[Cecil Terwilliger]

I think there are 4 watershed comic book movie moments. It is probably more accurate to describe it as a slow burn and a progression but there are clearly, IMO, 4 major events.

Superman. Showed superheroes could be more than a campy Batman TV show. If this movie never gets made then Tim Burton's Batman definitely never gets made. They had actual Oscar winning/nominated actors in a superhero film. People forget how big of a deal that is.

Batman 1989. This once again helped push the comic craze and make superhero movies not just mainstream, but dark and moody.

Then we have a big lull. Mostly, IMO, because of the special effects requirements needing to catch up. That and the comic industry falling fat on its face.

Then we have X-Men in 2000. I think this is the most important movie on this list. Everything starts here. Batman Begins never happens without X-Men. This is the one that started it all (with honorable mention to Blade but it didn't have a wide enough mainstream audience to get the credit it probably deserves). None of the current MCU or DCU exist without X-Men.

Iron Man 2007. This ushered in the true golden age of superhero cinema because without this movie we have no MCU.


I love Batman Begins but it doesn't even make my list of the 4 major moments in comic book movie history. There were other dark, gritty movies already released or in production when it came out.

If there's any movie I'm leaving off it is 1989 Batman to add Batman Begins. The other 3 on the list aren't debatable. What did Begins do? Yeah it made Batman famous again but he's never struggled that much in public consciousness. He's been up there as a cultural icon with Superman for the last 50 plus years. Does it make the list just because it was a bit more serious in tone than the stuff Marvel was putting out? It wasn't a trendsetter the way X-Men was, not even close. And I don't think there's enough of a legacy to justify putting Begins on the list in place of Iron Man. I just don't see the major game changing influence that those 4 movies have with Begins. It made gritty, earnest superhero movies more mainstream but not a lot beyond that IMO.