Devin Baker takes a look at the Top 25 superhero comic book adaptations of all time.
With the Marvel and DC shared cinematic universes looking to take new leaps and risk in this new decade, it has become ever so clear that superhero and comic book movie adaptations are here to stay and are only going to increase in budget and in volume.
Superhero Comic Book Adaptations
There have already been numerous successful adaptations that will undoubtedly serve as both inspiration and a working point for superhero movies of the future, and so today we’re going to take a look at the top 25 superhero comic book adaptations of all time.
25. Watchmen (2009)
First on our superhero comic book adaptations list is Watchmen.
I get a ton of flack for my constant praise of Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s masterpiece of a graphic novel.
The film is often criticized for sticking too much to the source material, but the source material just happens to be the best graphic novel of all time. For the longest time, the Watchmen graphic novel was considered to be unadaptable for the small or big screen until of course Zack Snyder pulled it off.
Of course the film is not perfect and has its fair share of flaws and controversial shifts in storytelling, but it is a well rounded film and one that is very visually appealing to audiences.
Snyder deserves a great amount of credit for taking on what was undoubtedly a large undertaking and delivering a great story with just as great visuals to accompany it.
Favorite scene: “Do it!” – Rorschach, *Dr. Manhattan casually waves his hand.
24. Superman II (1980)
Coming off the heels of the positively received first film of the man of steel, Superman II went for bigger and bolder and pulled it off in quite some style.
Building off the world and the story set in its predecessor, the stakes were anted up with the inclusion of another villain into the fold in General Zod who much like Lex Luthor wanted the son of Krypton out of the fold for his diabolical plans.
This film was marred with behind the scenes issues from the very start, and was the end of the very short Donner and Reeves Superman series together, and to be clear we’re talking about the Richard Donner’s cut for this list that was released in 2006 with the release of Superman Returns.
However regardless of which version you prefer, this film set the precedent for superhero sequels that followed as well as those featuring multiple villains on screen, and for that sort of influence alone both Reeves and Donner deserve their fair share of credit.
Favorite scene: General Zod takes over the oval office.
23. Batman Returns (1992)
If Richard Donner delivered in his second showing of the man of steel, then you can say that Tim Burton sure did with his second go at the caped crusader.
Batman Returns roughly followed the same footsteps as Superman II in the sense that it really expanded upon and dug deeper into the world and story that its predecessor had already rather successfully built.
Michael Keaton delivered another great performance as the billionaire bat, but Michelle Pfieffer really steals the show as the seductive and troubled Catwoman, and how could we forget about Danny DeVito’s gross but intriguing penguin.
Tim Burton pulled out all the stops for this one, embracing a dark and gothic Gotham with equally weird and wacky characters that inhabit it, that’s what makes this classic memorable and always a fun rewatch.
Favorite scene: The rooftop battle between the Bat and the Cat.
22. Doctor Strange (2016)
Our first Marvel addition to our superhero comic book adaptations list. Doctor Strange.
Doctor Strange followed the same sort of pattern of Guardians of the Galaxy in the way that it introduced us to a new realm of the MCU without focusing on the adventures of the already established Avengers.
The film offered viewers a glimpse into the world of magic and the unknown and featured a brilliant performance by Benedict Cumberbatch as a surgeon whose hands now fail him after a life changing car accident.
Director Scott Derrickson does a great job of taking us into a world of visual and mental illusions that combined with solid and developmental storytelling deliver us one of the better Marvel solo movies to hit screens thus far..
Favorite scene: The reversing time battle with Kaecilius
21. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
After stealing the show in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Tom Holland got his chance to showcase his take on the web slinger just a year later and did not disappoint.
Following the adventures of Peter Parker as a freshman in high school, Homecoming does a really good job of telling its own story apart from the MCU while still making obvious connections to it.
At its core, the film is about a teenage kid who wants nothing more than to be treated like an adult, but it becomes quite obvious that Peter is not ready for that just yet.
This is not an origin story, but more of a coming of age story that is told with great humour and attention to detail in terms of the larger universe that the film exists in.
Not much more could be asked of in the MCU’s Spider-Man debut, and to deliver with such a highly acclaimed first entry in the series is a testament to the A-list cast and fantastic directing talents of Jon Watts.
Favorite scene: The ferry fight scene.
20. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Bringing together the best of both worlds, this time spanning thriller finally gave us the original cast of the X-Men and their younger counterparts on the same screen, and managed to tell a wholesome story encompassing both the past and the future of the X-Men franchise.
Although this movie completely mangled up the timeline for the X-Men films that followed it, it is undoubtedly one of the better entries in a series that has some that are rather forgettable.
Stacked with a cast to die for, a compelling and intricate plot, some of the finer scenes superhero films have to offer, a ton of Hugh Jackman, and one can see why this was the last truly good X-Men film and why it probably should’ve been, outside of Logan of course.
