A funny thing happened two months ago when The Avengers movie made a BILLION DOLLARS in a matter of weeks! And if there’s one thing that movie studios like, it’s money. So here we are, two months later, and rumors about new Marvel superhero movies are coming out of the woodwork! We already know about the sequels to Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, but did you know that Marvel have several hundred other superheroes to choose from?

I guess movie studios are starting to find that out, because some of these rumors are for some very odd choices indeed!

Though sadly, none of them are on my own list of The Next 6 Movies That Marvel Should Make.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

Everybody has guns in space!

What is it: This appears to be the next big franchise from the same Marvel Studios that made The Avengers. According to Latino Review, Guardians of the Galaxy is being prepped for a May 16, 2014 release, and will actually become part of The Avengers story. This has even been confirmed by Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, both of whom state that a script has been written by someone named Nicole Perlman. Remember the big purple smiling guy who appeared in The Avengers mid-credits teaser? That was Thanos, one of the biggest, baddest villains in the Marvel Universe. And Thanos is a cosmic space villain, which the Earth-bound Avengers rarely deal with. Enter the Guardians of the Galaxy, who are basically the Avengers in Space. They’re an eccentric band of various do-gooders who spend their time trying to save the galaxy from super-villains.

There are actually two versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Back in the 1960s, they were a band of time-traveling heroes from the future who fought aliens…and it’s best you just ignore that. I’m pretty confident that Marvel is going to use the more recent Guardians of the Galaxy, considering they guest-starred in the comic Avengers Assemble, which was launched in connection with the movie.  Back a few years ago, Marvel was publishing a lot of space comics, and they were really popular. From those various stories eventually emerged the new Guardians of the Galaxy, which like I said, was basically a ragtag team of space heroes who banded together to fight evil. You had their leader Starlord, Drax the Destroyer, the insectoid Bug, the galaxy’s most dangerous warrior Gamora, and then you had Rocket Raccoon and Groot, the talking tree.

Cooler than humanly possible, and they ain’t human!

Hells yeah!

Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige has gone on record as saying that Guardians of the Galaxy is in pre-production, and Marvel recently started buying up a lot of copyrights for Guardians of the Galaxy. So this is a pretty solid bet.

What do I think: Guardians of the Galaxy is a very, very weird choice for a movie franchise. That’s not to say it can’t be done, I’m just in the camp that Marvel (and DC for that matter) should stick with characters that people know. Absolutely nobody outside of comic book fans who read Marvel’s space comics has any idea who the Guardians of the Galaxy are. Sure they can be described as ‘Avengers in Space’, but can that be portrayed on the big screen in an easily digestible format? Will people get it? Do they even want to get it? Personally, I have no desire to see the Avengers on some outer space mission, let alone teaming up with wild and wacky outer space superheroes. The recent popularity of superhero movies has stuck by the realism angle pretty well, and it has definitely paid off. Thor dealt with some pretty wild topics, such as gods and Asgard, but the movie was mostly focused on Thor hanging out in New Mexico. The moment you start throwing weird, alien concepts at people, they’re going to start losing focus and interest.

It’s not like the Guardians of the Galaxy have any famous characters to bank on. It’s a big, bloated concept, and I think Marvel is making a mistake by hitching this wagon to The Avengers franchise. If Marvel wants to use The Avengers to launch some new characters/concepts, there are a lot better, simpler choices. Like Ant-Man, which is also heading towards production. But maybe they want to be risk-takers.

—————————————–

Big Hero 6

The freakiness of Japan in superhero form

What is it: Rumors just started coming out that Big Hero 6 is going to be the Disney/Marvel animated movie that’s in the works, directed by Don Hall and scheduled for 2014 as well. Rumors of such a collaboration started a few months ago, and only now do we know the property. Who are Big Hero 6, you ask? They’re an obscure team of Japanese superheroes that have only been around since 1998. Originally pitched as a spin-off of obscure X-Man Sunfire, the Big Hero 6 are basically a bunch of wacky, fun Japanese-flavored superheroes doing the team thing in the Land of the Rising Sun. You’ve got characters like Baymax the giant robot, Hiro the boy genius, Honey Lemon the babe and Fred the giant lizard man, not to mention samurais and other sword-wielding dudes. Basically nobody you’ve ever heard of, but wacky and Japanese.

What do I think: Read my list of the 6 movies I think Marvel should make next. Big Hero 6 is not on that list for a reason. Nobody has any idea who they are. Much like Guardians of the Galaxy, this team of superheroes is just too obscure. But then maybe that’s the point. Maybe the movie makers don’t want to play up the Marvel superheroes angle. Maybe this guy Don Hall just has an idea for an animated superhero movie, and the Big Hero 6 fit his mold. It’s not like anybody really cares about the Big Hero 6, so he can reshape them however he wants.

If Marvel and Disney really want to collaborate on an animated superhero movie, there are many better choices than Big Hero 6. But if they just want to make an animated superhero movie, there are worse places to find inspiration than the extensive character catalog offered by Marvel.

—————————————–

The Human Fly

He has nothing to do with actual flies

What is it: Damned if I know. I had to Wikipedia this one. Apparently Marvel published a comic book from 1977 to 1979 based on the life of real-life stuntman Rick Rojatt, though I guess the film will be based on real-life stuntman Joe Ramacieri. The comic ran for 19 issues and was about who knows what. A stuntman being a superhero, I guess. Well apparently Hollywood types Alan Brewer and Steven Goldmann were fans, because they have picked up the rights for Eisenberg-Fisher Productions, which is part of Paramount. They’re going to make Human Fly into an indie film.

What do I think: Some how, some way, these people went and found the worst, most obscure Marvel character of all time, and are going to turn him into a movie. Wow. I don’t know whether to be impressed with their gumption of laugh out loud at the silly insanity. But I guess more power to’em…the weirdos.

————————————-

But we’re not done talking about upcoming Marvel superhero movies! Check back later for an update in the ongoing Edgar Wright/Ant-Man saga!