2016 has arrived, and we've got a new bunch of comic book movies coming out this coming year. The upcoming trend seems to be heroes fighting heroes - not only do we have Captain America: Civil War (which I'm REALLY looking forward to) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (which I'm...curious about), but from what I'm hearing about X-Men: Apocalypse, it sounds like some of our favorite merry mutants will be spending part of the movie on the titular villain's side. I'm not a big fan of heroes fighting heroes instead of villains, but I can't deny that objectively speaking, we might be in for some impressive action sequences.
Before my taste in film finished maturing, I judged most comic book movies exclusively by their fight scenes (the film got bonus points if said fight matched a hero up against a member of his or her rogues gallery, and even more so for an arch-enemy). Given that good comic book movies were still a rarity until the past decade or so, the hero-villain battles were usually the sole redeeming factor. While this isn't my only criteria for what makes a good entry in the genre anymore, especially now that the quality bar has been set so much higher than it used to be, it's still an element I consider to be important and want to see done well. That means I can coherently follow the action, it captures the energy and spirit of a comic book fight scene, it's a good length, and it's exciting to watch. I usually do Top 10s, but since it's been a while since I've done an INCspotlight, and it really was that hard to limit this to ten, I'm going to allow myself the indulgence.
So without further ado, here are my Top 15 Favorite Comic Book Movie Fight Scenes!
And coming in at number one...
Superman vs. Darkseid - Superman: The Animated Series: "Legacy, Part 2"