Favorite scene: Quicksilver stops time and shows off his speedster skills.
19. X-2: X-Men United (2003)
After bringing the X-Men to the big screen three years before, Bryan Singer doubled down and delivered a great sequel that really brought the franchise to a new level of popularity and recognition.
The original X-Men cast was packed with talent, and now with the likes of the MCU and the DCEU it’s very easy to forget some of the films that paved the way for such franchises to exist in such a comfortable state that they do today.
If Blade proved that superhero movies could be box office attractions then X2 proved that they could be so much more, and because of that it became clear that the story of the X-Men could be told in many films in the future and with Disney’s acquisition of the characters, were certain there will be many more stories to come.
Favorite scene: Nightcrawler kicking butt in the White House.
18. Deadpool (2016)
Blade was again the first to do it, but Deadpool certainly deserves just as much credit for being the only rated R superhero movie at a time where no one was doing such.
Deadpool is not like any other movie on this list, it isn’t even really a superhero movie and it embraces itself as an outlier and something completely far from the norm.
Cursing and sex jokes, to chopping guys heads off, and making jabs at the studios budget, Deadpool was quite a surprise and one that we’re very glad we got in the end.
Just a year later Logan would mark the second film to embrace the R rating and use it to its storytelling advantage, and because of the success of Deadpool it would not be a surprise if more and more superhero films begin to release R rated films with the appropriate characters and storytelling experience.
Favorite scene: The highway killing spree.
17. Batman Begins (2005)
After the Batman movie franchise was put to bed in ‘97 for reasons we all know, there was a real sense of uncertainty when a new film was announced eight years later, but sure are we glad that Nolan got the chance to revive it in the end.
Sticking with his theme of grounded realism, Nolan brought the lore and awe of one of the most well known and beloved characters to a world that was much like the world we live in.
This being the first in a trilogy of films centered around the caped crusader, Batman Begins is an origins tale and explained how an orphaned billionaire could come to be a night time vigilante in a city filled with crime and corruption.
Often overlooked by the other two films in the trilogy, this series reviving thriller is one of the better to come out of the superhero genre and laid the groundwork for what some consider to be the best trilogy of superhero films.
Favorite scene: The Dark Knight takes names at the dock.
16. Spider-Man (2002)
Sam Raimi took a break from the horror genre to take on the rather daunting task of bringing the web slinger to the big screen, and accomplished said task in an outstanding manner.
Seeing Spider-Man swing through the New York City skyline was a sight to behold, and one that we’d get accustomed to seeing for some time, but at the time it was a marvelous (no pun intended) thing to see.
Spider-Man told a rather complete story that would set itself up for a great sequel and establish itself as a model for Marvel movies of the future including the Spider-Man run the MCU is currently on.
Favorite scene: Spidey and the Green Goblin’s final battle.
15. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
If you watched the first two Thor movies, then you probably didn’t have the highest hopes for the third.
Thankfully the third entry in the series is nothing like the others, and quite frankly nothing like most of the MCU movies out there in general.
Takia Watiti does a fantastic job of adding humor and world building elements to a series of movies that really needed something new, and the pairing of Hulk and Thor served as a fantastic journey and great character development for two of the more underdeveloped and one sided characters in the Marvel universe.
Bringing answers to questions about the whereabouts of two avengers that went unseen in Civil War (2016), the movie also set up bigger moments in the universe and leads right into the next Avengers movie.
Favorite scene: Thor becoming a being of pure lightning on the bifrost.
14. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
The Russo brothers left a massive mark on the MCU and carried it into the stratosphere with the last two Avengers movies, but before that they tackled the man out of time and delivered one of the more fascinating and gritty movies the MCU has to offer.
Following the Captain after the world changing events of the first Avengers movie, this conspiracy themed film radiates cold war spy movie vibes and makes for a thrilling and all encompassing story about who Captain America really is and what he stands for.
The Russo’s had the tough task of telling one of the best Captain America comic book story arcs and delivered in satisfactory fashion, building upon what already made Cap great and showcasing the great chemistry that Chris Evans and Scarlett Johnasson have as well.
Favorite scene: No not the elevator scene, but the beginning boat infiltration.
13. Captain America: Civil War (2016) 
Essentially Avengers 2.5, Civil War was a real turning point for the MCU and marked the debut of two new characters that would later receive their own films, Spider-Man and Black Panther.
The film is the third and the final one of the Captain America trilogy and is its finest as well, as the film manages to tell many stories at once while still centering around the friendship that Cap and Bucky have, all the while shifting the dynamics of the Marvel universe.
Civil War marked the beginning of the end for the Avengers and left the superhero squad in a broken state vulnerable for the future attacks they would endure at the hands of Thanos.
An important story that built upon the relationship between Bucky and Cap as well as Cap and Tony Stark, this trilogy capping film is some of the MCU’s finest work and it showcased that a thrilling character building story could still be told and enjoyed even in a movie that has so much else going on in it.
Favorite scene: Tony takes it to Cap and Bucky.
12. Batman (1989)
After the Superman franchise sputtered with miss after miss, DC looked to another caped hero to take over as their box office magnate, and looked no further did they after Tim Burton took on the enormous task of bringing the caped crusader to the big screen for the first time in some twenty years.
The Batman served as a precursor to the darker and more realistic take on superheroes that we see today, and set the bar for what superhero movies should look like.
10 years before we would see Blade, Batman brought the hopes and dreams of comic book fans to life and set up three more films that would follow in its step before eventually the series was rebooted.
Michael Keaton however, is still considered by many to be the best on screen bat and fans could see him potentially return to that role in the future.
Favorite scene: “I’m Batman!”
11. Iron Man (2008)
Before the MCU was the absolute juggernaut and superhero authority in the film world it was just a studio with zero real film credits looking to make just one good film to start.
Fast forward 12 years later and the MCU is a walking box office stat sheet stuffer, but almost all of this success can be credited to their debut outing in Iron Man which showed fans all over the world that the studio was not only serious, but pretty damn good at making a serious superhero films.
Robert Downey Jr. looked and acted just like Tony Stark from the Marvel comics and quickly became the face of the studio and took it from the floor level to the stratosphere, a place it has yet to come down from.
Favorite scene: “I am Iron Man.”
10. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
After the Avengers rocked audiences and box offices around the world, Marvel had proven that it was not only a powerhouse studio but one that was willing to take big risks as well.
Guardians was the first MCU film that wasn’t part of the trilogy of Cap, Tony, and Thor (not counting hulk), and had a story that at least at that time had nothing to do with those characters and because of that it was a relatively huge risk for a franchise that was building upon their already established characters from phase one.
James Gunn took this challenge and ran with it, giving us arguably the most fun movie of the entire franchise and adding subtle world building elements that would come back full circle later down the line.
This film brought the MCU to outer space and introduced us to a glorious band of misfits that save worlds in their own way, completely different from the Avengers way of doing so.
Favorite scene: The dance off for the fate of the universe.
9. Superman (1978)
Before any other entry on this list saw the light of day, this 70’s classic opened the door for superhero movies of the future and proved that audiences did indeed want to see their comic heroes on the big screen as opposed to just on tv (not counting Adam West).
Christopher Reeve set the model for what a superhero should look and act like, and of course will always be remembered as the original man of steel.
Richard Donner did an excellent job of telling the origin tale of the worlds greatest hero all the while grounding him in his joy and love for humanity.
Reeve managed to pull off both parts of Superman to near perfection, inspiring many as the impenetrable and witty man of steel and at the same time bringing audiences to laughter with the clumsy and socially awkward Clark Kent, a cruel little joke on his view of humans (a story for another time).
Favorite scene: Superman saves Louis Lane and the helicopter.
8. Spider-Man 2 (2002)
Spider-Man 2 is the solo movie the MCU is still trying to chase, it has everything you could ever want in a follow up to an origin story and delivered one of the best superhero scenes of all time.
Sam Raimi did a mighty fine job with Spider-Man 1 and delivered his magnus on the second, telling the story of a Peter Parker who finds his life slipping away from him because of his vigilante activities and as a result decides to hang up the costume and just be Peter Parker.
Of course if that was the whole film it wouldn’t be on this list, so Peter must embark on a journey of self reflection all the while fighting his newest foe who just happens to be his mentor, and at the same time attempt to rekindle the flame between himself and the love of his life Mary Jane.
Toby Maguire establishes himself as the definite version of Spider-Man in this performance, and still has Marvel chasing his and Raimi’s masterpiece of superhero cinema.
Favorite scene: Spiderman webs the train to a halt with all his might.
7. Wonder Woman (2017)
Gal Gadot stole the show as Wonder Woman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and carried that momentum into an impressive solo debut film.
Set in WWII way before any events seen in the DCEU movies, this film allowed Patty Jenkins to tell the story of Diana Prince in its own sort of setting and element.
Wonder Woman marked the first superhero movie to be led by a woman in over a decade at its release, and did not disappoint as it blended great messages of equality and what it means to be a hero regardless of gender into a movie about a woman saving the world from a destructive Greek god.
Wonder Woman is the shining light of the DCEU and is its most well received movie to date, and immediately spawned excitement for a sequel that is expected to drop later this year.
Favorite scene: Wonder Woman runs through no man’s land.
