What are the worst Marvel movies?

With Marvel movies proving popular with audiences, it’s easy to forget there was a time when this simply wasn’t the case. Cast your mind back in time and you might recall one or two Marvel films that were appalling.

Long before New Line released Blade (1998), 20th Century Fox released X-Men (2000), Sony released Spider-Man (2002) or Marvel Studios released Iron Man (2008), Marvel movies were pretty bad. And even in more recent years, there have been a few stinkers too!

Don’t remember them all? No worries. From 1990’s Captain America to 2015’s Fant4stic, let’s take a look at the worst Marvel movies.

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Captain America (1990)

Prior to Chris Evans taking on the role of Marvel’s star-spangled Avenger, three actors played the role of Captain America: Dick Purcell, Reb Brown and Matt Salinger.

Purcell was the star of a black-and-white 1944 serial; Brown played the role for two 1979 TV movies – Captain America & Captain America II: Death Too Soon; and Salinger took on the part for the low budget 1990 movie, Captain America.

All these movies were shit. Seriously shit. But the 1990 version with Salinger was arguably the worst.

Why? Because it was released 12 year’s after Superman: The Movie and only a year after 1989’s Batman – two films which demonstrated how great comic book movies could be, so it should have been good!

However, Captain America suffered from a severe lack of budget, as well as various changes to the character, and these things seriously derailed the project. Plus, it was really kind of bland, with Salinger being as wooden as a set of dining room furniture.

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Howard the Duck (1986)

In 2014, Howard the Duck popped up in a cameo role for Guardians of the Galaxy – the 10th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, back in 1986 Howard was the star of his own movie courtesy of Universal Pictures and Lucasfilm.

The movie has a cult following today, but it is nowhere near the film it could have been and the effects don’t stand up so well.

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The New Mutants (2020)

In 2000, 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movie arrived on the scene and became a big hit with audiences, paving the way for a highly successful run of movies. However, fast-forward twenty years, and not only was X-Men fatigue setting in, but Disney bought out Fox, made various business decisions, and essentially shut down the X-Men movie series.

Problem was, Disney still had one of the Fox movies on its hands. This movie was The New Mutants – a superhero horror, which had been shot under Fox’s watch but due to various delays had not yet been released.

Not a problem. Disney quietly dropped The New Mutants into cinemas in 2020, during the midst of the pandemic, when no one was paying attention and as a result, few went to see it! This of course was a blessing, as The New Mutants was rubbish, and not up to the same standard as some of the previous X-Men films.

And speaking of bad X-Men movies…

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Generation X (1996)

In 1996, Generation X hit TV screens to become the first official live-action adaptation of the X-Men. Yep, four years before Fox brought the X-Men to movie theatres, Generation X (a comic book spinoff) got its own TV movie – and it was bad.

With the exception of the White Queen and Jubilee – who were just about passable – the rest of the characters were paper thin and the movie adaptation of Generation X was cheap and very dull.

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The Punisher (1989)

Over the years, The Punisher has become one of Marvel’s most adaptable characters with three live-action movies and a TV series under his belt. The first of these movies was the 1989 Dolph Lundgren-starring action film simply titled The Punisher.

Released the same year as Tim Burton’s Batman, The Punisher was a poor adaptation of the Marvel Comics character which was barely connected to the original source material and instead was nothing more than a generic action flick.

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Punisher: War Zone (2008)

And from one bad Punisher movie to another. This next one is Punisher: War Zone, a woefully bad action movie that is beyond awful.

The late Ray Stevenson took on the role of Frank Castle/Punisher for this movie, and he was the only aspect of the film that was any good. Everything else was complete trash and at times cringeworthy to watch.

If you’ve never seen Punisher: War Zone give yourself a pat on the back. You dodged a bullet.

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Man-Thing (2005)

Originally intended for a theatrical release, before being downgraded to the Sci-Fi Channel (that’s how bad it was), Man-Thing was a horror-thriller about a murderous plant-like creature. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, and directed by Brett Leonard, Man-Thing starred Matthew Le Nevez and was a complete snooze-fest of a film, which became instantly forgettable the moment anyone saw it.

Have you seen it? Probably not – and if you have, would you remember?

Hopefully not. Anyway, moving on…

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Spider-Man (1978 – 1981)

During the late 1970s, Spider-Man cropped up in a short-lived TV show from CBS comprising 13 episodes. If you’ve never watched the ’70s Spider-Man show, then don’t – it’s all pretty bad and better best forgotten (and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise).

Anyway… a handful of episodes of the show were edited together to form three ‘movies’: Spider-Man (1977), Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978), and Spider-Man: The Dragon’s Challenge (1981). All of these ‘movies’ (and I’m using this word loosely) highlight the fact if you want to make a Spidey movie, you need to spend the cash.

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Supaidāman (1978)

CBS weren’t the only ones to produce a Spider-Man TV series during the 1970s, over in Japan the Toei Company created its own Spidey series which ran for 41 episodes under the title Supaidāman.

