I grew up a comic book fan, falling in and out of the habit as I got older. The times in my life where I stopped reading comics didn't have too much to do with the comics themselves (although they probably did at times parallel a downturn in quality in the X-Men, the primary series I collected), but more to do with a lack of funds or my other entertainment options taking up my time. But then they started making movies about comics — more specifically, they started making GOOD movies about comics — and I decided to start reading comics again (albeit in much smaller doses).
So I write this list both as a fan of movies and a fan of comics. Thus, I'm also a big fan of movies based on comic books, when I'm not busy being a big critic of movies based on comics that fail to live up to the source material. This is a list I've been meaning to write for a few years now, and in that time, the list of candidates has only grown. Because the world of comic book adaptations has grown to encompass a nice variety of of genres and types, I felt a bigger list of 20 would lead to a more diverse and interesting collection than would a traditional list of 10. I'll admit, I haven't seen every comic book movie released, but I have seen every one that's been released that I plan on seeing (meaning that if I haven't seen a movie by now, I probably never will, because I've heard it sucks).
But first, I'll clarify what I mean by "comic book movies". For the purpose of this list, a comic book movie is any feature length film whose story and/or characters originally appeared in a comic book (and a comic book includes comics, comic strips, graphic novels, or manga). So films with comic book themes that didn't originate in the world of comics, such as The Incredibles, Unbreakable, or Hancock, don't qualify. Nor do sci-fi-ish properties that originated elsewhere but have since become comic books, such as Transformers.
The other thing I should clarify is what I mean by "top". In this, I'm mostly judging the films by the quality of the films themselves, and less so by how strong they are as adaptations, although that will obviously come into play. The reason this isn't simply a list on the best adaptations is twofold: one, I haven't read all the source material for every comic book movie, and two, some movies don't necessarily adapt one source as much as they borrow from several (that said, if I have read the source material, it would obviously affect my opinion of the film). Other than that, "top" is an amalgamation between "best" and "favourite". And now, on to the list...
Article comments
1 - Dusty Somers
Nice piece. Not sure if I agree with the Spiderman movies ranking so high - first viewing was great, but they haven't held up over time very well for me.
Here's hoping Nolan's third Batman film won't go the way of the Spiderman and X-Men franchises.
2 - Dan Coloman
I Think your list is pretty solid, however you did leave out some pretty good movies.
1. Fantastic Four- rise of the Silver Surfer. Although the first FF movie seemed way too campy and the Doom character was not as menacing as in the comics, it did have a better storyline and more action than the first.
2. Blade- the first movie was the better of the bunch. It had some weak points, but overall very entertaining.
The Punisher(Tom Janes)- not that great, mainly for the Vincent Vega Villan, but the new one for this fall rumors to have Jig Saw, one of the better advisaries.
Dare Devil and Electra- Again, entertaining and somewhat loyal to the book. not my favorite.
Ghost Rider- Not a big Nicholas Cage fan, but I love the fact that They used Peter Fonda and his Easy rider bike in the film.
3 - Andy
I've seen all but two of those (Ghost Rider and Elektra), but must say that none of them were contenders for this list. In fact, I thought Rise of the Silver Surfer was worse than the first Fantastic Four movie.
That said, I am somewhat looking forward to the new re-casted Punisher movie.