13 Eye-Blasting Facts About Superheroes

The Boys returns to TV this week, so we've been thinking a lot about superheroes. There's Batman of course, whose movies have more twists and logic than we credit them for, as well as some surprising cast members. Over at Marvel, the Spider-Man movies may be secretly tragic, and Hawkeye may be the most powerful hero of all. And then there's the X-Men, whose enduring popularity might offer some lessons to imitators. 

Here's a look back at the facts we learned this week. The links all lead to full articles with much more info, so click every one that interests you, or they'll just make even more superhero movies, showing us no mercy. 

1. Ray Liotta turned down a chance to star in 1989's Batman. 

Fans criticized every single other choice for who'd get to play the role on the big screen, but we think everyone might have actually liked this pick. 

2. Hawkeye has a shockingly impressive record, when it comes to wins and losses. 

Looking just at the movies, he's more successful than any other hero. 

3. Spider-Man: No Way Home has an unintentionally horrifying ending. 

While the movie only shows us what happens to Tom Holland's universe, when we think about it, the final spell must affect other universes as well, with dire consequences for some other beloved characters. 

4. If you find the characterization for Kimiko from The Boys lacking, you should see what the comic did. 

5. Marvel hired lawyers to break its own trademarks. 

To take down a video game that they claimed could potentially copy Marvel characters, the lawyers went into the game and copied Marvel characters, blaming the copying on random players. 

6. Wonder Woman's identity is deliberately left vague for the first hour of Batman v Superman. 

The eventual reveal is supposed to be a twist—in fact, it looks as though they were implying she was a different character, Catwoman. Unfortunately, trailers and announcements told everyone Gal Gadot was Wonder Woman, so this twist stood no chance of succeeding. 

7. DC published The Boys but canceled the relationship after the comic mocked Batman. 

Their version of Batman developed a sexual compulsion that he unleashed on his butler, his kid sidekick, and inanimate objects. 

8. Morbius was going to appear in the very first Blade movie. 

One ending they filmed teased a sequel with him, with the director standing in for the role. 

9. In The Dark Knight, we can see Joker had a different plan originally from the one he carries out. 

This one takes a bit of explanation, but the movie makes much more sense once we realize he never planned to get locked up at all. 

10. And it sure seems like every villain is copying Heath Ledger's Joker, doesn't it?

11. The Harry Potter prequels have the wizarding world now seemingly cribbing off of X-Men.

Yes, every blockbuster franchise will eventually turn into superhero movies.

12. Gotham Knights is yet another Batman-themed TV show that writes around getting to include Batman. 

The one exception to this has been the show Harley Quinn, which focuses on people other than Batman but still casually includes the character, and it works fine. 

13. The first Captain America movie may have killed the lead actor.

It was a 1944 serial, and lead Dick Purcell died a few weeks after filming wrapped up, likely due to strain from the shoot.