by L.A. Mood Comics and Games

By Dan Brown

They’ve made a ton of superhero movies. 

How many, exactly?

Here's one measure: There are now multiple actors who have played at least two different comic-book characters in their careers.

When Supergirl debuts in theatres on June 26, the list will grow even longer because it features Jason Momoa in a supporting role.

You might be thinking, I see, Supergirl will be teaming up with Aquaman – the underseas hero who Momoa has played in movies like Justice League and the Lost Kingdom.

Nope. 

Momoa now stars as Lobo, the interstellar mercenary, not the dude who can command whales to do his bidding. The DC movie universe rebooted with last summer’s Superman, so Momoa has in front of him a new acting challenge, if that’s the right word.

Nor is he the only one. 

Perhaps the most famous example is Ben Affleck. In 2003, he appeared as brooding Marvel crime-fighter Daredevil. Thirteen years later, he donned the cape and cowl belonging to brooding DC crime-fighter Batman. 

In acting, they call that range.

Ryan Reynolds has technically appeared as three different comic characters: Green Lantern, an early version of Deadpool (in X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and the actual Deadpool we all recognize now. 

In fact, in the latest Deadpool movie, there’s even a joke about the trend of performers appearing as more than one hero when the merc with a mouth mistakes the Human Torch for Captain America, who were both brought to life by Chris Evans.

Other examples of the trend are Karl Urban and Elliot Page. If you include both heroes and supervillains, you can also add Michael B. Jordan and Michael Keaton.

If you’re asking yourself, “So what?” there is a relevant point to be made here.

What the growing list shows is fickle movie audiences are more than willing to give an actor a second chance. They don’t hold a stinky performance against them. Fans of superhero flicks are more than willing to embrace a performer who takes on a new persona.

Green Lantern was a notorious bomb in 2011. Reynolds appearing in that role was clearly a career miscue, yet to this day theatregoers are more than happy to buy tickets to see him as Deadpool.

Same with Affleck – although the Daredevil motion picture was aggressively mediocre, that failure didn’t stop fans from supporting him as the Dark Knight in multiple adventures. Heck, how many superhero/actor portmanteau nicknames are there? I’m talking about “Batfleck.”

No one should be surprised how some actors are making a living by playing “the superhero type.” Exactly how many cowboy roles does Clint Eastwood have on his filmography? Along the same lines, Robert De Niro is the eternal gangster and Noah Wyle has played two different Emergency Room doctors, and has plenty of time left in his career for more.

But perhaps the riskiest comic-book recasting is to come at the end of this year when Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theatres on December 18.

You likely know by now that Robert Downey Jr. – formerly Iron Man — will appear as the titular bad guy, Victor Von Doom. However, no one knows how the creative team making the  movie is going to handle his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Tony Stark's death.

Is this Doom a Stark variant from another reality? Will they even acknowledge that Doom has the same face as Stark? Will the other Avengers recognize him? Presumably he’s going to take his mask off at some point in the upcoming film, so stay tuned to see how Marvel diehards react to whatever plot device the filmmakers decide to use.

As for the inverse of this trend – the Hollywood tradition of superheroes who have been played by more than one thespian – there’s not enough space here to name all of them. Superman alone has been played by, like, a kazillion different guys!

Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.