and Rocksteady for them, something he would soon regret. Bebop was named after a form of jazz music, Rocksteady after a type of Reggae music. The next year, the animated Saturday morning series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered, geared more for kids, the storyline tweaked to be more light-hearted. And Bebop and Rocksteady were made to be deeply stupid, inept, and goofy. This made them a fan favorite for everyone but Laird. His animosity toward the characters was part of why they did not appear in the second 1991 TMNT movie. Instead, a mutated gray wolf (Rahaz) and alligator snapping turtle (Tokka) were introduced. Bebop and Rocksteady made their first comic book appearance in 1988 when the title was published by Archie Comics. In 2011, the titles moved to IDW Comics. ^[7]

4 Isis (DC: Shazam titles)

Like Thor in Marvel comics, Isis is based on an ancient god, in this case, an Egyptian one, daughter of the earth god Geb and sky goddess Nut, sister to the gods Osiris, Seth, and Nephthys. Isis married her brother Osiris (the Egyptian royals did that a lot), but their brother Seth killed Osiris out of jealousy and later cut Osiris into itty, bitty pieces. Isis resurrected Osiris into a sort of Egyptian zombie, reassembled her husband’s various pieces—except his penis—and kept them together by wrapping him in bandages like a mummy. She then coupled with this penis-less zombie/mummy (yeah, don’t know how that worked) and gave birth to another god, Horus. Not only could she resurrect the dead, but she could also transform into birds or animals.

Fast-forward a few millennia to September 6, 1975, when producers at Filmation introduced a brand new female superhero for the second half of the live-action Shazam!/Isis Hour as part of CBS’s Saturday morning line-up (it was only during syndication that her show was renamed The Secrets of Isis). Her debut made her the first female live-action television superhero preceding The Bionic Woman by four months and Wonder Woman by seven. The show featured a high school teacher who found an amulet during an archeological dig that gave her the powers of the legendary god. It lasted two seasons and 22 episodes with a few cross-overs to fight alongside Captain Marvel in Shazam!. She appeared in comics for the first time in Shazam! #25 (Sept-Oct 1976) and garnered her own series shortly after. But she was not as popular as hoped, and aside from a few appearances in animated programs, Isis disappeared from all forms of media by the early 1980s.

Isis was reintroduced in 2006 as part of DC’s massive reboot, 52. This time she was an Egyptian slave delivered to the anti-superhero Black Adam, the despotic ruler of Kahndaq, a fictional country situated on the Sinai Peninsula. After they married and Isis softened Black Adam’s temper, she was killed in a battle, the first of many times she would take a dirt nap, then be resurrected. She has also appeared in a 2010 episode of Smallville, on Legends of Tomorrow in 2016, and is expected to appear in the movie The Black Adam, scheduled to be released in 2022.^[8]

3 Luis (Marvel: Ant-Man titles)

The MCU has been responsible for creating a number of supporting characters for their movies and television shows, with Phil Coulson only one of them. There’s astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig, a character played by Stellan Skarsgard and introduced in Thor (2011). He went on to play a pivotal role in The Avengers (2012) and appeared in Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). His intern Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), was also created for Thor and appeared in Dark World and the series WandaVision (2021). There’s also the precocious kid, Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins), in Ironman 3 (2013) and Senator Stern (Gary Shandling) in Ironman 2 (2010) and Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014). Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced several characters such as Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), Raina (Ruth Negga), and Gideon Malick (Powers Boothe). But one supporting character has fans clamoring for more of him: Luis from Ant-Man (2015).

Luis, unfortunately, has not been given a last name, but Michael Peña’s portrayal with his infectious smile and his running gag where he tells a long, convoluted story to convey a simple premise has made the character unforgettable. His popularity was such that Luis has already appeared in some Ant-Man titles beginning with Astonishing Ant-Man #1 in 2015. There’s been speculation that Luis might be given a superhero role in the coming Ant-Man 3, something Peña has been campaigning for since Ant-Man 2. ^[9]

2 X-23 (Marvel: X-Men titles)

Writer Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost created X-23 in 2003 for the animated series X-Men: Evolution. Billed as a more youthful Wolverine, Laura Howlett is Wolverine’s clone developed by HYDRA to be the perfect assassin. But the DNA sample they collected from Wolverine was damaged, and genetic variations—including the sex of the clone—were administered. HYDRA isolated and abused Laura to repress her emotions and deprive her of morals, trained her in killing techniques, and like Wolverine, strengthened her claws—two in each hand and one in each foot—with indestructible adamantium. Premiering in an August 2003 episode, she became so popular that by December of that same year, X-23 made her debut in comics, NYX #3.

