The beauty of comics is that they are diverse; anyone can pick up a pencil and write a story about anything they want. In an ideal world, comics contain not just a diversity of characters on the page but a diversity of creators crafting stories that reflect the diversity of the readers buying the books. To help with that goal, a Kickstarter for the second issue of CHUTZPAH! A Jewish Celebration in Comics is currently running.

The previous issue of CHUTZPAH! A Jewish Celebration in Comics was released in late 2025 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. This second issue follows on from that success and has a similar target and mission statement, which is to be a “celebration of Jewish joy, liberation, defiance, and diversity” through the comic book format. If successfully funded, it will include six new stories by Jewish creators, including a follow-up to Paul Axel’s Little Miracles story from Issue 1.

“The Jewish world is a complex, dynamic, and incredibly rich goldmine of narrative possibilities,” explained Chutzpah! Editor-in-Chief Arnon Shorr in a press release. “The Chutzpah! anthology allows us to dig up more of those great stories and share them with the world!”

The Hart of Dixie cast joined the attendees at this year's Florida Supercon 2026, and fans of the show were out in droves. I mean, why wouldn't they be? Folks like Rachel Bilson, Jaime King, and Wilson Bethel were all at the event to share their personal history with the iconic TV series, but don't worry if you couldn't make it. Popverse was also in the crowd, and we happened to bring a camera along. 

This is one of the many Florida Supercon 2026 panels Popverse filmed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Consult our Florida Supercon 2026 panel hub for a list of all of the panels we have available, and what's left to be released.

Watch the Hart of Dixie panel with Rachel Bilson, Jaime King, and Wilson Bethel now: 

The Rookie has been running for a whopping eight seasons, with a ninth slated to debut this coming January. I don't have to tell you that in this day and age, that is a surprisingly long time for a TV show to be running, especially one as seemingly traditional as a cop drama. But according to show creator Alexi Hawley, it's exactly what's not traditional about the series that keeps fans interested, a full eight years after its debut.

That's one of the many things we learned at The Rookie panel presented by Hulu at this year's San Diego Comic Con. Attending the panel were both star Melissa O'Neil and original series creator Alexi Hawley, and at one point toward the end of the discussion, O'Neil asked the OG creator the same question we wondered at the top of this article - "How do you do it for so many seasons?"

"We definitely go into every writer's room in the spring going," said Hawley, "Where do we want to go that we haven't been before? Because I don't consider us a procedural - we're a patrol show. Anytime [the characters] get out of the car, anything could happen, and that's super exciting. We're not just doing a case of the week, right? Literally anything we want to do - if we can figure out a way to make it work as a Rookie episode - we can do. It's sort of infinite possibilities."

So many stars are returning for Avengers: Doomsday that it can be tough to keep track of them all. With Chris Evans coming back as Steve Rogers, it wasn’t a huge leap to discover that Hayley Atwell is coming back as Peggy Carter. We haven’t seen Peggy in live action since she had a rather unfortunate encounter with Wanda in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. What brought her back to the MCU this year? Part of it was having Steve Rogers back.

While talking to the press at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Hayley Atwell talked about the connection between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter as something that both characters need.

“Chris [Evans] I’ve known for so long now, and it feels like when we first met we were like babies, you know?” Atwell said. “We were in such different stages of our lives, and we were embarking on something that we had no idea it would land in the way it did and that we’d be here all these years later with the fans again and talking about it.”

If there's not a Hallmark holiday card for Free Comic Book Day 2027, there should be. 

Free Comic Book Day 2027 takes place on Saturday, May 1, giving comic fans across the United States and Canada the chance to visit participating local comic shops and pick up a selection of free comics. And these aren't leftover back issues or clearance books — publishers like Marvel, DC, Image Comics, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios, and dozens more create special editions exclusively for the event, making it one of the biggest celebrations of comics each year.

Created by California comic retailer Joe Field, Free Comic Book Day debuted in 2002 and has since grown into one of the comic industry's signature annual events. More than 2,000 comic book stores across North America participate, collectively giving away millions of comics every year while introducing new readers to the hobby and rewarding longtime fans with previews, first issues, and exclusive stories.

Marvel Midnight is Marvel Comics' newest shared universe, reimagining Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men as darker, horror-inspired versions of themselves. Launching in October 2026, the new imprint begins with Midnight X-Men, Midnight Fantastic Four, and Midnight Spider-Man, introducing an interconnected supernatural Marvel Universe with a dedicated ongoing publishing line.

If you're looking for the Marvel Midnight reading order, you've come to the right place. Below you'll find every announced comic in release order, along with the creative teams, launch schedule, and everything you need to know about Marvel's new horror universe.

Rather than focusing on established horror heroes like Blade or Morbius, Marvel Midnight transforms some of Marvel's biggest superheroes into twisted, supernatural versions of themselves. Marvel describes the line as an ongoing universe rather than a one-off event, with stories designed to reshape familiar heroes through a horror lens.

The Harvey Awards are one of comics' highest honors, recognizing the best of the best for the past year's comics, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, and adaptations. Presented annually at New York Comic Con, the Harvey Awards have seven big awards voted on by creators, along with 3 special awards decided on by the Harvey Awards committee themselves. Compared to the recent Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the nominees for the Harvey Awards skew more towards literary, international, and bookstore-driven comics while still acknowledging mainstream superheroes.

In fact, DC's Absolute Universe has been the breakout superhero line of the year, and its showing up in the 2026 Harvey Awards with nominations for both Absolute Batman and Absolute Martian Manhunter for 'Book of the Year' - which is notable because in some years, superhero fiction has struggled at the Harvey Awards. That being said, the nominees for 'Book of the Year' are predominantly from the literary side of comics.

Another trend is the number of nominees coming from non-English sources. While the 'Best Manga' and 'Best International Book' in large part is to be expected to be translated, translated works are elsewhere as well - with translator Andrea Rosenberg having four nominations. As a subset to that, while manga is always big at the Harveys, more attention than ever is going towards older works (or those just coming to the U.S. for the first time) such as Naoki Urasawa's Black Bat.

The Cosplay Central Crown Championship held its latest chapter at Florida Supercon 2026, and Popverse was there to film it all. See for yourself the dazzling displays of needlework, special effects, and more that some of the best cosplayers on the east coast (and even in the world) brought to Miami this year, courtesy of the Popverse video team

This is one of the many Florida Supercon 2026 panels Popverse filmed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Consult our Florida Supercon 2026 panel hub for a list of all of the panels we have available, and what's left to be released.

Watch the Cosplay Central Crown Championships now: 

At this point, it's safe to say that The Rookie is one of the most popular police series currently airing. However, we here at Popverse have a bit of a birds' eye view on the matter, and for other folks, that might be a little bit harder to see. Case in point - Alexi Hawley, who created the show for TV in 2018, didn't get a full handle on the series' popularity until a full eight seasons into its run. And recently, he was willing to explain the exact moment that came into his view.

Hawley shared the moment during Hulu's The Rookie panel at this year's San Diego Comic Con, where the iconic series creator was joined on stage by some of the actors that bring the show to life. At one point, series star Nathan Fillion asked Hawley to recount his experience seeing "his baby" get to as big as it is now, and Hawley told a story that, ironically, didn't come from LA.

"I'm not the face of the show," Hawley began, "I don't interact in the same way that these guys do, and so I don't see the popularity of the show on a regular basis. It was actually when we shot in Prague at the beginning of last season that I really saw it first-hand and really experienced it."

The first thing that Marvel Studios showed us from Avengers: Doomsday wasn’t the titular villain or his long-time enemies, the Fantastic Four. No, it was Chris Evans, the MCU’s former Captain America, holding a baby. We all assumed it meant that Steve Rogers finally got the family life he always wanted, but what if it wasn’t real? That seems to be the implication of something that his co-star, Hayley Atwell, said at San Diego Comic-Con.

Shortly after it was confirmed that Hayley Atwell was returning as Peggy Carter in Avengers: Doomsday, Hayley Atwell was, predictably, bombarded by questions from the press. Considering her character would probably be the mother of said baby, it makes sense that she would probably know what was up. Whether she meant to or not, Atwell seemed to imply that Steve Rogers might not be bringing the Big Dad Energy we were expecting to Avengers: Doomsday.

“Whether that is reality or a dream or fantasy or a warning, who knows?” Hayley Atwell said. “But the image of that, the symbolism of that, shows the beating heart of this story is human relationships. The stakes could not be higher when the family is threatened or the family is in danger.” 

As one of the most popular cop shows currently airing, you can see why actors would want to find themselves on the set of The Rookie. I mean, bonafide movie star Nathan Fillion is in the titular role. but according to the series creator, Alexi Hawley, there was at least one example of a megastar actor showing up on set not to film there at all, but to be a caring dad. That actor's name - Dwayne Johnson.

The topic came up at Hulu's The Rookie panel at this year's San Diego Comic Con, where surprise guest (and The Rookie North star) Jay Ellis was asking the attending cast and crew about their experiences on the original series. At one point on the discussion, Ellis asked for the "funniest, craziest, out of the blue fan interaction" that the panelists had ever gone through as a result of the show, and it was The Rookie creator Alexi Hawley who had the first answer.

"So," began Hawley, "There's an unknown actor named Dwayne Johnson..." 

The great thing about Spider-Man isn’t that he’s got all these cool powers or that he’s super smart; no, the best thing about him is that he’s always got time to help anyone. He’s the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, after all, so it isn’t unusual to see him help someone cross the street or carry their shopping. Turns out, that isn’t confined to his comic book form, as one Spider-Man cosplayer was caught on camera helping someone in a wheelchair get across a busy intersection.

Christopher Hellenthal was on his way back from his job at a trampoline park in Jonesboro, Arkansas, when he saw a man in a wheelchair struggling to cross the street. Hellenthal put his truck in park and jumped out to help the man get to the other side of the road before the light turned green. Which would have been a heartwarming but hardly news-worthy encounter if it weren’t for one thing: Hellenthal was wearing a $200 Spider-Man costume at the time.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you,’” Christopher Hellenthal said in an interview following the incident. “It happened really fast. I just kind of skedaddled out of there because the light turned green.”

