Marvel's 18 (so far) ...

When the first X-Men film came out in 2000 it completely altered the notion of the comic book movie. Marvel realized that if you actually spend money on things like actual actors, directors, and writers that you might just make a good movie. They have generally done that in the near decade since. The made for television movie with Baywatch stars were mercifully over. The following is my ranking of the 18 Marvel Universe films of this decade with a second Iron Man film, more X-Men, more Spider-Man, and Thor in the works ...

These are my rankings based on nothing more than how much I liked each film.

1) Iron Man
- Robert Downey Jr. had you believing he was a playboy and the smartest guy in the room.

2) X-Men
- Up to this point the best comic book movies were adaptations of indie comics.

3) X2
- The cast and director were on a roll here.

4) Spider-Man 2
- This is the best of the soon to be five film Spider-Man trilogy.

5) X-Men: The Last Stand
- Even with its flaws, this is still better than most to me.

6) The Incredible Hulk
- Ed Norton channels Bill Bixby.

7) Fantastic Four
- How well they got the feel of the relationships made this work for me, but they really got Dr. Doom wrong.

8) Spider-Man
- I still have a hard time with the webs being biological and the flat performance of Kirsten Dunst.

9) Punisher: War Zone
- A little too much posing in the shoot outs.

10) Daredevil
- The leather costume really diminished a film wear Ben Affleck actually seemed blind.

11) Elektra
- As much as I think Jennifer Garner is the hottest woman lead in a television show ever, she is not Elektra.

12) Spider-Man 3
- I did not care for the ending.

13) The Punisher
- It is hard to believe that I liked this better than a Wolverine movie.

14) Hulk
- They released the excessively long version to the theaters.

15) X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Did the bullet holes heal?

16) Ghost Rider
- Nicolas Cage needs to stop pretending he is young enough for these parts because it really hurt a movie with real promise and Eva Mendes.

17) Man-Thing
- Straight to video for a reason.

18) 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
- Galactus is NOT a cloud.