X-Men: Apocalypse

Apocalypse is coming. Are you ready?

True story. Back a few years ago, in the '90's, Marvel Comics was facing bankruptcy. To raise capital, the company sold off the film rights to their characters. The Hulk was already at Universal from the late '70's television series with the late Bill Bixby as David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as The Hulk. It looked an awful lot like a '70's update of the '60's action/drama The Fugitive.

What Marvel Comics also did is they sold their cash cow characters. The film rights to Spider-Man were sold to Sony. The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and X-Men were sold to 20th Century Fox. The Ben Affleck Dardevil film performed poorly at the box office and there was never a sequel. The rights reverted to Marvel, and now the character is a hit on Netflix. Fantastic Four under-performed in three films, one that was a reboot just this last August. Geeks like me are holding our collective breath over news that a planned sequel has been removed from Fox's schedule and this might be another property that reverts back to Marvel.

That's the clause in the deal. Apparently, if the films fail to perform, or if the studios miss a development deadline, the rights revert. That's how Daredevil made it back to Marvel and onto Netflix, along with another character that Marvel farmed out to another studio, The Punisher.

Sony has done pretty well with Spider-Man...unless you count the last film. Sony and Marvel are going to co-produce the next Spider-Man film with actor Tom Holland. He and Marisa Tomei as Aunt May are supposed to make a cameo in the May 6th Captain America: Civil War.

Which brings us to X-Men. Fox has been rocking the X-Men. Probably for two reasons. Director Bryan Singer and actor Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

Wolverine is kind of a big deal.

After suffering "temporary insanity" and leaving the franchise to direct Superman Returns with Brandon Routh, Singer came back for X:Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Next May 27th, everybody is back for X-Men: Apocalypse.

Are you ready for the coming Apocalypse?

If you're a fan, like me, share your thoughts in the comments.