Every 2016 Comic Book Movie Ranked Worst To Best

You could be forgiven for thinking there were only six comic book movies released in 2016 - a bumper year considering what has come before - but the genre extends well beyond the tentpole Marvel and DC productions put out by Marvel Studios, Warner Bros and Fox. Such is the selling power of anything based on comics or graphic novels that more studios are steering towards these lucrative waters, with increasingly left-field sources making it to the screen and a whole sub-genre of animated movies hitting the market.

It's a good time for variety in content, obviously, but with so much to watch, there's inevitably a spread of quality: not everything can be Captain America: Civil War or Deadpool, after all. Mercifully, not everything can be Suicide Squad either. And everything that comes between those (and below them, remarkably) forms a rich rainbow of comic book movies from diverse sources.

This year could also have included the Most Wanted pilot that was ultimately never aired (it's sadly unlikely we'll ever see it air as a feature either). And of course there were two LEGO DC animated movies, but they're stretching the definition a little too far.

So how do the other comic book movies - animated, non-Marvel and DC AND blockbuster alike - stack up now that they're all out?

It is never, ever a good sign for your film when the most notable - and most distracting - thing about it is the state of your leading man's hair. It's an issue that has blighted Nic Cage and John Travolta over the past decade and you can now add Vince Vaughn to that list.

Vaughn legitimately has the potential to be a great actor (he has shown as much in flashes), but he also has way too much capacity to be almost provocatively unwatchable. He's very much the latter in this adaptation of A.J. Lieberman's graphic novel by A Christmas Story star Peter Billingsley, which absolutely should have been left unadapted.

It was obvious it wasn't going to be any good - it was quietly released to VOD two years after filming ended, with no critics invited to see it prior to release, and if you've heard of it at all, you're probably in a minority. It's a shame, as the graphic is great, but the material simply does not translate here and is bogged down horribly by cliches and rote dialogue. And at no point does it become so bad it's enjoyable.