Ant-Man: The world’s most ridiculous superheroes

Superhero movies have a long history of taking characters whose powers border on the absurd and expecting audiences to buy in without laughing. The latest round of releases only adds to that running gag, with new entries joining the canon of films that lean hard into the silly without quite landing the joke.

From talking animals to costume choices that aged poorly the second they hit screens, these projects prove that even the biggest studios can misjudge what feels ridiculous versus what feels fun. The list keeps growing, and a few recent releases have earned their spots right alongside the classics.

The Fantastic Four

Optimists still insist the team has potential, but the track record shows otherwise. The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrived in July 2025 with Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, finally bringing the group into the MCU after years of studio misfires. The new cast and fresh start drew attention, yet the core issue of making four wildly different powers feel like a coherent movie remains unsolved.

Tim Story’s Fantastic Four and Rise of the Silver Surfer still hold the crown for rubbery effects and forced drama, with Jessica Alba somehow making the whole enterprise feel even more strained. It remains a miracle two of those films were greenlit in the first place.

Batman and Robin

There is nothing inherently wrong with Batman taking on a young sidekick. The Lego Batman Movie handled the relationship with genuine warmth and comedy, and the comics have done it effectively for decades. Live action keeps tripping over the same wire.

Batman v. Superman sidestepped the problem by killing off Ben Affleck’s Robin before the story began, but the 1960s series and Joel Schumacher’s neon-soaked experiments left Dick Grayson looking permanently camp. Chris O’Donnell’s post-Batman career never quite recovered from the association.

Green Lantern

Warner Bros. has kept promising a proper return for the character, and the upcoming Lanterns HBO series starring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart arrives August 16, 2026. That still leaves the 2011 film as the cautionary example. In theory, a ring that can create anything sounds like blockbuster gold. In practice, the movie never escaped its thin plot and weak effects.

At minimum, the picture supplied Deadpool with plenty of material for Ryan Reynolds jokes that still land years later.

Steel

Before Bryan Singer’s X-Men films made superhero movies respectable again, the 1990s offered mostly misfires. Batman and Robin was not even the worst 1997 release. That distinction belongs to Steel, the attempt to turn Shaquille O’Neal into a leading man that never found an audience or a tone.

Catwoman

Catwoman followed the same pattern as Steel, turning a DC villain into a solo hero without a clear plan. Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway kept the character’s reputation intact with their takes, but Halle Berry’s 2004 film stands apart as an unintentional comedy that still gets referenced whenever the franchise tries again.

Ghost Rider

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to give the character a second chance, yet the show’s later seasons lost most viewers. New rumors point to Jensen Ackles in a potential reboot and possible appearances tied to Avengers: Doomsday. For now, the lasting image remains Nicolas Cage’s face melting into a flaming CGI skull while the camera lingers a beat too long.

Big Daddy

Kick-Ass already featured plenty of unhinged vigilantes, but Big Daddy stands out. The character trains his daughter as a lethal weapon while believing himself to be a proper superhero, and only Nicolas Cage could sell that mix of menace and absurdity without the film collapsing under its own weight.

Ant-Man

By 2015 Marvel had its self-aware formula locked in, and Ant-Man fit neatly into the pattern. The film performed well enough for a sequel, though the emotional weight placed on a flying ant named Anthony tested audience patience. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrived in 2023 to mixed reviews and underwhelming numbers, leaving any further entries in doubt.

Captain Underpants

The 2017 film arrived well after the original book series had found its audience, yet it still managed to capture the books’ gleeful stupidity. Two kids hypnotize their principal into believing he is a superhero in his underwear, and the results stay true to the source. No theatrical sequel has followed, though a new manga adaptation is scheduled for 2026.

The Mystery Men

The film features a team that includes the Blue Raja, the Spleen, and Invisible Boy, yet it still feels more coherent than Suicide Squad. The premise stays ridiculous by design, and the cast leans into the joke without trying to sell it as high drama.

Sharkboy and Lavagirl

Robert Rodriguez moved from the Spy Kids films to this 2005 project and the shift in tone was immediate. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D looks cheap and feels thin, though it gave Taylor Lautner an early taste of leading-man attention. We Can Be Heroes, the 2020 Netflix legacy sequel, brought the characters back as parents in a new story, but the original remains the clearest example of the concept’s limits.

Rocket and Groot

Two movies built around a talking raccoon and a walking tree outgrossed the first live-action meeting of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 added another $845 million worldwide in 2023, proving the characters had become unlikely tentpoles. The decade that made it happen still feels improbable on paper.

Underdog

A talking dog superhero should have been an easy win, yet the 2007 film landed with a thud. No sequel or reboot has appeared since, and the property sits quietly while far stranger premises keep getting greenlit.

Morbius

The 2022 release starring Jared Leto became an internet punchline almost immediately. Marketed as a serious vampire antihero story, the film’s tone and timing made it an easy target for memes that outlasted its theatrical run.

Madame Web

The 2024 Sony entry tried to expand the Spider-Man universe with Dakota Johnson in the lead, but reviews were poor and audiences stayed away. The film’s tangled timeline and awkward action scenes placed it quickly among recent miscalculations.

The Marvels

The 2023 MCU team-up opened to one of the franchise’s weakest domestic weekends, pulling in under $100 million. Discussions around audience fatigue followed quickly, and the numbers suggested even familiar names were no longer automatic draws.

Blue Beetle

The 2023 DC film introduced Xolo Maridueña as a new hero with alien armor and earned roughly $130 million worldwide on a modest budget. The modest return showed that lesser-known characters can still find an audience, though not enough to launch an ongoing series.

Every new release adds another data point to the same argument: some superheroes were never meant to carry a feature film, and the studios keep testing the theory anyway. The results stay reliably entertaining for all the wrong reasons.