Supermovies: Your 5 Year Guide to Superhero Movies | Part 6
The future is bright for Comic Book movies and with four major film studios vying for blockbuster payouts there are a plethora of quality titles to entice you into the cinemas in the coming years.
We thought we were done with 2017. Oh how the world of Supermovies keeps on giving. As we have seen in Part 5, Spidey, Thor and The Justice League all get a run out at the end of 2017. However a new face in the world of comics is soon to grace our screens:
Bloodshot (Sony) Dir. Chad Stahelski and David Leitch
Valiant Comics may not be a household name like Marvel or DC but the relatively new comic book franchise (established in 1989) has recently received a nine-figure investment to its movie and TV department. Shortly after this, they signed up with Sony for a five-movie deal. Bloodshot (pictured top-left) will hit our screens sometime in 2017 (exact release date unknown) before the super-powered teenagers of Harbinger (top-right) get a run out sometime in the future. They will each see a solo sequel before coming together for the crossover movie Harbinger Wars.
I haven’t read any of these comics before but thankfully I have a couple of years to catch up, before they hit our screens.
Valiant Comics have an interesting backstory and in recent years they have been setting the comic world alight including mass critical praise and in 2014 they boasted the most nominations for a single title at the Harvey Awards (the comic book Oscars).
Bloodshot tells the story of Angelo Mortalli, a man forced against his will to become a scientific experiment. Mortalli is injected with microscopic machines called nanites with the hopes of creating a super soldier. Although the nanites rushing through his bloodstream gift Mortalli with increased strength, enhanced regenerative powers and the ability to interact directly with technology, they unfortunately wipe his memory. Bloodshot is born; a man-made killing machine with only one thing on his mind: figuring out who turned him into this monster and who he was before this happened to him.
John Wick directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch will lead the way for the new Valiant Movie Universe and will be working from a screenplay by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) and Eric Heisserer (The Thing remake). Both Ged and Peter reviewed John Wick here on HeadStuff and, from what I can tell; it was all style with no substance. Saying that, it has received good scores on IMDB, Metacritic and the like so people definitely enjoyed it. I worry however as Valiant should be aiming more towards the Whedon than the Snyder as they kick start their movie franchise.
The Flash (Warner Bros.) Dir. Unknown
We talked all the way back in Part 2 of the upcoming DC battle of Goliaths in Batman Vs. Superman, and it will be in this, that Barry Allen (aka The Flash) will probably make his big screen debut, although that is not yet confirmed. We will see him for definite in The Justice League just five months before this outing.
We have seen The Flash portrayed several times on the not-so-big screen from the self-titled 1990 show, to Smallville and most recently in, the much-praised, CW series The Flash. I have only seen a handful of episodes from the new show and I was not very impressed. The general audience seems to be lapping it up however, so more power to them.
Warner have stated that this will not be a tie-in and that the Flash from their cinematic universe is definitely different than the one portrayed on TV by Grant Gustin.
For the DCU version of Barry Allen, Warner has given the nod for young up-and-comer Ezra Miller (We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Perks of Being a Wallflower). Unlike the dark, broody-looking Dawn of Justice, The Flash is currently in the hands of writer/director duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. These two have penned the surprisingly good Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the brilliant 21 & 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. That is an impressive run of form and the duo are making quite the name for themselves. For DC’s sake I hope they stay on to direct after penning the screenplay as a fun, action filled romp may be just what their fans need after Snyder’s reign.
Lord was recently asked about the project, saying:
We’re trying to break a story, it’s interesting, because there’s a really popular TV show out there, and we’re trying to carve out space for the movie that’s apart from that. I think we’re doing alright. …I believe [our Flash] is going to be Barry Allen. …We’re more trying to stick with the cinematic universe… it really is its own thing and is kind of a stand-alone movie. We’re just trying to think of the best story. I think you guys will like it; it’s kind of a different take on superhero stuff. I’m optimistic!
At least any fans of the show won’t be dragged through the same old story. We will find out more about the character as the DCU progresses and this solo film is to be released March 23rd 2018.
Avengers: Infinity War 1 (Marvel) Dir. Anthony & Joe Russo
So I’m guessing that if you are reading this article that you have already seen The Avengers: Age of Ultron, if you haven’t I need you to do something for me. Find a mirror, stand in front of said mirror and take a good, hard look at yourself. Tut tut tut….
Anyway I assume most of you fine ‘Supermovies’ readers are up to date and so I will write this as if you have seen it. Cue **SPOILER ALERT**
At the end of Age of Ultron (hence **SPOILER ALERT**) we are gifted yet another, now expected, mid-credit scene. In this we see Thanos (portrayed by the uncredited Josh Brolin, yet again) donning the Infinity Gauntlet without any Infinity Gems, as of yet attached. These words will be thrown around for the next five Marvel movies, so you should become familiar with what we are talking about.
First off, Thanos; he’s the purple dude that’s been at the end of the first Avengers, we’ve seen him briefly in Guardians of the Galaxy and now again at the end of Age of Ultron. He is going to become a big player in the MCU over the next five or so movies. In the comics, there are two separate series, The Infinity Gauntlet and it’s sequel Infinity War. I would hazard a guess that over the next couple of movies, especially Guardians of the Galaxy 2, we will see Thanos acquire at least one of the Infinity Gems.
The Infinity Gems have popped up in the MCU already and I wrote a break down for them at the end of my Age of Ultron review. We have already seen four of the six Gems and I speculate that the next two will surface in Doctor Strange and Guardians 2. Once all six Gems are placed on the Infinity Gauntlet (that snazzy glove in the leading picture) it bequeaths the holder with absolute power and mastery over each of the Gems powers; Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, and Power. These are the fundamental elements of the Universe (in the comics, not real life).
Adam Warlock is a key character to this whole situation and we know, or at least we confidently presume, that he will be showing up pretty soon. I think it will be Guardians 2 as he is a fan of space battles and spacetime and the like, however only time will tell.
Since Joss Whedon hung up his Marvel cape for the foreseeable future he has handed the Avengers project over to the most exciting combination of writers and directors in the Supermovies business. Director brothers, Anthony and Joe Russo and writing team Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have produced the best MCU solo film in The Winter Soldier and will be working together again on Civil War. They shall continue as a foursome to tackle the massive Infinity War project.
I think our MCU as we know it will be a lot different by the time this comes around, many of our heroes will have left, or have died, and many new faces will have graced the silver screen. It’s all very exciting. Part 1 hits the screens May 4th.
Coming up in Part 7
We have the single greatest month for Supermovie fans in the history of great months. July 2018 will, alone, have four Supermovies. Black Panther finally gets his solo film, yet another X-Men movie, an animated Spiderman flick and DC’s Aquaman get a solo run out after The Justice League.