Since then, X-23 has appeared in well over 2,000 issues of X-Men titles, becoming Wolverine’s daughter figure, fighting alongside him and eventually replacing him. Her popularity was such that it was inevitable she would find herself on the big screen. It happened in 2017 in Hugh Jackman’s final film as Wolverine, Logan. An X-23 solo film has been planned, but with Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, returning X-Men and Fantastic Four to Marvel Studios, the plans are still uncertain.^[10]

1 Harley Quinn (DC: Batman titles)

Arguably among the most popular female comic book characters of all time, Harley Quinn certainly does not fit the typical mold of a comic book character, hero or villain. She’s existed less than 30 years, yet her character has more depth than characters who’ve existed twice that. She is, after all, insane, a murderess, and is gleefully—and I do mean gleefully—unscrupulous. She makes interesting choices in lovers: on the one hand, the homicidal eco-terrorist Poison Ivy (yes, her writers acknowledge that Harley and Ivy have more than a friendship); on the other hand, the psychotic mass murderer Joker who relishes abusing her. And, like the Joker (and, for that matter, their nemesis Batman), she has no real superpowers (at least most of the time, she doesn’t). Except maybe that she is joyfully unpredictable, making her—in a word—fun.

No one is more shocked at Harley’s popularity than the people who pieced her together. That began way back in 1987 when the actress Arleen Sorkin was playing the recurring character Calliope Jones on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Calliope was a loud, flighty woman with a “Noo-Yawk” accent, and Sorkin was always coming up with ideas to make her character fresh. After attending a screening of the comedy Princess Bride, Sorkin went to the Days of Our Lives showrunners to ask if they could have a bedtime story dream sequence with kings and queens in medieval clothes. They agreed and dressed Calliope as a court jester and had her roller skate into court to cheer up the royals with lame jokes and a quarter moon imprinted on the back of her underwear.

Fast-forward to 1991, when writer Paul Dini was a freelance writer working on scripts for Batman: The Animated Series set to air on Fox Kids. Dini and Sorkin had been college friends, and Sorkin had sent Dini a VHS tape of her favorite Days of Our Lives bits, including the court jester scene. Dini was working on a script that featured the Joker and wanted an interesting character to play one of the villain’s henchmen. Dini remembered that in the 1960s’ live-action Batman, the Joker, Penguin, and Riddler all had henchwomen and thought it might be the direction he wanted to go. Sick and at home one day, Dini popped Sorkin’s tape in his player, and when he came upon the court jester scene, he began to make connections. The Joker was inspired by playing cards, as were the male and female versions of the Harlequin. It seemed a natural combination, and Harleen Quinzel—Harley Quinn—was born.

Bruce Timm gave Harley her look. Harley was supposed to be a one-off character appearing in just one episode—“Joker’s Favor”—but Timm threw himself into researching harlequin costumes and developed the black and red outfit with ruffles, the two-pointed Jack-in-the-Box cap with pompoms at the tips of the two tails. Sorkin was asked to voice Harley, and she used a combination of Calliope and Ellen Green’s depiction of Audrey in the musical The Little Shop of Horrors to form the voice and personality. To get the right pitch and accent, she practiced singing “Adelaide’s Lament” from the musical Guys and Dolls. When Dini saw the animation paired with Sorkin’s voice, he knew they had something special, especially when Mark Hamill agreed to voice the Joker. The dynamic between Hamill’s and Sorkin’s characters convinced the writers to bring Harley back for more episodes.

Harley made her comic book debut the next year in The Batman Adventures #12, a comic in DC’s Animated Universe. As her popularity grew, she was brought over to the mainstream DC universe and written as a much darker, more tragic character. She became darker still when she joined the Suicide Squad, and it was as a member of that team that she finally hit the live-action big screen in Suicide Squad (2016), subsequently appearing in Birds of Prey (2020) and Suicide Squad 2 (2021).^[11]

Comic book plots are not restrained by the scientific laws that govern the real-world universe. Of course, ironically, the imaginary atomic and subatomic particles, chemical elements, and substances of the Marvel Comics and DC Comics universes often either have actual real-world counterparts or borrow from one or more of them, usually with an unlikely or impossible twist.

This is true whether we’re talking Wolverine, Captain America, Thor, the Metal Men, Superman, Deathstroke, Flash, Dr. Doom, Wonder Woman, Luke Cage, or the Fantastic Four or whether we’re referring to superpowers, costumes, or weapons. If we take a closer look, we find that one or more of the 10 real counterparts of comic book particles and elements on this list come into play in these comic book characters’ lives and universes, and what a difference they make!

For better or worse—or, actually, for better and worse—the real-universe counterparts of these particles and elements, in most cases, lack the properties of the ones in the Marvel Comics and DC Comics universes.

Related: Video: 10 Comic Book Heroes Who Could Theoretically Exist

10 Adamantine

Where would Wolverine be without adamantine? The same place that Captain America and several other Marvel Comics superheroes would be—a lot less dangerous and a whole lot more vulnerable, that’s where. Wolverine’s skeleton and Freddy Krueger-like retractable claws are both bonded to the virtually indestructible alloy. Captain America’s disc-shield, which is both a defensive instrument and an offensive weapon, is also made, in part, from adamantine, alloyed with vibranium, another element that exists only in the Marvel universe. Adamantine is both impervious and all-but-indestructible. There’s no other element quite like it in the Marvel universe.

Adamantine exists in the real world too. However, it’s nothing like the Marvel version. It is an ingredient in a veneer; it is also a mineral known as adamantine spar.

