DisneyThunderbolts might not have been the most successful superhero movie of 2025, but according to one source, it got the best reviews.
It’s been a rough year for comic book movies at the global box office – again – with Superman leading the way thanks to a super-powered $606 million haul, but nothing coming close to that golden figure of $1 billion.
However, 2025’s superhero efforts have received (mostly) positive reviews, buoyed by DC’s fresh direction under James Gunn, Marvel moving towards a new Avengers saga, and Troma going big-budget.
With the final superhero movie of the year now in cinemas, it’s time to compare them via Rotten Tomatoes score, while further down the page we’ll contrast that with our own opinions.
Thunderbolts is the best superhero movie of 2025 by 1%
DisneyWe’re listing 2025’s superhero movies from best-to-worst, according to the Tomatometer, which collates reviews and scores from the critics:
- Thunderbolts* – 88%
- Fantastic Four: First Steps – 87%
- Superman – 83%
- The Toxic Avenger – 83%
- Dog Man – 81%
- Captain America: Brave New World – 46%
Meaning Thunderbolts* – which grossed a disappointing $382 million in theaters – is the best superhero movie of the year, officially. While Captain America: Brave New World is the very worst.
With Toxic Avenger out this week, that movie’s score is likely to change as more reviews are published, but if it follows the usual RT pattern, Toxie will likely drop down this list rather than move up.
What we said about this year’s superhero movies
Dexerto’s reviews largely aligned with the wider world of criticism concerning this year’s superhero movies, though for us, it was also four-star central…
Marvel StudiosIn our four-star Thunderbolts review, we wrote that: “After years of meandering multiversal messiness, Thunderbolts brings the Marvel Cinematic Universe crashing back to Earth in the best possible way. A bold ensemble movie packed with humor and heart, this is the post-Endgame antidote the world desperately needed.”
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We were similarly keen on the new Fantastic Four, awarding it four stars, and writing in our First Steps review that “as the franchise barrels towards its biggest event since Endgame, this is a movie that has a genuine artistic vision that doesn’t compromise itself to fit the mold. It’ll leave you excited for Doomsday, but more importantly, you might just believe in the MCU again.”
The only DC movie of the year got – you guessed it – four stars, and we wrote in our Superman review that it’s “a big movie; so much so, it almost collapses in on itself. Yet, it emerges as one of the most stirring, enormously joyous superhero movies of the past 20 years.”
Warner Bros.We caught The Toxic Avenger at Fantastic Fest nearly two years ago, but liked what we saw, writing in our four-star Toxic Avenger review that it’s a “gooey, gory reboot of the cult classic that remains true to the spirit of the original, while taking Toxie in a weird and hilarious new direction.”
We didn’t do Dog Man (sorry), but did cover the new Captain America, and it received three stars from us, with our Brave New World review stating that the movie “isn’t a return to the MCU’s halcyon days, nor a step into bold, uncharted franchise territory. Instead, it’s a profoundly mid, muddled actioner that’s just entertaining enough; something that can’t be said about its predecessors.”
For more comic book action, check out our list of the best superhero movies of all-time, while we’ve also ranked the best villains in the MCU, and explained how to watch the Marvel movies in order.
