Now that The Fantastic Four- First Steps is now out in theaters, I decided to do something totally insane and rank every single Marvel movie ever! Not just the movies related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe but all theatrically-released films that have some sort of connection to Marvel. That includes all the Marvel movies made by Fox, Sony, Marvel Studios, and even that one more Disney themselves.
Throughout last year, I actually took the time to watch every other Marvel-related film that I haven’t got around to just for the sake of making this list. Why? Because I have no life whatsoever and I like making insane lists! That’s why!
But anyways, let’s get into list making and rank all 90 theatrically-released Marvel films from best to worst! If you agree with this list, awesome! If you disagree, fine and I likely will by the time I actually publish this! Either way, let’s have some fun and rank these superhero flicks!
Btw, NO I’m not going into any sort of description of each said film because then this list would take a million years to make! I’m just gonna let the ranked number for each film speak for themselves!
Marvel Rivals has been the most talked about video game at the moment. Since it released for free back in December, Marvel fans and gamers cannot seem to stop gushing over how good this game really is. While the overall premise of the game is nothing more than “Overwatch but with Marvel superheroes” with a few live service elements from Fortnite throw in there for good measure, it’s overall variety in terms of it’s seasonal content and expansive, colorful roster of Marvel’s most iconic comic book characters has been the main features that has had folks keep coming back to it. From the immersive gameplay to the intriguing maps/setting to the appealing art style to the fun as hell banter that is played through every single match, this has perhaps been the most successful Marvel related thing since well……Avengers: Endgame. The one main Marvel feature of the 2020s that seems to have united Marvel fans, comic book fans, and gamers worldwide for this fun and immersive experience. I have put over 60 hours into this game since it launched and I still find myself keep coming back for more. If that’s not the sign of a great game with a ton of replay value, I don’t know what is.
However, that hasn’t stopped the game from running into it’s fair share of “controversies”. I put controversies in quotes because I don’t think it’s so much as big of a deal as what certain people are making it out to be but more of it’s not as big of a deal that certain people WANT it to be. In the sense, that this isn’t really being seen as outrage as angry YouTubers would want you to believe outside of some accounts on Twitter and Reddit along with an article or two that was clearly designed for rage bait clicks for folks that were stupid enough to take the bait.
You might be thinking I’m talking about the supposed censorship that took place with key words being banned from the game such as “1989”, “Free Taiwan”, “Hitler”, and “ISIS” or the cringeworthy modes of Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump as Captain America being taken down (Seriously, that was the most cringeworthy shit EVER!!!!!!). You would be……surprisingly wrong there. (Seriously, how in the world did that controversy just….drop off the face of the earth?!)
What I’m talking about are the eye opening designs of the characters that are presented in the game, most notably the female characters. With certain folks complaining that the designs are too sexualized, too male gazing, and too pandering to the “goon” squad. And with the recent season update that includes Emma Frost and the announcement of the game receiving swimsuit skins later this year, to tie into Marvel Comics’ revival of their Swimsuit special, there has been nonstop “gooner” allegations helmed against this game.
I get that certain folks need to have this conversation over this supposed “controversial” subject matter over this game because well…..it’s 2025 and literally everything needs to be a major talking point about something that is no where near as interesting as everyone is making out to be. All it takes is one clickbait tweet, a juicy quote from an article, or a rage-inducing title of a video to get certain folks fired up and feel like they need to defend something so trivial and minor or else……it will disappear forever because it made a certain someone upset. But in the case of Marvel Rivals, this “gooner” controversy is essentially of an example of a big snowball that certain folks feel the need to push down the mountain, making what should be a minor issue into something major because they couldn’t leave things well enough alone and just not take the bait. The whole “this game is made for the goon squad” is the main element that’s got certain folks triggered….and it’s absolutely hilarious.
The design of female characters in games has been a real toxic discussion over the years. For a while, certain folks have been complaining about women in gaming not being “attractive” enough. This has been seen as a response to backlash over the years of video games being sexist towards women and the majority of female protagonists in games being designed more with male gamers in mind as opposed to female gamers. Characters such as Kay Vess from Star Wars: Outlaws, MJ from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Ciri with the new upcoming The Witcher VI have been subjected to major controversy for their designs. The main talking points around them being that they didn’t look hot enough, had too much “masculine” features, and being made ugly “on purpose” for…..reasons I can’t even comprehend. So much so that there are folks that refused to play those games and many others just because none of the women in them gave them a boner.
