If the box office success of Spider-Man: No Way Home is any indication, some superhero films demand repeat viewings. Others, however, are colossal misses that dwindle into such obscurity that only the most dedicated of cinephiles find them palatable.
From Superman's turn as a protector of underground humanoids to the box office crash-and-burn of Josh Brolin's pre-Thanos turn as DC gunslinger Jonah Hex, superhero films don't always meet the expectations of fans. Even the nearly unwatchable ones, however, deserve respect for their efforts at bringing beloved characters to live-action glory.
Superman And The Mole Men (1951)
As the first live-action feature film based on a DC Comics character, Superman and the Mole Men wasn't exactly a dud, but it would be more than 30 years before the Man of Steel was resurrected on the big screen by Richard Donner. To be fair, the film was designed to serve as a springboard for The Adventures of Superman syndicated TV series, a vehicle for star George Reeves to wear the cape once more.
As a film, though, it bears little resemblance to anything contemporary fans would recognize. Lois and Clark discover a drilling project has allowed small, gnome-like creatures to come to the surface, and the fear and misunderstanding on the part of the townspeople they terrify means Superman has to intervene. It's an allegory designed to draw parallels to the Red Scare of the 1950s, but without any reference to the comic books source material, it's little more than a monster movie with a superhero.
Batman: The Movie (1966)
As the iconic Dynamic Duo, Adam West and Burt Ward fought crime in Gotham City as The Riddler) — but for those who prefer their Dark Knight dark, it's a little too kitschy.
A subplot romance between Batman and "Miss Kitka," who turns out to be Catwoman, is a nice nod to the pair's comic books courtship, but by and large, the film falls into the so-bad-it's-good camp of superhero movies. The bad guys are bumbling, Batman and Robin save the day, and plenty of iconic mid-scene placards ("Bam!" "Pow!") make this film a sweet but watered-down version of Caped Crusader films by Christopher Nolan.
Spider-Man (1977)
There seemed to be a willingness to bring a live-action Spider-Man to life in this made-for-television movie, but aside from J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, and Aunt May, that's where any similarities to other Spider-outings come to an end. Perhaps it was budgetary restraints, or maybe filmmakers thought adding a villain like the Green Goblin was a bridge too far for CBS viewers.
Regardless, this particular outing for everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was designed to launch a weekly series — which didn't tap into any of the source material as well. Between the woeful special effects (Spidey's webs looked like they were shot from a Silly String canister) and the lack of secondary characters, this one sinks to the bottom of superhero flicks, but that didn't stop producers from making two additional films with the same actor: Spider-Man Strikes Back and Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge.
Legends of the Superheroes (1979)
Technically a two-part special that aired on NBC, Legends of the Superheroes served mainly as an excuse to bring Adam West back as Batman, alongside Burt Ward as Robin, from the 1960s TV series. However, it became the first live-action appearance of a number of heroes and villains alike, including Black Canary, Hawkman, and Atom, among others.
The plot was campy, the humor tongue-in-cheek (Atom and Giganta, a Wonder Woman villain, eventually wind up engaged) and the special effects were practically non-existent, but for comics fans of the 1970s, it was mesmerizing fare. Previously confined to animated adventures, these characters in all their live-action glory, however, pitiful it might seem by contemporary standards, was a sight to behold.
Captain America (1979)
There seemed to be a trend in the late 1970s of soft-pitching iconic comics characters in live-action, made-for-television movies that never fully embraced their comic book roots. While Reb Brown does an irable job as Cap, everything about him — from his origin story (he's istered a life-saving serum developed from his father's glands) to the motorcycle helmet with flags painted on them — strikes purists as just wrong.
It's a film that basically tells the story of a crime-fighting stuntman who gets a souped-up motorcycle that pops out of a conversion van, and while it was indeed an abomination by Captain America: The First Avenger standards, it still spawned a sequel released on TV later that same year: Captain America II: Death Too Soon.
Swamp Thing (1982)
Before there was a series on the ill-fated DC Universe streaming service, there was a movie about the Jolly Green Giant. Wes Craven came out of the 1970s with some solid horror movie credentials — Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, both of which are considered classics — but with this DC Comics character, he focused more on the adventure and less on the terror.
Several seminal great issues of Swamp Thing comics), it did well enough on home video to spawn a sequel, The Return of Swamp Thing, in 1989.
The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)
While The Incredible Hulk ran for five seasons on CBS, it took six years and a jump to NBC for the character — played with shaggy-haired aplomb by bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno — to make his return. Given the half-hearted attempt to introduce other Marvel heroes into the story, The Incredible Hulk Returns ends up being more cringe-worthy than laudable.
While Thor turns up, he's not from Asgard; he's been banished from Valhalla, and he looks more like an overzealous fan at a Minnesota Vikings game than the God of Thunder comics fans know and love. It was a made-for-TV movie that spawned two sequels — The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (featuring Daredevil) and The Death of the Incredible Hulk, both of them equally ham-fisted in their attempts to do Hulk and his allies justice.
Doctor Mordrid (1992)
Filmmaker and producer Charles Band had every intention of exercising his option of making a film based on Marvel's Dr. Strange, but when the option lapsed, he didn't abort those plans. Instead, he tweaked the script, changed some names, and voila: Enter Doctor Mordrid!
Sent to Earth to protect it from an evil wizard (named Kabal) from opening a portal to Hell, Dr. Anton Mordrid — played by frequent Star Trek guest star Jeffrey Combs — is a criminal psychologist who wins the day by animating a mastodon skeleton and using it to impale his archenemy. It's a groaner of a film, so much so that it's planned for inclusion as one of the films in Season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The Fantastic Four (1994)
In 1986, a German filmmaker by the name of Bern Eichinger optioned the rights to make a forthcoming MCU Fantastic Four movie.
In the promotional phase of the film, however, everything went awry, and the film was scuttled. Stan Lee would later claim the film was made as a way for Eichinger to retain the rights to the characters, and when the 2005 version of The Fantastic Four hit theaters, his name was on the production credits. Bootleg copies of Corman's film eventually made their way into the hands of collectors, and it's since become something of a B-movie legend, despite the budgetary constraints and stilted dialog.
Jonah Hex (2010)
Before he was cast as the Mad Titan, Jonah Hex brought DC Comics antihero Jonah Hex to life, although fans of the character (who would make an appearance in the Arrowverse during the "Crisis on Infinite Earth" storyline) likely wish he hadn't.
There's a reason it was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards, but the one for Worst Screen Couple — Brolin's face and co-star Megan Fox's accent — demonstrates just how brutally received Jonah Hex was. As a critical and commercial failure, the film guaranteed that Jonah Hex wouldn't be resurrected, no matter how much Native mysticism was employed to do so.
