Marshall 'Major' Taylor was more than a champion cyclist; he was one of (if not the) first Black American global sports superstar, who shattered world records for sprinting and cycling, and shattered racial barriers and pure racism along the way. In the '90s, a TV series was made about him, and in 2007, Nike made sneakers in his name. Now, in 2026, his story is being told as an original graphic novel.

Major Taylor: World's Fastest Man by cartoonist Frederick Noland is a 400-page comics ultramarathon/triathalon, deaing not just with sports, but also the rise of bicycle use in the modern world, and living as a Black man and a celebrity in the Jim Crow era of North America.

"[Noland] thrills in the records Taylor broke and the adoring public he found across North America, Europe, and Australia, all the while showing how the invention of the bicycle changed society," reads a description of the comic by publisher Drawn & Quarterly. "Yet Noland also documents how racism inflected Black life in the post Civil War era: cyclists would collude to injure Taylor, and he faced segregationist policies even in liberal cities such as San Francisco. And while Taylor found respite racing overseas, he also soon found American-style racism exported internationally to sell tickets."

Marvel's upcoming VIsionQuest series on Disney+ puts Paul Bettany's android in the starring role, with Bettany himself calling the show a "huge" swing that follows up on previous Marvel series WandaVision and Agatha All Along, each of which has established a tragic family tree for Vision and Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff - a character who seemingly died in 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

VisionQuest marks Bettany's fifth time as the so-called synthezoid, following Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers Infinity War, and the aforementioned WandaVision. Now that Bettany's Vision is taking the central role in VisionQuest, he says the show has managed to carve out its own niche and its own voice among the projects that have made up the tragic love story of Vision and Wanda.

"It manages to feel very much like it's somehow a part of that world, an end to a trilogy of sorts, whilst also being very much its own thing," Bettany told Happy Sad Confused. "It is just really good. I'm really proud of it. We've been in editorial for a long while now, and I keep seeing cuts of it that are just getting better and better as all the effects get placed in. It's funny, it's moving, and it's super exciting. [Showrunner Terry Matalas] did a great job."

It turns out, you can delay midnight.

Marvel Comics has deftly delayed the launch of its new 'Midnight' line — a darker alternate universe of its heroes — by two months. According to a statement by Marvel Comics' longtime (and outgoing) leader Dan Buckley, it was because up until the past few weeks, they didn't realize it was more than just the launch of a new alternate universe, but it could be bigger and deserved treatment as such.

"The more we talked about Midnight, the more we realized it was far more than just the birth of another new universe—it was on an entirely different scale creatively, a doorway to something that was not only immediately exciting, but had immense long-term promise," Buckley says in a statement provided by Marvel.

After teasing and revealing it, now it is confirmed: the mysterious Fox Mask Killer from The hyper-horror-hunter series Exquisite Corpses is returning in an all-new series from Tiny Onion and Image Comics, both explaining her secret origin as well as mapping out where she wants to go next: to kill off the Fox Mask Killer.

“From the moment James and Michael welcomed me into the world of Exquisite Corpses, I knew It was something special. I gravitated instantly to Fox Mask Killer, a character whose design alone provoked a rich backstory and undeniable aura," says Absolute Catwoman co-writer Che Grayson, who is writing the series - and guest-wrote Exquisite Corpses #4, featuring Fox Mask Killer.

But if that's an appetizer, this is the main course — served on the mask of the Fox Mask Killer, which series creators James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh never revealed.

The X-Men are easily one of the most recognizable comic book teams ever published. In 1991 X-Men #1 sold over 8 million copies, making it the best-selling single issue of a comic book ever published. The X-Men franchise made over $85 million in merchandise sales in 1994 alone.

Despite all this, Famke Janssen had never heard of the group when she was cast as Jean Grey in Bryan Singer’s 2000 X-Men film. To be fair, Janssen grew up in the Netherlands, where she managed to avoid the X-Men craze.

“That’s the hilarious part, I literally had never heard of the X-Men,” Famke Janssen confessed during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “And I was filming that little film I mentioned before with Jon Favreau, Love & Sex, and because I was the lead in it, I was filming ever single day. My agent kept calling going, ‘They want to see you for X-Men. They want you to audition for X-Men.’ I was like, ‘What’s X-Men?’ And it wasn’t until I heard who the director was, and what he had done before, Bryan Singer, and I was like, oh wait, this sounds really interesting.”

Stranger Things became a big hit almost as soon as it hit Netflix all the way back in 2016, but its creators Matt and Ross Duffer were not prepared for what a huge global sensation it would quickly become. They didn't even recognize how fervent the response to the show had become until other filmmakers such as Deadpool and Wolverine director Shawn Levy, who has also helmed multiple Stranger Things episodes over the years, clued them into how massive the reception of the show actually was.

"It was all so strange. We weren't on social media, and also we had never made anything that anyone watched before," Ross Duffer admitted on podcast Happy Sad Confused. "It was a very surreal experience, and Shawn Levy just kept telling me, 'This is not normal, this is not normal.' So some of it was hearing from people being like 'Trust me, this is something different.' And the 'Justice for Barb' thing for sure. I remember there was a mural in Australia that popped up. And when that happened, it was pretty surreal."

Ross' brother and co-creator Matt says he had his own moment of realization that Stranger Things was taking off in a major way - when it was parodied on an episode of Saturday Night Live, a reaction to being lampooned that is as pragmatic as it is jovial.

In four years, Jim Lee went from an unknown to the biggest artist in American comics with Marvel's X-Men. After that, he got even bigger, but for many, his Marvel work is most ingrained in our minds: Alpha Flight, Punisher War Journal, Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four... heck, those X-Men trading cards alone! Lee recently called his Marvel era as a "dream," and now his Marvel era is being brought together in one book, titled Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee.

"Even though I worked at Marvel, I was working at home. I was in the art studio I shared with Whilce Portacio and my inker Scott Williams, and those early years - I say early years - I spent six years at Marvel, and the entire time I was there, it's like you were living out your dream," Lee said recently.

Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee will be a 300-page oversized (9" x 12") hardcover tome, published by Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide (PUG-W, for short) in partnership with Marvel Comics. This deal is no doubt due to PUG-W founder John Nee, who, low-key, has been one of the biggest power players in the modern superhero comics world, from being president of Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions in the '90s, a vice-president at DC in the '00s, and then being Marvel Comics' publisher from 2018 to 2021.

Every generation has their own version of Star Wars - and, since the franchise offered up a second trilogy at the turn of the century, every generation also has a version of Star Wars they reject, as well. It’s no secret that the prequel trilogy got its fair share of hate during its original theatrical run. None of this was a surprise for George Lucas, who created and directed the films. Indeed, according to one Star Wars cast member, Lucas always accepted the fact that adults wouldn’t get it, but that was okay, because they weren’t his target audience.

“It is great that you guys and your relations, old and young, have made it last,” Emperor Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid says during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “He wasn’t that sure that the prequels were going to move things forward in terms of audiences. And he saw early on, well, maybe his generation, my generation really, who saw the original movies will be a bit picky. And they were actually, but the kids weren’t. The kids were completely knocked out by it. And he said, ‘Well, I make these films for everybody, but if an 8-year-old is happy, I’ll feel I’ve done my work.’ And that’s what happened with the prequels.”

Those kids have now grown up, and the conversation surrounding the prequel trilogy has changed, with audiences being more kind to it. It makes me wonder how the sequel trilogy will be perceived 20 years from now after its own audience has matured.

It's rare for comic book editors and executives to also work directly on creating comics, but that's the position DC president, publisher, and chief creative officer Jim Lee finds himself in as the artist of the recently wrapped Batman: Hush 2 - meaning he's technically his own boss. Fortunately, Lee has enough self-awareness to understand the potential conflict of interest that can arise when working for a DC line editor, explaining that there are guidelines in place to ensure an ethical creative process.

"It's a little different for me now in that I'm drawing the book for an editor, and I'm also the editor's editor's boss's boss," Lee tells the Masterplan podcast. "So that is not a normal situation, and so I recognized that and we created safeguards to protect everyone in that, so that people can do their respective jobs."

