The result was a superteam that was also a family unit, sparring with supervillains and one another.

Darren Franich

BEST 24.

Adam Carlson

BEST 23.

BEST: 25. Fantastic Four

Marvel Entertainment

Meanwhile, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker was a puberty metaphor with a noble, angry edge.

Anthony Breznican

BEST 22.

The Incredible Hulk

Brought to Life by:Stan Lee and Jack KirbyHulk Smash!

Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller | Brought to Life by: Frank Miller Miller’s early 1980s twist on the blind lawyer turned streetfighter ditched much of the good guy’s decades-long back story,

Marvel Entertainment

Hulk Smash A Lot!

And yet there has always been more to Hulk than destruction porn and bad grammar.

Jeff Jensen

BEST 21.

Tobey Maguire, Spider-Man 2 | Brought to Life by: Sam Raimi With the help of state-of-the-art special effects and pure geek passion, director Raimi managed to give the stale superhero

Melissa Moseley

The result is, in a word, incredible.

Josh Rottenberg

BEST 20.

This iteration of X-Men presaged the panel-busting speed and scope he brought to the screen with last year’sThe Avengers.

The Incredible Hulk | Brought to Life by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Hulk Smash! Hulk Smash A Lot! And yet there has always been more to Hulk than

Marvel Entertainment

Adam Carlson

BEST 19.

Jeff Jensen

BEST 18.

Adam Carlson

BEST 17.

The Incredibles | Director: Brad Bird Stars: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter 115 mins., rated PG The Incredibles ranks among Pixar’s best for the way

Pixar/Disney

Geoff Boucher

BEST 16.

(Of course the gigantic razor claws didn’t hurt.)

Lanford Beard

BEST 15.

Joss Whedon, The Astonishing X-Men | Brought to Life by: Joss Whedon Fresh off his years in TV, Whedon’s writing on Marvel’s storied world of misfit mutants was typically, well, Whedonesque.

Marvel Entertainment

Dream

Brought to Life by:Neil GaimanThis shadowy character from Gaiman’sSandmanseries is the immortal personification of fantasy.

Jeff Jensen

BEST 14.

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.''

Swamp Thing | Brought to Life by: Alan Moore The brilliant British scribe Moore made his name in American comics by taking a monstrous mound of sentient bog

DC Entertainment

(We kinda did.)

Josh Rottenberg

BEST 13.

Geoff Boucher

BEST 12.

Joss Whedon, The Astonishing X-Men | Brought to Life by: John Ostrander and Kim Yale The wildest thing about librarian Barbara Gordon’s transformation from Batgirl into the wheelchair-bound Oracle wasn’t that

DC Comics

Geoff Boucher

BEST 11.

Darren Franich

BEST 10.

Anthony Breznican

BEST 9.

Hellboy | Brought to Life by: Mike Mignola Two decades of comics, two feature films, and an array of games, cartoons, etc., all started with a sketchbook

Dark Horse Comics

The reason why nobody except fanboys took superheroes seriously (e.g.

Adam West; George Clooney.)

Jeff Jensen

BEST 8.

Hugh Jackman, X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Brought to Life by: Hugh Jackman From his muttonchops to his husky growl, Logan has always been all man, but Jackman’s rock-solid take placed a

Michael Muller

Anthony Breznican

BEST 7.

Bonus points for giving Wolverine the well-deserved spotlight that catapulted him into the ranks of comicdom’s greatest anti-heroes.

Dan Morrissey

BEST 6.

The Sandman: Endless Nights | Brought to Life by: Neil Gaiman This shadowy character from Gaiman’s Sandman series is the immortal personification of fantasy. Known by many names, including simply

DC Entertainment

Yet her truest power and beauty come from within.''

And she did it all in high-heeled red boots.

Laura Hertzfeld

BEST 5.

Lou Ferrigno, The Incredible Hulk | Brought to Life by: Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby Over 82 episodes from 1977-82, the tag team of Bixby as mild-mannered Dr. Bruce Banner and

CBS/Landov

Dan Morrissey

BEST 4.

Samantha Highfill

BEST 3.

Of course, that’s without mentioning her protection against a never-ending parade of Hellmouth horrors.

