2018 Comic Book Movie Preview

It's a brand new year, and with it comes a whole year of exciting comic book movies! If you thought 2017 was chock full of greatness...and it was, I actually think 2018's slate is even better with a wider scope of films.

I'd like to take a look at each movie coming out this year based on a comic book of some kind and give my thoughts and level of excitement! Of course, this is just an opinion of this humble writer...everyone has their own tastes and excitement levels, so feel free to discuss yours on social media or the comment section below!

Here are the ratings and what they mean:

* meh.

** Might be worth a watch

*** Will definitely check it out

**** CAN'T WAIT

***** HOLD ME! I MAY CRY TEARS OF JOY WATCHING THIS!!

Okay, let's get rolling!

Black Panther
February 16

The year's first comic book film is maybe the most important one of the year as well. Finally, the first African superhero to be given his own monthly series gets his own movie! Spinning off straight after Captain America: Civil War, this movie is about T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) inheriting the crown of the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda and as Black Panther facing down not one but three of his major foes, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) and M'Baku (known in the comics as Man-Ape...which obviously needed to be changed. He is played by Winston Duke).

Man, the excitement level for this one keeps growing! So many people have been waiting for this one for a long time. And it is going to impact the nature of the action film genre, the superhero genre and the blockbuster genre. Using a mesh of urban culture, African culture and sci-fi culture...combined with Creed director Ryan Coogler's vision...this movie just screams GAME CHANGER.

Whether you realize it or not, this may not necessarily be the BEST superhero movie to come out this year, it's not even the first major movie to star a black Marvel hero, but it is the most important and empowering... For EVERYONE.

Excitement Level: ****

Avengers: Infinity War
May 4

This year's Free Comic Book Day/ May The 4^th Be With You weekend movie is literally the one we've been waiting a decade for. This is it, kids! Infinity War is the film that all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have been building towards....and it's not even the last one! We still have a 4^th Avengers movie after this one and it is already wrapped filming! So we won't have to wait too long, thankfully.

Thanos finally comes face to face with the Avengers, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy in one big battle for those Infinity Stones that we've been talking about for years. And he's not alone! His minions, The Black Order are by his side just itching to do very, very bad things to our heroes.

This one's gonna be just nuts. We've been given just one fairly small teaser with very little more info (for a change), but all we do know is that there is a much talked about huge battle scene involving around 40 heroes and characters and everyone from Scarlett Johannson to Mark Ruffalo is saying that it will blow our minds. I believe them!

I sincerely hope we will be getting more surprises and unknown character cameos than we are expecting...I really hope so. But Marvel has a way of spoiling the surprise at some point. A fanboy can hope though.

I am going to need some serious moral support while watching this one. It's like a dream come true to see all of the greatest heroes of all time together in one movie.

Excitement Level: ***** times infinity. Get it?

Deadpool 2
May 18

I think to the mainstream public, this could be their most anticipated comic book/superhero film this year. The first Deadpool film was immensely popular, simply because it broke the mold for the genre. It was genuinely non-stop funny and combined potty humour with top-notch action. And honestly, people just want to have a good time when going to the theater. Deadpool literally gave them what they wanted at every level. It pleased pretty much everyone. Fans, geeks...the casual fan and geek...everyone.

How could they screw up the formula? Don't think it isn't possible. Actually I think it could be nearly impossible to please EVERYONE with a sequel when they can compare it to a near perfect original movie. It's a HUGE task. But Ryan Reynolds is back as the Merc With A Mouth with help from Josh Brolin as the futuristic soldier/ Pool's bestie Cable and he looks spot on. There has been controversy about the look of Domino played by Atlanta's Zazie Beetz, but I'm just excited to see one of my favorite mutants in live action finally! Weasel, Blind Al, Wade's love Vanessa, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and even Colossus are back as well. Who knows who else may show up? We definitely know the big bad this time is Black Tom Cassidy, played by Jack Kesy. Wouldn't it have been a perfect time to bring back a revamped Tom's evil baddie-in-arms Juggernaut as well? That would be something to be excited about!

Seriously, bring this movie on! We haven't seen too much as of this writing, but what we have seen is very encouraging. It's the director of the first John Wick film and Atomic Blonde, David Leitch and we know that this series is very close to Ryan Reynolds' heart and he doesn't want to displease the fans.

Excitement Level: ****

Ant-Man And The Wasp
July 6

The trailer for this one just dropped and wow, it looks pretty great! I never thought an Ant-Man franchise would ever fly and besides Guardians it was one of the riskiest film projects Marvel has ever done. I always thought maybe it would have worked as a Pixar movie or a cartoon like Big Hero 6, but no...they actually created something special. The first one had a feel of a heist movie and in the sequel Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and the Pyms (Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily) are on the run after Scott's breakout from the Raft after Captain America: Civil War. This is going to be like The Fugitive meets Ocean's Eleven meets well...ANT-MAN!

We also got a little peek at the Marvel villain The Ghost, making him being the film's only known antagonist! The Ghost is a recurring Marvel Universe villain and has appeared in many comics such as Spider-Man and Iron Man. Walton Goggins (who often plays scoundrels) is also in the film, and could very well be the big bad of the story.

I'm pretty excited since Michelle Pfeiffer has been cast as the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne and Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster, the former Black Goliath (making him the only current actor with roles in both the MCU and the DCEU). Two iconic actors that can only bring more awesome to this franchise. And of course, Michael Pena is to return as Luis...ready to tell more in-depth and hilarious stories!

Excitement Level: ****

Alita: Battle Angel
July 20

I had no idea this was in the works, but it's a pleasant surprise. Alita: Battle Angel is based on Yukito Kishiro's really famous Manga (if I've heard of it, it's really famous). And will be directed surprisingly by one of my favorite all-time directors, Robert Rodriguez. This marks Rodriguez's first major special FX blockbuster that he's directing (unless you count the Sin City films), and it's a much different looking kind of movie than any he's ever done. The film is produced by James Cameron. There's a lot of star power behind this thing!

Alita stars Rosa Salazar as the title character and cyborg superhero, Alita. Christoph Waltz co-stars as Dyson Ito, Alita's creator. The film looks like a true visual masterpiece and also stars the likes of Jennifer Connolly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earl Haley, Michelle Rodriguez and more. Some may complain of yet another Japanese Manga/Anime being totally whitewashed by Hollywood and ruined, but this one seems to be a little different and we should give it a chance. It really does look quite beautiful. And the special FX that turn Rosa Salazar into literally a Manga character come to life is like something we've never seen before and it looks equally freaky and cool.

This one has definitely been added to my Summer Must-See Movies list.

Excitement Level: ***

Teen Titans Go! To The Movies
July 27

This one is more or less for the youngsters, but like most Cartoon Network programming, Teen Titans Go! seems to have even more adult jokes in there than silly chuckles for the kiddos. TTG is an odd little show based on the original Teen Titans cartoon from a few years ago, and dials up the silly times ten!

A lot of grown up fans shun Teen Titans Go! and see it as a senseless parody of the original cartoon and much more serious Teen Titans comic books. Well, it may be, but there's nothing wrong with a little parody! In fact, I've watched it from time to time and it has some pretty great DCU jokes for the comic fans. Seriously, it will make anyone chuckle if you watch it long enough.

So now, for whatever reason, we have a Teen Titans Go! movie featuring Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven and features the voices of Will Arnett, Kristen Bell, Tara Strong, Khary Payton, Greg Cipes, Scott Menville and Hynden Walch. Will it do well? I seriously am not sure. It won't make as much box office as any of the other movies in this article, but it could do moderately well.

I'm not sure why Cartoon Network went out of their way to make this when a Rick & Morty movie would be so much smarter and more lucrative right now.

Excitement Level: **

Venom
October 5

Even though this is coming out around my birthday, I have to be honest, I am pretty worried about this one. Marvel Studios isn't directly involved in the production, even though it is going to be set “adjunct” to the MCU but not directly in it. And originally, word was Spider-Man may not even appear in the film (even though recently there were rumors that Tom Holland was seen on set)! It's all very confusing. And I'm scared I will be frustrated watching this movie the entire time. If you can't be true to the comics and the core character....really...don't even bother.

Not too much is known about the film, but we got Tom Hardy (quite a good actor and a favorite of mine) as Eddie Brock/ Venom and apparently Carnage is set to be the main antagonist, but no casting news has been officially set for Kletus Cassidy as of this writing. Woody Harrelson is in the film and he would possibly be an interesting choice for Carnage. Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate are also in the film. The movie is apparently going to be adapted from both the Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes story arcs. Neither were origin stories for Venom. Eek.