Traditionally, there's a line between the back-end jobs of the comic industry and the front facing creative positions, though there are other examples where that general rule has been ignored. Way back in the early days of Marvel Comics, then editor-in-chief Stan Lee was also the credited writer on nearly all the publisher's comics for several years. Later, in the early '00s, influential Marvel VIce President Bill Jemas authored a notoriously bizarre comic title Marville as part of a contest titled U-Decide, in which Marville, Captain Marvel, and Ultimate Adventures in which only one would continue on as decided by fans. Captain Marvel, which then starred Mar-Vell's son Genis-Vell in the title role, won out, continuing on for another 25 issues,

In December 2023, Deadline reported that Sean Gunn would be playing Maxwell Lord in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. The character is a billionaire who has served as an enemy and an ally of the DC heroes in the comics, and Gunn - whose brother James is DC Studios co-president - made his debut as Maxwell Lord in the 2025 Superman film, before appearing in the Peacemaker season two premiere a month later.

Thus far, Maxwell Lord has had less than a few minutes of screentime, but Sean Gunn says that will change soon. “I’ve loved playing Maxwell Lord. You’ll be seeing more Maxwell Lord. I am still not at liberty to disclose when or where, but soon. I can tell you that you will be seeing more of him,” Sean Gunn teased during a panel at Spacecon 2026.

“I love playing Maxwell. He’s a very interesting character, and I’m still very much in the middle of learning who he is and what motivates him and how he operates. And I enjoy it a great deal,” Gunn continued. “He’s an uber billionaire. That is a character type that is very timely. I mean, it’s very now. I find myself watching other billionaires in how they behave and what motivates them. The exciting thing for me about Maxwell Lord is that he certainly believes himself to be a billionaire with a conscience. And that altruism, the exploration of how possible that is very exciting to me.”

Before Spider-Gwen, and before Miles Morales, there was Mayday Parker, the spectacular Spider-Girl. Mayday was originally a one-off character introduced in What If #105 (1998), which explored the idea of Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s teenage daughter continuing her father’s legacy. Enthusiastic reader response led to Spider-Girl getting her own ongoing, which was saved from cancellation numerous times by grassroot fan campaigns.

Today Mayday doesn’t have much of a presence in the Marvel Universe. Her last regular series ended in 2010, and since then the character has starred in a few digital comics and shown up for various Spider-Verse related events. The character rechristened herself Spider-Woman, but the name hasn’t stuck, with readers and characters still referring to her as Spider-Girl. A baby version of Mayday was seen in the 2023 film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. As of 2026 a character named Maka Akana is serving as Spider-Girl, but there’s a big Spider-Verse out there, so there’s still room for Mayday.

During December 2025’s Singapore’s Marvel Makan Masterworks event a Spider-Girl cosplayer asked Marvel editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski if Marvel had forgotten about Mayday. “There’ll be more Spider-Girl. Mayday is near and dear to our hearts. We’ve got more with Tom DeFalco and the Spider-Verse coming your way,” C.B. Cebulski answered.

When we found out that Margo Robbie was going to be in a new Ocean’s 11 prequel movie, we were plenty excited. Then Bradley Cooper signed on to direct and potentially star in the film, and we got a slightly better idea of what the movie might be like. Now it seems that the still untitled Ocean’s prequel film is really real, as Civil War and Narcos star Wagner Moura is reportedly in negotiations to join the cast.

Getting more information about the Ocean’s 11 prequel film has been harder than breaking into a Las Vegas casino. We know that Margot Robbie will star as well as produce the movie, which she recently described at CinemaCon 2026 as focusing on the parents of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean “pulling off an epic heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix.” 

We don’t yet know who Wagner Moura will play in the Ocean’s 11 prequel, though there are reports that he'll be playing the villain in the movie. He is probably best known for portraying cartel boss Pablo Escobar in Narcos and for his Oscar-nominated performance in 2025’s The Secret Agent. However, he is currently the third member of the cast who has either been nominated for a best-acting Oscar or won it, which probably wouldn’t be a big deal if the cast had more than three people in it at the moment.

What happens when you are the most powerful magic user when it comes to talking to and re-animating the dead, but you bargained for it by becoming partially dead yourself? For Lilianna Vess, she made deals with devils to become the most powerful necromancer ever known, but now that she is, she's dealing with the consequences... and now working to use that power to re-negotiate those terms.

Liliana Vess is from Magic: The Gathering, one of the most popular and prolific card games in modern history, and in it is a Marvel U-level story with heroes, villains, powers, and a multiverse. And now as MTG transitions from being one of the most popular cult-favorite franchises in recent memory to becoming a mainstream success, the story of Liliana is being told outside of card games, and in the world of comics.

Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories — Liliana is a new four-issue series by MTG owners Wizards of the Coast and Dark Horse Comics, the people who brought you Hellboy, Resident Alien, Sin City, and more. 

DC Comics has hired Christine Dinh as its new manager of book trade programs. Working as part the company's sales & marketing unit overseen by Nancy Spears, Dinh is returning to comics (and DC Comics) at a pivotal time with the dominant sales success of the Absolute DC line, the impending release of the first collections from its 'Next Level' program, as well as the changing marketplace and readership (both of who is reading comics, and who could). 

"Comics have been a meaningful part of my career for many years, and after time spent working across franchises, fandoms, and storytelling brands, it’s especially rewarding to be returning to the world of superheroes at DC Comics, managing our book trade programs," Dinh writes on LinkedIn.

As DC Comics' new manager of its book trade programs, Dinh will oversee the comic publisher's trade programs across bookstores, libraries, educational outlets, and other large retail accounts. As part of this job, Dinh will take over (and create) retailer-specific marketing and merchandising toolkits to support its business partners towards the ultimate goal of expanding readership.

The world’s appetite for anime is growing, and Crunchyroll wants to be the one to satisfy its hunger. This week, the streamer announced that it would be pushing further into Asian markets later this year. Both Taiwan and South Korea are areas that Sony and Crunchyroll see as their next stops toward global anime domination.

At a recent conference, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini revealed Crunchyroll’s plans for a greater share of the Asian streaming market. The company plans to roll out fully localized versions of the Crunchyroll platform to Taiwan this summer and South Korea by the end of 2026. “Asia is a priority for Crunchyroll because it’s home to some of the world’s most passionate anime communities,” Purini said during a fireside chat. He emphasized that this was to work toward the company’s mission to be “the best place for fans to experience anime, wherever they are.”

This lines up with both Crunchyroll’s belief that fully localized platforms, with languages and interfaces that are familiar to users wherever they are in the world, are the key to getting fans engaged. Earlier this year, they extended their services to Thailand as well. Despite its origins as a pirate anime website, Crunchyroll has become a global leader in legitimate anime distribution. They make up an oversized portion of parent company Sony’s profit projections because of the expectation that the anime industry will continue to grow over the next few years.

If you watched Star Trek: Picard, you might have noticed that Seven of Nine felt different. The former Borg drone was very formal and logical when she was introduced on Star Trek: Voyager. When we see her again in Picard, she’s more sarcastic, casual, and a bit witty. In short, she’s more human.

“All of it felt different,” Seven of Nine actress Jeri Ryan admitted during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “It was terrifying, because when I got the script, it was so different, and I was panicking because I couldn’t find her voice. Because the voice for Seven on Voyager for those four years was so specific. It was really jarring to read something so different, and I was having a really hard time trying to wrap my head around how to play this.”

“My dear friend Johnny Del Arco, who played Hugh the Borg, had just gone through the exact same thing on Picard, like, a week before I did or a couple of weeks before I did. And he’s also a wonderful director and actor himself. And so he came over and had lunch, and he went over the scenes with me and worked on it, and he actually gave me a little tidbit, which is what I needed to make sense of it.”

"What is grief but love persevering?"

That beautiful turn of phrase is perhaps the most well known line from Marvel's WandaVision streaming series. Spoken as Paul Bettany as the Vision to his beloved Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). According to Bettany, it was no small task to nail down the exact wording of the climactic line, and the idea that finally sealed the deal came from a somewhat unlikely source.

"It's the opposite of improvised. I think that line was built by so many people," Bettany told podcast Happy Sad Confused. "And it kept being close, and I was like 'Gosh, it's just missing something.' And they kept going back, and it was [producer Jac Shaeffer]'s assistant, came in with the coffees, and she went 'Persevering.' And we all went, 'That's it'. And yeah, the line's had a life of its own."

