This Collider feature argues that the 2000s was a standout decade for superhero movie sequels that outdid their originals, highlighting five "Part 2" instalments that improved on films which were already well regarded. The piece contrasts this with the common reputation of sequels as inferior, citing benchmarks like The Empire Strikes Back and Toy Score 2 (Toy Story 2) as rare examples of sequels surpassing their predecessors, and argues these five 2000s superhero sequels deserve similar recognition for helping cement the genre's later dominance.

– X2 (2003) built on X-Men (2000) with better action, a strong villain played by Brian Cox, and a memorable new character in Nightcrawler, making it the best of the original X-Men trilogy — especially compared with the weaker X-Men: The Last Stand.
– Blade II (2002) is judged a modest but genuine improvement on the well-regarded original Blade (1998), offering more stylistic flair even if the first film gave its title character more to do; both are seen as far superior to the later Blade: Trinity.
– The article's full list names five such sequels in total, though the excerpt provided covers only these two examples in detail.