I thought Christopher Reeve was an outstanding Superman, and Hugh Jackman was a great Wolverine.
But in my opinion, the most perfect fit, the character that simply stepped off the pages onto the screen without “reinterpreting” or adding or changing was J. K. Simmons’ turn as J. Jonah Jameson. He looked the part, and he talked just like I had always imagined JJ would sound.
Who’s in second place? 
My personal choice is Billy Campbell as the Rocketeer. But Mark Strong’s Sinestro and Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman are contenders. IMO.
Concur. Simmons owned the role so deeply that - when I owned two newspapers several years ago - I found I was using him as a model for my own behavior.
“He doesn’t want to be famous? I’ll make him infamous!”
I would have a hard time envisioning Tony Stark as anybody but Robert Downey Jr.
From Popeye, about 30 years ago, Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.
Allowing for TV I’d put George Reeves at the top of the list within his own era. Without modern special effects it needed someone who could combine some acting skill and the proper athletic build. In this modern era I’m just not sure, perhaps Jackman as Wolverine is it. It’s certainly not any of the Batmans although maybe Heath Ledger as the Joker giving life to the Dark Knight version of the character.
Patrick Stewart as Professor X. I’m willing to accept Hugh Jackman as Wolverine because he does a terrific job with it, but the character in the comics isn’t that tall, so he loses o points.
Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk.
Well, keep in mind the comic book artists started modeling Professor X on Stewart partly due to the wild popularity of ST:TNG.
What? Seriously? :eek:
Maybe a nudge in that direction. But the character of Professor X was created in 1963 (when Stewart looked like this) and was already pretty well established by 1987 when ST:TNG premiered.
I’m nominating Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass. She did a great job at a young age. She made a pretty unlikely character seem believable.
Since Jack Kirby and Stan Lee originally modeled Tony Stark on Howard Hughes, Downey doesn’t quite fit my image of Iron Man.
Ron Perlman as Hellboy was just about as perfect casting as you can get.
Recently, maybe. In the 1960s, Stan and Jack based Professor X on Yul Brynner, and when John Byrne worked on the title in the '80s he used Keene Curtis as his model.
Whatever else one may think about the *Batman *TV series, Burgess Meredith and Frank Gorshin really did look like the Penguinand the Riddlercome to life.
I think JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is a great example. Looks and sounds exactly like how I thought the character would.
Guys like Hugh Jackman/Wolverine and Downey/Iron Man have done a great job of making the character their own, but there are reasons why they don’t fit the comic characters exactly (even if, for example, I prefer Downey to comic Iron Man). Same for Chris Evans/Captain America and Michael Fassbender/Magneto.
I suppose you could point out Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, but that’s kinda cheating since the Ultimate comics purposely drew Fury to look like SLJ.
I can back Ibn Warraq on this. In the early 90’s, Prof X hadn’t been a regular character in the comic for a while, but they were bringing him back for a relaunch. I remember reading interviews with Jim Lee and Chris Claremont saying that he was going to be a ‘Captain Picard’ type character
I have to go with Downey as Stark. Seriously, he’s the one guy in all of Hollywood who not only looks the part, but has a similar background due to the substance abuse issues. And through four movies he has continually hit the mark dead on.
There have been a lot of very, very good ones. I think Carrey’s Riddler is often underrated. The one that was the biggest surprise for me, though was Nicholson’s Joker. I just could not see Nicholson in the part, but the scene where he’s in surgery and sees himself in the mirror and starts cackling… Even though we hadn’t even seen the makeup job yet, I thought, “That’s him. That’s the Joker.” I’m sorry Heath Ledger fans, in my mind Nicholson portrayed the definitive Joker.
Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Meee-yow.
