The 50 Best Comic Book Movies
By Justin Monroe | Jan 18, 2011 | 6:02 pm | Permalink
We are living in a golden age. As kids in the '80s, we were starved for comic book movies, desperate for even suspicious adaptations like Howard the Duck and Sheena. If you had told us back then that comic book movies would one day be so ubiquitous that we would actually groan at the thought of another Fantastic Four sequel, we would have thought you were crazy. But here we are, two decades later, and comic books are regularly adapted to the big screen, for better or worse. While there are scores of poorly cast, unfaithful shit shows like Daredevil and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hollywood has also hit us off with X2 and The Dark Knight, transcendent adaptations that respect their source materials. With so many eagerly anticipated comic book movies dropping in 2011—Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Green Lantern, to name a few—Complex decided to curate a countdown of the 50 best comic book movies. Hopefully this year's crop is so good that it knocks some of our favorites down a peg, but even if it doesn't, at least we know there will be many more comic movies to come.
By Alex Cox
Rob HaZe February 1st, 2011 at 01:47 PM
What!!!!!!!!!! How does Scott Pilgrim make it to nmber 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and no Kick-Ass??? No Batman Mask of the Phantasm??? No Blade 3 witch began the Ryan Reynolds can do comic movies thing. I love Complex with all my heart but those are my 2 cents
Xoer February 3rd, 2011 at 06:14 PM
your argument is invalidated by mentioning Blade 3 (though i agree Ryan was fantastic in it ONE guy dose not make a film)
Ross February 3rd, 2011 at 07:48 PM
Kick-Ass was original, not based off any comic.
Ellie February 3rd, 2011 at 08:06 PM
ACTUALLY, it was based off the comic 'Kick-Ass'. I kinda can't believe you don't know that. The movie was based on the comic.
bryanb February 3rd, 2011 at 08:07 PM
kick ass was definently a comic before it was a movie!
lumos February 3rd, 2011 at 08:10 PM
kick ass is a comic published in 2009 (not many time before the movie)
Tyler February 3rd, 2011 at 08:13 PM
Kick-Ass the Movie and the Comic were actually being written at the same time with the intention of the comic being turned into a movie.
Parker February 3rd, 2011 at 08:57 PM
and kick-ass was also awful in both forms.
West Archer February 3rd, 2011 at 09:48 PM
Agree.
*sigh* October 15th, 2011 at 12:07 PM
As well as racist. The comic book version, anyway. I was reading the first one and getting into it but started to notice a pattern, wondering "Why are all the antagonists/the people he antagonizes minorities?" then I read some things about the writer (which, granted, could have been spot-on or not). I couldn't keep reading after that; was so disappointed.
chuck January 13th, 2012 at 03:12 AM
The exclusion of Scott Pilgrim and Kick-Ass invalidates this entire list.
Nate February 3rd, 2011 at 02:06 AM
Where is the 1990 Captain America film?
Fr05tE February 3rd, 2011 at 08:56 PM
pleeaaaase tell me ur joking if ur talking about THIS one http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103923/
Paul February 3rd, 2011 at 04:25 AM
Watchmen?
Donny February 3rd, 2011 at 08:46 PM
RIGHT?! I expected to hit number one and see Watchmen pop up because, really, who has brought a comic directly to the screen (with a couple exceptions) like they did with Watchmen. SOOO disappointing.
sam February 3rd, 2011 at 09:36 PM
Answer: Scott Pilgrim.
West Archer February 3rd, 2011 at 09:52 PM
Bringing a comic book directly to the screen doesn't make it a good film. Heck, I have yet to see any literal-adaptation-of-a-novel film that is good. When it says "Best Comic Book Movies", it's implying that the films are based off of some comic book source, but otherwise stand as their own entity.
