The Year in Superheroes: Our Favorite Movies & Series For 2017

Illustration: Laura Alston for Okayplayer

Miles Marshall Lewis shares his thoughts on the best movies and TV series that featured caped crusaders, mystic martial artists and more.

In the year of our Lord, Thanos, 2017 has found us inching ever so closer to superhero overload. From The CW adding another character to its Arrowverse (Black Lightning) to Disney’s monopoly-building purchase of 21st Century Fox (which owns X-Men and The Fantastic Four) — comic book nerds might be salivating and throwing their money at the screen for these projects, but the spandex-clad adventures don’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

READ: Meet The Faces Behind The New Black Superheroes In Comic

2018 alone find us at least digging in-between our couch cushions to have enough ticket money for Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Venom and Deadpool 2, just to name a few. Add to the mix that the cross-pollination of these characters drives the market toward saturation, it is enough to make a geek’s mind blow out of his earholes. Before we kick off such craziness, @Okayplayer has decided to list the best superhero stories of 2017, which range from Amazonians from Themyscria to adamantium-clawed heroes on their last hoorah.

WATCH: See Brand New Footage Of Black Panther's Suit In Action In New TV Spot

There is no place for wackness on this list (sorry, Inhumans) so if you have thoughts don’t hesitate to debate us on Twitter @Okayplayer.

Source: 21st Century Fox

Logan

Previously starved for major wins, the X-Men movie franchise finally hit one out of the park this year with the final film of the Wolverine trilogy. Set in a dystopian future, liberated by an R-rating, Logan found our favorite Canadian anti-hero fighting against forces bent on stamping out a hidden mutant refuge. A senile Professor Xavier made his final bow, X-23 debuted in the form of wildchild 11-year-old Laura Kinney, and Logan’s never-ending story came to a conclusive, satisfying close. (No rattling coffins here.) Since the Disney-Fox merger has concluded and is really happening, here’s hoping Marvel’s merry mutants get totally rebooted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe so that Logan, Thor and Rocket can split a beer one day.

Source: Netflix

Iron Fist

Google “superhero fatigue” (we’ll wait) and an Iron Fist thinkpiece undoubtedly crops up in the top 10 results. Truth be told, audience exhaustion wasn’t the problem with Netflix’s kung-fu fighter. Sadly, Game of Thrones’ Finn Jones in the titular role alternately came off as whiny, whitesplaining, overearnest and not a very impressive fighter for the greatest champion of K’un-L’un. Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) was a bright spot; geeks might have wondered if/how Luke Cage’s Misty Knight would show up as his girlfriend. But his takedown of archvillain Harold Meachum and The Hand leader Bakuto did little more than cement Iron Fist as the weak link of the Netflix’s Marvel universe.

Source: Marvel Studios

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Lightning rarely strikes twice. Star-Lord and company did the damn thing again against the forces of Ego, but without the novelty that bolstered the first film, things felt a little different. Guardians of the Galaxy surprised us all because the comic-book source material never had much cachet; Marvel may as well have given us Alpha Flight or Squadron Supreme. The movie killed anyway because we underestimated it, and the Tarantino-esque soundtrack was kitsch, and they had jokes. Vol. 2 retreads most of the same territory, but Kurt Russell did great things with his Oedipal role in Peter Quinn’s origin story, and the movie overall made a great addition to the MCU’s resident space opera. Protect ya neck Han Solo.

Source: Warner Bros.

Wonder Woman

The #MeToo movement made 2017 the year of the woman in a unique kind of way, and Wonder Woman led the zeitgeist early in the springtime. For every Elektra and Supergirl that Hollywood foisted on us over the years, fangirls and fanboys finally got the worthy female superhero movie we deserved. (Kill Bill kicked ass, yes, but doesn’t strictly count.) Like in Captain America, DC Comics took us down the road of a World War II adventure, pitting Diana against Ares, the god of war. Star Trek’s Chris Pine pulled his weight as a beefcake Steve Trevor, but Gal Gadot truly made Linda Carter proud, catapulting Wonder Woman to the iconic spot she’s long deserved on the silver screen.

