Another summer of chock full of superhero movies began recently with the release of Iron Man 3. This will be followed up over the next few months with comic-based films The Wolverine, Man of Steel, and Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall. As a bonus, the year rounds out with the release of the Thor sequel Thor: The Dark World in November.
Superhero films are big business these days and are seemingly now a staple of the summer movie lineup, so this week we want to take a look at some of our favorite superhero films and more importantly, why they were important to the genre.
Let’s be honest here, the original X-Men film really wasn’t all 
that great as far as storylines go. It was primarily carried by special effects and the wonder of seeing some of our favorite superheroes finally portrayed well in a live-action film. But back in 2000, X-Men kicked off the current superhero movie craze because it had crisp writing and acting and showed that movie special effects had finally gotten to the point where they could make super powers look good.
While there had been successful superhero films before like the Superman films of the 80s and the Batman films of the 90s, they were a bit campy and not really produced by comic book lovers for comic book fan boys. X-Men proved that superhero films could be big hits that dropped the campiness and appealed to mass audiences, paving the way for 13 more years (and counting) of nerd-driven films.
When X-2 came out in 2003, it gave superhero films a precedent that would be last for at least a decade: it gave us a superhero sequel that was leagues better than the original, basically improving on every aspect of the first film. Now, every superhero film, regardless of how much money it makes, plans on continuing the story with a sequel in not many sequels. Most films actually end with bonus scenes that hint at what comes in the next film. Also, while X-Men: First Class was incredibly enjoyable, we still think X-2 is the flagship X-Men storyline and film of the series so far. No X movie has weaved it characters and comic book roots together in one great film quite like X-2 did.
And this is still one of the greatest opening scenes of any superhero movie ever.
After the success of the X-Men and Spider-Man films, superhero movies started to draw some bigger names to star in them. The shining example of this is Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. Downey Jr. showed us that we could have just as much fun watching a superhero when he’s out of his costume as we did when he was all suited up.
Additionally, Iron Man proved that when done properly, even heroes that were not as well-known outside of the comic book community could be a huge success. Put another way, without the foundation and success of Iron Man, we never would have gotten The Avengers film.
For the record, Spider-Man 2 is a fantastic film! It took a popular storyline familiar to comic book fans and translated it perfectly for Read More
