2. Thunderbolts

(Marvel Comics)

Not gonna lie, Thunderbolts (created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley) is on here mostly because the Thunderbolts are, bar none, my favorite superhero team of all time. and, while I know they’re probably never getting a film… well, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Here’s the pitch: after the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four have all disappeared (due to a dumb comic book thing you don’t need to know about) a brand new super team emerges: the Thunderbolts. As it turns out, however, these new heroes are not what they seem. In reality, they are the disguised members of super villain team The Masters of Evil, pretending to be heroes with the endgame of world domination. But what happens when some of these villains decide they like being heroes more? What happens when the media grows close to discovering their identities? And how do the best known super villains in the world try to redeem themselves after all of their attempted world domination?

The nigh-200 issue run of the Thunderbolts series answers all those questions while also telling a story of redemption and downfall that flowed from writer to writer and from team to team. There were rumors of a Thunderbolts series in the works at Marvel TV, but for me, this one needs a full movie behind it. But then, with original Thunderbolts leader Baron Zemo set to appear in Captain America 3, maybe we’ll get one.