Daredevil (2003)

Back in the mid-1990s, future ''Harry Potter'' director Chris Columbus considered making a movie about the Marvel Comics crime fighter, a blind lawyer by day who kicks criminal butt in a Beelzebubbish costume by night. It fell apart, and not until Marvel came through bankruptcy proceedings a few years later did the project get a green light, with ''Simon Birch'''s Mark Steven Johnson in charge. ''He doesn't have a Batcave,'' says Johnson of the title character. ''He's not a playboy, he doesn't have a billion dollars. He just lives in this s---ty brownstone by himself, and he's lonely and sad.'' Until he meets his star-crossed soul mate Elektra (Jennifer Garner), whose nighttime ninja costume in the movie bears little resemblance to her revealing red getup in the comics. Garner prefers her black-leather look, since in the comic-book adventures, ''I don't think that girl wears panties,'' she says. Garner and star Ben Affleck did much of their own stunt work for a kick-fight courtship scene, and in general, the movie's combat is more about martial arts than superpowers. ''Daredevil has the radar sense and stuff, but he's kind of a normal person,'' says Affleck. ''And [his enemies] are powerful guys, but they don't have wings or shoot fire.'' (Feb. 14)