Films have been influencing each other since the advent of the moving picture. One filmmaker crafts a successful project, and glimpses of that project are seen in other films for generations to come. One particular genre that has been molded by a select crop of movies is that of the superhero.
We now live in a world that is dominated by the superhero genre in both movies and on television, and each new project exists because of what has come before. These are the ten most influential superhero movies of all time.
10 Blade (1998)
Blade is an often overlooked film when discussing the genre of superhero movies. During a time when Marvel Comics was selling off properties and long before the MCU, the Wesley Snipes lead vampire flick was one of if not the first successful mainstream movie adaptation of a Marvel Comics superhero.
Blade was influential in showing studios that lesser-known heroes can succeed on the big screen, setting the stage for the likes of Iron Man a decade later.
9 Black Panther (2018)
The success of Black Panther showed how important representation is in movies while crafting a poignant storyline with an incredibly sympathetic villain. The indelible mark that the late great Chadwick Boseman left with his performance of T'Challa has been left unmatched in the years since the movie was released.
The film's influence can be felt in every project that shines a light on representation and the personal stories that mean so much to those characters being represented.
8 X-Men (2000)
X-Men was one of the first mainstream superhero films to ditch the campiness that had often followed the genre. This important entry into her heroic world of super films would really kick-start the run of successes, and failures, for Marvel properties in film throughout the start of the new millennium. Throughout a long developmental process, filmmakers and the studios never wavered in crafting this influential piece of superhero movie history.
7 Spider-Man (2002)
Along with the aforementioned X-Men, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man helped shape the early 2000s superhero movie landscape. Kicking off a long list of enjoyable and not-so-enjoyable Spidey films over the following 20-plus years, this Raimi original still holds as a top-tier comic book movie whose stylistic influences can still be seen throughout the modern-day MCU.
6 Deadpool (2016)
What could once be described as Ryan Reynold's fever dream, Deadpoolcame around smack dab in the middle of a run of relatively family-friendly superhero movies and completely shook up the status quo. Not only was the movie ultra-violent, raunchy, and hilarious.
The titular hero often times broke the "fourth wall", interacting with the movie-going audience in a manner never seen before in the superhero genre. Deadpool gave movie studios and television production companies faith that an R-rated project could find an audience and be a profitable move.
5 The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers took the world by storm in 2012 and was unlike anything seen before in movie history. An ensemble project built up of characters spawning from their own individual films, coming together to battle an otherworldly force. Even upon its release, the MCU was still in its infancy and had already contributed to an undeniably influential movie that produced success and popularity that other studios have been chasing for over a decade since.
4 Superman (1978)
Without Richard Donner's 1978 Superman, it is hard to tell whether superhero movies would rule entertainment in the 21st century. While superheroes could be found in the serials of the '40s and '50s and Batman ruled the campy decade of the '60s, it was not until the '70s and Donner's film that a comic book film achieved mainstream success. This would set the stage for the four-plus decades of superhero movies.
3 Batman (1989)
Tim Burton helped to deliver Batman out of the overly colorful and campy 1960s and back to his darker and more serious origins. The movie portrayed Batman unlike he has ever been seen before and set the stage for later adaptations from the likes of Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson.
2 The Dark Knight (2008)
What is sure to be a controversial entry at number two for the sheer fact that it is not number one. It is hard to deny the influential impact of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. It introduced the world to a new kind of superhero movie, one grounded exclusively in reality that tells a story of high-stakes drama for the well fleshes out characters that inhabit it. It paved the way for movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Batman. Its influences are unmatched, save for one movie.
1 Iron Man (2008)
What could be more influential than the movie that kicked off the biggest and most successful movie franchise of all time? The birth of the MCU can be traced back to the little project that could, at the time, Iron Man. A new studio producing a movie about a relatively unknown superhero starring an actor long thought to be washed up is not the perfect recipe for success.
Despite all obstacles, Iron Man would go on to be one of the most successful movies of 2008 and set into motion a franchise sitting at 32 entries and counting.
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