Giantrobo

So many good choices. I picked Gal Gadot.

BrewCrew

The team of Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno

B5Erik

Chris Evans is my favorite actor in a superhero role, and by a wide margin, too.

I was actually really excited when they announced that he was going to be Steve/Cap. I thought he was perfect as Johnny Storm and I was sure that he'd be even better as Cap. He was.

Evans embodies Steve Rogers. I can't imagine anyone else even coming close in that role. I am really going to miss him when he's gone.

Unclejosh

This was the same exact comment from someone when I posted this story originally on here.

Shoveler

I'm going to write in Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. "You think I'm locked in here with you?!"

johnnysd

Reeves is clear #1 IMO, and I actually think Gadot may be second for me now. She is perfect as WW.

Iron Man is RDJ. I mean its the same character essentially as the one he played in Back to School. Captain America? Cant stand the character or his portrayal.

Im not sure there is really a third. Probably Jackman though I think his portrayal is overrated.

Giantrobo

Ky-Fi

That might be my vote as well. Particularly in First Avenger when he did the before and after Captain America.

nando820

Agree he was Rorschach, sucks the movie wasn't as good as his performance. But him and Mr Manhattan were perfect in my opinion

Can't wait to see WW seeing how many people are saying she is second only to Reeves. Also I agree with Wolverine I love Jackman but I never fully saw Wolverine from the comics or cartoons until Logan really

B5Erik

I honestly don't get all the love for Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent/Superman.

Yeah, he's good, and, yeah - he's iconic, but it seems like a lot of love for him comes from the fact that he was first (first lead actor in a big budget, big screen superhero movie). I wouldn't even put him in my top 3. After Chris Evans at #1 I'd put Hugh Jackman and RDJ above Reeve. I might even put Hemsworth above Reeve.

Reeve was OK in Superman III (he had one or two great scenes, but the rest was just passable), and the less said about Superman IV (the Superman movie in which he had the most influence on the production) the better. So he gave two top to bottom very good performances as Superman, one OK performance, and one weak, cliched performance in a weak Superman movie. To me, that doesn't hold up to the other three guys I've got at the top of my list who have been very good to great every time in more movies as their characters than Reeve played as Superman.

dhmac

Yeah, I agree Superman III & IV weigh so much against Christopher Reeve in my mind that I couldn't vote for him despite how good he is in the first 2 movies.

RDJ got my vote because he was able to carry the weaker Iron Man sequels with his charisma, something CR failed to do in his weaker Superman films.

Michael Corvin

My top 3 consist of three actors that have owned the role so much so, that anyone coming after has a huge hill to climb.

1. Christopher Reeve
2. Hugh Jackman
3. Brandon Lee

And in the case of Superman and the Crow, they're still climbing. We obviously won't know on Wolverine for awhile.

And after those three I can see Gal Gadot, hot on their heels depending on where they take the character next and if she can keep that charm and charisma rolling through multiple films.

I don't think being first has anything to do with it. He embodied the character he was portraying and I think had more charisma doing it than anyone else we're discussing.

Mike86

I know this will probably be unpopular to say and that I'll be called a DC hater but honestly I can't help but feel like Wonder Woman is almost starting to feel a tad overrated by some people. It's a very good film don't get me wrong but all this talk about it being one of the best superhero films ever and how Gadot is so great feels a bit soon. It hasn't even been out for a month. Personally I wouldn't even put Wonder Woman as the top superhero film of the year (that goes to Logan for me) let alone one of the best of all time.

TomOpus

3 votes = "all this talk" ???

Mike86

Not just here. I've seen a bunch of other people already proclaiming it as such online other places.

nando820

you really want to earn the "DC Hater title"

Mike86

I knew people were going to get upset over me saying that. Again not saying it's bad but it's not like the best ever like some people are saying (and again to clarify not just on DVD Talk but a bunch of other places).

Also I liked the movie and think Gadot is good. I just don't rate her or the film that highly yet.

B5Erik

I think Wonder Woman is a little overrated, too. It is very good, but I prefer all the Marvel movies over that one - except Thor The Dark World.

Like I said, though, I do like WW a lot as it is very good - and I did like Gadot. But, like the movie, I just wouldn't put her in the upper echelon yet.

Mr. Flix

I agree with this.

Out of the choices given, I'm having a hard time choosing between Evans, Downey Jr., Jackman, and Gadot. They're all on an equal footing to me.

For as many different actors that have played Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman, none of them (IMO) are as good as the four actors listed above. But I do think Tom Holland has the potential of being the definitive Spider-Man actor (which is actually high praise).

Patrick Stewart ought to be in this poll. And maybe I'm alone in this opinion, but I always thought Famke Janssen was excellent as Jean Grey (in X1 and X2, that is), and Alan Cumming was perfect as Nightcrawler.

Kal-El

Pretty sure he and I are "co-haters" haha

fujishig

First off there was no Superman III or IV, just like there was never a Highlander 2.

I think Reeve gets it because his portrayals of both Clark Kent and Superman defined both characters for a generation of kids. Of course that means nothing if you were born after that.

I'll give this to DC movies, I feel like they nail the casting even if I'm not a big fan of the movies. Routh and Cavill are both excellent choices, Keaton seemed like a terrible choice but really made it work, Bale was good, Gadot is perfect, etc. Even Ryan Reynolds was not as terrible a choice as most make it seem. However they completely whiff on the villains most of the time.

I will agree that RDJ should be the popular choice, though. People credit him with jumpstarting the Marvel cinematic universe, and while I think they would have found a way even without him, no one can deny that he is Tony Stark.

It's probably the fanboy in me, but I actually like a lot of superhero casting. The original XMen movie had great casting with the possible exception of Rogue. The XMen reboot cast a great young Xavier and Magneto. Affleck and Garner as Daredevil and Elektra should have worked. Even the original FF movies cast Evans as the Human Torch.

Michael Corvin

Speaking of X-men, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, would be near the top for me as well. Seeing Jennifer Lawrence try and portray the same character has been rough.

That's the thing, he pulled off what most everyone else can't, portray two halves of the same character, or in essence, two unique characters. For most everyone else on the list, the alter ego is not much different from the hero. Where does Steve Rogers end and Captain America begin? There is no difference between the two. Now maybe that's a character problem not an actor problem, but Reeves deserves credit for making us care about two different people, Kent & Superman.

mcnabb

Christopher Reeve.

fumanstan

RDJ for me. I'm also not as huge of a fan of Reeve as everyone else, and I actually like Cavill more then Reeve in the role. Part of that might be getting in to comic books more in the early 90's and seeing the more muscle bound look, so that became ingrained in my mind as what Superman was "supposed" to look like and I've always found Superman 1/2 kind of goofy.

mwbmis

Not to go too far down the rabbit hole, but while I like them both I think that is the problem with both Routh and Cavill and their respective films. For Routh, I just didn't get much of a sense of his Clark Kent. For Cavill, they have had issues separating his Kent from Superman.