Although, there have been some notable exceptions, particularly with games made by Eastern developers, in recent memory that have gone out of their way to make the women in their games as easy on the eyes and visually appealing as possible. Characters such as Tifa Lockhart and Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII and the women from Stellar Blade being recent examples of this. Although, there’s has been some hype over the Western developed Grand Theft Auto VI because of how fine the new girl, Lucia, looks in it and…..I guess there’s that. However, there hasn’t been one instance in recent memory where you can tell the main playable female characters were made to look as good as the developers can possibly make them than with Marvel Rivals.
Whether we are talking about Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Storm, Magik, Hela, Emma Frost, Sue Storm, Luna Snow, Mantis, Psylocke, Dagger, or Squirrel Girl (I left out Peni Parker for a reason!), the women in Marvel Rivals have tended to shine in more ways than one. This most notably comes from their gorgeous outfits, unlockable/buyable skins, flawless hair, and the thick..well….”layers” to their designs. Because of all that and more, I can’t imagine there are certain folks that did NOT want to play as any of those characters just because of how good they look. (There’s a reason that Storm has been one of my top 3 playable characters since launch). While many people have applauded the game for these appealing designs that makes it feel like these characters were ripped straight out of the comic books and stayed true to their original forms, there are those that have condemned it, feeling like it devalues the women of the game in any way or that it’s relying on sex appeal in order to keep the services going for the foreseeable future.
And these aren’t just the typical far-left extremists that certain folks are letting you to believe but even the ones on the other far end political stretch (A.K.A. the “woke” right) that have condemned the game for making the outfits of the female characters too revealing, too slutty, and too “inappropriate” for children. (I wouldn’t be surprised if these are the same kind of folks that constantly blame games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto for all of the world’s problems instead of….well….themselves!) And I don’t think I need to go into this recent “GoonerGate” controversy (Yes, that is a real thing!) that I’m sure the game itself has been dragged into because of that. While I can understand a viewpoint or two of this matter, I do think this whole thing is being blow WAY out of proportion by such a small minority.
Yes, I am someone that advocates for my ladies to be well written and fun to play as in games that amounts to them being more than just being sexy eye candy. Yes, I am also someone that doesn’t let how good (or bad) a pixeled female A.I. looks determine my feelings on a video game. However, I do NOT think whatsoever that the way that the women superheroes look in Marvel Rivals detracts from their characters or makes me think of any less of them as a part of their characters history. If anything, it makes me think more of them as characters.
While the game itself might not have it’s own campaign or characterization for the women outside of some good banter and visual flare, they do feel very in-line of how I (and many others) view them as characters in comics, movies, and even games. It’s not just their amazing looks that makes them appealing, it’s their special powers, unique gameplay, suitable voice work, and the way they play off the other characters that make them stand out in the best ways. And even the women with the most revealing outfits, you can tell they feel the most confident about themselves when they wear it. It’s their attractiveness and femininity that empowers them to be the best version of themselves and NOT the other way around. And the best part of it all is that it’s not just the women that look good in Marvel Rivals, it’s the men too.
While the male superhero counterparts may not be as hyper-sexualized as their female counterparts, they too have great and fitting designs that looks like they were ripped straight out of the comics. You can’t tell me that Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, and many others don’t look the way they are suppose to and don’t fit them as characters whatsoever. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the designs of this game are considered the definite designs for many newcomers to the Marvel lore. And even the male superheroes that are hyper-sexualized well……they do have great wonders as well.
I can’t imagine how many women (and even some men) that have played this game found themselves themselves gooning over shirtless Namor, daddy Reed Richards, goldy Adam Warlock, completely worthy Loki, totally non-Sebastian Stan Bucky, and twerking Venom with his full cake booty. This is literally a game where both the men AND women get to have fat asses. THIS is the representation that matters!
When it comes to the “gooner” discourse surrounding Marvel Rivals, I see it more as a tongue-and-cheek kind of thing rather than something that should be taken seriously. Because, when playing through the game, you can tell this is all being done out of love, passion, and respect for the characters throughout Marvel’s history instead of pandering and desperation. It would be one thing if the game was bad and you can tell they are relying on attractive men and women to keep the game afloat but that is definitely NOT the case here.
If folks want to continue lambasting this game because of it’s appeal to “gooners”, let them. The game has been a success since it launched during the holiday season and will continue to do so for at least the next few years. I get how annoying online grifters can ruin the fun of something like this because it makes them believe they’ve “won” something and have to keep bringing up irrelevant posts and articles to make certain talking points feel much bigger than they really are. But for folks like us, who can enjoy any game we want without have some sort of bias or pride attached to it, we are the ones that get the last laugh at the end. And also the developers of Marvel Rivals of course.
