25 Comic Characters Who Deserve a Modern Game

You didn't think this list of 25 Comic Characters Who Deserve a Modern Game was going to be nothing but superheroes, did you? Archie's been around for a long, long time, and is stuck in a state of perpetual teen-dom and perpetual love triangularity. The player would have to balance out Archie's love life with Betty and Veronica, make enough money to keep his jalopy working, and keep Jughead full of hamburgers so he doesn't go berserk and start beating people. Archie: The Game would feature multiple endings: one where he ends up with Betty, one where he ends up with Veronica, one where he ends up alone, and one where he ends up with both, otherwise known as The Jackpot.

Even if you're not familiar with the WildC.A.T.S, just looking at their ridiculous acronym/word hybrid of a team name should let you know that these mofos hail from the most xtreme era in comic book history: the '90s. The story is a kitschy mess about aliens, angels, and demons, but ultimately it's the characters that made WildC.A.T.S interesting. Grifter, the team's resident badass gunslinger, was a memorable enough character that he now shows up in the regular DC Comics continuity long after most WildC.A.T.S have been forgotten. A game featuring Grifter and the other C.A.T.S using guns and superpowers to brawl their way from the streets of New York to the Amazon rainforest? Put us down for a pre-order.

The Sorceror Supreme has quite the bevy of spells at his disposal, so an RPG seems like a fitting place for him. Much like the Shin Megami Tensei series, you would have one powerful main character, Doctor Strange, and would use your mystical abilities to traverse the dimensions, battling the evil Dormammu and collecting supernatural creatures as your allies.

Gentle-hearted Swamp Thing is a friend to nature, but God help you if you cross him. Much of Swamp Thing: The Game would see you utilizing your green thumb to help his swamp grow and his plants bloom. You'll keep an eye on the weather, try to raise a variety of plants to increase genetic variance and lead to helpful mutations, and, when your swamp gets threatened by evil mutants or megalomaniacal villains, you'll switch to playing as Swamp Thing directly and beat them down using the powers bestowed to you by nature itself.

We would be remiss in making this list of the 25 Comic Characters Most Deserving of a Modern Game if we didn't include The Sandman, a.k.a Dream, a.k.a Morpheus. Neil Gaiman's famously intellectual comic has a legion of fans and supporters, and, were it to be converted to video game form, a high-concept puzzle game would probably be the way to go. The aesthetics would be trippy and dreamlike, the music gothic, and the cerebral challenges intense.

The blend of horror and the occult found in Constantine would make for a great survival horror in the vein of early Resident Evil. Constantine travels the dank underbelly of London, battling evil and leaving a trail of cigarette butts in his wake. His skills as a con artist would likely fall to the wayside in favor of his predilection for magic, seeing as how conning bad guys doesn't make for captivating gameplay.

This mohawked musclehead fights to keep the mean streets of Chicago clean of the superfreak menace, which is more than enough of a plot hook to send gamers from Wrigley Field to Crown Hall. Savage Dragon's a big dude, and though he's more than capable of using guns, players will probably spend most of their time uppercutting punks right back to the gutters they came from. Each level would close out with a huge boss fight against one of Savage Dragon's "superfreak" foes. And multiplayer? Why, players 2-4 could play as red, yellow, and blue versions of Savage Dragon, each one also named Savage Dragon. (Sometimes you just have to say to hell with continuity in favor of making a fun game.)

Taking a cue from bipolar shooter Ikaruga, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man: The Game would see you alternating between different "Firestorms" as a game mechanic. The superhero is, after all, actually two people combined together to create one super-powered being. Switch to physicist Martin Stein-mode for enhanced use of Firestorm's abilities and a longer super meter. Flip to high school student Ronnie Raymond for faster flying and snarkier wit.

Aquaman's previous video game outing wasc... less than good. It's been a while, though, and Aquaman's gotten a tasty reboot alongside the rest of the DC Universe. No longer is he the broody, bearded, hook-handed hobo Aquaman. Instead, he's a strong-willed, strong-jawed badass with a whole gallery of underwater friends and foes populating his world. So, why not take that premise and make a racing game out of it? Throw the characters into submersible high-speed boats and let them duke it out above or below the water, grabbing items and zapping each other to get that elusive honor of winning first place.

Booyah! A Cyborg game would work best with a huge, open world for the titanium-clad titan to run around in. Like Crackdown, you'd traverse the city, doling out justice wherever it needs doled while growing in power. Unlike Crackdown, however, Cyborg would gain in strength by finding and unlocking superior robot parts. Want to jump farther? Customize the pneumatics in his legs to send him launching farther. Need a bigger cannon? Get one installed in his wrists. Tired of carrying so many snacks around in your pockets, only to have them get squished during combat? Add a mini-mini-fridge into Cyborg's chest for added storage. There's a lot you could do with Cyborg, which is why he's on our list of 25 Comic Characters Who Deserve a Modern Game.