Mark Waid has been writing for DC Comics on and off since 1985, but the award-winning writer says DC’s current era is the best the publisher has been in ages. Waid, who is currently writing Batman/Superman: World’s Finest and Justice League Unlimited, says a lot of the credit goes to DC editor-in-chief Marie Javins.

“Head and shoulders above a lot of the stuff I’ve seen before,” Mark Waid says during an appearance on SKTCHD’s Off Panel. “If you’re cynical, it’s easy to look at that and dismiss this as, ‘Oh yeah, but here’s a guy who’s writing on these big books. Of course he’s going to think it’s great.’ No, I’ve always, if nothing else for 40 years, I think people who know me and have read interviews and stuff know that I am honest to a fault. I’ll call out bullshit when I see it. But man, Marie Javins as the editor-in-chief there has put together the right people. And I have never seen the DC editorial staff so in sync as I have now.”

“I don’t see the petty rivalries. I don’t see the territorial nature of some of these people. I don’t see anything but Marie leading a fleet that’s all headed in the right direction, the same direction, and supportive of each other. The communication, not just with editorial, but between editorial and creators, is stronger than I’ve ever seen before. And all of that helps. It means that DC is not doing what it did for a long time, which was lurch from success to success by accident, and instead, there’s a plan. I have never been happier up there. I’ve never seen most everybody happier up there.”

Peacemaker misses his friends.

Peacemaker season two ended with the DC Studios anti-hero trapped in the Salvation dimension, and his allies have no clue what happened to him, or how to rescue him. Peacemaker actor John Cena misses his friends too, not because he’s stuck in another dimension, but because they haven’t worked together since season two wrapped.

As of writing, DC Studios and HBO Max haven’t announced plans for a Peacemaker season three, but Cena is hoping he’ll get a chance to work with his castmates again soon. 

When Netflix began developing a television adaptation of Heartstopper, Alice Oseman saw an opportunity to expand the world of her coming-of-age webcomic. One notable example was the addition of Isaac Henderson, a character who wasn’t in the webcomic. This has allowed the show to explore asexuality. As the series has progressed, Isaac, who is played by Tobie Donovan, has learned more about himself, realizing that he identifies as aroace. If you aren’t familiar, someone who is aroace feels little to no sexual or romantic attraction.

“I’m so glad I could put that into Heartstopper, and I know that a lot of people have seen themselves in Isaac in that way,” Alice Oseman says during a discussion at BFI Flare 2026. “I think there needs to be more. I think Isaac is maybe kind of the minimum – maybe not the minimum, but he’s definitely not – we would have to have a show about being aroace to really get people to understand what that’s all about, but just the fact that Isaac exists is so rare in TV and film.”

“I think that’s needed. It’s not enough for sure, but it is something. Every little helps with representation, so I feel really proud and Tobie has always cared so much about that representation. Every time we’ve done a new season, he’s always come to me and been like, ‘What’s Isaac’s story? What are we doing here? What is he representing?’ He’s always cared so much about representing that experience authentically, and that’s meant a lot to me.”

Just like the world fell in love with Groot when it went to see Guardians of the Galaxy, e expect the non-comic reading, movie-going masses to have a special love for Jason Momoa's Lobo when they walk out of this summer's Supergirl. But here's the ironic thing - the reason they'll probably love the character (that is, his cigar-smoking, bike-riding badassery), actually kind of misses the point of why he was created.

At least, that's how his co-creator tells it.

That co-creator is comics legend Keith Giffen, who's responsible for not only Marvel's Rocket Raccoon (speaking of GotG), but for a legendary Legion of Super-Heroes run that many DC fans still consider the pinnacle of the team's comic book history.  But among all his many accomplishments was Omega Men #3, the issue he created with Roger Slifer, which introduced comics' Main Man.

The grim, dark world of Berserk feels perfect for a video game. There are big enemies, sweeping landscapes, and a delicate mix of tragedy and joy throughout the story. Despite a few attempts to turn Berserk into a video game, it has been nearly 10 years since the last one came out. According to a longtime Berserk editor and collaborator of series creator Kentaro Miura, the manga could translate perfectly into a video game – provided the right developer was interested.

While FromSoftware makes a valiant effort to capture the feel of Berserk with games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, Akira Shimada thinks that there is still room for a great Berserk video game. When asked about what a Berserk video game would look like, he didn’t give many details but did express his belief that a game would be the best way to adapt the iconic manga. That includes any of the multiple anime or movie adaptations that have been made.

“Manga has its own unique strong points, and I believe the same is true for video games,” Shimada said in an interview. “I think it’s safe to say we would rather be happier to see the strong points of the manga be translated into a video game than any other way. And it would be perfect if the game developers are people that the fans can entrust with the development of the game.”

I probably don't have to tell you this, but we're in the era of the streamer. So many people look for (and some find!) success in the entertainment industry by essentially letting the world into their private gaming life. But just like so many things in modern nerd culture, Felicia Day was doing it a while ago - specifically, in the case of The Guild. Now, with its 20th anniversary approaching, Day is bringing the megahit webseries is coming back with a brand new movie... And she's inviting you to be a part of it.

For those of you who don't remember The Guild - or were too young to appreciate it the first time around - it was an online comedy series that ran from 2007 through 2013, centering around the friendships of a group of online gamers. Beyond the series itself, the show has a secondary claim to fame: the show's success led to the creation of Day's Geek and Sundry platform, which originally launched Critical Role onto the internet back in 2015. Now, as Critical Role looms large over so much of a nerd landscape online, The Guild is poised to make a long-awaited comeback. 

The Guild: The Movie is reuniting the original cast of Sandeep Parikh, Vincent Caso, Felicia Day, Jeff Lewis, Robin Thorsen, and Amy Okuda to tell one more story of the 'Knights of Good," the webseries's fictional ragtag group of MMORPG players. Announced June 18, The Guild: The Movie aims to create a reunion "by fans and for fans" via the route so many popular gaming projects have made their way into the world these days, as a Kickstarter-funded project.

Robert Picardo is worried about the state of Star Trek. The actor - who has been playing holographic curmudgeon the Doctor since Star Trek: Voyager premiered in 1995 - isn’t sure if the current owners of Paramount know what to do with the franchise, or if they even understand it.

As of this writing, there are two Star Trek shows on television, Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and both of them are currently producing their final seasons. (Picardo's Doctor appears in the latter show.) Once those shows conclude, Star Trek will be officially on hiatus, and Picardo is worried about where the current leadership at Paramount, known to have close ties to the current President and his administration, will take the franchise next.

“I’m a little concerned about Star Trek moving forward because we were criticized for having too much diversity and inclusion, and that’s a core value of Star Trek. I don’t know how you make Star Trek without it," Picardo said during an appearance at Spacecon 2026. "I’m hopeful that whatever next Star Trek, and I know there’s going to be a hiatus, that it keeps those values. That it always is the United Nations in space, not America First in space. And that it remains cooperative. It’s a vision of cooperation between space faring planets in the future and it’s not let’s go out and conquer the planets of Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, and Cuba.”

Just as fans are getting excited about the upcoming Kagurabachi anime that has been announced, the team behind the manga has delivered some rough news. Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump has confirmed that the Kagurabachi manga is going on hiatus following the upcoming chapter. Despite the growing popularity of the manga, mangaka Takeru Hokazono needs a few weeks of rest before they can resume.

In a post on social media, the editorial team of Weekly Shonen Jump delivered the news. “Starting from Weekly Shonen Jump issue 31, on sale Monday, June 29, Kagurabachi will go on hiatus,” the post read. “While [Takeru] Hogarano had intended to continue writing, after repeated discussions, we have decided that he will take a certain period of rest in order to deliver the work in a stable form going forward. We plan to resume serialization around August.”

The post did not give a specific reason for the hiatus other than Hogarano needing some rest. It isn’t known if he is suffering from burnout or if there is a more serious health issue. The series has missed a handful of releases in the past few months, so it could be that a break will help make future releases more predictable.

As president, publisher, and chief creative officer of DC, Jim Lee oversees a huge line of titles featuring a variety of characters, though Lee himself says that, in some ways, there can be too many options for fans to dig into.

While speaking to the Masterplan podcast, Lee reminisces on his days as an early superhero fan in the '60s and '70s, when it was harder to keep up with comics and movie and TV adaptations were scarce at best. Though he doesn't call for any kind of reduction in superhero media, he does state his opinion that the large amount of available material makes fans more willing to dismiss material that creators truly cared about making.

