ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie news items. From Marvel to DC and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic-book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, we have 'Wolverine' soundtrack details, ‘Man of Steel’ sequel speculation and release dates for the next two ‘Spider-Man’ movies!

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’

Sony/Columbia
Sony/Columbia
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Obviously, ‘Man of Steel’ is the big story this week – and for the immediate future – but a major 'Spider-Man' announcement dropped as we were prepping Comic Strip, and it’s big enough to lead this week’s column.

Sony circled future dates for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3’ and ‘4,’ guaranteeing that we’ll have Spidey adventures on screen through 2018!

Jeff Blake, chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures, revealed that the next two films will be released on June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018, respectively.

Blake, in a press release, said, “Spider-Man is our most important, most successful, and most beloved franchise, so we’re thrilled that we are in a position to lock in these prime release dates over the next five years.”

No word on whether Marc Webb, who is helming ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2,’ will stay on board for parts three and four. Or if cast members (like Emma Stone) will stick along long enough to enjoy what Sony is building here.

But the blocks are being stacked in a very interesting configuration, and I firmly believe that Webb and Sony are planning for a large story that will stretch beyond next summer’s Spidey movie. We’re envisioning major storylines with The Green Goblin (Chris Cooper). We’re anticipating The Sinister Six. And we now know that we’ll be knee-deep in Spidey films for the next five years. Excelsior!

-- OK, fine. You still need a little taste for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ This is cool: Jamie Foxx was on ‘The Tonight Show’ teasing ‘White House Down’ and gave us an audio sample of his Electro voice. I love it. Give it a listen:

‘Man of Steel’

Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel’ was a massive hit, earning an estimated $125 million in its debut weekend and setting a new record for June openings (topping the $110 million banked by ‘Toy Story 3’ back in 2010).

And now that you’ve seen it, you can enjoy this excellent Empire podcast with Snyder, which gets into massive, meaty spoilers:

Warner Bros.’ next obvious step is 'Man of Steel 2,' and there have been some interesting movements as to when we might see it and who will be back. To help catch you up, we put together a pretty extensive rundown on everything we know about ‘Man of Steel 2.’ If you only want bullet points, here are the basics:

- Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer are back for the sequel.
- Warner wants the sequel in theaters by 2014 (!?!)
- The studio would like to stay on that fast track so that it can deliver a 'Justice League of America’ movie to theaters by 2015.

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That’s an insanely condensed production schedule for this rather-important phase of DC Comics movies. From a certain perspective, I can understand the studio’s desire to strike while the iron is hot. But shouldn’t Snyder and his team have time to properly develop what they started?

Otherwise they are going to continue to anger Superman professionals like Mark Waid, who penned the graphic novel "Birthright" and posted his devastatingly negative review, in which he claims:

Did it succeed in what it sent out to do? I think probably so. But what it set out to do, as it turns out, leaves me cold. With the exception of the first-flight beat–the smile Superman gets when he first takes to the air – it’s utterly joyless. From start to finish. Utterly. Joyless.”

At the very least, we hope Kal-El experiences remorse for all the people he let die in ‘Man of Steel.’ We can make that happen, right?

‘The Avengers 2’

If the ‘Justice League of America’ movie actually somehow makes it into theaters in 2015, that means we might get to see the Marvel-DC cinematic face-off movie geeks have been dreaming about, as Joss Whedon’s ‘The Avengers 2’ had circled May 1, 2015 as its release date months ago.

I was convinced Marvel would punch a hole through the ‘Man of Steel’ buzz over the weekend by revealing some major Phase Two or Three news, stealing a little thunder generated by Superman’s return. Instead, all we learned recently about Whedon’s upcoming sequel is that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) will NOT be a factor, and the Guardians of the Galaxy won’t transition from their own standalone film into ‘Avengers 2.’

Boo.

We haven’t had a lot of ‘Avengers 2’ news, but John C. Reilly was confirmed as Rhomann Dey in James Gunn’s upcoming film. Given the fact that this character has surfaced in 'Fantastic 4,' 'Thor,' 'Avengers' and other comic stories, I’m sure Marvel will find plenty of uses for Reilly in future films.

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’

Cleveland.com
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Don’t look for Reilly in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier,’ however, as that sequel has been busy shooting for weeks in Washington, D.C. and Cleveland. The latest batch of photos snapped by the journalists at Cleveland.com show Chris Evans in the new Captain America suit (which we covered earlier). He’s also racing – somewhere – on a souped-up motorcycle.

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- Meanwhile, composer Henry Jackman confirmed that he’ll be working on the score for the ‘Cap’ sequel.

‘Thor: The Dark World’

We reported a while back that ‘Thor: The Dark World’ might be experiencing a bit of a rough patch. Composer Carter Burwell walked away from the project and rumors said director Alan Taylor was running into a few obstacles.

Now we’re hearing, via Twitter (and ComicBookMovie), that Jamie Alexander and Samuel L. Jackson ventured to the UK for ‘Thor’ reshoots. Trouble? Maybe not. Maybe they’re just fixing a few things that didn’t gel quite as nicely. But this has been, at the very least, an interesting production slate for Marvel’s anticipated sequel.

‘Kick-Ass 2’

You can tell the marketing machine for ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is revving up. We shared an international trailer for the sequel last week -- boasting new footage. Now MTV has shared a behind-the-scenes clip from the set of Jeff Wadlow’s movie, which takes you inside the villains’ evil lair, with introductions by the cast:

‘X-Men’ and ‘The Wolverine’

What type of music does Logan like to listen to while slashing his enemies to pieces? Composer Marco Beltrami thinks he’s figured that out, and he’s bringing his musical answer to ‘The Wolverine’ score; Film Music Reporter says is available for pre-order. The site also has the track listing, which might include a few spoilers as to the structure of James Mangold’s sequel:

1. A Walk in the Woods
2. Threnody for Nagasaki
3. Logan Can’t Bear It
4. Logan’s Run
5. The Offer
6. Get Me to the Temple on Time
7. Who Invited the Yakuza?
8. Hold My Sword
9. Logan in the Latraine
10. Matzah-Hisu
11. Abduction
12. Logan’s Fun
13. Ninja Knocking
14. Kantana Surgery
15. The Wolverine
16. The Hidden Fortress
17. Silver Samurai
18. Sword of Vengence
19. Dreams
20. Abayo Mariko
21. Where to?
22. Whole Step Haiku

The soundtrack will be in stores on Jul. 30. It pairs nicely with the latest international trailer, which dropped last week.

‘G.I. Joe 3’

This bit of news concludes the Comic Strip, and I love it because it confirms the power of The Rock. When ‘G.I. Joe’ added Dwayne Johnson to its franchise, the sequel went through the roof – earning an estimated $369.4 million in global tick sales. A third chapter seems inevitable, and now Paramount appears to have locked up director Jon M. Chu to return to the series and map out the next steps. Good choice. The Rock was a good addition to the franchise, but Chu kept the action franchise on track ... and should up the ante by part three.

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