Welcome back! It’s been a few years since I did one of these, but don’t worry. I’m sure you’ve missed them a lot more than I have, but I’m back for another dose of your yearly look ahead to superhero movies.

Last year, we had a slew of hit-and-miss Marvel movies, along with one notable dud from DC. On the one hand, Thor and Captain America seemed to do serviceable jobs of introducing a couple more main characters for the eventual Avengers movie, but they did little else aside from that. X-Men: First Class was pretty good, but it could’ve been capital “G” Great if it had been called, “Magneto: Nazi Hunter,” instead. You can’t tell me that scene in Argentina doesn’t make your dick harder than times in ’29.

Meanwhile, DC/Warner Bros only had one big offering this year, in the form of Green Lantern. It was like a cynical movie executive threw up a movie. Shortly after it was released, star Ryan Reynolds was quoted as saying, “What’d you expect? I played Van Wilder, for God’s sake.”

In a word, 2011 was the year of mediocrity for comic book movies. Sure, the highest grossing movie of the year was Transformers 3, but I think it’s best for the sake of all that is good and pure that we don’t mention it further than that. Nobody ever said that mediocrity doesn’t sell.

Still, though. By and large, superheroes underperformed last year. This year may be more of the same, in some cases, but it also promises a few big-time blockbusters. Without further adieu, let’s stop reminiscing and get to it, starting with…

ghost rider spirit of vengeance

Wait, seriously?

Goddamnit. (more…)