The celluloid veneer is used in clockmaking. A product of the Celluloid Manufacturing Company of New York City, the veneer was available in black, white, and “colored patterns such as wood grain, onyx and marble” and was patented on September 7, 1880. A year later, the Seth Thomas Clock Company acquired the right to use it and, beginning in 1882, glued it, as a facing, to the wood cases of their clocks.^[1]

9 Star Core

One version of Thor’s mystic hammer Mjolnir is—by his father Odin’s command—forged by elves from the core of a star. What, exactly, is the core of a star? In the Marvel universe, who knows? Even in the actual universe, it’s not easy to pin down the exact meaning, especially if we expect the definition to include an object.

The core of a star is actually more a place than it is anything else, a place in which enormous temperatures and pressures “ignite nuclear fusion, converting atoms of hydrogen into helium,” which results in the release of “a tremendous amount of heat.” The Universe Today website uses our own sun as an example. It’s a fairly normal star measuring 1,391,000 kilometers (864,938 miles) across.

Our sun’s core, which is about 278,000 kilometers (172,000 miles) across, makes up approximately “20 percent of the solar radius.” It is inside the solar radius that temperatures as high as “15,000,000 degrees Kelvin occur and nuclear fusion [takes] place.” The bigger the star, the bigger and hotter its core. Obviously, human technology couldn’t forge a hammer or anything else out of a star’s core, but, apparently, elvish technology is up to the task.^[2]

8 Iron, Gold, Lead, Tin, Mercury, and Platinum

Since the Metal Men form a group of adventurers, we treat them as a single entity on our list.

DC Comics’ Metal Men had their origins in response to a real-life emergency. As Don Markstein’s Toonopedia article points out, The Atom had moved up from the ranks of the minor leagues of characters to the big league, meaning he was given a title of his very own. His promotion left Showcase, the comic book series in which he’d appeared, without a principal. To make matters worse, the next “issue was due at the printer in two weeks.”

Fortunately, writer-editor Robert Kanigher came to the rescue, creating a group of adventuring robots, scripting “a story for them in a single weekend.” Penciller Ross Andru and inker Mark Esposito also proved up to the task and drew the comic just before the deadline. Not expecting them to grace the pages of Showcase or any other DC comic again, Kanigher killed them off at the end of their debut story.

He then resurrected them, and they continued their adventures after Dr. Will Magnus collected their remains and forged the team anew, complete with their life-giving “responsometers.” In all, the Metal Men number six.

Of course, each of them has a counterpart in the actual universe as well as in the DC Comics universe. The actual properties of gold are reflected in Gold’s personality and abilities. The leader of the Metal Men has a golden hue and the physical properties of the metal. Armed with these qualities, Gold can “stretch into a thin wire miles long or flatten into a sheet four-millionths of an inch thick.”

“Big-hearted” Lead often shields his teammates from harmful rays and radiation. Iron, “the Metal Men’s strongman,” can be shaped and formed into an infinite variety of objects that help the team carry out their missions. Vain, arrogant Mercury boasts of his being the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature. Tin, the smallest and weakest of the Metal Men, feels “inadequate [and] stutters, although this impediment often vanishes in the heat of battle.” Bright and beautiful Platinum falls in love with her maker.^[3]

7 Kryptonite

Depending on its color, chunks of kryptonite have various effects on Superman (and other Kryptonians, including Supergirl). The chunks of the crystalline mineral are remnants of the planet Krypton, from which Kal-El’s parents dispatched him, as a baby, in a tiny spaceship just before the planet exploded. Kryptonite may be green, red, blue, gold, silver, black, or white.

Green weakens, causing severe pain and fatigue, and is ultimately “lethal to all Kryptonians.” Red weakens, causing extreme mood swings and mutations. Blue negates the effects of red kryptonite. Gold strips Kryptonians of their superpowers. Silver causes extreme hunger, “intense delusions and hallucinations [and] paranoia.” Black has a Jekyll-and-Hyde effect, splitting a Kryptonian’s identity into good and evil personalities or even good-twin, bad-twin versions of themselves. White kryptonite kills any plants in the universe.

As Bill Christensen reports in a LiveScience website article, kryptonite also exists in the real universe! Except for its lack of fluorine, it has the same chemical composition as the varieties of Superman’s crystalline mineral. However, Earth’s sodium lithium boron silicate mineral doesn’t exhibit the same array of colors that the Kryptonian version does. Instead, it fluoresces a pinkish-orange under ultraviolet light. Fortunately, unlike the type that plagues Superman, real kryptonite is also harmless.^[4]

6 Promethium

As the DC Universe Infinite website article on Deathstroke indicates, his “origin has been revised and reimagined several [times] over the years.” In DC Comics’ original story of his origin, Col. Slade Wilson participates in an experiment. As a result, he develops superhuman physical and mental powers and becomes a black ops agent. His friend and executive officer, scientist David Isherwood, develops a “‘gravity sheath’ bodysuit” for Slade. However, Slade rejects it in favor of custom-made promethium armor, which “absorbs kinetic energy and blocks it, making it impervious to bullets or the fist of a superhuman opponent.”

