The DC universe superhero movies (including 'Aquaman'), definitively ranked – USA TODAY

The bad news: Things haven’t gone oh-so-swimmingly for the DC superhero film universe. The good news: We have an actual Aquaman movie that has nothing to do with that whole “Entourage” story line. (Jason Momoa is way better than Vinnie Chase, come on now.)

Directed by Jason Wan, “Aquaman” (in theaters Friday) sets sail with a solo adventure for Momoa’s muscular seafarer – his first appearance since hanging with Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Superman (Henry Cavill) as a grumpy rookie in “Justice League.”

Now five years and six movies into this super-world with famous comic-book icons, only “Wonder Woman” has been a financial and critical success, but perhaps “Aquaman” can – ahem – turn the tide. And with “Shazam” (April 5, 2019), “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” (Feb. 7, 2020) and sequel “Wonder Woman 1984” (June 5, 2010) on the way, it’s high time to rank all the DC films so far:

6. ‘Man of Steel’ (2013)

A Superman movie that doesn’t seem to understand Superman, Zack Snyder’s origin story had a cool opening on the hero’s home world of Krypton but spiraled downward from there. Instead of a beacon of hope – what Cavill’s character says that “S” on his chest means – this Clark Kent’s the Brooder of Steel, navigating life, love and loss not with a smile or a knowing confidence (see: Christopher Reeve, the ideal Superman) but with instead a sort of unappealing melancholy. Honestly not the greatest start to a cinematic universe.

5. ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)

An improvement on the previous mostly thanks to a couple new superheroes: Affleck nicely inhabits a Dark Knight who’s pretty much had it with everything, especially with a dude in blue tights and a red cape, and Gadot debuts as a mysterious take on Wonder Woman audiences were dying to know about. The CGI-heavy climax with supervillain Doomsday is a travesty, there are intriguing seeds for a bigger story (what’s up, Darkseid?!) that will probably never happen now, but Jesse Eisenberg’s psycho Mark Zuckerberg take on Lex Luthor weirdly works.

4. ‘Aquaman’ (2018)

Momoa’s reluctant hero goes under the sea for an Arthurian quest to find a mythical trident that can bring together the underwater kingdoms before his Atlantean half-bro (Patrick Wilson) wages an ecologically fueled war on the surface. Way too earnest at times, Wan’s film successfully dips its toe in a pool of out-there goofiness at times but never dives deep, unfortunately. For Aqua-fans, archvillain Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) shows up for a bit and is awesome, plus Mera (Amber Heard) is now firmly entrenched as DC films’ No. 2 heroine.

3. ‘Justice League’ (2017)

OK, it wasn’t quite an “Avengers”-level reception for the DC supergroup. And the major fight at the end with Steppenwolf, a badly computer-generated supervillain who didn’t really need to be digital, is forgettable. Oh yeah, and Mustache-gate. However, the Batfleck gets some fun stuff to do, Ezra Miller’s speedy Flash owns being the comedy relief, and for the first time – thanks to a well-timed resurrection – Cavill finally figures out how to best play Superman. (It was probably only for half a movie, but better than nothing.)

2. ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)

While it probably still sticks in the craw of haters, the completely bonkers “Squad” is to date the only Marvel or DC film to win an Academy Award. (For makeup, but an Oscar’s an Oscar.) The weird and wild narrative about a motley group of supervillains having to save the world had the good (Margot Robbie’s winningly oddball Harley Quinn), the bad (another horrendous CGI-fest for an ending) and the ugly (props to Jared Leto for whatever he was doing as an out-of-left-field Joker).

1. ‘Wonder Woman’ (2017)

Until “Black Panther” this year, no other superhero movie had quite the cultural impact of Patty Jenkins’ Amazon-filled World War I period piece. Gadot’s Princess Diana learns about romance – with Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor as a fantastic complement – but also the flaws of humanity, showing anybody who’ll watch how to be a hero by walking across a battlefield where literally no man will set foot. It has its foibles – another egregious digital bad guy and final battle, which have become unfortunate DC signatures – but pulpy personalities, a surprising sense of humor and a top-notch main character make this the standard-bearer for one corner of the superhero landscape.

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