The Weird Comic Book Movies of the 1990s (That Aren’t Batman & Robin)

In 1978, Superman made us believe a man could fly. But in 1989, Batman made movie studios believe that comic book stories as a genre unto themselves could be profitable. In the shadow of Batman’s big payday, Hollywood gave the greenlight to material that they would previously ignore. While that IP-hunt certainly proved profitable for the Dark Knight too, who returned to theaters in multiple sequels and in the animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, it mostly applied to B- and C-level characters, most of whom did not come from the pages of DC or Marvel Comics. And even thoses that did, tended to be from the back bench. So in this modern age of MCU and DC domination at the box office, let’s look back at a stranger and now antiquated moment in superhero cinema. Well, at most of it.

*Editor’s Note: We are looking at films that had a impact in domestic theatrical release, which means that you won’t find the Filipino hit Darna here. Also this list will focus on movies based on superheroes or superhero-esque characters from comics. Thus Dick Tracy, with the title character’s distinctive outfit and abilities, earns him inclusion on the list, but Richie Rich‘s largess does not.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

As much as movie studios were willing to adapt comic books in the 1990s, they rarely wanted to adapt them faithfully. Too often they would just take some names and iconography from the comics and shove it into a radically different type of story. That tendency makes 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all the more remarkable. Directed by Steve Barron and written by Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck, the film draws most of its inspiration from the gritty first miniseries that spawned the phenomenon, as opposed to the more popular cartoon series.

As a result, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles holds up remarkably well, and continues to work better than other cinematic adaptations of the heroes in a half-shell (though Mutant Mayhem comes close). There is an edge to this movie with a dark color palette and some relatively tense action for a children’s film. It also takes its quartet of heroes seriously enough that the viewer doesn’t have to as they scarf down pizza and shout “cowabunga.”

Dick Tracy (1990)

Most of the movies on this list went into production because of Batman and later Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Not so for Dick Tracy, a true passion project for star and director Warren Beatty. For years Beatty tried to bring to the big screen Chester Gould’s hatchet-faced detective and his grotesque rouges gallery. At first glance, Beatty’s perseverance was worth it, as Dick Tracy is not only accurate to its comic strip roots, thanks to the incredible makeup work by John Caglione Jr. and production design, but also filled with top-level talent. With Beatty’s insistence on using just seven basic colors—the same you would have found in the funny pages of the 1940s—the film has a visual pop art look that has never quite been matched.

Ironically however, Beatty himself drags down Dick Tracy with his refusal to cover his own handsome mug in makeup or to give Tracy much of a personality beyond “dashing hero.” His one-note copper is never as compelling as the baddies and women around him, making the movie feel both overindulgent and undercooked.

Captain America (1990)

“But wait a minute!” I hear you saying. “I thought you said it was all B- and C-listers in the 1990s! Why did Captain America get a movie?” The answer is simple. Compared to Spider-Man, the X-Men, and even the Hulk, Captain America was in the second tier of Marvel superheroes back in the day. In fact, this 1990 direct-to-video movie, directed by Albert Pyun and starring Matt Salinger (son of J.D.) only proves this fact. While the film certainly has its charms, including a score that Alan Silvestri quoted for 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, it’s overstuffed script turns man-out-of-time Steve Rogers into an inert passenger in his own film.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

Rather than read this entry on the 1991 sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, just read everything I said about the original movie and reverse it. That isn’t to say that the sequel is a train wreck, but it takes more from the cartoon than the comics and tries to be as inoffensive as possible. The puppet work remains impressive, courtesy of Jim Henson’s creature shop, especially with new additions Tokka and Rahzar, and it’s nice to see ’90s karate kid Ernie Reyes Jr. do his thing.

But outside of nostalgia, there’s very little reason to revisit Secret of the Ooze thirty years later. With that said, some around here will still put those nostalgia goggles on as they go to bat for Vanilla Ice’s “Go Ninja” rap...