Although the character was called Spider-Man and wore the same costume as Marvel’s mighty wall-crawler, the series bared no resemblance to the character and was more in-keeping with Super Sentai shows. For example, Spider-Man had a giant robot called Leopardon – something created specifically for the show.

So, why does this Spidey show make this list of movies? Because one of the episodes was released theatrically in Japan… which counts as a movie.

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The Incredible Hulk TV movies (1988 – 1990)

Prior to the release of Blade in 1998, Marvel’s only real on-screen success with its characters came during the late 1970s with the arrival of the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno-starring TV series, The Incredible Hulk – a genuinely brilliant (and sorely missed) Marvel television series.

When the show concluded its run in 1982, audiences weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to Marvel’s jade giant. Step forward three Incredible Hulk TV movies: The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989) and The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990).

Two of these movies introduced other Marvel heroes: Thor (The Incredible Hulk Returns) and Daredevil (The Trial of the Incredible Hulk), while the third (The Death of the Incredible Hulk) killed off the title character, but sadly none of them were very good. The movies were miles away from what we would later get in the MCU and the quality of each film was nowhere near the same as the show.

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Doctor Strange (1978)

The 1970s was a busy era for TV superheroes and this meant that even Doctor Strange got his own TV movie! But don’t get too excited, because yes, you guessed it, the movie was utter tosh.

The film (which is boring beyond belief) starred Peter Hooten and aired on CBS in 1978. Doctor Strange was designed as a pilot for a potential TV series, but as it pretty much sucked the series never materialised.

Be very thankful for this.

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Nick Fury (1998)

Another TV movie and another watered down version of a Marvel Comics character, this time starring David Hasselhoff as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most famous agent, Nick Fury.

Broadcast on Fox in 1998, both critics and audiences hated Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and it quickly faded away into obscurity.

Thankfully, Hasselhoff’s turn as Nick Fury didn’t put Samuel L. Jackson off from appearing as the character in Iron Man (and beyond), and we now have a Fury to be proud of!

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Elektra (2005)

Remember 2003’s Daredevil? You know, the one with Ben Affleck as blind superhero Matt Murdock? 

Well, due to the popularity of that film, it received a spin-off movie titled, Elektra. The film starred Jennifer Garner, who reprised her role as Elektra Natchios from Daredevil and followed her efforts to protect a father and daughter duo from assassins.

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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

In 2007, Nicolas Cage played the role of stuntman Johnny Blaze in the Marvel movie, Ghost Rider. The film was pretty ropey, and in some respects should be on this list.

However, the reason Ghost Rider isn’t listed here is because it spawned a 2012 sequel which is far, far worse. The sequel is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which features an incredibly bad central performance from Cage.

Why is Cage’s performance so bad? Because the actor decided to play Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider as if he were playing a snake.

Honestly, I’m not making this up. A SNAKE!

Oh, Cage doesn’t look like a snake, but in his mind, as he played the character, that’s what he was imagining himself as. Think about that next time you watch the film.

Although, just to be clear, you should never watch the film.

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Morbius (2022)

And now onto Morbius – an action horror movie based on Marvel’s Morbius, the Living Vampire comics. Directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Jared Leto, the movie detailed Morbius’ origin, explaining how a rare blood disease led to his transformation into a vampire.

The premise had promise. The film was shit.

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The Fantastic Four

Almost at the end of the list, but not quite. There are a couple of Fantastic Four movies to include, beginning with the most famous (or infamous) movie on this list is 1994’s The Fantastic Four – a film that to this day has still never been released in any official capacity.

The Fantastic Four was produced on a minimal budget and was allegedly conceived as a way for the studio to retain the rights to the FF, so a bigger and better movie could be made further down the line. That movie – aka 2005’s Fantastic Four – didn’t come for over a decade, and in the mean time this ‘94 offering found its way onto the convention circuit, where it popped up in the form of bootleg VHS tapes and DVDs.

Much has been said and written about 1994’s The Fantastic Four (there’s even a documentary about the film), but it doesn’t change the fact that it is very, very bad. You have been warned.

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Fant4stic Four (2015)

And finally, 2015’s Fantastic Four (stylised as Fant4stic) – a film designed to be a reboot of the Fantastic Four movie series… to once again help retain rights to the characters (sigh). Directed by Josh Trank, it was a film so bad, it didn’t reboot anything and simply crashed and burned upon arrival.

Taking inspiration from the Ultimate Fantastic Four comics, but forgetting to inject any heart, excitement, or interesting characters, the film was a complete disaster from start to finish. Not only was it a bad Fantastic Four movie, but it is easily one of the worst comic book movies of all time.

OF ALL TIME!

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So there you have it – the worst Marvel movies! Next time you sit down to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Blade II or one of the many good Marvel films, just imagine what the landscape could have been like, if the Marvel films/TV movies listed above had been a little more successful.

What a terrible thing that would have been.

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Editor/writer/comic book nerd

Alex Wiggan

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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this post about terrible Marvel movies. For more Marvel posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.