6. The Avengers (2012)
After a culmination of solo movies, character introductions, and massive worldbuilding, Marvel finished off phase 1 on as strong a note as possible with the box office blockbuster that was The Avengers.
The film was a culmination of everything the solo movies had been building up to and setting in motion, with all the cameos and teases coming full circle to create a masterpiece of a film that balances its many different characters and builds upon their solo outings as well.
Joss Whedon did an excellent job of making these personalities clash and eventually mix into a well functioning team capable of preventing the world’s demise, and in doing so he set the standard for what a collective effort of character development and universe building could possibly translate to, as well as telling the world that Marvel was here to stay and dominate the box office.
Favorite scene: The amazing one shot that spans across New York as the Avengers get busy.
5. Black Panther (2018)
Black Panther broke history for all the right reasons when it blew up box offices around the world just two years ago, and because of the unfortunate passing of its star and a real life hero in Chadwick Boseman, the film will always be in a league of its own.
Black Panther is way more than just a movie about another Avenger, it’s a breakthrough for Africans and people of color alike, to see themselves represented on the biggest stage and to see someone who embodies hope and strength that looks like them.
As an African-American male, it meant more than words can describe to see a movie in which the superhero shared the same tone of skin as I do and to have a full cast of others who do the same.
Sending a powerful message and a lasting image for youth around the world, Black Panther is an amazing milestone and a part of the everlasting legacy of Chadwick Boseman.
Favorite scene: “Is this your king?”
4. Logan (2017)
There was no better way for Hugh Jackman to finish his tenure as the Wolverine then to adapt the old man Logan storyline from the comics.
Logan followed Deadpool’s footsteps in embracing the R rating and the film was all the better for it, as Hugh Jackman and James Mangold got to show us a much more gritty and broken version of Wolverine then we had seen in the past.
Logan is a story of Wolverine becoming more than the animal he has always viewed himself to be, as he takes care of the aging and dangerously ill Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and reluctantly takes in X-23 (Dafne Keen).
Not often do we get to see someone out and sort of thank them for giving us such memorable performances, but in its own way that was exactly what Logan was, and fans of cinema, Jackman, and the wolverine were thankful and appreciated how great and gritty this send off was.
Favorite scene: Logan vs X-24 with some help from the mutant kids.
3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The MCU had been teasing the arrival of Thanos since The Avengers debuted in 2012, and although we got to see him in cameos like Guardians of the Galaxy, we never got to really see him in action until Infinity War and he did not disappoint.
A culmination of everything that had occurred in the MCU up to that point, Infinity War showed us a broken Avengers team uniting to stand against the Mad Titan who didn’t seem so mad when he finally heard his motive for his plans of random genocide.
Infinity war marked the first time we got to see the Guardians of the Galaxy meet and interact with members of Avengers as well as the first time the Avengers had seen Thor and Bruce Banner in years.
It’s those details in the storytelling that make this movie special not just its amazing combat scenes, it’s the characters and who they’ve become at this point and how they are able to put their differences aside for the fate of the universe.
Favorite scene: Thor makes his entrance in Wakanda.
2. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
The ultimate fan service movie of all time, Endgame saw the culmination of everything that Marvel had worked on since their debut with Iron Man in 2008.
Following the events of Infinity War, Endgame picked up a little after where it left off and showed the broken heroes seeking vengeance and a way to bring back their foes who had vanished, and after a time jump of five years they got just that.
Of course nothing is ever that simple when it comes to time travel, and the journey through past events in the MCU leads us all back to the Mad Titan once again.
This masterpiece put a capper on the infinity saga that MCU fans had been following for over a decade and for something that is that meaningful for fans this had to deliver something special and memorable as well as be the end of the line for some of the characters we followed.
After watching an Avengers movie in which the heroes we rooted for loss despite all their efforts, we got to end the saga on a note that was sad and heroic at the same time.
Favorite scene: “On your left.”
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
First on our superhero comic book adaptations list is the masterpiece that is The Dark Night.
Nolan’s magnus opa and the standard in not only the superhero genre but in the film industry itself.
Often strictly spoken about because of Heath Ledgers’ legendary performance, The Dark Knight is more than just a cast clicking at extraordinary levels because it’s backed by a story that is doing the same thing.
The Dark Knight excels in areas that other hero flicks don’t because it is relatively grounded in a world where some men really just want to watch the world burn and don’t have any greater plans of world domination or random genocide, and that is something audiences can relate to more in a world where some actions are just are unexplainable and lack any sort of reasonable justification.
It’s a commentary on the society we live in and it hits home even in the face of a man dressed up in makeup being chased around a city by a billionaire bat.
If you haven’t noticed I can go all day on this masterpiece, but in short it’s just one of the best films of all time.
Favorite scene: Batman loses his cool while interrogating Joker.
What is your favourite Superhero Comic Book Adaptations?