The Rocketeer (1991)

Given that artist Dave Stevens drew inspiration from Bettie Page to design hero Cliff Secord’s best gal Betty, one would expect a Disney take on the Rocketeer to fall short in every imaginable way. And yet, The Rocketeer remains one of the true gems of ’90s superhero movies, thanks to the incredible talent involved. That talent begins with director Joe Johnston, who understands how to make high adventure from the sepia-tone nostalgia that drove the original comics. Under Johnston’s direction—as well as some crackerjack performances from Alan Arkin as Cliff’s mentor and Timothy Dalton as an Errol Flynn-esque Nazi secret agent hiding in Hollywood—and augmented by James Horner’s glorious score, The Rocketeer is Disney doing pulp adventure correctly. Also Jennifer Connelly certainly could have played Bettie.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

After the diminished returns from the goofy Secret of the Ooze, one would understand why New Line Cinema would return to rougher roots for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. That roughness comes in the form of feudal Japan, to which the Turtles are transported and welcomed as mystical creatures meant to intercede in a war involving local factions and foreign invaders. However, director Stuart Gillard treats the material with stultifying seriousness, making for a deadly dull kid’s movie. Meanwhile scenes set in the present day, in which Casey Jones (Elias Koteas, returning for some reason to the franchise) gets time-displaced samurai to goof off, goes too far in other direction. As a result, TMNT III manages to please nobody and annoy everyone.

Cemetery Man (1994)

We’re stretching things a bit to call Dylan Dog, the cynical paranormal investigator created by Italian artist Tiziano Sclavi, a superhero. Yet we’d argue that signature red shirt and gift for dealing with the supernatural is enough to include on this list via Dellamorte Dellamore, aka Cemetery Man. Director Michele Soavi gets a casting coup by placing Rupert Everett as the lead. After all, Scalvi modeled the character on the English actor.

Everett brings the appropriate disaffected cool to a story involving a zombie invasion in a small town, and he has excellent chemistry with the stunning Anna Falchi as the wife of a rich man for whom he falls. But Cemetery Man‘s obsession with François Hadji-Lazaro’s mugging and irritating performance as a mentally challenged man undoes a lot of the tone building the film attempts.

The Crow (1994)

Speaking of tone-building, it’s hard to outdo what Alex Proyas accomplished with The Crow. Based on the indie revenge comic from James O’Barr, The Crow stars Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, who is resurrected a year after he and his fiancée (Sofia Shinas) were killed by a gang led by Michael Wincott’s chilly Top Dollar. Guided by the titular fowl, Eric brutally makes his way to Top Dollar by destroying thugs while a weary detective (Ernie Hudson) cleans up the mess left behind.

Admittedly pretty one-note in terms of plotting, there’s no denying that The Crow maintains a unique sense of style absent from most comic book films today. The film has an urban Gothic grandeur that in many ways outdoes Tim Burton’s more kid-friendly aesthetic in Batman, lacing elements of both Grimm fairy tale and neo noir into The Crow‘s hellish cityscape. Yet there remains a sensitive beauty to the film, largely informed by Lee’s haunted performance. And it lingers all the more when one knows he died while making the film.

The Mask (1994)

When bringing the Dark Horse comic The Mask to screen, producers at New Line Cinema wisely abandoned the mean-spiritedness of the source material. Even better they managed to cast Jim Carrey right as the Canadian comedian was about to break out, giving him the perfect vehicle to show off his rubber-faced talents. Although its’ the (still incredible looking) live-action cartoon sequences that most people remember today, the scenes in which Carrey plays put-upon Stanley Ipkiss deserve more attention, as they foreshadow the dramatic chops that the actor would later develop in movies such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The film also marked the acting debut of one Cameron Diaz who breaks into the film like a ’40s femme fatale, complete with a truly swinging swing number during the genre’s brief mainstream revival. It’s all the more remarkable since director Chuck Russell told us he had to fight for her casting.

