10 Comic Book Movies Everyone Tried To Copy

Batman may have been the more serious character, but Superman was one of the first instances of a comic book character finding their way onto the big screen. After years of comic books being a self-contained community, here was a film that brought that fantastical magic into theaters around the world.

Though some of the dialogue and unrealistic elements may seem a bit corny nowadays, the original Superman doesn't get nearly enough credit for how many boundaries it pushed. Make no mistake, it can be cheesy beyond belief, but this was the first time that superheroes were taken seriously rather than being looked at as kids' stuff. Though nothing had necessarily changed about the lore of the Man from Krypton, people cared because the movie seemed to care.

There's a lot to laugh at about this movie, but this kind of emotional grandeur ended up coming back around at the turn of the century. Though the stories may be different, movies like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man feel like they are cut from the same thread as the original Superman, with the exact same kind of charm that made kids fall in love with these characters in the first place. Superman may seem like a boring superhero for some, but when you look at all the great comic book media onscreen today, this relic from 1978 was the one that started it all.