Although promethium exists in the actual universe as well as the DC cosmos, the real-world element has none of the properties or uses described in DC Comics. Instead, as the Royal Society of Chemistry points out, most of the radioactive element is used in research, although “a little promethium is used in specialized atomic batteries…the size of a drawing pin…[and] for pacemakers, guided missiles, and radios.” It is also used as “a source of X-rays,” and its radioactivity is employed in measuring instruments.^[5]

5 Molybdenum

In an issue of DC Comic’s Flash, as the superhero closes in on Alchemy while the villain seeks to force information from a victim, the Scarlet Speedster is puzzled. “I don’t get it,” Flash thinks. “Alchemy must know I’m chasing him—and yet he’s standing right out in the open. He’s unprotected!” The reason for Alchemy’s apparent lack of concern is revealed when Flash discovers that his foe has laced the entire area with strands of molybdenum. Had Flash not noticed the nearly invisible filaments, his charging through them at super-speed “would have been like running through a vegematic.”

Not only does molybdenum really exist, but its use in the Flash comic book is a rare instance in which the element actually could do what the writers depict it as doing. One use of molybdenum is to make wire rope resistant to corrosion. Specifically, we’re referencing Type 316 wire rope, which is used in severe environments that require a higher level of “resistance to corrosion” than is afforded by Type 304 wire rope, a “basic stainless steel alloy” variety that includes chromium, nickel, and carbon. The addition of molybdenum allows Type 316 wire rope, a chromium-nickel alloy, to fare better against many industrial chemicals and solvents and, in particular, “inhibits pitting caused by chlorides.”

It’s hard to say just how thick the strands of molybdenum shown in the Flash comic book are, but wire rope containing the element is usually stocked in diameters ranging from 1/16 of an inch to 4 1/2-inches. It’s possible that Alchemy cast thinner strands, which appeared nearly invisible to Flash. It’s also possible that Flash, whose speed afoot matches or exceeds that of Superman, might run so fast that he would streak through Alchemy’s molybdenum filaments without seeing them, in which case he would most definitely learn what it is like to be sliced to pieces.^[6]

4 Titanium

As Shawn S. Lealos points out in his CBR.com website article, Dr. Doom’s armor, made of titanium, has been upgraded several times over the supervillain’s career. Ironically, the supervillain’s original armor was forged by monks and was later embedded with splinters of the true cross. His armor is equipped with several high-tech weapons and further enhanced by magic, too, but it’s the element of titanium we’re concerned about here.

The Royal Society of Chemistry website is one of several sources that give visitors the lowdown on titanium, a real-world element with several practical applications, none of which, alas, is related to armor. Although some of its qualities suggest that it could be used for such a purpose. For starters, the element is as strong as steel but much less dense and can be used as an alloying agent with iron and other metals. In fact, alloys, including titanium, are used primarily in aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles because of their “low density and ability to withstand extremes of temperature,” the website notes.

According to the Society, The titanium pipes used in power plant condensers resist corrosion even in seawater, which makes the element ideal for use in the hulls of ships as well as submarines. It is also used in desalination plants. Since titanium “connects well with bone,” it also has medical uses, including joint replacements and tooth implants. It is most often “used as a pigment in house paint, artists’ paint, plastics, enamels, and paints,” but it is also an ingredient in sunscreens.

Titanium also has an incredibly high melting point (1,670 degrees Centigrade, or 3,038 degrees Fahrenheit) and an even higher boiling point (3,287 degrees Centigrade, or 5,949 degrees Fahrenheit). If Victor von Doom is reading this, perhaps has given the Fantastic Four’s nemesis some new ideas for armor upgrades.^[7]

3 Photons

DC Comics featuring the Amazonian princess doesn’t specify from what material her magical sword was forged, but Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide to the Amazon Princess by Scott Beatty informs us that its blade is sharp enough to sever electrons from an atom.

In Alexis Ross and Mark Waid’s graphic novel Kingdom Come, Wonder Woman’s sword cuts Superman when the Man of Steel draws her weapon before she can warn him of its effects. In one of Kyle Hill’s YouTube videos, he explains the stunning effects that such a sword would have if it existed in the real-world universe. An ordinary blade cuts objects (and people) by “applying more pressure than a material’s structure can withstand,” thereby separating the material’s molecules.

Wonder Woman’s sword, however, slices through the spaces between atoms and their orbiting electrons, “applying pressure directly to the ionic and covalent bonding [that holds] materials together,” notes Hill. In the process, her sword swings “separate atmospheric atoms from their electrons and ionizes them,” which would leave a trail of lightning behind each stroke. Her sword would be the sharpest thing in the universe, capable of slicing through Luke Cage’s bulletproof skin, Wolverine’s adamantine skeleton, or Captain America’s vibranium shield.

According to Stephen Reucroft and John D. Swain, professors in Northeastern University’s Department of Physics, three things split electrons from atoms: electromagnetic radiation, particles, and heat. Heat is a form of energy; almost all particles are material objects; and radiation can be either energy or matter. Once all the electrons are stripped or cut away from the atom, only the nucleus remains.