Timecop (1994)

Dark Horse Comics had two adaptations in theaters in 1994, even if one is less obvious in its comic book roots. The movie is inspired by Dark Horse editor Mike Richardson, writer Mark Verheiden, and artist Ron Randall’s “Time Cop: A Man Out of Time” for the 1992 anthology series, Dark Horse Presents. Two years later, a movie version hit theaters, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as hero Max Walker and using the concept of a law enforcement agency for time travelers. Although Verheiden wrote the movie script, Timecop, directed by Peter Hyams, deviates heavily from the original comic. Yet given that Richardson commissioned the original story with an eye toward a movie adaptation (same with The Mask, incidentally), it’s hard to get upset at the differences.

Tank Girl (1995)

Although even Tank Girl creators Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett expressed disappointment in the 1996 movie based on their comic series, the film soon developed a cult following. It’s easy to see why the story of rebels in a post-apocalyptic world would resonate with viewers. Director Rachel Talalay, working from a script by Tedi Sarafian, gives Lori Petty plenty of space to play a punk agent of chaos. However, whenever the movie starts paying attention to its plot, which involves hideously rendered kangaroo men and Malcom McDowell doing his usual bad guy thing, Tank Girl moves as slowly as its titular vehicle. While Petty is still a delight today, the movie feels like a rough draft for the work that Margot Robbie would do as Harley Quinn decades later.

Judge Dredd (1995)

Objectively, Judge Dredd fails as an adaptation. Star Sylvester Stallone puts his screen presence over the character, which means that instead of playing a fascist law enforcer who never removes his mask, Stallone portrays, well, a standard Stallone action hero. Worse still, Judge Dredd belongs to that ignoble group of ’90s movies that featured Rob Schneider as a “funny” sidekick. Still, the oppressive mega-city set designs by Nigel Phelps remain pretty compelling, and the weird world that director Danny Cannon and his team create often feels like the mutant dystopia from the 2000 AD comics.

Black Mask (1995)

Like the other mask movie on this list, the superhero comedy Black Mask works as a comic book adaptation because its star provides all the special effects himself. Where Jim Carrey made the Mask antihero feel like a living cartoon, Jet Li‘s martial arts excellence brought to life the 1992 comic that inspired it. Li stars as a librarian who gains amazing abilities when a secret military operation chooses him as a test subject for a super soldier program. Director Daniel Lee creates a sense of place that falls in line with the other distinctive cities on this list, which gives Black Mask enough personality to stand out in Li’s filmography.

Barb Wire (1996)

The fact that Barb Wire adapts a little-known Dark Horse Comics story about a futuristic mercenary probably won’t convince anyone to check out the movie. Nor, really, would the fact that it stars Pamela Anderson, who spends the opening credits doing a striptease while being hosed down with water.

But what if I told you that Barb Wire was a movie staring Pamela Anderson as a sexy future mercenary and is also a riff on Casablanca? And what if I added it also features great “that guys” like Temuera Morrison, Udo Kier, and Xander Berkeley, all of whom lean into the wacky idea of making a trashy version of a classic film? That’s not enough to make Barb Wire good, exactly, but it is a far more interesting movie than one might assume.

The Phantom (1996)

Defenders of the 1966 Batman series are quick to point out that Adam West’s stiff performance as the Dark Knight is a good thing, as it honors the square-jawed character from the comic. The same is true of Billy Zane in the lead role of The Phantom. Somehow the ridiculously handsome but dramatically limited Zane makes sense as a purple-clad white guy who lives as a mythical figure in the African jungle. Of course it helps that he’s paired against a wonderful Treat Williams as the cad villain and Catherine Zeta-Jones as vampy sky pirate. By emphasizing that silly stuff, director Simon Wincer and screenwriter Jeffrey Boam give The Phantom the same campy, pulpy fun of the original Lee Falk comic strip.

