While recent years have generated discussion ofsuperherofatigue, make no mistake, the superhero genre is still going strong. Superhero films have been some of the biggest money makers at the box office, often coming in as some of the highest-grossing films of a given year. They have also received extremely positive reviews, and films likeBlack PantherandJokerhave earned Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards.
Update August 05, 2025: This article has been updated with more low-rated superhero movies, including a recent entry that managed to make this list of not-so-esteemed competition.
Yet not all superhero movies are created equal. For everyThe Dark Knight, there is aGhost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Quality can even range within the same franchise, as 2021’sThe Suicide Squadwas seen as a significant correction over the awful reviews 2016’sSuicide Squadreceived. Here is a look back at the worst-rated superhero movies in the genre ranked based on their Rotten Tomatoes score.
17Hellboy (2019) - 17%
Hellboy Reboot
While battling a trio of rampaging giants, the legendary half-demon Hellboy encounters Nimue the Blood Queen, an ancient resurrected sorceress who’s out to avenge a past betrayal. Suddenly caught in a clash between the supernatural and the human, Hellboy soon becomes hell-bent on stopping Nimue without triggering the end of the world.
FollowingGuillermo del Toro’stwoHellboymovies was always going to be difficult, but 2019’sHellboyreboot, starring David Harbour as the titular character, is the worst kind of follow-up in every way. It is an unnecessary reboot that does nothing new with the material, with its only new hook being that it is R-rated but somehow more emotionally immature than the past two PG-13 ratings.
A Lackluster Reimagining
It looks cheap, feels half-baked, and makes one frustratedHellboy 3was canceled in favor of this. Harbour addressed the reboot’s overwhelmingly negative reception,expressing how he feltthe film was unfairly compared to the MCU and saying:
“We did our best, but there’s so many voices that go into these things and they’re not always going to work out. I did what I could do and I feel proud of what I did, but ultimately I’m not in control of a lot of those things.”
Buy/Rent onPrime Video.
16The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) -17%
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Infamously the film that made Sean Connery retire from acting altogether,The League of Extraordinary Gentlemensees Alan Quartermain (Connery) heading a team of characters from various classic novels in a team to save the world. Based on theAlan Moore comicof the same name, the film adaptation squanders the premise. The Avengers but with characters from 19th-century English fiction, is a strong pitch that ultimately becomes a generic action movie.
Major Box Office Competition
To make matters worse, the movie opened the same weekend asPirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. While that movie was one of the biggest movies of 2003 and launched a successful film franchise,The League of Extraordinary Gentlemenbombed and earned 17% on Rotten Tomatoes.Stream onHulu.
15Spawn (1997) - 17%
Spawnsees special agent Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) double-crossed and burnt alive, after which he is sent to Hell, only to return as an anti-hero of the same name. Horribly scarred (just like the rest of this movie), Al is ugly as anything, alongside awful makeup and rushed, vile CGI scenes that completely engulf everything going on.Spawndeserves its bad ratingsas “[It looks like it’s] been created via Microsoft Paint — and then annihilated by a blender.”
A Wasted Superstar Cast
Tacky and frustrating to watch overall, there is next to nothing aboutSpawnthat is good, despite promoting a stacked cast with support from John Leguizamo and Martin Sheen. We would say that we hope that the supposed remake will be better… but there’s no way it could be worse than this.Rent/Buy onApple TV+.
14Morbius (2022) - 15%
Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead. Starring Jared Leto and Michael Keaton.
One of the most recent entries on the list isMorbius, starring Jared Leto as the titular vampire. While movies likeVenomand its sequelVenom: Let There Be Carnagecan be considered so bad they are good and even steer into their weird elements,Morbiusis just too boring to be fun. It is as generic as they come, feeling like a quick cash in a superhero film someone would have made in the 2000s.
A Sloppy Superhero Dud
The film is cut to pieces, with scenes oddly out of order and just deciding to end as if they ran out of money.Morbius’s mid-credit scenes and after-credit scenes play like parodies of superhero movie end credits and feel like they were transcribed from a five-year-old telling their parent what happened at the end of another better superhero movie.Morbiuswas a movie so bad that it became a meme overnight, and that tricked Sony into releasing it in theaters, where itbombed at the box office twice.Stream onDisney.