"I think when you have fewer choices, you value each choice more. If you are starved of food, when you finally have a meal, it's gonna taste the best that it ever could. When you have a buffet of endless food, you eat something and go 'Meh, that's OK,' and you move onto the next thing. I think that's kind of where we're at with pop culture," Lee explains. "People put their hearts and souls into telling stories, whether it's a comic book, or a big feature film, and people just consume it and move onto the next thing, cause there's so much. In some ways there's almost too much, in my opinion."

How do you adapt The Dark Phoenix Saga without Phoenix? Watch X-Men: The Last Stand to find out. The 2006 film adapted elements of the classic comic book storyline, but inexplicably kept Jean off-screen for a large portion of the movie. Looking back 20 years later, Jean Grey actress Famke Janssen says this was one of the film’s biggest mistakes.

“I guess I got more screentime as Xenia Onatopp [in 1995 James Bond movie Goldeneye] than I really did as Phoenix,” Famke Janssen complained during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “Phoenix was only in The Last Stand for moments. I really wish we had been able to explore more of that, because she is iconic, and she’s so powerful and interesting.”

It's a valid complaint, because somehow Phoenix got lost amongst the many plot points and characters in Fox's third X-Men outing - despite being the most powerful character in the movie, at least in theory. Janssen regrets not being able to do more with the character, because she really wanted to see Jean cut loose. “If I had an opportunity, I would show you some really amazing Phoenix,” she teased.

For anyone who thought that the first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day didn’t give away enough of what the movie’s actually about, good news: the latest trailer for the movie lays out the plot in… what seems like a surprisingly complete fashion, actually.

Look, I get that trailers are a fine line between not teasing enough and giving the whole game away — think of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, with its very mysterious first trailer — but it’s surprising just how much is revealed in this new Brand New Day teaser: Want to see the Hulk in action again? Here he is. Wondering how the Punisher fits into the larger story? We get that, too. How does MJ get involved with Spider-Man again? Oh, sure, that’s in there too. At this point, all that’s left unknown is who the invisible threat to New York City is… but that’s probably the point.

Is it too much? Is it just enough to get people psyched up for the first big Marvel Cinematic Universe release of the year? You decide for yourself — here’s the trailer:

We live in an era where there are multiple live-action Star Wars television shows. In the past few years Lucasfilm has produced The Mandalorian, Skeleton Crew, Ahsoka, and more. If you want a live-action Star Wars television show, you aren’t starved for content.

However, there was a time when Star Wars only appeared on television in animated form. There were 1980s Saturday morning shows Droids and Ewoks, and, decades later, The Clone Wars. Before selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, George Lucas was toying with the idea of producing a live-action television series, and it would’ve focused on Emperor Palpatine’s political life.

“[George Lucas] was talking about, I think I can tell you now, a television series,” Ian McDiarmid told the audience during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “At the time we didn’t think about Star Wars in terms of television series. Very speculative. We had lunch one day, and he said I’ve got this idea, and I hope you might want to be involved. We could sort of follow the Emperor’s progress, like Hilter’s, some of that. There might be an assassination attempt, and of course it wouldn’t succeed. It sounded really exciting. And he also said that maybe you could direct one, and then I fainted. But sadly, that didn’t come to pass.”

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer know their stuff when it comes to the horror movies and genre films of the '80s, having channeled their share of it into their beloved streaming series. Though they're a little reluctant to say so at first, there is in fact a classic '80s movie series that Matt Duffer in particular has thought about taking a shot at rebooting.

"This is nasty, because it's just meant to make some sort of fuckin' headlines," Matt Duffer joked on Happy Sad Confused. "The problem is, when a film is classic, I really don't wanna mess with it. Like, why am I messing with perfection?," adds his brother Ross.

As it turns out, the Duffers have had offers for some unnamed '80s reboot projects though they've seemingly passed on all of them so far. Interestingly enough, the franchise Matt Duffer says he's intrigued by is A Nightmare on Elm Street, a horror movie series with more than a little in common with some concepts present in Stranger Things.

With Only Murders in the Building heading to London for its next season, it made sense for the Hulu hit to bring in some top local talent. In addition to getting actors from Taskmaster and Downton Abbey, Only Murders in the Building has engineered an unexpected Doctor Who reunion by casting two former Doctors for Season 6 – David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker.

David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker both played The Doctor in BBC’s long-running Doctor Who series, with Tennant playing the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors while Whittaker played the Thirteenth Doctor from 2018 to 2022. While the future of the Doctor Who franchise feels very much up in the air right now, the former Doctors are ready for at least one more team-up.

Also joining the cast of Only Murders in the Building Season 6 are Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls and Bridgerton), Jim Broadbent (Paddington and Bridget Jones Diary), Richard Ayoade (Taskmaster and IT Crowd), Adrian Lukis (The Bill), and Kathryn Hunter (Andor).

Actor Paul Bettany first became widely known thanks to his role as Geoffrey Chaucer in 2001's A Knight's Tale, but his big break almost came years earlier as he was cast in a major role in 1995's Braveheart, before being unceremoniously dropped from the cast without warning.

"I learned an amazing lesson," Bettany told Happy Sad Confused about the experience. "I auditioned - I didn't audition, because Mel Gibson wouldn't let actors read. He just wanted to meet you. And at the end of it, he said 'OK, you're in Braveheart,' And I went  'What? I'm in Braveheart?' He went 'Yup, you're in Braveheart.' As you probably noticed, I'm not in Braveheart. I was still at drama school, and it taught me a really good lesson, which is that, the biggest star in the world, as he was then, really, and the director of the film, and the producer of the film can say you're in the movie, and you'll not be in the movie. So that was a really good lesson."

Bettany was originally cast as Prince Edward in Braveheart, son of the film's main antagonist King Edward I AKA Longshanks. The role was ultimately played by Peter Hanly, with the character's portrayal apparently very different from what was eventually put on film.

A lot of attention gets paid to Harry Potter among fans of coming-of-age children’s fiction set in a magical world, but there is a better option out there if you don't want to have to deal with a certain creator's frustrating politics. Before it was one of the most beloved Studio Ghibli movies, Kiki’s Delivery Service was an award-winning children’s book in Japan. Now the BBC wants to capitalize on that as they have agreed to develop a live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service series.

This is not the first time someone has adapted Eiko Kadano’s iconic Japanese children’s novel. In addition to the aforementioned Studio Ghibli movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, there is also a live-action Japanese movie based on the book. The upcoming series, which is being developed by BBC Studios Kids & Family along with UK production company Wheels in Motion and Japanese publisher Kadokawa, will be the first attempt at a live-action TV series based on the book.

That distinction feels important here; the upcoming live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service series is based exclusively on the original novel instead of the Ghibli movie. The series will consist of 10 half-hour episodes, which makes sense when you look at the structure of the Kadano novel. It was 11 chapters long, each one consisting of a short adventure that the titular Kiki had while running her delivery service. It deals heavily with her own insecurities and fears and how she overcomes them to discover her own identity. Roughly half an hour for each of these adventures is probably just right.

In 2016 Alice Oseman began writing and illustrating Heartstopper, a coming-of-age webcomic that focused on the love story between two teens named Nick and Charlie. Ten years later, the Tapas webcomic has become a series of print graphic novels, a novella, and a Netflix series. Heartstopper has also won numerous awards, including a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Graphic Novel & Comic.

There is no mistaking Heartstopper’s success, and Alice Oseman’s only hope is that it leads to more queer stories. “I hope that the existence of Heartstopper will mean that more stories like Heartstopper can continue to exist, whether that’s books or shows or film,” Alice Oseman says during a discussion at BFI Flare 2026.  “Just the fact that Heartstopper was made and did so will means that people are more willing to take a chance on queer stories, and stories about marginalized characters. I think those stories are so important and hopefully we’ll see more of them in the future.”

It’s 2026 and the comic book industry has come a long way, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Heartstopper proves that not only can a queer webcomic find an audience, but it can become a successful streaming series. Alice Oseman is one of the many creators who has broken down the door, and now it’s up to publishers, readers, and creators to walk through.

