Top 10 Favorite Superhero Film/TV Villains

The time has come, once again, for the newest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This time around, it’s the highly-anticipated return of everyone’s favorite ragtag bunch of intergalactic a-holes, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters this weekend and is sure to provide us with another awesome space adventure set to a kick-ass soundtrack. And in honor of its impending release, today I’ll be doing a Top 10 list that I promised to do two months ago. Back in March, right before the release of Logan, I did a list of 10 of my favorite performances from superhero films and TV shows. However, that list focused entirely on ‘lead performances’, from Hugh Jackman as Wolverine to Chris Evans as Captain America. Today, I’m switching things around and will be discussing my Top 10 favorite villains from superhero films and TV shows. Because for many people, a great villain is just as important as a great hero. And I guess you can say that’s why, as I’ve gone over numerous times before in the past, the MCU has always gotten flak for its villains. However, as I’ve also stated before, I don’t think ‘all’ of the MCU villains are bad; in fact, I’d say some are rather underrated. But, for the record, don’t worry, this list won’t be made up entirely of MCU villains. I’ve got a few DC villains in there as well along with some non-MCU Marvel film villains. And unlike last time, where I didn’t do any specific rankings, this one will be an official ‘Top 10’. So, without further ado, it’s time to discuss the most notable adversaries of our favorite superheroes. These are my Top 10 favorite villains from superhero films and TV shows.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

For this list, I’ve got 5 Honorable Mentions to name. First off, from DC, we have an oldie but a classic; Gene Hackman as Superman’s arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, from the original Superman films. Hackman was excellent in the part, giving the maniacal businessman an enjoyably campy vibe while, from a casting perspective, also giving the first Superman film some legitimacy (in a time before superhero films were as big as they are now) alongside Marlon Brando as Superman’s father Jor-El, hence why the two of them were given top billing over Superman himself, the then-unknown Christopher Reeve. He would then go on to appear in the second and fourth films of the original series, though on the former he did not film any scenes with director Richard Lester after the whole incident that resulted in original director Richard Donner, who directed the first film, getting fired from it. He even provided the voice for the other antagonist in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Nuclear Man… though the less said about Nuclear Man and that film in general, the better. Next up, also from DC, we have the ‘unsung hero’ of The Dark Knight’s fantastic ensemble cast; Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent AKA Two-Face. Obviously, with this film, everyone remembers Heath Ledger as the Joker but Eckhart’s take on the charming district attorney who is slowly driven to madness, especially after he ends up heavily disfigured by an explosion, was equally terrific. His fall from grace was incredibly well-handled and would set the stage for an unforgettable finale in which Batman ends up taking the blame for Harvey’s actions so that he can protect his image as Gotham’s ‘White Knight’ after everything that the city just went through with the Joker.

And now we head over to Marvel with Daniel Bruhl’s turn as Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War. As I noted before, at first I felt that he was the weakest link of the film, namely because he was barely in it. However, because the overarching conflict between the Avengers in that film was so terrifically handled, I felt that this wasn’t that big of a problem. But, upon re-watch, I realized A. that he was better than I initially gave him credit for and B. why a lot of people were viewing him as one of the better villains of the MCU. Now, granted, I don’t want every MCU villain to be like him and have a minimal role in their respective films but, technically speaking, he’s arguably the most successful MCU villain to date. Because while he is taken into custody at the end of the film, he did technically succeed in his goal to tear the Avengers apart to avenge the death of his family, who died during the Battle of Sokovia in Age of Ultron. In short, it was another perfect example of how the events of Civil War were the culmination of everything that has happened so far in the MCU up to that point; in this instance, the Avengers, despite their best intentions, inadvertently created the monster that would end up tearing them apart. His monologue to Black Panther during the climax is particularly chilling (“And the Avengers? They went home.”) Next up, from the first Captain America film (disclaimer: I’m talking about The First Avenger, not the god-awful 1990 film), Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull. Simply put, Weaving was just perfectly cast in the role as his sinister presence was felt throughout the entire film. It’s a shame, then, that it looks like he won’t be returning to the MCU anytime soon. And, finally, from X-Men: First Class, Kevin Bacon as the leader of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw. Like Weaving’s Red Skull, Shaw was a sinister antagonist, with the cool mutant ability to be able to absorb any form of energy and then expel it in the form of devastating energy blasts. Not only that, but he had a big personal connection to Magneto as we see that he was once an associate of the Nazis who conducted experiments on Erik when he was a young prisoner at Auschwitz.

And now, onto the Top 10!

10. BRETT DALTON – GRANT WARD/HIVE (MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D)

First up, we have Brett Dalton’s dual performance as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned HYDRA mole Grant Ward and the ancient Inhuman Hive from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. As many of you know, Marvel Studios’ first foray into television had a rather rocky start. While critical reception was solid (well, if you looked at the show’s Season 1 RT score, at least), audiences were far more critical of the show in its initial run for various reasons which, from what I can gather, range from its attempts to tie into the MCU films to the supposedly bland main characters. And of the series’ initial 6 leads, Brett Dalton got arguably the most flak as Grant Ward, the stern, by-the-book S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is recruited to join the new team of agents led by Phil Coulson tasked with investigating superhuman-related cases following the Battle of New York in the first Avengers. However, I’d argue that Ward had some great moments in the early stretches of Season 1, mainly due to the humor that came at his expense for being so damn serious, like in the pilot episode when he and Coulson are interrogating Skye and Coulson uses truth serum on him instead of her. Apparently, though, that truth serum was fake based on what Ward tells Skye two episodes later. Still, it leads to a funny scene in which Skye and Ward end up switching roles and she ends up interrogating him about everything from his time in the field to whether his grandmother knows about what he does (“Gramsy?”). Another great humorous moment involving Ward occurs in Episode 6, ‘FZZT’, in which a running gag occurs where Fitz and Simmons imitate Ward in a boastful manner (“I’m agent Grant Ward, and I [insert badass move here]”). This then culminates in a charming scene near the end of the episode where, after Ward saves Simmons when she falls from the team’s plane, he even does it himself.

And then came Episode 17, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’, the first episode of the series to come out after Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Thus, because that film revolved heavily around S.H.I.E.L.D., the episode implemented the film’s big twist in which we learn that the organization HYDRA, which Captain America fought during World War II, had infiltrated and taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. And as many will argue, this is the moment where the show effectively redeemed itself after its slow start. It is during this episode where we learn a stunning twist; that Ward was a HYDRA mole working alongside his mentor, John Garrett, played by the late Bill Paxton, who was also revealed to be a HYDRA agent. Thus, the HYDRA twist arguably helped Ward just as much as it did the show itself. After being taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody at the end of Season 1, he became the show’s wild card, leaving both the characters and us, the viewers, unsure of what he’s going to do next. And when he does do something, boy does he not hold back. He kills Coulson’s love interest Rosalind, locks Fitz and Simmons into a medical chamber and launches it into the ocean, resulting in Fitz suffering brain damage when he sacrifices himself to save them, and does many other despicable things to Coulson and co. along the way. In short, he was quite a despicable villain but I’d argue that perhaps the best villains are the ones that we love to hate. And if you ask me, Ward fit that bill perfectly as the diabolical foil to Coulson’s team. And it’s even more of a personal matter because of how closely tied Ward was to the team before the big reveal. Just look at the scene in Season 2 when Fitz confronts the imprisoned Ward over the incident that caused him brain damage.

Ward’s story ultimately came to an end in Season 3, during which he worked to reassemble HYDRA following its collapse over the course of the previous seasons. During the season, he worked alongside fellow HYDRA agent Gideon Malick to bring back the ancient Inhuman Hive, whose worshippers were the original founders of HYDRA, to Earth. Coulson and co. eventually interfered with their plan, with Coulson finally killing Ward on the alien planet Maveth, where Hive was located. However, unbeknownst to them, Hive did end up escaping the planet and had taken over Ward’s body. Thus, with this twist, Dalton changed things up with his performance as he took on this new villainous role. Hive was a more stoic being compared to Ward, always speaking in a calm and collected tone, and Dalton handled this transition perfectly. He was also quite an intimidating threat to Coulson’s team, with the ability to coerce his fellow Inhumans into working for him. As such, one stretch of the season saw Daisy, who Ward was romantically tied to back in Season 1 before the big HYDRA reveal, put under Hive’s control. Thankfully, she was brought back to normal by season’s end and Hive was destroyed before he could take over the world by turning all of humanity into Inhumans. And thus, Brett Dalton’s excellent run on the show came to an end… or did it? Yes, right now, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently amid a story arc set within a virtual world known as ‘the Framework’, which has allowed Dalton to return to the series as the Framework version of Ward, who let’s just say is still very much the Ward that we’ve come to known over the previous seasons though in an unexpected way.

9. WILLEM DAFOE – THE GREEN GOBLIN (SAM RAIMI’S SPIDER-MAN TRILOGY)

While I’m sure that quite a few will write off his performance in Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film as being ‘too goofy’, as well as having an overly cheesy costume to match, I’d argue that Willem Dafoe’s take on Spidey’s classic nemesis Norman Osborn AKA ‘The Green Goblin’ is still an iconic one in the history of the superhero film genre. Yes, that costume is admittedly rather silly, especially when you look at the initial concept art for the character’s costume design. However, Dafoe clearly had a lot of fun in the role; sure, he was completely hamming it up but in a good way. Still, at the same time, he did manage to have a few subtle moments here and there, primarily during scenes with his son, Peter Parker’s best friend Harry. Thus, his death at the end of the first film (by the way, I always love the moment where, right before he gets hit with his own glider, he remarks “Oh…”) would set the stage for the destruction of Peter and Harry’s friendship, as Harry vowed revenge against Spider-Man for the death of his father, even though Spider-Man wasn’t directly responsible for Norman’s death. Of course, this got a lot more complicated when Harry found out that his best friend was Spider-Man in the second film. Thus, during the ending of Spider-Man 2, Dafoe returns in a cameo as he appears to his son in a vision, yelling at him to avenge his death (“AVENGE ME!”). This leads to Harry discovering his father’s Green Goblin equipment and becoming the new ‘Green Goblin’ in Spider-Man 3. Dafoe, of course, would return once more in that film in another cameo/vision, reminding Harry of his vendetta against Peter after being temporarily stricken with amnesia. It goes to show how vital Norman Osborn was to the original Spider-Man trilogy, hence why he lands the Number 9 spot on this list.  

8. JAMES SPADER – ULTRON (AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON)

I can tell that this pick’s probably going to be rather controversial, and that’s for two main reasons. First off, it’d be because, obviously, some people felt that Age of Ultron was a disappointing follow-up to the original Avengers. But, at the same time, it seems like some weren’t expecting the route that James Spader would ultimately take when playing the crazed sentient android, Ultron. The film’s first trailer implied him to be a serious threat, especially given the use of a dreary version of the classic song ‘I’ve Got No Strings’ from Pinocchio. But in the film, while Ultron is still a major threat to the Avengers, Spader ended up giving the character a surprisingly more comedic spin… and yet, I’m totally fine with that as I feel that it made him incredibly memorable. From him temporarily forgetting the word ‘children’ when remarking about how people make… ‘smaller people’, to his immediate apology to Ulysses Klaue after cutting off his arm (“Ooh, I’m sorry… I’m sure that’s going to be okay!”), he’s an absolute riot. I mean, I find it interesting that the previous MCU villain, Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy, got flak for being ‘too serious’ and yet Ultron was given flak for being the total opposite. Expectations, am I right? Seriously, though, like Green Goblin, when given a genuinely serious moment, Spader handles it excellently, like Ultron’s first encounter with the Avengers in which he rambles about how he ‘had to kill the other guy’ [Jarvis] and remarks that they’re all ‘killers’. In short, Spader was excellently cast in the part and while it may not have been what some were expecting, his take on Ultron is undoubtedly an unforgettable one. 

7. MICHAEL SHANNON – GENERAL ZOD (MAN OF STEEL)

Another possibly controversial argument here, but taking the Number 7 spot on this list is Michael Shannon’s take on the notorious Kryptonian warlord, General Zod… and yes, I do kind of prefer his take on the character over Terence Stamp’s more iconic portrayal of Zod in Superman II (and, also, the opening of the first Superman). For the record, nothing against Stamp’s take on the character, as it is genuinely iconic (“Kneel before Zod!”), but I’d argue that Shannon’s version of the character had a bit more depth to him. As much I hate to say it, Stamp’s Zod is perhaps a bit one-note; he’s basically just a simple tyrannical figure hellbent on world domination. Shannon’s Zod, though, is one of the best examples in recent memory of a villain who tries to justify that what he does is for the greater good. In a similar manner to the original Superman films, Man of Steel opens with Zod attempting a coup on the rulers of Krypton. But in this case, he, like his former associate Jor-El, is aware that the planet of Krypton is on the verge of destruction and is also trying to save it. It’s just that, to do so, he attempts to start a new world order that will eradicate the ‘degenerative’ bloodlines that led to Krypton’s ruin. Obviously, that fails and Krypton’s ruling council sentence him and his subordinates to the Phantom Zone, just like Zod and his crew in the original Superman films. And in both cases, they’re ironically spared from the destruction of Krypton. Once freed from his prison, Zod and his cronies then begin anew on their quest to rebuild their race, ultimately coming to Earth and coming into conflict with Jor-El’s son, Kal-El AKA Superman. Cue a big fight in the city of Metropolis culminating in that infamous neck snap scene which isn’t really that big of a deal because Superman literally did the same kind of thing (albeit without snapping any necks, but you get the point) to Zod in Superman II. And while Michael Shannon did not film any scenes for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zod’s body became a crucial plot-point in that film as Lex Luthor used it to create the creature Doomsday.

6. ALFRED MOLINA – DOCTOR OCTOPUS (SPIDER-MAN 2)

As implicated earlier with the Green Goblin, a common plot thread amongst Spider-Man’s adversaries is that many happen to have a personal connection to him in some form. In this case, Dr. Otto Octavius, played by Alfred Molina, is a famous nuclear scientist who also happens to be Peter Parker’s idol. For his latest experiment, Octavius attempts to create a sustainable fusion reactor with the aid of robotic, A.I.-controlled arms. Sadly, the initial experiment goes wrong, resulting in his wife Rosalie’s death and the loss of control over the arms, which are now fused directly to his spine. As such, the arms begin to take on a mind of their own, corrupting him into committing criminal acts so that he can re-do the experiment. Out of all the villains in the Spider-Man films who are referred to as ‘sympathetic’ figures, Octavius is easily the most successful of the bunch. When we first meet him, he is shown to be a brilliant and likable guy who tragically loses everything in a single moment. Ironically, this more sympathetic portrayal is far different compared to how the character is usually portrayed in the comics, and yet here, it works, thanks in no small part to Molina’s excellent performance in the role. He handles Octavius’ fall from grace brilliantly, culminating in his ultimate redemption when he sacrifices his life to prevent the experiment from destroying New York, proclaiming that he ‘will not die a monster’. Plus, the character’s certainly a memorable baddie from a visual perspective thanks to his robotic, tentacle-like arms, hence the nickname ‘Dr. Octopus’. Clearly, a lot of complex visual effects work went into designing the tentacles and those effects still hold up well today. Thus, ‘Doc Ock’ lands the Number 6 spot on this list and, therefore, still stands as the greatest foe that Spider-Man has ever faced on film.

5. GUY PEARCE – ALDRICH KILLIAN (IRON MAN 3)

Ooh, boy… when it comes to MCU film villains, this one’s even more controversial than Ultron and you all know why. Iron Man 3 attracted major blowback from comic book fans over its big bait-and-switch on the identity of the film’s true main villain. Initially, we were all led to assume that Ben Kingsley was playing the role of ‘The Mandarin’, the leader of the terrorist group known as the ‘Ten Rings’ that was directly responsible for Tony Stark’s kidnapping in the first Iron Man film. However, when Tony finally confronted him, we saw that he was, in fact, nothing more than a drunken British actor named Trevor Slattery. The ‘true’ Mandarin (and I use the term ‘true’ loosely as the MCU One-Shot All Hail the King implied that there is indeed a ‘Mandarin’ out there) was, in fact, Aldrich Killian, head of the organization A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) who Tony had crossed paths with years ago at a New Year’s Eve party in Switzerland. Obviously, this was a major deviation from the comics, hence why it was such a controversial plot twist once it became known. I mean, I think it’s safe to say that in recent years, the superhero film genre has been under greater scrutiny to be more faithful to the comics because of incidents like this. And yet, in this case… it works. Now, my best friend and fellow film critic Matthew Goudreau of The Young Folks recently did an editorial on why Killian was, in his opinion, the best MCU villain to date. I’ll be providing a link to that here because, to be perfectly blunt, Matt does a much better job than I’ll ever do at explaining why Killian is such an underrated antagonist. Still, here are my two cents on the whole debacle.

First off, as many have pointed out, it’s probably for the best that they didn’t do a fully ‘comics-accurate’ portrayal of the Mandarin. This is mainly because of the character’s generally racist characterization in the comics being a villain of Chinese descent. Clearly, it was a better idea for writer/director Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce to do something different with the character, which they did. Second, from a story perspective, this twist ends up making Killian one of the most complex villains in the entire MCU. By having Slattery appear on TV as ‘The Mandarin’, he could maintain an anonymous identity as the true mastermind behind the series of explosions caused by his company’s malfunctioning product, Extremis. Instead of it becoming known that Extremis is an incredibly faulty product, Killian has them pegged as terrorist attacks orchestrated by Slattery’s ‘Mandarin’. Thus, this plan of his, as you might have guessed, shares some noticeable similarities to real-life perceptions towards the War on Terror. And yes, during the final battle, he boldly proclaims that ‘he is the Mandarin’ but, again, as All Hail the King points out, clearly, he isn’t and the real Mandarin is out there somewhere. Will we ever see this character in a future MCU film? At this point, it’s unsure but nevertheless, this whole charade that Killian puts on proves to be an unforgettable one and it’s all buoyed by an excellent performance from Guy Pearce in the role. Plus, can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that they managed to keep this whole plot twist secret throughout the entire marketing campaign? In today’s age of social media, where anything about a film could potentially get leaked online, we genuinely had no idea that this was going to happen. It’s just like what Slattery said in one of his performances as the fake Mandarin; truly, we ‘never saw this coming’.

4. TOM HIDDLESTON – LOKI (MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE)

Yeah, some of you probably guessed that good ol’ Loki would make it on this list somewhere. I mean, let’s be honest, most on the internet would argue that Loki is the only real standout villain of the MCU films (emphasis on ‘films’, as we’ll see in a bit). Tom Hiddleston set the bar so dang high with his turn as Thor’s devious adopted brother in the first Avengers film that any other MCU film villain was considered a disappointment if they weren’t even remotely as well-received as Loki was. He basically became the ‘gold standard’ when it came to the MCU’s rogues’ gallery. And yet… he only lands the number 4 spot on this list. Why? Well, possible controversy in 3, 2, 1… I only thought he was an ‘okay’ villain in his first appearance in the first Thor film. Don’t get me wrong, right out the gate Hiddleston proved to be an excellent fit in the role and, therefore, made Loki a very memorable adversary for Thor, especially considering their status as brothers. Plus, his overall scheme in that film, in which he gets Thor banished to Earth and stripped of his powers so that, with him out of the way, he could prove himself worthy to their father, Odin, and become king of Asgard, was at least a solid one. However, once Thor did get his powers back, it seemed like Loki wasn’t much of a challenge for him; in other words, he kind of defeated him rather easily. Thus, I feel that in that film, Loki was more of a memorable villain in terms of his primary characterization, especially once he learns that he was, in fact, the son of the leader of Asgard’s mortal enemies the Frost Giants and that he was adopted by Odin following the big war between the two groups centuries earlier. It’s really a testament to how the Shakespearean overtones imbued by director Kenneth Branagh really helped give a story that could’ve been written off as cheesy some effective emotional depth.