For many Marvel fans, watching Chris Evans’ time as Captain America marked one of the most touching send offs that the franchise has ever had. After a lifetime of service and surviving more certain-death situations than anyone should ever encounter, Steve Rogers got his happy ending. However, it didn’t take long before Marvel Studios started coming up with ideas to bring Evans back into the MCU. In fact, they pitched him ideas over and over until, eventually, Avengers: Doomsday brought him back.

Speaking to the press at San Diego Comic Con 2026, Chris Evans explained that Marvel Studios started pitching him new stories with Steve Rogers before Avengers: Endgame even came out. “When we finished Endgame in 2018, Lou [D’Esposito] and Kevin [Feige] took me to dinner and they were like, ‘We’d love to keep doing movies with Steve Rogers as Nomad,’” Chris Evans said. “And I said, ‘Okay, well, what do you got?’”

Many comic book fans will remember Nomad as the identity that Steve Rogers took after discarding the Captain America persona in the 1970s in the aftermath of the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal. While it was a relatively short-lived departure from this Captain America identity, the “man without a country” persona has remained one of Steve Rogers most notable moments. 

The cast of Daredevil: Born Again usually spend their time in NYC, but their spotlight panel from Florida Supercon 2026 brought them down to Miami for a great time for Marvel fans. Daredevil cast members Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Deborah Ann Woll, and Wilson Bethel all were in attendance to share behind the scenes secrets and take fan questions, and Popverse was there to film the whole event. 

This is one of the many Florida Supercon 2026 panels Popverse filmed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Consult our Florida Supercon 2026 panel hub for a list of all of the panels we have available, and what's left to be released.

Watch Daredevil: Born Again panel with Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Deborah Ann Woll, and Wilson Bethel now: 

Marvel Comics is in the middle of an armageddon, and it's on a strict timetable.

Popverse has learned from sources familiar with the situation that the publisher has quietly had to shift its creative team for the current event series Avengers: Armageddon, after issues came up leading to concern that the series could be delayed. Series artists Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar have been instructed to skip drawing August's Avengers: Armageddon #3, and to attempt to catch up on deadlines by beginning September's Avengers: Armageddon #4 early.

In the gap, semi-retired interior comics artist Ario Anindito has been lured out of a two-year hiatus from drawing comic pages to help get Avengers: Armageddon back on track and is now furiously drawing Avengers: Armageddon #3. As part of this, Anindito was offered a gig doing a variant cover for the issue, which shows off a new Iron Man armor he is designing as part of this last-minute assignment.

On Friday night, DC Comics dominated the Eisner Awards. With Warner Bros. Discovery. accountants' tallies of 2025 sales now finished/checked/doublechecked, DC Comics is boasting that 2025 was its most financially successful year in its 80+ year history. And they've created a new monthly comic book (not a revamp or a relaunch of an existing title) in Absolute Batman that is the best-selling comic book series in arguably the past 40 years. And their long-time rivals, Marvel Comics, are following something DC did 11 years ago and moving to California, and even challenged them to a friendly game of softball.

DC Comics seems to have won the hearts and minds of fans, retailers, and creators if you look at what is happening this weekend at Comic-Con International: San Diego. But, as with any overnight success, it takes years of mistakes, attempts, lessons, failures, and the ability to go from being reactive to being active. And saying, 'Yes and'. Not as a question, but as the start of a conversation. But like any good superhero comic story, there is a tragic secret origin.

For DC, this year's successes come six years after 2020, a year when all of us experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and our lives changed. For DC, it led to a fracturing of the comics distribution model it relied on for the past 20 years and a rush to find a solution that involved enlisting larger comic stores to step up and become comics distributors themselves to fill the gap. While that played out in public, inside DC's Burbank offices (and the employees who began working from home) went through perhaps the largest layoffs DC has experienced in its 80-year history. Roughly 60% of its institutional executive braintrust were gone as part of two rounds of company-wide layoffs as part of a larger restructering effort of WarnerMedia under then-new owners AT&T, with the company losing a publisher, an editor-in-chief, and more. As part of those changes, DC shuttered its merchandise division, downsized the ambitious DC Universe streaming platform, and had to make a lot of hard choices about current ongoing comics, potential ongoing comics, and even linewide revamps that were killed off in the short term.

When you think of Doctor Otto Octavius, what's the first thing you think of? The big glasses? The "fuck ass bob" haircut? Let's not kid ourselves here, it's the arms. And since we all remember that horrifying scene with Otto's arms in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, it would be remiss for Doc Ock's tentacles to not get an upgrade in the upcoming horror series, Midnight Spider-Man by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc. 

At San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Marvel Comics revealed a look at Peach Momoko’s Midnight Special variant cover for Midnight Spider-Man #2, which gives us our first look at Midnight Doc Ock. He’s the grinning fella in the background below, and while he’s still got his glasses and a questionable hair situation going on, writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson has created a new interpretation of Doc and his “arms,” which are the people standing on either side of him. 

"His relationship with the arms in this book is extremely different and when you first meet him in the book, he's at the beginning of a journey, we'll say," Johnson began. "So each of those people has two arms and so between the four of them, they make up the eight arms of Doctor Octopus," editor Nick Lowe chimed in. Johnson continued, "We take a name like 'Doctor Octopus,' we take that name to a much, much different place than you've seen in the comics up 'til now. It's upsetting." 

The Fantastic Four are Marvel's First Family, and are the very face of wholesomeness within Marvel Comics. And it's apt that writer Benjamin Percy would take the FF to much darker waters in the upcoming Midnight Fantastic Four series launching this fall. One of three books set in the Midnight Universe, Midnight Fantastic Four will be a horror-focused take on the beloved group. 

At Marvel's Midnight Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Percy spoke about some of the inspirations for the horrors that lie ahead in the series. 

"One of the things I am going to touch on is drawn from some personal history, in that, members of my family were in a cult. And so I grew up around that, and I'm channeling some of that unease [in Midnight Fantastic Four]," Percy said, when asked by a fan what themes will be explored in the series. Percy also emphasized that "cults and caves" will dominate Midnight Fantastic Four. 

Marvel Comics made a rare move in delaying the rollout of what it's hoping will be the next Ultimate-sized hit for them, Marvel Midnight, but a month since that Band-Aid was pulled off, there are signs popping up of why they did it. And it wasn't over presumed late comics. Marvel, with a completely new senior management structure than they had when Midnight was launched, is changing much of the marketing and ancillary efforts around those comics.

And it's beginning with the variant program.

"Some would say that us here at Marvel have pioneered the science of advanced variants, but, when it came to Midnight, what we really wanted to do was, we really wanted something that felt curated, pared down, intentional," says a Marvel representative during a closed-door meeting with retailers during Comic-Con International: San Diego.

On Friday, July 24, in a bespoke ceremony that was for several hours the centerpiece of this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the largest gathering of comic creators and professionals in one room took place for a ceremony to honor the best comics in the world and find out who won the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards.

Spoilers, but the list of winners made its way online nearly two days before that.

According to a Reddit user under the name 'beginendbegin,' the 2026 Eisner Awards winners were posted prematurely and temporarily on the Comic-Con International: San Diego website sometime in the days of July 22 and July 23. The user then posted a list of what they say are the winners. While the list was later confirmed to be correct, Popverse has been unable to verify how the user came to have the list. The user has not responded to comments, but has been active on Reddit in making their profile more private.

This fall, just in time for spooky season, Marvel Comics is launching a new horror-themed universe called the Midnight Universe. Comprised of three books - Midnight X-Men, Midnight Fantastic Four, and Midnight Spider-Man - the Midnight Universe will explore familiar characters in ways you've never seen before. Midnight X-Men will be written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Matteo Della Fonte, while Midnight Fantastic Four will be written by Benjamin Percy with art by Kev Walker. Lastly, Midnight Spider-Man will be written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by newcomer ScieTronc. 

At San Diego Comic-Con 2026's Midnight Universe panel, Marvel Comics' outgoing publisher and president, Dan Buckley, revealed where the ideas for the Midnight Universe came from, and how it all came together.

"I was just ruminating on some ideas, and I said, 'We haven't really leaned into horror really hard yet, and of course [editor-in-chief] CB [Cebulski] was traveling, so I called [Jonathan] Hickman directly and said, 'Jonathan, what do you think about a horror line?' And I wanted it to be very clear that I want horror in the front seat and superhero in the back. And Jonathan kind of shouted like, 'Can it... terrible idea.' And then I re-presented it to him, and he said 'Okay, that's a better idea,' and he started talking X-Men. And then quickly we called Phil[lip Kennedy Johnson] and Ben[jamin Percy] because they have the disturbed minds to present what we're talking about, and then we kind of got rolling from there." 

The biggest event at San Diego Comic Con 2026 was undoubtedly the Marvel Hall H panel, predominantly because of its reveals. We know who will play the MCU's Ghost Rider and when Black Panther III will hit theaters, but the revelations didn't end there. In fact, at least one of the revelations at Marvel's Hall H extravaganza wasn't even directly referenced on stage, but instead comes to us via a secret, coded message embroidered onto Robert Downey Jr.'s jacket.

That is, the assumed language presumably used by Doctor Doom and his fellow Latverian countrymen.

Before we get into that, though, we have to bring you back to June 2, when the Russo Brothers teased a "special announcement" happening at a British coffee shop during SXSW London. While fans lined up expecting a celeb experience or perhaps a trailer, what they actually got was the Avengers: Doomsday-branded "Dom Latveria" coffee, a special brand partnership between RDJ's coffee brand Happy and Marvel Studios. Each fan in line got a bag of coffee that, while perhaps delicious, was definitely not what they were hoping for.

The Eisner Awards are the defining place where critics, creators, and those working in the comics industry decide what the best comics, comic books, graphic novels, and associated material are for the year prior. This year, those winners (and the nominees) were celebrated in a lush banquet hall in the shadow of Comic-Con International: San Diego, where a who's who of comic creators showed up to find out if they won, who won, and to celebrate the medium known as comics.

The big winner of the weekend was DC Comics, and specifically its Absolute Universe line. Titles from that 2-year-old imprint won for 'Best Continuing Series' (Absolute Batman), 'Best One-Shot/Single Issue' (Absolute Batman 2025 Annual), and Best Limited Series (Absolute Martian Manhunter), and Absolute Martian Manhunter artist Javier Rodriguez won for both 'Best Penciller/Inker' and 'Best Cover Artist,' while Absolute Wonder Woman color artist Jordie Bellaire won in her category, as did Absolute Martian Manhunter letterers Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou in theirs.