We seem to be left with two possibilities, both rather broad: Wonder Woman’s sword is made exclusively of particles or of energy. The former state of affairs could allow the weapon to have a material form since most particles are matter, but could pure energy also have a form? The short answer is almost certainly no. As Ethan Siegel explains in his online Forbes article, with one possible exception, “energy is never seen to exist on its own, but only as part of a system of particles, whether massive or massless.”

The exception? Dark energy, which causes the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. It may also be the energy that is “inherent [in] the fabric of the Universe itself!” However, even if dark energy exists independently of matter, it cannot be generated by any technological means. As Siegel concludes, “Creating energy independent of particles? It might be something the Universe itself does, but until we learn how to create (or destroy) spacetime itself, we find ourselves unable to make it so.”

It seems, then, that Wonder Woman’s sword must be made of some sort of particles, such as those of light, which can be contained in the shape of a sword, the particles, or photons, of which knock electrons from their atoms. In magic, as in fantasy, after all, anything is possible.^[8]

2 Bulletproof Skin

Although Luke Cage’s bulletproof skin seems possible only in a comic book, a news headline, “Bulletproof Human Skin Made From Spider Silk,” suggests otherwise. Sort of. Obviously, spider silk is not the same as human skin itself. Still, the substance can make human skin bulletproof.

According to the online article, a Dutch team created a piece of “bulletproof” skin from special, U.S.-made spider silk and human skin cells and found that it indeed can repel bullets—as long as “they’re not traveling too fast.” If additional research allows improvements to the silk armor, soldiers may one day be impervious to bullets.^[9]

1 Cosmic Radiation

In comic books, exposure to various types of radiation has turned ordinary folks into superheroes (or, sometimes, supervillains). Among those who have developed superpowers due to such exposure are Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm, better known, respectively, as Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing or, collectively, The Fantastic Four. They all developed their powers (super elasticity, invisibility, combustion, and superhuman strength) by being exposed to cosmic radiation during their testing of an experimental rocket ship.

Cosmic rays do exist outside the pages of comic books, and, yes, they could endanger space travelers. According to The Space Review website, galactic cosmic rays represent a “continuous background radiation to which the crew would be exposed, [and]…in an unshielded spacecraft, [such] radiation would result in significant health problems, or death, to the crew.” Shielding would absorb cosmic radiation, but it could also cause a problem even worse than the radiation itself: cosmic rays interact with the shielding and can create “secondary charged particles, increasing the overall radiation dose.”

Former astronaut Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman, who is currently a professor at MIT, believes Earth shows how to create more effective shielding to protect against cosmic radiation and other hazards such as solar flares: a hybrid system that employs both a magnetic field and passive absorption. “‘That’s the way the Earth does it,’ Hoffman explained, ‘and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to do that in space.’”

Although cosmic rays are real, they wouldn’t have conferred superpowers on Richards and his crew. As the host of the Reactions’ “Can Radiation Give You Superpowers” video and her guest Professor Dan Claes, Ph.D., point out, even on Earth, everyone is bombarded with cosmic radiation every day, as much as 115 times a second. In space, inside the Van Allen Belt, the foursome “were probably hit around 15 million times a second,” Claes adds, and “ten times that” if a solar flare occurred during the crew’s trip.

However, it is so extremely unlikely that all 75 trillion cells in the crew’s bodies could have been struck the same number of times by the cosmic rays “in the same superhuman way and giving them each a different ability,” Claes explains. It is much more likely, it seems, that Richards, Susan Storm, her brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm would have died instead of becoming The Fantastic Four.^[10]

The latest Batman movie is a dark and serious noir detective film where Batman must stop the Riddler, who is a crazed serial killer in this iteration. Now, as cool as that sounds (and is!), it can be hard to remember that comics, especially Batman comics, used to, and sometimes still are, incredibly silly and stupid.

So, I feel as though it is my duty to talk about the weirdest and dumbest things Batman has done or has used in comics!

Related: 10 Lesser-Known Facts About Superheroes

10 Shark Repellent

Many Batman fans (and even just movie fans) know about the infamous scene from the 1966 Batman movie starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as the Boy Wonder. In it, Robin gives Batman shark repellent to fight off a robotic shark sent by the Penguin. Shark repellent has also been shown in 2017’s The Lego Batman Movie, where Robin (played by Micheal Cera) is obsessed with the shark repellent.

A common misconception about this particular object is that Batman carries it in his utility belt. If you actually watch both of these movies, you’ll see that in the 1966 version, the shark repellent is, in fact, located in the Bat Helicopter and not his utility belt. A similar thing appears in The Lego Batman Movie, where it’s on display in the Batcave. Many comic fans like to point out that misconception when it’s brought up, but that misconception is actually a misconception itself! The first time shark repellent was ever used by Batman in any media was in 1958 in Batman #117, where Batman and Robin travel to an alien world and get attacked by “shark-like” creatures. Batman quickly brings out his Shark Repellent Bat Spray and repels the alien monsters away.^[1]

9 Lifting a 700-Pound Gorilla and a Bomb

Batman is one of the only superheroes not to have powers. In order to compensate, he is the 2nd smartest man on the planet and has his body in peak physical condition. Although it seems the only way you can obtain this is through One Punch Man levels of training, Batman had a simpler solution to test his strength and conditioning—lifting up a gorilla with a bomb strapped to the animal’s chest.

