The Year Ahead in Superheroes

James Whitbrook is the Deputy Editor of io9, where you can often find him writing about Stars of the Wars and Trek varieties, as well as toys, superheroes, games, and more. You can follow his coverage here, and email tips to [email protected].

The Top Story

Even with Deadpool & Wolverine making over a billion dollars at the box office and the likes of X-Men ’97 and The Penguin garnering critical acclaim, 2024 was seen as a bit of a “quiet” year for superhero adaptations, as DC Studios quietly tinkered away at its retooled future and Marvel reckoned with the potential that audiences just weren’t investing in its post-Endgame plans. But if a very good year overall for the big two was quiet, 2025 is shaping up to be extremely loud, as Disney and Warner put their faiths in takes on some of the most iconic DC and Marvel heroes of all time in the one-two punch of James Gunn’s Superman—which took the internet by storm when its trailer dropped last month—and Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four: First Steps, the first reboot of Marvel’s premiere superhero family to be made under the direct control of Marvel Studios.

Currently they’re slated to arrive in just a few weeks of each other this July, giving us a superhero summer unlike any other—should they match their lofty expectations, that is.

What We’re Waiting For

If Superman and First Steps are the big movies of 2025—and not the only ones, considering we’ve also got Captain America: Brave New World next month, and Thunderbolts in May from Marvel—then TV is going to be the dominant force for superheroes this year. DC’s traditionally been the stronger of the two on that front in recent years, and 2025 will have a good showing with the return of Peacemaker in the summer and the impending arrival this month of the latest season of Harley Quinn. But Marvel is hoping to have a huge 2025 on the small screen too, with animation like this month’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Eyes of Wakanda later in the year. Its big hopes on that front however, lie in two more live-action pillars in the form of Ironheart, the continuation of Riri Williams’ adventures as the MCU’s latest young hero after her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and one of the studio’s most anticipated shows of its whole Disney+ slate: Daredevil: Born Again, coming this March, a continuation/soft reset of the beloved Netflix adaptation that helped shoot Marvel’s TV ambitions into the stratosphere a decade ago.

It’s not just film and TV to get excited about, though. On the comics front, DC’s launch of the “Absolute Universe” line is off to an incredibly strong start with its re-imagined take on the trinity, and it’s set to get even bigger with the arrivals of Absolute Flash, Absolute Martian Manhunter, and Absolute Green Lantern this spring. Marvel’s big comic book ambitions this year are talking a page out of the Avengers: Doomsday hype with One World Under Doom, its latest event series that will see Victor Von Doom ascend as the latest bearer of the Sorcerer Supreme’s mantle. And of course, there’s games: DC’s pretty quiet on that front after the public failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but while Marvel got a huge boost on the gaming front late last year with Marvel Rivals (its new season is set to add the Fantastic Four this month), we’re also looking forward to news from long-gestating projects like Insomniac’s Wolverine game or the period Captain America/Black Panther team-up Marvel 1943.

Unconventional Wisdom

Much of the success of the superhero movie boom across the past 15+ years has been driven by a sense of specific interconnectedness—but even with the multiversal crossover concept broadening that to massive success in recent years, it’s beginning to feel like which story is connected to what universe matters a lot less than it used to, and that’s only going to keep growing even as we see the big two building to big climaxes in their respective superhero universes. The success of The Batman and The Penguin even without any planned tie-over into DC Studio’s broader plans—as well as Gunn’s explicit intent to create a universe where not only can multiple versions of a continuity can exist simultaneously, but also give a prime “universe” that is less interested about establishing origins—and Marvel’s increasingly lassez-faire approach to the exact chronology of the MCU is somewhat exciting, especially as it begins to leverage animation more and give us new spins on “non-MCU” takes on the likes of Spidey and the X-Men. After years of it mattering the most, maybe everything doesn’t need to be all connected.

Longshot Bets

Looking ahead, 2025 will be an important year for Marvel and DC alike, but fans are always yearning for what’s next even with major projects on the horizon. With Superman and First Steps out of the way in July, maybe it’ll be time for us to start learning about both studios’ plans for the next big chapters of their movie timelines: whatever approach Brave and the Bold will take bringing a new Batman to live-action, and Marvel Studio’s ever-brewing plans for its first crack at a live-action X-Men. It’s going to be a big summer with all eyes on SDCC, even after we’ve feasted on the treats to come.

That, or maybe this year we’ll actually get another attempted release date for Beyond the Spider-Verse. A webhead can dream, right?

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