Open Forum Friday: Are Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk the Best Comic Book Movies Ever?

Posted by on June 20th, 2008   Filed under: Books/Comics, Open Forum Friday

openforumbestcomicmovie.jpg

Last month Iron Man surprised a lot of people when it ended up being a really solid movie, and while The Incredible Hulk is currently getting some mixed reviews, it still seems to have generally pleased comic book fans a lot more than Ang Lee’s Hulk did. I have heard many say that they think Iron Man could possibly be the best comic book movie ever made, and that The Incredible Hulk is also up there. Now while I did like Iron Man a lot (not so much Incredible Hulk), I find those statements surprising. What happened to Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins, movies that fans were flipping out over just a few years ago?

Here’s a look at some of the highest rated comic book movies according to Rotten Tomatoes:

  • Spider-Man 2 – 93%
  • Iron Man – 93%
  • Superman: The Movie – 93%
  • Spider-Man – 90%
  • X-2 – 87%
  • Batman Begins – 84%
  • X-Men – 80%
  • Superman Returns – 77%
  • The Incredible Hulk – 66%

Now if you ask me, my favourite comic book adaptation to date is still Sin City, but I realize that might be a little unfair since it is technically a “graphic novel”. As far as superhero movies go, I would probably pick X-2: X-Men United followed closely by Spider-Man 2. But what about Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman? To me those are both great as well, and they have also stood the test of time. Aren’t comic book fans jumping the gun a little bit here? Or is there something about Iron Man (and possibly The Incredible Hulk) that I am missing? Perhaps it has something to do with the continuity that Marvel is starting to maintain between their films. What do you think is the best comic book movie to date? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.



  • My favourite comic book movie is definitely Batman Begins, I have no doubt about that. There was only one thing that annoyed me about the movie and that has been fixed for the sequel – the removal of Katie Holmes. Replacing her with Maggie Gyhellhaal is just the icing on the cake.

    X-2 and Spider-man 2 are also excellent movies, really improving on the originals.

  • Superman: The Movie is on the list.

    I’d say spider-man 2.

  • What happened to the top posters / recent comments widget?

  • Steven

    I would have to say that Iron Man and Batman Begins would be at the top of the list, but I think The Dark Knight has a very good chance of becoming the best comic book movie to date.

  • I’d put the 1978 Superman on top, if for no other reason than nostalgia. Follow it up with Iron Man and Batman Begins.

  • “Are Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk the Best Comic Book Movies Ever?”

    Certainly not. Like Stephen said, Batman Begins is a really tough film to beat.

  • My ten favourite comic book film adaptations would be Danger: Diabolik, Lone Wolf and Cub, Storm Riders, 300, Spider-Man 2, Blade, Heavy Metal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Uzumaki and Akira.

    And Batman Begins would easily take the lead for least favourite.

  • Rusty James: I know Superman: The Movie was on the list of ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, but you never hear people mention it as one of the best comic movies of all time.

    Is the recent comments widget not working for you? Sometimes if the site is slow to load, it will show up without the tabs instead. Still working on fixing that part.

  • Wait a minute, two Stevens, one likes The Dark Knight and the other doesn’t? This is just too much for my brain to handle.

    Good call on TMNT, that’s definitely up there for me as well.

  • Ghost Rider!!! Just kidding.

    I Agree that both Supermans I and II are classics (though I wish I could make my own edit of Superman II). Batman 1989 is great too, but there are some quite non-Batman elements that keep it from being the quintessential Bat-film (Batguns, killing, Mr Mom – good as Batman, not as Wayne). I know its been said a lot, mostly because it is true, but Batman: Mask of The Phantasm is also a great comic book film and as you mentioned Batman Begins is near perfect. X2 also rises to the top of the bunch as do Spidey 1 and 2. Iron Man doesnt seem totally out of place with this bunch, but I certainly wouldn’t say best ever.

  • And by TMNT, I mean the 1990 one, not the new CG one. Although I did like that one as well.

  • C’mon Sean I know you actually meant TMNT 2, Secret of the Ooze.

  • That one was okay too. But part 3 was pretty bad from what I remember.

  • I meant the first TMNT film, too. And I forgot about Mask of the Phantasm. Good call. I really wanted to sneak the animated Batman in there somewhere, but was limiting myself to theatrical releases. Otherwise Batman Beyond, Return of the Joker might have made the cut.

  • Bob the Slob

    I agree with you Sean…the original Turtles movie is an amazing piece of film…no joke…well directed, dark, independently funded, casey jones is an amazing badass, funny, good action, great ending. Great film.

    I like Batman Begins, but I think it undermines batman alot, the first half is amazing, the second half is too inlsulting to batman’s legendary intelligence, ingenuity, and detective skills. Bruce does very little in that movie to become batman besides being rich and having good friends that are really smart and able to invent gadgets and machines (like he should)Lucious Fox did way too much in that movie, holding wayne’s hand the entire way…plus having to deal with Katie Holmes acting really is a detriment to its classic status…its amazingly well shot and directed…just prefer the slight more comic book nature and look of burton’s films.

