Superhero movies are back! At least based on the amount of new projects coming our way this year in full force. It’s too early to really know, and will remain that way until we’ve seen most of these projects, but things are definitely looking up.
When you stop to think about it, it really has been sometime now. The last good Marvel phase was with the last two Avengers movies (Infinity War and Endgame,) right before the pandemic. That’s more than five years ago. There have only been two good Marvel movies since then (Shang Chi and Spiderman: No Way Home,) and both of those were during the pandemic. Meaning it a long time ago at this point. And that’s just Marvel, the studio that has done the best with all this over the past two decades.
On the DC front, the studio has been entirely stripped down and wiped clean. New management. New cinematic universe. A complete reboot is headed our way. They ended the DCEU (DC extended universe,) about two years ago, with the final films predictably petering out… a Shazam sequel, an Aquaman sequel, and a Flash movie.
And that was the last of DC. Since then, the studio has more or less gone away for the past few years… taking a step back, remaining silent, and retooling. Marvel has too. Last year Marvel released only one superhero movie (Deadpool and Wolverine,) and DC released absolutely none. Well, when the two giants in a marketplace both go away, it opens the door up for competition. And that’s exactly what happened with Sony studios bringing in their slate of D listers. Sony’s Spiderman-less universe gave us three movies just last year alone… Madame Web, Venom The Last Dance, and Kraven the Hunter. They were all pretty lousy.
But now, after both DC and Marvel have taken steps to recalibrate, readjust, and in the case of DC, to completely reset, we are finally ready to get back in the game. Marvels first entry this year, Captain America: Brave New World, wasn’t exactly great, but it did get a lot right. It did tap into what audiences wanted, including references and connections to other films in the MCU (most notably Hulk.) Despite this, however, it was just okay. A misstep.
THE THUNDERBOLTS
What’s coming up, however, looks like it should be better. First, Marvel is giving us The Thunderbolts in May. This is meant to be the new team film, while we wait for another Avengers movie. And it’s composed of a bunch of characters from the other films. What looks cool about it is that 1) there is a character with actual super powers in it… a villain, who will very much exist on a different playing field than our heroes who “all just punch dnd kick,” as Yelena Belova puts it. So seeing the merging of that, realistic down to earth characters melding with a super powered character, should be cool. And then there’s the humor factor. This movie looks like it has a solid chance to actually be funny. Between the Red Guardian and Yelena alone, plus Julia Louis Dreyfuss, there is definitely potential. Can’t wait to see this one!
SUPERMAN
Next up is Superman over at DC. It’s written and directed by James Gunn who doesn’t know how to make a bad superhero movie. Seriously. This is the guy who made all three Guardians of the Galaxy movies, plus The Suicide Squad. Even his movie Super, from long before Gunn became a household name, was great. Now I’m not saying every one of his movies is fantastic, but they are certainly all good. And now, with Superman, he’s got free rein to use anything in the SC comics universe (for example, Green Lantern is in this one.) Gunn is running the studio. And this is the film that’s relaunching it. Should be cool.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR
After that, we’ve got the Fantastic Four. Marvels The Fantastic Four. Finally! After decades of watching lousy Fantastic Four movies over at Fox studios, Marvel finally got the rights back and is making their version. And they are going all out, giving us both the Silver Surfer and Galactus in this very first film, (unlike Venom, for example, which waited until the second move to give us Carnage.) It will be great to see this new and exciting take on the characters, and seeing how they put it in an alternate universe to everything else Marvel has done should definitely be interesting.
After that, and moving into 2026, we’ve got two new Avengers movies coming out (both directed by the Russo brothers, who have the golden hitch when it comes to Marvel movies.) We’ve also got a new Spider-Man movie coming our way, and considering Tom Holland’s Spider-man is the best version of the character we’ve seen on screen, it’s pretty awesome that he’s the one who gets four movies and counting.
Looking to other areas besides Marvel, DC will have their sequel to The Batman up and running soon (most likely a 2027 release,) and that first Matt Reeves directed movie was so smart and so dark and so menacing and so good, that I can’t wait to see where they go next.
We will also get a third Spiderverse movie, and that’s another series that has just been hitting it out of the park. The way they combined that characters stories and mythology with new kinds of animation and terrific humor has been sensational.
And then, they are actually making a Masters of the Universe movie and a Thundercats movie. While not superheroes per se, the two 80s action series’ definitely played in the same sandbox with the superheroes. And whatever they come up with, for how to do it, and how to present it to us, I am one hundred percent on board!
It’s definitely been a rough five years or so, since the pandemic, in the realm of superhero movies. But we have reached a place where we now have our best version of Spider-man, arguably our best take on Batman, definitely the character coolest Spider-man animated series imaginable, the best of Marvels director resigned for the next two Avengers movies, and a brand new take on the DC universe headed our way. So there is definitely lots to be excited about!