Trend-wise, formal innovation beat out commercial popularity, with the top comics in terms of Eisner Awards not lining up 1-on-1 with any of the various sales charts. With titles like Assorted Crisis Events, Drome, Physics for Cats, Nocturnos, 'Blood Harvest,'  and Practical Defense Against Piracy beating out other better-selling books, it shows the awards' judges (and then the comics pros who then voted on them) favored experimentation over blockbuster status.

"The only way to start is by thanking you guys," Scott Snyder says to a capacity crowd during DC Comics' Absolute Universe panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026.

This comes after the Absolute line propelled DC Comics to its most financially successful year in its 80+ year history, the Absolute Batman title outselling any single DC comics run in the past 20 years, and the Absolute titles dominating the 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony. It all started with the various editors and creators of the Absolute Universe titles, but only worked when fans bought comics as they did.

“They came in with guns blazing, and the mission was just pulling these characters out of context that we know them in," Snyder, who in addition to writing the Absolute Batman line is also a consultant for DC on it, says to the crowd. "“DC is just a bunch of people who really care about comics, trying really hard to make them, and most of editorial are there long hours, none of them expected this success, but it comes with this whole level of pressure, and these guys handle it."

DC launched Absolute Green Arrow as a six-issue series dealing with a mystery of a billionaire serial killer who started by killing the person who, in the standard DCU, is the Green Arrow himself. Writer Pornsack Pichetshote and artist Rafael Albuquerque knew they only had six issues for their story, so they were building up to end with a big reveal of who the mystery killer is and could only hope someday the story could be continued.

After readers bought Absolute Green Arrow in droves and overtook DC's internal projections for what sales couldbe, the time to tell the story after Absolute Green Arrow #6 (of 6) became... well, right after.

“We’re presenting a bunch of toys for DC to play with, but we had ideas for how we wanted to keep playing with them,” says Pichetshote during the packed DC Absolute Universe panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego. "You’ll find out who the Green Arrow is in issue #6, and you’ll go on a whole new mystery thriller [in issues 7 through 12."

If there has ever been a man built to be Batman, it is Alan Ritchson. The Reacher actor managed to make being a large man beating up bad guys feel like a superpower, which is half of what you want from a Caped Crusader. Everywhere he goes, Ritchson is being hounded by questions of whether he’ll be the DCU’s Batman. While there isn’t any casting news for him to share, Alan Ritchson did confirm over the weekend that he’s “having conversations” with the studio - just not necessarily about Batman.

“I feel like I have to address this because it comes up all the time,” Alan Ritchson said during the Reacher panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026. “I don’t ever want to lead somebody on to feel like maybe…” At this point, Ritchson paused to pick his words very carefully before continuing, probably to avoid inciting the wrath of an army of lawyers and casting directors. “I’ve had a lot of conversations with DC about what to do, because we would like to work together.”

But it isn’t just working with DC that people are interested in. We all want to know if Alan Ritchson is bringing his absolute unitness to the streets of Gotham.

We don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Doctor Doom is kind of a big deal for Marvel Studios at the moment. While the biggest announcements from San Diego Comic-Con were definitely about the new Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3 castings, the general vibe at the panel was all about Avengers: Doomsday. How completely did Robert Downey Jr. take over Hall H? Enough to change the San Diego Comic-Con logo whenever he was on stage.

This was one of those small details that show how much thought goes into setting the stage for a big show like the Hall H panels. As Robert Downey Jr. walked onto stage in his green suit decked out with mysterious writing, the logos behind him changed. This was no longer San Diego Comic-Con; the panel was now part of San Diego Doom Con. Because if there is a supervillain who has a big enough ego to make a whole convention dedicated to him, it is Victor von Doom.

The feeling that the night belonged to Doom was compounded by the fact that Marvel had passed out a load of Doom masks to attendees in the audience. The new logo for Doom Con stuck around until RDJ had left the stage and was honestly a pretty small detail when compared to the spectacle of all these stars on the stage and the new trailer for the movie that was very different from what we all spotted last week. But it helped do an important job, which was to make Avengers: Doomsday feel more important to the panel than it actually was.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees snuck up on everyone — cartoonist Patrick Horvath included — to go from a meek six-issue comic series to a major franchise in comic publishing. After it grew from a one-off series to a series of books, one-shots, specials, and even a crossover with DC Comics' superhero, Horvath is now deciding to end it all in 2027 with Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: The Summer and the Fall.

“When I initially pitched the first arc, I honestly thought that would be the end of it, but about halfway through writing and drawing that, I had the spark of what would grow into a second and third installment," says Horvath in a statement circulated to The Hollywood Reporter. "It’s bittersweet to be bringing this to a close now, but mostly I’m filled with a lot of gratitude for IDW taking a chance on me and the global comics community for giving me such an insanely warm welcome.”

But in a modern world where people love the fictional idea of serial killers, especially when dressed in gigantic costumes ala Five Nights at Freddy's, you can see how Horvath's vision could be something people would want to see, especially when it's set as a period piece, with the first volume in the '80s, the second in the '90s, and this finale set in the early '00s.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles panel at Florida Supercon 2026 was there to prove to every turtles fan what they already know - that you don't get far without your closest allies. The panel celebrating the TMNT featured their co-creator, Kevin Eastman himself, alongside numerous voice actors who have leant their talents to the mutants over the years, including Rob Paulsen, Barry Gordon, Cam Clarke, Renae Jacobs, and Townsend Coleman. And don't worry - if you were, say, busy in the sewers instead of in Miami this year, we've got you covered: the full panel is available to watch now. 

This is one of the many Florida Supercon 2026 panels Popverse filmed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Consult our Florida Supercon 2026 panel hub for a list of all of the panels we have available, and what's left to be released.

Watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Kevin Eastman, Rob Paulsen, Barry Gordon, Cam Clarke, Renae Jacobs, and Townsend Coleman now: 

Cult film Josie & the Pussycats is celebrating a quarter century of existence this year, and one of the stops it made was Florida Supercon 2026. That's right, OG cast members Rachel Leigh Cook and Rosario Dawson were live at Miami's biggest pop culture bash, and as I'm sure we don't have to tell you, we wouldn't miss it. In fact, not only did we get to see the real-life Josie and Valerie take the stage, but thanks to our camera crew, we were able to bring it back to you too.

This is one of the many Florida Supercon 2026 panels Popverse filmed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Consult our Florida Supercon 2026 panel hub for a list of all of the panels we have available, and what's left to be released.

Watch the Josie & the Pussycats panel with Rachel Leigh Cook and Rosario Dawson now: 

Here is a little behind-the-scenes info for you all; we at Popverse don’t always know what is going to be announced at a convention ahead of time, so we have to guess. And when a panel is as big as the Marvel Studios Hall H Panel at San Diego Comic-Con, we sometimes write up what we think are going to be the big announcements ahead of time and try to play “fill in the gaps” with the details. Which is why we currently have a “Marvel announces MCU X-Men cast!” article uselessly sitting in our system.

Like everyone else, we went into the Marvel Studios SDCC 2026 panel expecting to hear about the X-Men and get some confirmation about who will be in Avengers: Secret Wars, but that isn’t what we got. Instead, we got the surprise announcements that Ryan Gosling is going to be Ghost Rider and David Jonsson is playing T’Challa II in Black Panther 3, both of which are out in 2028. If you had those announcements on your SDCC Bingo Card, you’ve clearly got your finger on the pulse better than 90% of this industry and should probably be doing our jobs.

But the thing is, I’m not even mad about this. Don’t get me wrong; I want the X-Men casting announcement, both because I know it is something people want to read and because it will help show us what Marvel Studios has planned for life after Avengers: Secret Wars. But not knowing also tells us something, and that is that Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars are going to have consequences, to the point where even telling us who is in Secret Wars will spoil things for Doomsday.

If you know Mister Miracle like Tom King does, you know that you can’t have a Mister Miracle TV show without Big Barda. The husband and wife team have been one of the most enduring couples in DC Comics since they were introduced in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World series. However, finding the voice of Big Barda was a “fun problem” for Tom King and the rest of the producers of the Mister Miracle animated series.

That is how Tom King described their attempts to find the voice of Big Barda during the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026. She’s a unique figure in DC Comics, as she is a brutal and aggressive fighter while also having her romantic relationship with Mister Miracle at the core of her character. As showrunner for the Mister Miracle animated series, King is privy to all the information about the show. However, he couldn’t be tricked into letting any of the unannounced casting slip at the panel. “They’re good. They’re real good,” he insisted.

The most he would say is that finding the right voice for Big Barda presented a Big Problem for the producers. “Guy, if you ever want to have fun, cast Big Barda. Oh my God, what a fun casting problem that was.”

Just because Steve Rogers is coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t mean that he’s going to be asking for his shield back.

In an interview with Variety following Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, current MCU Captain America Anthony Mackie teased that Steve Rogers will have an all-new identity when he returns in December’s Avengers: Doomsday. Well, all-new unless you’re a fan of comic book Captain America stories, that is.

When asked, “Steve Rogers is returning, not Captain America,” Mackie responded, “Steve Rogers in the comic book — there is a comic book, you say you're a nerd, read the comic book. Don't be a nerd by trade, be a nerd by fact. So, in the comic book, Steve Rogers becomes Nomad.”

In case you missed it, Marvel Studios’ MCU is getting a Spirit of Vengeance: Ghost Rider. As revealed at their Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Ryan Gosling will play Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider in a film set to be released in 2028, directed by Shawn Levy. But who is this Ghost Rider fella? What is this “Spirit of Vengeance” business anyway? Jules, what are you even talking about? Let me explain. 

In Marvel Comics, lots of characters have been Ghost Rider before (going all the way back to the Ice Age, actually), but the most well-known iteration of the character is Johnny Blaze. Johnny’s Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1972’s Marvel Spotlight #5, as part of a larger wave of supernatural-themed characters that included Blade, Werewolf By Night, and Moon Knight that proliferated in the early to mid 1970s. Johnny Blaze was introduced as a daredevil stunt rider who performed in a carnival.

