Debate of the Day: What Will Be the Next Great Superhero Movie?

Now that two of the most anticipated superhero movies of all time have come, gone and largely delivered on their promises, what’s next for the genre after The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises?

It’s a question that could determine how long we keep getting superhero movies, or at least at what frequency. Will they still have the same box office power now that the “big guns” are offline? Here is what I see as the near-future options:

Man of Steel – The most high profile one out of all these, but I don’t trust Zack Snyder as far as I can throw him. And to be honest, I’ve never liked any Superman movie all that much. He’s a character that just doesn’t seem to fit with this time period any more to me.

Iron Man 3 – I enjoyed the last two to be sure, but Jon Favreau leaving will likely automatically mean this won’t be as good as the others.

Thor 2 – Might be fine, but Thor wasn’t exactly the strongest of the Avengers lead-up movies

The Avengers 2 – A long, long ways off, but it’s going to be hard for lightning to strike twice.

The Wolverine – Love the idea, but Origins was SO bad and Aronofsky is no longer on board.

JLA – Purely theoretical at this point, and you have to wonder if DC will take the time to set the film up with reboots of Supes, Batman, Green Lantern, in addition to Wonder Woman, Flash or even Aquaman movies. In short, I don’t know if this project will ever come together.

 

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24 Comments

  1. You missed Captain America 2. The real problem, though, is your comment on Iron Man 3. Jon Favreau did a great job on the first two, but they replaced him with Shane Black. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was great and RDJ seems really excited that he got the job. I would not be even slightly surprised if this is the best Iron Man yet.

  2. I can’t speak for Man of Steel, but Superman has always suffered from the perception issue. People never understand why he doesn’t use his powers a little more. . . aggressively?

    Iron Man has fun.
    Captain America’s a soldier, and people respect that, also, his character can’t get old because ‘man out of his time’ is one of his defining characteristics.
    Thor is a god, so he gets away with his odd behaviors.
    Batman is angry as hell, and takes it out on people.

    But Superman holds himself to a standard that almost doesn’t make sense to a lot of people these days, while at the same time, not doing a lot of the things he should be. He saves the earth all the time, sure, but what has he done to improve the world? The investigative reporter is itself a dated concept. While I respect the hell out of Superman, DC needs to do a bit more to his back story than what the New 52 did to make him feel relevant to modern audiences.

  3. Gotta agree with Dolaction. I want Deadpool. Though I would settle for a PG13 that pushed the limits. They can probably still have plenty of violence in a PG13 deadpool movie, he just wouldn’t be allowed to swear which is ok.

  4. See, the problem with Iron Man 1 and 2, and JF as director, is that he was great with comedy but terrible with action. Think about how LITTLE we see Iron Man doing his thing in both movies. In the first movie, he goes after the terrorists and then fights the big robot in 5 minutes. That’s about it. This kind of stuff is just absolutely unacceptable and Joss Whedon proved you could have a ton of action and keep a movie good. The thing is, though, with Whedon you have to say “Oh, it was the FIRST avengers movie so pulling out all the stops might not be the smartest move because you know there will be a second.” With Iron Man 2, they didnt really step up the action at all. In fact, JF threw himself in MORE scenes!

    Superman fits fine with the audience today, in my opinion, its just the fact that Bryan Singer didn’t do Superman a whole lot of justice in Superman Returns. Singer is a much better director when it comes to emotional problems and outcast-type movies like X-men. I personally believe that Singers own personal dealings with his homosexuality really helped him get a grasp on the outcast feeling that mutants in the X-men world would feel, which coupled with David Hayters solid script meant X-men was great stuff. This didn’t automatically make him the superhero movie master though.

    With Nolan helping out on Man of Steel, I feel quite confident we’ll see something great.

    As far as Thor, I think the majority of fans were presently surprised at how good the movie was, because everyone thought it was going to suck.

