Pop Culture | Movies

10 Superhero Movies From Our Childhood That We Were All Completely Obsessed With

It seems like every week there's another superhero movie coming out and honestly, I am totally here for it.

There are so many good ones in the theaters, but still, there is something so wonderful about revisiting the movies that started it all.

When we were kids, superhero movies didn't have the same level of hype that they do now, but they were still around and still pretty epic. They may not have made billions of dollars at the box office, but they were beloved by many and helped us dorky kids find worlds we enjoyed.

I still remember the first superhero I ever watched, it was the reruns of the 1960s Batman show starring Adam West and it was my favorite thing in the whole world. The bright colors, the cheesy jokes, and even though I probably didn't understand half of what was said I absolutely loved it.

As I got older I started to appreciate the more complicated plots out there, and these were some that we all fell in love as the years went on.

Batman & Batman Returns

Batman
Warner Bros.

The Michael Keaton Batman movies are probably some of the best super hero movies ever made. They brought the Batman universe into a bit of a darker place, but they still managed to have fun with it.

Between Jack Nicholson's Joker in the first one and Danny DeVito's Penguin in the second, the villains were as zany as you could hope.

There was also the added bonus of Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, and I think we can all agree that it has never been done better.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
New Line Cinema

When you think super hero, you may not automatically think of giant turtles, but that's exactly what they were.

The live action version of the classic cartoon took a bit of a more violent approach, which some didn't love, but honestly as kids we thought it was fun anyways.

The turtles themselves all looked amazing thanks to Jim Henson's Creature Shop and even though it was made on a low budget they managed to create an epic movie.

The Crow

The Crow
Mirmax Films

This wasn't for the faint of heart, and most of us only watched it secretly (or when we were a little bit older,) but The Crow has become something of a classic.

It might be because of the tragic incident that occurred on set, but I think even without that the movie would still hold up. It's been given many sequels over the years and rumors say that it's actually getting another reboot.

Tank Girl

Tank Girl
United Artists

It's one of those movies that critics hated, it made very little money at the box office, and yet it somehow it still managed to find its audience.

When it came out on VHS people started to become obsessed with it and now it's a bit of a cult classic. Honesty, you were pretty lucky if you got to watch this crazy movie when you were young.

Superman (all of them)

Superman
Warner Bros.

There were a lot of Superman movies that even though they came out years before we were born, we still loved watching them as often as we could.

Christopher Reeve embodied him so perfectly that it's possible he just WAS Superman in real life and we didn't know.

Blade

Blade
New Line Cinema

We have Blade to thank for all our Marvel masterpieces, because without the success of this movie we probably wouldn't have any of the Avengers.

They took a semi-obscure character and turned him into a star, and because of that they were able to develop this who edgy story surrounding him and it totally worked.

The Mask

The Mask
New Line Cinema

I know what you're thinking, The Mask isn't really a superhero, but it was based on a graphic novel and he did kind of have super powers. How else do you explain how he just ate a bomb and then that was that?

The movie was originally supposed to be a lot more violent and darker, but instead of staying true to the comic they decided to go for a more comedic approach.

Obviously casting Jim Carrey was the best choice they could have made, because even if it's not like the comic, it's absolutely hilarious.

Robocop

Robocop
Orion Pictures

It's one of the best action movies of all time, but it was one of those movies that we probably shouldn't have been watching.

They did make a cartoon out of it, so our parents probably didn't think much about letting us watch it, but there was no way it was appropriate for our young, impressionable minds. Oh well, too late now!

Spawn

Spawn
New Line Cinema

It was another one of those hyper-violent movies that we probably shouldn't have been watching, but you know what, who cares!

It was over the top and dark, but I think that's why we loved it so much. Let's just not talk about the special effects too much...

The other Batmans

Batman & Robin
Warner Bros.

I know, I know, they weren't as good. But the two other Batman attempts still have some good moments... Right?

Val Kilmer's Batman Forever had Jim Carrey's Riddler who personally, I enjoyed. While George Clooney's Batman & Robin was a little awkward, it did give us a lot of things to make fun of for the rest of our lives and you know what, that's a true gift. Besides, as cheesy and silly as it was, I still enjoyed it!

All these movies helped pave the way for these huge superhero epic stories they are telling now, so even the cheesy ones deserve some credit!

Which one was your favorite?

The superheroes we grew up with meant so much to us, but did you realize there was actually a lot of hidden meanings behind their costumes.

I mean, Superman kind of started it all didn't he? He seems like he was one of the original guys that everyone became obsessed with, but how much do you know about him?

Source - The Chive / CBR / Ranker