Gillian Anderson has an interesting relationship with Dana Scully. The FBI agent from The X-Files is arguably her most iconic role, and it’s a character that is near and dear to her heart. However, after The X-Files ended in 2002, Anderson tried to prove that she could play other types of roles, and that’s why she was hesitant about returning to the franchise when the show was revived in 2016. Although Anderson had already reprised the role for the 2008 movie The X-Files: I Want to Believe, she wasn’t sure if returning to the role on a more full-time basis would be a mistake.

“It was hard to say yes, because I felt like I was working really hard to do things that were as different from Scully as possible, and I was worried about being pulled in for too long,” Gillian Anderson revealed during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “It was hard to say yes. But then it was even harder to actually - given how many years I played her, I actually found it really hard in the new season to find her again. I had assumed that she was second nature, I had to go digging.”

Anderson would do two seasons of the X-Files revival before the series ended. The actress may be more than Scully, but it’s always great to see her step back into the iconic role.

Will Marvel Comics ever release some of its most well-known and sought after unpublished material that still hasn't seen the light of day? Marvel editor Tom Brevoort says that there's always hope the unfinished work will finally come to fruition, including at least one story that died on the vine under his watch.

"I think most stuff these days kind of gets collected unless it doesn't get printed or finished. So there are a couple random things. There was Daredevil: The Target, and I think one issue of that saw print," Brevoort tells Word Balloon. "The sore spot in my history, the two issues of Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas that will never be finished, that John Favreau did with Adi Granov. So there are a couple of things like that here and there, but even those, given enough time, somebody will find places to put them into collections. So I don't think anything is quite lost in the way it might have been in the past."

Still, the changes Marvel has made to its publishing model in recent years mean that there are less stories being created that go unreleased thanks to the nature of the direct market and how retailers order comic books. Unlike the past, there are fewer 'inventory stories,' standalone issues designed to slot into a given title should there be a delay in finishing the next issue in the ongoing plot.

Did you know that Dave Bautista’s first credited acting role was on Smallville? That’s right, years before he played an alien brute in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, he played an alien brute in the 2006 Smallville episode ‘Static.’ Of course, Drax was a loveable powerhouse, while his Smallville character Aldar was a Phantom Zone fugitive who ate bone marrow, but everyone has to start somewhere.

“[Bautista] was so great, so eager, so ready,” Smallville star Tom Welling remembered during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “Like, l'et me know what I can do.' And there was this scene where his character has to pick Clark up over his head. And the stunt people were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to set up the rig.’ And Dave goes, ‘I’ll just pick him up.’ And I’m not small, right? And they were like, ‘Really?’ And the director was like, ‘Tom, are you good with that?’ And I look at my stunt guy and I’m like, ‘Am I good with this?’ And he goes, ‘I think you’re good.’ And Dave just picked up and put me over his head, and it’s in the episode. And he’s gone on to do great stuff. He has a great career.”

Earlier that year Bautista had made an uncredited cameo as a wrestler in a comedy called Relative Strangers, but Smallville was his first credited role and it gave him far more screentime. Did his experience on set lead to him becoming Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It’s hard to say, but it must’ve been fun to lift Superman in the air.

Prolific comics & TV writer Gerry Conway passed away earlier this year. Although he was instrumental in everything from Law & Order to the 1980s Conan the Destroyer movie, we all know him best for his work with Marvel Comics and the Spider-Man character. With a bit of time since the initial shock and sadness, Popverse spoke with Amazing Spider-Man series writer Joe Kelly and long-time Spider-Man group editor Nick Lowe about his contributions and their own personal experiences with the man.

"I'm not super objective about this, because I've gotten to work with Gerry, and I've gotten to know Gerry over the last decade and a half. His loss really hit me like a ton of bricks," Lowe tells Popverse's Joshua Lapin-Bertone. "When you go back, and you read Amazing Spider-Man, of course, as far as writers go, you cannot underscore Stan's importance, and obviously, you have to include Steve Ditko and John Romita, because they were far more than just artists on their runs. But after Stan, Gerry did so much for Peter Parker and for that book. The amount of character and the tone of voice."

Gerry Conway took over as writer of Amazing Spider-Man at age 19, taking the reins from co-creator Stan Lee. Over three years and 38 issues, he and others created the landmark 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died,' and created the Punisher, the Jackal, Man-Wolf, Hammerhead, Grizzly, Tarantula, the second Mysterio, and others. In subsequent years, he wrote the milestone Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man crossover event and returned to the character on several occasions, including co-creating Ben Reilly, Tombstone, and Carrion.

Mark Waid has spent a lot of time thinking about Superman. The award-winning comic book author first fell in love with the character when he saw the 1978 Superman film in theaters, and the Man of Steel hasn’t left his thoughts since. He’s written numerous stories for the character, including the 2003 limited series Superman: Birthright, and Batman/Superman: World’s Finest.

“I have a very special and unique relationship with these characters that no one else on Earth has,” Waid says during an appearance on SKTCHD’s Off Panel. “No one else has spent as much time and energy living in that world and spending that much time thinking about these characters and what their relationships are. I’m not talking about coming up with stories. I just mean in terms of just thinking about them with the same way I think about my friends.”

“I know they’re fictional, but I surround myself with them all day long. I also get out and do adult things, yes. But they are such a part of my life, I’ve probably spent more time thinking about Superman than anybody who ever lived, maybe even including Jerry Siegel. That I think is a big part of it. That I can always find some new take, some new insight, some new something to add to these characters’ worlds and to show you something in every story that maybe you hadn’t thought about before.”

This December's Avengers: Doomsday will feature a lot of returning Marvel heroes, including some of Fox's X-Men - but don’t expect Jean Grey to be standing alongside James Marsden's Cyclops or Patrick Stewart's Professor Xavier.

Despite plenty of rumors that Famke Janssen will return as the core X-Men character in the big Marvel Studios release of the year - as of this writing her Wikipedia filmography lists the upcoming Marvel Studios film among her credits, curiously - Janssen continues to deny being involved with the film. That said, the actress says things would be very different if she had her way.

“I am so bad at keeping secrets that I always say to everyone I’m the worst actor in the world. It’s all on my face. You right away will read it,” Janssen said about her honesty surrounding her absence from the movie during a panel at Spacecon 2026. When it comes to the fact that she wasn't invited, she was a little more forthcoming: “I think they made a mistake, but hey, who am I? I’m just a little me who thinks that.” 

There have been a lot of questions about what’s canon and what isn't in James Gunn’s DC Universe, and that’s understandable. For example, some DCEU characters like John Cena’s Peacemaker and Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller have carried over into the new universe's lore, while heroes like Superman have been recast. If you’re a longtime comic fan, this type of thing should be familiar to you, as no reboot is without its hiccups.

James Gunn has said that his 2021 DCEU era film The Suicide Squad is still canon to his DC Universe - and, indeed, what happened in that movie was referenced in the second season of Peacemaker, which is definitely part of the DCU canon. However, his brother Sean has pointed out a small wrinkle in that plan during an appearance at Spacecon 2026. 

Sean Gunn, who debuted as Maxwell Lord in the new DC Universe in 2025's Superman and reprised the role in Peacemaker season 2, made a cameo as Calendar Man in The Suicide Squad. According to the actor, though, we should ignore that scene the next time we rewatch the movie. “Calendar Man is not grandfathered into the DCU,” Gunn told the audience. “He is not canon in the new DCU.”

The stereotype of every artist is that they are only truly appreciated after they die, which is a big enough problem when someone isn’t trying to speed up the process. In the upcoming comic book from Christian Ward and John J. Pearson, a serial killer is targeting artists to make their work more popular and, importantly, more valuable. The Patron is a story of greed and loss that was born out of a conversation at a UK curry house.

The Patron, in this case, refers to Mr. Cherish, who has spent a lifetime scouting for and supporting new artists. The problem is that their work only truly becomes valuable when they die, but Cherish sees that as a temporary setback. He kills multiple artists before turning his attention to painter Matty Barnes, but he soon finds his blood-soaked empire at risk.

Written by Christan Ward (Batman: City of Madness) with art by John J. Pearson (The Infernals), The Patron first came into being as the pair ate curry in the UK. “The Patron was born over a curry with John in Harrogate many years ago,” Ward explained. “Both ex-teachers and artists who have dabbled in fine art, John and I were talking over our Sag Aloo about the art industry and joking that at least our work would be worth something when we were dead, and PING! The spark that would become The Patron appeared in one of the purest light bulb moments I’ve ever had.”

