5 Great Comic Book Movies

If you love movies and comic books, you’re living in a golden age. It seems like every property created by comic-book publishers is getting optioned into a film these days. Before we get into this list, let’s agree off the bat that the Tim Burton Batman films, first two Christopher Nolan Batman films, the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, and the first two Bryan Singer X-Men films (especially X-2) are awesome and don’t need to be included here. Instead, let’s focus on some slightly different choices.

5. Superman (1978)

It all starts here. Forget how dated the movie may look. Forget the now-cheesy special effects or the scientifically impossible reversing of time by spinning the planet backwards. In fact, forget anyone else who ever played Superman on screen. There’s only one: Christopher Reeve. This is the movie that sparked the imagination of a generation and paved the way for all the other films that followed. His performance as the earnest and bumbling Clark Kent and as the confident and supremely powerful Man of Steel won audiences over worldwide. Reeve wasn’t super beefy, but then, he didn’t need massive physical bulk to display strength onscreen. Maybe it’s nostalgia talking, but the film feels warm. Bright. (Unlike Man of Steel from 2013.) It’s the film equivalent of your mom’s best home cooking. Superman is the ideal; he’s the hero kids look up to. There’s a comfort in that. Gotta love Big Blue.