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.