14 Early Superhero Movies So Bad They Almost Ruined a Billion Dollar Industry
Sometimes I wonder if someone went back in time to make Howard the Duck in the hopes of killing Marvel before they could set the MCU into motion.
‘Mandrake the Magician’ (1939)
Mandrake is often considered the first comic superhero, appearing in weekly adventures in newspapers in 1934. Columbia Pictures turned his capers into a series of 15- to 30-minute serials that included action, intrigue and close-up magic, like the ol’ ball under-the-teacups trick. Riveting.
‘The Shadow’ (1940)
Remember when the Geico cavemen got their own sitcom? That’s pretty much how The Shadow got started. He first appeared in 1930 as a narrator for a radio show that was produced to boost sales of a schlocky mystery magazine. The character became so popular that they came up with some character design and a backstory, and gave him his own magazine. In the film, he battles The Black Tiger, a guy who makes himself invisible and commits blue collar crime.
‘Adventures of Captain Marvel’ (1941)
Shazam! didn’t work in 2019, and it didn’t work in 1941. Captain Marvel was originally cooked up by Fawcett Comics in 1939, but somewhere along the way DC came to own him, and changed his name to Shazam. In the 1941 film, he’s trying to stop a villain named Scorpion from assembling an ancient artifact (a metallic scorpion, if you can believe) like the Shrine of the Silver Monkey from Legends of the Hidden Temple.
‘Batman’ (1943)
Four years after his debut in Detective Comics, Batman was ready for the big leagues. His first foray into film was notable for establishing some major Batcanon, like the Batcave, the secret entrance through a grandfather clock and making Alfred stick thin. They also invented a new villain that had never appeared in the comics: a Japanese mob boss doing the bidding of Emperor Hirohito in Gotham. It’s about as bad as you’d expect from 1943 American writers.
‘The Phantom’ (1943)
This is adapted from a comic strip that began syndication in 1936. The low-budget serial has everything a mid-century moviegoer could want: famous Hollywood stunt dog Ace the Wonder Dog, a guy in an Aquabats costume fighting a guy in a gorilla suit and wildly stereotypical depictions of indigenous people.
‘Captain America’ (1944)
You know Captain America. Steve Rogers, skinny nerd, becomes a yassified Uncle Sam after taking Super Soldier Serum and wrecks the dang Nazis. Well, not in this movie. The studio thought that would all cost too much, so they made a story about a district attorney named Grant Gardner who has beef with a museum curator.
‘Superman’ (1948)
The first portrayal of the Man of Steel was a “tremendous” financial success — partly because audiences loved it and it launched several careers, and partly because it cost, like, no money to make. Whenever they needed Superman to take off or land, they drew little cartoon Supermans over the establishing shot. The studio credited actor Kirk Alyn as “Clark Kent,” but gave credit for the role of “Superman” to… Superman? They wanted kids to think he was a real guy who graciously agreed to appear in his own film.
‘Superman and the Mole Men’ (1951)
This was to be the triumphant return of Kirk Alyn, but he asked for too much money, so they turned to George Reeves. It was conceived as a two-episode arc of the Adventures of Superman TV show, but producers were worried it would suck, so they hurried it out the door as a movie. Reeves and Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane, were both knocked unconscious by stuntmen on the same day.
‘Batman: The Movie’ (1966)
This film was based on the successful and campy Batman TV series of the 1960s, and featured the famously inscrutable duo of Adam West and Burt “they made me take penis-shrinking pills” Ward. For all its unserious zaniness — the Bat-Ladder, Bat-Shark Repellent — its gravest sin was popularizing goof-ass superhero movies. They’re responsible for the films (and the awful parodies) that would ensue.
‘Rat Pfink a Boo Boo’ (1966)
Producer Ray Dennis Steckler set out to make a run-of-the-mill crime drama (based on his wife’s experience as the victim of anonymous obscene phone calls). He changed his mind halfway through, and decided he wanted to make a Batman parody. Forty minutes into the film, two weirdo side characters become the protagonists, and the whole thing becomes a comedy. The weird titling is the result of a promotional artist’s typo. Steckler didn’t have the cash to pay the guy to fix (pfix?) it.
‘The Wild World of Batwoman’ (1966)
This movie is so bad, there wouldn’t be another female-led superhero movie for almost two decades. Batwoman and her Batgirls must destroy the ultra-powerful Atomic Hearing Aid, but are almost thwarted when someone roofies their soup. The producer was sued, and had to re-release the film under the title She Was a Hippy Vampire.
‘Mr. Freedom’ (1969)
The second half of the 20th century saw a tidal wave of superhero parodies. Mr. Freedom is a French film, made by a former American artist, that was kind of the The Boys of its day — Mr. Freedom is a white nationalist who takes it upon himself to save France from communism.
‘Hydrozagadka’ (1970)
This Polish film was supposed to be another scathing parody of Superman and American imperialism. But Polish audiences saw it and were like “Damn, that is so us!”
‘Howard the Duck’ (1986)
We had to make a big leap forward in time, but Howard the Duck is still a seminal moment in superhero history: it’s the first-ever Marvel film. It was produced by a cocky George Lucas, who had just sunk a ton of money into his Skywalker Ranch and was confident this would refill his coffers. It did not. It was so bad, two execs from Universal got in a fist fight at a test screening.
