While some old-school filmmakers might not like comic book movies for various reasons, there is no doubting their worth at the box office. Yes, superhero movies take up the most screens at most theaters, but they also bring in people to watch them en masse, keeping Hollywood on its feet in a time where more people are sitting at home streaming television.
However, this is because most of the new superhero movies are entertaining and well-made. Even the DCEU movies, which remain divisive, make a lot of money and have a hardcore fanbase supporting them. However, looking back over the history of the genre, there have been clunkers, and we don't mean critical bombs like Catwoman or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Here is a look at 10 terrible superhero movies most people don't know existed.
10 STEEL (1997)
Shaquille O'Neal went to Los Angeles for more reasons than just to play for the Lakers. He wanted to see what he could do in the entertainment industry as well. Shaq had a few decent roles, such as Blue Chips, but most of his movies were critical failures like Steel.
Steel was a DC Comics movie from 1997 that was supposed to follow the Death of Superman film Tim Burton and Kevin Smith were working on. The Superman movie was shelved, but Steel was still made. It didn't even break $2 million at the box office, and is 12% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.
9 BARB WIRE (1996)
In 1996, Pamela Anderson was coming off her role as C.J. Parker in Baywatch and was branching out into movies. That led to the 1996 film Barb Wire. Based on the Dark Horse comic book created by Chris Warner, Anderson starred as Barb Wire, a nightclub owner in Steel Harbor after the second American Civil War.
Despite selling the movie on Anderson's talents, was a critical and commercial failure. It made $3.7 million at the box office and is rated 28% rotten by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with the audience rating it at 14%. Anderson also won a Razzie for her performance.
8 MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND (2006)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend hit theaters in 2006. The film had a good cast, with Luke Wilson and Uma Thurman in the lead roles, and a beloved director in Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), but it predated the MCU and came out the same year as the first X-Men movie. It failed to impress audiences.
Thurman is a superhero named G-Girl, who starts to date a normal man (Wilson), but when he tries to break up with her, she sets out to make him regret it. It sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a 31% rotten audience rating.
7 CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990)
Captain America is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most beloved heroes. Chris Evans came into the role in his solo movie and ended up one of the two backbones of the MCU along with Iron Man, through Avengers: Endgame. It wasn't Cap's first movie, though, as he originally appeared in a 1944 serial, and two 1979 TV movies: Captain America and Captain American II: Death Too Soon. Most infamous, though, was the 1990 film of the same name.
Matt Sallinger, the son of legendary author J.D. Sallinger, was Captain America here as he battled The Red Skull in WWII and then saved the President in present-day America. The film has a 7% rotten rating and was never released into theaters, premiering on TV two years later.
6 BLANKMAN (1994)
The first African-American superhero movie was not Blade. It also wasn't Steel. Nope, there were two before it, including the Damon Wayans movie Blankman in 1994. As expected from the fact that this was Wayans, it was a comedy, written by the comedian as well.
The film was about a nerd (Wayans) who becomes a superhero after his grandmother is murdered. He creates gadgets, gizmos, and weapons to aid him in fighting crime, and becomes Blankman. It flopped, with a 13% rotten score and only a $7.3 million box office take.
5 DR. STRANGE (1978)
In 2016, the MCU introduced the world to the magical world of Doctor Stange. However, four decades before Benedict Cumberbatch put on the Eye of Agamotto, Peter Hooten took on the role of the Master of Mystic Arts.
The movie was made for TV and also starred Jessica Walter, who later voiced Malory Archer on Archer and played Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development, as Morgan Le Fay. The film received poor ratings when it aired on CBS, but fans got their first DVD release in 2016 thanks to Shout! Factory.
4 THE FANTASTIC FOUR (1994)
Roger Corman is a producer who has produced more successful B-grade movies that almost anyone in cinema history. However, when he took his turn at trying to help get a Marvel Comics film made, it was a monumental failure. The film was The Fantastic Four, and it ended up shelved after completion.
Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer might be interested to know that Mercedes McNab had a small role as a young Sue Storm. However, the main cast was mostly unknowns, and the film featured Doctor Doom as the villain.
3 CONDORMAN (1981)
Superman proved a man could fly in 1978. Three years later, Condorman showed that maybe men were better left grounded. Loosely based on the novel The Game of X by Robert Sheckley, Walt Disney made this superhero movie about a comic book writer and artist who made a working suit replicating his own character
He then ends up in a giant adventure that involves espionage and danger. Michael Crawford is Condorman, and English acting legend Oliver Reed also appears. Reports indicate that Disney lost money on the movie, and it ended up with a 25% rotten rating.
2 ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE (2013)
The idea for All Superheroes Must Die is simple. Take the ideas from the Saw franchise and make all the people involved superheroes. Just like Saw, the movie opens with four people waking up in an abandoned town and being told that they had been abducted and now have to go through tests to live.
The victims are superheroes, and their captor sends them on missions to save innocent people, with their own lives are on the line if they fail. There are familiar faces here, including Lucas Till (Stoker) and James Remar (The Warriors), but the audience score of 24% rotten says it all.
1 NICK FURY: AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. (1998)
It is doubtful that movie fans can imagine anyone but Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, thanks to the MCU. However, in the comics, Fury was a white guy, but the MCU used the Ultimates version, which itself was based on Jackson. There is one man who hated the casting.
If you ask him, David Hasselhoff feels no one made a better Nick Fury than he did. Hasselhoff was Fury in the 1998 superhero movie written by David Goyer. In the film, Fury battled HYDRA. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 16% rotten rating.
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