| Name | Secret Identity | Company | Medium | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Splendor | NA | indy | Movie | Autobiographical comic |
| The Avengers | NA | Marvel | TV (animated) | Primary super hero team of the Marvel Universe. Mainstays include Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. |
| Batman | Bruce Wayne | DC | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | Villians include the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face, Bane, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Clayface, Scarecrow, Man-Bat, and Ra's Al-ghul. |
| Blade | Eric Trinity | Marvel | Movies, TV (live action) | D-level character prior to the first movie, which kick started Marvel's return to the big screen. |
| Bullet Proof Monk | NA | Image | Movie | Barely mentioned in comicdom. |
| Captain America | Steve Rogers | Marvel | Movie, TV (animated) | Created during World War II by Marvel (then Timely). Has had numerous animated shows, and a bad movie in 91. Primary hero in the Marvel universe, and leader of the Avengers. |
| Catwoman | Selina Kyle | DC | Movie, TV (animated) | The movie titled Catwoman has absolutely nothing to do with the Catwoman that is seen in comics. The Catwoman appearing in the second Batman movie in the 90's is more in line with her comic book self. |
| The Crow | Eric | indy, Image | Movies | The series was originally created by the author as a means of getting over his girlfriend's death at the hands of a drunk driver. |
| Constantine | John Constantine | Vertigo / DC | Movie | Based off the comic titled Hellblazer. In the comic, Constantine was a Englishman roaming the world, not a Los Angeles native. Character was created by Alan Moore during his run on Swamp Thing and was meant to resemble the singer Sting. |
| Daredevil | Matt Murdock | Marvel | Movie | Director's cut version is better, as it is not rushed or cut to fit a PG-13 rating. Main rival is the Kingpin. |
| Dr. Doom | Victor Von Doom | Marvel | Movie, TV (animated) | Rival to the Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic from an accident in college, scaring his face, which Doom blames on Reed. Unlike the movie, he wears a suit of armor, is ruler of the fictional European nation known as Latveria, is a highly skilled scientist and a decent magician. His parents were gypsies. Villian in the first Fantastic Four movie. |
| Dr. Octopus | Otto Octavius | Marvel | Movie, TV (animated) | Also referred to as Doc Ock. Villian in the second Spider-Man movie. |
| Elektra | Elektra Natchios | Marvel | Movie | A greek assassin in the comics. |
| Fantastic Four | NA | Marvel | Movie, TV (animated) | Comprised of Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), the Invisible Girl/Woman (Sue Storm/Richards), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm). Had a very bad movie by Roger Corman in 94 that was never released. |
| The Flash | Barry Allen | DC | TV (live action) | Debut of Barry Allen as the second Flash ushured in the "silver age" of comics. |
| The Flash | Wally West | DC | TV (animated) | Seen as a member of the Justice League. Commonly referred to as the modern era/Post-Crisis Flash, as he renamed himself from Kid Flash to Flash after Barry Allen's death in the Crisis of Infinite Earths. No longer the current Flash following the recent Infinite Crisis. |
| From Hell | NA | indy | Movie | Movie was told from a completely different perspective than from the comic, and took several liberties with characters that were based off of real people. Comic was written by the legendary Alan Moore. |
| Ghost Rider | Johnny Blaze | Marvel | Movie | Movie is scheduled for release in 2007. |
| Green Goblin | Norman Osborn | Marvel | Movies, TV (animated) | Main rival to Spider-Man. Father of Norman Osborn (the third Green Goblin). Killer of Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man's first, true love). Villian in the first Spider-Man movie. |
| Hellboy | Anung Un Rama | Dark Horse | Movie | One of the oldest Dark Horse comics to remain in print |
| A History of Violence | NA | Paradox Press / DC | Movie | |
| The Hulk | Bruce Banner | Marvel | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | One of the founding members of the Avengers (but quit shortly thereafter). |
| Iron Man | Tony Stark | Marvel | TV (animated) | One of the founding members of the Avengers. May have a movie in the works. |
| The Joker | Unknown | DC | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | Main rival to Batman. Voiced by Mark Hammil in many of the recent animated shows. Villian in the first of the Batman movies seen in the 90s. |
| The Justice League | NA | DC | TV (animated) | Primarily known as the Justice League of America. Main Super hero team of the DC universe. Mainstays include Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. |
| Kingpin | Wilson Fisk | Marvel | Movie, TV (animated) | Main rival to Daredevil. Is white in the comics. |
| League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | NA | America's Best Comics / DC | Movie | Also referred to as LXG. Members include Mina Murray (of Bram Stoker's Dracula), Captain Nemo (of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), Allan Quartermain (of the novels by H. Rider Haggard), Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde (of Robert Louis Stevenson's short story), and the Invisible Man (of H. G. Wells' novel). Dorian Gray also appeared through out the first comic series, but was not a member of the LXG. A new Invisible Man was used in the movie when they could not secure the rights to Wells' version. Tom Sawyer was added by the movie producers, presumably because an American audience wouldn't care for an all British cast. Movie did not live up to the comic (by Alan Moore) in any sense. |
