Marvel fans have a lot to look forward to later this year, particularly the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday. After occupying the role of Iron Man in the MCU for over 10 years, Downey Jr. will shift to the villain side of the aisle to play Doctor Doom in the film — there could be Tony Stark crumbs coming, though, considering the multiversal implications. Marvel viewers were treated to a street-level project to start the year with the second season of Daredevil: Born Again, which led directly into the Jon Bernthal-led Punisher special, One Last Kill. Bernthal will also reprise his role as Frank Castle in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth solo MCU Spider-Man film coming to theaters on July 31. The movie co-stars Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo.

Prime Video delivered the perfect antidote to its recently concluded superhero series The Boys, which underwhelmed critics and audiences with its series finale. The streamer's latest superhero offering, Spider-Noir, has the added benefit of featuring an acting icon and being based on one of the most popular fictional characters of all time. The new show delivered exactly the results expected of it in its midweek debut, even though it failed to overthrow Prime Video's current number one title. The holdover hit defied the odds to deliver one of the streamer's biggest-ever debuts. It currently trails only The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Fallout, which have an obvious built-in fan-following. With 36 million views in under two weeks, the steamy new romance series has outperformed legacy titles on Prime Video such as Reacher and The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Despite a seemingly endless stream of think pieces, the superhero genre continues to thrive on screens big and small. 2026 is the best proof of this: not only will theaters see an onslaught of capes and cowls with Supergirl, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Avengers: Doomsday, but Prime Video has been delivering plenty of subversive superhero television with The Boysand Invincible. Last week, the streamer dropped its newest comic book series, and it's proven to be one of the best adaptations that Prime Video's tackled in recent years.

2026 is a huge year for Spider-Man fans. Not only is Spider-Man: Brand New Day hitting theaters next month, but a brand-new series has launched on streaming platforms and is already a hit. This new Spider-Man show steers away from the traditional story, following a different kind of friendly neighborhood superhero. One that has more in common with detectives like Bosch than it does other Marvel superheroes.

Spoiler Alert: This list contains spoilers for Spider-Noir and Spider-Man Noir (2008).Spider-Noir is the newest Spider-Man-based project—one of three in 2026—and people are actually pretty pleased with it. For quite a bit, people have been saying Sony should be investing more in the alternate versions of Spider-Man for projects, rather than making stories about his villains, which is exactly what Spider-Noir accomplishes.

Sony Pictures has attempted to mimic the MCU model with its own Spider-Man film universe, but things haven't really been as successful, with several poor spin-off movies featuring members of the Spider-Man rogues' gallery. Yet, none of those characters could ever meet or interact with the web-slinger, since a newly revamped version of Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, was a definitive part of the MCU. However, Prime Video's new live-action television series, Spider-Noir, sets up the perfect new direction for Sony's Spider-Man universe.