13The Spirit (2008) - 14%
The Spirit
2008 was a great year for superhero movies as it saw the release of movies likeIron ManandThe Dark Knight. It also had the release of one of the worst films in the genre,The Spirit. Based on the iconic pulp hero of the same name,The Spiritwas directed by legendary filmmaker Frank Miller, who had never actually directed a movie.
An Underwhelming & Cheap Imitation
The finished film is a movie thatcopies the style ofSin Citybut has the tone of a 40’s pulp comic strip without any of the charm. It is a movie that wants to beDick Tracybut without any of the style and filmmaking talent. Despite an impressive cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega, and more, The Spirit is a movie that was quickly forgotten about.Stream onHulu.
12Howard the Duck (1986) - 13%
Howard the Duck
Lucasfilm was a huge success after the firstStar Warstrilogy was released, and even for many of their smaller and lesser-known films, it seemed like everything they touched turned to gold. In 1986, one duck came along to change all of that. The infamousHoward the Duckhas become the stuff of legends, at least in the circles of people who like to make fun of it.
Related:Does Howard the Duck Have a Future in the MCU After Marvel’s What If…?
Bizarre Cult Classic
To say the film is of questionable quality is being modest. The figure of Howard can’t even throw a proper pie into someone’s face. The story is bizarre on its own, but the little details, and the fact that the human love interest is, well, a human with the hots for an anthropomorphic duck, make this one superhero movie that no one really knows why it was made. It is often regarded as one of the worst movies ever made.Stream onTubi.
11Madame Web (2024) - 12%
Madame Web
Thelatest superhero disasterto land on this list,Madame Webhad a lot of buzz and mystery surrounding it in the months leading up to its release, with curious fans wondering what the overall feel and premise the Marvel Comics adaptation would have. Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, and Isabela Merced headline the film, but not even theEuphoriaIt-Girl could help save this ill-conceived and lifeless origin tale.
Johnson Knew the Writing Was on the Wall
Critics ripped intoMadame Webfor its lack of depth, excitement, and underwhelming plot and visuals. Many unfavorably compared it to fellow trainwreckMorbius,mocking it as meme fodder and an all-around disappointing venture by Sony. Johnson herself evenacknowledged she wasn’t shockedby all the negativity the film garnered:
“I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like,Wait, what?But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”
Rent/Buy onPrime Video.
10Batman & Robin (1997) - 12%
Batman and Robin
Although recently reevaluated as schlocky, campy fun,Batman & Robindid what the Joker never could and killed the Batman (franchise). Cheesy and utterly panned at the time, the out-there casting of George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Uma Thurman made the Val Kilmer and Jim Carrey casting ofBatman Foreverlook like theCitizen Kaneof cinema.
An Uncertain Franchise Future
While it is trying to capture the tone of the1960s television series,Batman & Robinjust isn’t fun enough to capture that same tone. It is calculated in a way that mainstream films tend to try and hide. The universal panning of the superhero flick led to canceled future films, including director Joel Schumacher’s planned sequelBatman Unchained.Stream onPrime Video.
9Jonah Hex (2010) - 12%
For those keeping track,Jonah Hexmarks four terrible superhero movies in a row for DC on this list. Released in the summer of 2010 on the same weekend asToy Story 3(likely an attempt to bury this movie),Jonah Hexwas based on a Western hero from DC Comics. Featuring a cast thatincludes Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich, and Michael Fassbender sounds promising.
Short & Not So Sweet
However, the finished film givesWild Wild Westflashbacks. The one thing that can be said about Jonah Hex is that it is short, running at just 81 minutes. That shows how cut to the bone this movie is. It honestly hardly even counts as a movie at all.Rent/Buy onPrime Video.
8Elektra (2005) - 11%
Daredevilmight not have been great, but compared to its spin-off filmElektrait feels like a masterpiece. Despite Jennifer Garner being a talented actress,Elektrais a film plagued by a bad script and even worse fight choreography. It is not exciting, it’s not thought-provoking, and it isn’t even fun.
Chance to Right Past Wrongs
Elektrawas sadly used as an instrument to keep more female-led superhero movies from being made, but nothing aboutElektrabeing bad is because of that fact. It is bad because it was poorly thought out. Hopefully the character’s (and Garner’s)return in the MCU’supcomingDeadpool & Wolverinecan help wash away the sour taste the 2005 film left in the mouths of moviegoers.Stream onMax.
