With high-profile movies like Deadpool, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War, Suicide Squad, and countless others hitting the silver screen this year, it has never been a better time to be a superhero fan. But it hasn’t always been that way for fans of comic book cinema. No, the annals of Hollywood history are littered with the spandex-clad remains of ill-fated comic book movies that wasted away in the Sisyphean nightmare that is feature film development.

So join me on today’s episode of The Dan Cave as we take a tour down memory lane, exhuming the sarcophagi of superhero movies past to take a look at what might have been. From a deeply misinterpreted version of Spider-Man starring Tom Cruise, to Oliver Stone’s vision of Elektra, to the infamous and ultimately doomed Nicolas Cage-starring Superman Lives and beyond, these films paint a deeply strange and wildly different portrait at what could have been the Marvel Cinematic Universe an the DC Extended Universe.

Want even more never-made wackiness? Here are nine more Marvel movies that almost made the grade:

And 6 other DC Comics films that turned out to be too good (or too crazy) to be true:

Which of these films would you most like to have seen? Do you know of others that didn’t make the cut? Share your favorites in the comments below!

—

HT: SuperHeroHype, Vulture, iO9

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. You can follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).