But when Johnny’s mentor, a man aptly named Crash, fell deathly ill, Johnny made a pact with the demon Zarathos so that Crash would live. Under Zarathos’s influence, Johnny Blaze became the Spirit of Vengeance, a figure who hunts down all those who hurt the innocent, wherever they are. The trademark ability of the Spirit of Vengeance (and any Ghost Rider) is something called the Penance Stare, where the guilty is made to look directly into the flaming skull’s empty eye sockets, and in that moment, they experience every ounce of pain they’ve unleashed onto other people in their lifetime. This Penance Stare attack reduces the perp to a hollow husk. 

Marvel Studios' Hall H panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026 is over, but the questions that came out of it are just beginning. Sure, we know all about who's playing Ghost Rider and even the Black Panther III release date, but there's a whole lot of mystery still surrounding a much earlier project - this year's Avengers: Doomsday. And as you might already know if you've been on the ol' Marvel forums, one of those mysteries has got to do with Doctor Doom's costume...

Specifically - that weird arm band he's sporting.

For context, SDCC has given us the closest looks at the Doctor Doom suit yet. At Hall H in particular, that came by way of an all-new-poster for the film in which Robert Downey Jr. will debut as Victor Von Doom, which you can take a look at here:

The MCU has a new Ghost Rider, and it is Johnny Blaze. Playing him is Ryan Gosling, who is reuniting with Star Wars: Starfighter director Shawn Levy for his first Marvel Studios film. We don’t know much else about the new Ghost Rider movie other than it has a 2028 release window, but we do know that it should absolutely be an R-rated movie following the success of Deadpool & Wolverine.

That movie, which was also directed by Shawn Levy, already proved that there is an appetite for R-rated MCU films. Like Deadpool, whose foul mouth and penchant for bloody murder set him apart from most superheroes, Johnny Blaze is difficult to see as a traditional hero. He is the Spirit of Vengeance, and not just because of Nicholas Cage’s previous outing as the character. 

The entire point of Johnny Blaze is that he has the powers of a demon, which allow him to punish the wicked. He is scary and intense enough to inspire fear in the worst of humanity. Ghost Rider’s main power is forcing people to feel the inescapable weight of their actions, crushing their psyche beneath their guilt.

The mantle of Black Panther is a heavy burden in the MCU. Shuri took it on in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but now it looks like it is falling to someone else in the newly announced Black Panther 3. David Jonsson, who is best known for his roles in The Long Walk and Alien: Romulus, is joining the MCU as T’Challa II, the son of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa and the new Black Panther.

That was some big news that came out of the Marvel Studios panel in the iconic Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con 2026; David Jonsson is playing a grown-up T’Challa II in Black Panther 3, which is set to be in cinemas on December 15, 2028. T’Challa II was first introduced as a child in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022, played by Divine Love Konadu-Sun in a brief cameo. What hasn’t been explained is how T’Challa II has grown so big so quickly. 

A lot of this might depend on the outcome of both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Both movies come out before Black Panther 3 and will undoubtedly have a big impact on the MCU by the time Black Panther 3 comes out. Will there be another multi-year timeskip, similar to what happened in Avengers: Endgame? Or will the new MCU continuity have a more flexible approach to time than we’re used to? Also, this could spell bad news for Letitia Wright’s Shuri during the upcoming two Avengers movies, as she may be forced to give up the title of Black Panther.

Ryan Coogler's Black Panther III will hit theaters December 15, 2028.

That's the news out of San Diego Comic Con 2026, where Marvel Studios confirmed Black Panther III is happening, they've also confirmed that Sinners director Ryan Coogler will return to finish the trilogy he started all the way back in 2018. 

The revelation came at the Marvel Studios panel held at's coveted Hall H panel, where Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige brought Coogler himself on stage to announce not just Black Panther III's existence (remember, it hadn't been officially confirmed, only rumored, before this), but that it already had a release date. Of course, that date is over two years from now, and as we've seen in the past, Marvel Studios is wont to change their release dates.

Today is a big day for depressed people who love reading emotionally devastating X-Men comics (me): Ryan Reynolds rolled up to the Marvel Studios Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con wearing a grey and black Deadpool costume.

The news was shared by Erik Voss on Twitter, and it has our brains working overtime. Being Popverse’s resident Man of the Claw, the suit that Reynolds wore immediately activates my Uncanny X-Force senses, a critically acclaimed run that was written by Rick Remender with art by Jerome Opeña, Phil Noto, Billy Tan, and many more, wherein Wade wore a grey and black suit. 

That said, in Marvel Rivals, Deadpool has had his X-Force grey and black costume available as a skin for a few months now. So is this another instance of media synergy, rather than a concerted moment of “I see you, the saddest of all X-Men fans?” That all depends on whether you’re a “glass half full” or “half empty” type of person. 

All along, Avengers: Doomsday has felt like Marvel Studios trying to get the band back together. With the recasting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and bringing back the Russo Brothers to direct, we’re waiting for the big Avengers: Endgame reunion. So much so that Marvel is rereleasing Endgame in cinemas in the run-up to Doomsday with a bit of new footage that is retconning some events to set-up Doomsday, and now we might know what that includes.

During their highly-anticipated Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Marvel Studios treated fans to a new trailer for what is being called Avengers: Endgame Encore. This is a rerelease of the previously highest-grossing film of all time with new footage to help tie it in to Avengers: Doomsday. We still don’t know exactly what that footage is (or how it explains the fact that Doctor Doom is running around with Tony Stark’s face), but the trailer has one important line that may give us a clue.

“You mess with time, it tends to mess back,” Iron Man says in the new trailer, which includes audience reaction to the first release of Avengers: Endgame. That movie, of course, featured the Time Heist that sent Avengers to various points in MCU history, including previous movies. It has always been expected that playing with time would have unintended consequences, which is something that The Ancient One warned the Avengers about. Perhaps this line is the hint at those consequences.

Ever since the trailer was screened for a select few at a panel at New York Comic-Con last year, fans have been wondering when the VisionQuest show starring Paul Bettany will hit Disney+. But now, we’ve finally got all the answers. Or at least some of them. 

At San Diego Comic-Con 2026’s Marvel Studios panel, MCU boss Kevin Feige revealed that VisionQuest will be hitting Disney+ on October 14. That’s less than 3 months away, if you’re keeping track. 

Over the past year, Bettany has been making the rounds on the convention circuit dishing on the themes of VisionQuest. James Spader will reprise his role as Ultron, Vision’s “dad” in the MCU, in a story about “fathers and sons” and “intergenerational trauma,” according to Bettany. Spader first joined the MCU when he debuted as Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron all the way back in 2015. 

Get ready to ride, Marvel fans - the MCU has a brand new Ghost Rider. Announced at San Diego Comic Con, Ryan Gosling is officially joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as that most Hellish of Heroes, Ghost Rider - AKA Johnny Blaze.

The announcement arrived during the (absolutely packed!) Hall H panel that Disney was presenting for Marvel Studios, and Gosling himself was there as part of the reveal. It was a pretty big shocker for everyone lucky enough to get into the room - ahead of his entrance onto the stage, there was no official word that Gosling was going to be a guest at Comic Con International this year. Also of note, the 2028 Ghost Rider film will be directed by Shawn Levy, director of Deadpool & Wolverine and of Gosling's upcoming Star Wars film, Starfighter.

As Marvel fans probably don't need to hear, Gosling won't be the first actor to portray the Faustian stunt-cyclist Blaze on the big screen: that was, of course, Nicolas Cage. That said, Gosling will be the person who introduces the role to the "Sacred Timeline" MCU, and perhaps more interestingly than that, will continue the trend of slowly building out Marvel's vision of Hell within that Universe.

For decades, Bill Sienkiewicz has been one of the big names in pushing comic books as an art form. A previously announced documentary exploring his career has a new trailer that reveals names like Vincent D’Onofrio, Kevin Smith, Peter Ramsey, and Jim Lee all singing the artist’s praises. Bill Sienkiewicz: That Polish Guy is a documentary that explores one of comic books’ most influential artists.

The first trailer for Bill Sienkiewicz: That Polish Guy was revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2026. “Bill has been incredibly influential in comics, film, music, and beyond, and this trailer is a peek into a film that will let everyone experience the depth of his creativity and his untouchable legacy,” explained producer Sal Abbinanti. It features figures from comic books, film, and television singing the praises of the artist, whose work includes iconic art for Moon Knight, New Mutants, Elektra: Assassin, and Daredevil.

“Comic books have been long looked upon as the bastard stepchild of illustration and fine art, and I don’t believe that,” the trailer’s opening narration by Sienkiewicz reads. “A comic book artist or an illustrator or a fine artist; art is art, and I don’t see any difference.”

Well, Marvel has just openly challenged DC Comics to something unheard of in the past 30 years.

An inter-company softball game.

During the Marvel Fanfare panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026, incoming editor-in-chief Stephen Wacker spoke out in what might be his first official act as Marvel's top editor.

We've seen some dramatic new takes on Spider-Man thanks to Marvel's Spider-Verse, but in the new series, Midnight Spider-Man, I think we could be getting a first: Peter Parker as an otaku.

“Peter Parker is a fan of Japanese culture in this story," series writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson says during the Marvel Midnight Universe panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026. 

According to Johnson, this Midnight version of Spider-Man will be a fervent manga reader (and they're creating a new manga in the story for him to read), but the character will also have in his bedroom what's described as a Japanese imperial mask from a World War 2 pilot.

If you thought Absolute Batman was a little swole, wait until you read October's Absolute Batman #25. It'll be more pages than normal issues — "oversized" in comics industry terminology.

“It’s kind of a turning point," says series artist Nick Dragotta during DC's Absolute Universe panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026.  "The pieces are set. And the next 25 [issues] are where all the pieces fall and who these characters all become."

That dovetails into what series writer Scott Snyder said recently about how Absolute Batman #25 is a turning point.

From the start, DC Comics' Absolute Flash has been intended to have a different feel than the traditional Flash comics and even the other Absolute titles. Series writer Jeff Lemire wanted his Flash to be the teenage hero of the Absolute Universe.

