I’m not the right person for a superhero movie best-of list. While I enjoyed Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, early Spider-Man and Superman, and particularly the Dark Knight Batman trilogy, much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a mystery to me. I haven’t seen any of the Avengers, Captain America, Deadpool, Thor, Doctor Strange, or Guardians of the Galaxy films. So, let’s go again to the recent Hot Issue of Rolling Stone magazine for their top 25 (see recent post The Best of Netflix: Rolling Stone’s Top 20). I’ll limit my comments to the handful of the movies I’ve seen with quotes from the RS article and let the rest of the list speak for itself. (I’m showing the top 25 as covered in the print edition; the RS online version contains a top 50.)
25. The Rocketeer (1999)
24. Batman Returns (1992) – This weird sequel from Tim Burton was memorable for its casting, Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer in a “wonderfully perverse purr-formance” as Catwoman.
23. Deadpool (2016)
22. Robocop (1987)
21. Doctor Strange (2016)
20. Superman II (1980)
19. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
18. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
17. X2 (2003)
16. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
15. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
14. Spider-Man (2002) The web-swinging scenes alone get this one on the list. CGI allowed filmmakers to duplicate comic-book visuals for the first time. And director Sam Raimi leans into the love story between Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) giving “the world an upside-down kiss that will last forever.”
13. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
12. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
11. The Incredibles (2004) I really liked this one. Brad Bird’s first Pixar movie is “a great addition to superhero toons, with its sly, funny riff on a Fantastic Four-style group as a near dysfunctional nuclear family.” Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, and Bird light up the voice work.
10. Iron Man (2008) Ironman had been around a long time in comic form, but this was the first movie. Robert Downey Jr.’s “wisecracking combination of actor and role turned out to be perfect blockbuster alchemy, paving the way for the MCU to establish the dominant movie franchise of modern times.” (I enjoyed Iron Man 2, too – see previous post which includes a memorable music moment The Top 20 Songs in Movies That Moved, Shocked, and Surprised Us).
9. Wonder Woman (2017) Finally. A female superhero stars in a movie of her own. “Gal Gadot radiates benevolence as the title character – an Amazonian princess armed with a lasso of truth and an unbreakable moral compass – in a way that no actor had managed in a superhero movie since Christopher Reeve.”
8. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
7. The Dark Knight (2008) The Dark Knight trilogy are my favorite superhero movies, with this being the best. (The other two Dark Knight films make the RS top 50). “It’s Heath Ledger’s Joker – played as a stabby late-period Tom Waits, both funny and nightmare-inducing – that truly elevated this into the superhero-movie canon.”
6. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
5. Superman (1978) “This is the superhero film that started it all.” The special effects showed that a man could actually fly. Christopher Reeves is ideal for both sides of the role along with “Margot Kidder’s pitch-perfect Lois Lane and Gene Hackman’s brilliant Lex Luther.” They all reprise their roles in the sequel (# 20).
4. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
3. Logan (2017)
2. Spider-Man 2 (2004) Sam Raimi’s sequel introduces Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus, “Peter Parker’s tragic, mecha-tentacled foe.” The subway train fight set a new standard for set pieces.
1. Black Panther (2018) The masterpiece of the MCU and my other favorite. “It proved that superhero movies could be about something more than just entertainment – they could reflect, refract, and represent the real world around us while still transporting us to some other place entirely. They could be more than just a roller-coaster ride. They could, in fact, be cinema. Wakanda forever.”
Trivia: What is the top-grossing superhero movie of all time? (Hint: It’s on the list)
Answer: Avengers: Endgame (close to $3 billion worldwide)