The 10 Hottest Comic Book Heroes In Movies

However sacrilegious it might seem to a comic book head for a Hollywood studio to turn his or her beloved book into a big screen blockbuster, the process certainly must have its perks. In addition to seeing the star-spangled shield actually deflect bombs, the portal to Asgard become manifest, and a weakling doctor explode into a massive green monster, fans can also get a 360-degree look at their favorite heroines.

In writer-director Joss Whedon's film adaptation of Marvel's The Avengers, one of our most anticipated movies of the summer, Scarlett Johansson brings to life one of those heroines: Natasha Romanoff, better known as the gun-toting Black Widow, the token beacon of ass-kicking estrogen in the testosterone-fueled team.

With her gratuitously flattering bodysuit and eye-catching fire-red hair, Johansson joins the ranks of the sexiest heroines to be translated on screen. To see where she places among them, simply click through our list of the 10 Hottest Comic Book Heroes in Movies.

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Movie: Red Sonja (1985)

Brigitte Nielsen becomes Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, when a spirit gives her the strength to seek retribution against evil Queen Gedren, who killed her family after Red Sonja wouldn’t sleep with her. While the film is widely criticized for villainizing homosexuality, we also criticize it for giving Brigitte Nielsen a mullet.

Movie: X-Men (2000)

On paper, Jean Grey seems like your crazy high school girlfriend. She knows everything you’re thinking (thanks to her telepathy), she shows interest in other dudes (i.e. Wolverine), and she’s struggling with some identity issues (namely, her evil alter ego, Phoenix). On screen, however, all of her shortcomings are negated when she saves the X-Men team's jet while holding back a massive tidal wave with her telekinesis.

Movie: Supergirl (1984)

When Superman left Earth on a peacekeeping mission, he left Supergirl, a.k.a. Linda Lee, to clean up the mess an evil witch was causing. Yes, she does look like a Barbie playing dress-up in Superman’s clothes, but don’t underestimate her power. Supergirl overcomes the evils of sorcery (a Kryptonian's other weakness besides kryptonite) to save the world from total destruction.

Movie: Watchmen (2009)

Silk Spectre II, also known as Laurel Juspeczyk, is the only superhero on this list whose power is legitimately super attractiveness. She doesn’t need the ability to create force fields or a lasso of truth to fend off evil. Need proof? Simply by being charming, Silk makes the famously apathetic superhuman Dr. Manhattan fall in love with her and convinces him to protect the world from nuclear warfare.

Movie: Elektra (2005)

We thought we saw the last of Elektra Natchios after witnessing her being fatally wounded in Daredevil. Alas! Big studio producers resurrected the ninja assassin, resulting in one of the worst reviewed movies of 2005. Well done, guys.

However, if you tune out every criticism about the film, whether it's the fact that it deviates from the comic or that chimps wrote the script, and Garner isn’t Greek like the original character, you can simply enjoy the idea of the action star in a form-fitting red leather suit expertly wielding a pair of daggers.

Movie: X-Men: First Class (2011)

Mystique wasn’t always a supervillain and played by Rebecca Romijn. The badass after school special that is X-Men: First Class shows us a teenage Raven Darkhölme (Lawrence) being told to constantly disguise her blue scales with a blonde-human-bombshell form by her adoptive brother Professor X (James McAvoy).

Despite Mystique being an original member of the X-Men, it was the would-be nefarious leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who encouraged the troubled Mystique to accept herself and, subsequently, the dark side.

Movie: Catwoman (2004)

Catwoman may not have been comic book fans’ idea of the cat's pajamas, but Halle Berry in the feline unitard caused enough fans to think she was purrfect. We’ll stop making the cat puns because that, in itself, helped lead to Catwoman being commonly called “the worst movie ever made.”

Movie: The Avengers (2012)

If you missed the midnight showing of The Avengers and you’re not a comic book fan, you might be a little behind on the Black Widow conversation. Scarlett Johansson, as Natasha Romanoff, known in Russian assassin form as Black Widow, appeared in Iron Man 2, briefly making fans wonder if Tony Stark would have to choose between two gingers: her or Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). As it turns out, Natasha was there strictly on S.H.I.E.L.D. business: recruiting Stark for the Avengers.

Movie: Fantastic Four (2005)

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby must’ve predicted that a movie of the marvelous foursome would be made one day. With all of Sue Storm’s powers bestowed upon her by clouds of cosmic energy, e.g. creating force fields and turning invisible, Kirby and Lee did not give her the power to also take her clothing along with her invisible transformation. Which, of course, led to the most memorable scene in Fantastic Four 2: Alba getting naked in the middle of an action scene on a bridge.

Movie: Barbarella (1968)

It's easy to mistake Barbarella for a porno movie. The psychedelic film starts in the futuristic world with Barbarella, in which she doesn't know what intercourse is (seriously). While she fights aliens (and progressively rips off more and more of her clothing), she also learns that real sex feels a lot better than the “palm holding” way of the future.

After discovering the joys of coitus, she is almost destroyed by a machine that gives her too much pleasure. By the end of the film, we forget that the original evil was Dr. Durand-Durand and confuse that villain with virginity.