Wither Stands the MCU? — The Top Ten Superhero Movies
Has the MCU ever been great?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a money-making juggernaut for Disney, returning their investment of 4-billion dollars with something edging up to ten times that amount. If they shut down production of Marvel movies right now, it still all would’ve been worth it for The Mouse.
And perhaps they should. The movies are beginning to under-perform. Call it superhero fatigue, political backlash or over-saturation of the market, but the bottom line is that the MCU is dropping from the cultural zeitgeist quicker than Elon Musk can say “X.”
Viewers would like for this to be about quality, but it is not about quality, because these films have, with extremely rare exceptions, never been great. What they have been, and continue to be, is pretty consistently good. Is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) really worse than Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2013)? (Can you honestly remember what happens in “Winter Soldier?”) No, in fact I would argue that the Ant-Man movie is more goofy fun than a lot of those plodding, self-serious, MCU Phase Two and Three films, but I quibble. They’re all consistently “fine.” In fact, their consistency is pretty remarkable. You could spend a worse night than watching any single Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
But are any of them “great?”
I don’t think so.
If we make a list of the ten best superhero films, would a single film from the MCU make it onto the list? Let’s give it a try.
(To head a few things off at the pass, I am ignoring foreign language films here because superhero films from, say, Japan, are a whole different beast. Also, I don’t love the Christopher Nolan Batman films. If you happen to, feel free to push a few of these off the list to make your own.)
Here goes…
10. The Suicide Squad (2021) — Not to bury the lede here, but James Gunn’s first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) film is as close as the MCU comes to greatness and it gets pushed off this list by Gunn’s first film for Marvel’s arch-competitor, DC, which takes all of his greatest assets — vibrant visuals, an absurd sense of humor, a way of pulling the punchiest performances out of his actors — and amps them up to a new level.
And it spawned a terrific TV spin-off as well!
9. X2 (2003) — After Fox’s first, generally successful, foray into the world of Marvel’s most-famous mutants, this film showed up firing on all cylinders. Everything is just SO right here that it’s hard to imagine a better X-film. It’s filled with actors who seem to be born for these roles, with special call-outs in this film to Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler and Anna Paquin’s Rogue. The film grabs on to the larger political messaging of the famous Chris Claremont comics — racism and genocide — and grounds them solidly in the middle of a rip-snorter of an action movie.
This film is just ridiculously fun.
8. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) — After being fired from the, ultimately doomed, Disney-produced “Han Solo: A Star Wars Story” (2018), Chris Miller and Phil Lord masterminded what may ultimately be the comic book-iest of comic book movies. The movie seems to revel in the textures that makeup the actual ink-on-paper look of a comic while treating the film’s editing like some sort of brash pop-art symphony of images.
And through all of this flash, they tell one of the most character-driven superhero stories that has ever graced the cinema screen.
It didn’t hurt that they were smart enough to grab onto Miles Morales, perhaps the single most grounded and interesting character that Marvel comics every created.
6. Incredibles 2 (2018) — There’s a joke, “What’s the best Star Trek Film? Galaxy Quest. What’s the best superhero film? The Incredibles.” Director Brad Bird is a real treasure and his second take on his famous superhero family — the most financially successful Pixar film to date — dares to suggest that our obsession with superheroes might not actually be healthy. Again he shocks the whole genre by brilliantly challenging it.
5. The Incredibles (2004) — A profound and very very funny movie about families viewed through the metaphor of super powers. While this movie functions brilliantly as a superhero narrative on its own, where it shines is its ability to make the audience feel the melancholy and sadness that can slowly infiltrate a modern family. Bizarrely, director Brad Bird has made a grounded and universally familiar story out of characters that are exactly the opposite.
4. Spider-Man 2 (2004) — Toby Maguire and Director Sam Raimi return with a Spider-Man that, once shed of his far too familiar origin story, seems to really find his groove. While we all love Tom Holland’s recent naive take on Spider-Man, never is he more vulnerable than Maguire here. And never has there been a more terrifying super-villain than Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus; Sam Raimi’s horror directing background is in full play here.
Maybe no moment rings more profoundly, achingly, true for this most famous of Marvel characters than his limp body being passed from person to person while one voice cries, “He’s just a kid!”
3. Batman Returns (1992) — Tim Burton was at the height of his considerable powers when he made Batman Returns. While his previous stint with the Caped Crusader had been one of the biggest event films of the 80s, Burton feels far more assured here. He does something that no other director has ever attempted with a superhero film which is to treat it as a lyrical fairy tale. This is “Into the Woods” with pop culture icons and, like that brilliant Stephen Sondheim musical, each playing piece follows its own twisted and befuddling path only to merge together into a tautly woven, emotional, tapestry by the end.
It’s a magnificent kind of storytelling art that has never been duplicated.
2. Superman II (1980) — Miraculously, the conflict and contention behind the production of Superman II somehow worked in its favor. The tempering of, original director, Richard Donner’s more sweeping and mythological Superman with, replacement director, Richard Lester’s comic and pop-cultural talents produced a film that, arguably, became more deeply rooted in the American zeitgeist (“Kneel before Zod!”) than its precursor.
It’s fun and funny and doesn’t lose one ounce of the giddy joy of the first film.
This is the Man of Steel that thrills us as children and from whom we derive hope.
1. Superman (1978) — By today’s standards Richard Donner’s masterpiece can seem a little goofy, languidly paced, square. But that’s part of the joy of it, it takes us away from today’s standards. Donner and his Superman, the late great Christopher Reeve, will hold the door open for you for as long as you need until you are ready to admit that you’d like to come in and find respite there; amongst good people, where good and evil are clearly demarcated, where our frailties can be overcome. Maybe this is all too easy, but if you want an antidote to the anxious, angry, complexities of modern day life, this film is it.
If Lester’s Superman is the one familiar to you from reading comics as a kid, Donner’s is the Superman of your childhood dreams.
So there you are, our picks for the best superhero movies of all time and no, there is no MCU to be seen. Maybe you’re looking at this list and thinking that you don’t like a few of the movies here and that if you just flick one or two off, viola!, the Marvel Cinematic Universe can grab a foothold. Before you do that, though, let’s name a few things that might go on your version of this list before we start dipping into the MCU’s well: Big Hero 6 (2014), The Dark Knight (2008), Unbreakable (2000), Super (2008), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Darkman (1990). Robocop (1987), Logan (2017).
Marvel’s consistent “fine-ness” is probably a lot more difficult than we all think, but nobody’s socks are getting blown off as the novelty wears off and all anyone can talk about is how the special effects seem rushed. (Really, go watch Iron Man again. You’re in for a shock with the special effects.)
The fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe aren’t slipping because the movies are getting worse, they’re slipping because they aren’t doing anything different than what they’ve been doing since 2008 and the novelty has worn off. With a few flashes of inspiration along the way (I’m looking at you both, James Gunn and Taika Waititi!), little else new is under the sun.
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