In the past decade it been argued that every summer is the year of the comic book movie, but 2011 may surpass them all. This summer we have four major superhero adaptations hitting the silver screen with Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, and Captain America: The First Avenger. Let’s review the trailers and make predictions on who will win the war of the summer comic movies.

Thor – Opening May 6, 2011. Directed by Kenneth Bragnagh. Starring Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natile Portman as Jane Foster, and Anthoney Hopkins as Odin.

The first comic film striking lightning this summer is Thor from Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures. I have mixed feelings on how the God of Thunder will perform at the box office. Thor will either be an huge success, mimicking the high fantasy of Peter Jackson’s mammoth success with his Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or will suffer from being the most outrageous of all the comic films this summer. Can a Norse god/ superhero actually translate to box office blockbuster? By Odin’s beard, I hope so.

X-Men: First Class – Opening June 3, 2011. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Starring James McAvoy as Professor X, January Jones as Emma Frost, and Michael Fassbender as Magneto.

Without a doubt, X-Men: First Class will be this summer’s wild card. This film is set in the 60s, but does not feature the actual first class of the X-Men according to comic continuity. There will be no Cyclops, Jean Grey or Iceman. Instead comic fans can expect Havok (without his awesome original costume), Mystique, and Darwin (created in 2006). Professor X is even going to have hair! This is a comic nerd’s nightmare. The movie will only fare well if movie fans are not sticklers for continuity, which if X-Men Origins: Wolverine is any indicator they’re not. Twentieth Century Fox might get lucky again with this one. It does have January Jones walking around as the scantily clad Emma Frost. However, of the four films released this summer I say absolutely stay away from this X-tragedy.

Green Lantern – Opening June 17, 2011. Directed by Martin Cambell. Starring Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, and Mark Strong as Sinestro.

Of all the films coming out this summer Green Lantern has the most expectations riding on it. While Marvel has had little problem launching most of their roster into movie super-stardom in the last decade, DC has struggled to bring their comic universe to Hollywood, with the obvious exception of Batman. If they can score a hit with movie fans with a character like Green Lantern who isn’t immediately recognizable to non-comic readers the flood gate could get open to some of their other properties. Unfortunately, the first Green Lantern trailer didn’t seem to be the hit DC was looking for. With it’s bad CGI, overabundance of characters, and Ryan Reynolds playing an uncharacteristically goofy version of Hal Jordan, comic fans feared this was going to be the biggest bomb of the season. Thankfully, a second WonderCon exclusive trailer hit the web and a sigh of relief was heard throughout Sector 2814. Green Lantern could surprise as the biggest hit of the summer, especially with Ryan Reynolds as the lead.

Captain America: The First Avenger – Opening July 22, 2011. Directed by Joe Johnston. Starring Chris Evans as Captain America, Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, and Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips.

With Rocketeer director Joe Johnston manning the Stars and Strips, Captain America: The First Avenger looks like it will be the best of the summer lot. Steve Rogers arguably has the easiest origin to understand among all the films. Plus, Marvel Studios can’t go wrong with a World War 2 flick in terms of box office revenue. The only thing I could see hurting Cap’s performance is superhero movie fatigue. I’m also a little surprised they didn’t premiere the film on fourth of July weekend for maximum patriotism. Either way my bet is on Captain America: The First Avenger to win the war of the summer comic movies.

Let’s make superhero summer fun. Here is what I’m willing to do: Vote on the Star Clipper blog (Blog Only) for one of the four films that you think will have the highest gross this summer. Name the film and what you think the opening weekend box office will gross. Opening Weekend box office counts Friday midnight screenings through Sunday sales. The person with the correct film and the closest box office guess without going over will get a $25.00 gift card for Star Clipper paid out of my own paycheck. No duplicate votes count, as in if you think Captain America will win with 60 million and someone has already posted that you can’t also vote 60 million. You would have to vote 59 or 61 Million. In the case that two of the films tie I’ll award two winners with correct votes. All votes are due May 1st. The winner will be announced after Captain America’s opening weekend.

-Jon

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