Some may argue that this practice is “inhumane” and “dangerous,” and in all honesty, it is. Detective Comics #337, published in 1965, features Batman having to stop a super-intelligent 700-pound gorilla from bombing part of Gotham City by lifting him up and waiting for the bomb to go off. Why, you might ask? Because they figured out the bomb wouldn’t blow up if the gorilla wasn’t on the ground.^[2]

8 Being the First Robin

Batman’s faithful sidekick is the Boy Wonder, Robin! Without him, Batman wouldn’t be the same character we know today. Plus, the Dynamic Uno doesn’t sound as cool. Many of you may know that the first Robin was Richard John (Dick) Grayson, and he served as Batman’s partner for many years. But, according to Detective Comics #226, published in 1955, Bruce Wayne was the first Robin.

In the comic, we learn about how the World’s Greatest Detective became a detective by learning from a man named Harvey Harris. Harvey gave a young Bruce a Robin-like suit and trained him in the ways of deduction. Also, for a bonus fact, according to that issue, the name “Robin” came from the quote Harvey told Bruce. He said that Bruce was “as brilliant as a robin redbreast,” which must be some ’50s speak ’cause I certainly don’t understand what that means.^[3]

7 Bat-mite

Many people are fans of Batman; he’s often debated to be the most popular superhero. A lot of fans of other characters might argue who the number-one fan of that character is, but true Batman fans know that there is only one correct answer. That answer is the fifth-dimensional imp who first appeared in Bat-mite! Bat-mite is a tricky character to talk about because what he actually is, is complicated, like all things comics.

In many stories, he could be considered just a figment of Batman’s imagination, or he is truly real; who knows!. Bat-mite is the self-proclaimed #1 fan of Batman and has reality-warping powers that he often uses to make Batman’s adventures “more interesting.” Weirdly enough, the most recent appearance of Bat-mite (as of writing this) was in a Scooby-doo and Batman team-up comic. As funny as it would be for that to be the only appearance of the character in the last ten years, I find it funnier that Bat-mite consistently appears in the Scooby-Doo and Batman team-up comics.^[4]

6 Being in the Top 10 of Gun Marksmanship

No guns. That’s been Batman’s rule since Batman #15, published in 1943. Ironically the cover features him using a trench gun that’s very clearly loaded with lethal bullets. However, I’m not going to argue with Batman, especially if he has a trench gun. Ever since that issue, he claims that guns are for the weak and cowardly.

Kind of awkward since his former partner and adopted son, Jason Todd, uses them—but I won’t judge that much. After all, he apparently uses it enough to break the top 10 world list. According to The Batman Who Laughs #3, published in 2019, Batman is one of the top 10 marksmen in the world.^[5]

5 Bat-Milk and Cookies

This one is a bit of a cheat since it doesn’t actually happen inside the comics, but I found it too funny to pass up the chance to talk about it. In 1972, the cartoon The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries premiered, with the second episode being a team-up with Batman and Robin. In the episode titled “The Dynamic Scooby Affair,” Batman is about to bring the gang to the Batcave but must blindfold them, so they don’t know where the cave is located.

During this process, Shaggy asks Batman if he can have a snack when they get to the Batcave. Batman says not to worry because he’ll have “Bat-milk and cookies” for everyone. Now it’s unclear whether this was a classic case of Batman putting “Bat” in front of every single noun (and sometimes verb) or if this was actual milk from bats. I think it’s best we leave the answer as unknown for now.^[6]

4 Trolling Internet Forums

Internet Forums are notorious for conspiracy theories. It could be as tame as “Quarters are actually worth 24 cents, not 25” to “Aliens Are in Control of the Processed Cheese Factories!” Either way, it’s still a conspiracy, no matter how crazy and how little evidence there is to back it up.

With the comics always adapting to the modern age, they would eventually have to address the internet and its conspiracies. So Batman did just that in Batman Incorporated #6, published in 2011. In this issue, Batman is manipulating internet forums saying that Batman is Bruce Wayne and leaving many misleading theories. One of them is that Batman is multiple people, and another one involves Batman replacing Bruce Wayne with a body double. As crazy as Bruce sounds here, he’s probably incredibly smart by putting so much misinformation about himself. So if his identity was revealed, the truth would be lost amid all the fake theories and crazy conspiracies.^[7]

3 The Whirly-Bat

Batman needs to stop crime as fast as he can, and that means needing a fast vehicle to get him from one side of Gotham to the other. He could use one of his many Batmobiles or Bat-planes, or Bat-Helicopters, or Bat-cycles, or Bat-literally any vehicle. The man has them all, apparently. He has so many options to choose from that it’s honestly just ridiculous with some of them.

