While many superhero movies deliver perfect origin stories, some have been downright awful. Origin stories are the backbone of superhero cinema, meant to spark excitement, empathy, and purpose to heroes in Marvel, DC, and beyond. They set the tone for a hero’s journey and define what makes them worth rooting for. When done right, they can become iconic cinematic moments. But when done poorly, they risk undermining the entire film. Whether due to incoherent writing, shallow character development, or complete misfires in tone, a bad origin story can doom even the most promising superhero project.

A good superhero origin story balances spectacle with emotional depth. It introduces the protagonist, reveals their transformation, and sets the stage for their moral compᴀss and conflict. However, sometimes studios either try too hard to reinvent the wheel or don’t try at all. These aren’t just stories that took creative liberties – they’re examples where those liberties completely disconnected the character from their essence.

10

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Bruce Banner Becomes The Hulk

Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk skips over the actual origin story almost entirely, relegating it to a montage in the opening credits. While this approach avoids repeating the same narrative seen in Hulk (2003), it also robs Bruce Banner of a proper cinematic introduction within the MCU. His transformation via gamma radiation is barely touched on, giving audiences little insight into his emotional journey or the tragic nature of his curse.

While the movie itself is great, without that setup, it’s hard to invest in Bruce’s internal conflict or empathize with his desire to stay hidden. The movie starts mid-crisis, ᴀssuming viewers are already familiar with the character’s lore. For a franchise kickstarter, it’s a puzzling decision that makes Hulk feel more like a plot device than a fully realized protagonist.

9

Madame Web (2024)

Cᴀssandra Webb Becomes Madame Web

Few origin stories have felt as mechanically ᴀssembled as Madame Web’s. Designed seemingly to set up a larger cinematic universe rather than tell a compelling standalone tale, the movie introduces Cᴀssandra Webb as a paramedic who gains clairvoyant powers after a convoluted brush with death involving a rare spider. The explanation is dense and joyless, with the trailer’s notorious exposition dump and an origin story that doesn’t exist in the comics.

Instead of focusing on building Cᴀssandra into a complex protagonist, the script juggles multiple undeveloped characters and generic visions of the future. What could have been a unique dive into Marvel’s mystical side ends up feeling clunky and soulless. The result is an origin story that feels less like a journey of transformation and more like a failed checklist of IP connections without purpose or payoff.

8

Elektra (2005)

Elektra Natchios Is Revived

Elektra never recovers from its jumbled resurrection plot. After dying in Daredevil (2003), the ᴀssᴀssin returns with almost no explanation other than vague mysticism and martial arts. Her revival by the group known as The Chaste is mentioned but never meaningfully explored. There’s little sense of what Elektra’s return means to her or how it affects her motivations.

Instead, she goes from ᴅᴇᴀᴅ to ᴅᴇᴀᴅly without any emotional reckoning. Worse, the film severs nearly all ties to her earlier appearance, making it feel like a completely disconnected character. Her tragic backstory is glossed over in favor of a wooden narrative about protecting a prophetic child. The end result is an origin tale that tries to reinvent Elektra but forgets to ground her in any relatable human experience or coherent emotional arc.

7

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Logan Becomes Wolverine

The opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine had promise – an epic montage of Logan and Victor Creed fighting through wars across centuries offered a glimpse into a compelling, layered backstory. Unfortunately, everything after that falls apart fast. The film fails to deepen Logan’s emotional arc, instead relying on clumsy dialogue and convoluted government conspiracies.

The moment that truly derails X-Men Origins the most is the adamantium bullet to the head, used as a lazy excuse to wipe Wolverine’s memory. It’s a nonsensical solution that undermines years of mystery surrounding the character’s past, all to conveniently explain away his future amnesia. Rather than offer insight into his complex psyche, the film reduces Logan’s origin to shallow plot devices and poorly handled twists. What should’ve been a gritty, character-driven story ends up as a bloated, forgettable misfire.

6

Fant4stic (2015)

The Fantastic Four Are Born

Fant4stic tried to reboot the Fantastic Four with a darker, more grounded tone, but the origin story feels like a rehash of what audiences already saw in earlier versions, just with less charm and more brooding. The team still gains powers from an interdimensional experiment gone wrong, but the buildup is agonizingly slow and devoid of excitement. Characters barely develop meaningful relationships before they’re thrust into the transformation sequence, making their evolution into superheroes feel unearned.