However, at the end of Thor, the post-credits scene revealed that Loki survived his apparent demise when he fell into the abyss following the destruction of Asgard’s source of transportation across the Nine Realms, the Bifrost Bridge. This, of course, set the stage for his return in the first Avengers and, yeah, that was where he really began to stand out. He hits the ground running as soon as he arrives on Earth via a wormhole created by the mysterious artifact known as the Tesseract, claiming that he’s come ‘burdened with glorious purpose’. And, yes, the overall plot of the first Avengers was quite simple; Loki comes down to Earth with an army, the Chitauri, and the Avengers team up to stop him. But, at the same time, Hiddleston imbued the character with, dare I say, a newfound swagger that wasn’t apparent in the first Thor. Thus, it’s easy to see why the character became so popular amongst fans. This led to an increased amount of screen-time in the next Thor film, Thor: The Dark World. However, I think it’s safe to say that this came at the expense of the film’s actual villain, Malekith, resulting in him becoming the worst villain to date in the MCU films. This kind of correlates to my overall thoughts on Loki in the MCU. Yes, he is a great character and, as you could tell from this list and how it is ranked, he is my favorite MCU ‘film’ villain. However, unlike most on the internet, that doesn’t mean that I hold other MCU film villains to what I’d like to call the ‘Loki Standard’. Not every villain needs to be like Loki and ‘too much Loki’, as seen in Thor: The Dark World, isn’t exactly a good thing. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what they do next with the character in Thor: Ragnarok, especially considering that the ending of Thor: The Dark World saw him take control of Asgard over Odin.

3. VINCENT D’ONOFRIO – WILSON FISK (MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL)

While the MCU film villains are constantly subjected to high scrutiny, the villains of Marvel Studios’ Netflix shows have fared much better with critics and audiences. You could say that it’s because the Netflix shows allow for more character development in a 13-episode season compared to a two-hour film. But, either way you look at it, the MCU Netflix villains have become just as popular as Loki, if not arguably more popular, and starting off that trend was Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, known in the comics as ‘The Kingpin’, in Daredevil. D’Onofrio was a perfect fit for the role, being no stranger to villain roles as evident from films like Men in Black and The Cell. When the show needed him to be intense, he brought the intensity in spades (e.g. when he kills a guy by slamming his head in with a car door, beheading him in the process). At the same time, though, there were instances where he could be regarded as a sympathetic character. In the best episode of Season 1, Episode 8, ‘Shadows in the Glass’, we learn that he had a rough upbringing in Hell’s Kitchen and this eventually led to him killing his abusive father. Plus, despite all the criminal acts that he does throughout the course of the show, we even get to see a bit of humanity in him through his blossoming relationship with art gallery curator Vanessa Marianna. Case in point, remember the moment when he frantically tries to keep her alive when she ends up getting poisoned at a gala? Moments like this made Fisk one of the MCU’s most complex villains to date and even though he’s sent to jail by Daredevil at the end of Season 1, he made an unforgettable return midway through Season 2, during which he partook in a brief partnership with Frank Castle AKA ‘The Punisher’ and had an intense confrontation with Matt Murdock. 

2. HEATH LEDGER/MARK HAMILL – THE JOKER (THE DARK KNIGHT/DC ANIMATION)

Yep, you can’t do a list like this without including Batman’s most iconic adversary, the Joker. But wait a second… two Jokers? Yes, I’ll admit I’m cheating a bit here by picking two Jokers instead of one, but I wanted to highlight arguably the two most popular iterations of the Clown Prince of Crime. After all, it really is a testament to the fact that the Joker has been played by numerous actors over the years, both in live-action and animation. And, for the most part, almost all of them have proven to be great in their own unique ways. But for this list, I narrowed it down to two picks, one from the live-action films and one from animation. First up, there’s Heath Ledger’s unforgettable turn in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor though, sadly, it was posthumously earned as he passed away before the film’s release in January 2008. And as we all know, what ended up being one of the last performances of his career would ultimately be one of his best, as he gave Batman a truly intimidating opponent to face in that film. Now, for the record, Jack Nicholson’s equally iconic take on the character in Tim Burton’s first Batman film from 1989 was just as excellent, but I think Ledger’s Joker edges Nicholson’s out by a slight margin and primarily because of his overall characterization. In Burton’s Batman, we knew a lot about Joker before his transformation. Originally, he was Jack Napier, the right-hand man of Gotham’s main crime boss, Carl Grissom, before Grissom betrayed him once he found out that Jack was romantically involved with his mistress Alicia. During a botched raid, Napier crosses paths with Batman and ends up falling into a vat of chemicals, effectively turning him into the Joker that we all know. Not only that but in a deviation from the source material, we learn that he was the one who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, the catalyst that led to him becoming Batman. Thus, these two were responsible for making each other who they are today.

With Ledger’s Joker, though, his origin is completely unexplained. There have been theories that have been spread around the internet, including one that suggests that he’s a former soldier with PTSD (which would explain why he’s so familiar with explosives), but in the context of the film itself, he’s a complete mystery. Just look at his trademark action of telling stories about how he got his scars; they’re different each time. One time, he mentions that they came from an alcoholic father and another time, he talks about a wife who he tried to please after she too got scarred up. Moments like these are why Ledger’s Joker is a much more intimidating figure than Nicholson’s Joker; the unpredictability of his actions makes him terrifying because he’s capable of striking at any given time. Plus, at the end of the day, the Joker technically wins even though he ends up in custody. Because even though Batman tells him that Gotham is full of people ‘ready to believe in good’, he reveals that he still has his ‘ace in the hole’; his successful corruption of Harvey Dent, leading to Dent’s fall from grace as he adopts the persona Two-Face. By proving that even the best people are capable of being corrupted, he will break the spirit of Gotham’s citizens for good once the details of Dent’s actions become known. It’s only through Batman’s decision to take the fall for Dent that this is prevented, at least until The Dark Knight Rises when Bane publicly reveals this lie that Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon had been orchestrating for eight years. Thus, what Ledger and Nolan created became one of the most iconic villains in the history of the superhero film genre.

Now, let’s move over to animation, where there have been plenty of actors who have played the Joker over the years, including Michael Emerson in the two-part adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns and Zach Galifianakis in The LEGO Batman Movie. However, many will agree that the best take on the character came from the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series from the 90’s, where he was voiced by Mark Hamill. Yes, the same man who gave us Luke Skywalker could also be quite the diabolical villain and as fans of Batman: The Animated Series will argue, Hamill was not only the best Joker in animation but arguably the best Joker period. He just absolutely nailed the role, from the mannerisms to the voice; you name it, he brought it and, thus, delivered ‘total anarchy’ every time he appeared. And even after Batman: The Animated Series came to an end, he would go on to play the part in other projects. In the original ‘DC Animated Universe’ that Batman: The Animated Series was a part of, he would also appear in films like Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Many years later, he would partake in one of the character’s most iconic storylines from the comics in the film adaptation of The Killing Joke. It’s a shame, then, that the film didn’t live up to the quality of his performance. Thankfully, there’s also Rocksteady Studios’ critically acclaimed video game trilogy, the Batman: Arkham series. While voice actor Troy Baker played the part in the non-Rocksteady produced outing Arkham Origins, Hamill would return to his iconic role in 2009’s Arkham Asylum, 2011’s Arkham City, and 2015’s Arkham Knight, once again bringing the anarchy and solidifying his status as the definitive animated Joker. 

