The Best Superhero Movie of Each Year Since 1998

We’re celebrating 25 years of Rotten Tomatoes with a look back on the most celebrated genre movie of each year since 1998! Previously we took a stab at the horror genre, drew up an extensive guide to animation, hit light speed on science-fiction, and now we’re flying high with superheroes. To choose the best superhero film of each year, we’re applying our recommendation formula, a calculation based on the Tomatometer and Audience Score that prioritizes titles that stood out among critics and fans, combined with a pinch of curatorial love from our editors.

Superhero and comic book movies may have been among the dominant pop cultural force for nearly two decades, but don’t forget it was something of an uphill skate to reach this point. We begin with 1998’s Blade, which is just a sword’s edge away from being Fresh, but audiences sure sank their teeth into it for its R-rating and sharp Wesley Snipes casting as the Marvel icon. Quirky and sarcastic comedies Mystery Men and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV would prevail on the off-years of 1999 and 2001, but it was 2000’s X-Men and 2002’s Spider-Man that would prophesy the superhero supremacy to come. X-Men modernized the team with sleek outfits and millennial attitude, while Spider-Man stuck to its comic book roots with bright action and teenage emotions in a classic origin story. 2003’s X2 was a breathless, action-packed sequel, while 2004’s The Incredibles is one of the crown jewels from Pixar’s golden age, a high-stakes family drama and still the closest thing to a good Fantastic Four movie we’ve ever gotten.

DC Comics would swoop in with 2005 and 2006 chart-toppers Batman Begins and V for Vendetta, proffering a more mature and adult take on the genre, and certainly more appetizing than 2007’s Spider-Man 3. 2008, of course, was the big bang, with The Dark Knight becoming the new benchmark in action and superhero cinema and Iron Man properly establishing the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Watchmen was long considered nearly impossible to adapt, and hey, we got close enough in 2009. 2010’s Kick-Ass put the sass back in the genre, and 2011’s X-Men: First Class rebooted the series after the wayward X-Men: The Last Stand. With 2012’s The Avengers, we kick off peak MCU as one of their own would top each year (Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Captain America: Civil War) through the record-breaking Infinty Saga-closer Avengers: Endgame. Even the years when an MCU wasn’t the favorite, there was still a Marvel movie in its place, with 2017’s Logan and 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

2020’s Birds of Prey was one of the last major movies before COVID lockdown, and it was Spider-Man: No Way Home in December 2021 when we felt truly back in theaters. Soon after, in March 2022, we returned again to a mature take on The Batman, which would narrowly edge out Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to be that year’s best superhero movie.