We still don't know much about this one, and until we get at least a trailer I can't say much. I just don't really trust Sony to be solely producing it, based on their track record. I may check it out as a birthday week activity, but I'm quite fearful about how this is going to turn out.

Excitement Level: **

X-Men: Dark Phoenix
November 2

This looks to be the final movie in the Singer X-Men series now that Disney/Marvel have purchased 20^th Century Fox. And also, it's set in the 90's and that's the only decade left that an X-Men movie hasn't been set in. They've run out of ground. And I sincerely doubt if the X-Men join the MCU it will be the Singer cast they use. A total reboot like Spider-Man looks to be in order.

So, if I was in charge, I would go out of my way to make this the best X-Men movie so far. And (thanks to the new timeline reset in Days of Future Past), this cast gets to do a redo of the Phoenix Saga storyline. Bret Ratner's go in X-Men 3 didn't do too well.

We have pretty much everyone returning one last time. James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Olivia Munn (Psylocke) all are back! Jessica Chastain joins the cast and while we assumed her to be Empress Lilandra, Xavier's alien love, she is now listed simply as Smith in the film. Bryan Singer himself is not helming this one, and we have a first-time director in Simon Kinberg, who also wrote the screenplay. Kinberg has written all the films in the “First Class” X-Men films also, so there's that. His skills as a director, however, are yet to be determined.

Like Venom, we simply do not know too much about this one. What we can generally assume is that the X-Men will be wearing the very comic book inspired uniforms seen at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse and the film will likely follow the more “space adventure” type of X-Men story, which gets me pretty excited. We have yet to see an X-Men film that follows their more far-out cosmic style of stories, which would fit the Dark Phoenix storyline a lot better. What saddens me the most, is that I'm not sure if I would ever want to see a Dark Phoenix film without Wolverine being involved.

While the second X-Men franchise has surprised us with Hugh Jackman/Wolverine appearances before, I really doubt we will see him in this one. All signs have pointed to Logan really being his final stint as the character. Sad face.

Beyond that, this movie cannot be any worse than what they did last time with the Phoenix. It's an X-Men movie, it was filmed once again in my hometown of Montreal, and I'm so down! I'm ready to send this franchise off and start an exciting new future for the X-Men back home at Marvel Studios!

Excitement Level: ***

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
December 14

I'm very happy that this film was getting a theater release. Originally when I heard about it, I had assumed it will be going straight to Blu-Ray. Based on Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man comic series' starring Miles Morales, this is the first time that character is going to be featured on the big screen (besides a subtle easter egg in Spider-Man: Homecoming).

Netflix's The Get Down's Shameik Moore will be voicing Miles Morales and Mahershala Ali will be voicing Aaron Davis/The Prowler. Liev Shrieber will be voicing the film's unspecified villain. An adult Peter Parker has been confirmed to be in the film, and will be Miles' mentor and introducing him to the concept of the Multiverse, specifically the Spider-Verse.

This movie is gonna be awesome and I really am excited to see it, since we haven't really had a CG animated Marvel film in the theaters, besides Big Hero 6...and that comic was not really all that popular. And most importantly, this is a very current and hip Spider-Man for a new generation that will show a lot of young kids that they too, no matter what skin color they are, can dream of being Spider-Man.

Excitement Level: ****

Aquaman
December 21

I never thought we'd actually see this movie happen, besides a fictional movie on Entourage (how'd that show predict this?!). Well, we're getting an Aquaman movie...based on maybe my least favorite superhero. And while I maybe never would have been excited to see this, after seeing Jason Mamoa's portrayal of Arthur Curry/Aquaman in the Justice League film...I'm now intrigued. The “too-cool-for-school” Mamoa puts his own spin on the character that I really enjoyed and we didn't get to learn too much about Arthur in JL, so I'm really hoping this time we learn more about him, his parentage and his connection to Atlantis. I really want to see more of Amber Heard's Mera too, because we also got to see too little of her.

We've yet to see any footage of the solo Aquaman film, but we have a whole year of hype to come. Patrick Wilson will be one of the villains, Ocean Master along with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta. Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren and Temura Morrison will also appear. Acclaimed horror and action director James Wan is directing.

This one is touch and go, but if it goes along the lines of Wonder Woman and most of the Justice League film it could very well be worth the watch!

Excitement Level: ***

There we have it! Another superb slate for a year chock full of superhero movies! Stay tuned to Z News to in-depth exclusive reviews for some if not all of them!