1. DAVID TENNANT – KILGRAVE (MARVEL’S JESSICA JONES)

While Daredevil is, at the time I’m writing this, my favorite entry in Marvel Studios’ lineup of Netflix shows, the main villain of Season 1 of Jessica Jones, the infamous Kilgrave, takes the Number 1 spot on this list. Because while Vincent D’Onofrio’s take on Wilson Fisk was phenomenal, David Tennant managed to take his antagonist to the next level. How? Well, by being one of the most diabolical villains that the genre has ever seen. First off, there’s his main power of controlling people’s minds. And when he does so, he can force his minions to do some truly messed up things, from committing suicide to killing someone. In the latter case, he does this to Jessica when he forces her to kill a woman who, as it turns out, was Luke Cage’s wife, Reva. Plus, it also becomes clear that he sexually abused her while she was under his control, making him even more despicable. So, with that in mind, it’s a testament to David Tennant’s talents as an actor that he still manages to exude some charisma in the role, namely through some dark humor. Don’t get me wrong, though, this isn’t a case like Wilson Fisk; Kilgrave is still a full-on scumbag at the end of the day. But he’s easily one of the best examples in recent memory of a villain who’s so reprehensible and yet totally commands the screen whenever he appears. And that’s why he ultimately lands the Number 1 spot on this list, as he truly is one of the most intimidating and unpredictable villains that the superhero genre has ever seen.

And those are my Top 10 favorite villains from superhero films and TV shows. Be sure to sound off in the comments below with your favorite villains from the superhero genre, especially if I didn’t bring them up here.

Top 10 WORST Superhero Films (Aside from Batman and Robin)

This weekend sees the release of the first big superhero film of the year, ‘Deadpool’. Starring Ryan Reynolds as ‘the Merc with a Mouth’, a major fan-favorite character amongst comic book fans, many are hopeful that this film will do justice to the character on the big-screen, especially after he was severely misused in 2009’s ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. For those who haven’t seen it, the writers of that film made several changes to Deadpool’s character, resulting in him acting nothing like his comic-book counterpart. It was one of the many issues of that highly disappointing ‘X-Men’ spinoff. With that in mind, today I’ll be doing a list that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now; my Top 10 WORST superhero films of all-time. Because for every great superhero film that has come out over the years, from the MCU films to Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, there have also been some real stinkers that failed considerably in regards to doing their main character(s) justice on the big-screen. Now for the record, I haven’t seen all of the infamous ‘bad’ superhero films, like ‘Blade: Trinity’ or ‘Ghost Rider’. And while quite a lot of people are more than likely to put films like ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, ‘Spider-Man 3’, ‘Daredevil’, and the 2000’s era ‘Fantastic Four’ films on this list given the harsher reception that they’ve gotten from fans, you will not see those films anywhere on here because, yes, I do like those films. Finally, as a way to keep things interesting, ‘Batman and Robin’ will not be included in this list. I’m not saying that it doesn’t deserve to be here but I think that it’s time to point out some of the other lousy superhero flicks that have come out over the years. So without further ado, these are my personal Top 10 worst superhero films of all-time. I don’t have any dishonorable mentions this time so we’re going to get right on to the list. 

The lower half of this list is mostly going to consist of films that I don’t fully ‘dislike’ but are still really disappointing efforts from the genre. And I know for a fact that my Number 10 pick was a severe disappointment for fans of this character.

10. GREEN LANTERN

Before Ryan Reynolds took on what could very well be his first major successful superhero film role with ‘Deadpool’, he had quite a bad run when it came to the superhero films that he starred in. First, there was ‘Blade: Trinity’ and without having seen it, I’m aware that this is an instance where he definitely didn’t help make things better based on the footage that I have seen of him as the overly cocky and rather douche-y Hannibal King. Then he made his first on-screen appearance as Deadpool in ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, where at the very least he proved to be a solid choice for the role. But of course, that film screwed the character over big-time, hence why Reynolds now has a chance to do it right this year with the ‘Deadpool’ film. But his most infamous turn to date in a superhero film was not a Marvel project, but a DC project; 2011’s ‘Green Lantern’. Upon release the film was subjected to extremely negative reviews from critics and just barely made back its massive $200 million budget, which shut down any plans that Warner Bros. had for a sequel. But like how Reynolds was a good choice for the role of Deadpool, he actually did a pretty fine job in the role of Hal Jordan, who takes on the mantle of Green Lantern when the dying Lantern Abin Sur gives him his Power Ring. While there is literally a point in the film where Jordan, rather cowardly, runs away from his duties as a member of the Green Lantern Corps, Reynolds, at the very least, does his best with the lackluster material that he has to work with in this film.

The film even features a particularly standout performance by Mark Strong in the role of legendary Green Lantern baddie Sinestro. However, Sinestro is not the main villain of this film. Instead he spends most of the film just like how he started out in the comics; as a member of the Green Lantern Corps. The ‘villainous’ nature of his character is pushed aside until the post-credits scene, where he takes on the power of fear (via a special Yellow Power Ring) in a sequence that clearly tried to set up a sequel that clearly wasn’t going to happen. The actual main villains of the film are scientist Dr. Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) and the fear-bringing entity known as Parallax… and boy are both of these villains woefully underdeveloped. There’s a bit of potential with Hammond given his connection with childhood friends Hal Jordan and his main love interest Carol Ferris but at the end of the day Hammond does little and just ends up getting killed off, rather harshly I might add, by Parallax who consumes his life force. And as for Parallax, he’s basically just a big CGI cloud that literally gets defeated in like ten minutes. While I haven’t read much of the ‘Green Lantern’ comics, it seems to me like this film really didn’t do much to capitalize on the lore of the franchise, as it spent more time on Earth than it did on the planet Oa where the Green Lantern Corps reside. Pair that with a lackluster script and the questionable choice of Martin Campbell, AKA the guy who brought us two of the best James Bond films of all-time in ‘GoldenEye’ and ‘Casino Royale’, directing the film (though ultimately it isn’t really his fault in regards to how the final product turned out) and you have one hell of a disappointing superhero film. Here’s hoping the upcoming reboot ‘Green Lantern Corps’, set for a 2020 release, turns out better.  

My Number 9 pick goes to the film that sent its franchise on a pretty severe downward spiral that wouldn’t be stopped until 2011 when the franchise’s original director made a triumphant return (albeit not as a director initially but that’s beside the point) that would eventually lead to the franchise’s redemption.

9. X-MEN: THE LAST STAND

As just a regular summer blockbuster, I don’t really ‘hate’ ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ that much, hence why it’s so low on the list. I do think that it’s actually a decently entertaining popcorn flick if you don’t take its place in the franchise that much into consideration. But ultimately it is because of how it serves as an ‘X-Men’ film that makes it such a colossal disappointment. After directing the first two X-Men films, Bryan Singer dropped out of directing this film in favor of ‘Superman Returns’. Ironically that didn’t turn out well for Singer either so he returned to the franchise in 2011 as a writer/producer for ‘X-Men: First Class’. The success of that film led Singer to finally return to the role of director for 2014’s franchise-best effort ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. Now Singer is back in control of the franchise and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is highly anticipating the upcoming ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ that is set to come out this May. But as for ‘The Last Stand’, Brett Ratner was chosen as Singer’s replacement in the director’s chair. Simply put, that proved to be the wrong choice as Ratner, to put it bluntly, definitely wasn’t as good of a director compared to Singer and it definitely showed with ‘The Last Stand’. Ultimately though, the real issue of the film lies within its script. Primarily based on one of the most famous ‘X-Men’ storylines of all-time in ‘The Dark Phoenix Saga’, in which X-Men telepath Jean Grey is corrupted by the power of ‘the Phoenix’, X-Men fans were severely disappointed by how the film handled that iconic storyline.

Instead of just focusing on the ‘Dark Phoenix’ story, the film is a mix of two separate storylines from the comics, the other being ‘Gifted’, which was notably written by ‘Avengers’ director Joss Whedon, where a mutant cure is developed that proves to be very divisive amongst the mutant community. By combining these two storylines into one, the film ends up being a fairly jumbled mess that tries to cover the plots of both storylines in just one film but doesn’t succeed in doing either of them full justice on the big-screen. Not only that, but then there’s also the film’s questionable handling of some of the main characters. Sometimes it severely diminishes the roles of characters like Rogue and Mystique. The former decides to take the mutant cure and is absent for the final battle while the latter is only in the film for a few minutes before she gets affected by the cure and completely abandoned by Magneto, her closest ally. Not only that, but the film even kills off a few characters as well. Cyclops, who’s only in the film for about 10-15 minutes or so, dies as a result of Jean’s powers, as does Professor X when he confronts her in her childhood home. And while these deaths actually could’ve worked in regards to the story, instead they come off more as shock value than anything else. With all of this in mind, it was a good thing that the ending of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ erased the events of both this film and ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ from the series’ canon. Say what you will about the franchise’s rather messed-up continuity prior to the events of ‘Days of Future Past’ but considering the quality of the third and fourth films, I think we can all agree that this was ultimately the best move for the ‘X-Men’ series.

Another superhero film that ended up derailing its franchise takes the Number 8 spot. While not as bad as its immediate successor, it still ended up marking a noticeable drop in quality for the franchise.

8. SUPERMAN III

Decades before the modern era of superhero films and cinematic universes, Richard Donner gave us the first ‘big’ superhero film in 1978 with ‘Superman’, starring Christopher Reeve in the title role of the ‘Man of Steel’. Originally, Donner was also tapped to direct the follow-up as well and because the two films were shot simultaneously, Donner had gotten about 75% of ‘Superman II’ completed before filming went on a temporary hiatus in 1977 so that Donner could have time to get the first film finished in time for its release. However, due to a considerable amount of tension between him and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler over scheduling and budgetary issues, Donner ended up getting kicked off the sequel in 1979 and was replaced by Richard Lester. Lester had recently directed the producers’ 1973 production ‘The Three Musketeers’ and its 1974 sequel ‘The Four Musketeers’, which ironically was another case of a two-part film project, and had been brought in as an uncredited producer to serve as a mediator for the two parties. Obviously things didn’t work out between them and it wasn’t until 2006 when Donner finally got the chance to present his version of the film, ‘Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut’. However, upon initial release, Richard Lester’s ‘Superman II’ still ended up doing pretty well both critically and commercially. As a result, Lester was brought back to direct the next film, ‘Superman III’… and this is where the series officially began to take a severe nosedive in terms of quality. 

When watching ‘Superman II’, you can most definitely notice the difference between the scenes that were shot by Donner and those that were shot by Lester. While Donner handled the material in a more serious manner, Lester’s footage was more comedic in nature. So because Lester was the sole director for ‘Superman III’, the entire film takes on a much campier tone than its predecessors. That’s most evident from the fact that the film stars comedian Richard Pryor in a major role as bumbling computer genius Gus Gorman, so much so that he arguably has more screen-time than Superman. And as for the villain? He’s just a tobacco multimillionaire, whose sister ends up getting turned in a supercomputer… no I am not making this stuff up. That is literally what happens in this film. In short, this is a really, really goofy (and not in a good way) superhero film and there are only two things in it that keep it from being any higher on this list. The first is that Christopher Reeve is still great in the role of Superman despite having lousy material to work with that hinders the potential that comes from the plot-line of Superman being corrupted by false kryptonite and taking on a more sinister persona as a result. The other highlight of the film is the fight in the junkyard between Superman’s evil side and his good side, represented as his alter-ego Clark Kent. But at the end of the day, ‘Superman III’ is still the film that was responsible for commencing the decline for the original ‘Superman’ film franchise… and things would only get worse with the next film.  

There are quite a few superhero characters who have yet to get a well-received film adaptation. The Punisher is one of them and this is one of those failed attempts.

7. THE PUNISHER (2004)

Frank Castle AKA The Punisher first made his film debut in 1989’s ‘The Punisher’, starring Dolph Lundgren in the title role. However, the film, as is pretty much the case with every Marvel film at the time (on a side note, two of ‘those’ films will be appearing later on in this list), never saw a theatrical release, due to its distributor New World Pictures dealing with financial issues at the time. Instead, it was released direct-to-video two years later and ended up faring poorly with both critics and audiences. In 2008, Marvel attempted a more over-the-top take on the character with ‘Punisher: War Zone’, starring Ray Stevenson as Castle. However, while this film did end up getting released in theaters, it too ended up being a critical, as well as financial in this case, disappointment, although it has gained a bit of a cult following in recent years. Thankfully it seems like the Punisher’s losing streak when it comes to his live-action appearances might end soon by means of Jon Bernthal’s upcoming turn as the character on Season 2 of ‘Daredevil’. But as far as ‘Punisher’ films are concerned, Thomas Jane’s performance in the role in 2004’s ‘The Punisher’ is usually regarded as the best take on the character to date performance-wise. Jane’s take on the character was so well-received by both critics and comic book fans that Jane ended up reprising his role in an independent short film that he produced called ‘Dirty Laundry’ that first premiered at Comic-Con in 2012. But as for the official ‘Punisher’ feature-length film that he starred in, it’s quite the mixed bag.