One of those ridiculous options is the Whirly-Bat! The Whirly-Bat first appeared in Detective Comics #257, published in 1958. The Whirly-Bat is a small one-man helicopter used for aerial surveillance and combat. These things were not that effective, though, as they were destroyed during their very first mission. Batman would later reconstruct them, but I think the fact they were destroyed on their very first use is proof enough of how inefficient they were.^[8]

2 Batman Pretends to Drink Alcohol

As previously mentioned, Batman’s body is in peak condition. This is something he must maintain at all times. That means plenty of exercise and a healthy diet—aka no fast food, junk food, processed sugar, diet sodas, and especially no alcohol for himself.

Despite this, Batman has actually been shown drinking actual alcohol every now and then, but that’s mostly during one of his low points. Normally Batman pretends to drink alcohol by drinking ginger ale. This is demonstrated in Batman: Tenses #1, published in 2013, where he orders a gin and tonic and then dumps it outside. Also, in Batman #36, published in 2017, Superman passively asks, “Do you ever get tired of ginger ale?” To which Batman boldly states, “every damn day.”^[9]

1 Batarang X

As iconic as many items of Batman’s arsenal are, none can compare to the batarang. Batarangs are incredibly versatile and have been helping Batman ever since 1939 in Detective Comics #31. Batman even uses the batarang as a grappling hook by attaching a rope to it in some cases. Batman has many iterations of the batarang, including magnetic batarangs, explosive batarangs, remote-controlled batarangs, and electrified batarangs.

Some of those sound pretty dangerous, but none of them can compare to the most dangerous batarang of them all. It’s so dangerous that it’s kept under a tarp underneath the Batcave. This batarang is Batarang X. Batarang X is a giant red batarang that can be launched off the Batmobile and used as transportation for Batman. Batarang X first appeared in Detective Comics #244, published in 1957.^[10]

Have you ever heard about the first African-American princess, Tiana? She was the only princess of Disney with dimples, or Mulan. The famous princess based on an ancient Chinese legend of Hua Mulan. She was a female warrior, famously described in the poem, “The Ballad of Mulan”. The stories of most of the bravest women from history or mythology have been adapted in the comic’s universe, to tell those sagas in a colorful way to the children, or even to the adult readers. Even the gaming industry adopted some of the famous female characters with historical importance. These tales are about the historical significance of those princesses in colored comics’ pages; princesses who are attached mythically, historically or socially with real life scenarios, but, long forgotten. Here is the list of Top 10 Forgotten Princesses adapted in comics.

10. Corn Maiden

Corn Maiden, also called Corn Mother, is a mythological figure believed to be responsible for the origin of corn or maize among indigenous agricultural tribes in North America. Local legend tells about the overflowing corn storehouse when she was around. In the Arapaho tradition, to get rid of her, they tied her up and drowned her in the river, while, in the Zuni’s culture, she was frightened by the erotic gyrations of the male dancers. In the Tepecano version of this tale, when she spends her first night after marriage in a private room in her husband’s family house, it’s full of corn in the morning. According to other local legends, she was supposed to secretly produce grains of corn by rubbing her body, or by literally popping corns out and filling bucket after bucket.

9. Shajar Al-Durr

Shajar al-Durr, meaning Tree of Pearls. Actually played a crucial role after Sultan As-Salih Ayyub’s death during the Seventh Crusade against Egypt where the Battle of Fariskur took place and King Louis IX was captured. Shajar, described by historians as a beauty with the brain, started her life as a Turkish servant, purchased for the Sultan of Egypt. While being in a relationship with Aybak, Shajar al-Durr firmly established the Mamluk dynasty.

After she fought and captured King Louis IX, Shajar al-Durr negotiated a treaty to return the captured king to his country for ransom amount of 400,000 in the currency used in France during the middle age which was roughly about 30% of France’s total annual revenue. She was later caught in the act of killing Aybek and imprisoned by Aybek’s first wife who executed her by beating to death by servants with wooden clogs, and later her naked corpse was dumped over the wall of the city.

8. Pasiphaë

According to Greek mythology, Pasiphaë was the Greek queen and the daughter of Helios, the Sun. She married King Minos of Crete and was known for giving birth to Asterion aka Ruler of the Stars, also called the Minotaur by the Greeks. She was famous for having irresistible sexual drive towards a bull that Poseidon gave to King Minos. King Minos, also ironically the son of Zeus, took the form of a bull and mated with his mother Europa. Being a Bull Goddess, when Pasiphaë got to know that her husband was cheating on her, she made a charm such that if he slept with anyone he would ejaculate serpents and insects. But, Procris, the daughter of the ruler of Athens, laid with Minos with a protective herb.

7. Nzinga

Queen Anna Nzinga was a 17th-century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in Angola. Being the daughter of King Kiluanji, she was named Njinga, derived from the Kimbundu verb, Kujinga, which means, to twist or turn, because her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. When her brother was captured by Portuguese, she visited and demanded her brother’s return with a promise to leave Ndongo. At their meeting, the Portuguese offered her no chair but a floor mat to sit on, as a sign of disrespect.

