Special Report

The 25 Best Films of Stan Lee's Career

Steven Peters, Michael B. Sauter

Published: November 13, 2018 11:00 am

Last Updated: April 3, 2020 3:13 pm

Comic book legend Stan Lee died on Monday at the age of 95. His death marked the end of the long and prominent career of arguably the most influential, and certainly the most well-known figure in American comics.

As a writer and editor at Marvel, Lee first struck comic book gold in 1961 with the creation of the Fantastic Four. He would go on to create or have a major hand in Spider-Man, The Hulk, Daredevil, the X-Men, Doctor Strange, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, and many others.

Beginning with “X-Men” in 2000, Lee’s creations reached a new echelon of popularity. That film was the first of a series of dozens of extremely popular and high-grossing movies produced by Marvel Entertainment, which would eventually be acquired by Disney for $4 billion.

Lee’s importance to Marvel and to the unbelievable success of its stable of films can be seen in the fact that Lee is featured in cameo in most of these.

Lee’s iconic characters have been so popular that the studio has seen fit to reboot a number of characters. The Spider-Man franchise is now on its third actor playing the title character, and sixth film. There have been nine X-Men films, including the three focusing on the franchise’s most popular character, Wolverine.

Films based on Stan Lee characters are almost guaranteed to find success at the box office, but some stand out as better films than others.

To determine the 25 best films of Stan Lee’s career, 24/7 Wall St. created an index based on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes average audience rating, and Internet Movie Database average user rating. To be considered, each film needed to have at least 5,000 Rotten Tomatoes user ratings, 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews, 10,000 IMDb user ratings, and Stan Lee must have received either a writer or producer credit.

We averaged the user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and weighted by the number of votes for each. The combined user rating was then averaged with the Rotten Tomatoes critic rating. The share of favorable reviews from audience members and from critics is from Rotten Tomatoes.

Click here to see the 25 best films of Stan Lee’s career.

Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation

25. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
> Audience approval: 77.0%
> Critic approval: 72.1%
> Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans

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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation

24. Spider-Man (2002)
> Audience approval: 67.0%
> Critic approval: 89.5%
> Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

23. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
> Audience approval: 78.0%
> Critic approval: 88.1%
> Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña

Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

22. Ant-Man (2015)
> Audience approval: 86.0%
> Critic approval: 82.2%
> Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

21. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
> Audience approval: 83.0%
> Critic approval: 74.7%
> Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo

Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

20. X-Men (2000)
> Audience approval: 83.0%
> Critic approval: 81.8%
> Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

19. Iron Man 3 (2013)
> Audience approval: 78.0%
> Critic approval: 79.7%
> Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow

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Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

18. X-Men 2 (2003)
> Audience approval: 85.0%
> Critic approval: 85.1%
> Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry

17. Deadpool 2 (2018)
> Audience approval: 85.0%
> Critic approval: 82.9%
> Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

16. Doctor Strange (2016)
> Audience approval: 86.0%
> Critic approval: 89.2%
> Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams

Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
> Audience approval: 88.0%
> Critic approval: 83.4%
> Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista

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Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

14. Deadpool (2016)
> Audience approval: 90.0%
> Critic approval: 83.6%
> Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller

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Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

13. X-Men: First Class (2011)
> Audience approval: 87.0%
> Critic approval: 85.9%
> Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence

Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation

12. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
> Audience approval: 82.0%
> Critic approval: 93.3%
> Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina

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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation

11. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
> Audience approval: 88.0%
> Critic approval: 92.1%
> Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr.

10. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
> Audience approval: 87.0%
> Critic approval: 92.0%
> Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
> Audience approval: 92.0%
> Critic approval: 89.4%
> Starring: Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson

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Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

8. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
> Audience approval: 91.0%
> Critic approval: 89.5%
> Starring: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman

Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

7. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
> Audience approval: 89.0%
> Critic approval: 90.7%
> Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

6. Black Panther (2018)
> Audience approval: 79.0%
> Critic approval: 96.8%
> Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o

Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

5. Iron Man (2008)
> Audience approval: 91.0%
> Critic approval: 93.4%
> Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

4. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
> Audience approval: 92.0%
> Critic approval: 91.1%
> Starring: Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper

Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

3. Logan (2017)
> Audience approval: 90.0%
> Critic approval: 93.1%
> Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen

Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

2. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
> Audience approval: 91.0%
> Critic approval: 83.8%
> Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo

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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

1. The Avengers (2012)
> Audience approval: 91.0%
> Critic approval: 92.0%
> Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson