It’s fair to say that the superhero sphere this January 31st was well and truly dominated by DC, as James Gunn finally unleashed the full slate of announcements for the DCU’s Chapter One. In doing so, he’s already embarrassing the MCU by making a couple of key improvements to Marvel Studios’ hitherto-unbeatable format. In other news, a movie that’s been 15 years in the making is finally on the horizon after battling its way out of development hell.
James Gunn’s mind-blowing DCU Chapter One slate is already showing up the MCU
James, you son of a Gunn, you somehow went and lived up to the enormous hype surrounding the DCU Chapter One announcements. With projects ranging from Superman: Legacy to Swamp Thing, there’s much for DC fans to get excited about — plus reasons for Marvel execs to be fearful, as Gunn has already shown up the MCU’s failures. Both through his smart structuring of the franchise plus his promise that its live-action and animated projects will be even more closely connected than Marvel has managed with What If…? It’s not even that hard to argue that the DCU slate is superior to MCU’s Phase Five. Yes, there we said it.
After 15 years, an OG MCU icon is finally getting their dues as their own movie escapes development hell
He’s been hanging around the MCU since the very beginning, even getting an off-screen face-lift between Iron Man 1 and 2, but Rhodey is finally getting his own vehicle. After drowning in developmental issues for years, morphing from a Disney Plus series into a movie, Armor Wars is finally getting somewhere, with production details confirming that filming is set to get going this April, with the shoot lasting until August. With things coming together at last, hopefully we’ll get a release date for War Machine’s solo debut sooner than later.
Ambitious Ant-Man 3 theory predicts a connection between Kang, the Clandestines, and Wenwu
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania already has enough on its plate, what with being the first chapter in Phase Five, but this wild theory suggests it’ll run rings around the rest of this year’s MCU efforts by also harking back to both Shang-Chi and Ms. Marvel. The key connection, so goes this pitch, is that all the circular designs glimpsed in the Quantum Realm may reveal some kind of secret link to Wenwu’s Ten Rings and Kamala Khan’s bangle. Could those all-important accessories hail from the Microverse as well? Or do Marvel’s VFX artists just have a thing for rings? We’ll find out on Feb. 17.
The coming of February means we’re officially in Ant-Man month, so expect the Marvel news machine to only get busier from hereon in.