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100 Essential Superhero Movies
After running this site for a few years where I have been trying to seek out, watch, and review every superhero and comic book movie that I can find, I decided that I wanted to make a definitive list of superhero movies that captured the essence of the range of superhero movies. Going through the decades and choosing the most influential, the biggest disasters, and simply the best superhero movies out there I hope to try and capture what I like to call the 100 Essential Superhero Movies. If you are a fan of superhero movies at all, these are the first ones that you should seek out. Not all of them are great, but when studying history it pays to not just look at the successes, but to also look at the failures. Also, as this list is being made in 2014, only includes movies made through 2013.
Superman Movies # 1 – 8
Marvel Cinematic Universe # 9 – 15
Comedies # 16 – 24
Batman Movies # 25 – 38
Early Marvel # 39 – 46
Animation #47 – 56
Original Heroes #57 – 65
Borrowed Marvel #66 – 72
Indie Comics #73 – 84
100 Essential Superhero Movies by Release Date
- The Superman Animated Shorts 1941-1943
- Superman and the Mole Men 1951
- Batman: The Movie 1966
- The Wild World of Batwoman 1966
- Mr. Freedom 1969
- Super Infra-Man 1975
- Superman: The Movie 1978
- Superman II (The Richard Donner Cut) 1980
- Flash Gordon 1980
- Swamp Thing 1982
- Return of Captain Invincible 1983
- Superman III 1983
- Supergirl 1984
- The Toxic Avenger 1984
- Howard the Duck 1986
- Robocop 1987
- The Punisher 1989
- Batman 1989
- Return of the Swamp Thing 1989
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990
- Darkman 1990
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze 1991
- The Rocketeer 1991
- Batman Returns 1992
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 1993
- The Meteor Man 1993
- Fantastic Four 1994
- The Shadow 1994
- The Mask 1994
- The Crow 1994
- Tank Girl 1995
- Batman Forever 1995
- Men in Black 1997
- Batman & Robin 1997
- Orgazmo 1997
- Spawn 1997
- Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1998
- Blade 1998
- The Iron Giant 1999
- Mystery Men 1999
- X-Men 2000
- Unbreakable 2000
- Blade 2 2002
- Spider-man 2002
- X2: X-Men United 2003
- Hulk 2003
- Daredevil 2003
- Catwoman 2004
- Hellboy 2004
- The Incredibles 2004
- Spider-man 2 2004
- The Punisher 2004
- Constantine 2005
- Sky High 2005
- Batman Begins 2005
- Fantastic Four 2005
- Superman Returns 2006
- TMNT 2006
- Ultimate Avengers 2006
- Hellboy: Blood + Iron 2007
- Doctor Strange 2007
- Ghost Rider 2007
- Superman: Doomsday 2007
- The Incredible Hulk 2008
- The Dark Knight 2008
- Iron Man 2008
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army 2008
- Hancock 2008
- Batman: Gotham Knight 2008
- Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog 2008
- Green Lantern: First Flight 2009
- Watchmen 2009
- Wonder Woman 2009
- Defendor 2009
- Batman: Under the Red Hood 2010
- Megamind 2010
- Super 2010
- Iron Man 2 2010
- Kick-Ass 2010
- Planet Hulk 2010
- Gantz 2010
- Green Lantern 2011
- X-Men: First Class 2011
- Captain America: The First Avenger 2011
- Thor 2011
- All Superheroes Must Die 2011
- Chronicle 2012
- The Avengers 2012
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2012
- The Dark Knight Rises 2012
- Dredd 2012
- Justice League: Doom 2012
- The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 & Part 2 2013
- Thor: The Dark World 2013
- Legends of the Knight 2013
- Iron Man 3 2013
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox 2013
- The Wolverine 2013
- Lego Batman: DC Heroes Unite 2013
- Man of Steel 2013
100 Essential Superhero Movies: Early Marvel
I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. I’ve taken a look at the more recent Marvel Cinematic Universe already, but before they became a movie studio powerhouse partnered with Disney, they tossed around a lot of their characters to other studios with some often disastrous results.
