The NEW Top 10 Superhero Movies of All Time

Back in May, before The Avengers hit the big screen, The Bill Kuchman Chronicle offered its list of The Top 10 Superhero Movies of All Time. The idea was to see where we stood after over a decade of living in an era where superhero movies had become serious business, revived by X-Men in 2000, turned into box office titans by Spider-Man in 2002 and made into Oscar conversation pieces by The Dark Knight in 2008.

With The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises now all released, has the list changed? Well, The Bill Kuchman Chronicle is ready to give the world its New Top 10 Superheroes of All Time. A few brief rules: This list only counts superhero movies that are based on comics. So, sorry, Unbreakable, you can't make this list. Also, this list basically only counts superhero movies that have been released in the modern era since X-Men was released. Look, Superman: The Movie was a great movie and it established comic book movies as a real thing, but it doesn't hold up against what we've seen since 2000.

And here ... we ... go ...

WARNING: There are The Dark Knight Rises spoilers in this story. If you haven't seen it yet, bookmark this story, go watch the film and then come back here.



10. Spider-Man
Prior ranking: 6

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time?
"I vividly remember Spider-Man hitting theaters, and I'll never forget the buzz that the movie carried with it, so it strikes me as odd to rank it at only No. 6 on my list of the Top 10 Superhero Movies of All Time. Spider-Man was something we rallied around less than a year after the Sept. 11 attacks. I remember dialing up Fandango (yeah, it used to be a phone thing) on the way to the theater to discover that the screening we hoped to go to was already sold out. No movie had ever had an opening weekend that topped $100 million. Spider-Man was the superhero movie we needed at this point in time. And boy, did it deliver."

And how about now?
Well, if you notice, Spider-Man dropped four spots on this list, and you're probably asking saying to yourself, Hmmm, only three new superhero movies came out this summer — how can Spider-Man drop four places? Well, The Amazing Spider-Man changed a lot of things. Up until Marc Webb's version of our favorite webslinger, Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire's version were all we had. Did I love them when they came out? Yup. But now though, the movies feel dated. They haven't aged well, especially now that we have Andrew Garfield's performance as Peter Parker and Spider-Man to compare Maguire's work against. (More on that later, though.) Raimi insistence on a certain level of campiness in his Spider-Man movies — girls screaming as the camera zooms in on them, Maguire's Spider-Man going "HHHUURRRRGGGHHH" every time he has to do something physical — just doesn't hold up.

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9. Watchmen
Prior ranking: 7

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time? 
"No graphic novel is more sacred than Watchmen. It's been honored by Time magazine. It's been revered by fans of the medium for years. Zack Snyder took on quite the challenge when he signed on to bring Watchmen to the big screen. Some people may criticize Snyder for being too faithful to the source graphic novel, but I gotta say that Watchmen was perfect in almost every way. The casting was dead on, the score was great.

"And you know what? Snyder's ending was far better than what Alan Moore had originally come up with. Yup, I said it. The inter-demensional squid thing was stupid. It always felt like it was randomly tacked onto the story. Snyder's idea of using the threat of Doctor Manhattan to unify humanity was so much better."

How about now?
Nothing's changed here. Not only does Watchmen hold up, but with DC's continued struggles to launch another superhero franchise that isn't Batman, this film's success is even more impressive. I can't wait to see what Snyder does with Man of Steel.

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8. Spider-Man 2
Prior ranking: 2

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time?
"For several years, Spider-Man 2 stood alone at the top of the superhero movie list. It had everything. The continuation of a story that fans were familiar with. Great actors. A villain that audiences cared about. An engrossing story. And, one of the best movie soundtracks every (well, this and Batman Forever, that is).

"Take a moment and think about Spider-Man 2 for a second. Start right after Doctor Octopus kidnaps Mary Jane Watson. Remember when Peter Park bursts from the rubble, regains his spider powers and takes off after Doc Ock. The fight on the clock tower. The brawl on a moving train. Spider-Man risking his life to stop that train from flying off the tracks. Spider-Man 2 was everything fans could've asked for."

