It looks like Patrick Stewart is hanging up his metal brain-hat, and wheeling that chair into pastures new. He has stated that he will not be reprising his role as Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, after a good run of three pretty mutant-tastic films (four if you count his cameo in Wolverine).

You may have picked up on a recent bit of harrumphing from certain quarters concerning Guilliermo del Toro’s Hobbit film: namely, production has been delayed, it hasn’t been formally greenlit by any studio yet, ergo we’re never going to see it and the world will surely be engulfed by a cleansing fire should a hairy-footed teaser trailer ever make it to Youtube.

Film fans are hypocrites. We all pretend we’re in love with French dramas and ruminative comedies about AIDS, but when you get right down to it everyone wants to be – and, therefore, to watch – a superhero. We count down the heroes who’ll be setting your pulse racing in 2014.