2024 Superhero Entertainment Round-Up: Marvel and DC

2024 is the End of the Beginning

2024 was the year of waiting for the other shoe to drop. DC is rebooting their universe with the DCU, Marvel wants to speedrun their fumbled Multiverse Saga, and Sony’s Venomverse went down in flames. 

TV shows ruled 2024. Without bombastic movies demanding the audience’s time, they were able to keep fans from turning the dial. Despite that, a few movies snuck into the limelight. So what did we think of 2024 superhero entertainment? Let’s find out.

2024 Superhero Entertainment: Movies

Madame Web

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabella Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim

Synopsis: Cassandra Webb is an emergency responder who begins seeing visions of the future after nearly dying. She has a vision and saves three teenage girls from being murdered. Now, Cassandra must keep the girls safe while fleeing from spider-powered serial killer Ezekiel Simms.

The Review: Madame Web is a painful watch. Cassandra is dismissive and cruel while the teenagers make many moronic decisions. The found-family superhero team tropes are so cookie cutter that you can find them in the kitchen drawer. 

Were you lured in by the trailer shots of the teenagers as the Spider-Women? Congrats, you’ve seen all the footage of them as superheroes. Not one full minute.

Ezekiel Simms is a cool idea for a villain that is ruined every time he speaks. He’s given mustache-twirling villain lines and a half-assed rivalry with Cassandra, but Ezekiel is much more menacing when silently chasing the girls as an evil Spider-Man. If they leaned more into that angle, Madame Web could have been a so-bad-it’s-good horror movie.

The Verdict: 3/10

The Web of Life: Madame Web isn’t getting a sequel, nor should it. Check out our Madame Web Character Round-up to learn what could have been.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Trilogy

Voice Actors: Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Matt Bomer, Stana Katic, Meg Donnelly

Synopsis: The Justice League is summoned by the godlike Monitor to avert a disaster. A wave of antimatter is destroying the multiverse and every superhero must work together. But as more worlds fall to antimatter and an army of Shadow Demons, can the League prevail?

The Review: We’re covering all three Crises at once. The movies do an okay job compressing the dense event comic into three movies while putting their own spin on the story. The Flash, Batman, Supergirl, Psycho Pirate, and Pariah get the lion’s share of screentime. That gives viewers insight into the characters, but disrupts the pacing.

Other characters cameo with little explanation or purpose. Do you know who The Losers, the Atomic Knights, Aya or Razar are? Well, we don’t have time to unpack all of that. The story’s tone grows bleak as more universes are destroyed, with the multiversal Justice League losing two steps for every one they gain.

The final part craps the bed. It spends a lot of time explaining how the Crisis started by tying it to DC’s former direct-to-DVD movie universe. Stopping the Crisis goes from hellish to completely impossible through narrative cheap shots. Crisis on Infinite Earths forces a pyrrhic victory to set-up the next DVD universe.

The Verdict: 5/10

Final Crisis: Our Crisis Backstory can tell you how this event originally unfolded. The third movie was also the last dance for Kevin Conroy’s Batman and Mark Hamill’s Joker, so let’s celebrate their careers by ranking the Top 6 DCAU shows.

Deadpool and Wolverine

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Dafne Keen, and Dogpool as herself

Synopsis: Deadpool languishes in retirement until he is kidnapped by Loki’s Time Variance Authority and told that his world is dying because of Wolverine’s death in Logan. Deadpool kidnaps the “worst Wolverine” to save his world, but they are trapped in a wasteland between universes. The only way out is through mad warlord Cassandra Nova. Can they save Deadpool’s world?

The Review: Deadpool and Wolverine dumps Deadpool’s cast and most previous plot points, but keeps the fun. Wolverine slides perfectly into the sidekick position, balancing his surly drunk and secretive demeanor against the Merc with the Mouth’s antics. The fight scenes are excellent and make great use of both nigh-immortal killing machines.

Emma Corwin is underused as Cassandra Nova, but makes her scenes menacing. Nova is portrayed as a bored godlike psychic, as if Billy Mumy’s Twilight Zone character grew up.

