The Most Obscure DC Comics Characters Who Deserve The James Gunn Film Treatment

James Gunn is quite familiar with the former Charlton Comics cast of heroes and villains that became the property of DC Comics in the 1980s, as Peacemaker was originally a featured antihero from the lineup of Silver Age characters. While Gunn’s “Peacemaker” has introduced a few Charlton-original heroes, including the titular character and Judomaster, there’s plenty more to mine from its world.

We have Captain Atom, an atomized hero who became a god-powered being with projection, absorption, and atomic, energy, and matter manipulation abilities after an experiment gone wrong. Even more enigmatic is The Question, a master detective with a special mask made of bonding gas that helps hide his true appearance; the Steve Ditko creation has become an important DC hero often seen in the world of Batman. If you want to get more colorful, why not the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, a powerless hero who drives a beetle-shaped ship and uses his smarts to craft some impressive weapons and tech? Or fly in the opposite direction with Nightshade, a hero who gained powers from her mother that allow her to manipulate darkness and traverse dimensions through the Land of Nightshades.

Alternatively, suppose the new DCU wanted to be very meta with the original Charlton Comics characters. In that case, it could adapt Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s “Pax Americana,” which thrusts the heroes listed above — the original roster and the inspiration for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ “Watchmen” – into a similar universe to the iconic DC Comics story. Admittedly, the appetite for adapting what “Watchmen” could have been might not be all that high, but that doesn’t mean the Charlton heroes don’t deserve a brighter spotlight.

James Gunn is quite familiar with the former Charlton Comics cast of heroes and villains that became the property of DC Comics in the 1980s, as Peacemaker was originally a featured antihero from the lineup of Silver Age characters. While Gunn’s “Peacemaker” has introduced a few Charlton-original heroes, including the titular character and Judomaster, there’s plenty more to mine from its world.

We have Captain Atom, an atomized hero who became a god-powered being with projection, absorption, and atomic, energy, and matter manipulation abilities after an experiment gone wrong. Even more enigmatic is The Question, a master detective with a special mask made of bonding gas that helps hide his true appearance; the Steve Ditko creation has become an important DC hero often seen in the world of Batman. If you want to get more colorful, why not the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, a powerless hero who drives a beetle-shaped ship and uses his smarts to craft some impressive weapons and tech? Or fly in the opposite direction with Nightshade, a hero who gained powers from her mother that allow her to manipulate darkness and traverse dimensions through the Land of Nightshades.

Alternatively, suppose the new DCU wanted to be very meta with the original Charlton Comics characters. In that case, it could adapt Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s “Pax Americana,” which thrusts the heroes listed above — the original roster and the inspiration for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ “Watchmen” – into a similar universe to the iconic DC Comics story. Admittedly, the appetite for adapting what “Watchmen” could have been might not be all that high, but that doesn’t mean the Charlton heroes don’t deserve a brighter spotlight.