{"id":400752,"date":"2026-01-08T23:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400752\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:35:10","slug":"the-year-ahead-in-superheroes-2026-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400752\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year Ahead in Superheroes: 2026 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Carter is a weekend writer for io9; he covers comics, TV, video games, movies, and sometimes books. Email tips to\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Top Story <\/p>\n

If 2024 was a fairly quiet superhero year and 2025 was loud<\/a>, 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<\/a>, Lanterns<\/a>), movies (Supergirl<\/a>, Avengers: Doomsday<\/a>), and video games (Marvel\u2019s Wolverine<\/a>, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight<\/a>), there looks to be a little bit of something for everyone in terms of scope and scale.<\/p>\n

All these projects will effectively run back-to-back against one another, so buckle up and take your breaks where you can.<\/p>\n

What We\u2019re Waiting For <\/p>\n

Where to start? It\u2019d be easy to just say \u201ceverything,\u201d but on the movie front, we\u2019re very curious to see what comes of mid-year movies like Clayface\u00a0and\u00a0Supergirl. 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<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0X-Men \u201997<\/a>\u2014we enjoyed both and are invested to see what comes next\u2014while new shows like\u00a0Vision Quest<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lanterns sound intriguing on paper. Hopefully we get a better idea of what those two shows are (and when they\u2019ll come out) in the near future.<\/p>\n

On the gaming front, Marvel looks to have the greater output in 2026 between Wolverine,\u00a0Marvel Tokon<\/a>, and whatever new heroes are coming to\u00a0Marvel Rivals<\/a>\u00a0throughout the year. Those are all well and good, but don\u2019t sleep on\u00a0the 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.<\/p>\n

Comics-wise, we\u2019ll be waiting to hear about any big events hitting DC; if there\u2019s 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\u2019s Absolute line has yet to have an event, but maybe this\u2019ll be the year where something happens, or we at least know that\u2019s in the cards\u2014and even if not, we\u2019re definitely meeting a\u00a0lot\u00a0of new spins on established characters or getting someone to headline another ongoing series or miniseries.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Marvel\u2019s going to wind down its Ultimate line<\/a> for the first part of the year, with its 616 universe gearing up for the Armageddon<\/a> and Queen in Black\u00a0events in the summer. We should also expect an Avengers: Doomsday\u00a0tie-in of some kind, either in comics or more broadly in Fortnite.<\/p>\n

Unconventional Wisdom <\/p>\n

Last year<\/a>, we wondered if superheroes were beginning to get less restricted about interconnectedness. This year, it looks like we\u2019ll 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\u2019t shake off. Doomsday\u00a0and\u00a0Spider-Man: Brand New Day\u00a0are making the fallout from previous cinematic exploits the point,\u00a0Vision Quest\u00a0is the third chapter in the MCU\u2019s Wanda\/Vision trilogy, and so on. Even\u00a0Wonder Man is in conversation with the MCU and the big-budget superhero genre that doesn\u2019t allow for a (seeming) big swing like it to exist.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cpunch the guy, wear the suit,\u201d they\u2019ve the potential to further bolster the genre\u2019s range in ways that only seem to come once every few years.<\/p>\n

Longshot Bets <\/p>\n

It feels mean to bring it up, but maybe, just maybe, this\u2019ll be the year we get some actual momentum on Blade<\/a>? The movie<\/a>, the game\u2014it doesn\u2019t matter. Just a sign to know that character is no longer in stasis so something can be done with him?<\/p>\n

Other than\u00a0that,\u00a0it\u2019ll be interesting to see if DC is so keyed into the Absolute books\u2019 success<\/a> 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\u00a0My Adventures With Superman,\u00a0its Green Lantern spinoff, or any other brand-new cartoons from DC or Marvel? It\u2019d be nice if that were the case.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Carter is a weekend writer for io9; he covers comics, TV, video games, movies, and sometimes books.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,22160,134,200066,213120,344,34361,58541,127828],"class_list":["post-400752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avengers-doomsday","tag-entertainment","tag-marvel-rivals","tag-marvels-wolverine","tag-movies","tag-spider-man-brand-new-day","tag-supergirl","tag-wonder-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}