| Magneto | Eric Lensherr | Marvel | Movies, TV (animated) | Main rival to Professor X and his X-Men. Was held in the Nazi concentration camps. |
| Man-Thing | Ted Sallis | Marvel | Movie | Only appeared in a direct to DVD movie. The character is very similar to Swamp-Thing, whose creator was the roommate of the creator of Man-Thing. The fact that both pitched similar ideas to the two biggest comic companies at the same time was said to be coincidence. Technically, Man-Thing appeared before Swamp-Thing. |
| The Mask | NA | Dark Horse | Movie, TV (animated) | |
| Men in Black | NA | Malibu / Marvel | Movies, TV (animated) | Malibu was purchased by Marvel in between the first and the second movie, and before the animated TV show. |
| The Punisher | Frank Castle | Marvel | Movies | Please ignore the old 89 movie. |
| Robin / Nightwing | Dick Grayson | DC | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | Original Robin, founding member of the Teen Titans/New Teen Titans. |
| Robin | Tim Drake | DC | TV (animated) | Third and current Robin. |
| Sin City | NA | Vertigo / DC | Movie | Based off the comics by Frank Miller. |
| Spider-Man | Peter Parker | Marvel | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | Biggest hero at Marvel. |
| Superman | Clark Kent | DC | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | First superhero to wear their underwear outside their pants. Live action non-self titled shows include Lois & Clark and Smallville. |
| Swamp-Thing | Alec Holland | Vertigo / DC | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | Reinvention of this character by Alan Moore saved him from obscurity. First movie was directed by Wes Craven. The character is very similar to Man-Thing, whose creator was the roommate of the creator of Swamp-Thing. The fact that both pitched similar ideas to the two biggest comic companies at the same time was said to be coincidence. Technically, Swamp-Thing appeared after Man-Thing. |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | NA | Mirage, Archie, Dreamwave, Image | Movies, TV (live action and animated) | The original, Mirage version of the Turtles were created as a parody on the number of comic books that featured mutants (the X-Books) and ninjas, yet was written vastly more violent and more mature than what later made it into mainstream media. A comic book by Mirage still exists using the original versions of the characters, while a TV show featuring the more popular version of the character still exists. |
| (New) Teen Titans | NA | DC | TV (animated) | Teen Titans members include Aqualad (Tempest), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Robin (Nightwing), and Speedy (Arsenal). New Teen Titans members include Cyborg, Nightwing, Starfire, Changeling, Raven. The New Teen Titans cast was used for the Teen Titans animated show, except Nightwing was still called Robin, but was dressed in the Tim Drake Robin costume. |
| V for Vendetta | NA | Vertigo / DC | Movie | The theme of the movie was democracy vs fascism (or liberalism vs neo-conservatism), while the theme of the comic was anarky vs totalitarianism. Comic was written with much more moral ambiguity than seen in the movie by Alan Moore, who thus disapproved of the deviation from his work. After the Wachowski lied about this in a press release, Moore requested his name removed from all publicity for the movie and any monies he would receive to go to the artist of the book. |
| Wolverine | James Hewitt | Marvel | Movies, TV (animated) | Commonly referred to as Logan by his friends (before he remembered his real name). Most popular member of the X-Men, and has even been a member of the Avengers and a temporary version of the Fantastic Four. Main rival is Sabretooth. |
| Wonder Woman | Diana Prince | DC | TV (live action and animated) | Comicdom's most iconic heroine. |
| X-Men | NA | Marvel | Movies, TV (animated) | Members have included Professor X, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Beast, Iceman, Archangel/Angel, Gambit, Rogue, Colossus, Bishop, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and many more. Rivals include Magneto, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, and the Sentinels. |
Because A couple of people I talk to have been confused, and because I was bored, I have compiled a list of many comic book characters that have made their way onto television or the movies. I have also tried to give some basic background information on either the character or the medium they were created it where appropriate. This list only contains movies/television shows where the original medium was a comic book, and does not cover works that have crossed over into comic books (e.g., Aliens, Star Wars, CSI, Nightmare on Elm Street, Buffy).
To clear up any confusion, DC comics has many imprints under it, such as Vertigo, WildStorm, and America's Best Comics. Characters within these imprints never cross over into the main DC universe, with rare exceptions of a few Vertigo characters (mainly because some Vertigo characters use characters that were created before Vertigo was created, such as in the case with Swamp-Thing).
As one might be able to tell, Alan Moore hates when someone makes a movie out of his work.