Deadpool has been a roaring success – there’s absolutely no doubt about that. The movie broke a multitude of box office records upon its release in early February of 2016 and has received near-universal acclaim.

Finally giving Ryan Reynolds the opportunity to portray a faithful version of the Marvel comic book anti-hero was a masterstroke by Fox. A franchise is now guaranteed – with a sequel in which Cable will appear already confirmed and in the works.

The first movie was different from typical modern comic book movies, as it was a profanity-fueled, crude, R-rated production that is, undoubtedly, completely unsuitable for children.

That is, of course, a shame, but it worked for the character in question. So, with that in mind, which other comic book characters should be given an R-rated movie, now that we know it can work? Let’s take a look at ten of them.

Evil Ernie

Evil Ernie is a somewhat “out there” entry on this list, but he’s definitely worth including. The character is awesome – as is the concept behind him – and he would definitely make for a highly entertaining movie.

Ernie started out as part of Eternity Comics, and came into prominence when he got his own series with Chaos! Comics and Devil's Due Publishing. He was originally Ernest Fairchild – an abused young boy with an incredible ability to draw future events (what he draws will happen).

After striking a deal with Lady Death herself, he became the undead anti-hero Evil Ernie – a wisecracking, rotting corpse with near-limitless regenerative powers, telepathic abilities, and control over arcane energy. With his sidekick, Smiley the Psychotic Button, he swears and murders his way through life (or death – however you want to look at it).

A movie would certainly take advantage of two of the biggest pop culture crazes right now: comic book movies and zombie horror.

Iron Man

This idea is sure to be controversial – and it would be a shame to deny children the opportunity to see Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man – but there should definitely be some consideration given to giving Tony Stark an R-rated movie, due to the nature of the character in the comic books.

Stark has serious alcohol issues – the extent of which have been nowhere near accurately portrayed in the movies to date – and a drunken, R-rated Tony Stark could actually be quite similar to Deadpool, given the character’s sharp wit.

Perhaps Marvel could wait until the current Marvel Cinematic Universe comes to an end and do Iron Man in an R-rated fashion as a reboot. It would certainly be refreshing.

Then again, there’s a risk of it being so different from the current movies that people might hate it. Tough call, but it would definitely be worth trying.

Bomb Queen

Remember Barb Wire? Pamela Anderson starred as the character in a 1996 movie and it was awful – but isn’t it about time something similar was attempted in the modern era?

Bomb Queen is an awesome character who appeared on panel as recently as 2006. She's an Image Comics property and, as such, would be one of only a handful of characters from Image to receive the live action treatment (Spawn got a movie in 1997 and Witchblade had a television series in 2001-02, for example).

The concept is fantastic - Bomb Queen is an outspoken and witty villain who essentially runs the fictional New Port City as a dictatorship and has removed/banned all superheroes from it - and it would make for an awesome movie. More to the point, given her extremely sexualized clothing and frequent use of sexualized language, it would definitely need to be R-rated.

Whether or not there’d be an audience for it is open to debate, but it’s always worth it to try new things.

Blade

It goes without saying that Blade has, of course, had a very adult trilogy of movies released already (with Wesley Snipes in the titular role). But this was back in the late 1990s and early 2000s – and it’s about time the character was revamped and brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Even though Disney’s influence on Marvel’s movies has resulted in the MCU being mostly child-friendly, Blade would simply have to be an exception to that rule. The cinematic franchise should be given some adult elements, and Blade would be the ideal character to kick that off.

In a world of power, brutality, and supervillains, there’s simply no believable way to avoid bloodshed or swearing. Bring Blade into the MCU – especially now that Doctor Strange is introducing the supernatural side of the franchise – and have him violently tearing through vampires like a hot knife through butter while swearing like a trooper.

Just bite the bullet and do it, Marvel, before DC’s darker movies make you look too popcorny!

Jesse Custer

Jesse Custer is the star of the DC/Vertigo Preacher comic books, which have been adapted for television, but it would be really cool to see him in a movie, as well.

The television series is set to star Dominic Cooper in the lead role, and Seth Rogen helping with development. It looks like an extremely interesting project – but a movie with an R rating would surely be absolutely awesome.

