Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…Rotten Tomatoes’ Comix Worst to Best! As "Spider-Man 3" webs its way into multiplexes this Friday, clearing the path for our summer of silver surfers, invisible women, and predators scuffling with aliens, we’re celebrating with a compilation of comic-based movies.
As ever-escalating CG makes it easier to bring superhero panels to life, and as the manga and American indie ‘zine scene continue to rise, comics and their silver screen treatments are becoming more common, and much more sophisticated. That’s why our Comix list might be our most varied, colorful feature yet.
Where else can you find unadulterated machismo ("300," "Judge Dredd") mixed with mild-mannered quirkiness ("Ghost World," "American Splendor")? Or debonair "Superman" and "Spider-Man" hanging out with the sartorially challenged, like "Tank Girl" and "The Phantom?" Heck, we’ve even included flicks like "Dennis the Menace" and "Annie," both ripped right from the funny pages.
But comics aren’t all fun and games. Everyone’s experienced the horror of seeing high-concept comics become cinematic drivel. So we’ve reserved the bottom countdown spots for the worst of the Hollywood/comics cross-pollinations, abominations like "Batman and Robin" and "Howard the Duck."
For our rankings, we use a weighted system that factors both the Tomatometer and the number of reviews, so older movies with fewer reviews won’t be given a higher standing. We also excluded the ones with fewer than 20 reviews. Sorry, "Lone Wolf and Cub" fans.
Click here to see the full list!
UPDATE! "Spider-Man 3" enters the list at #35, directly above "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence," but underneath the other 2007 extravaganza, "300." It’s also a far cry from the previous two "Spider-Mans," both which occupy the upper ranks of the list.
