Comic book movie fight scenes. What would a comic book movie be without an epic fight scene to obsess over for days, weeks, months, and even years after you see it? Whether it is punches thrown, swords drawn, or bullets shot, fight scenes are the living breathing soul of our favorite comic book movies.
Our favorite heroes take on worthy opponents and we're never quite sure who is going to win. These fights keep us entertained, on the edge of our seats, and enthralled in the abilities of everyone involved.
Sometimes, though, the fight scenes can fall flat, lack creativity, or just downright suck. It's hard for a comic book movie to do well if it has a terrible fight scene or two or three.
We hate to see the intricacies of our favorite comic book movie stories all rely on the fight scenes, but we have to say most viewers go to the movies for the fights and stay for the stories. The fights are the crowd-pleasers and without them a comic book movie just doesn't stand up.
Unfortunately, there are just as many bad fight scenes as there are good. And we thought it might be fun to put the best and worst of the fight scenes out there side by side and compare. And so we bring you the 5 Best and 5 Worst Comic Book Movie Fight Scenes. We’ll start with the best.
BEST: Captain America vs. Winter Soldier
Without a doubt one of the best comic book movie fight scenes in recent years. The beautifully choreographed fight scene between Chris Evans as Captain America and Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Not to mention this fight scene opens with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow taking a pretty brutal beating and a horrific shot through the chest. Captain America appears out of costume as his street identity, Steve Rogers, but still wielding his trusty shield, which Winter Soldier brilliantly uses against him, hurling it with all the mechanical arm strength he can give it.
Though this fight would still be as great on it's own, the extra icing on the whole thing is that it's revealed to Steve Rogers that Winter Soldier is Bucky Barnes, his former friend and sidekick, now brainwashed. The fight scene is perfect– it is amazing to watch but also moves the story along.
BEST: Death of Green Goblin
"Misery, Misery, Misery, that is what you have chosen." And so starts the final fight between Green Goblin and Spider-Man in the 2002 Sam Raimi version of the Spider-Man saga.
Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin was perhaps one of the best bits of the first of Raimi's Spider-Man's. Dafoe is insane in general and him as the terrifying Norman Osborn turned Goblin is absolutely stunning to watch. The fight opens is Spider-Man taking an absolutely BRUTAL beating from the Green Goblin in an abandoned building.
Even though the sound effects are pretty over the top the fight is gritty enough to make up for it. In the end, Goblin tries to kill Spider-Man with his Goblin Glider, which Spider-Man leaps over in the knick of time. Thus the Glider strikes Goblin in a poetic ending. His last words are famously, "Peter, don't tell Harry." One of the forgotten but great comic book movie fight scenes out there.
BEST: Hit-Girl and Thugs
We've said it once and we'll say it again and we'll probably keep saying it. We love Hit-Girl's takedown of a room full of thugs in Kick-Ass.
Despite the obvious greatness in having a little girl maim and murder a room full of grown men, the Hit-Girl fight scene is also amazing because it is no frills and quickly finished. We don't wonder if she is going to die and then come back three times.
She stays on top the entire fight and literally mows the guys down one by one. And somehow, the entire scene reads a little bit funny, between her calling them all the c-word and taking them all down to a Bananasplits soundtrack. Hysterical and masterful.
BEST: Black Widow Escapes
Perhaps one of my favorite scenes for poor Black Widow who gets very little in the way of character development in the Avengers movies. Our introduction to Black Widow at first has us scratching our heads, she's tied up, she's being slapped, held over an open hole by three Russian men.
The scene changes pretty quickly when a call from Coulson comes in. After he creatively but calmly convinces the guys to give her the phone, stuff starts to make sense. "I'm working," she says, "I'm in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything."
The Russian dudes look on in confusion. The tables turn quickly as she takes them all out while tied to a chair, while Coulson waits patiently on the phone. The scene is quirky, well-choreographed and gives a great introduction to Black Widow.
BEST: Batman vs. Bane
Our final fight on our list of best comic book movie fight scenes is the first between Batman and Bane in the Dark Knight Rises. In classic Batman-style the fight takes part below ground (actually below Batman's armory) with running water, chains, and the like.
With this dark location the fight starts off with Batman exhausting himself right off of the bat, serving up punch after punch to Bane's head that appear to do little, if anything to the villain.
After blowing a hole into the armory, and beating Batman to a pulp, Bane wins this one, having Batman's lifeless body dragged off by his soldiers. We don't like to see our heroes have their asses handed to them, but in this case, it works.
WORST: Daredevil vs. Bullseye
https://youtu.be/au3EtZEla5Y
It's probably no surprise to anyone that the 2003 Ben Affleck Daredevil made this list. That movie was rife with problems and didn't fare very well with fans or mainstream viewers across the country. It did bring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner together, which is also no a ruined thing.
The fight takes place in a church and opens with bad CGI of them both scrambling up the organ. It should be pointed out that Daredevil doesn't quite win this one on his own, as Bullseye gets shot through both his hands while he's getting ready to lay his final blow on Daredevil.
He asks Daredevil for mercy who responds by hurling him out a stained glass window. The fall supposedly kills him but we find out later that he somehow survives. All in all it's a pretty weak fight for a pretty weak movie.
WORST: Kitty Pryde vs. Juggernaut
We hate to even call this a fight scene but since Juggernaut fails his mission and gets knocked unconscious in the process, we have to. Essentially Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, chases after the incredibly strong and powerful Juggernaut to beat him to Jimmy, the young mutant who carries the genome for the mutation cure.
First she simply traps him in the floor but with his strength he breaks free and chases after her. She goes through wall after wall and he crashes through all of them. Once she gets to Jimmy, they duck from Juggernaut, who knocks himself out against the too-strong wall.
It's a pretty lame way for a powerful villain to go out. Though we do give Shadowcat props for being the one to go after him. One of the worst comic book movie fight scenes on this list.
WORST: Ending of Man of Steel
Perhaps also not surprising to anyone that Man of Steel makes our worst comic book movie fight scenes list, seeing as the movie as a whole disappointed many fans and moviegoers. Superman faces off with Zod in the movie's final fight scene.
The entire thing is incredibly hard to follow as both Zod and Superman seem to move faster than the human eye can follow. They whip around the city with abandon, destroying every single building in their path. What little of the actual fight one can see isn't great.
The two exchange blows that just look like they are pushing each other back and forth at great lengths. Zod hits Superman, who goes flying back at great speeds and then Superman returns the favor. The worst part has to be when Zod says to Superman, referencing his alien name, "There's only one way this ends, Kal. Either you die, or I do." Like"¦ duh?
WORST: Green Lantern vs. Parallax
It has been said before but we'll say it again for good measure, Martin Campbell's Parallax looks a whole like a giant, smoky turd. In the comics, Paralax is a terrifying monster to be feared.
While he's still pretty scary, the cloudy aspects of him just dilute the character. Parallax feeds off of fear and most of the fight time is dedicated to Green Lantern trying to give into fear. The size of Parallax and his appearance take away from how powerful of a villain he really is.
The fight does get better after Green Lantern gets him out of the city and into space, but not by much. The CGI is pretty terrible throughout the fight.
WORST: Spider-Man vs. Electro
Electro and Spider-Man's final fight in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was such an epic letdown to fans and moviegoers alike that it earned the spot as our final movie on the worst comic book movie fight scenes.
First of all, the entire fight is set to the tune of the Itsy Bitsy Spider which is too cheeky and out of place for this movie, especially for it to be in the final fight. It's disappointing that the entire fight is entirely CGI and Spider-Man and Electro make zero contact with each other, just chasing one another across the room.
