15 Worst DC Comics Movies, Ranked

There are two big names when it comes to comic books and, by proxy, comic book films: DC and Marvel. Naturally, Marvel has plenty of bragging rights when it comes to its film slate, but DC has been hugely influential in setting the template for the modern superhero blockbuster. 1978's "Superman" proved superheroes could work on the big screen. 1989's "Batman" forced audiences to take the Caped Crusader seriously after his campy 1960s TV series. And "The Dark Knight" made people take superhero movies seriously and remains a far better movie than you remember. 

You can't talk about the best superhero movies of all time without bringing up DC. But that doesn't mean the company hasn't been responsible for some stinkers over the years. The thing about characters like Batman and Superman is that they've received so many adaptations, some of them are bound to be awful. 

At least Superman and Batman are popular enough that even if they have one movie that sucks, they get another chance a few years down the line. Some DC characters get a movie so bad, they're forever relegated to the bargain bin of superhero properties. Your personal order of the worst DC Comics movies ever may differ slightly from ours, but perhaps you'll agree that all of these, to varying degrees, are truly baffling endeavors. 

"The Flash" is the first of three DC movies to make this list from 2023, which was truly the nadir of DC's cinematic history. And, to be honest, there was really no way "The Flash" could live up to expectations. Plans for a Flash movie set within the DC Extended Universe (or Snyder-verse) began in 2013 with a proposed release date in 2016. Creatives kept leaving, and the release date kept getting pushed back, until it finally floundered into theaters. 

"The Flash" adapts the "Flashpoint" storyline from the comics where Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) runs so fast that he goes back in time to save his mother from getting killed. This has disastrous consequences for the future ... which could make for a good movie. The only problem is that the DC Universe was effectively dead by this point, so any stakes felt pointless. 

Too often, the film sacrifices emotional beats for a cameo fest, including the return of Michael Keaton's Batman. And the ending of "The Flash" completely negates the titular character's arc by having him go back in time again to prevent his father from being wrongfully imprisoned. It's a movie that makes us wish we could go back in time to stop it from ever getting made. 

Speaking of pointless 2023 DC movies, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" also exists. It's a sequel to the surprisingly fun "Shazam!" from 2019, but the first film was fun and had a strong emotional core to ground the story when it was needed. "Fury of the Gods" trades all that for disappointingly bland CGI action sequences. And instead of capitalizing on Mr. Mind (voiced by director David F. Sandberg), who was set up to be the next baddie in the first film's post-credit sequence, the villains are now the Daughters of Atlas, who feel exceptionally generic. 

Arguably, the sequel's biggest weakness is the mismatch in tones for the two versions of Billy Batson. Billy (Asher Angel) feels like an actual teenager, struggling with this newfound responsibility. His alter-ego, Shazam (Zachary Levi), feels like a much younger kid stuck in an adult's body. The performances feel like completely different characters, to the point where we're kind of glad Shazam never got a chance to fight Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson).

1978's "Superman" helped legitimize superheroes in the larger culture, while "Superman II" kept the good times rolling. Sadly, things fell apart with "Superman III," which trades truth, justice, and the American way for Richard Pryor as a computer hacker.

Gus (Pryor) uses computers to create a synthetic kryptonite that splits Superman (Christopher Reeve) into two — the nerdy Clark Kent and a jerky, alcoholic, evil Superman. The story would make more sense within an Elseworlds DC title where we get some odd adventure with the full knowledge none of this is canon. But "Superman III" is all too real, and makes the previous two installments worse by comparison. 

Rather than continue the heroic, larger-than-life feeling of the first two films, "Superman III" goes all in on slapstick. It's far too silly for its own good, with any "serious" moment typically undercut by a Pryor one-liner. Even Reeve thought the comedian's casting is what sunk "Superman III" and derailed the franchise. 

David Ayer may have given up any hope of his director's cut of "Suicide Squad" ever coming out, but it's no surprise fans still want to see it. You can see the semblance of something decent and stylish underneath the garish facade of what 2016's "Suicide Squad" became. Will Smith and Margot Robbie are great as Deadshot and Harley Quinn, respectively. But everything surrounding them is utter nonsense.

The film is edited together like a tacky music video. If you prefer overly long montages instead of things like character development, "Suicide Squad" is for you. 

Even the main plot makes no sense. The villain is Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), a powerful sorceress, so the government sends some people with guns and a crocodile-man in there to stop her? And the less said about Jared Leto's cringey Joker, the better. "Suicide Squad" was reshot and cut up to hell, and it shows.

Despite starting significantly later than the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DCEU beat the MCU to the punch in giving a movie to a female lead. 2017's "Wonder Woman" is still a solid superhero outing, which makes it all the more disappointing how much "Wonder Woman 1984" fell from grace. 

Rather than offer poignant commentary on the nature of war, like the first film, "1984" involves the Dreamstone, a device that allows people to wish to get what they want most. Diana (Gal Gadot) uses it to bring Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) back after he died at the end of "Wonder Woman." He does return, albeit in the body of another man. He's literally someone else just with Steve's essence (?), which raises a host of problematic questions when the two make love later. 