I also want to keep in mind that if there are women (or even men) out there that do take issue with the way the characters look in the game and have a fair, not extreme, opinion on it, that’s all well and good. I just believe there are FAR worse examples of oversexualized characters in gaming and media that do take away from them as characters if you strip away how good they look. In the case of Marvel Rivals, I strongly believe that (for the most part) the designs of the characters compliment themselves and only adds to the variety of the game rather than take away from it. It’s that nice little icing on a very well made and properly put together cake that anyone can enjoy. And that is perhaps the best possible compliment I can give a game!
In the meantime, I’m going to continue to play the hell out of and enjoy Marvel Rivals! And I recommend you to do the exact same!
To conclude this piece, here’s Knuckles approval ratings of the “mommies” of Marvel Rivals!
This Valentine’s Day saw the release of Madame Web, the newest comic book movie which despite being based off of a Marvel Comic character, was developed STRICTLY by Sony (I bring that up because there are surprisingly a large amount of people in the world that don’t realized this was NOT a movie made by Marvel Studios themselves). And just like with Sony’s previous attempt at doing a villain origin story that no one asked for in Morbius, Madame Web has been an absolute critical and (likely) commercial disaster. It’s immediately been regarded as one of the worst comic book movies ever made and will definitely being topping PLENTY of worst movies of the year list come December. And unlike that other trainwreck of a villain origin story that came out two years ago that I just mentioned, I don’t think the memes are going to be enough to save Madame Web‘s reputation, even if I did somewhat try to do so in my spoof review of it.
As if Madame Web is not enough of a lackluster superhero flick to come out this year from Sony, we also have Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3 slated to release later on this year. And if the track record of the last few villain led movies from Sony is anything to go by, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turn out just as bad if not worse. And with the recent funk that most comic book movies are in now, the last thing the sub-genre needs is not one, not two, but THREE terrible comic book movies to come out in the exact same year with the Marvel logo. And as I said at the beginning of the review, even though Marvel Studios are NOT the ones that are making these movies, there is actually a good portion of the population that believe otherwise and could potentially affect upcoming MCU installments such as Deadpool & Wolverine coming out in July.
Of course, the big question everyone is asking is why does Sony continue to make these movies that not only nobody is demanding for but I don’t think even they themselves want to make? Well, it’s basically a similar situation to what led to The Amazing Spider-Man duology being created, to keep the full film rights away from Marvel. Which wouldn’t necessarily be such a bad thing if that sense of obligation wasn’t felt when watching these movies but even if you have the biggest rose-colored glasses on, it’s near impossible to separate the studio politics when sitting through disasters such as The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Venom, Morbius, and Madame Web.
All of this and more is why I strongly believe that it’s time for Sony to return all film rights back to Marvel Studios. Not just the television rights they were forced to fork over when Disney bought Marvel but also the film rights and possibly any other rights to the character of Spider-Man. This isn’t strictly because of recent events with Madame Web but because of the poor treatment that the company has given the character for the past 15 plus years. If you don’t believe me, let’s take a trip down memory lane and go into why certain Spider-Man-related properties have suffered in quality because of Sony.
The first thing I’m sure plenty will point to has to why Sony should still be the father of Spider-Man is the success of the trilogy with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire. The superhero trilogy that was arguably the most successful series of superhero movies until the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy came along. Yes, Spider-Man (2002) is notable for starting the 21st century dominance of superhero movies. Yes, Spider-Man 2 is still considered to be one of the greatest superhero movies ever made! However, what about Spider-Man 3, which in the day before memes, was considered to be one of the biggest letdowns in not just superhero movie history but possibly film history in general. Well, that’s where Sony comes in.
The main reason that Spider-Man 3 turned out to be the mess that it did was due to Sony forcing Sam Raimi to include Venom and other notable characters such as Gwen and Captain Stacy strictly because they were fan favorites throughout the webhead’s history. Raimi initially wanted to tackle the Vulture with Sandman and Harry as the new Goblin along with them but because the demands from the higher ups at Sony, most notably infamous producer Avi Arad, those plans were abandoned and he had to give up Vulture for Venom. Never mind the fact that Venom is basically a two-movie arc at best and the Stacys were never even hinted at existence in the previous movies of the Raimiverse. They were here because it’s what the fans want according to Sony. Instead of being patient and saving those potential storylines for a future sequel, Spider-Man 3 tried to please everyone and their mother at the same time with introducing so many different characters and plotlines that it was just a mess. Sure, some might enjoy that movie more than others (such as yours truly), but I think most people will agree that the movie would have been much better if one side just let one side do the movie they wanted instead of just trying to appease both sides at the same time.