Source: Marvel Studios

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Peep the new MCU formula: the crossover! (Word to Iverson.) The Avengers: Infinity War trailer that broke the internet proves Marvel can balance about 30 characters better than DC handled six in Justice League. (Ouch.) But this year, Thor: Ragnarok was practically a Thor-Hulk buddy movie, and Spider-Man: Homecoming got major mileage out of throwing Iron Man into Tom Holland’s full-length debut as the wallcrawler. The music was a minor quibble—surely even Queens teens spend more time listening to trap music than “Blitzkrieg Bop,” even if The Ramones were from Forest Hills—but the teenage Peter Parker literally never gets old learning the ropes and cracking the jokes. And Michael Keaton (of Batman and Birdman, naturally) gave a great meta performance as the Vulture. Can we get Kraven though?

Source: Netflix

The Defenders

In retrospect, it’s hard to believe The Defenders was the endgame Netflix was building towards since Daredevil in April 2015. Though the network thankfully shortened its episodic run from 13 to a tighter eight, The Defenders—though sometimes satisfying—felt anticlimactic in the wake of greater series like Jessica Jones. DD, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica went head-to-head against The Hand (mixed metaphor?) and Elektra, with a near-fatal ending for Matt Murdock. Aside from Luke Cage checking Iron Fist’s white privilege and one particularly kickass battle scene, The Defenders ranks near the very bottom of the heap of Netflix’s MCU. (Because Iron Fist.)

Source: Marvel Studios

Thor: Ragnarok

Issa yeeeessss! Director Taika Waititi wrested Thor away from the dry Norse god Asgardian stuff and threw him into a sci-fi buddy movie with Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) worthy of all that celestial Jack Kirby imagery that colored 1960s Marvel Comics. For geeks with fond memories of alien Beta Ray Bill and writer-artist Walt Simonson’s wondrous stint on The Mighty Thor, the third (final?) film of the Thor trilogy delivered big time. Tessa Thompson’s hard-drinking Valkyrie (A valkyrie? the Valkyrie? Who cares?) added some needed melanin to the franchise; #BlackGirlMagic is always a win. Casting Oscar-winning Cate Blanchett as Hela took it over the top. May all future MCU solo movies be Marvel team-ups.

Source: Netflix

The Punisher

Frank Castle and Elektra took Daredevil’s season two to another level, and fandom rejoiced when The Punisher was announced. Showrunner Steve Lightfoot made all the right moves here. With President Drumpf in office and homegrown terrorism on the rise (i.e., the Las Vegas shooting that led Netflix to cancel their Punisher preview at October’s NY Comic Con), the series had a lot to mine. Disgruntled war vets, lone gunmen, Make America Great polemics and shady politicians are all accounted for here. Jon Bernthal continued to make for a perfectly brooding Punisher, and they even generated some heat with reporter Karen Page. Nice one.

Source: Warner Bros.

Justice League

So where did this go wrong? Sure, Justice League wasn’t absolutely terrible. Yes, Zack Snyder sadly exited over a family tragedy, making way for Avengers director Joss Whedon to bring the film some Marvel magic. (Which most likely mainly meant jokes, but did we need an upbeat Batfleck?) And there was that weirdly botched CGI to cover up Superman actor Henry Cavill’s moustache from Mission Impossible 6. Steppenwolf also seemed a weak choice to bring the Superfriends together compared to Darkseid or, y’know, a giant starfish. Flash was funny, Aquaman was endearingly frat boy, but Cyborg was sadly underwhelming. What could have saved Justice League? Maybe it’s a DC Comics thing and we wouldn’t understand.

--

Miles Marshall Lewis is a popular cultural critic and author. Follow him (and us!) on social media @MMLunlimited.