Vampirella (1996)

For a long time, Fantastic Four fans insisted that the 1994 Roger Corman produced movie was still the best film version of the team. One has to wonder if such a reputation would have developed had the film actually been released. If the reception to Corman’s 1996 production of Vampirella is any indication, the answer is “no.”

On the surface, the movie has what a Vampirella adaptation needs: a pretty lady in a skimpy outfit (Talisa Soto), plus a plot about alien bloodsuckers on Earth (led by the Who’s Roger Daltrey as the villain). Yet director Jim Wynorski and screenwriter Gary Gerani approach the material with so little interest that even a game lead can save Vampirella from being a dull mockery of the comics it claims to adapt.

Spawn (1997)

Spawn is a movie about a hero who leaves Hell on a mission of revenge. After spending five minutes watching John Leguizamo do motormouth comedy riffing under hideous clown makeup, most viewers think they’ve been sentenced to eternal damnation in exchange. Spawn the movie came out just a few years after Todd McFarlane introduced the character through Image Comics, and the film retains all the limitations of that initial run: lots of surface-level edgy designs, a preponderance of lore, and zero character stakes.

Michael Jai White does a good job playing the anger of hero Al Simmons, and the film’s practical effects still look great. But between Leguizamo’s grating performance and a climax that features the worst CGI to ever appear in a Hollywood film, Spawn is only for those who crave punishment.

Steel (1997)

Okay, let’s get this out of the way up front. You could replace Shaquille O’Neal with an actual lump of metal and it would have more charisma and screen presence than the basketball player/insurance pitchman who plays inventor-turned-hero John Henry Irons. And we should probably also acknowledge that the movie version of Steel has little to nothing in common with the excellent character from DC Comics, even though he was just four years old when Steel hit theaters.

Nevertheless, Steel has an aw-shucks charm that makes it impossible to hate. The story of a man who wants to help his beleaguered community always plays well, especially when O’Neal’s significant shortcomings are more than covered by an able cast, including Annabeth Gish as Steel’s sidekick, Judd Nelson as glowering villain Burke, and Richard Roundtree and Irma P. Hall as elders who guide John on his mission.

Men in Black (1997)

It’s common knowledge that the next movie on this list is the first good Marvel movie. Men in Black may be a perfect film, and it may technically be based on a Marvel comic, but that doesn’t detract from the Daywalker’s achievement. That’s because Men in Black isn’t really a Marvel comic. Writer Lowell Cunningham and artist Sandy Carruthers originally made The Men in Black for Aircel Comics, which was acquired by Malibu Comics, which was finally in turn acquired by Marvel.

Whatever the origin, it was worth it to make the flawless thrill ride that director Barry Sonnenfeld and screenwriter Ed Solomon concoct, anchored by a pitch-perfect Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as co-leads and Vincent D’Onofrio giving an all-timer performance as an alien bug wearing human skin.

Blade (1998)

It’s a testament to the excellence of the first Blade movie that, even today, in this era of MCU domination, no one can figure out how to make a better movie about the Daywalker. Half of that is due to star Wesley Snipes fully embodying the role, dropping lines about skating up hill with believable ease. But the other equally important half is due to director Stephen Norrington, who crafts a cool, stylish, and satisfying movie. From the incredible blood rave opening scene to the final showdown with Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), Blade ushered in the age of great superhero movies.

Mystery Men (1999)

Mystery Men has an incredible script and a fantastic cast. So good is the script and cast, in fact, that they manage to make Mystery Men an entertaining film despite having some of the worst direction in Hollywood history. An ensemble cast that includes Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Wes Studi, and Paul Reubens brings to life a group of loser superheroes from the odd ball comic series Flaming Carrot, adding real pathos to its team of rejects. Even though director Kinka Usher feels the need to punctuate every moment with squishy noises and fisheye lenses, Mystery Men remains an unlikely cult classic due to its kooky ensemble energy and forward-thinking cynicism toward cape stuff.