At its heart, Deadpool and Wolverine is a farewell letter to Fox’s Marvel universe. Dozens of villains from that franchise have been dumped in the wasteland, as have a handful of heroes who fight alongside Deadpool and Wolverine.

Verdict: 8/10

Hugh Know Why You’re Here: Worst-verine isn’t the only one hiding his past. Check out our list of Wolverine secrets. Oh, what the heck. Deadpool can have some secrets too, as a treat.

Joker: Folie à Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Harry Lawtly

Synopsis: Arthur Fleck is locked in Arkham Asylum awaiting trial for his crimes as The Joker. His lawyer offers an insanity defense, but is opposed by crusading DA Harvey Dent, who wants to send Arthur to the electric chair. While attending a music class, Fleck falls for fellow inmate Lee and learns to sing when he can’t express himself. Can The Joker escape the death penalty and find his happy ever after with Lee? 

The Review: Who is Folie à Deux for? Musical fans will be disappointed as both stars purposefully sing poorly because their characters are supposed to be learning. Most of the songs are hestitantly spoken lyrics and sometimes deliberately out of tune. Did you enjoy Joker? Well now it’s a musical court drama that rips apart the first movie. Folie à Deux is an overlong, bleak genre mishmash that pleases no one.

Arthur Fleck is also still the worst Joker. Phoenix lacks the manic charisma, cunning, and cruelty that the Clown Prince of Crime is known for. This sequel deconstructs Joker and Harley Quinn, analyzing their flaws to fuel speeches about why they both suck. There’s no attempt to explore why Joker and Harley work despite the flaws or why fans love to root for them. It’s deconstruction for the sake of deconstruction.

I have never seen a superhero movie that hates the genre and audience more. Madame Web is terrible, but at least it was trying to be good. Joker: Folie à Deux torched everything people like about the Joker and ran off into the night with a parting “fuck you” to the fans.

The Verdict: 1/10

B-Side: Folie a Deux won’t make a list of the Top 5 Superhero Soundtracks, but we found the ones that did.

2024 Superhero Entertainment: TV Shows

Echo

Starring: Alaqua Cox, Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devry Jacobs, Vincent D’Onofrio

Synopsis: Maya Lopez, adopted daughter of the Kingpin, returns to her hometown, where she plans to take over his criminal empire. Maya begins seeing visions of her ancestors as she reconnects with her family. Can she keep her loved ones safe and take control?

The Review: Marvel’s first 2024 show does too much and too little at the same time. Alaqua Cox is in her element as reserved gangster Maya and Vincent D’Onofrio is good as ever, but Maya’s family is forgettable. There’s no room for them when each episode has to focus on Maya’s crusade, brooding, and extended ancestral flashbacks. The first episode spending most of its runtime recapping Hawkeye doesn’t help matters.

Echo’s fight scenes are good, showcasing Maya’s dance-inspired combat style. Her handicaps are also spotlighted when she speaks in ASL to avoid detection or has to make do with a poorly-made prosthesis. Maya slowly develops superpowers based on her Choctaw heritage, but they are not well-explained and seem like a copout by granting whatever would resolve conflicts.

Verdict: 5/10

Handi-capable Heroes: Maya isn’t the only superhero  with a disability fighting crime. We’ve got two lists full of them.

X-Men ‘97

Voice Actors: Ray Chase, Cal Dodd, Jennifer Hale, Lenore Zann, Matthew Waterson, more

Synopsis: A year after Professor X left Earth, The X-Men continue fighting to protect Mutants. Longtime foe Magneto usurps the team and attempts to become a hero, despite mistrust from the X-Men. As they butt heads, forces plot in the shadows to eradicate Mutantkind.

The Review: X-Men: The Animated Series’ cast returns to bring the team back to life. ‘97 gives attention to the whole team instead of lavishing everything on Wolverine. Freed from the confines of being a Saturday morning cartoon, the show is free to directly address race relations and social justice. X-Men ’97 was the top ranked show in our 2024 superhero entertainment roundup.