How about now?
Gulp. Yes, Spider-Man 2 has been knocked down six spots in The New Top 10 Superhero Movies of All Time. I had to think about this one for awhile, as it pains me to send this film, one that I loved so much, tumbling down the list. But I had to do it. Everything I said about Spider-Man at No. 10 remains true here. That kidnapping scene that I gushed about? I just don't buy that version of the cinematic Spider-Man anymore. And after seeing a female lead in The Amazing Spider-Man who represented more than just a girlfriend to get kidnapped, Spider-Man 2 feels hollow.

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7. The Amazing Spider-Man
A new entry

What makes this movie special?
The Amazing Spider-Man is the Spider-Man film we should've gotten all along. Andrew Garfield is Peter Parker, plain and simple. Everything about his performance in this movie absolutely nails the character, from his interactions with Aunt May to the way he cracks jokes while fighting criminals. Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is probably the best superhero girlfriend character we've ever seen in a movie. She's not a pawn just waiting to get kidnapped, instead taking action to the point where Spider-Man can't even get her to get to safety. The chemistry between Peter and Gwen in The Amazing Spider-Man is tender and sweet and makes couple one that you completely want to root for.

Marc Webb did a fantastic job with The Amazing Spider-Man, and we should have high hopes for its sequel. If The Amazing Spider-Man is the Batman Begins of Spider-Man movies, hopefully we'll next see The Dark Knight of Spider-Man movies, with an amazing Green Goblin and a Gwen Stacy story that will break our hearts.

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6. Batman Begins
Prior ranking: 5

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time?
"There are kids in this world today who have no knowledge of Batman and Robin or even Batman Forever. The only Batman they know is the one that exists in Christopher Nolan's mind, and that Batman changed how we view comic book movies forever.

"When Batman Begins hit cinemas in 2005, fans were apprehensive. We had been hurt by Joel Schumacher and his desire to have nipples on the Batsuit. Years of false starts had convinced us that we'd never see a new Batman film. Batman Begins changed all of that. The film made it clear that a superhero movie could be serious, that it could exist in the real world and that Batman could rise from the glow-in-the-dark ashes of Schumacher."

How about now?
With The Dark Knight Rises now out, it's obvious just how much Batman Begins matters. You could legitimately make the argument that The Dark Knight Rises is more of a sequel to Batman Begins than it is to The Dark Knight, with Nolan returning to many of his first Batman film's themes, even using flashback footage from Batman Begins in The Dark Knight Rises. We now know to that when Bruce Wayne talked about Batman being a symbol that couldn't be destroyed, he wasn't kidding around. Right, John Blake?

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5. Iron Man
Prior ranking: 4

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time?
"The parallels between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2012 are very interesting. Back in 2008, Iron Man kicked off the summer movie season by showing that Marvel had a grand scheme for superhero movies and that its plan was going to be a lot of fun. The Dark Knight followed a few months later, demonstrating that superhero movies could insert themselves into the Oscar conversation. Four years later, we have The Avengers in May and The Dark Knight Rises in July. Sounds familiar, huh?

"Iron Man was a hell of a lot fun. We got to see Robert Downey Jr. finally re-establish himself as an A-list actor after years of self-destructive behavior. Just like fans got to see Superman fly decades ago, we got to see Iron Man take the skies. The film was fun, it was witty and it was awesome."

How about now?
If Iron Man failed, if Downey's couldn't carry the franchise, the superhero movie landscape would look differently. There would be no The Avengers, no Marvel Cinematic Universe — Marvel itself would be in a very different spot than the studio is today.

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4. X2
Prior ranking: 3

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time?
"While X-Men basically launched the current wave of superhero movies back in 2000, X2 took the franchise to a higher level. After getting his feet wet in X-Men, Bryan Singer took an ambitious approach to X2, exploring Wolverine's past and adding to the X-Men roster. The film opened with Nightcrawler's attack on the Oval Office — one of the greatest scenes in any superhero movie ever. From there, we eventually got to witness William Stryker's attack on the X-Mansion ... and Wolverine's berserker rage that followed.

