A brand new category for 2020! Probably should have been one several years ago. There certainly is not any end in sight for comic book movies, no matter what the pundits may say about “comic book movie fatigue.” 2021 will truly test that theory as there will be a ton of new comic book movies coming out.
Meanwhile, 2020 was the least amount of comic book movies to come out in a decade.
In order to celebrate the new award, named after the iconic and EYG Hall of Famer Christopher Reeve, I went back in time and chose a winner for ever year back until 1989. I stopped at 1989 because 1988 was the first year that did not have anything in place even remotely worth honoring.
Doing it this way, there were a couple of CBMs that might not have made a list of great movies from the genre, but since it was the best of the year, they made the list.
Some of these will be easy to predict. Starting off:
1989 Batman
1990 Dick Tracy (I debated between Dick Tracy and Darkman for this year)
1991 The Rocketeer
1992 Batman Returns
1993 Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
1994 The Crow
1995 Batman Forever
1996 The Phantom
1997 Men in Black
1998 Blade
1999 Mystery Men
2000 X-Men
2001 From Hell
2002 Spider-Man
2003 X2: X-Men United
2004 Spider-Man 2
2005 V for Vendetta
2006 300
2007 Superman: Doomsday
2008 The Dark Knight (honorable mention to Iron Man)
2009 Watchmen
2010 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011 Captain America: First Avenger
2012 The Avengers
2013 Iron Man 3
2014 (Tie) Captain America: Winter Soldier & Guardians of the Galaxy
2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron
2016 Captain America: Civil War
2017 Logan
2018 Avengers: Infinity War
2019 Avengers: Endgame
Runners-Up for 2020: Old Guard, Wonder Woman 1984, The New Mutants, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Superman: Red Son
2020: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Though most of the CBM of 2020 are on their way to 2021, Birds of Prey was a solid early year entry with Margot Robbie reprising her role as Harley Quinn (from Suicide Squad). The supporting cast around Robbie was strong as well with some of the lesser known DC heroines (at least to the public at large) in place.
