This is how it all began....

What, would people say is the most IMPORTANT comic book film release, not your best, favoutite, most valued, CBM, but the most important due to what it may have meant for the genre long term, its defining release & effect on studio development, what one film meant for comic book films in general ?

I would say it's 1978's, Superman The Movie. Without that one film, all of what has grown since, could not be released. Donner's film showed a) how to take a source seriously and place it on film with love & passion for the character and b) how the genre should be shown it could be projected as a film in its' own right, not just as a throwaway film, that comic book films could be taken as a medium alongside drama, action, romance, given it contained all these elements, prior to Superman, all we'd had were serials or 1966 Batman, which was so tongue in cheek.

For me, it's still the bench mark, my love for the film & character are lifelong but without it, Marvel, DC /WB would not have their expanded universes, the X-Men revolution would not have happened and certainly we'd have no clamour from the studios across the board to have a CBM released each summer as a requisite of their output each year.