In response, Nzinga ordered for one of her servants and sat on the servant as a chair. After she moved south, she started a new country by conquering the cannibal tribe known as the Jaga. According to local legend, Nzinga obtained a large group of 60 male harems at her disposal. Her men fought to death in order to spend the night with her, while, after a single night, they were put to death. It is also said that Nzinga made her male servants dress as women.

6. Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut, which means, The Foremost of Noble Ladies, was the fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt, whose mother gave birth to her in a lion’s den. She was one of the greatest pharaohs from Egypt, besides King Tut or Nefertiti. The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has an entire room devoted to her. Fifteen hundred years before the birth of Jesus, she ruled her land for twenty-two years. She ruled Egypt wearing men’s clothing, including the pharaoh’s false beard. According to Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, she is the first great woman in history of whom we are informed. She constructed the Temple of Karnak and restored the original Precinct of Mut. Nine golden cartouches bearing the names of both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III were found in Karnak.

5. Wu Zelian

Wu Zelian, also known as Wu Zhao; China’s only female emperor in more than 4,000 years of ancient history who lived during the Tang dynasty. Wu was married to the Emperor Taizong and after his death, she married his successor and ninth son, Emperor Gaozong. After Gaozong’s died due to cardiac disease in 690, she ruled China until 705 AD. She had an enormous network of her secret police intelligence posted all over China and also famous for her “human pig” torture where all limbs and tongue were removed. Besides marrying twice, she also carried on an affair with a Buddhist monk, Huaiyi, in around 685. Her period of political and military leadership includes the major expansion of the Chinese empire beyond its previous territory, deep into Central Asia, and the upper Korean Peninsula.

4. Khutulun

Khutulun was the most famous daughter of Kaidu, the most powerful ruler of Central Asia, and the niece of Kublai Khan. Her name was founded in Marco Polo’s and Rashid al-Din’s writings. According to Marco Polo, Khutulun was described as being a superb warrior who fought beside her father in many battles.

When Emperor Kaidu desperately wanted to see his daughter, Khutulun’s marriage, she refused to do so unless she got the appropriate man who could defeat her in wrestling. With the consent from his father, she set up an offer for all the men in the dynasty to beat her in wrestling and marry her. But, the condition on the other side was, if someone lost the battle with her, he should present her 100 horses. But, no one was able to beat her, and she gain 10,000 horses. Khutulun is considered one of the last great nomadic warrior princesses.

3. La Maupin

Julie d’Aubigny, better known as Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin, born in 1673, was an amazing swordswoman and opera singer from 17th-century. She used to dress as a man from her early ages while learning dancing and fencing. This bisexual celebrity attended a royal ball while dressed as a man, thrown either by Louis XIV or his brother. She was famous for her Opera voice and debuted as Pallas Athena in Cadmus et Hermione by Jean-Baptiste Lully. But, when she kissed a young woman at a society ball and was challenged to duels by three different noblemen, she had to interrupt her career and leave Paris. Théophile Gautier in his novel Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) based the title character, Madeleine de Maupin, on her.

2. Mai Bhago

She was taken from the real historical character, Mai Bhago, whose name, after converting to Khalsa, was Mai Bhag Kaur as Kaur was a surname all female Khalsas took. This 18th century Sikh warrior-saint was the only survivor of the Battle of Khidrana to save Gobind Singh Ji, who founded the Khalsa. Mai Bhago was born at her ancestral village of Jhabal Kalan, presently Amritsar. She was a Sikh by birth and later married to Nidhan Singh Waraich. At that time, India was ruled by the Mughals and Aurangzeb was the emperor when he sent imperial army in pursuit of Guru Gobind Singh. Mai Bhago stopped and challenged them near the pool of Khidrana with her forty Sikh warriors who attained martyrdom in this battle. Guru Gobind Singh Ji took Mai Bhago into his care and later, she was known for being one of his bodyguards, in male attire.

1. Noor Inayat Khan

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan was an Allied Special Operation agent during the Second World War, and was later awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian award of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations. Belonging to an Indian origin, she was born in Moscow and began working as the only radio operator in occupied Paris. Where the average life span of that job was around a month due to heavy World War II chaos and continuous Nazi attack, she, with her amazing skills and bravery, lasted for almost 5 months. Her father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, was a noble Muslim Sufi who was a personal friend of Mahatma Gandhi. She was also the 2nd Class Aircraftwoman in Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She was eventually caught, when a double agent betrayed her to the Nazis, and was moved to the Dachau Concentration Camp and shot dead.

There are many more females throughout the history and mythology whose tales deserve to get adapted in recent movies or comics. We always hope to see them in those mediums so that we can know about their significance in our history. Local legends are always fascinating and sometimes, more thrilling than fairy tales, and they also consist of many female characters who were brave, beautiful and absolute worthy to become the central characters of any productive media. With this dream, we end this list here and take a bow to all those brave warrior-princesses who were famous in their own ways.

Here are some other related lists, you may also like; Top 10 Iranian Queens in History, Top 10 Legendary Worriers in History, Top 10 Less-Known Folklore Creatures.