As The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers rack up profits, it's worth mentioning that they have not always been the most well crafted of movies. Before the Richard Donner 1978 Superman movie followed by the 1989 Batman flick, superhero projects were bastard children of action, science fiction and comedy along with children's entertainment (see Condor Man). I mean, try to pin down the Donner Superman movie for a genre and you'll see disaster and crime drama, romance and fantasy all rolled into one package. With such a mish-mash of styles, playing a colorful square-jawed hero can be poison for an acting career.

The end result is that motion picture studios searching for their Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or other hero may be non-plussed as to what actor could play these parts. Batman is meant to be the pinnacle of human endeavor, but a muscle-bound actor wouldn't work on screen as a level of intensity would be needed. Likewise Spider-Man is both athletic and scrawny, nerdy and handsome, depending on who drew him in the comic book.

How can you cast comic book heroes in a movie? Was Dolph Lundgren, the ideal actor at the time for such a part, a good choice for the Punisher? Is Toby Maguire, the ideal of the John Romita Sr. Peter Parker, a better Spider-Man than Andrew Garfield?

I think that it is interesting to note that this article falls on actor Michael Keaton's birthday. When the comic actor known best for his outlandish performance in Beetlejuice was announced as the lead in the mega Warner Bros. film directed by Tim Burton, he was damned as too quirky and horribly miscast. Opinions vary, but in general he proved the critics wrong by delivering the best depiction of Batman alongside Christian Bale and of course Kevin Conroy.

I think it's very questionable to run a list of actors miscast in comic book movies considering that it is the aftermath of actor Michael Clark Duncan. This gives him a pass since it would be in terrible taste to slam his portrayal as the Kingpin in the Daredevil film. Honestly, the entire film is miscast (from the bewildered Ben Affleck to the smirking over-the-top Colin Farell), so he's not the only problem there.

My point is that while an actor may not be well-suited to play any of these bizarre characters who have been shown in cartoons, comic books, radio dramas and more... that doesn't mean they are wrong for the part.

For an opposing point of view, check out these choices

17. Dolph Lundgren as The Punisher 

Forgot about this one, didn't you? Well, Dolph Lundgren's Punisher was so bad no one would blame you for blocking it out of your memory. Outside of the thrown together plot and the fact that for some inexplicable reason Punisher chose to live in the sewer like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Lundgren's Punisher was a hollow performance and every scene where he was supposed to be angry came off as completely forced. Even the scene where Frank Castle's family is murdered seems somehow empty. People got upset because there was no skull on his chest, but there were many more reasons to hate this Punisher film.

16. Chris O'Donnell as Robin 

"Boo-hoo, I became an orphan at age thirty, please take care of me Batman!" Bottom line here was that Chris O'Donnell was just too old to play Robin. Now, maybe the producers had a problem with Batman taking an eleven-year-old boy and having him fight thugs and murderers on the streets of Gotham, but that is the character, and the idea of a grown man becoming Bruce Wayne's ward was just silly. Chris O'Donnell as Robin was almost as bad as Val Kilmer as Batman.

15. Val Kilmer as Batman 

Speaking of which… Supposedly, Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, said Kilmer was the best Batman. Now, he died before "Batman Begins," so I like to think he would've changed his mind, but, I'll admit, up until "Batman Forever," Kilmer looked the most like Batman should (even with bat-nipples), but he was just so wooden as both Batman and Bruce Wayne it didn't matter. He had no torment, no anger, no inner demons and no personality.

14. Topher Grace as Venom 

Even with putting on some muscle, Topher Grace was way too skinny to play Venom, which I would forgive if his performance was somehow great, which it definitely wasn't. Venom is supposed to be scary and I think if Topher Grace pointed a bazooka at my head he still wouldn't be intimidating. Now, he's hardly the worst part of "Spider-Man 3," I leave that distinction for Sam Raimi, but the Venom from that film fulfills absolutely nothing of what I wanted to see from Spidey's best villain.

13. Halle Berry as Storm 

This was just a bad choice all around. The only thing worse than having a Storm who wasn't from Africa was having Halle Berry try really hard to do some sort of accent in the first X-Men film. She would then, inexplicably, drop her accent in the sequels, but nobody minded because it was so bad the first time around. In addition to being a poor casting choice, she just didn't seem to try that hard and complained about doing X-Men at all; only in the last few years has she said she'd come back and that just seems to be because she isn't getting much work. Oh, and let's not forget "What happens to a toad when it gets struck by lightning?"