But you can't have a teenage superhero in any DC Universe for too long without thinking of the Teen Titans. And here they come.

"We wanted to start bringing in more teenage heroes," Lemire says during DC's Absolute Universe panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026. "The first one comes up in issue #20."

Every year, DC honors its most popular character, Batman, with one concentrated, specialized, and nearly Hallmark-ified day called, fittingly enough, Batman Day. Launched initially back in 2014 to celebrate the hero's 75th anniversary, it has become a tentpole event with DC (and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery) extending it to the Warner Bros. Pictures backlot, theme parks, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and more. But for Batman Day 2026, DC is recentering it on the proverbial Batcave of Batman: your local comic shop.

"... we want to create something to celebrate Batman Day that really makes the fans celebrate in comic shops," says a sales & marketing representative from DC during a private event for comic shops that Popverse attended during Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026. "So we want them to give you an exclusive product that can only be gotten at the comic stores featuring our hottest properties."

For Batman Day 2026, DC is publishing a rare crossover comic teaming up Batman with the hit variant that's the best-selling comic book in modern history, Absolute Batman. Batman of Two Worlds features two separate but complementary stories by the lead writers of both the Absolute Batman series and the flagship Batman series. These days, Absolute Batman routinely sells roughly half a million copies for each issue, and his crossover would certainly make it an even bigger hit for comic shops, digital comics platforms, bookstores, and elsewhere.

You’re probably tired of us harping on about how big a hit Absolute Batman has been for DC Comics, but, if anything, we’re probably understating it. In fact, the entire Absolute line of comics has sold so well that, according to DC Comics President and Publisher Jim Lee, the company has had its best year ever.

“We’re kicking ass in publishing,” Jim Lee rather bluntly said when a fan suggested DC was in a “slump” at the moment during the Jim Lee Spotlight panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026. “We had the single best year in the history of DC Comics.”

If someone would have access to data to confirm that is legit, it would be Jim Lee. While Lee didn’t give any specific data – or even quantify how he was judging that success – to back up that statement, he did mention a couple of things that have driven sales for the company. “Obviously the Absolute line, the quickness of it. The comics line. DC Finest. DC Go. We’re putting stuff out for young readers. Middle readers. Young adult. Middle readers. Libraries. Dollar Tree. We are putting comics everywhere.”

You thought the casting in HBO's upcoming Lanterns was already pretty spot on, but recently, fans got to see exactly how much one of the show's leads reflected his character form the Green Lantern comics. That lead would be Aaron Pierre, who of course plays Green-Lantern-in-training John Stewart in the DCU series, and apparently even before he was cast in the role, Pierre was proving his will power.

That is, by showing up to an audition after a major injury.

The topic came up at San Diego Comic Con 2026, where HBO was hosting a special Lanterns panel in Hall H, replete with cast and crew including both Pierre and costar Kyle Chandler, who plays Hal Jordan. At one point in the discussion, Pierre was asked about the physicality of playing an action hero like ex-marine Stewart, and Pierre told a story that got more than a few very worried looks from audience members.

At its core, Clayface has always been a body horror story wrapped up in all the superhero trappings of Batman comics. The early trailers we’ve seen for the upcoming movie certainly feel like it is leaning heavily into that angle – so much so that it made DC Studios head James Gunn squeamish when Clayface director James Watkins put together his pitch for the film.

During the Jim Lee and Friends panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026, which covered everything from comics to animation to films based in the DC universe, James Watkins came on stage to talk about the highly anticipated movie. According to Watkins, DC Studios head James Gunn had to look away from the imagery that he put together for the film. However, that’s kind of the reaction he was hoping for.

“When I first spoke about how I wanted to do this with James [Gunn], with Peter [Safran], with everybody,” Watkins told the audience. “I kind of gave, ‘This is my vision of it. This is what I want it to be.’ I remember I put together a whole thing; there was lots of references, some really icky reference stuff. And James kind of turned away and looked away, and I realized he’s actually quite squeamish, James Gunn.”

You heard it at San Diego Comic Con first, folks - Laura Linney is joining James Gunn's DCU. The revelation came during the Lanterns panel, which featured also showrunners Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy, among others. And what's fascinating about Linney's casting (beyond just who she's playing) is that for Mundy, her inclusion is a bit of a reunion for a project that he showran for her before - that is, Netflix's crime drama Ozark.

But first, I know you want to hear who the accomplished actor is playing, so let's get to it.

Laura Linney is joining Lanterns as an unspecified Guardian of the Universe - that is, one of the ancient beings that crafted both the Green Lantern rings and (if the show stays true to the comics) the main villains of the series, the Manhunters. What we don't know at the moment is A.) which Guardian Linney will be playing, as there are several specified members of the species in the Green Lantern comics, or B.) whether the show will transform Linney into a comic-accurate version of a Guardian. That is, this:

Hard to believe it has been seven (SEVEN!) years since Mahershala Ali and Kevin Feige stood on stage at San Diego Comic Con and told the world we were getting a new Blade movie in the MCU. In the years since, the film has gained and lost directors and potentially lost its Oscar-winning star. While Marvel Studios hasn’t officially cancelled their Blade film, the person who designed the logo seems to think the movie is as good as dead.

Despite a flurry of attempts to get the movie off the ground, the original logo seems to be all we’re ever going to see from Mahershala Ali as Blade. According to Justin Claus Harder, who designed the logo that was used to announce the MCU Blade film, the movie is officially dead. “RIP BLADE with Mahershala! We hardly knew ye!!” Harder wrote on social media. “Shame they couldn’t get this one off the ground together but it was awesome to see my logo at Hall H in 2019 and still super proud of it!”

Harder later clarified that he is just going off of what Kevin Feige said in a recent Happy Sad Confused interview, where he confirmed that he feels “like a gigantic loser” for not being able to get Mahershala Ali’s Blade film made. Officially, the MCU Blade movie is still in development, but evidence is mounting that it might never get made or it might look very different from what the studio initially promised. Perhaps what they say is true; there's only ever going to be one Blade.

Even though Harrison Ford seems to have walked away from the character, Disney will never be done with Indiana Jones. A new Indiana Jones comic book has just been announced from Marvel Comics, bringing back the world’s most famous archaeologist for a new adventure that takes place just after Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The new Indiana Jones comic book series was one of the new announcements that came from San Diego Comic Con 2026. Titled Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium, the five-issue limited series is written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Aaron Kuder. In it, Indy is once again looking for an object of biblical power, pursued by Nazis, and running into his old flame Marion Ravenwood.

"In the wake of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy’s most notorious villains, including the impossible return of an archenemy, seek a terrifying new source of power to recoup their loss – one that’s fallen into the hands of his former companion, Marion Ravenwood," reads Marvel's description of the new series. "Now Indiana Jones has to race to the far corners of the globe in search of a biblical weapon, embarking on an epic quest that will put both his archaeology skills and skepticism of the supernatural to the ultimate test!"

There were a couple of big questions fans had after The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuted on Prime Video in 2022. One of them was essentially: where was Celeborn? We learned that the husband of Galadriel, portrayed by Morfydd Clark, was believed to be dead - a fact that, if true, would've seriously broken J.R.R. Tolkien's canon. Now, we know that Celeborn is not only alive, but he's being played by Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower. But here's the thing - it's been two full seasons since Celeborn was first mentioned on the show, and if he wasn't dead, just where the hell was he?

While we're still going to have to wait until Rings of Power season 3 to get an exact answer to that question, we did get a couple of hints at the Prime Video panel held at this year's San Diego Comic Con. The panel was hosted by Benjamin Walker (AKA RoP's High King Gil-galad) and attended by Bower himself, so the subject of the character's entrance onto the set was obviously going to come up. Walker referred to Celeborn as having been in something like Harry Potter's Azkaban for "thousands of years," and in response, Bower pointed the finger toward the machinations of Sauron (Charlie Vickers), saying that a tool he frequently used was harming his enemies' "loved ones."

I'm sure you can see where this is going - has Celeborn been a prisoner of Sauron the entire time Rings of Power has thus far been focused on? It's not impossible - in fact, the SDCC-premiere trailer that played before the panel appeared to show Celeborn in what looks like Middle-Earth prison garb, as you can see here:

Few people cast a bigger shadow across the history of comics than Jack Kirby. The legendary artist helped create many of the most iconic and enduring characters in comic book history, but it is his Fourth World stories and characters that have become a large part of his legacy. His influence continues to be felt in the upcoming Mister Miracle TV show, with Tom King stressing that every design and every character needed to be “more Kirby.”

“Jack Kirby is my every single day these days,” Tom King explained during The Annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026. “I’m the showrunner on the Mister Miracle TV show.” After a brief bit of applause, King stressed to the audience, “Guys. Seriously. It’s fucking good. I tried to get some clips to show up. They did not approve them. We’re gonna all fucking be back here in a year, and I’m gonna show you an episode, okay. Promise?”

Going back to the subject of Jack Kirby, who created Mister Miracle as part of his ambitious Fourth World story, Tom King insisted that he was keeping Kirby in the heart of the Mister Miracle show, from the art to the dialogue.

There really isn’t any medium that Barbie hasn’t found herself in over the years. Following on from starring in one of the biggest movies in recent years, the doll-turned-feminist-icon is dipping her plastic toes back into the world of comic books. Dark Horse has confirmed that they’re bringing back the funny side of Barbie comics.

“Dark Horse is thrilled to announce our new partnership with Mattel to bring the world of Barbie to life through a new comic book series,” Dark Horse posted on social media. “More details to come at a later date.”

The post was accompanied by artwork by Natalie Nardozza, a comic book and cover artist who has worked with DC and Dark Horse before. It isn’t clear if Nardozza will be the artist on the upcoming Barbie comic book or if she was commissioned to produce the artwork for the announcement - but we do know she is a big Barbie fan.

DC Comics is returning to the Wild West.

Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death is a new six-issue series by writer/artist Michael Walsh, announced as part of DC's Next Level panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026. Walsh, who is best known for his creator-owned series Exquisite Corpses and The Silver Coin, is taking a break to do a rare work-for-hire project with this series due to, he says, a long-held desire to do a horror-western.

”We’re gonna take Jonah Hex and introduce him to a whole new mythology, and it’s going to be a very horror-leaning book with a lot of sensibilities of what we love about Westerns… isolation," says Walsh.