It is a story that has been in the making for over 40 years. After very publicly walking away from Marvel Comics 25 years ago, John Byrne is returning to publish his own version of what happened after his iconic Dark Phoenix Saga. In his version, Jean Grey doesn’t die, and X-Men history takes a very different turn.

X-Men Elsewhen started as a webcomic that John Byrne published on his website starting in 2018, but it is set to get a physical release later this month. That release is remarkable not just because it is John Byrne returning to one of the most iconic storylines in comic book history, but also because Marvel Comics is putting its official stamp on it. They are involved as licensors while Abrams ComicArts is publishing.

Here is a preview:

Starz's Outlander recently wrapped up its eight season, 12 year run with a series finale that, as seems to be a growing trend, leaves fans with burning, unanswered questions. But the ambiguity goes even deeper as multiple endings for the show were filmed, with no one knowing which one would actually be Outlander's final word - alternate endings that the series' producers say no one will get a chance to see.

"No, you're not gonna see those scenes," producer Matthew B. Roberts frankly revealed during a Paley Center live event celebrating the series' conclusion. Viewers left mourning the show's tragic yet hopeful ending may never get to see what might have been - but there's hope yet as the Outlander book series by writer Diana Gabaldon is still underway, with the strong likelihood that it won't simply follow the events of the show.

One thing that definitely wasn't filmed was a scene where Jamie and Claire take a Hawaiian vacation... something producer Maril Davis jokingly admitted she pitched.

The cast of the Andy Serkis-directed The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum continues to grow, as Anya Taylor-Joy becomes the latest star to join the hunt. Fresh off the success of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie and leading into the upcoming Dune 3 release later this year, the actress will be playing an eternally youthful and beautiful elf in the film, which feels like typecasting to us.

According to reports, Anya Taylor-Joy is set to play Seren, a Sindar Elf described as “a trusted and lethal agent of King Thranduil.” Thranduil was played by Lee Pace in The Hobbit films. Pace, along with Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Elijah Wood as Frodo, is set to return for this midquel set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films.

The character of Seren isn’t one that appeared in the original books, so it isn’t clear exactly what Anya Taylor-Joy’s role will be in the movie. If she is under the command of Thranduil, it is likely that she will be sent to try to recover Gollum after his escape from their dungeons, which ultimately sets off the events of The Lord of the Rings.

The question of whether Eleven lives on after her apparent sacrifice in the series finale of Stranger Things will likely be a topic of conversation among fans for years to come. And if they can wait two whole decades, well, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer are jokingly teasing that they'll give a definitive answer one way or the other.

The promise is a reference to The Sopranos creator David Chase finally giving fans a real answer about whether embattled mob boss Tony Soprano dies in the notoriously ambiguous final scene of the 2007 series finale, which cuts to black as a stranger approaches Tony and his family in a diner. Chase seemingly revealed the truth in 2021, referring to it very intentionally as a "death scene."

"If we're talking to you in 20 years, about Stranger Things in 20 years, I hope so, I hope people will still care," co-creator Ross Duffer said on the podcast Happy Sad Confused. "That would be great. And then I'll say everything, at that point. 20 years from now."

The biggest change to the Indiana Jones franchise with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn’t the addition of Mutt to the script. It isn’t the weird CGI monkeys or that a major plot point seems to be psychic skulls. No, Indiana Jones 4 makes a sudden and awkward leap into sci-fi by centering the action on aliens rather than religious relics. And it turns out that everyone, from Harrison Ford to Steven Spielberg, hated the aliens in Indiana Jones, but George Lucas is the one who insisted on it.

In a long retrospective of Steven Spielberg’s career, George Lucas talked about the much-maligned aliens that show up at the end of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. They happened primarily because Lucas wanted a 1950s sci-fi vibe for the movie, even though both the director and star hated the idea.

“I wanted it to be kind of a War of the Worlds sort of thing,” George Lucas explained. “Harrison [Ford] said, ‘I’m not going to do another science-fiction movie.’ And Steven [Spielberg] said, ‘I’m not going to do another science-fiction movie.’ I said, ‘Steven, this is perfect because it’s the 1950s, when flying saucers were a whole thing,’ but he said ‘No.’ We did about five scripts, and finally Steve and I compromised: ‘Look, what if they’re not aliens but from another dimension.’”

Improvisation is a part of movie magic and it can lead to some of the most powerful moments in film. But what happens when an actor is asked to improvise an important, crucial scene with very little guidance on a blockbuster film like Avengers: Infinity War? According to actor Paul Bettany, you buckle up and do your best.

If the idea of improvising a key moment in a huge movie seems like a lot of pressure, Bettany and co-star Elizabeth Olsen were forged from coal into diamond when Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo asked them to just wing it when it came time to film Vision's brutally tragic death scene.

"That's totally real," Bettany confirmed on the Happy Sad Confused when asked about the improvisation. "I can't remember what was on the page now from what we made up, but [...] the Russos were like 'So, um, I don't know, just improvise this bit' And I went, 'Wait, what?" And we were both really terrified. I went, 'Improvise being a robot having a stone removed from my head?' 'Just say some stuff.' All right. I think there were lines there, I'm sure there were lines there, but definitely I think there was one line. But I don't think all that 'We're out of time,' and all of that stuff was on the page."

"Somehow, Palpatine returned."

That line, which has taken on a life of its own, was first said by Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and there’s a chance we might hear it again. At least that’s what Ian McDiarmid thinks. To be fair, his character Emperor Palpatine has a habit of escaping death - ee saw Darth Vader throw him down a reactor shaft in 1983's Return of the Jedi, but that didn’t stop the character from cheating death in multiple pieces of media. For example, Palpatine returns in the 1991 comic Dark Empire, having transferred his essence into a clone body. Luke and Leia kill him once more in the final act, but that didn’t stop the character from returning again in Dark Empire II, before ultimately being defeated in Empire’s End.

For a time it looked like the character would at least stay dead in the films, until Lucasfilm brought him back for the 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Audiences were surprised, and so was McDiarmid himself. “I had no idea that I wasn’t dead," Ian McDiarmid said during a panel at Spacecon 2026. "So, it’s been a journey. But I think I’m dead now, but don’t quote me.” 

What kind of hero is the X-Man Gambit for the Marvel U? What kind of husband for Rogue? What kind of man is he... for himself? Those are the kind of questions begging answers, and those are the kinds of answers you will be getting in a new solo series debuting this fall from Marvel Comics.

Gambit: Gone, by writer Steve Orlando (The Marauders, Midnighter) and artists Eduardo Aoudino (Moonstar) and Gerardo Sandoval (Spider-Man & Wolverine), will catch up as Gambit (and the Marvel U) deal with the fact that there are now two Gambits running around. Picking up from the recent X-Men of Apocalypse event (and ahead of its August Omega finale!), this five-issue Gambit series will feature twin narratives of the two Remy LeBeau (or is that Remy LeTwos?) that will come to intertwine as the series climaxes.

"Following up on the ending of Jeph Loeb and Simone Di Meo’s X-Men of Apocalypse took me off-guard in the best way!" says Orlando in the announcement. "I was lucky enough to work with the Cajun in X-Men Infinity--and we got on famously. The charisma, the pot-stirring, the swagger and confidence enlivened every scene he was in! For me, it's been that way since I first met him in 1992. So to find out we'd have not one, but TWO Gambits, well...I just had to roll the dice."

In a world full of sequels, reboots, and reunions, is there room for Josie and the Pussycats to make a comeback? In 2001 MGM Pictures and Universal Pictures co-produced Josie and the Pussycats, a musical comedy based on the Archie Comics characters. The film was a fun sendup of pop music culture, as the band uncovered a dark conspiracy that had been plaguing the music industry for decades. Unfortunately, it had a lukewarm reception at the box office and was considered a financial failure.

However, those who saw the film loved it, and it’s become somewhat of a cult classic. The cast still get asked about the film, and now there are rumblings of a possible sequel.

“Now we’re thinking of making a second one. That would be the coolest movie ever. If the Backstreet Boys could do it, we could do it,” Melody actress Tara Reid said during a panel at Spacecon 2026.

Talk all you want about which Critical Role is most beloved; a far juicier question is 'which Critical Role character is most misunderstood?' As part of the promotion for Prime Video's The Legend of Vox Machina, some of the core cast members got together to wade into those tempestuous waters and even ended up finding some common ground. 

