10 Worst Comic Book Movie Sequels

Comic book adaptations have practically taken over Hollywood in the last few decades, and in many cases their sequels have proven that what goes up must come down. It’s uncanny how many series had a strong debut followed by a poorly-received sequel, and the phenomenon is not limited to one franchise, studio, or period in time. Sequels have always been tricky to get right, but there’s something about comic book adaptations in particular that seems to add sting to the disappointment.

In many cases, these low points are just as memorable as the high points in the very same series.Sequels are a safe bet for studios and an easy sell for audiences, but they’re not so popular among the writers, directors, and actors who make movies. Creative people often turn their noses up at serialization, fearing they’ll be churning out the same repetitive content over and over again.



That’s one reason why many sequels have different creative teams from the originals, which is a pattern you’ll notice below. However, as you’ll see, there are a lot of things that can wrong when you try to catch lightning in a bottle twice, no matter who’s working on it. Read on for 10 of the worst comic book movie sequels of all time.

Thor: The Dark WorldThor and Loki in Thor: The Dark World.It’s practically a meme at this point — the second Thor movie is one of the most hated entries in the entire MCU. In fact, these days you’ll even see passionate defenders of Thor: The Dark World online in some places, as every popular opinion attracts contrarians.

I’ve placed this movie at number 10 because it’s definitely a downgrade from the first, but at the same time, the vitriol towards it is generally overblown.[RELATED: 7 Movie Sequels That Killed an Important Character Too Early]The Dark World is a perfectly watchable movie on its own, but the problem is that it came out just as fans were beginning to see the vast potential of the MCU. This movie is a narrative cul-de-sac, and many of its biggest haters critique its throwaway villain and the concepts here that were dropped from later MCU movies.

It’s fair to hold this movie responsible for its own failings, but it obviously didn’t impede the progress of the MCU itself, so we shouldn’t blame it for that.The Amazing Spider-Man 2Spider-Man is generally a pretty safe bet in the superhero world, so it’s surprising to see him on this list at all. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 certainly has its problems, from odd writing choices to distracting CGI, but this is another case where outside forces clearly influenced public perception.

By 2014, the MCU was in full swing, and fans and critics alike were hung up on the idea that this Spider-Man would continue parallel to the Avengers, but would never be allowed to crossover. Thankfully, that didn’t last forever.Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver SurferMany entries on this list were hated because of a perceived drop in quality from their predecessors, but in this case, fans seem to hate both Fox Fantastic Four movies pretty equally.

Some critics even credited Rise of the Silver Surfer with improving on the previous movie, but not enough to keep the story going. Revisiting criticism of this movie is very interesting, as many writers at the time seemed to think this was the ceiling of how faithful a comic book adaptation could be, but in hindsight, many fans would argue the opposite — that this would have been more successful if it had just portrayed Galactus the way he looked on the page.Wonder Woman 1984The DCEU’s Wonder Woman had a lot of things working against her, and this sequel tried to ignore all those perils, without success.

It asked too much of its star (who should not be trusted with emotive acting of any kind); more importantly, this movie tried to jump ahead by several decades without giving up its most popular character, Steve Trevor, which threw all sense of immersion out the window.Still, we must acknowledge that Wonder Woman 1984 was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it may have performed better under different circumstances. It’s not unwatchable, but it’s not the sequel Diana needed to become an enduring hero.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of VengeanceIn hindsight, it’s hard to believe that Ghost Rider got a sequel, and that that sequel came out in 2012. Nicolas Cage’s second ride as Johnny Blaze is not fun to watch like some of the others on this list, it’s just sad. It has a long list of writers indicating several re-writes, which may explain the heavy criticism of the script.

It does not share writers or directors in common with the first installment, and even Cage himself has poked fun at it since its release. It even signaled the end of collaboration between Crank filmmakers Neveldine and Taylor, who went to extreme lengths to film this lackluster sequel. Shazam! Fury of the GodsThe DCEU’s two Shazam movies have their outspoken defenders online, but the box office returns prove that these voices are in the minority.

While many superhero fans say they’re sick of seeing origin stories on the big screen, Shazam likely benefited from that set-up, while Fury of the Gods shows the cracks in the facade more clearly. In fairness, Black Adam deserves this spot just as much, but it feels like more of a spinoff than a sequel.Superman IV: The Quest for PeaceIt feels like punching down to criticize The Quest for Peace these days.

The movie was hamstrung by issues behind the scenes, including major budget cuts, personnel changes, and too many people vying for creative control. The best illustration of this movie’s failure comes from Superman Returns, which was made as a sequel to Superman II. It didn’t reboot the series, but it completely ignored the events of Superman III, Supergirl, and The Quest for Peace.

The Man of Steel is headed back to the big screen this summer, and hopefully, he’ll have a clearer path ahead.Dark PhoenixDark PhoenixLet’s be honest, all the X-Men movies past a certain point are contentious at best, but Dark Pheonix is the most widely-hated of the prequel era, at least. The franchise had already attempted to use material from the Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix storyline before, so this title made fans hopeful that they would finally do it justice.

Instead, it was just as abbreviated and confusing, just with a different cast this time.X-Men: The Last StandYes, both Dark Phoenix adaptations made this list, back to back. The Last Stand gave us an even worse rendition of that beloved plot from the comics, and it gave us a lot of other inscrutable stories to try and follow.

It didn’t really do justice to any of its beloved characters, which should have been easy with two previous movies to build on, and some of its plot contrivances are infamous in the genre to this day. Fans may never be able to look at the Golden Gate Bridge the same way again.Batman v Superman: Dawn of JusticeIt’s easy to look back and see the signs that the DCEU was off to a bad start, but at the time, the slope didn’t feel all that slippery.

It’s hard to convey the sense of betrayal among fans when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out — it was like a flash bang out of a utility belt pocket, bright and alarming for a moment, then gone just like that. This movie convinced many fans that DC would never stand up to Marvel on the big screen ever again, and to this day, some of them haven’t seen a new DC movie since.Of course, Dawn of Justice wasn’t shocking in contrast to Man of Steel — neither movie is remembered fondly.

Instead, this movie feels like the disaster we could have prevented if we had caught a small mistake early, like a measuring error at the foundation of a construction project. Hopefully, the new DCU’s plans are sturdy enough to account for some weak points like this.The post 10 Worst Comic Book Movie Sequels appeared first on ComicBook.

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