Highly Anticipated Superhero Movies

The comic book movie trend is showing no sign of slowing.

X-Men Origins: Magneto (2009): One of next year's two additions to the "X-Men" series focuses on the early life of Magneto (aka Eric Lensherr) and his friendship with Charles Xavier, most likely explaining the reasoning behind Magneto's shift to the dark side. Writer David Goyer refuses to rest. After just recently completing the successful Batman film, "The Dark Knight," Goyer is staying absorbed in his work on this film as well as "The Unborn" and "The Invisible Man." The cast list has yet to be released.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009): Stan Lee, David Benioff and Gavin Hood join forces to develop a film about Wolverine's life immediately after being transformed into a mutant. Logan attempts to amend his memory while vengefully fighting a handful of villains, including Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).

Wonder Woman (2009): Not much is known about this female superhero film, which is due to be released next year. Matthew Jennison is writing the screenplay about the Amazonian princess-warrior who brings her supernatural abilities to the urban world of skyscrapers, lights and busy streets.

Iron Man 2 (April 30, 2010): It's been rumored that Samuel L. Jackson will play a major role in the "Iron Man" sequel. It's no surprise since the post-credit scene delivered the most obvious foreshadowing possible. His character Nick Fury will supposedly be joining forces with Tony Stark to defeat a terrorist known as The Mandarin. Rumors have also surfaced about a monster villain named Fin Fang Foom. Possible superhero appearances include Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Superman: Man of Steel (working title, June 2011): "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer will be dedicating his time to the creation of the DC comic book's sequel.

Spider-Man 4 (May 2011): Not much is known about this film, though I speak for everyone when I say it better be an immense improvement from the last "Spider-Man" movie. It's rumored that James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) has the "Spider-Man 4" working draft completed and "Spider-Man 5" may be shot at the same time.

The First Avenger: Captain America (2011): It's about time a decent Captain America movie was made. Marvel has given the task of script writing to Zak Penn, screenplay writer for superhero hits like "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), the three-part "X-Men" series and "Fantastic Four" (2005). Jon Favreau was originally chosen by Marvel to direct this film, but he instead chose to take on "Iron Man." "Captain America" is rumored to be set in World War II, and it was confirmed that Captain America's shield was in fact in "Iron Man." There has recently been rumors floating around of Captain America's character being played by Matthew McConaughey. These rumors were recently squashed by Marvel's Kevin Feige. Thank god.