The 20 best superhero movies of the last 20 years

Director Matthew Vaughn's take on the ultraviolent series by Mark Millar brings equal parts heart and cynicism to this story of a boy (Aaron Johnson) who uses newfound abilities to fight crime, siding with a father/daughter team of assassins (Nicholas Cage, Chloe Grace Moretz) in a campaign to clean up the streets for good.

Director Guillermo del Toro's magnum superhero opus is equal parts breathtaking and bittersweet, as his struggle to tell his version of "Hellboy" is fully realized in all its horror/fantasy glory in "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." The bittersweet part lies in the fact that while the film on its own was ambitious and grand, audiences did not connect with it nearly enough to warrant a third film, leaving this series on a forever-cliffhanger, never to be resolved, as a reboot starring "Stranger Things" actor David Harbour taking over from Ron Perlman is slated for a January 2019 release, leaving del Toro's vision in the dust.

Much is owed to Bryan Singer for creating this current superhero film wave with 2000's "X-Men," and once upon a time, its vastly superior sequel would've ranked in the top five of our list, but for everything that makes "X2" a crowd-pleasing performance — particularly by that of Hugh Jackman, whose Wolverine was becoming an icon — it's also a relic of the overly safe and cautious period where superheroes were only allowed to wear black leather.

Ryan Reynolds fought long and hard to get the "Merc with a Mouth" onto the big screen, especially after the first infamous attempt in 2009's atrocious "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"; once he got it right in the 2016 version of "Deadpool," he was rewarded with a bonafide hit. "Deadpool" succeeds in being the first superhero film willing to not only laugh at itself but give fans something to also cheer for without being watered down by an arbitrary PG-13 rating.

Matthew Vaughn's next appearance on our list is his reboot of the X-Men franchise, and frankly the best of the mutant films outside of the elegiac "Logan." "X-Men: First Class" features stellar performances, a solid and engaging story, and more importantly, it feels more like Stan Lee's intended vision than anything that came before. Naturally, the subsequent sequels, "Days of Future Past" and "Apocalypse" abandon much of that growth as the directorial vision swung back to Bryan Singer, who proceeded to drive the franchise into the ground.

Appearing at No. 15 on our list shouldn't take away the importance and impact of "Iron Man," the film that truly launched Marvel Studios and serves as the basis for a 10-year journey that is wrapping up with "Avengers: Infinity War"; if anything, it illustrates just how much better and how quickly films in the MCU have grown in terms of quality and scope from its humble beginnings. For Robert Downey, Jr., filling the metal boots of Tony Stark was the moment he forever segued from troubled actor to bonafide movie star, in a role that defines an entire studio, something no other actor on Earth can boast.

It took a long, long time to get "Wonder Woman" to grace the silver screen, but once it did, he expert guidance of director Patty Jenkins and fully-committed performance from Gal Gadot resulted in a solid film that gave not only women, but fans of comic book films as a whole, something to both look up to and be proud of. While "Wonder Woman" is by no means a perfect film, it is both vital and necessary as it succeeds in getting one of DC Comics' greatest hero's story right for all to enjoy.

After two successful, but moderately entertaining entries in the exploits of the God of Thunder, director Taika Waititi completely flips the script in a good way with "Thor: Ragnarok." Here, Chris Hemsworth is allowed to flex his considerable muscles in the realm of comedy, and it works like a charm, as he is free to give Thor more wit and charm than ever before. Add in Jeff Goldblum and a Hulk that can finally speak, and it adds up to not just the best Thor film, but also one of the better superhero films over all.

Feeling more like "The Avengers: Age of Ultron 2.0," the Russo Brothers continue their vision of the Star-Spangled Avenger by successfully pulling a hybrid sequel that not only faithfully continues what they started with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," but makes up for much of what the earlier "Avengers" film sorely lacked, while also giving fans what they were waiting for: the long-awaited introduction of Spider-Man and Black Panther to the MCU.

1997's awful "Batman and Robin was the death knell for a franchise that flew high ever since Tim Burton's genre-defining "Batman" in 1989. In the meantime, Warner Bros. scoured high and low to see who could give audiences a solid, modern take on the Batman mythos, and Christopher Nolan came out on top, bringing audiences a much more grounded take on the Caped Crusader that would kick off a trilogy of films that revitalized the character (and an actor in Christian Bale) for a new generation, making him more popular than ever before.

