Comic Book Movies

“Captain America: The First Avenger”
Captain America is the only character on this list to have suffered from two terrible adaptations in the past, so it is about damn time he gets a good-looking, big-budget action movie. Taking place entirely in World War II, Cap’s origin story of a weak little guy with the heart of a true hero finally getting his chance to do good is instantly relatable. Besides, where could a movie featuring Nazis led by a Red Skull-faced Hugo Weaving possibly go wrong? It also helps that director Joe Johnston showed us with “The Rocketeer” that he understands the time period of World War II. It could end up being a superhero version of “Indiana Jones,” which would be awesome.

“X-Men: First Class”
Directed by Matthew Vaughn of “Kick-Ass” fame and starring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, “X-Men: First Class” has the potential to be great. The movie has the unique setting of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a story that seems focused on the friendship of Charles Xavier and Magneto and a character played by Kevin Bacon. However, instantly recognizable X-Men like Wolverine, Cyclops and Storm are not appearing due to the movie’s setting, so fans expecting to see those characters will have to make do with a bunch of relative unknowns. However, if the movie remains a special effects masterpiece like the earlier films and keeps its focus on Xavier and Magneto, it should work.

“Green Lantern”
“Green Lantern” is the lone non-Marvel comics movie coming out this summer. When the trailer was released last year, fans groaned as it looked desperately like DC was trying to get a fun, “Iron Man”-esque movie of its own. In the comics, Green Lantern is nothing like Iron Man. Since the original trailer, two new trailers have been released and look far more promising, showing that the CGI doesn’t look as rough as initially thought. The film will take a more serious approach, telling a story about a man thrust into becoming an interstellar guardian. Though the plot of an alien ring giving a man superpowers could be a hard sell to a mainstream audience, the marketing behind this has the potential to make “Green Lantern” the biggest of these four movies.

“Thor”
Thor is a character that seems impossible to translate to screen. You could do an entire movie just about his experiences in the Norse mythology land of Asgard, but then you also have to somehow transfer him to Earth to make the movie relatable. Early reviews are saying it is a great action romp highlighted by a great performance from the lead, Chris Hemsworth, and great direction from Kenneth Branagh. This is Marvel’s second-to-last film before “The Avengers” next year. If “Captain America” can live up to the buzz “Thor” is getting, then we are in for one hell of a ride.