He's back.

Virgil Hawkins.

Static.

Comics writer/editor Jenny Blake Isabella just walked off the stage at the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards gala after accepting the prestigious Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, and from the way she tells us all... she's just getting started.

Blake, who created or co-created such Black Lightning, Misty Knight, and the Champions, has had a storied career across comics, and just over a year ago came out as transgender and told elements of her story in an autobiographical short published in DC Comics' DC Pride 2025 anthology. On Friday evening, Isabella gave a heartwarming speech that also served as a rallying cry for the next stage in her career.

The Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing is an annual award given out to one (and sometimes two) writers as a bit of a lifetime achievement award, with the caveat that those chosen are underrated historically for their contributions, as Finger was for years as co-creator of Batman.

Batman was born to stand up to bullies, to fight the corrupt... but you can imagine it's easier to do it with made-up villains than real-life neo-Nazi white supremacists that have cropped up in places like Charlottesville, Virginia, Tellico Plains, Tennessee, and elsewhere. But in October's Absolute Batman 2025 Annual #1, writer/artist Daniel Warren Johnson brandished DC Comics' Batman to raze a group of militant racists, and literally run them over with his Batmobile dump truck. And tonight, that story won one of comics' most prestigious awards.

And as Daniel Warren Johnson relates in his acceptance speech for 'Best One-Shot/Single Issue' at the 2026 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, he wasn't sure if DC was even capable of greenlighting it given that they're a huge, megalithic corporation and this kind of story could be seen as controversial.

But they did.

For the first time in a long time (as in ever, in some respects), DC's heroine Vixen is getting a solo ongoing series.

Announced at DC's Next Level panel during Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026, the new Vixen series by writer Stephanie Williams and artist Khary Randolph is part of the company's 'Next Level' initiatives to pair creators with characters they feel strongly about. And boy, does Williams feel strongly about Vixen. 

“Two years. Two long years. I remember sharing on Threads that I had a Vixen pitch that was burning a hole in my drafts,” Williams says during the panel. "I want this book to be [Vixen] telling us who she is. If Rihanna decided to be a superhero [that'd be Vixen], but not Tyra Banks though."

It feels like The Walking Dead franchise will never be truly over. With multiple spin-offs and sequels, the series has truly spawned a universe as sprawling as any on television. However, fans can at least look forward to the final chapter in one Walking Dead story as The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 4 has been confirmed as the final season of Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s zombie adventures.

That news was part of The Walking Dead panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026. Executive Producer Scott M. Gimple confirmed that the fourth and final season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will air in 2027. Will that mean the end of Daryl Dixon’s post-apocalyptic adventures? That depends entirely on whether he manages to survive to the end of the season. Surely there is more of Europe for the cast and crew to destroy before the series comes to an end.

If that truly is the end of Daryl Dixon, it will also mark the end of one Norman Reedus’ time in The Walking Dead. Reedus first appeared in the third episode of The Walking Dead back in 2010, so he has been playing the character for more than a decade-and-a-half now. When the final season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs in 2027, it could mark the end of a remarkable journey for both the character and fans.

Ever since Lanterns was announced, fans of the Green Lantern comics have been asking - how is Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) going to fit into the whole thing? Well, thanks to some of the cast and creators, we have a little bit better of an idea. Much like Hannibal Lecter is to Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, Sinestro will act as a source of helpful - but also devastating - information for the show's detective character, Hal Jordan.

We got this info courtesy of HBO's Lanterns panel, presented at San Diego Comic Con 2026. In a bit of footage shown exclusively to attendees in Hall H, Kyle Chandler's Jordan heads to a prison somewhere on an unnamed (non-Earth) planet. As we learned in the latest trailer, Jordan and Green Lantern-in-training John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) find themselves facing DC baddies the Manhunters, and Jordan goes to seek Sinestro's advice for dealing with them.

Of course, when you seek aid from a mind as dangerous as Sinestro's, the answer you get isn't going to be entirely helpful.

Among the flurry of announcements that have come out of San Diego Comic Con 2026, we’ve gotten something extra special for Percy Jackson fans. The Percy Jackson and the Olympians panel at SDCC confirmed the Season 3 release date in just a few months, while those at the panel were treated to the opening of the first episode, which sets up the adventure to come: find the di Angelo siblings.

Last year it was revealed that Levi Chrisopulos has been cast as Nico di Angelo, while Olive Abercrombie has joined as Nico’s older sister, Bianca di Angelo. The di Angelo siblings are (spoilers) revealed to be the offspring of one of the major Greek gods (we won’t get into exactly who just yet in case fans of the show aren’t quite caught up on books). Nico plays a major role in the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Titan’s Curse, as well as becomes the lead in his own spin-off series, The Nico di Angelo Adventures.

While the clip shown at San Diego Comic Con didn’t give us our first look at Chrisopulos and Abercrombie in their roles, it did set up the initial plot of the third season, which is focused on finding the di Angelo siblings and bringing them to Camp Half-Blood.

This year's Comic-Con International: San Diego is Popverse's fifth time at the convention, and for this year's event, we have partnered with Dark Horse Comics. They are sponsoring our wall-to-wall coverage of the event across four days, four nights, and all the surprise stuff we have rolling out over the next few weeks because of it.

While the Popverse team is bouncing around the San Diego bayfront, Dark Horse Comics has a booth in the heart of the SDCC showfloor at #2515 (here's a map), where it is hosting signings, events, and a full-on pop-up store that also stocks several SDCC exclusives (full list here). They also have a packed panel schedule, which you can see here, that includes Dark Horse & Dungeons & Dragons & Comics, an Avatar: The Last Airbender panel, a Black Hammer 10th Anniversary panel, a celebration of Three Worlds / Three Moons, and more.

We at Popverse thank Dark Horse for supporting us and the 100+ stories we have planned for this weekend.

Mary Jane Watson has been many things. 

Model.

Actor.

After five years, Venom and Eddie Brock are about to be back together again.

Announced during Marvel's Next Big Thing panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026, the two are reuniting as the publisher relaunches the ongoing Venom series, and with it, a new creative team in writer Charles Soule (Daredevil, Star Wars) and Tommaso Bianchi (Daredevil/Punisher: The Devil's Trigger, Thunderbolts).

"Eddie Brock and Venom are reunited — and it feels so good! After years apart, once again they are Venom, and Eddie is not going to let this opportunity go to waste," reads Marvel's description of Venom Volume 7. "He is determined to be the ultimate host for the symbiote and be the hero he knows he can be…and he’s not going to let any other super heroes say otherwise!"

Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein's Hulk saga has ripped the Hulk in two, and in its place created a new eldritch evil version of the Jade Giant known as the Infernal Hulk. Now that the Infernal Hulk has beaten the Hulk, he is taking on Marvel's other big heroes in a monster quest with the goal of triggering an 'Age of Monsters' where all of Marvel's heroes become corrupt.

This part of the saga kicks off this September with a one-shot titled Infernal Hulk vs. Wolverine, and now we know it'll be a series of one-shots leading towards a showdown with the entire Avengers team as revealed in Marvel's Next Big Thing panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026. Here's how it unfolds:

Related: Marvel's Hulk War will see a Hulk-verse of Hulks fighting other Hulks across the Hulkscape

We're still freaking out about this giant piece of news out of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power panel at San Diego Comic Con - that is, that The Boys star Simon Pegg will voice none other than Durin's Bane (or as you may know him, the Balrog) in season 3. We imagine that you have a bunch of questions after hearing this, but we'd wager that the biggest one among them is something to the tune of: 'Wait, does the Balrog have a voice?'

The answer is somewhat complicated.

The announcement came during some behind-the-scenes footage played during the Prime Video Hall H panel at this year's SDCC, which focused on the SFX of the upcoming third season of The Lord of the Rings prequel show. When Simon Pegg appeared in the footage, an audible confusion arose from the gathered crowd, and when the lower third credited him as "The Balrog," a massive cheer erupted. So I'll say that, whether or not the inclusion of a speaking Balrog is accurate, for the SDCC attendees, it was at the very least exciting.

For nearly 40 years, Marvel Comics had a collections program in which it reprinted classic (and in many cases, out-of-print) stories from its long history and presented in a prestige format. It was called Marvel Masterworks, and in 2025 Marvel abruptly canceled the line due to diminishing interest from readers. Now, another publisher has stepped up to bring it back.

Clover Press has obtained the license to restart the Marvel Masterworks line under its own banner, as it announced to retailers during a closed-door event today at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Clover Press' Marvel Masterworks line is scheduled to begin in 2027, with re-issues of some previous editions and continuation of some of the long-running collection series that ended abruptly with Marvel's decision to stop the line themselves.

It's not every day that Batman shares a book with Batman. But Batman Day is that day.

Announced during DC's Gotham City panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026, Batman of Two Worlds is an upcoming one-shot crossover event between Absolute Batman and DC's mainline Batman, all done for the annual Batman Day festivities which will take place this year on September 19.

"The mission was to show what’s special about each version," says Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder of the one-shot. "You don’t have to know anything about Batman, we tried to make something that can invite you in."

Even when he’s trying to sort out his work-life balance, Jim Lee finds himself a busy man. Between drawing comics and serving as president, publisher, and CCO of DC Comics, he’s constantly spinning a lot of plates. However, he did recently turn down a high-profile television appearance on The Masked Singer, not because of how much they were willing to pay him but because he was worried he’d be so bad that it would overshadow everything else he’s ever done.

During the Jim Lee Spotlight Panel at San Diego Comic Con 2026, the prolific comic book artist talked about the possibility of him appearing on TV or in films. Lee quickly dismissed the idea because he is such an atrociously bad actor that he didn’t want to “burden a filmmaker or showrunner that much.” That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been offered a spot on TV shows before. Jim Lee explained that he turned down a chance to be on The Masked Singer because he was worried it would go viral for all the wrong reasons.

“Another thing is the Masked Singer. Have you guys ever seen that show?” Jim Lee began. “They offered. They said, ‘Do you wanna come on and dress up and sing?’ Yeah, and I said, ‘No!’ I am tone deaf. Whatever I can do art-wise, I can’t do singing-wise.” 