"The greatest disappointment of X2 was what followed. Brett Ratner took over the franchise with X-Men: The Last Stand and promptly failed in every possible way. The Dark Phoenix thread that Singer had carefully created was ruined, characters were randomly killed off and the entire movie just sucked. X2 would have been fantastic on its own. What followed only enforced that."

How about now?
X2 is probably going to wind up being the best Wolverine film we ever get to see, as The Wolverine is now on its second director and has been fiddling with its cast and production schedule. There's always the chance FOX reassembles its X-Men cast to make X-Men 4, but for now, we're lucky X2 still doesn't disappoint.

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3. The Avengers
A new entry

What makes this movie special?
With Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk, all on the screen at the same time, The Avengers was the superhero mashup that fanboys have dreamed about forever. Director Joss Whedon pulled off what most figured was impossible, bringing together multiple franchises into one crazy and super enjoyable film. The film set box office history with the first opening weekend that crossed the $200 million mark.

The Avengers proved that the Marvel Cinematic Universe works, and Marvel isn't planning to just sit around and enjoy the praise. Sequels and spinoffs are already in production, with the studio now looking to go galactic with bigger villains and Guardians of the Galaxy, a space opera that will dwarf The Avengers in scale.

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2. The Dark Knight Rises
A new entry

What makes this movie special?
I went back and forth between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises like crazy, weighing the merits of two films that so clearly stand above any other superhero film. In the end, I had to give The Dark Knight Rises the No. 2 spot on The New Top 10 Superhero Movies of All Time list. I love this film though. Absolutely love it. Not many films — superhero ones, no less — had as much pressure and as many expectations on it as The Dark Knight Rises did. Nolan was tasked with following up one of the most successful films in movie history, and the director knocked it out of the park.

The Dark Knight Rises is epic and ambitious. Superhero franchises are usually open-ended, with the idea being that they can just keep making more and more movies. Nolan did was no one ever does. He ended his superhero story. The ending to The Dark Knight Rises is now one of my favorite movie endings ever. Watching Batman fly out over the water, I was frozen in my seat. Heroes don't die. And at that moment, we were watching Batman meet his end. Those final scenes at the end of the film solidified Nolan's place among the greats for me. The unveiling of the Batman statue. John Blake entering the Batcave as a swarm of bats engulfed him. Alfred quietly nodding to Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle at the cafe. Find me another superhero movie with a better ending. You can't.

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1. The Dark Knight
Prior ranking: 1

What did The Bill Kuchman Chronicle say last time?
"Was there any doubt that The Dark Knight would top this list? No superhero movie in the history of cinema has ever delivered what The Dark Knight did. This film was as close to perfect as a film could get. Director Nolan and Christian Bale returning in roles they were familiar with, adding Heath Ledger as The Joker. If you're one of the few people who still holds Jack Nicholson's performance as The Joker in Batman as the best Joker, you've clearly lost it. Even if he hadn't died before The Dark Knight premiered, Ledger's performance would have earned him the Best Supporting Oscar. He was that good. No other movie on this list had an actor who so completely lost himself in his performance.

"The Dark Knight brought superhero movies to a new level. The film deserved to be among the Best Picture nominations that year, but the Academy ignored it. It's widely recognized that this snub led to the change in the number of nominees that the Academy would honor every year. Can any other superhero movie say that they did this? No. The Dark Knight earned the top stop on this list."

How about now?
The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are very different films but so close in quality. I had to keep The Dark Knight at No. 1, as this one was the film that changed everything, from how we view superhero movies to how the Academy names Best Picture nominees. While The Dark Knight Rises is a much bigger film in scope, The Dark Knight has Ledger's performance as The Joker, a performance that is still haunting today.

Without The Dark Knight, there wouldn't be a The Dark Knight Rises. Nolan's success with this film made its sequel possible. If not for the promise of The Dark Knight, we would never have gotten the payoff of The Dark Knight Rises.