What to Expect from Superheroes in 2016

With all the talk of the "superhero bubble" and this primary colored steamroller of a fad which may or may not come to an inevitable end, there weren't actually a lot of superhero movies in 2015.  There were only three; and two of them weren't very good.  Avengers: Age of Ultron was disappointing for reasons that are hard to pin down but let's blame it on Thor's dumb cave plot line.  Fantastic Four completely went down in stones and sank like a man made of flames.  Fortunately, Ant-Man turned out to be a down right delight, despite some behind the scenes difficulty when director Edgar Wright left the project due to creative differences.  2016 promises to be a better year for the genre, if by quantity alone.  DC and Marvel are planning a combined seven movies this year.  In a way, many of them are following Ant-Man's precedent in that they seem too strange and cool to be true.  Whether by confidence or desperation, the studios are pushing past the boring stuff into the bottom of the barrel for their superhero stories and pulling out a lot of untapped potential, even if many of the films are sequels.

Fox is taking big steps to expand their X-Men universe with two stand-alone "hero" movies and a team movie.  First in February there's Deadpool, about a violent, crass, unhinged mercenary who sees the fourth wall as more of a revolving door.  It's something of a pet project for star Ryan Reynolds, who is due for a good superhero movie after bombs like Blade: Trinity and Green Lantern, and playing a not very Deadpoolish Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

In May, Bryan Singer is following up the time travel epic X-Men: Days of Future Past with Apocalypse, putting the team in the 1980's with a villain named Apocalypse and all that implies.  Supposedly, Channing Tatum will star in his own pet project Gambit in October.  However, the movie about a Cajun thief who loves playing solitaire and blowing stuff up had a change of directors last year.  It turned out alright for Ant-Man but Channing Tatum is not the leading man Paul Rudd is.  So far there hasn't been any promotion for the film, not even so much as a leaked set photo, which does not bode well.

As for the other Marvel Universe, the one with Avengers instead of X-Men and Kick-Ass playing Quicksilver instead of Kick-Ass's goofy friend, they have one and a half solo movies planned.  In May, Captain America will be joined/opposed by his fellow Avengers in Civil War.  The directors Joe and Anthony Russo are following up their political thriller masterpiece Winter Soldier by pitting Cap against Iron Man while the rest of the Avengers are forced to take sides.  The action will likely be instigated by Cap's friendship with the newly debrainwashed Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Soldier.  It will also be the long awaited live-action debut of the Black Panther and the first appearance of Spider-Man 3.0.

However, the Sorcerer Supreme likely won't show up until his movie, Doctor Strange, releases in November when Marvel's go to Master of the Mystic Arts will get his origin as played by Benedict Cumberbatch. If they've got the guts to follow through, this could be Marvel's first foray into the supernatural since explaining away Thor as a sci-fi alien masquerading as a mythical deity.

With Batman V Superman, DC is also returning to their shared universe for the first time since it began with 2013's Man of Steel.  (In the interest of full disclosure it's worth noting that I'm the kind of Superman fan who abhor's Man of Steel but I'll try to be objective with an optimistic lean about this.)  The dynamic between Superman and Batman has been a mainstay of the comics for the better part of a century but in March the two will face off in live action for the first time.  Then in August a group of villains, including the Joker and a crocodile man named Killer Croc, will team up in the Dirty Dozen inspired Suicide Squad, which has been a comic book fan-favorite since the late 80's.

The powers that be are taking some bold moves with their superhero films this year.  The biggest risk of this assortment is Deadpool.  The character is not at all family friendly and it requires Ryan Reynolds' face to be horribly scarred and covered with a mask for much of the movie.  X-Men: Apocalypse is the safest bet.  It's Bryan Singer's fourth movie with the mutants and he has yet to disappoint.  The Russos aren't nearly as tested but Winter Soldier is one of the best superhero movies in this "golden age" of the genre, so Civil War will likely be either miraculous or slightly underwhelming.  If superheroes really are going the way of the Western, this will be the year that makes all the difference.  Either way, superhero movies won't disappear from the face of the Earth.  As I've pointed out before, that's not what happens when a genre bubble bursts.  If it is, someone forgot to tell a certain octuplet and their ursine friend.

"Hey, friend!"