This year is the best in superhero movie history, says Rotten Tomatoes

2017 is the single greatest year in superhero movie history.

At least if you put stock in the statistics over at Rotten Tomatoes, which has just updated its rankings of the best in cinematic spandex, on the heels of Thor: Ragnarok’s release last week.

According to this super-Tomato-meter, four of the five greatest superhero movies ever were released this year. Ragnarok is No. 5 (with 103.97 per cent), while also in the top 5 are this year’s Spider- Man: Homecoming (No. 4, with 105.98 per cent) and Logan (No. 2, with 107.98 per cent).

And the best superhero film ever? It’s Patty Jenkins’s s ummer s mash Wonder Woman ( 108.57 per cent) — a Rotten Tomatoes crown that brought social- media whoops from both Jenkins and the film’s title star, Gal Gadot.

That aggregate title might even help Wonder Woman make its case for Oscars and other awards.

The only non-2017 film to crack Rotten Tomatoes’s Top 5 is 2008’s The Dark Knight ( 106.23 per cent). The WB/ DC movie in the No. 3 slot de- spite often being considered the best superhero film ever.

The standard metric at Rotten Tomatoes, of course, is the “Tomatometer” score, the percentage of reviews by critics that are positive. But with its Best Superhero Movies of All Time rankings that the site started earlier this year, the site provides weighted scores that adjust for the total number of reviews each film has received.

Under these Bayes-weighted rankings, Pixar’s 2004 smash The Incredibles — the top widely reviewed superhero film on the site based on its 97 per cent Tomatometer score — drops to No. 9 on the best superhero movie of all time list, with an adjusted score of 103.39 per cent. Iron Man is No. 7.

This year’s roster looks even more impressive when you consider that it has five of the list’s top 10 titles; WB/ DC’s The Lego Batman Movie ( 103.18 per cent) sits at No. 10. Among other 2017 releases, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (97.17 per cent) is ranked No. 18. ( Worth noting: The jury is still out on DC’s Justice League, which arrives Nov. 17).

The previous contenders for “best year ever” would have been: 2008, with The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Hellboy II: The Golden Army ( No. 23); 2014, with Guardians of the Galaxy ( No. 11), X- Men: Days of Future Past ( No. 12), Captain America: The Winter Soldier ( No. 15) and Big Hero 6 (No. 19); and 2016, with Captain America: Civil War (No. 8), Doctor Strange ( No. 14) and Deadpool (No. 21). In other words: None of them comes close to 2017’s level.

So can 2018 top the headturning 2017? The challenge will fall to The Black Panther, Aquaman and a host of franchise sequels, including Deadpool 2, The Incredibles 2, Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp.