We Got This Covered’s Top 50 Comic Book/Superhero Movies

Sam Mendes’ sophomore feature is the most formally conventional and arguably the least stylized movie of the list. Despite being complimentary of the comic book source, Mendes took a big departure from the story and its pulpy trappings, elevating it by referring strongly to revered gangster movie classics such as the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America.

That is not to say that Mendes is above the comic, not at all (although fans certainly accused him of it), but the film is heavy with portent and weighty in both its themes and its ornate cinematographic composition (beautifully done by legend Conrad L. Hall). For this story, however, Mendes’ weighty seriousness perfectly matches the tone of the material, or his adaptation of the material, at least. Amongst gangster violence and a hugely cartoonish performance from Jude Law, there is a rather moving, brilliantly observed tale of fathers and sons being told and it is to Mendes’ great credit that these elements don’t over balance each other.

It is also worth mentioning that Road to Perdition features the final onscreen performance of Paul Newman, and it’s one of his finest. For that alone you should check this one out.

It is very rare in the world of movies that we have sequels that are better than their predecessors. However, when looking this list, it seems that superhero and comic book movies are the genre that bucks this trend. Superhero sequels, simply because first films spend a lot of time doing set up, tend to have a lot more depth of character, far more compelling plots and great new actors coming in to play additional characters.

The narrative of X2 is simple: genocidal ex-General wants to rid the world of mutants and the X-Men must stop him, but within that there are themes that are quite profoundly dealt with and the characters you love (particularly Wolverine) get a lot more to do. The mutant metaphor basically represents whatever oppression of ‘minority’ groups you want it to and Singer allows that to be open to the audience, much more than he did with the first X-Men film.

X2 is better written, better directed, better acted and has more intelligence than its predecessor. It is, in its own right, a pretty great film and shows the burgeoning of superhero movies not just being about fist-fights, silly costumes and flashy visual effects, but being about something more profound and rich.

Following the success of Robert Rodriguez’s CGI-heavy adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City, another Frank Miller graphic novel transitioned to the big screen two years later. This time the action moved from the mean streets of violent noir fiction to the more distant past, where shirtless warriors with bulging biceps engaged in vicious, brutal combat. The film had a different director (Zack Snyder), but CGI still played an important role in making the adaptation a faithful recreation of the graphic novel’s aesthetic.

Now we take it for granted that superhero movies are going to feature an overabundance of CGI to make the action look as fantastical as possible, but at the time 300 released it was still somewhat novel of a concept. Of course, with the film having such a unique look, it didn’t take long for other, lesser films to start mimicking its style. Look at the trailer for Hercules: The Legend Begins for one example of a groan-worthy copycat. There’s even a proper sequel due out next year. Let it never be said that Hollywood doesn’t know how to milk a cash cow.

Next time you see a bunch of burly, barely-clothed men engaging in mortal combat in a vaguely homoerotic fantasy setting, remember where it started: with this uncomfortably xenophobic tale of a small band of white Europeans fighting off a horde of dark-skinned invaders from the Middle East.

Guillermo del Toro improves on the already terrific Hellboy with this majestic, imaginative sequel. The Golden Army finds our hero, along with Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz (Selma Blair) battling an evil elf who is determined to raise a lethal mechanical army and destroy humanity with the help of a magical crown. Though markedly less ambitious in a storytelling sense than the first film, The Golden Army is funnier, more confident and filled with visually dazzling action sequences.

Del Toro circumvents the typically derivative nature of comic-book sequels by upping the stakes and providing a surplus of his trademark, darkly poetic visual sophistication. The exquisite detail of the director’s expertly conceived set pieces, paired with Perlman’s award-worthy turn in the lead role, make The Golden Army one of del Toro’s greatest accomplishments to date. And when you consider that his other works include Pan’s Labyrinth, Cronos and Pacific Rim, that’s saying something.

Despite the critical acclaim and specific treatment methods of the films that have come in its wake, and most obviously those as directed by Christopher Nolan, if I’m in the mood to take a trip to Gotham for a few hours I’ll always head to Tim Burton and 1989’s Batman. It’s a curious adaptation for the Caped Crusader – one in which the Joker killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, and one in which Batman seems never to have sworn off killing criminals himself – but it’s so rich in 1980s visual sleaze thanks to Anton Furst’s spectacularly realized Gotham City, which seems to have got lost in time somewhere between the decade it was filmed and the decade the character debuted.

It stars a comic actor in an entirely serious role, it features a soundtrack of original music by Prince to sit alongside a score by Danny Elfman and it establishes Batman as someone who wears black leather in a Gotham where the cops wear black leather. Everything is just such an exaggerated version of what it should be. It manages in more senses than one to contradict key foundational elements in the construction of the character but it all just congeals into one gigantic summer blockbuster with no rearview mirror and the sorely underappreciated Robert Wuhl in a supporting role that should have made him a star.

With the above in consideration and the top billing of Jack Nicholson’s Joker, it’s almost not a Batman film at all, and yet it’s definitely one of my favourite non-animated efforts featuring the Caped Crusader and one that I’ll always go back to.