8 Reasons Why 2026 Is Marvel’s Best Year In Decades

Across comic books, movies, video games, and TV shows, Marvel is enjoying a thrilling back half of 2026. Not that the two are ever genuinely in a competition with one another, but DC has more or less been firing on all cylinders for the last little while, thanks largely to DC Comics’ Absolute publishing line and the dawn of a new theatrical era with the DCU Superman. This year, Supergirl was the DCU’s first big miss, though it seems like Lanterns is already a potential hit following its recent premiere.

For Marvel, 2026 hadn’t begun until the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. This movie was not only an exciting new chapter and tone for the MCU’s Spider-Man, but it also served as a bit of a prologue for the MCU’s X-Men and laid the brickwork for that movie’s cast to be revealed at D23 2026. Now, as we look ahead throughout the rest of 2026, Marvel is showing no signs of slowing its wonderful momentum down.

8 Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day was released on July 31, 2026, and the hype leading into it was unmistakably palpable. It’s more of a Jean Grey origin story than anything, to be sure, yet it’s neat to see how the MCU has transitioned Spider-Man out of the polarizing Home trilogy with themes that are much more mature and sincere.

It’s disheartening to hear how eager Tom Holland seems to be to pass the torch to a new Spider-Man, seeing as he’s arguably in his prime as Peter Parker, and only time will tell what the MCU does with the character now, let alone how many more movies or appearances we’ll get of Holland’s Spider-Man in the future. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 narrowly misses the 2026 window, as it doesn’t premiere until January 2027, but the TV show features classic Spider-Man villains like Lizard, Doctor Octopus, and Rhino, and will hopefully inspire the next MCU Spider-Man movie to do the same.

7 MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls was released on August 6, 2026, and already had its first major tournament only a week later at CEO 2026, with FGC legend SonicFox crowned the champion. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls has been celebrated for its terrific playable character roster, including a Deadpool voiced by Nolan North that boasts numerous beloved and esoteric fighting game references. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ future looks quite bright, too, with Phoenix Cyclops as a Year 1 DLC character demonstrating how high its ceiling of ingenuity is.

6 Marvel’s Wolverine

Marvel’s Wolverine is scheduled to be released for PS5 on September 15, 2026, extrapolating the continuity established in Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine games and depicting a world that doesn’t yet know about mutantkind or have the X-Men. Wolverine and Jean are a hot item in Marvel’s Wolverine, with Cyclops out of the picture completely, allegedly, and the game’s narrative emphasizes Wolverine’s role on Team X. Based on fluid and satisfying its visceral and gory combat looks, it seems as if Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine should be able to easily clear the bar that was previously set by Raven’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which is, to this day, one of the better superhero movie tie-in video game adaptations.

The X-Men Origins: Wolverine game’s story is abysmal, but Raven should be commended for stripping as many layers of the movie’s actual influence as it could. With any luck, Marvel’s Wolverine’s original story will embrace the blank slate it’s been afforded in order to be far more than a familiar shade of what’s come before.

5 The Amazing Spider-Man #1000

The Amazing Spider-Man #36 (LGY #1000) is scheduled to be released on September 30, 2026. The main story of Spider-Man’s biggest Marvel Comics milestone ever unleashes a brand-new villain named Ravage, who has been described as possessing a “history-shattering power” and may be none other than Cormac Crane, Aunt May’s biological son. Plus, assuming that the status quo is legitimately changed at all, Aunt May’s death has been teased ever since the Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral crossover event.

But that’s not all, since issues #1001 and #1002 will both be released in October to depict Spider-Man’s fight with Ravage. The solicitation for The Amazing Spider-Man #1000 reads as follows:

THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN AMAZING SPIDER-HISTORY!

Spider-Man faces his greatest fear and his most frightening new villain in decades... RAVAGE! Plus, some of the greatest creative minds on Earth honor one thousand issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN! NOAH HAWLEY (Alien: Earth, Fargo, LEGION) makes his comic book debut, Frank Miller and Peach Momoko collaborate for the first time, Stuart Immonen and Brian Michael Bendis return to Spider-Man together, and some of the best ASM creators return to the title!

4 Marvel’s Midnight Universe

Jonathan Hickman and Matteo Della Fonte’s Midnight X-Men, Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker’s Midnight Fantastic Four, and Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc’s Midnight Spider-Man are all scheduled to release their debut issues on October 7, 2026, to commence a massive new publishing line launch for Marvel Comics’ brand-new Midnight horror universe. These titles are the guinea pigs for a continuity of comics that could blossom as successfully and quickly as DC’s Absolute universe, especially considering how zany and grotesque Marvel is apparently willing to be with some of its most precious characters and mythologies.

3 Earth’s Mightiest Survivors

From writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Marco Checchetto, Avengers #1 (LGY #808) is scheduled to be released on November 4, 2026, as a relaunch of the comic book series following the events of Zdarsky’s Avengers: Armageddon. For all we know, this could be the beginning of a whole new status quo for Earth-616 as we know it. The solicitation for Avengers #1 reads as follows:

IN THE WAKE OF ARMAGEDDON, A NEW TEAM ASSEMBLES... Superstar team Chip Zdarsky & Marco Checchetto reunite for a trailblazing new era of AVENGERS! With the world order completely rewritten after AVENGERS: ARMAGEDDON, there comes a day, a day unlike any other, when a new group of Earth’s mightiest heroes find themselves united to avenge the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Luke Cage and [REDACTED]! The Avengers take center stage once again in the Marvel Universe, and it all starts here. Don’t miss it!

2 MARVEL Cosmic Invasion DLC

MARVEL Cosmic Invasion was released in December 2025, but 2026 is even more exciting for the 2D side-scroller beat-’em-up, as this year saw the shadow-drop update that debuted Cyclops and Thing as playable characters and will soon see the release of MARVEL Cosmic Invasion’s Siege of Castle Doom DLC sometime this fall. The Siege of Castle Doom DLC will feature a new game mode and two new playable characters, and it will be fascinating to see whether MARVEL Cosmic Invasion leans fully into MCU synergy with them, whoever they may turn out to be (though they’ll look gorgeous in MARVEL Cosmic Invasion’s pixel art visuals regardless).

1 Avengers: Doomsday

Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released in theaters on December 18, 2026. Hoping to be the MCU’s biggest blockbuster event since Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Doomsday is stuffed to the gills with nostalgia and fan service, though it admittedly has shared a mere kernel of authenticity with Vanessa Kirby’s Susan Storm and Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards explicitly addressing their in-universe history with Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor von Doom, and that’s a hopeful sign for it maybe having meaningful worldbuilding and a worthwhile story. Either way, Avengers: Doomsday will be Marvel’s last chance at ending 2026 on as high a note as possible.