
Whether it be on the silver screen, Saturday morning cartoons, or lunchboxes, superheroes have existed outside of the comic book pages for almost as long as they’ve existed. I, for one, knew of Spider-Man and the X-Men first from their cartoon exploits, while my first real exposure to Batman was from the Michael Keaton movie back in 1989. Superheroes have also had a presence in the board game space for decades, though the vast majority of these efforts were shoddy cash grabs.
Some of the modern superhero games still are poor titles that are excuses to make a quick buck, though both DC and Marvel have made honest efforts to improve their board game portfolios to the point where they both have games that are great by any measure. If you’re in the mood to live the superhero experience in tabletop gaming form, try these ones out!

How many is too many? It depends on your definition of too many. With video games, I’m very particular about what that exactly means. At this point, I’ll make shelf space for any great ones I’m currently playing or have played before, but my tolerance for keeping mediocre titles or ones that I’ll realistically never play has dropped dramatically. Since October, I’ve traded in about 40 games that I felt were worth more as trade bait than as artifacts in my collection. As I continue to invest into my new board game hobby, this question is beginning to become a factor in my buying process.