It has taken a little while for the senior execs at Marvel and DC to wake up to the sheer commercial potential of superhero-powered narrative gaming experiences, but it seems now it is very much full steam ahead when it comes to bringing their hottest comic book and movie properties to video games. We have already seen a bunch of superhero releases from Marvel and DC over the past few years come out to a mixed response from consumers and critics alike, with some big hits including Insomniac Games’ Spider-man series juxtaposed against massive critical and commercial disappointments such as Marvel’s Avengers (2020) and Gotham Knights (2022) on the DC side of things. Some, like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2021), garnered critical acclaim but failed to meet commercial targets.
Regardless, it appears that recent disappointments have not deterred the industry from committing to a future chock full of superhero games, with a number of high-profile projects set to release over the next 2-3 years. Here’s a comprehensive catalog of every major Marvel or DC flavored game headed our way soon:
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
The biggest name on this list in terms of pedigree and expectations is the sequel to Insomniac Games’ 2018 smash hit Marvel’s Spider-Man. The release is right around the corner, and based on Insomniac’s recent track record and the immense hype around the release, it is almost guaranteed to be a resounding success. It’s just too bad that the most high-profile superhero video game in recent years will be limited to PlayStation 5 players only, at least until Sony decides to allow a PC port in the future.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Despite seemingly being a little late to the party due to repeated delays, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is DC’s third, and quite possibly last attempt at making the Suicide Squad a pop culture success after the critical and commercial failure of the first movie, and the commercial failure of the subsequent reboot. However, with the pedigree of developer Rocksteady Studios and the wacky, chaotic, and colorful gameplay we’ve seen thus far, it could very well work out. You get to choose between four unique characters with their own playstyles and face off against an evil version of the Justice League. Let’s just hope the game isn’t bogged down by unnecessary microtransactions and live service nonsense.
Marvel’s Wolverine
Despite being much more of an unknown compared to a lot of the other titles here, Marvel’s Wolverine is perhaps the most intriguing to me personally. At the time of writing, we don’t know very much about the game at all, other than that it is also being developed by Sony first-party studio Insomniac Games, which is arguably reason enough for excitement. Insomniac has a vaunted record when it comes to crafting bespoke single-player superhero experiences with a strong narrative set in big open worlds. Since there is no gameplay footage yet, it remains to be seen how well Wolverine’s powers and abilities translate to gameplay, but if anyone can make it work it would be Insomniac.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is another beloved DC character making her long-awaited debut as the protagonist of her own game. WB Games and developer Monolith announced their upcoming single-player open-world action-adventure title, Wonder Woman back at the 2021 Game Awards, but no major details have been forthcoming since. Monolith is best known for the excellent Shadow of Mordor series of open-world games and has already confirmed that their new game will also feature the hugely acclaimed ‘Nemesis’ system from the Shadow of Mordor games, allowing for more player-directed organic storytelling within video games.
Untitled Black Panther and Captain America WW2 Game
Skydance New Media is teaming up with Marvel to prepare the first black Marvel superhero for his video game debut along with yet another Marvel A-lister – Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Set amidst the backdrop of the World War 2 theatre, the game chronicles the journey of Azzuri (T’Challa’s grandfather) as the Black Panther and a young Steve Rogers, teaming up with the Howling Commandos and Nanali the Wakandan spy in their fight against Hydra. The project is being helmed by Amy Hennig of the Uncharted series fame, so at the very least, I’m expecting an engaging narrative along with plenty of thrilling action set pieces.
The Wolf Among Us 2
Despite not exactly falling within the standard of typical superhero fare, the sequel to Telltale Games’ The Wolf Among Us (2013) is based on the DC comic property Fables, which technically makes it a DC game and certainly worthy of this list.
The Wolf Among Us 2 is set to be Telltale Games’ second major release since initially closing down in 2018, only to be acquired and resurrected by LCG Entertainment. After more than 10 years in purgatory, another chapter is about to be written in the story of Bigby Wolf.
Untitled Marvel Iron Man Game
From EA’s Montreal-based Motive Studio, the as-yet-untitled game featuring Marvel’s crown jewel Iron Man was confirmed in August of last year. Details on the project are a little light, but the game is set to be a single-player third-person action adventure with an “original narrative” independent from the character’s arc in the movies/comic books.
Motive Studio is relatively new to handling projects of such scale single-handedly but has already delivered two major hits recently including the excellent Star Wars: Squadrons (2020) and the critically acclaimed Dead Space Remake earlier this year.
Untitled Open World Black Panther Game
A second Black Panther game, and this time he doesn’t have to share the spotlight with anyone else. Still early in the stages of development, EA’s newly formed Seattle-based studio Cliffhanger Games is working on a story-driven third-person action-adventure game set in a Wakandan sandbox, all of which sounds promising enough. However, we are still some time away from a real first look into the project, which is being led by Ken Stephens, former studio head at Monolith Productions, who are working on their own Wonder Woman game.