Nick Pilgrim February 4th, 2011 at 04:01 AM
Anyone who bothered reading SCOTT PILGRIM, instead of just watching this arguably awesome film, would have noticed how far the film sways away from the books 3 to 6. And this makes me love both forms even more, because the story uses both media to their potential. This again has to do with the fact that author Brian Lee O'Malley co-wrote the screenplay with action auteur Edgar Wright. Eavesdrop into these Q&As from Creative Screenwriting: http://traffic.libsyn.com/creativescreenwritingmag/ScottPilgrimvsTheWorldQandA.mp3 and the spoiler bonus questions: http://traffic.libsyn.com/creativescreenwritingmag/ABonusPodcastforScottPilgrimVsTheWorld.mp3
Matt February 11th, 2011 at 04:10 AM
I watched the awesome Scott Pilgrim movie, then decided to buy the box set of Bryan Lee O' Malley's books. I have the DVD, but the books have not come yet.
erik February 3rd, 2011 at 05:17 AM
No Kick Ass??? No Watchmen!??! ANNIE?!?!?!!??!
TomD February 3rd, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Seriously. There's room for 2 Punishers and no Watchmen? The hell's wrong with you?
Linda February 3rd, 2011 at 09:09 AM
The Dark Knight is the best!!!!
josh February 3rd, 2011 at 10:54 PM
Dark knight was terrible. The only good thing about that movie was heath ledger as the joker
Stephen February 5th, 2011 at 08:21 PM
The Dark Knight rocked. It deserved the number one spot.
sam February 3rd, 2011 at 09:45 AM
so i got to the dark knight, wondereed "wait, why isn't this number 1? what else is there? oh yeah, watchmen," thought that was actually a legit choice for number 1, then saw scott pilgrim. really? dark knight and watchmen were fantastic, scott pilgrim vs the world was cute.
Sam February 3rd, 2011 at 09:35 PM
Scott pilgrim was the best representation of a comic book ever made. It combined 7 books seamlessly and captured everything important in the books. After all, that's what this was about, not just having a good movie. I agree that watchmen deserved a spot, but even watchmen didn't stay nearly as close to the comic as scott pilgrim did. plus dark knight's themes were so heavyhanded it was like chris nolan was standing in the front of the theatre shouting at me.
Nathan February 24th, 2011 at 05:52 PM
Fail. Six books.
Quote Me February 3rd, 2011 at 10:10 AM
This is the second time Complex has played out The Dark Knight. First saying Ironman was better than it in Best Movies of 2000s and now saying Scott Pilgrim was better than it? Ironman and Scott Pilgrim are both great, enjoyable films. BUT HOW THE FUCK IS IT BETTER THAN DARK KNIGHT?!!?! It's a complete joke.
This list is crap February 3rd, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Spiderman @ #3 beating Superman??? What the hell Complex??? this List is pure sh!t...also really???Scott Pilgrim? How bad is your taste in comic book movies??? There's no question...you're all idiots.
Andy February 3rd, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Have any of you actually SEEN Scott Pilgrim vs the World? Its a masterpiece!! TDK was awesome, don't get me wrong, but like 99% of the awesome was 1 guy, Heath Ledger. It was ridiculously long, Batman sounded like he had throat cancer, and they killed off the second best character, Two Face, after like 15 minutes of screen time. Definitely not #1 all time.
Lexi February 3rd, 2011 at 08:55 PM
THIS! You are bang on. Every time Batman spoke I actually laughed. Both of the Christian Bale Batman movies are too long and even though Heath Ledger was amazing in TDK I don't think I can bring myself to watch them again. Scott Pilgrim, on the other hand, is definitely re-watchable and I think was done perfectly.
Majetic February 3rd, 2011 at 10:17 PM
I thought that Scott Pilgrim was pretty cool. Sure, everyone else thought it was lame, but it was pretty good. The whole comic book/videogame thing was fun to watch, and it was awesomely epic/epically awesome. But I could do with a faster plot line, I mean how they finished off the 10 X's (I think it was 10?), I was expecting a faster, more satisfaction in the battles, and in some scenes the movie seemed to drag on. But don't get me wrong, it was as inspirational as it was complexly videogamishly awesome.
mulufuf February 3rd, 2011 at 04:26 PM
Wow. Dirt slow server. Ten seconds of advertising before every slide! Super lame. I am out of here...