The Best Marvel And DC News From San Diego Comic-Con 2017

Last year, Guardians of the Galaxy and GotG Vol. 2 director James Gunn sent out a tweet confirming that although the rights to some specific Skrulls are owned by Fox, the race of shape-shifting aliens as a whole is co-owned by both them and Marvel Studios. This certainly elicited excitement from fans about the possibility of seeing the Skrulls in an upcoming MCU film, but it still came as a surprise when it was announced this weekend that they would be appearing as the primary antagonists in 2019’s Captain Marvel. This opens a number of doors for Marvel Studios, particularly in relation to the Secret Invasion comic book event, which saw many of Earth’s heroes and villains secretly replaced by Skrull imposters. Talk about an easy out if the Studio ever decides to recast someone like Captain America or Iron Man.

While the House of Ideas hasn’t published a Fantastic Four comic since 2015, DC looks to be channeling the spirit of Marvel’s First Family with a brand new series from Jeff Lemire and Ivan Reis titled The Terrifics. Launching as part of the new “Dark Matter” line, this new team book will consist of Mr. Terrific (a scientist), Metamorpho (a disfigured brute), Phantom Girl (an intangible woman), and Plastic Man (a man with stretching powers). This isn’t just a coincidence, either, as Lemire said that his ultimate goal with The Terrifics is to recapture the feeling of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s classic Fantastic Four run.

20th Century Fox has tried and failed multiple times to bring a successful version of the Fantastic Four to the big screen, butchering not only Marvel’s First Family but also Marvel’s most popular villain: Doctor Doom. However, at a panel for FX’s Legion, Noah Hawley dropped a bombshell when he told fans, “Two words. Doctor. Doom.” Sources later told The Hollywood Reporter that Hawley was, in fact, developing a film featuring the iconic villain, with plans to direct it himself.

Production on Warner Bros.’ planned Flash solo film has been tumultuous at best. The movie has lost not one, but two directors (Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa), and the studio also tapped Joby Harold to do a page-one rewrite to the script. With all this in mind, though, it seems like WB has decided to take the film in a different direction because, at Comic-Con, it was revealed that The Flash has been retitled to Flashpoint. This, of course, was the 2011 storyline in the comics that saw Barry Allen accidentally create an alternate timeline in which he was no longer the Flash, culminating in the creation of “The New 52” universe and the line-wide reboot of all of DC’s titles. What this means for the future of the DCEU is unclear, but if we’re judging by the comics, it sounds like the studio is looking for a way to give their still-young cinematic shared universe a clean slate.

It seems like Marvel’s Netflix series have been steadily declining in terms of fan reception. They’re certainly not bad, but while Season 1 of Daredevil was met with overwhelming praise and Jessica Jones blew viewers away, Season 2 of Daredevil was slightly inferior to its predecessor and Luke Cage lost much of its steam during the latter half of its first season. Then, of course, you have Iron Fist, which was largely panned by fans and critics alike for everything from the writing to the acting to the fight choreography. Nevertheless, Danny Rand will be returning for a second season, this time with Luke Cage’s Misty Knight as a supporting character, which means that we may possibly see her team up with Colleen Wing to form a comic-book-accurate version of the Daughters of the Dragon.

Despite hitting theaters in less than a year, not a whole lot is known about Ant-Man & The Wasp in terms of plot. However, thanks to a couple of huge casting announcements at Comic-Con, we now have confirmation of two major players that will make their presence felt in the film. First off is Michell Pfeiffer, who will play Hope van Dyne’s mother/the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne. Then we have Laurence Fishburne, who – despite playing Perry White in the DCEU – will make his way to the MCU to play Bill Foster, AKA the size-changing superhero known as Goliath. How these characters will factor into the film is unclear at this time, particularly in the case of Fishburne, but the addition of such star power certainly bodes well for the upcoming sequel.

In 1987, famed writer Frank Miller revamped the Caped Crusader for the modern age with a retelling of his origin story in the iconic Batman: Year One. At Comic-Con, Miller announced that he plans to do the same for DC’s other tentpole character: Superman. “Through Dark Knight I got to touch about all the [characters] at the DC pantheon, but I never really had my real, meaningful crack at Superman,” Miller told Vulture. “In the case of DC Comics, which has by far and away the strongest and richest mythology, there are those three fundamental pillars they have of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. All of the other characters kind of string along underneath of them, which is wonderful.” Miller will re-team with frequent collaborator John Romita Jr. for this new 100-page graphic novel, though no release date has been given.

Grand Admiral Thrawn was created by writer Timothy Zahn in his 1991 novel Star Wars: Heir to the Empire and the character played a major role in what would eventually become known as The Thrawn Trilogy. Now, the fan-favorite villain is getting his own miniseries at Marvel Comics, written by Jody Houser with art by Luke Ross and Nolan Woodard. Star Wars: Thrawn will be an adaptation of Zahn’s latest Thrawn novel and although the length of the miniseries hasn’t been revealed, issue #1 is slated to hit stands in February 2018, so expect more details soon.

Just one day before Warner Bros.’ highly-anticipated Hall H presentation at Comic-Con, rumors surfaced that Batman actor and star of the upcoming Justice League film Ben Affleck was being gracefully ushered out by the studio and that his eventual departure from the DCEU would be addressed in an upcoming film. However, when Affleck took to the stage on Saturday, he quickly doused the flames of these rumors. “Let me be very clear: Batman is the coolest fucking part in the universe,” Affleck told the eager fans in attendance. “I’m thrilled to do it.” And while some may argue that Affleck similarly debunked rumors of him stepping down as the director of The Batman just two weeks before those rumors became a reality, his enthusiasm at Comic-Con was certainly infectious, and all we can really do at this point is take the actor at his word until we hear otherwise.

What about you? What news were you most excited for at San Diego Comic-Con? Let us know in the comments section!