Justin Carter is a weekend writer for io9; he covers comics, TV, video games, movies, and sometimes books. Email tips to [email protected].
The Top Story
If 2024 was a fairly quiet superhero year and 2025 was loud, 2026 will be ear-shattering. DC is continuing to build out its latest cinematic universe, while Marvel is starting to wind down its current cinematic chapter and keep its TV train a-going. Between various TV shows (Wonder Man, Lanterns), movies (Supergirl, Avengers: Doomsday), and video games (Marvel’s Wolverine, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight), there looks to be a little bit of something for everyone in terms of scope and scale.
All these projects will effectively run back-to-back against one another, so buckle up and take your breaks where you can.
What We’re Waiting For
Where to start? It’d be easy to just say “everything,” but on the movie front, we’re very curious to see what comes of mid-year movies like Clayface and Supergirl. These new additions to the DC movie universe will add some fresh faces and vibes to this venture, and the current secrecy around them makes them more exciting. On the TV side, there are the new seasons of Daredevil: Born Again and X-Men ’97—we enjoyed both and are invested to see what comes next—while new shows like Vision Quest and Lanterns sound intriguing on paper. Hopefully we get a better idea of what those two shows are (and when they’ll come out) in the near future.
On the gaming front, Marvel looks to have the greater output in 2026 between Wolverine, Marvel Tokon, and whatever new heroes are coming to Marvel Rivals throughout the year. Those are all well and good, but don’t sleep on the newest Lego Batman. The all-ages appeal of those games has helped them endure, and being the first solo Batman game for consoles in a decade, Legacy could wind up being one of the biggest titles of the year, period.
Comics-wise, we’ll be waiting to hear about any big events hitting DC; if there’s not a whole linewide thing going on, A-listers like Batman or Superman will have something happening in their neck of the woods. The publisher’s Absolute line has yet to have an event, but maybe this’ll be the year where something happens, or we at least know that’s in the cards—and even if not, we’re definitely meeting a lot of new spins on established characters or getting someone to headline another ongoing series or miniseries.
Meanwhile, Marvel’s going to wind down its Ultimate line for the first part of the year, with its 616 universe gearing up for the Armageddon and Queen in Black events in the summer. We should also expect an Avengers: Doomsday tie-in of some kind, either in comics or more broadly in Fortnite.
Unconventional Wisdom
Last year, we wondered if superheroes were beginning to get less restricted about interconnectedness. This year, it looks like we’ll be viewing these projects through a historical lens: each of the major shows, games, and films are all informed by their predecessors in ways they or the audience can’t shake off. Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are making the fallout from previous cinematic exploits the point, Vision Quest is the third chapter in the MCU’s Wanda/Vision trilogy, and so on. Even Wonder Man is in conversation with the MCU and the big-budget superhero genre that doesn’t allow for a (seeming) big swing like it to exist.
Media like that, Clayface, and maybe Lanterns could be some of the nicer surprises, regardless of whether they stick the landing. In taking character-specific approaches to their material beyond “punch the guy, wear the suit,” they’ve the potential to further bolster the genre’s range in ways that only seem to come once every few years.
Longshot Bets
It feels mean to bring it up, but maybe, just maybe, this’ll be the year we get some actual momentum on Blade? The movie, the game—it doesn’t matter. Just a sign to know that character is no longer in stasis so something can be done with him?
Other than that, it’ll be interesting to see if DC is so keyed into the Absolute books’ success that it brings that universe into animation. It was only a few years into the New 52 that it was made into a saga of straight-to-DVD films, and just alt-universe spins on Batman and Martian Manhunter alone could probably make for solid 90-minute features with the right teams and art styles. On that same note, will we get word of My Adventures With Superman, its Green Lantern spinoff, or any other brand-new cartoons from DC or Marvel? It’d be nice if that were the case.
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