To some, this is the Golden Age of Superhero Movies. You currently can go to a movie theater and watch a blockbuster that has Spider-Man (Tom Holland) helping Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Vision (Paul Bettany) take down Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Captain America (Chris Evans). That movie REALLY exists. And in select theaters, you can come out of a screening of Captain America: Civil War and still find a screening of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Superman (Henry Cavill) and Batman (Ben Affleck) welcome Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Doomesday into the DC Cinematic Universe.
What a time to be alive.
And yet, we spend so much time arguing on social media, and in comments sections, about which superhero movie is the “best” of the bunch. So we’re putting it to a vote. We’ve had three superhero movies released so far this year. We have three more coming. At this stage, though, we want to know: What’s the best superhero movie released so far this year?
Captain America: Civil War
Building on everything that came before it in the MCU, Joe and Anthony Russo’s Civil War pit Captain America (Chris Evans) against Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in a test of wills over the Sokovia Accords. Not only did Civil War explore that dichotomy, it also successfully introduced new heroes like Black Panther and Spider-Man, setting them up for their own movies down the line.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Essentially a sequel to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, the sprawling Dawn of Justice brought Batman (Ben Affleck) into the fold, and continued to explore the distrust that our society has for the all-powerful alien (Henry Cavill) who walks among us. In the process, Snyder also introduced Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), and concluded with a tease of Justice League stories still to come.
Deadpool
The wild card, and the movie that proved superhero movies do NOT have to conform to any type of structure to succeed. Deadpool was crass and irreverent – starting immediately with its hilarious opening credit sequence. But it worked because THAT’s the character. We’re thrilled that Ryan Reynolds, director Tim Miller and their screenwriters fought hard for so long to bring this version of the hero to the big screen. Now we’re dying to see what they do next in this world.
This poll is no longer available.
