A List of 10 Good Superhero Movies/Series' to Watch

Over the next little while I'm going to be compiling various lists of movies on The Movie Storm that I recommend watching. Today, I'm going to list ten good superhero movies to watch. Some of these movies haven't come out yet (there are a lot of potentially awesome comic book films coming out in the next few years), but from what I've seen they look pretty good, so I'm listing them here anyway. Here they are:

1. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

In this animated movie, Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) is accused of several murders due to a mysterious new figure who is going around killing some of Gotham's major criminals. Batman has to solve the mystery of who this person is and capture them to prove his innocence.

Cast: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Dana Delany, Hart Bochner, Stacy Keach, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

2. The Iron Man Series

In the first film, we're introduced to Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) who later becomes Iron Man after being captured by terrorists from a group called the Ten Rings. We get to see how Iron Man evolved (i.e. how his suits changed and how Tony takes on the new role of being Iron Man) and also how he fares against his first enemy (whom I won't mention to prevent spoiling the film).

In the second movie, Stark is met by a new villain, Ivan Vanko (played by Mickey Rourke) at a race track in Monaco. In the film he has to deal with Vanko and also his ever worsening health due to the palladium core in his chest. We get to see the beginnings of the formation of The Avengers and, consequently, are introduced to Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) and Natasha Romanoff (played by Scarlett Johansson) of S.H.I.E.L.D. We also get to see James Rhodes (played by Don Cheadle) put on the War Machine suit for the first time.

In the recent Iron Man 3, we get to see Tony Stark further develop as a character. In this film, he's a changed man after having experienced an alien invasion (seen in The Avengers) in New York. He now suffers from panic attacks and we get to see how he copes with what he's gone through. In addition, there's a mysterious new villain called The Mandarin of the Ten Rings who Stark has to deal with. There's a mystery element to this movie as well which is nice to see in an action film like this.

Overall, Downey Jr. really plays the role well in these films. They're worth watching simply to see him act.

Cast of Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges

Cast of Iron Man 2: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke

Cast of Iron Man 3: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley

3. The Thor Films

There are two Thor films, one of which (The Dark World) comes out in November of this year.

In the first Thor movie, we're introduced to the title character, Thor, prince of the realm of Asgard who is exiled to Earth. He must face his brother Loki who is working against him while their father is immobilized.

The second film isn't out yet, as I've mentioned, but from the trailer you can gather certain things. The film takes place, presumably, after the events of The Avengers. Thor needs to battle an ancient enemy who threatens Earth. Eventually, he comes to a point where he must resort to seeking his brother Loki's help. It definitely looks interesting and I'm excited to see it.

Cast of Thor - Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård

Cast of Thor: The Dark World - Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Eccleston

4. The Captain America Films

Like the Thor movies, there is one Captain America film that has already been released (The First Avenger) and one that hasn't (The Winter Soldier).

Captain America: The First Avenger was the last of the individual Avenger films that came out before “The Avengers” movie. It tells the story of how Captain America (played by Chris Evans) came to be and what he went through during the Second World War. His rival in this film is The Red Skull (played by Hugo Weaving) the Nazi head of weaponry.

I don't know too much about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but I've heard that it also takes place after the events of the first Avengers movie and involves Steve Rogers (Captain America) trying to adjust to life in the 21^st century while working with Natasha Romanoff. The planned release date for The Winter Soldier is April 4^th, 2014.

Cast of Captain America: The First Avenger – Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell

Cast of Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford

5. The Avengers Films

Probably one of the best movies of 2012 (in my opinion) was The Avengers. Here, you have all of the previous Avengers characters (Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and Captain America) in the same movie. You have a great action sequence at the end of the movie and the story and character development throughout is top notch.

The sequel to the Avengers is set to be released in May of 2015.

Cast of The Avengers: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston

Cast of The Avengers 2: Unknown (Almost certainly most of the original cast)

6. The X-Men Series

The X-Men series contains the most movies out of any items on this list. There are the first three X-Men films (X-Men, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand) which form a continuous storyline that is uninterrupted by long periods of time. Then there is X-Men Origins: Wolverine which describes the life of Wolverine and how he was experimented on. The last movie that has already been released is X-Men: First Class which details how the X-Men group was formed.

Two movies that are in the works which haven't come out yet are The Wolverine (which is scheduled to hit theatres in July of this year) and X-Men: Days of Future Past which is set to come out in July 2014. The Wolverine takes place in Japan after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. The trailer looks pretty neat so I certainly recommend seeing that one. I don't know too much about Days of Future Past, but it supposedly takes place after the events of First Class and has characters from both the early trilogy and from First Class. There have also been talks of a potential Deadpool film for a while now, but no firm commitment to make one has been cemented. If a Deadpool film does happen, I definitely recommend seeing it.

Cast (I'll just name some of the important people in all of the films here): Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romjin, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Shawn Ashmore, Anna Paquin

7. Green Lantern

The first Green Lantern film, like many other films on this list, describes how the title hero came to be. Hal Jordan, the first human Green Lantern, is played by Ryan Reynolds in this film. The movie has some funny moments, and it's great to watch even if you don't know what the comic books are about (the same goes for all of the movies I've mentioned and will mention). Based on the scene at the end of the movie involving Sinestro, there is a possibility of a sequel.

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong

8. The Batman Trilogy

The first of the Christopher Nolan films, Batman Begins, introduces us to Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) and outlines how he became Batman. I personally thought that this was the best Batman movie out of the three (mostly because it has Liam Neeson in it as a main character who I think is an awesome actor). Batman's main villain in this film is Ra's al Ghul (played by Neeson), but another well-known villain, The Scarecrow, also appears.

The Dark Knight was a fan favourite for a lot of people (I think mainly because of Heath Ledger's Joker). It continues the story from Batman Begins and includes the Joker and Two-Face (played by Aaron Eckhart) as the main two villains in the film.

The final movie in the series is The Dark Knight Rises with Bane (played by Tom Hardy) as the main villain. Catwoman (played by Anne Hathaway) also appears in this film though she's not known by that name in the movie. There are also some direct story connections with the first film in this one.

The Nolan films are definitely a good representation of Batman and seem to be much more serious than some of the other, earlier Batman films (just think of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze and you'll get what I mean).

Cast of Batman Begins: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman

Cast of The Dark Knight: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart

Cast of The Dark Knight Rises: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

9. Man of Steel

The new Superman movie, Man of Steel, comes out in about a week and it definitely looks awesome. The trailer has a much more epic feel to it than you might get from watching an older Superman movie. The director is Zack Snyder (Watchmen) and one of the producers is Christopher Nolan. We should have a good movie here with these two at the helm.

Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner

10. Guardians of the Galaxy

I don't know much about this film, but I'm throwing it onto this list because it looks strange and there's a lot of talk about it nowadays. Apparently, it's about a group of ex-cons in space and a character called Rocket Raccoon is involved somehow. The Raccoon makes it good enough for me. It's set to be released in August 2014.

Cast: Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Lee Pace

So now that I've shared my list of cool superhero movies, what do you guys think about it? Are there any movies that you think I should've left out, or maybe should've added to the list instead? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.