As always tends to be the case, 2022 was another weird and wonderful year for the humble comic book adaptation, with audiences experiencing plenty of highs and lows along the way. While the debate over which title can be deemed the finest has been raging for months already, Rotten Tomatoes has stepped in to place The Batman on the highest pedestal of all.
To be fair, the aggregation site makes a compelling argument by virtue of reaching its conclusion by the sole method of cold, hard, facts. Of all the superhero blockbusters to emerge, none of them managed to secure a higher rating than the Certified Fresh 85 percent score seized by Matt Reeves’ and Robert Pattinson’s acclaimed reinvention.
As you’d expect, though, it didn’t take more than a second for social media users to weigh in and disagree, even if you won’t be shocked to discover that nobody was out there fighting the good fight for Morbius.
In fact, Jared Leto’s disastrous stint as the Living Vampire came bottom of the pile, just behind Sylvester Stallone’s unremarkable Samaritan. It wasn’t the best year for spandex-clad crimefighters on the big screen in general, with only The Batman, Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever even managing to land a Fresh rating.
Maybe 2023 will provide more consistency across the board, but it’s clear that we’re all just going to have to agree to disagree on The Batman being held up as the cream of the comic book crop.