At times, the film is overly depressing. I mean sure that sort of makes sense given Castle’s darker and more tragic backstory but the filmmakers sort of went a bit too far when it came to this idea, especially in the sequences where Castle’s family is murdered as ordered by vengeful crime boss Howard Saint. It also doesn’t help that the film maintains a generally drab color sequence throughout the entirety of the run-time. But then the film tries to liven things up with ‘silly moments’, like a scene where Castle’s flat-mates start dancing to classical music all while Castle is fighting a big Russian hitman in the other room. In short, the film sort of has an identity crisis. It tries to more serious than other comic book films but also attempts to have a few moments of levity on occasion so that the film wouldn’t be entirely somber. Believe it or not, I do appreciate that the film at least tried to lighten up from time to time but ultimately it wasn’t able to succeed in that regard. By comparison, films like ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy were much more successful in regards to maintaining a generally serious tone throughout while still managing to throw in a few moments of comedic levity from time to time to liven things up when necessary. As stated earlier, Thomas Jane truly was excellent in the lead role but ultimately he was let down by a mediocre script and the end result is a fairly misguided take on Marvel’s legendary vigilante.

Just missing the Bottom 5 is the first in a line of attempts to bring one of Marvel’s most iconic superhero teams to the big-screen. Obviously none of them have really worked so far.

6. THE FANTASTIC FOUR (1994)

(For my original review of this film, click Here)

I already talked about this film in my ‘Fantastic Four’ retrospective last summer so I won’t try to repeat myself too much here. Simply put, this is the most infamous example of Marvel’s low-budget attempts to bring their characters to the big-screen in the early 90’s. Produced on just a $1 million budget, the film never saw an official release, either because Marvel never intended to release it or because they didn’t want it to ruin the franchise (You Decide!). And yes, the film’s low-budget nature is obvious throughout. There’s literally a ‘fight scene’ where the sole ‘action’ in the scene is the camera rapidly spinning around to ‘simulate’ the ‘action’. Also, Doctor Doom clearly didn’t have any ADR work done because there are numerous times in this film where he’s completely unintelligible. This Doom is also arguably the weakest superhero film supervillain of all-time as he spends most of the runtime getting his ass kicked or having his plans fail almost immediately after he sets them into motion. At the very least, this film does actually have a decent amount of heart to it. In fact, dare I say it has more heart than any of the subsequent ‘Fantastic Four’ films… and that’s saying a lot. I’m not saying that it’s a ‘good’ film and there are quite a few cheesy moments from time to time, including a scene where Sue and Johnny Storm’s mother literally calls the group ‘The Fantastic Four’. But even with that said, I can at least tell that the cast and crew were putting their all into it despite the limitations that they had to deal with, primarily in terms of budget. And I do legitimately feel bad for them in regards to the fact that this film that they spent a lot of time working on never got to see the light of day until it got leaked onto the internet in crappy quality. Still, there’s no denying that the first ‘Fantastic Four’ was a lackluster outing for Marvel’s First Family. And as we all know, things weren’t going to get better for this franchise in the years to come.

The film that compelled me to finally do this list starts off the Bottom 5.

5. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

Believe it or not, there actually was potential in regards to this ‘X-Men’ spinoff centered on the film series’ most popular character. Wolverine of course had been played perfectly by Hugh Jackman in the previous ‘X-Men’ films, even after some were initially skeptical about a Broadway-trained actor like Jackman taking on the role of the iconic adamantium-clawed mutant. And he’s still great in this film… it’s too bad then that he has lousy material to work with here. This film tries to do a lot in the span of 107 minutes and as a result it pretty much glosses over the entirety of Wolverine’s rather expansive backstory. The end result is a fairly dull superhero film with generic action sequences and woefully underdone CGI, particularly in regards to Wolverine’s adamantium claws. And of course, I’ve already gone over how the film screwed over the character of Deadpool so that’s just an extra issue that the film has. Thankfully, Jackman got the chance to work on a better Wolverine spin-off in 2013 with ‘The Wolverine’, inspired by the famous comic storyline of the same name from 1982 by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. And of course thanks to ‘Days of Future Past’, the events of ‘Origins’ have now been retconned from the series’ canon and I think we can all agree that the series is better off now because of it. But now all eyes are on what is set to be Jackman’s final outing in the most famous role of his career in the upcoming third ‘Wolverine’ solo film. Here’s hoping it ends his phenomenal run as Wolverine in the best way possible.

How ironic. The fourth, and worst, installment of this franchise takes the Number 4 spot.

4. SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE

The original ‘Superman’ film series actually has a fairly identical history to the pre-Nolan ‘Batman’ film series in regards to the overall quality of their first four respective films. The first film in each series was a major critical and commercial hit and both were pretty much responsible for setting a new standard for the genre at the time of their release. Their first sequels, while not as well-received as their predecessors, still did solidly with both critics and audiences. Things started to get a bit more complicated, though, with the third film of each series (note: though in reality I’d argue that ‘Batman Forever’ is actually superior to ‘Batman Returns’) as each saw a drop in critical reception compared to their predecessors. And as for their fourth films… well, ‘Batman and Robin’ and ‘Superman IV: The Quest for Peace’ ended up bringing both of their franchises to a screeching halt and it would be years before either series would make its own big-screen comeback. ‘Superman IV’ was not produced by the Salkinds this time around and was instead produced by Cannon Films. In the 80’s, the company was run by the duo of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who were known for producing a lot of B-movies out of ‘bottom-barrel’ scripts. And as for ‘Superman IV’, Christopher Reeve has gone on record saying that the film was severely affected by budget cuts, with the original budget being cut by more than 50% as a result of Cannon being involved with around 30 other film projects at the time of production. And boy does it show... visible wirework, clearly fake backgrounds, and some laughably bad green-screen effects. And for the record, this is all coming from the franchise that actually made all of that stuff look really good back in its early days.

If you thought the plot of ‘Superman III’ was ridiculous, just wait until you see what happens in ‘Superman IV’. In this film, Superman announces to the world that he’s going to get rid of all of the planet’s nuclear weapons and is then able to do so without anyone stopping him. While all of this is going on, Lex Luthor takes a strand of Superman’s hair, attaches it to one of the nuclear missiles that Superman destroys by throwing them into the sun, and the resulting reaction spawns ‘Nuclear Man’. Do I really to say anything more about this lunacy that is the plot to this film? At the end of the day, I actually think that this film is ‘worse’ than ‘Batman and Robin’. Because at the very least, ‘Batman and Robin’ at least has that ‘so bad it’s good’ vibe going for it as a result of its ridiculously campy nature. ‘Superman IV’ doesn’t really have that same advantage. Sure it’s overly campy as well but it’s much more sluggish in comparison to ‘Batman and Robin’ with its lousy ‘fight scenes’ (a term used fairly loosely in this case), bland storyline that tries to tie in with the Cold War, and the aforementioned piss-poor visual effects. Not even Christopher Reeve could save this from being the absolute worst ‘Superman’ film of all-time and the film that effectively derailed the franchise for nearly two decades until 2006’s ‘Superman Returns’. And while ‘Returns’ did fare better than ‘Superman IV’ from both a critical and commercial standpoint, it too ended up halting the series for a while until yet another ‘reboot’ came out seven years later in the form of ‘Man of Steel’, whose follow-up ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ will be hitting theaters next month.

 ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ is easily one of my all-time favorite superhero films. The same cannot be said for Cap’s previous foray in film. That film in question takes the spot of my Number 3 worst superhero film of all-time.

3. CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990)

Before Chris Evans took on the role of Captain America in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, there was another ‘Captain America’ film that was made in the 90’s. And as you might have already guessed given the other aforementioned Marvel films that came out at that time, like 1989’s ‘The Punisher’ and the 1994 ‘Fantastic Four’ film, it ultimately never saw an official theatrical release. And also like those other films, you can definitely see why when watching it. But ultimately the biggest flaw of the film is how it portrays Cap and his main adversary, the Red Skull. Matt Salinger does a decent job in the role of Cap but the character in this film barely resembles the iconic hero as he has been portrayed in the comics. This Cap spends most of the film running away from danger, getting his red, white, and blue ass handed to him by his enemies, and at one point even steals a car by pretending to be sick, getting out, and then rushing back to the car and taking it once his companion walks over to him… twice! As for the Red Skull, he’s only in that get-up for about… five minutes. After Cap gets frozen in ice for five decades and the film jumps ahead to 1993, he is revealed to have gotten plastic surgery in order to look more ‘normal’. So with that said… why is he still intended to be referred to as the ‘Red Skull’ if he doesn’t have a frigging red skull? Bottom line, when it comes to ‘Captain America’ films, you’re much better off with ‘The First Avenger’ and ‘The Winter Soldier’, as both of those films did a much better job at conveying the true character of the iconic Marvel Avenger.

While the thought of a spin-off film featuring this character had potential, the final result was… well…

2. CATWOMAN

What more can be said about this film that hasn’t already been said before? This easily has to be one of the most disastrous films of all time, and not just in regards to the superhero genre. And like I said before, there really was some potential for this spin-off centering on the iconic Batman anti-heroine Catwoman, especially when considering that this was originally conceived as a spin-off of the Burton era Batman films and was going to have Michelle Pfeiffer reprising her role from ‘Batman Returns’. Obviously that didn’t work out and instead Halle Berry took on the role of an entirely different character named Patience Phillips who, despite having the exact same ‘origin story’ as Pfeiffer’s Catwoman (aka the incredibly ridiculous ‘dying and then resurrected by cats’ plotline), was pretty much nothing like the Catwoman of the comics. And that’s really this film in a nutshell… it has nothing to do with the comics whatsoever and is instead just an overly-sexualized superhero film, right down to Catwoman’s ‘bikini’ costume, with poor CGI (a good chunk of Catwoman’s actions in the film were done with a digital double), lousy writing, and so on and so forth. Halle Berry, at the very least, tries her best to work with this terrible material but that’s really the only positive thing I can say about this film. My advice? Just ignore this ‘strange’ attempt at a film based around the legendary DC anti-heroine and stick with Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway’s far superior turns in the role in ‘Batman Returns’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, respectively.    

And finally, here is my Number 1 worst superhero film of all-time. It does pain me in a way to have to do this, but I have to give the honor to one of the most disappointing films that I have ever seen.

1. FANTASTIC FOUR (2015)

(For my original review of this film, click Here)

(For the second half of my ‘Top 10 Worst of 2015’ list, in which I put this film at the #2 spot, click Here)

I’ve thought about it these past few months and ultimately I did come to the conclusion that the 2015 reboot of ‘Fantastic Four’ is the absolute worst superhero film that I’ve ever seen. And it legitimately disappoints me to have to say that because, as many of you know, I was one of the few people who were actually really looking forward to this film. I was hopeful that this could finally be the first ‘great’ ‘Fantastic Four’ film. After all, it was to be directed by Josh Trank, fresh off of 2012’s superb found-footage film ‘Chronicle’, and contrary to internet opinion, I thought the filmmakers had picked an excellent group of leads in Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell to take on the roles of the Fantastic Four as well as casting Toby Kebbell, fresh off of his great villainous turn as Koba in ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’, in the role of Dr. Doom. But as we all know, the film turned out to be a disaster in every sense of the word. Now for the record, it’s very much clear that Josh Trank was screwed over by Fox in regards to them taking control of the film away from him. The cut released to theaters was clearly a case of a studio trying to salvage the material that it had and failing to do so, from obvious re-shoots (e.g. Kate Mara’s changing hair) to the fact that the film literally skips over an entire year of what could’ve been quality character development for the characters. But that doesn’t mean that Josh Trank is entirely off the hook when it comes to some of this film’s biggest issues.

Apparently he was the one who was responsible for the film’s dour tone and telling the cast to be as dull as possible in regards to their performances. As a result, the film is a complete downer of an affair, which is definitely not something that you want to see in a superhero film. It’s also an incredibly dull superhero film as well, with the only major ‘action sequence’, and a lame one at that, occurring at the very end of the film. As for the Four themselves, they may be played by a talented group of actors/actresses but they never once display the characteristics of the heroes that they’re playing. It doesn’t help that they spend most of the film apart from each other and only appear together on-screen at, you guessed it, the very end. And then there’s Doctor Doom, arguably Marvel’s greatest villain… who’s yet to be done right on film, from the wuss Doom of the ’94 film to Julian McMahon being severely miscast as Doom in the ’05 film and now Toby Kebbell’s underused and underdeveloped Doom in this film. In short, this is easily the worst ‘Fantastic Four’ to date. You know this film is bad when the un-released 1994 ‘Fantastic Four’ film isn’t as bad by comparison. And at the end of the day, it really does disappoint me that this film ended up the way it did. Unlike a good chunk of the internet, I legitimately was hoping for the best when it came to this film. I was hoping that this would end up being one of those films that would prove the internet fanboys wrong and turn out to be great. Obviously that wasn’t the case and now we can only wait and see what happens next for the ‘Fantastic Four’ franchise. Back to Marvel Studios? Fourth time’s the charm?

So there you have it… my Top 10 worst superhero films of all-time. As with any Top 10 list, you’re certainly going to get different results when you ask different people to name their least favorites of the superhero genre. So with that said, be sure to sound off in the comments section below to list your own picks for the worst superhero films of all-time. And to keep things interesting, try to name some other than ‘Batman and Robin’.