"Are there any characters besides the Marvel line-up?"
Comic book fans all know that this is an overstatement of the facts. There are a host of characters in movies these days. And in the past as well. There is Superman and Batman, but also Hellboy, Constantine, Watchmen (excellent graphic novel series and movie), V for Vendetta (another must see/read), Sin City, along with a host of others.
But basically the big hitters that everyone can recall recently are the Marvel line-up (with the exception of the new Batman Dark Knight series and the Superman retread). DC Comics seems to just be lost in the live action trend. Which brings up an old debate:
Who is better, Marvel or DC?
I think the trend in conversions to movies answers the question in definitive terms. Marvel is king. There are plenty of independents that beat out DC. Take away the Dark Knight, and there is little for DC to hang their hat on. Remove Superman as well and everything else for them falls flat. Because that's the best they have.
To me, the characters of DC are far too over-the-top in general. To cartoonish and simplistic. To one dimensional to be realized in the movie format. That's why DC does so well with taking their line-up and transferring it to cartoons (like the Superfriends or Teen titans). They lend themselves to extremism and lack the depth needed to capture the big screen.
That's not to say the DC writers and artists are bad at what they do. To the contrary, I think they do a great job, given the limitations that they work with. But it does mean that the expectations for all the future DC movies are severely lower, and likely to underwhelm even that.
Put it like this. DC is so weak that the top characters are not getting movies anytime soon. Wonder Woman, one of the old favorites and the most obvious title to hit the big screen (since it was a television show at one time), is still sitting on the sidelines with neither a script nor direction on how to move forward. The same can be said of most of the big DC names. Green Lantern is one of the few to likely be showing up soon, though Aquaman will likely be first.
Yes, Aquaman. A character that is one of the more boring characters to me, especially if he is on land for any period of time. And he will likely be competing with Captain America or Iron Man 3 (possibly Spiderman 4 and/or the Avengers), maybe even Deadpool if the script can be worked out for Ryan Reynolds.
DC is so off the radar that Jonah Hex will be next out of the gate. A character so unknown that it's fanbase ended decades ago. My expectations of the movie can be summarized by the movie's description: a spiritual/supernatural Western. Oh yeah, that just drives people to the theater in droves.
Perhaps the best of the upcoming movies from DC may be the film RED - starring at this point Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis. It's still being developed but it puts both actors in roles (presumably) they are comfortable with. Freeman is likely a retired CIA man and Willis is the assassin out to kill him. Even if the roles are reversed (which is unlikely for Freeman) it still works. But that has more to do with the actors than the storyline, fan base, or the source material it is based on.
Seriously, the proposed Voltron movie (an 80's cartoon that was very likely the entire source and motivation of the Power Rangers) sounds better than almost everything DC has planned so far. Almost combined. Definitely at least as big a fan base, and arguably bigger.
So to answer my earlier 2 questions, there are a lot of characters showing up in movies that are not Marvel based. Many are quite compelling and interesting. Some are even must sees. Especially compared to missteps by Marvel - ie the first Hulk movie and Ghost Rider as examples. It's just that almost all the good ones you will likely ever see or want to own on DVD will be independents or based on another medium (anime, books, video games, ect.)
As for the second question, does DC suck? Oh yeah. They have a few good ideas and titles, but basically they are the 'red-headed step-child' to Marvel. And everybody else. Which is a shame since the potential should be there.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a supernatural Western will do the trick. Maybe everyone wants to watch a guy swimming for 2 hours. It could happen. I just wouldn't go to Vegas and bet on it.
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