The rules of the Dreamstone are murky, but that's one small part of the movie's problems. The villains, Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Cheetah (Kristen Wiig), fail to leave much of an impact. Cheetah, in particular, feels rushed and doesn't convincingly turn nerdy Barbara Minerva into a ferocious force to be reckoned with. And the film may be subtitled "1984," but it fails to fully utilize its '80s setting.

2011's "Green Lantern" is so bad, Ryan Reynolds has made fun of it in multiple "Deadpool" movies. It's kind of funny because it's not even the worst comic book adaptation Reynolds has been involved with — that would be "R.I.P.D." — but "Green Lantern" is certainly the most infamous.

There's way too much going on in this film, which is kind of inevitable when dealing with a character who's part of an intergalactic police force. Hal Jordan (Reynolds) becomes Earth's new Green Lantern, and he's basically a slightly watered down version of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) from "Iron Man." Cockiness can be part of Hal's personality, but that's pretty much all he was defined by here. 

It's also a complete CGI fest. It's hard to get invested in anything when all of the scenes feel so weightless and fake. The scenes on Oa when Hal learns to use his ring are painfully boring. When a training montage with aliens is uninteresting, you know you're messing up. 

"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" ended the DCEU as we know it. The franchise that began with 2013's "Man of Steel" went out with a whimper instead of a bang. By this point, the world knew a new DC Universe would emerge with 2025's "Superman," so we were basically just running out the clock. And in a way, "Aquaman 2" is a perfect encapsulation of the DCEU as a whole — a weird, meandering mess with occasional glimpses of greatness.

The buddy dynamic between Arthur (Jason Momoa) and Orm (Patrick Wilson) keeps the film afloat to a degree, but that comes at the cost of losing what makes Arthur an interesting character to begin with. In the first "Aquaman," he struggled with his newfound responsibilities to the sea. Here, he mostly exists to make fun of Orm's fish-out-of-water antics. 

Additionally, the film becomes far too reliant on juvenile humor, seemingly thinking that if it throws in a quick gag, audiences will overlook how little makes sense. The final scene of the DCEU is the post-credits scene here, in which Orm puts a cockroach inside of a burger and eats it. What a way to end an interconnected universe. 

"Man of Steel" and 2025's "Superman" may be divisive for some, but at least we can all rest easy knowing no Superman movie will ever be as bad as "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace." It's somehow worse than "Superman III," and a big part of that comes down to its slashed budget.

The idea of Superman dealing with the nuclear arms race, mirroring real-world fears during the Cold War, is a worthwhile venture. Unfortunately, the Cannon Film Group, which was producing the film, cut the budget from $32 million to a paltry $17 million. To make matters worse, the studio also demanded 45 minutes be cut from the final product, so now there are large chunks missing, making the overarching plot difficult to follow. 

Superman has so many great villains in the comics. There was really no need to create a new one, but "Quest for Peace" brings out Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow/Gene Hackman) to test Superman's strength. Honestly, Superman deserves better, and if Reeve was going to end his tenure as the Man of Steel here, he should've gotten a proper farewell. 

2019's "Joker" won Oscars and proved that DC maybe worked best when it focused on Elseworlds stories that didn't try to connect with other superheroes. It gave us a possible origin story for Batman's future iconic villain. "Joker: Folie à Deux" didn't satisfyingly show why Arthur Fleck's (Joaquin Phoenix) story needed a further addendum. 

The film sees Arthur on trial for his murders from the first film, and he has new followers who worship him as the Joker, including fellow Arkham patient Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga). But the entire film seems designed to get anyone who actually cared about Arthur's journey to hate him for the follow-up. Arthur rejects the "Joker" persona, and the ending implies someone else will eventually take up the mantle to fight Batman years down the road. 

Turning "Joker 2" into a musical could've been fun, but none of the songs meaningfully advance the plot or provide much in the way of insight into Arthur's psyche. They all just ... exist. The whole thing feels like a massive troll on director Todd Phillips' part. Unlike many of Joker's escapades in other media, it's a bad joke where the punchline is on the audience for ever caring in the first place.

Marvel blew the world away with 2012's "The Avengers." That film proved that superhero team-up movies could be both critically acclaimed and financially successful, and DC was playing catch-up when it launched its own universe with 2013's "Man of Steel." DC's efforts culminated in 2017's "Justice League," but what we got in theaters wasn't the best version of this particular story. 

Behind-the-scenes issues plagued the film, with Joss Whedon coming in to finish after Zack Snyder suffered a personal tragedy. Plus, one studio note destroyed "Justice League" ("make it funnier"). The film's supposed to unite all of these disparate corners of the DCEU, but nothing feels epic. Nothing feels like it matters, and even Ben Affleck's stoic Batman is cracking jokes. 

