Marvel Studios may dominate the box office today, but the road to superhero domination wasn’t smooth. When MCU wasn’t everyone’s salivating hot button of conversation, Marvel films were hit-or-miss enterprises—some jewels, some embarrassing bombs. If “superhero fatigue” is antiseptic, just wait until you experience another disease-threatening flashback to these classic flops.
10. Secret Invasion (2023)
What had the potential to be an electrifying Samuel L. Jackson spy thriller turned into one of the Marvel streaming flops. With its all-star cast (Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman), the show was torn asunder by critics as being unurgent and unstickable. As Salon’s Melanie McFarland quipped, if a Nick Fury series doesn’t tally, something’s deeply wrong with the MCU.
9. Eternals (2021)
Chloé Zhao’s effort at an expansive cosmic epic flopped with audiences and critics alike, scoring a paltry 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. For all of its visually expansive ambitions, however, too many were not sold on its sprawling cast of characters and epic narrative ever truly cohering. Far from an expansive space opera, it stumbled and slogged.
8. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Not even Paul Rudd’s charm could salvage Quantumania from its 46% critic score. Jonathan Majors’ Kang was promised big, but the rest of it—a lackluster plot via suffocating CGI—dragged the film down. As Decider’s John Serba so aptly described, the movie whiplashed between frenetic action and stodgy exposition with little reward.
7. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Following the success of Ragnarok, big things were expected of this one. What the fans received instead was a muddled combination of awkward humor and poor plotting that earned 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman were blameless, but according to Wall Street Journal critic Kyle Smith, the movie worked too hard to be “fun.”
6. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The MCU’s prodigal child, The Incredible Hulk, was lost in the behind-the-scenes battle between Marvel and Edward Norton. Rather than a failure at 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, its overwrought ending and inconsistent tone left absolutely no mark. CNN’s Tom Charity was blunt: panicky at points and elsewhere, but in the end, a snooze.
5. Morbius (2022)
A movie so bad it turned into an internet meme. Morbius flopped with a 16% critical response, despite Jared Leto’s brooding turn as the “living vampire.” Rather than terrors or chills, it provided a slumber, forgettable disaster—and gave us the immortal, snarky phrase: “It’s Morbin’ time.”
4. Madame Web (2024)
With a 13% critical score, this Sony release is the crown jewel of lost potential. All-star cast Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney couldn’t salvage a slack script and fuzzy direction. Not even a revolting audience score could put out the flames—this one tanked big.
3. Kraven the Hunter (2024)
Another Sony misfire, Kraven, was parked at the back of the superhero pile with Morbius. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, its incoherent plot and DOA opening only warranted 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. For everyone except a handful, the real question was: why the heck was it there to begin with?
2. Fantastic Four (2015)
Worshipped by fans as Fant4stic, this reboot is notorious for being a catastrophically produced movie and for studio interference. The result? A dull, unreleased-on-video-quality-feeling movie that stuttered to a 9% Rotten Tomatoes score. With wasted talent and ludicrous plot, it’s also infamous for being the worst superhero cautionary tale.
1. Captain America (1990)
This film marked the real bottom of the barrel with 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was an amazing example of how a budget-cutting fossil could combine Matt Salinger to portray an absurdly klutzy Captain fighting a Red Skull-merged-Italian mob king scenario. Everything from the papier-mâché costumes to the idiot plot was oozing with “straight-to-video” smell. This is the worst-rated Marvel movie of all time.
Marvel’s cinematic heritage isn’t always perfect; however, these mistakes may have done the studio some good by giving it a lesson. After all, you can’t have the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes without first experiencing a few movie villains.