X-Men ‘97 isn’t perfect. The plots love to juggle multiple stories, often shoving one to the side. That also causes tonal disconnect when the types of stories don’t match. The show also puts too much focus on a questionable romance between Magneto and Rogue

The Verdict: 9/10

X Marks the Spot: Why are you reading this mini-review when we’ve got the full length feature right here? For 2024 X-Fans who watched the show in 97, check out our Top 5 Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series.

Kite Man: Hell Yeah!

Voice Actors: Matt Oberg, Stephanie Hsu, James Adomian, Natasia Demetriou, Michael Imperioli

Synopsis: Kite Man is down on his luck and dating fellow villain Golden Glider. They buy a struggling dive bar called Noonans to keep it open for low-level villains like them. Kite Man and Golden Glider have a fight on their hands when cruel CEO Helen Villigan declares war on Noonans. And why is Lex Luthor so interested in a dive bar?

The Review: Kite Man: Hell Yeah! plays things safe. Plotlines and jokes feature standard sitcom tropes like Golden Glider being jealous of their new beautiful bartender Malice or Kite Man scoping out Villegan’s competing high-end bar.

Sympathetic characters save the show. Kite Man and Golden Glider are hopelessly in love with each other. Bane returns from Harley Quinn to serve as dimwitted, but big-hearted comic relief. Darkseid’s niece Malice stirs up trouble in the friendly locale with her ice queen demeanor. A recurring cast of colorful barflies fills out the roster.

The Verdict: 7/10

Worldbuilding, Hell Yeah!: Ordering off the menu? Try our Kite Man Backstory. If you want to see where this version got his start, hit up our review for Harley Quinn.

Suicide Squad ISEKAI

Voice Actors: Anna Nagase, Takehito Koyasu, Jun Fukuyama, Reina Udea, Kujira

Synopsis: Harley Quinn is captured by Task Force X. She and several other villains are injected with remote control bombs and sent to investigate another universe. This fantasy-inspired world is at war between a human-supremacy kingdom and an army of monsters. The Suicide Squad must fulfill their mission or die trying.

The Review: Suicide Squad ISEKAI is a culture clash. The titular team are crass and crude supervillains dropped into a generic fantasy world. Harley and pals are more interested in their own passing whims than interacting with the new world and constantly proclaim how much they hate it. The show went for Legends of Vox Machina, but ended up with Eternals

Fight scenes in Suicide Squad ISEKAI are good, featuring a variety of combat styles and magical enhancements. However it also feels like characters pull new powers from their collective ass. Harley gets the lion’s share of screen time, though Clayface’s exuberant fanboying over the genre and Peacemaker’s dead-serious goofiness are highlights.

Verdict: 6/10

Your Ticket to Another World: Head on down to our list of the Top 5 Isekai Superheroes to learn what the hell this isekai thing is.

My Adventures With Superman Season 2

Voice Actors: Jack Quaid, Alice Lee, Ishmel Sahid, Kiana Madeira, Max Mittleman

Synopsis: Superman has become Metropolis’ hero by stopping a monster, but he must now contend with Task Force X and their new secret weapon: Lex Luthor. He soon faces a bigger problem as his cousin Kara leads an alien invasion of Earth.

The Review: My Adventures With Superman builds on its first season with darker, more personal stories. Amanda Waller and Lex Luthor campaign to make Superman seem like a villain while Clark Kent and Lois Lane run into romantic drama. The show retains its optimism and gives Superman new allies, including armored hero Steel and wildcard Livewire.

Kara Zor-El receives an intriguing rewrite. She is still bubbly and playful when off-duty, but has a soldier’s personality and is a ruthlessly pragmatic fighter. Kara wants Superman to help conquer the universe alongside her adopted father. No, it’s not General Zod. Good guess.

Verdict: 8/10

Extra, Extra, Read All About Him!: My Adventures With Superman is the first solo Superman cartoon in decades. We tell you why it got the Man of Steel right in our season 1 review.

