Thor, Captain America games due in 2011

"Faster than a speeding bullet" is a relatively common description in the world of comics, but the wait for Sega's Captain America and Thor games has been seemingly interminable. Originally announced in April of 2007, the two games will arrive alongside their movie counterparts in the summer blockbuster season of 2011, according to Marvel's latest quarterly financial report.

Thor will debut in May 2011, giving the golden-haired god of thunder his first starring game role. The film will be directed by Kenneth Brannagh (Hamlet, Frankenstein), with Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs, Nixon) as Odin and Chris Hemsworth (Captain Kirk's father in this year's Star Trek) in the title role.

Captain America will follow his fellow Avenger into theaters and onto game shelves in July 2011. A cast for the film--currently titled The First Avenger: Captain America--has not yet been announced. While Thor will be starring in his own game and movie for the first time, the star-spangled supersoldier has been there before, albeit not for decades. The much-reviled 1990 film Captain America was released direct-to-video in the United States, while the following year's arcade game Captain America and the Avengers fared much better, spawning ports for the NES, Genesis, and GameBoy, among others.

The summer movie season of 2011 will be a busy one for Marvel comic book movies. In addition to Thor and The First Avenger: Captain America, Marvel has Spider-Man 4 set for launch May 6, 2011. Although a game based on the webbed wonder's next outing hasn't been officially announced, Activision has made games based on the previous three Spider-Man movies and has the rights to the crime-fighter's gaming escapades sewn up until 2017.

Marvel also has an Avengers film scheduled for a summer 2012 release, although it too lacks an officially announced game tie-in. Sega is a likely candidate to make such a title, as the film would be the sixth Marvel Studios production, with the Sonic publisher having handled the gaming tie-ins for the first five (Iron Man and its sequel, The Incredible Hulk, and the Captain America and Thor projects).