Batman: Caped Crusader is breaking out of animation as its first video game adaptation has just been announced. Not only will Amazon Prime subscribers get to watch the new season of Batman: Caped Crusader, but they’ll also get to play the new video game for free on the same day. Best of all, several of the series’ voice cast are returning, including the newly announced voice of the Joker.

On day one of San Diego Comic Con, Amazon announced that Batman: Caped Crusader – Chronicles is coming exclusively to the Amazon Luna platform the same day that Season 2 of the series launches on Prime Video. Matthew Needam, who was announced as the new voice of the Joker in Batman: Caped Crusader Season 2, is portraying the villain in the game. Meanwhile, Hamish Linklater is back as Batman and Michelle C. Bonilla is playing Detective Montoya.

Batman: Caped Crusader – Chronicles plays through Amazon Luna, so there isn’t any need for downloads or consoles to purchase. Everything is included in your Amazon Prime subscription. According to the press release, the game is an 11-episode cooperative detective adventure that can be played with 1-4 players using smartphones as controllers.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are scheduled to be revealed in a bespoke ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 24, in a crowded ballroom that is the largest gathering of prominent comic creators in one room. 

According to a Reddit user under the name 'beginendbegin,' the 2026 Eisner Awards winners were posted prematurely and temporarily on the Comic-Con International: San Diego website sometime in the days of July 22 and July 23. The user then posted a list of what they say are the winners. Popverse reached out to the user and will update our readers with any clarity that comes of that.

Popverse reached out to San Diego Comic-Con for comment. While they avoided verifying if the alleged winners list was in fact authentic, they said an investigation is underway and don't want this to detract from the Eisner Awards themselves.

We've known for some time now that the Avengers are breaking up; that it was fated to happen was the teaser for the current Avengers: Armageddon event series. While we won't know how until its final issue hits this October in Avengers: Armageddon #5, Marvel has revealed that as part of it, not only will the Avengers fall out with each other, but all of Earth does with the Avengers as well.

Kind of a bad time, huh?

"The point of no return! After the cataclysmic events of Avengers: Armageddon #4, the world is torn asunder. Humanity turns against super heroes," reads Marvel's description for Avengers: Armageddon #5, announced during the Avengers: Armageddon panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026.

This December, the Avengers are no more. Much like Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday movie is speculated to be, the end of Marvel Comics' Avengers: Armageddon is confirmed to be the fall of the Avengers as we know it. In its place, a new group of heroes is stepping up to be the lead heroes in times of need for Earth.

The X-Men.

... maybe you've heard of them?

Is the Punisher fit for the Avengers?

Or is the better question.... are the Avengers fit for the Punisher?

At the current rate, Marvel Comics' long-running Iron Man series will hit its 700th issue by August 2026. But as revealed during the Avengers: Armageddon panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026, Marvel is kicking in the boot thrusters to get there in half the time.

Marvel will begin double-shipping the current Iron Man series by writer Joshua Williamson beginning in December 2026, which will, in the publisher's words, "accelerates towards #700." This comes after series artist Carmen Carnero had to step away from the book midway through April's Iron Man #4 due to an injury and is set to return with August's issue. Carnero is feeling better and back on the book, but to meet this accelerated schedule, Marvel is bringing in a second series artist, Gleb Melnikov, and they'll each simultaneously be drawing an arc at a time.

Related: Iron Man origin comic art has broken the record for most expensive original comic art ever sold at $3.875 million dollars

The movie side of DC Studios doesn't have any announced plans for this weekend's Comic-Con International: San Diego. Yes, there is a Lanterns panel, but none of the upcoming movies from James Gunn & friends had made plans to come out this year.

But then they did.

During DC Comics' Jim Lee & Friends panel from Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026, director James Watkins and actor Tom Rhys Harries of this fall's Clayface movie made a surprise appearance and took over the panel and then some. 

The sprawling timeline of the Gundam universe is perhaps one of the most impressive achievements in anime. For nearly 50 years, the Universal Century has been growing and changing, all the way through to this year’s Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe. However, a new Gundam timeline is coming, and it is being steered by the writer and director of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

At San Diego Comic-Con, Bandai Namco Filmworks announced that they are launching a new Gundam project, which includes a new timeline and universe to follow. Titled RG Project, this new Gundam universe is being developed by Kenji Kamiyama, a writer and director whose works include Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi. Joining Kamiyama is award-winning Japanese novelist Toh EnJoe, who wrote the screenplay for the current Ghost in the Shell anime adaptation. 

Related: How to watch Gundam in order

With Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Spider-Man set to hit cinemas at the end of this month, fans are naturally looking toward Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-verse as the next big adventure for the wall-crawler. However, one question everyone has been asking is when we’d see Miles Morales in the MCU. It is something Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is aware of and has plans for.

Speaking to China’s Watching Hollywood outlet during the press tour for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Kevin Feige commented that the Spider-Verse films remain the main barrier to bringing Miles Morales into the MCU. “Yes, we definitely have plans [for a live-action Miles] and I think a live-action Spider-Man movie has this destiny: to add Miles sometime after the Spider-Verse series ends.”

This is something that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have said in the past; there is little chance of seeing a live-action Miles Morales until Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has its day in the sun. Sony has a hit series on their hands there and doesn’t seem keen on letting Marvel play with their toy right now. With nearly a year to go before the animated Miles has his time in the sun and then Marvel focusing on the lead-up to Avengers: Secret Wars in late 2027, it might take a long time to see that destiny fulfilled. The most we’ve gotten is an easter egg of Donald Glover playing Miles’ uncle Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming and again in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Something that sometimes gets overlooked about Supernatural is how good it is at just dropping you into a world that feels lived in and expecting you to accept things. Demons and ghosts and all sorts of magic exist, and we just need to roll with it. Even a throwaway line in the very first episode was enough to give Dean Winchester a fleshed-out backstory, which is providing the basis for an upcoming comic book revival.

The previously announced Supernatural: Dean Winchester comic book takes its inspiration from something that Dean says to Sam in the very first episode of the series.

“In the very first episode of the show, Dean goes to pick up Sam to find their missing father,” explained writer Chuck Brown. “Dean tells Sam he was on a solo case, a voodoo thing in New Orleans. I’ve always wondered what happened. So I decided to start there and take Dean through the South where I grew up.”

It looks like the ThunderCats are about to have a real Lion King moment. While I wouldn't call Lion-O Simba and expect to walk away without some scratches, the upcoming relaunch of the ThunderCats series by writer Greg Pak and artist David Cousens is going to have these cats going feral... literally, as Lion-O will become what's called 'The Feral King.'

Pak is no stranger to putting heroes through their paces, and how to grow, they must change, and change sometimes involves breaking from the way you used to be. He did it with Marvel's Hulk in the 'Planet Hulk' and World War Hulk sagas, with Marvel's Phoenix in the Endsong and Warsong series, with DC's Superman in his Action Comics run, and again with Lucasfilm's Darth Vader in his Marvel Comics series.

"I might be best known in comics for writing the Hulk and Darth Vader, so my abiding interest in monsters and dark sides shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone," Pak says with a laugh in an interview inside Dynamite's October 2026 catalog, which is publishing ThunderCats. "In this case, I found myself thinking about the fact that the ThunderCats are all, well, cats! And it seems like there’s so much to explore there. So yes, a big attraction of the Feral King is to see what kind of cats these cats really are."

Scott Pilgrim has always worn its video game influences on its sleeve, so it isn’t surprising to see the newly announced comic book is directly referencing one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time. Scott Pilgrim EX: Dawn of Metal Scott brings series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley back to the series more than 16 years after the original comic book ended, as first reported by Gizmodo's Isaiah Colbert.

Oni Press announced today that the first new Scott Pilgrim comic book since 2010 is coming in November 2026. Scott Pilgrim EX: Dawn of Metal Scott is a prequel to the Scott Pilgrim EX video game, which was released in March 2026. Fittingly for a series that has borrowed heavily from video game aesthetics, the new comic has Scott battling an evil version of himself. Not Nega-Scott, but Metal Scott. The obvious reference is to Metal Sonic, who first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog CD back in 1993.

Scott Pilgrim EX: Dawn of Metal Scott is set to be a 24-page one-shot comic, with 16 pages dedicated to Scott fighting the titular Metal Scott.

There are interesting things happening in the horror sphere these days - as if you need me to tell you that. Tiny films from new directors are exploding at the box office, movies like Obsession and Backrooms are not just raking in cash for the studios that produced them, but are opening doors for creators with weird visions to believe that the movies they want to make are not just possible, but wanted. 

At least, that's kind of how Todd McFarlane feels.

I recently sat down with the Spawn creator to go over a host of new projects that he's working on - primary among them his upcoming comic miniseries, Spawn '77. But I wasn't going to let the conversation end without asking about King Spawn, the McFarlane-steered film that seeks to adapt his comics under the Blumhouse banner. And luckily for me, McFarlane was happy to share where his thoughts were on the long-in-development film.

You don't know range until you go from playing a lich-lord necromancer to being a high-born (and high-cheekboned) elvish beau, but Jamie Campbell Bower is doing it. The big bad of Netflix's Stranger Things is now confirmed to be playing the elven lord Celeborn, a.k.a. Lord of Lothlórien, a.k.a. Lord of the Galadhrim a.k.a. Lord of the Golden Wood, a.k.a. Prince of Doriath, a.k.a. Galadriel's husband, a.k.a. Elrond's father-in-law, a.k.a. Arwen's grandfather. 

Oh yeah, he's also dead - or at least Galadriel said so in the first season of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

Bower's casting was known since February 2025, but who he would be playing has been a mystery for the intervening 15 months as they filmed the series. But now with the season filmed, post-production underway, and a release date (or at least month) of November 2026, they are starting to fill in the gaps of what to expect by releasing this news through Empire Magazine.

Star Trek fans may know Nana Visitor as Major Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine, but that’s not her only contribution to the franchise. In 2024 she wrote a book about the women in Star Trek titled Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman's Trek. The book presents a detailed look on the various female actresses and characters who have appeared in the franchise over the years.