Batman: Caped Crusader

Voice Actors: Hamish Linklater, Jason Watkins, Krystal Joy Brown, John DiMaggio

Synopsis: Batman fights a war on crime in the 1940s. His reign of terror on Gotham’s underworld leads to clashes with the police trying to capture him. Lawyer Barbara Gordon and DA Harvey Dent are caught in a web of organized crime as their paths intersect his.

The Review: Caped Crusader is a fun throwback to an older superhero era. The Golden Age of Comics lives again in 2024. Batman lacks his usual super-advanced arsenal, mob bosses and crooked cops are the threat du jour, and what few superpowered foes appear are limited to reasonable skills.

The show’s greatest strength is its willingness to change characters, but keep them recognizable. The Penguin is a female lounge singer moonlighting as a mobster? Clayface as a serial killer out of a Boris Karloff flick?  Most surprising is Harley Quinn existing before The Joker, with a nightmarish gimmick inspired by her psychiatric skills.

Verdict: 8/10

Gotham City Irregulars: This show delves deeper into Batman’s rogue’s gallery than most. Our Caped Crusader Crook Collection has the crucial clues to catch these C-listers.

Agatha All Along

Starring: Kathryn Hanh, Joe Lock, Aubry Plaza, Sasheer Zamata, Patti LuPone

Synopsis: A mysterious teenager helps magic-less Agatha Harkness escape from an illusion. He convinces her to help him walk The Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet that grants the victor’s wishes. Agatha reluctantly forms a coven to help them complete the task, but many people she’s screwed over want revenge.

The Review: Agatha All Along is great fun. Kathryn Hanh is at the top of her game as cackling witch Agatha and bounces well off of clueless Teen. The rest of the coven is okay, but underused outside of their focus episodes. The stand-out is Agatha’s even more dangerous ex, Rio.

The Witches’ Road is full of magical challenges for the coven to face: poisons they must brew antidotes for, family curses battled with sacred rock & roll, and other threats that test their conviction. The coven is pursued throughout the season by a band of shapeshifters called Salem’s Seven, but they are soon tossed aside without ceremony for the real Big Bad.

Verdict: 8/10

The Witch is Back: Agatha Harness’ backstory covers her evolution from mischievous mage to villain protagonist. Perhaps a spelling bee with the Top 5 Wicked Witches is in order.

2024: The Penguin

Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Clancy Brown

Synopsis: Mobster Oz Cobb murders his boss Alberto Falcone and starts a gang war to take over the Falcone family’s criminal empire. Recently released serial killer Sofia Falcone aka The Hangman suspects that Oz killed her brother and and keeps him on a short leash. With few allies and enemies on all sides, can Oz take over or will he be sleeping with the fishes?

The Review: The Penguin has nothing to do with The Penguin. Oz Cobb lacks the faux-sophistication, five dollar words, interest in ornithology, weaponized umbrellas, and other traits associated with Oswald Cobblebot. They’re completely separate characters. Even during the last scenes when he’s wearing the outfit, all I saw was a schlubby Tony Soprano.

Penguin’s fault is Oz’s character, not Colin Farrell’s acting. The Oscar-nominated Farrell turns in an excellent performance as a fast-talking, big dreaming gangster. An unwilling accomplice named Vic humanizes him while emotional mob boss Sal Maroni keeps Oz on his backfoot with his experience running the the criminal underworld.

Cristin Milioti steals the show as Sofia Falcone. Sofia navigates her position in the Falcone family against everyone’s fear of The Hangman. Every motion is a little too tight, too forced, too normal. It’s only when she’s alone or with someone about to die that her mask comes off. The Penguin quickly becomes her story with Oz’s escapades as the catalysts.

Verdict: 6/10

Under Their Umbrella: Our Penguin Backstory will show you the mark the writers missed with Oz. Meanwhile, Sofia would be right at home with the Top 5 Female Supervillains.

What superhero movies and TV shows did you watch in 2024? If you were making your own 2024 Superhero Entertainment list, would you rate these differently? Tell us in the comments.

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.