Often forgotten amongst the best superhero films, Guillermo del Toro and Wesley Snipes' collaboration on "Blade II" is not only a superhero classic, but also a horror classic. If we're being honest, really honest, it could quite possibly stand as the best English-speaking film of GDT's career, "Shape of Water" be damned. This film has everything a superhero film fan wants and does so with a good amount of action, blood and bravado.

We didn't care much for "The Dark Knight Rises," the final entry in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, upon first glance, but in light of everything Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment did wrong with the Caped Crusader in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League," the film deserved another look. Regardless of the massive plot holes created to ignore the Joker in the wake of Heath Ledger's death, the third act of this film represents the absolute best of why superheroes, or just simple heroes, put on the costume and fight for what they believe in.

For so long, filmmakers felt it was necessary to ground comic book characters in a sense of reality, as if audiences couldn't cope with the fantasy element of flying or putting on tights. "Doctor Strange" represents a real attempt to embrace the fantastical aspects of superheroism by finally introducing a character whose power can't be explained by science or anything other than, well, magic. In doing so, the genre enters a new phase that seeks to cut the bonds of reality and delve into something much more exciting, which this film does with flying (and psychedelic) colors.

While the character he played for almost two decades had a healing factor that kept him young, Hugh Jackman doesn't have the same gift, and naturally that means he couldn't be Wolverine forever, no matter how much fan fiction demands. "Logan" is not only Jackman's swan song, it also serves as an eulogy to superheroism as a whole. Years of hard living and battle destroyed not only Logan's body, but also his spirit. This film, set in a a darker version of the X-Man's future, feels both fitting and inevitable for a character whose race has run, even if he has just one more fight left inside. Poignant and heartbreaking, there will never be another like it.

Instead of continuing the cartoony, feel-good patriotic superheroics that fans enjoyed in "Captain America: The First Avenger" and "The Avengers," the Russo Brothers decided to go in a different direction with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," creating a near-epic political superhero thriller that succeeded in not only adding depth to Cap, but also shaping the face of the MCU, as everything we thought we knew changed and we never saw it coming. Also, any superhero film that brings in Robert Redford shows the level of clout Marvel Studios earned, and they weren't fooling around.

Looking for grounded, realistic takes on comic book worlds? Go somewhere else, because James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" is all about embracing the fantasy and presenting the cosmic side of Marvel in a way that pulls no punches and has every bit of the fun it deserves to have. As a result, a film that no one thought would catch fire absolutely did, and it serves to shape the future of Marvel Studios post-"Infinity War" in a way that opens up even more possibilities. As for the film itself, Gunn's mix of humor and heart go a long way in presenting a team of misfits whose differences are what makes them stronger than their adversaries.

An epic in every sense of the word, Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" stands as possibly the best Batman movie ever, largely because it's really not a Batman movie at all. Take out the cape and cowl and what remains is a crime saga that would rival anything Coppola or Scorsese would pull off at their height. Add in Batman and unique takes on Two Face and the Joker, and what you have is a film that, while it hasn't aged terrifically well in the nine years since its release, transcends practically everything that came before it.

The most recent film on our list is also, in many ways, the biggest game changer. One of the benefits Marvel Studios has had over DC Entertainment (and even the Fox Marvel films) is a deep, deep bench of B-list heroes that can be converted into A-list movie stars. "Black Panther" is the right film, coming at the right time, featuring a character not top-of-mind in pop culture and allowing him to become transformed by solid talent of color into an instant icon. The film, directed by Ryan Coogler, and starring Chadwick Boseman as King T'Challa, feels fresh and exciting, and provides a character and a world everyone can look up to. Wakanda forever.

Much like its third sequel is the culmination of 10 years of storytelling, Marvel's "The Avengers" is a culmination of every comic book fan's hopes and dreams. Director Joss Whedon, a genre fan himself, took the daunting task of putting together a team of superheroes and personalities and managed to make it work near-effortlessly. Seeing Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Iron Man together in one shot is exactly why comic book movies exist, with everything leading up to that moment, a moment that seems small now compared to what "Avengers: Infinity War" and its untitled sequel promise to bring. Think about that.

Despite all the highs presented by Marvel Studios since the release of "Iron Man," one film still reigns supreme in the last 20 years, and that's Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 2." While the film can be nitpicked to death and we can argue about the merits of organic vs. constructed webshooters, Raimi, better than any other director/producer, managed to perfectly capture the essence, the very heart and soul of comic books, delivering an experience every bit as thrilling and full of passion for the medium itself as what appears on the printed page. The "it factor" of this film has yet to be matched, even by the greatest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film, which says everything.