    I hate X2…that was a berserker attack? More like a pg-rated pussy version of a LIGHT-comic-book berserker attack…pathetic…and those movies are the definition of bland. Not to mention, along with spiderman, the beiginning of the CGI shitfest superhero movie era. Who couldnt write a book about all the rancid shit those franchises are responsible for.

    Superman The Movie has my vote for best comic book movie ever…if you limit it to first tier superhero characters…of course I’m an old codger.

    Ok…TEAR ME APART…WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

  • My vote is with Superman II and Spiderman 3. Yes, I did like the 3rd, mostly for the strangeness factor.

    “Kneel before Zod!”

  • @ “Yes, I did like the 3rd, mostly for the strangeness factor.”

    I don’t think that’s unusual ’round these parts. If memory serves, the boys all gave it good marks.

    I liked it as well. It has some of the worst moments of the series but also some of the best. People who complain about the dancing are lame.

  • By the way, I don’t get the top commenters widget in any of my browsers. Am I the only one?

  • Ah I see, it’s kind of changed around… I liked the old one better, I could see all at once.

  • Swarez

    I think the reaction to Iron Man has more to do with people being pleasantly surprised by how none shitty it was and that it’s the most recent comic book film. It was a fun movie but story vise it was riddled with clichés. But it was handled well so an entertaining movie was the results.

    Batman Begins is by far the best comic book movie so far.

  • My list would go something like this:

    1. Spiderman 2
    2. Spiderman
    3. X2
    4. Spiderman 3
    5. Iron Man

    Iron Man was damn good. The Incredible Hulk was okay. I liked it more the second time I saw it when I took my father to see it last night. I still prefer Ang Lee’s film, though.

  • Xocc Nodd

    Superman 2 is by far the best Superman flick to date. The other ones don’t even rate. Tim Burton’s Batman blew.

  • Primal

    Not really set in stone, but the comic book movies that stand out for me are as follows…

    1. Spiderman 2
    2. A History of Violence
    3. Danger Diabolik
    4. Batman(1989)
    5. Blade 2

    Honorable Mentions – Sin City, Iron Man, Batman Begins

  • Batman Begins is at the top of my comic book movie list, followed closely by Sin City.

  • Seems like graphic novels are fair game now. If so then

    1. Oldboy
    2. Batman Begins
    3. Akira
    4. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
    5. Spiderman

    I liked Iron Man a lot but I need to wait and see if it can stand up over time. It’s too soon to look at it objectively.

  • I see A History of Violence list here in the comments and I would also give that a vote. A brilliant movie.

  • im not positive on this but wasn’t batman begins based off of the graphic novel? I would say Iron Man hit the nail on the head with the comic book movies, with Batman Begins coming in a close second (assuming its not based on the graphic novel)

  • Well I guess in my mind the distinction is not so much between comics and graphic novels, but between superhero movies and other comics. If you’re including all comics you could also throw Ghost World in there too, but in my opinion it’s kind of unfair to compare that to say, Iron Man or Spider-Man.

  • Swarez

    Batman Begins has a few nods to the Year One story line but other than that it’s not based on anything particular.

  • I’m a huge comic nerd and my favorites are as follows:

    1. X2
    2. Batman Begins
    3. X-Men
    4. Spider-Man 2
    5. Iron Man
    6. Batman
    7. The Crow
    8. Hellboy
    9. Batman Returns
    10. Incredible Hulk

    Disagree if you will, but those are my most enjoyable Comic Book movies. I’m not counting graphic novels, that would look much different.

  • The Crow… there’s another great one that keeps getting lost in the shuffle.

  • Road To Perdition.

    Isn’t Mars Attacks based on a comic book?

  • Matt

    1. Batman
    2. Sin City
    3. 300
    4. Batman Begins
    5. X-Men
    6. Iron Man
    7. Blade
    8. Road to Perdition
    9. The Mask
    10. Hellboy

    I like how quickly this forum started filling up. In the list I included graphic novels as well, because the movies that followed are too awesome. Hmm, no sequels on my list. Weird. I guess I don’t really like ‘em. You learn something new about yourself every day. Hopefully The Dark Knight will be on this list soon.
    To answer your original question, Sean, Iron Man would definately be one of the greatest comic book movies ever, while The Incredible Hulk is not.
    I wonder if people could choose to watch only Marvel or DC comic book character based movies, for the rest of their lives, which one the would choose.

  • Ryan

    Graphic Novels are comic books. It’s just a name used to refer to collected editions. Sin City was serialized before it came out as a trade. I like to use the term graphic literature because it actually embodies how important comics really are. The Sin City movie used to the V/O too much. My list (in order of greatness) is:

    1. Akira
    2. Spider-man 2
    3. A History of Violence
    4. 300
    5. Blade