Despite the negative reviews for Spider-Man 3, the strong box office numbers did encourage plans for a fourth installment. Sam Raimi was set to return as director along with Tobey Maguire and Kristen Dunst in their lead roles as Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson respectively. Raimi had stated many times he was not happy with the end results of Spider-Man 3 and wanted Spider-Man 4 to be the needed return to form and the very best one yet. Spider-Man 4 was planned to include Vulture, the villain initially wanted for Spider-Man 3, along with Black Cat. However, he went through many different scripts and revisions and disliked every single one of them. Then came January 2010, which the film was set to begin filming soon to make for a planned May 2011 release date. However, Raimi was still not satisfied with the script and asked Sony for more time on it. Sony refused and because of that, Raimi stepped down from the project and Spider-Man 4 was officially cancelled. Despite the fact that Sony could have afford to give Raimi one more year because they needed a Spider-Man film out by 2012 to keep the rights to the character and NOT by 2011, they let him go and decided it was time for a full reboot.
Strike one!
The 2012 reboot turned out to be The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb and starred Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. It was approached by Sony as a darker, lower-scaled reboot compared to the Sam Raimi trilogy, containing a larger focus on the teen drama/high-school dynamic aspects of the character. Despite getting solid reviews at the time of it’s release and was able to make 758 million dollars worldwide, it was not the notable success that Sony had wanted, most likely due to the film’s budget of 200 to 230 million dollars. Many believed that was largely due to having a good chunk of scenes that were notably cut out of the feature film, which includes about over half an hour of deleted scenes.
When it came to figuring out where to go next with the series after the first film, The Avengers had come out and it was a global smash worldwide, making it one of the most financially successful films of all time. Because of that, Sony decided that it would be best for them to try to create a cinematic universe of their own within the universe of The Amazing Spider-Man series. Of course, an Amazing Spider-Man 2 and 3 were greenlight but also were a 4th film, a Sinister Six spin-off, a Venom movie, a Black Cat and Silver Sable movie, and even an Aunt May movie (No, I’m not joking!). With such high plans being put in motion, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had to be a success both commercially and financially.
Two years later, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out and it could have not gotten worse for Sony if they tried. Not only was it received with much worse reviews than the first one but it also made even less money than the first film, making barely above 700 million dollars worldwide. While making 700 million dollars should been seen as a success, it was not in the eyes of Sony, most notably because they promised their investors that the film would make at least a billion dollars.
If you look at what went wrong from behind the scenes, it’s easy to see why The Amazing Spider-Man 2 turned out the way they did. It was a movie that drew everything but the kitchen sink at it with so many different characters, subplots, and set ups for future films. There was even several deleted scenes that hinted at even more characters and subplots such as Mary Jane Watson played by Shailene Woodley, Felicia Hardy as Black Cat, Norman Osborn alive as a frozen head, and even Peter meeting his not-actually-dead father in person. It was a directional mess where no one in involved either had any idea with what they were doing or just didn’t care in general.
Because of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperforming, Sony didn’t know what to do next. It’s then that they were approached by Marvel Studios who wanted to include Spider-Man in one of their upcoming films, Captain America: Civil War. When giving the offer, Sony decided to give up on trying to make their own cinematic universe of Spidey and formed a partnership with Marvel Studios, which would once again reboot the character with a different actor that would be Tom Holland. If you are keeping track at home, that is now TWO different iterations of Spider-Man that Sony wrecked due to their own incompetence and constant interference of the productions of these films.
Strike two!
While everyone has their own opinion of the MCU version of Spider-Man, I think most folks would agree that teaming up with Marvel and giving up on their Amazing Spider-Man universe was the right call for Sony. This led to Spider-Man being feature in three different films of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latter of which is one of the highest grossing films ever, along with notable appearances in the team-up Avengers movies such as Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. However, that didn’t necessarily stop Sony from trying to make Spider-Man related movies of their own.
