It’s Been a ‘Super’ Week for Marvel and DC

This week sees the trailers of two of the most anticipated and upcoming superhero films, the epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, and Marc Webb‘s first in a series of rebooted Spider-Man films, The Amazing Spider-Man. Captain America is out in cinemas next week and a (good quality) trailer is due for The Avengers shortly. With the Comic-Con this week, as well, everyone has gone Marvel and DC mad.

First up there’s Captain America which is released in UK cinemas next week on 29th July. Only a short time to wait until the year for the following three films. However, Captain America is the last of The Avengers team that we need to meet so it’s about time. Captain America is the story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) who is deemed unfit for military service and volunteers for a top-secret research project, thus turning him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America’s ideals.

This film builds us up for The Avengers which is set to be released on 4th May 2012, where Captain America joins up with other Marvel superheroes and members of the international peacekeeping agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. which includes the likes of Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. That’s definitely a film to look forward to for next year.

Next, we’ve been watching the fake trailers of The Dark Knight Rises for weeks but the real one was finally released this month, and what a well-deserved wait it was. The trailer shows Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) lying in a weak state in hospital, from injury or illness we do not know, but he pleas for Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) to bring back Batman. There’s a glimpse of Bane’s (Tom Hardy) masked face too, who is considered to be Batman’s most deadly and powerful foes. Exciting. The film also stars Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, a new Gotham Detective who joins Commissioner Gordon’s squad to catch the Batman, and is set to be released on 20th July 2012.

And finally, there’s The Amazing Spider-Man, the fourth Columbia Pictures film based on the Marvel character Spider-Man and the first film in a rebooted Spider-Man film franchise. It is a big change from Sam Raimi‘s previous adaptation, with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and a much darker direction. This is set to be released on 3rd July 2012 and will also star Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connor/The Lizard.