It’s been a bleak year for comic book movies: of the six comic book movies released in cinemas in 2024, only one has a Rotten Tomatoes score above 60%.
It’s clear now that 2023 was a bad omen: excluding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (one of the best MCU movies) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it was a disastrous year for Marvel and DC.
It started with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a low point even by Marvel’s worst standards, which paved the way for The Marvels in November (and don’t even talk to me about Secret Invasion). In the rival camp, there was Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle (innocent), and Aquaman 2.
2024 has been even worse, with superhero movies mostly somewhere between dreadful and naff (with one exception).
Deadpool & Wolverine is the only ‘Fresh’ 2024 superhero movie
Deadpool & Wolverine has a 78% score on Rotten Tomatoes (plus a 94% Verified Hot audience rating). That makes it the highest-rated superhero movie of 2024 by a comfortable distance. Here’s how the other big-screen releases stack up:
- Madame Web – 11%
- The Crow – 23%
- Hellboy: The Crooked Man – 41%
- Joker: Folie à Deux – 32%
- Venom: The Last Dance – 37%
In our review of Venom 3, which arrives in theaters tomorrow (October 25), we wrote: “For a film series with a divisive past, it’s been a complicated dance. Even now that it’s over, it’s still hard to tell if it was worth it.”
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There’s one left this year: Kraven the Hunter, the next entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (that doesn’t feature Spider-Man). Early word from New York Comic Con was positive, with attendees describing the first 10 minutes as “grounded” and “violent.”
However, the franchise has produced five movies, and all of them have earned Rotten scores:
- Venom – 30%
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage – 57%
- Morbius – 15%
- Madame Web – 11%
- Venom: The Last Dance – 37%
It doesn’t bode well for Kraven, which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular big-game hunter and supervillain. It hits cinemas on December 13, so we’ll soon see if it can pull off a miracle.
Thankfully, 2025 has a few heavy hitters: Captain America: Brand New World, Thunderbolts, Superman, and the MCU’s Fantastic Four movie.
In the meantime, make sure you check out our list of the best superhero movies of all time.