In order to write the book, Visitor had to look at Star Trek through a new lens. Not as an actress, but as a viewer. “I had to watch them all,” Nana Visitor revealed during a panel at GalaxyCon Oklahoma City 2026. “I couldn’t say what I thought until I watched all of them. And that was fabulous because I had the wrong idea about a lot of it. When I was on DS9, I would see Seven of Nine on the side of the road on a big poster, and I would go, ‘Oh, I see. Now they’re just selling sex.’ And I was disgusted, and I was like, I don’t need to watch this show.”

However, Visitor’s view on Seven of Nine cooled once she watched Star Trek: Voyager. “When I actually did, she’s a Trojan horse because you may come for that costume, but you stay because of the humanity and the number of people she can represent. And the relationship between these two women, which wasn’t depicted so often. I got an education for sure,” Visitor admitted.

NoneLikeJoshua and Mike Drop combined their greatest loves - hip hop and anime - into an unmissable event at this year's Florida Supercon: the Anime Rap Showcase. The vibes were high and the room was packed, but if you couldn't make it this year, don't worry, we've got you covered. Popverse was there, absolutely not rapping, but with a camera crew to ensure that you and yours didn't miss out on any of the fun.

This is one of the many Florida Supercon 2026 panels Popverse filmed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Consult our Florida Supercon 2026 panel hub for a list of all of the panels we have available, and what's left to be released.

Watch the Anime Rap Showcase with NoneLikeJoshua and Mike Drop now: 

After months of private negotiations (and some public negotiations and veiled threats), the city of San Diego has reached a deal with the non-profit San Diego Comic-Con to keep its flagship event in the city through the year 2030. 

"I am thrilled to announce we have reached an agreement to keep Comic-Con in San Diego through 2030," announced San Diego mayor Todd Gloria in a public event in the lobby of the San Diego Convention Center on July 22. "That is, of course, fantastic news for fans, for local businesses, for thousands of people who work in our tourism and hospitality industries who support this event, and anyone who believes Comic-Con belongs in the city where it all began."

The long-term future of San Diego Comic-Con has been something of an open question for years at this point; since 2019, when Comic-Con International signed a five-year contract with the city of San Diego, extensions to keep Comic-Con in the city have been notably short-term; in July 2024, it extended its contract one year to include the 2025 show, and in January 2025, it signed a two-year extension to include the 2026 and 2027 shows. Beyond that, however, other factors that could've pushed the show elsewhere… or temporarily closing it down altogether, according to an SDCC officer at the time.

The first bit of news out of San Diego Comic-Con this year is news of when it'll take place next year.

SDCC 2027 is scheduled to take place Thursday, July 22 through Sunday, July 25, 2027, as revealed in the SDCC 2026 Quick Guide being given out to fans this week at the convention center. As customary, a preview night will be held on Wednesday, July 21.

With those dates, it'll be the first time in a long time that there is no Marvel Studios movie release adjacent to the SDCC 2027 dates, as Marvel has decided to limit its 2027 movie release schedule to just one movie - December 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars.

If you’re waiting for Sydney Sweeney’s Barbarella movie, get comfortable, because we’re still in the early stages - despite it being more than three years since the project was initially announced.

In 2022, it was reported that Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney would be producing and starring in a new Barbarella film, adapting the French sci-fi comic (most famous in the U.S. for its 1968 adaptation into a Jane Fonda movie). It’s been nearly four years since the project was announced, and there is still no release date. However, Edgar Wright, who signed on to direct the film in 2024, says the movie is still alive, but the script isn’t complete yet.

“It’s still in the script stage,” Edgar Wright said during a panel at GalaxyCon Richmond 2026. “There is a script that’s been written and we’re still working on that. There’s not really any updates on that beyond it’s kind of in the script development stage basically.” 

Don't worry, Critters, Mom and Dad aren't fighting.

In case you don't already know, Critical Role Campaign 4, episode 30 ended in the saga's most tragic event yet - that is, the death of Travis Willingham's character Teor Pridesire. The nama paladin met his doom in the cavernous underground of Obrimus Manor, after GM Brennan Lee Mulligan presented him and his fellow players with the option to split up their party. Needless to say, they did, and a couple zombies later, Willingham's lionlike hero was crossing the proverbial veil - but here's the real kicker:

Costar Laura Bailey, who plays Thimble in this TTRPG actual play campaign, was one of the voices speaking up for the party to split up.

Scott Snyder has something in common with Batman; they both believe in prep time. While Batman prepares long term contingency plans, the Eisner Award-winning comic book writer is currently planning for the future of the Absolute Universe. In fact, he has such a jump on his planning that he’s currently looking at 2028 and 2029. Batman would be proud.

According to Snyder, the lead time was by design. He knows what happens when a comic book doesn’t have a proper runway, and he was determined not to repeat those mistakes with the Absolute Universe.

 “[DC] approved All In and Absolute in [2022], and we didn’t start until [2024],” Scott Snyder says during a recent appearance on AIPT Comics Podcast. “Not throwing shade at [Dan Didio], [Geoff Johns], and everybody that was there for the first 10 years that I was at DC, because in retrospect, what you learned too is they were under all kinds of pressure from moving to LA and the moving of the offices and having a rotating thing of bosses from different companies that are swallowing up your company over and over again. But in that environment, it was very chaotic, and there wasn’t a lot of room to plan.”

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s... someone in need of a designated driver...?

On July 11, 2025 Superman officially hit theaters, and audiences were given their first look at Milly Alcock’s Supergirl during the film’s finale. Superman’s cousin returned to Earth to reclaim her dog, and she was a bit tipsy, much to the chagrin of Gary the Robot.

Milly Alcock, who had previously played Rhaenyra Targaryen on House of the Dragon, says that director and DC Studios co-president James Gunn had a simple directive for her during the cameo – be more drunk. “I think it was a bit self-guided. I think it was a bit like, ‘You’re drunk! Be more drunk! Stumble!’ It was kind of like that,” Milly Alcock said during a conversation with Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

"Jason was like, 'Come on, don't get greedy. You already got one big star.' You can't get two stars, right? Especially because, at that point, I was going to be the director and you know, you're not going to get big stars going with the rookie director. And I'm like, 'I don't know, why don't we ask?'"

That's how Spawn creator Todd McFarlane describes a conversation between himself and horror titan Jason Blum, regarding the upcoming Spawn film, King Spawn, that will be produced under the legend's Blumhouse banner. The first 'big star' McFarlane's talking about here is Jamie Foxx, who will play the titular Spawn, and the second 'big star' he wanted to recruit for the movie was none other than MCU superstar Jeremy Renner. If you know Todd McFarlane at all, you won't be surprised to learn that he did indeed reach out to Renner's people, and the Hawkeye actor did indeed say yes.

But there was one stipulation, says the Image Comics co-founder, that he had to agree to first.

In Slow Horses, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is the unkempt, rude spymaster who leads a team of misfit MI5 agents seemingly despite his better judgment - and it's a good thing, considering how useful they've proven to be even if it doesn't appear so at the time. Good news for the show's many fans: the critically acclaimed series will be returning to Apple TV+ with Season 6 on September 16th, 2026.

Slow Horses follows the employees of Slough House, a banishment room for MI5 rejects overseen by Lamb. The location is meant to provide those who have failed at their assignments (but not failed hard enough to be fired) with tedious work with the expectation that they will eventually quit the service in frustration. However, despite the intention, the Slow Horses frequently become embroiled in cases that might affect the very future of the United Kingdom itself.

The show is called Slow Horses after the derogatory name given to the agents places at Slough House, due to how similar 'Slow Horse' and 'Slough House' sound when spoken aloud.

Apple TV's hit series Ted Lasso follows the titular soccer coach (Jason Sudeikis) as he leads A.F.C. Richmond despite his inexperience with the beautiful game. Boasting an optimistic tone and a charming sense of humor, fans of the series were delighted to learn that Ted Lasso Season 4 will debut on August 5th, 2026, more than three years after the show's previous season.

Ted Lasso is the story of the eponymous American coach, who is hired by Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), the new owner of A.F.C. Richmond, with the expectation that he will fail to lead the team to victory due to his inexperience. Welton hopes to see the team crash and burn so as to exact her revenge against her ex-husband Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head), who valued the team's success above all else in life.

At the conclusion of the third season, some big changes were in store for Ted Lasso (the character, as well as the series). Welton sells forty-nine percent of the team to the fans. Lasso returns to the United States and is seen coaching his son's soccer team. Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) becomes the new Richmond head coach. And Coach Willis Beard (Brendan Hunt) remains in London so as to marry his girlfriend. The end of the third season was originally intended as a series finale, before plans were made to revive the series three years later. 

Nana Visitor has spent a lot of time around Star Trek fans. The actress was cast as Major Kira Nerys in the 1993 television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and ever since then she’s encountered a lot of fans at conventions, signings, special events, and out in public. This has given Visitor a unique perspective on the Star Trek community and what holds it together, she believes.

“Community. That’s the word that comes to mind,” Nana Visitor said during a panel at GalaxyCon Oklahoma City 2026 when talking about the essential appeal that has made Star Trek a fan-favorite for more than half a century at this point. “The community, the friendships, the deep relationships that I have with the people that I worked with. This community that came out of that one that I can’t imagine not having. This is so unique and wonderful.”

She continued, “I was telling a man earlier today, we start on a frequency. We know how to start talking to each other because we know that we like Star Trek, and that probably means we’re both into hope, and courage, and realizing we’re not alone. And that’s basis enough for a connection and a relationship. And we start there. I find it incredible. I think that’s what I take away as the best thing.”

Comedy can make you laugh, but that doesn’t mean it has to make you dumb. Edgar Wright, the director behind films like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Running Man, believes comedy doesn’t have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The director uses the comedy troupe Monty Python as an example, saying they made him smarter while making him laugh.

“I always think you never should talk down to your audience because actually the audience wants to get smarter. And I think about that with Monty Python all the time,” Edgar Wright said during a panel at GalaxyCon Richmond 2026. “There is so many things in that where I’m thinking I don’t really know who this philosopher is, but I enjoy the sketch and by God, I’m going to find out.” 

Wright makes a good point. The film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is over 50 years old, but it’s still regarded as one of the most influential comedy films ever made, in large part because it exists within its own world and pointedly refuses to explain that world to its audience, instead relying on them to keep up as everything keeps going. We’ll probably still be talking about the film decades from now, which is something we probably can’t say about a lot of modern comedy films.