Video games give us the chance to do things most of us couldn't do in real life, whether it's throwing an 80-yard touchdown pass, piloting a rocket ship or fighting Nazis. So why not go the extra step and give us superpowers?

Alas, the history of video games is littered with the corpses of superheroes who couldn't make the leap from comic book to console. Superman is the most glaring example: The Man of Steel has never starred in a decent game, and many critics consider 1999's "Superman 64" the worst video game ever. Batman, Aquaman, the Fantastic Four and dozens of others have stumbled thanks to developers who spent too much money on licensing the characters and not enough on making playable games.

The superhero curse seems to have lifted lately, though, thanks largely to two PC games: the strategy role-playing game "Freedom Force" and the online RPG "City of Heroes."

And Marvel Comics, in particular, seems to have taken a real interest in making sure its characters are starring in games that live up to their reputations. There are still some duds out there ("Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects" is considerably less than imperfect), but the following three games put the "super" back in "superhero."