X-Men | Brought to Life by: Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum Jean Grey lived up to her last name in the early X-Men issues. The telepath was

Marvel Entertainment

With Buffy, that’s merely a friendship perk not the point.

Lanford Beard

BEST 2.

Anthony Breznican

BEST 1.

Brought to Life by: Carmine Infantino In a universe of brutes, monsters, and madmen, artist Infantino’s revitalization of the Flash in 1956 was the lithe

DC Entertainment

Jeff Jensen

NEXT: The five worst superheroes ever…

WORST 5.

Wonder Woman

Ruined by:Adrianne PalickiFans of Wonder Woman deserve better.

What made David E. Kelley’s cheesy 2011 TV pilot so dispiriting is that hopes were so high.

The Superman Cartoons of Max and Dave Fleischer | Brought to Life by: Max and Dave Fleischer In 1941, three years after the Man of Steel’s first comic-book appearance, animator siblings the Fleischer brothers

DC Entertainment

Emily Rome

WORST 4.

Anthony Breznican

WORST 3.

A dominatrix with a taste for tuna?

Brought to Life by: Ed Brubaker Cap was born to battle Hitler, spent some time on ice, and came back to modern-day America to fight

Marvel Entertainment

We’re sure somebody’s into that, but it’s not us.

Amanda Taylor

WORST 2.

Get over it, already.

Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises | Brought to Life by: Christopher Nolan For a long time, Batman symbolized only two things: 1.) The anti-Superman, a tragedy-frazzled limousine vigilante who fought crime

Ron Phillips

You’ve punished us enough.

Jeff Jensen

WORST 1.

Matter-Eater Lad

He eats things.

Brought to Life by: Don McGregor The noble, fearsome ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda became the first black superhero when he debuted

Marvel Entertainment

He can eat anything, in fact.

That’s his power chewing through stuff.

And he’s from the planet Bismoll.

X-Men | Brought to Life by: Chris Claremont and John Byrne Though they butted heads throughout their creative partnership (or perhaps because of it), writer Claremont and

Marvel Entertainment

They were clearly smoking something when they came up with this absurd hero.

Linda Carter, Wonder Woman | Brought to Life by: Lynda Carter The show only ran three seasons from 1976-79, but Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman has endured in the heart of

ABC

Christopher Reeve, Superman III | Brought to Life by: Christopher Reeve When Reeve took on the daunting task of starring in 1978’s Superman , he imbued the character with a

Warner Brothers/Kobal Collection

Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man 3 | Brought to Life by: Robert Downey Jr. With 2008’s Iron Man , Downey took the uptight, law-and-order-oriented Tony Stark and made him Hugh Hefner in

Disney

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Brought to Life by: Joss Whedon As quick with a quip as she is with a stake, the wonder of Whedon’s vamp vanquisher, played by

Richard Cartwright/THE WB

Batman, Batman: Year One | Brought to Life by: Year One The influence of Frank Miller’s 1987 series can’t be overstated, casting its dark, sinister shadow over every Batman iteration

DC Entertainment

Amazing Fantasy | Brought to Life by: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Perhaps the first comic book hero who wasn’t so different from readers, the webslinger is a

Marvel Entertainment

Adrianne Palicki, Wonder Woman | Ruined by: Adrianne Palicki Fans of Wonder Woman deserve better. What made David E. Kelley’s cheesy 2011 TV pilot so dispiriting is that hopes were

Justin Lubin/NBC

Created by Hanna-Barbera for the 1977 All-New Super Friends Hour TV cartoon, one twin could shapeshift into an animal and the other into…water? Pretty drippy.

Everett Collection

Halle Berry, Catwoman | Ruined by: Halle Berry We’re allergic to Berry’s version of the clawed minx, whose special power seems to be a ridiculous push-up bra that astonishes

Doane Gregory

The Punisher | While most of these worsts are just silly, The Punisher actually started strong — a vengeance-driven vigilante who represented the thin line between hero and

Marvel Entertainment

He eats things. He can eat anything, in fact. That’s his power — chewing through stuff. And he’s from the planet Bismoll. Seriously. He was

DC Entertainment