There have been hundreds of movies based on comic books, going back to the earliest days of both media. And that cinematic flood has come with a certain amount of “holy crap, what was that” moments. Here are the 50 most shudder-inducing comic-book-movie moments... according to you. Check out our new video, created in honor of tomorrow’s release of Fantastic Four (which might possibly be adding one or two moments to the list.)
To assemble this list of the worst of the worst, we asked you, our readers, to suggest the comic-book movie moments that you would most like to unsee. You responded with a ton of suggestions, which we carefully tabulated (including responses on the Facebook post.) And that led us to this ultimate collection of horrendous scenes in comic-book films. The cream of the crop are in the video above, but here’s the longer list, in no particular order:
1. Batman and Robin: The Bat-credit card.
2. X-Men: Storm asks Toad if he knows what happens to a toad that’s struck by lightning.
3. Superman II: Superman throws his “S” shield
4. Judge Dredd: His awful delivery of “I AM THE LAW.” (Plus the whole “taking off his helmet” thing)
5. Catwoman: The infamous basketball scene
6. The Dark Knight Rises: We learn John Blake’s real first name
7. Avengers: Age of Ultron: Bruce faceplants into Natasha’s breasts “in a move straight out of the shittiest sort of harem anime.”
8. Steel: Pretty much any scene where he runs around in that god-awful costume.
9. Spider-Man 3: The inexplicable “omelette dancing” scene
10. Man of Steel: Superman asks a random priest for advice
11. Howard the Duck: Duck boobs.
12. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: Reed Richards’ dance scene
13. Daredevil: the terrible schoolyard fight scene
14. Superman IV: “Wall-rebuilding vision”. WHAT?
15. Guardians of the Galaxy: Drax calls Gamora a “whore”
16. Batman Forever: It’s the car, right?
17. Blade Trinity: You made a goddamn vampire pomeranian? Plus everything involving Dracula.
18. Watchmen: Nite Owl and Silk Spectre have sex in the Owlship to Leonard Cohen
19. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder pops out knives. And then knives pop out of the knives
20. Spider-Man: The campy gang of thugs that surround Mary Jane
21. Green Lantern: Hector Hammond sees Carol Ferris at a party and sniffs her hair.
22. Superman Returns: Superman spies on Lois Lane using his superpowers.
23. Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro plays “Itsy Bitsy Spider” by whacking Spider-Man into the electrical grid
24. X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head to erase his memories.
25. Men in Black 3: Emma Thompson’s funeral speech
26. Spider-Man 3: the Jazz dance sequence
27. Batman Returns: Batman has his own Bat-CD player that lets him “scratch” a CD back and forth like a vinyl record.
28. Ang Lee’s Hulk: The Hulk punches a gamma-mutated poodle in the junk.
29. Superman: The Movie: Superman flies Lois Lane through the air, and she recites a tone poem, “Can you read my mind?”
30. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The moment where Sean Connery says “God save the Queen” Or the whole ending, really.
31. Avengers: Age of Ultron: Tony Stark jokes about droit du seigneur.
32. X-Men: The Last Stand: I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!
33. Superman III: The “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” traffic icons come to life and fight each other, because of Richard Pryor’s supercomputer
34. Spawn: Just pick a John Leguziamo moment, basically
35. The Mask: Cuban Pete
36. Spider-Man 2: Mary Jane kisses ex-astronaut John Jameson, who says, “I’m back on the Moon. Are you there with me?”
37. The Crow: The “Brandon Lee puts on his makeup while listening to the Cure” scene.
38. Jonah Hex: Megan Fox decides on a numerical order for all of Jonah’s scars
39. Man of Steel: Pa Kent tells Clark he should have let a schoolbus full of kids drown.
40. Batman and Robin: This sequence showing close-ups of the awful costumes
41. Supergirl: The “construction vehicle comes to life” scene
42. Superman II: Superman’s memory-erasing kiss
43. Batman: The extended “Partyman” dance sequence has not aged well.
44. X-Men Origins: Wolverine: They sewed Deadpool’s mouth shut! He looks ridiculous.
45. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splinter learned to be a ninja from a book he found in the garbage.
46. Catwoman: The scene where she goes to a fancy bar in her ridiculous costume and orders cream.
47. Punisher: Frank fights the Russian, while the neighbors get their opera on
48. X-Men: First Class: Havok’s “hula hoops”
49. Batman and Robin: What killed the dinosaurs
50. Superman IV: Pretty much the entire fight scene with Nuclear Man.
Anything we missed?
Correction: An earlier version of this article said we learned John Blake’s middle name. In fact, we learned his real first name. Also, an earlier version of this list included a Hellboy scene instead of a Spider-Man scene.
Update, 10:43 a.m., May 6, 2020: This post has been updated to remove a video that is no longer available.