The character’s schtick is that he has been magically imbued with “the word of God”, which means that anyone will do anything he says, without question or argument. A prime example of this, and a fairly obvious reason for an R rating is a scene that appeared in one of the comic books, in which Custer tells a man to “go f**k himself” – which the man subsequently does, in a highly grotesque fashion.

It would certainly be a type of comic book movie that has never been seen before, but it would most certainly have an audience – especially given the upcoming television series.

Justice League Dark

For years, there have been rumors of a Justice League Dark movie. Guillermo del Toro has been poised to direct it for as long as the rumors have been circulating. It would be awesome if the film were finally made and better yet if it merited an R rating.

Not only could it be a very gritty, gory, and dark horror movie, but characters like John Constantine – who has, of course, already had a movie of his own – would get to let loose with their language, as Constantine does in the comic books.

Having such a movie as part of the existing DC Extended Universe would be very refreshing and give the franchise some variation (because, let’s face it, the likes of Wonder Woman and Shazam aren’t going to be R-rated).

It would be in stark contrast to the upcoming Justice League movies and could complement them well.

The Punisher

Okay, so the Punisher has already been given three movies that had adult elements, swearing, and mild gore, but the fact is that none of them were really any good. We’d like to see Frank Castle given a movie worthy of his stature as a comic book icon – and that should be possible now.

Jon Bernthal is portraying the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on television, and will appear in the second season of Daredevil on Netflix. If he proves to be a success – and we believe he will – surely Marvel Studios should consider giving him a movie of a standard that his fans can be proud of?

It would be a great start to see the character fighting alongside the Avengers in the Avengers: Infinity War movies – the heroes of the world need as many allies as they can gather – and if he works on the big screen, give him a movie in Phase Four!

And don’t forget to make it R-rated, Marvel!

Batman

Batman’s movies haven’t always been totally child-friendly but, for the most part, that has indeed been the case – and we think that’s a shame.

The character is the epitome of the dark DC universe, and he operates in an environment where the villains and criminals in play are horrible people who should be behaving in an R-rated manner!

We want to see the Joker peeling his face off and wearing it as a mask, we want to see the scum of Gotham City’s underbelly behaving and speaking like you’d expect the scum of Gotham City’s underbelly to act – and it would also actually be pretty cool to see the goddamn Batman getting so riled up that he acts like a bit of a Batdick for once!

Seriously, an R-rated Batman movie would rock our world. DC and Warner Brothers should seriously consider making one.

Lobo

Truthfully, if there’s going to be one DC comic book character who is given an R-rated movie of his own, it should be the Main Man, the ‘Bo, Master Frag, the Last Czarnian, Mister Machete, Scourge o’ the Cosmos, the Ultimate Bastich, Machete Man, El Cazadores – that’s Lobo himself.

Lobo is essentially a more powerful, intergalactic, DC version of Deadpool. He’s a mercenary with insane healing abilities – he has healed from a pool of blood before – and a movie version could be every bit as good as Ryan Reynolds’ character.

As well as the obvious gore and violence that would come with such a character, Lobo loves to swear – in fact, he likes to make up swear words of his own. A movie in which he did that would be pretty damn hilarious – and there are rumours that one might happen.

Then again, there are also rumours that it could just be a television series. We’d prefer a movie, though.

Wolverine

After the incredible success of Deadpool, the one character that most people are hoping to see in an R-rated movie is Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine – preferably with Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, in it.

Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson berated Jackman’s character throughout his movie, and to see the two interacting on screen – perhaps as foes initially, but then teaming up as allies – would be absolutely awesome.

Wolverine has been toned down for the majority of his X-Men movie franchise adventures – with the obvious exception coming in his X-Men: First Class cameo, when he told Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr to “Go f**k themselves” – but he’s actually a much more brash and crude character in the comic books and a gory, profanity-filled Wolverine offering would be most welcome.

It would be a fitting way to see Jackman sign off from the role too.

What do you think? Which comic book characters do you think should be given an R-rated movie? Have we covered the best ones? Have your say below!