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Filmwhys Extra #9: Blind Spots
Welcome to another episode of Filmwhys Extra, the show between my regular episodes of Filmwhys where I don’t talk about two different movies with a guest, but instead have an interview, a roundtable discussion on a film related topic, or something else entirely. This episode I discussed a major part of the concept of the entire show itself, the Filmwhys or Blind Spot, which is a movie that you’ve never seen but feel like you should have seen already. My guests are Ryan McNeil from The Matinee and Steve Honeywell from 1001Plus. It’s a fun discussion so I hope you will listen.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! Orgazmo
Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better way than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. Today my guest is The Vern from The Vern’s Video Vortex who is taking a look at one of the increasingly few superhero movies I have yet to see for myself, Orgazmo. And to check out his full review of this movie visit his site.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! Flash Gordon
Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 15-20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. But I didn’t want them to have all the fun so today I will be defending the case for the campy sci-fi classic Flash Gordon.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies: The Batman Movies
I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. I started these lists off with Superman and now it’s time to take a look at the other side of the DC coin and the superhero who has the most movies under his belt and that is Batman.
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past 2014
Many people would say that the last good X-Men movie that we got was way back in 2003 with X-2: X-Men United which also happens to be the last film of the franchise directed by Bryan Singer. There was also the franchise re-boot with First Class directed by Matthew Vaughn which also got quite a bit of critical praise, and now we have this movie. Bryan Singer has come back to direct and Matthew Vaughn contributed to the script to bring the worlds of First Class and the original trilogy back together, even though the Last Stand is treated pretty much as if it never actually happened aside from a few memories in Wolverine’s head about what happens to Jean. Not only that, but this storyline is one of the most iconic and revered within the continuity of the X-Men comic, though I only know what was pulled from it for the 90’s cartoon series. Honestly, I loved where they went with this story and thought it was handled masterfully. There are still some holes here and there, but overall it was a fantastic way to tie together the rest of the movies into a slightly more cohesive continuity. There is a lot to cover in this movie, and as usual I’m not going to tread lightly on spoilers so be forewarned.
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The Crow: Wicked Prayer
The Crow: Wicked Prayer 2005
I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for quite a while after re-watching the original Crow and watching the first sequel, City of Angels. But considering how bad the first sequel was and I imagined it went downhill from there I just kept putting it off. But when I was scheduling an upcoming Filmwhys guest, I found out that he had never seen the first Crow, and while I had already covered that movie I finally decided it was time to take on another one of the sequels. I went with Wicked Prayer mainly because for whatever reason, that was the one that was paired with City of Angels on the bargain bin double sided DVD I picked up for this site even though it completely skips the third movie. But as with most of the Crow movies, there is no connection between them aside from the fact that someone is killed in a major dick move and they come back for vengeance, or as the “legend” puts it: “make the wrong things right”. This movie also has some star power backing it up more or less with the likes of David Boreanaz, Tara Reid, Edward Furlong, and Dennis Hopper. After watching the first sequel, it felt like a pale imitation of the original and this fourth one is much more like a hollow mockery of it.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! Superman IV
Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better way than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. Today my guest is Will Kouf from Silver Emulsion Film Reviews who is taking a look at the fourth and final Superman film starring Christopher Reeve.
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Filmwhys Extra #8 Blue Ruin
Welcome to another episode of Filmwhys Extra, the show between my regular episodes of Filmwhys where I don’t talk about two different movies with a guest, but instead have an interview, a roundtable discussion on a film related topic, or something else entirely. This episode I had the pleasure of talking to actor Macon Blair, star of the recent film Blue Ruin which you can watch now on iTunes, about the movie. It’s a fun interview whether you have seen the movie or not.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 