Believe it or not, Sony actually committed to making at least one of the spin-off movies they were planning with The Amazing Spider-Man universe, which would turn out to be Venom released in 2018. And believe it or not, despite the bad reviews, it was a massive hit for mainstream audiences, grossing over 850 million dollars worldwide. It was the success of that film that motivated for Sony to do another try at their own cinematic universe but this time putting the spotlight on villains from Spider-Man’s rose gallery.
We got Venom: Let There Be Carnage in 2021 which was a decent hit at around 506 million dollars worldwide but definitely not as much as the first one made, then came Morbius which despite it being the most meme-worthy movie ever, got awful reviews and was a big bomb at the box office (even after it got re-released in theaters again due to the memes), and now there’s Madame Web which is set to do just as bad if not worse than Morbius, both critically and commercially. Now, that makes for three different iterations of Spider-Man related properties that Sony either screw up big time or drove it into the ground.
Strike three and you are out!
It’s also worth mentioning about the brief fallout between Sony and Marvel that happened right after Far From Home came out, which almost made No Way Home not happen in it’s current form. It was believed it was largely to do with Sony and Disney having differences on the amount of profit for upcoming Spider-Man films set within the MCU. It’s also believed that Sony was about to take back the character of Spider-Man himself until Tom Holland called up Bob Iger while drunk, pleading for him and Marvel to work out a deal with Sony to keep Spider-Man in the MCU. It’s unknown whether it’s Sony or Marvel that’s the true bad guy here, the fact that Sony almost lost ANOTHER version of Spider-Man would not have been a good sign on their part.
When you really get back onto to the major problems with Spider-Man medium since 2007, all of that can be traced back to Sony. From forcing Sam Raimi to include characters he didn’t want to in Spider-Man 3, to micromanaging the hell out of The Amazing Spider-Man movies with no real road map or goal in mind, to constantly making these pointless villain origin stories in the hopes it would connect to some version of Spider-Man later on down the road, Sony has had a real problem with the web head for quite a period of time. Sure, we have had Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and the Marvel’s Spider-Man video game series but all of those were clearly done in SPITE of Sony and not because of them.
And even if you want to include those mediums I just mentioned, I could also talk about how Sony basically rushed Insomniac to get Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 out by 2023 when they wanted to push it back to this year to add more polish and features to the game, which likely cost the GOTY awards for that game. Or about how Phil Lord and Chris Miller had to constantly rewrite the script for Across the Spider-Verse due to Sony’s constant interference on the production. Or how they are now butting heads with Marvel Studios for Spider-Man 4 because they would rather chase the success train of No Way Home by doing another multiverse movie instead of taking things down to the street-fighting levels that most fans want and build to another one later on down the road. If anything, the fact that any of those things turned out to be any good at all is simply a miracle.
And with the release of Madame Web that is set to crash and bomb at the box office, I think it’s time more than ever for Sony to give up all of their rights to Spider-Man and return them to Marvel. Aside from Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 game, and MCU’s Spider-Man 4, there is nothing they have coming up that looks even remotely promising under their control, just with the partnership with other studios. Kraven the Hunter looks like another generic by-the-numbers villain origin film, Venom 3 will likely inherit the same problems of it’s predecessors and rely strictly on Tom Hardy’s star power to save the day, and who knows if those reported Miles Morales film, Spider-Women Spider-Verse film, and that Silk series will ever see the light of day. These all could be promising projects but I trust Sony to handle them well about as far as I can throw them.
Say what you will about the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but you can’t seriously tell me that they would do any worse with the full Spider-Man property than what Sony is doing right now with their villain-led cinematic universe. There’s no sign of passion or love from any off these movies coming from the cast and crew, only obligation and corporation. Just look at the press tour of Madame Web and how it’s cast and crew is openly throwing shade at the movie which they are a part off. I think even they know they made a mistake signing up because of Sony likely promising them something they never really meant.
Have there been great content under Sony’s license of Spider-Man? Absolutely! But with the current situation going on between them, Marvel, and the state of superhero movies in general, they can no longer be trusted with handling Spider-Man. They have have countless time to prove they can do Spider-Man related stories without Marvel or anyone else but they have failed spectacularly. The fact that they didn’t greenlight an Amazing Spider-Man 3 with Andrew Garfield and/or a Spider-Man 4 with Tobey Maguire after No Way Home but instead greenlighted Madame Webb and Kraven the Hunter is really all you need to know about the way they run things over there. Even they don’t know what they want for Spider-Man anymore.
Because of all that I’ve just mentioned and more, I think I speak for a large majority of Spider-Man fans out there by saying that it’s time for Spider-Man to come fully home to Marvel at long last.
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