When the Snyder Cut finally came out on HBO Max, we got a glimpse of what should've been. Snyder had big plans for the DCEU, setting up Darkseid (Ray Porter) as the DCEU's big bad. But you couldn't tell from the theatrical version. Instead, the film ends with a race between Flash and Superman (Henry Cavill) and a tease of the Legion of Doom for some reason. It's an incoherent mess, and the DCEU deserved much better.

Between Tim Burton's Batman movies and the success of "Batman: The Animated Series," the Caped Crusader was finally getting taken seriously. Then came Joel Schumacher's take on the superhero. "Batman Forever" toes the line carefully between campy fun and serious pathos, but that's an impressive high wire act to pull off. Sadly, "Batman & Robin" wound up falling flat on its face.

The film is clearly trying to be over-the-top and silly. But at a certain point, you've had your fill of ice puns from Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger). It's so ridiculous that when the movie does try to take itself seriously, like when Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough) falls ill, it's hard to care all that much. 

Alicia Silverstone, who plays Batgirl, would later say that filming "Batman & Robin" made no sense, as they were often given direction without much guidance. Quite frankly, it shows. The film was so bad, it put live-action Batman movies on ice for nearly a decade until "Batman Begins" came out.

All due respect to Shaquille O'Neal, but he should probably stick with basketball, sports commentary, and starring in commercials for seemingly every company under the sun instead of screen acting. His stiff performance as John Henry Irons in 1997's "Steel" is just one of the many reasons why the film remains one of the worst superhero movies of all time. 

"Steel" also feels less like a theatrical movie and more like an after-school special. The plot sees the villainous Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson) begin mass-producing weapons, so to get them off the street, Irons becomes the superhero Steel. Oftentimes, the plot stops dead in its tracks to deliver an anti-gun message, which is a fine sentiment but doesn't land well since Steel himself uses a weapon that looks like a gun. 

"Steel" pretty much exemplifies every superhero movie trope rolled into one, and is representative of an era when cheap-looking movies were being fed to audiences before Hollywood realized that it had to actually invest in them in a serious way before people would show up in droves.

In many instances, a movie will be terrible, but some people will come forward to say that it's not actually bad, it's camp. Well, if that's the case, then 1984's "Supergirl" is a bad, campy movie. This is in large part to how boring the film is for the big chunks of its runtime when the titular Supergirl (Helen Slater) deviates from the main adventure to attend an all-girls school. Bear in mind, she does this when she's supposed to be searching for the missing Omegahedron, which falls into the hands of an evil witch, Selena (Faye Dunaway).

Despite some interesting visual touches in the Phantom Zone sequence, "Supergirl" is simply too dull to be enjoyable even on an ironic level. In the end, "Supergirl" feels ashamed to dive into any of the character's comic book-y aspects as not to alienate any viewers unfamiliar with the source material. "Supergirl" feels like a toothless fish-out-of-water story that wants to show a Kryptonian hanging around a school with humans and provide occasional fantasy sequences, but none of that gels together like it should.

Tim Burton had a creepy idea for a Catwoman spin-off that sounds 100 times better than what we ended up getting with 2004's "Catwoman," starring Halle Berry. If nothing else, it at least would've been closer to the source material. Astonishingly, it feels like "Catwoman" wants nothing to do with the comics. 

Berry's character is named Patience Phillips instead of Selena Kyle. She receives actual cat powers from an Egyptian god rather than being a sultry cat burglar. And she has a hankering for canned tuna. It's all very silly, and maybe could extend into camp territory if it wasn't for the headache-inducing editing. "Catwoman" is slapped together so shoddily, it's hard to ascertain what's going on at any given moment. One particularly infamous sequence sees Patience play basketball with cuts so frequent, you'll beg for the days of "Superman III."

If you like Catwoman from the comics, there's little resemblance here. If you like a semi-decent action movie, the fight scenes are all so poorly choreographed that you can't make out what's happening. It's all sound and fury signifying nothing — and yet, I believe there are still people out there who can enjoy "Catwoman." But no one who could possibly like the number one pick on this list.

What makes "Jonah Hex" the absolute worst DC Comics movie of all time? There are plenty of stinkers on this list, but the one thing you can say about all of them is that, I have to imagine, someone out there likes the others. Even "Batman & Robin" and "Catwoman" have some campy charm. But there's nothing campy or charming about "Jonah Hex." It is a joyless experience that no one involved seemed to enjoy making and wasn't designed for any type of moviegoer out there. 

Any of the film's attempts at humor fall flat, like when Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) gets asked what happened to his face. Hex shoots the guy and then says he cut himself shaving. The scene fails to make him intimidating or present him as a barrel-of-laughs anti-hero. It's just off-putting, and the same thing could be said of Brolin's consistent mumbling.

With a truncated 81-minute runtime, "Jonah Hex" speedruns from one plot point to the next. At no point do you feel anything about the characters. They exist to say lines and foil some kind of MacGuffin doomsday device, but never make you feel sad, excited, or interested. It's a movie with no clear point or saving grace. It's arguably the most offensive way $47 million has ever been spent.