4 Superhero Series Finales That Stuck the Landing — and 3 That Missed the Mark

Prime Video just dropped the series finale of The Boys, and the immediate reaction is... mixed. Going into the last episode, vibes had actually swung a little more positive after a wobbly start to the season, but the finale itself has people split: some are pleasantly surprised, others are let down. That happens with big superhero shows. So, while everyone argues about how this one ended, let’s zoom out and see how other caped TV adventures stuck (or botched) their landings. It might give us a clue where The Boys ends up once the dust settles.

Finales that soared, finales that faceplanted

1. Best: Loki
   Between seasons, Marvel ’s plans for Kang got blown up when Jonathan Majors was fired, which easily could have derailed Season 2. Instead, the show doubled down on character. Loki gets his most heroic moment yet, literally taking the multiverse’s tangled timelines in his own hands, and the story wraps on Loki’s terms. On top of that, the new characters get meaningful sendoffs. Messy off-screen circumstances, clean on-screen finish.

2. Most Disappointing: The Umbrella Academy
   The final season ran out of comic book road map and also chopped down its episode count, which left too little space for arcs to breathe. The result is a stop-and-start narrative that limps to an ending where the team basically never existed. You can read that as sacrifice or cosmic reset, but the aftertaste is mostly "what was the point?"

3. Best: Spider- Man: The Animated Series
   Plenty of 90s superhero cartoons just... ended. Not this one. Spidey’s show got a proper farewell that tied up its big threads, nodded toward the whole Spider-Verse idea years before it was a thing, and still left Peter out there doing the work. Bonus: a smart, heartfelt encounter with Stan Lee himself, long before the MCU turned creator cameos into a tradition.

4. Most Disappointing: I Am Not Okay With This
   The last episode is actually excellent TV. The problem is it’s the last episode, period. Netflix renewed the adaptation of Charles Forsman’s graphic novel, then canceled it anyway, leaving a massive cliffhanger dangling forever. Great hour, brutal endpoint.

5. Best: Watchmen
   Making a TV sequel to one of the best comics ever is a suicide mission on paper, but Damon Lindelof’s HBO series clears the bar and then some. The finale threads in deep-cut details from the source material, crashes its storylines together in a way that feels inevitable, and lands on a final moment that still has people debating what happens next, years later.

6. Most Disappointing: Secret Invasion
   Expectations were already low by the end of Episode 1, and somehow the finale still tunneled under them.

   "I expect nothing, and I’m still let down."

   That line from Malcom in the Middle’s Dewey fits here too well. The last episode bends MCU continuity to suggest a major Avenger has secretly been a Skrull for ages, then turns another character into one of the most overpowered beings in the franchise... only to never use them again.

7. Best: Batman: The Brave and the Bold
   A near-perfect goodbye. The finale goes full love letter to the Silver Age tone the show embraced, breaks the fourth wall to poke at its place in Batman lore and how fans reacted to a lighter Dark Knight, and still plays like pure Saturday-morning joy. Paul Reubens, in a pitch-perfect turn as Bat-Mite, helps the episode salute multiple eras of Batman, viewers of all ages, and honestly, television itself. Hard to top.

The Boys is just the latest superhero saga to cross the finish line. Some finales age better than others; some curdle over time. Right now, the mood on The Boys is split, but give it a little distance. In a few months, we’ll know if it joins the winners up there with Loki, Watchmen, and Brave and the Bold — or if it slides into the pile with the shows that tripped at the tape.