    A Deadpool movie would be sweet, but I guarantee that no rated R Marvel movie is going to do well enough to justify Marvel making one. They want to make the most amount of money possible and a PG-13 movie will do that.

  5. Really @Paul Tassi you dont trust Zack Snyder? The man did bring us the Watchmen, a feet that noone thought was possible. His worst movie was Suckerpunch, but say what you will, it was a PURELY original film, and Zack Had the brass to pull it. He does work best with unoriginal work, like 300, watchmen, and dawn of the dead. So now that he tackling Superman, I have pure faith in him.

    The only fear for superman is that our culture really doesnt want a SUPERman as a super hero, we want someone who is just a little stronger than us, but not a god (like Thor, probably why he was the weakest of the avengers.)

  6. I want to see Man of Steel but I am not getting my hopes up. Likewise I have yet to enjoy a Superman flick, even as a kid I was blown away by Burton’s Batman but not the whole Superman saga. Snyder may have my confidence but the character doesnt, I just never found Superman exciting, with one exception, the Death of Superman (and return but whatever). I got in when i played the SNES game, and its first and only time I have liked a Supes story.
    It has been the only storyine for supes I have found interesting (well the whole Superboy Prime thing was kinda cool but that would never work in a movie, too, “superboy punches time”, you know).
    If they made a flick out of the death of superman it would be balls. Think about the whole storyline without the slab full of 90s they put in there, its like Supes is just out there and BAM comes Doomsday, ruins his shit, and everybody in the audience is like WTF man, superman died? Comic geeks know who Doomsday is and that Superman will return but most movie watchers wont. Its like when i first played and read the storyline I was like who the fuck is this guy where did he come from, what happened to superman, I need some fucking answers.
    Then there is Steel, Superboy the Android and the Eradicator, and all shits breaks loose, movie ends with the Android fucking everybody’s shit and the ressolution will be in the sequel.
    I havent seen the Supes Doomsday Animated flick but if I was a betting man I would say it was not what it should have been.

  7. Here is what I would really like to see, and I know some of my choices will make others ignore or even scoff at me but I am a comic book nut and I actually enjoyed Dare Devil so Dare Devil 2 would be awesome. The movie I would really really really like to see is Dr. Strange. The animated movie was my favorite of all the animated ones. I also would really enjoy a Deadpool movie but only if they got Ryan Reynolds again. X-Men first class 2 will be interesting, I can’t wait to see more of those. They need to make a Black Panther movie or Ms. Marvel since both of these heros are awesome and they are/were part of the Avengers at one point or another. Also another, better Fantastic Four would be awesome. If they really want to make money, they will do a new avengers movie with lead in of Amazing Spider-man, Wolverine, a Hero’s for Hire movie (Iron Fist, Luke Cage) and the before mentioned Doctor Strange.

  8. I’ve got high hopes for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and Edgar Wright’s Ant Man. Although, Marvel’s possible upcoming acquirement of the rights to Daredevil really opens up the future of that character. A Daredevil movie really has the potential to be more down to earth than most.

  9. @Nik

    They have to consider popularity, too, and most of the things you mentioned weren’t popular the first time through or aren’t popular enough comics.

  10. I think it will all depend on how the man of steel dose, which I am very unsure of right now. It “seems” like it may follow in the dark knight’s foot steps ( even the trailer seems that way) but even if Superman is awsome ( which I have my doubts) that still means they have to re-boot batman for JLA ( unless christian bale comes back!!!!). If there is a reboot, how will they top the Dark Knight??? They need their build-up movies to JLA to be top noche like Marvel did with Avengers. The Dark Knight was already Top noche so it seems like they have set themselves up for failure.

  11. Meh. Tough subject, methinks, ’cause we could all sound off on our respective likes/dislikes. I’ve never been a fan of Marvel Comics and I’ve not much cared for several of their movies, but, even as a diehard DC guy, I haven’t much cared for Nolan’s flicks either. (I know, I’m a tough viewer to please.) As much light fun as THOR was, I’ll hope that THOR 2 has a more interesting story now that the origin aspect is all out of the way. I loved CAPTAIN AMERICA, mostly b/c it worked so well as a period piece as well as a terrific comic book movie; but putting him in present day might not appeal to me as much as his origin flick did. And I have absolutely no faith in Snyder to elevate Supes to the level he received as a character in SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE, so I approach that film with guarded optimism. And, for the record, I haven’t liked the Spider-man or Iron Man flicks in the slightest.

    I did enjoy THE AVENGERS, too, so, at this point, as much as I loathe Whedon and the Whedonistas, I hold out hope that he can bottle his lightning for another strike.

  12. there are suppose to be 3 avenger movies, right? and even in the 2nd, upcoming movie, there will be new heros added to the team so that allows ALOT of room for movies inbetween the 3 big films. I just don’t know if you can make ironman beyond number 3. Thats usually where movies stop if they even make it that far.

  13. “He’s a character that just doesn’t seem to fit with this time period any more to me.”
    watch the direct to dvd film SUPERMAN V.S THE ELITE and I think you’ll change your mind.

  14. Superman fits in all time periods dude. You need to real more comics and watch less movies. Superman is a staple in the comic book world. He has so many iconic fights and story lines. The man of steel will be what you want it to be i’m sure of that. If you want it to suck it will suck, if you want it to rock it will rock. I’m keeping my hopes up. People rave about the Avengers but lets face it If it was the avengers vs superman…who would win that fight =)

  15. Everyone always skips over the new Ant Man movie being done by Edgar Wright. That is going to be amazing! Out of the movies listed though, my money is on Iron Man 3. Shane Black is an amazing writer (as seen by Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), and he’s back together with RDJ, so I have very high hopes!

  16. Moon Knight (aka Marvel Batman)

    Lobo

    Daredevil and Namor should be TV shows (on FX). On that subject, Disney/Marvel should form a new channel modelled after FX and AMC. With the characters they own plus more, they could do two or three TV shows a year in the Marvel Universe. Damage Control could tie up storylines between the movies!

  17. Zack Snyder did brilliantly with Watchmen, but Superman is just a terrible idea for a superhero. He is indestructible, invincible and unstoppable, unless he gets exposed to a particular rock, and that makes it really hard to relate to him in any way.
    R-rated Deadpool would be awesome.

  18. Whoooaaaa your bagging on Zack Snyder????
    bite your tongue! He will deliver just as he did with the Watchmen and 300.

    I am looking forward to the next Spider-Man movie because the Amazing Spider-Man was okay but it leaves the sequel to have less Peter Parker and more action.
    Iron Man 3 will be incredible because of the new Director and just the opposite of what you said even though Jon Favereau did a great job with the first two. I mean he isn’t that great take a look at Cowboys Vs. Aliens 😛 not that good at all.
    Thor was (in my opinion) the second strongest for phase one. The Incredible Hulk was weaker and so was Captain America but they were all fricken awesome.

    and if you are up to date on your superhero news the Justice League might be battling it out with Avengers 2 at the box office. And it’s not that long of a wait. Warner Bros. is depending of the success of Superman though and they will probably reboot Green Lantern.

    I think you are putting too much emphasis to the Dark Knight Rises being one of the most anticipated superhero movies of all time because it didn’t meat expectations and the hype wasn’t even close to what the Dark Knight was.

    The Wolverine in Japan battling the Silver Samurai and it’s based off the Frank Miller story…..How are you not excited about that? Forget about Origins and be happy about the next installment and stop being so pessimistic.
    You need to have more faith in the future of superhero movies. We will be seeing them for a looooooong time. There is over 70 years of source material to derive from.

  19. Whedon also said that the sequel to the Avengers will have a smaller budget so that might mean less action. People are expecting something of the same caliber though.

    No more Origin stories!!!!!!!!
    Jump into the action and assume the audience already knows everything about the character because after half a century we do.

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