Popverse's top stories

• New Batman writer aims to show why anyone would want to live in the worst city in the DCU
• Avengers and Doctor Who star Karen Gillan is on her way to New York Comic Con 2025 - and Popverse Superfans will have an early chance to connect
• Daredevil, Punisher, Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies, and all-new Avengers: The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks like this [Marvel Matters]

And everything happening this week for Future Fest!

We’re living in interesting times, and I’m not talking about stuff you’ve seen on the news. I’m trying desperately to forget about all that stuff by diving into as much manga and anime as possible (it is a very healthy coping strategy). No, I’m talking about the fact that one of the biggest manga releases of 2026 is probably going to be about an American character called Captain Underpants – and I don’t really think that is a bad thing.

We reported earlier this year that Captain Underpants was getting a manga adaptation, which was… unexpected. A superhero who was born from a series of children’s novels is not exactly the subject matter I was expecting for an upcoming manga series. Dav Pilkey is back to write the story, which is the first time that Captain Underpants has been adapted into comic book format.

If you ask me (which you didn't but still), this falls into that weird grey area of what is and isn’t a manga. It is being drawn by Motojiro, an artist from Japan, who will adapt Pilkey’s story into the new format. Unlike most manga, the pages will be read left-to-right as in English-language books, so you could argue that this is similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was clearly anime-inspired but not a true anime. The Captain Underpants manga feels like it is going to fall into that same category when it comes out in April 2026.

But you know what? That doesn’t bother me as much as you’d think. I’m not exactly a purist for these things; we’ve seen plenty of adaptations of characters like Batman in anime over the years, so the line between what is and isn’t an anime or manga is blurred. However, I’m not going to quibble about one of the most popular children’s book series of the 21st Century helping to open the eyes of a new generation to the wonders of manga. Once you get those kids hooked, you’ve got them for life.

While I do wish that they had kept the page formats reading right-to-left like in most manga – I’m sure that the kids aged 7+ who are the target market for this book can handle the change – I think there is nothing wrong with doing something different with the format. Manga is for everyone, and if Captain Underpants is responsible for introducing it to more people at a younger age over the next year, it will only be good for the industry.

So yeah, I see this as a win for manga fans. Bring on the Captain Underpants manga in 2026 and get ready for more people getting into it than ever before. You can argue that Captain Underpants: The First Epic Manga isn’t a real manga all you want; it is still going to be one of the best-selling manga of 2026 and I’m still looking forward to the impact it has on the rest of the industry.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

• Upcoming movies
• Upcoming TV shows
• Upcoming comics
• Upcoming games
• Upcoming fiction books
• Upcoming comic conventions