Fant4stic was so focused on pseudo-scientific jargon and government conspiracy tropes that it forgot to build any genuine emotional stakes. Instead of reinventing the team, the film ends up stripping them of their personality and warmth. The lackluster setup and recycled beats result in an origin story that feels derivative, uninspired, and utterly lacking the awe these characters deserve.

5

Daredevil (2003)

Matt Murdock Becomes Daredevil

Daredevil aimed to introduce the world to Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer turned vigilante. However, the film never quite explains how his accident grants him superhuman acrobatics, radar sense, and martial arts mastery. After being blinded by radioactive waste as a child, Matt’s powers just arise, and the movie quickly skips ahead without exploring how he hones them or copes with his disability.

This lack of depth robs the origin of emotional weight and fails to establish the kind of moral complexity that makes Daredevil such a compelling comic book character. Instead, the film leans heavily on cliché voiceovers and mood lighting, hoping style will mask the lack of substance. It doesn’t. What should’ve been a gritty, grounded journey feels shallow and rushed.

4

Hulk (2003)

Bruce Banner Becomes The Hulk

Ang Lee’s Hulk attempts a psychologically complex origin story, but the results are overly convoluted and emotionally confusing. Instead of sticking to the well-known gamma explosion origin, the movie introduces Bruce Banner’s father, David, as a scientist who experiments on himself (and later his son) before becoming an unstable supervillain. This makes Bruce’s transformation the result of inherited genetic tampering rather than an accident, a choice that muddies the waters of his origin.

The film spends a mᴀssive amount of time on exposition, flashbacks, and dream sequences, leaving little room for clear character growth. While the artistic ambition is admirable, the movie’s sprawling narrative and opaque storytelling make Bruce’s journey difficult to follow or invest in. By the time the final battle arrives, the audience is left more confused than engaged.

3

Catwoman (2004)

Patience Phillips Becomes Catwoman

Catwoman is infamous for discarding nearly everything that made the character iconic. Halle Berry’s Patience Phillips isn’t Selina Kyle, doesn’t live in Gotham, and her origin has nothing to do with Batman or any recognizable DC lore. Instead, she’s a meek graphic designer killed over a corrupt cosmetics company’s anti-aging cream and brought back to life by an Egyptian cat.

Catwoman tries to tie her transformation to ancient feline deities and mystical powers, but the result is so absurd and poorly explained that it feels like a parody. Her cat-based powers – including enhanced agility, night vision, and a love of tuna – veer into cartoonish territory, completely undermining any chance at a grounded, serious narrative. By breaking from both comics and previous movie incarnations, Catwoman crafts one of the most baffling and ineffective superhero origin stories ever.

2

Steel (1997)

John Henry Irons Becomes Steel

Steel, starring Shaquille O’Neal, is one of the most baffling superhero origin stories ever brought to the screen. Loosely based on the DC Comics character John Henry Irons, the film completely detaches from the Superman mythos that originally inspired Steel’s creation. Instead, it turns Irons into a weapons designer who builds a super-suit in a garage with the help of his grandma and a friend in a wheelchair.

The film’s tone is wildly inconsistent – part comedy, part action, part after-school special – and the lack of narrative tension makes it hard to care about Irons’ transformation into a hero. There’s no meaningful internal struggle, no strong inciting incident, and no emotional payoff. It’s a superhero story that feels more like a parody than a genuine origin, saddled with cartoonish villains and cringeworthy dialogue.

1

Green Lantern (2011)

Hal Jordan Becomes Green Lantern

Green Lantern tries to pack too much into its origin story and ends up with a cluttered mess of exposition dumps and forgettable character moments. Hal Jordan’s recruitment by the Green Lantern Corps should have been a thrilling, galaxy-spanning transformation. Instead, it’s delivered in dull, dialogue-heavy scenes filled with CG-heavy training montages and long-winded alien briefings.

Green Lantern spends more time explaining the rules of the universe than showing why Hal is worthy of the ring, making his journey feel unearned. The character never truly wrestles with his responsibilities or internal fears in a meaningful way. Despite the film’s cosmic scale, Hal’s origin ends up feeling small, lifeless, and uninspired. What could have launched a new franchise fizzled out in a wave of green-tinted mediocrity.