Specifically, it was OG Rolers Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jafe, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, and Sam Riegel answering that question, for a video posted to the Fall Damage YouTube page. The subject came up after one fan wrote in owning the hot take that Vox Machina's Keyleth was the most misunderstood character across CR's four core campaigns, three miniseries spin-offs, and multiple canon live-performances and one-shots. And the cast had thoughts.

"I would agree," said Johnson, to which Ray responded, "I would also agree." 

Nobody could escape 80s fashion trends, not even Supergirl. It’s important to remember that the first Supergirl film was released in 1984, and that meant Warner Bros. executives had some thoughts about how they wanted Helen Slater to look. The actress, who played Supergirl in the Jeannot Szwarc directed film, recalls her reaction to the dated costume she wore during her screen test.

“I had a screen test at Pinewood Studios before I got the part, and that was unusual because I was wearing a headband, a full blonde wig, and it was based on the variations [of Supergirl’s costume],” Helen Slater revealed during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “I don’t remember the moment once I got the part, but I do remember this feeling after all that training, and gaining 15 pounds in muscle, and just embodying her. I did feel an amazing strength.”

We’ve included an image from Slater’s screen test as the headline image, and you might notice that it resembles the costume Supergirl wore in the mid-80s. That’s because Warner Bros. asked DC Comics to include the outfit in their comics for brand synergy. However, Warner Bros. executives changed their minds and gave Supergirl a more traditional outfit in the movie after DC had already implemented the change in their comics. Curiously enough, the version Slater wore in the finished movie was a costume never actually worn by Kara in the comics at that point - although a 'fictional' Supergirl wished into existence by Jimmy Olsen (don't ask; it's comics) had worn it in 1958's Superman #123, a year before Kara's official debut. 

The ending of Berserk feels almost legendary to most manga fans. The series has been ongoing for so long and continues to this day, albeit with a different creative team since Kentaro Miura’s passing in 2021. While fans love to speculate about what the final chapter of Berserk will unfold, only four people know for certain how Berserk will end – and they say it won’t be a happy or sad ending. Instead, it will be something fans never see coming.

Akira Shimada has been involved in Berserk for years. He was Kentaro Miura’s editor and still advises Kouji Mori, the manga’s current writer, on how to proceed with the story. The reason for that is that he is one of the few people who knows how Berserk will end. “Including myself, Kouji Mori-san, [Yoshimitsu] Kurosaki-san, and Young Animal editor Takamura-san are the only 4 people that know the complete ending to Berserk,” Shimada said in an interview.

Naturally, he was careful not to spoil anything about the ending, but he did say that it won’t be what fans expect. “All I can tell you about it is that it’s not a happy ending nor is it a bad ending. Nothing you can put into a mold we’ve grown accustomed to, but it’s truly a tremendous ending.”

Fans of Outlander who know the books on which the Starz show is based know that one of the story's most impactful deaths was quite different in the source material, and now the show's producer Matthew B. Roberts is offering up some answers about why they made the change.

Needless to say, discussing character deaths will involve some big spoilers, so if you're planning to watch the now concluded Outlander, be aware.

In the show, the character who dies is César Domboy's Fergus, a close friend and ally of main character Jamie, who becomes a fixture in his life after a fateful encounter in Paris. However, in the original Outlander books, it's Fergus' son Henri-Christian who dies instead. According to Roberts, the switch all comes down to the needs of the story and the impact the death is meant to have on fans.

Charles Burns's comic, Black Hole, has been taking a long, meandering journey from page to screen. And now, the showrunner of its TV adaptation, Jane Schoenbrun, has dropped some details about the upcoming Netflix show. 

Speaking in the latest issue of Empire magazine, Schoenbrun said, "I'm trying to think of it less as paying reverent tribute to this holy text and more as using this book that means so much to me, and that's been in my subconsciousness for half my life, as a jumping-off point to something new."

Schoenbrun is best known for directing the films We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. The Black Hole show will be produced by Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B. Not much else is known at this moment about what direction Schoenbrun will be taking the story.

It seems like every franchise from The Office to KPop Demon Hunters has collaborated with Fortnite. However, despite its notoriety, The Boys have never appeared in Fortnite. I had to fact check this, because I didn’t believe it at first, but the Amazon Prime superhero series is one of the few franchises Fortnite hasn’t touched.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed, and A-Train actor Jessie T. Usher is hoping it changes soon. “I mean, I grew up playing Halo. That was like one of my top games,” Usher revealed during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “I played a lot of PlayStation 1 and 2 games. All the Crash Bandicoot games. I think if we can somehow get The Boys into Super Mario World, that would be cool. That’s a mashup we’re probably never going to get. You know, I’ll settle for Fortnite. Give me something!”

I do like his Super Mario idea, but I feel like his Fortnite one is more realistic. The Boys may have aired its final episode this year, but the characters could live on in the battle royale game. Plus, it would be a good way to promote the Vought Rising spinoff. Look, if Homelander can take on Superman in an official DC comic, then anything is possible, right? 

Mickey Mouse has quite an interesting landlord.

In 2012 Disney purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas for $4.05 billion. However, you might be surprised to learn that Lucas is still getting money from Disney, thanks to some of his property holdings. You see, Disney may have bought George’s company, but they didn’t buy the offices the company was based in.

Skywalker Ranch is a production facility located in Nicasio, California. The movie ranch was purchased by George Lucas in 1978, and he still owns the property today. Skywalker Sound, Lucasfilm’s sound editing company, has been based at Skywalker Ranch for decades, and Disney hasn’t seen the need to move their office space.

This summer, you'll be able to wield the iconic Tolkien character Smaug in Magic: The Gathering, but once upon a time, it was an uphill battle for any Middle-earth characters to be adapted to other media. That's why the original trilogy of Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings films felt like such a revelation. Sure, there had been the animated Lord of the Rings film by Ralph Bakshi from 1978, but each film in the Jackson trilogy was an instant classic when it hit theaters at the dawn of the millennium. 

Now, 25 years later, a former DC Comics editor Scott Dunbier has revealed details about a planned series of Lord of the Rings graphic novels that unfortunately never saw the light of day. According to Scott Dunbier's Facebook page, the Tolkien estate shut down DC's potential graphic novel adaptation of Middle-earth. "About 25 years ago, as the first Peter Jackson helmed Lord of the Rings was released, I was asked by someone at DC Comics to do a proposal for a series of Lord of the Rings graphic novels. No idea who asked me about it (Richard Bruning?). Warner Brothers had the rights to the property so it made sense for DC to do adaptations," the post began.

"I started mulling it over in my head, pondering what my 'dream team' would be. For the adaptation (both the layouts and the scripting) I reached out to Craig Russell. He seemed perfect to me. For the finished art it was a bit more tricky. It was a huge, multi-year project–having one person do it all felt impossible. I started to think of all the lush back rounds, all the trees and foliage. Which led me to Charles Vess. Then I thought of Charles' old flatmate and close friend Michael Wm Kaluta to do all the figures, horses, creatures. All was good until I got word that the [sic] Tolkein estate had slammed the door on it. God, it would have been magnificent. C'est la vie," Dunbier wrote. 

The Smallville cast are cooking up a reunion plan, but it isn’t for a superhero project. Tom Welling, Erica Durance, and Laura Vandervoort realize that they don’t need to wait for a Smallville revival to work together again, which is why the trio brainstormed an unconventional reunion vehicle in front of a live audience, recently - a Hallmark holiday western.

“Would you do a western?” Erica Durance asked Welling and Vandervoort during a panel at Spacecon 2026. “I would love a western,” Welling answered. “Me too!” Durance responded.

“Let’s do a Hallmark western. Why not?” Welling said, causing the audience to cheer. “Who would watch a Hallmark western with us?” Durance asked, causing the crowd to get louder. “We could be like High Noon or something. It’s all of us on a horse,” joked Welling, adding, “Listen, there’s two things in a western. It’s ‘Go get that guy’ and ‘Who’s the new guy.’ It’s always the theme in the western. So maybe there’s a new guy in town, and we all have to get together to catch him.”

Some of the biggest battles in comics haven't been imaginary struggles between Batman and Superman or any superhero face-off, but rather the behind-the-scenes (and sometimes super-public) fallings-out between creators of a project once it becomes a hit, and the fame and fortune follow suit. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee over their Marvel Comics creations. Tony Moore and Robert Kirkman over the Walking Dead. Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman over Angela and other Spawn creations. Now, Kirkman and McFarlane's comic companies are turning that common thread of comic creator fallouts into a fantasy story (with more than a little bit of truth).

Tales of Wonder by cartoonist Steve Skroce, colorist Ian Herring, and letterer Pat Brosseau is a new series that takes a page (or more) from real-life comic creator clashes but fictionalizes it and turns it into a superhero flight. In Tales of Wonder, the two feuding friends-turned-collaborators-turned-enemies must team up to stop their contested fictional creations come to life and menace the world.

“This is a story I've dreamt of telling for years. It's a tale about the many pitfalls of creative collaboration. When things go south, lifelong friendships can end, and the axe-grinding can last for decades," says Skroce in the announcement. Although there's no known major comic-creator clashes for Skroce, he has worked with a who's who of individuals on comics, including Clive Barker, Rob Liefeld, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Geof Darrow, and Brian K. Vaughan.

Like many of the best shonen anime, Black Clover is all about two young men on a path of both friendship and rivalry. Despite being one of the most popular anime series of the past decade, it has been more than five years since the first season of Black Clover concluded. Fans have had to wait a long time, but that wait is nearly over as more episodes are coming in October 2026.

Calling this Black Clover Season 2 feels slightly disingenuous, but hear us out. The first “season” ran for 170 episodes from 2017 to 2021 on the same kind of weekly schedule that not even One Piece could maintain. Since then, we’ve had one anime film in 2023, but more episodes of the anime have been hard to come by. It isn’t the longest gap between seasons that we’ve seen from a popular anime, but it is still a long time to make fans wait.

During that long break, creator Yuki Tabata finally finished the Black Clover manga in May 2026, so the anime studio doesn’t have to guess at what is coming next in the series. Work has been ongoing for the series during the long hiatus; the first episode is expected to be shown during an Anime Expo panel on July 4, 2026, several months before Crunchyroll streams the second season.

David Harbour was not Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers' first choice to play the role of Chief Hopper - but after their first choice passed, Harbour wowed the Duffers with an audition that they say immediately cemented him as the character. So who was the actor who passed, and made that possible?

Harbour himself posed the question to the Duffers in a pre-recorded video during an episode of podcast Happy Sad Confused, asking "Would you please answer the question of how I came to be cast as Chief Hopper, and who had to say no to allow me to do that wonderful, incredible role?" adding that he's always "run away" when the topic has been broached on set.

"I can't believe he wants us to say this. I believe he was - we did go out to someone prior to David. Someone who'd been less of a supporting actor," said Ross Duffer. "I haven't told him that this is one of his good friends," added brother Matt.

Looking at Steven Spielberg’s filmography is basically a list of some of the biggest movies of all time. The man helped define what a blockbuster is and continues to dip into new genres, but there is one series that we’ll likely never see Spielberg direct, and that is James Bond. Not because he doesn’t want to (he tried twice to get the job), but because they couldn’t afford him at this point in his career.

While talking on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Steven Spielberg revealed that he pitched to Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the producer who worked on every Bond film from 1962 to 1989, twice to try to direct the world’s most famous secret agent. “I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr No. So I called Cubby Broccoli after Jaws, and I volunteered. I said, ‘If you need a director, I would love to direct one.’ And he said no, and he moved on.”

Jaws, of course, was the first big hit of Spielberg’s career, so maybe Broccoli wanted to see if the young director was more than a one-hit wonder. “Cubby called me again after Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] came out, and that was a big hit… and said, ‘We’d like to use the five notes in Moonraker.’ And I said, ‘I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you permission to use the five notes if you let me direct a Bond film.’ And he said, 'Nope.' But I have him the five notes anyway.”

Paul Bettany is set to return as Vision this October in his own Disney Plus streaming series VisionQuest. According to Bettany, the show takes Vision back to his roots as he confronts his villainous creator, the returning Ultron - played once again by James Spader, returning to the role for the first time since 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Bettany has high praise for Spader as Ultron, explaining that the evil AI's relationship with Vision is central to the story.

"Got some Spader back, yeah. And he is delicious. He is so funny in this. It's so delicious to watch him. We loved working together. I loved it so much," Bettany said on the podcast Happy Sad Confused. 

As fans will undoubtedly recall, Vision was created by Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron as a new, perfect body for the villain. However, Vision gained his own consciousness, eventually being the one to defeat Ultron.

On December 12, 2025, John Cena retired from wrestling. The WWE wrestler had announced his retirement the previous year, saying he wanted to focus on his family, health, and acting career. 

Cena is adamant that he’s done with wrestling, and says he’ll never break a promise he made to his fans. However, there’s one recent development that could change his mind. On June 12, 2026, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire when his company SpaceX went public, raising his net worth to $1.11 trillion.

That’s a lot of money, and John Cena has a interesting idea for how Musk could use it.

Legendary artist Jim Lee once had hard, fast rules about how he drew Batman, going all the way back to his first days drawing the hero in the massively successful story Batman: Hush. And though Lee's now classic version of the Dark Knight has remained strong in the public eye, he's not afraid to switch up the costume details he once considered to be unchangeable.

"When you're younger, and you're a fan, you tend to have very strong opinions, I've noticed, reading things online. And I think when you transition, and work in the industry and become a professional for a while, at least for me, I'm more open to other points of view," Lee tells the Masterplan podcast. "I think, when I started Batman, to me it had to be the Frank Miller Batman. You know, shorter ears, bigger, blockier figure, wrinkly costume. And then he was inspired by Dick Sprang, and sort of the Silver Age of Batman. By the time I finished Hush, he was a leaner body, and now with Hush 2, he's got longer ears."

Hush brings in nearly all of Batman's biggest enemies. Lee's Hush version of Batman has become the de facto style for the Caped Crusader in the minds of many fans, not least because of its ongoing presence in merchandising and market. Later, Lee worked alongside Frank Miller himself on All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder. Since then, however, Lee's personal rules for portraying Batman have changed, leading to more experimentation in his designs.

Most comic readers have at least one less well-known character that they adore, but it can be hard to find those characters' adventures on the stands. At least at Marvel Comics, however, there's still a place for comics that star more obscure characters, says editor Tom Brevoort, even if they can be a tough sell.

"Oh sure. If you look at our Previews catalog in any given month, we publish somewhere between 55 and 75 comic book releases a month. And within that, not everything is an established perennial title or perennial character," Brevoort tells Word Balloon. "We're always doing things that are experimental, that somebody has an idea for, or that somebody thinks is a cool idea or a great story. So there's definitely room for all of that."

There are obstacles to those kind of titles, however, in a market where sales does nearly all the talking and in which there is a wide array of titles not just from Marvel but from DC and even other publishers. For characters that have less name recognition, like Union Jack, who is named in the interview as an example.

Andrea Shea is the newest senior editor at DC Comics. This promotion news comes as their current event series Justice League: Dream Girls is underway, and the recent conclusion of their Sirens: Love Hurts and Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham limited series from the Black Label imprint.

Shea joined DC in 2015 just as the company made its historic move from New York City to Burbank, California. Coming to the publisher after a one-year stint at nearby Aspen Comics, Shea began at DC as an executive assistant, and after two years, moved into the editorial department and worked their way up from Assistant Editor to Associate Editor, Editor, and now Senior Editor over the course of a now 11-year career at DC Comics.

One of several key initiatives Shea has been a part of is DC's increased focus on LGBTQIA+, including as part of its annual Pride Month publishing efforts. Through the efforts of Shea and others at DC, this focus hasn't been pigeonholed to just one month out of the year, but has become a ubiquitous part of DC's publishing line.

If you went into a bunker with no access to the outside world in 2008 and reentered society in 2026, you would likely be shocked by what had unfolded over the past nearly twenty years. The guy from the Twilight movie is now Batman. An Aquaman movie grossed over a billion dollars at the box office. Robert Downey Jr. won an Oscar for a role in a Christopher Nolan movie. The youths today are listening to cassettes again for some reason. The President of the United States is... yeah. In other words, norms have changed, and Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder has reflected on it. 

On the ComicPop Returns podcast, Scott Snyder opened up about the changing pop culture landscape in terms of superhero stories over the past two decades.

"I think the Absolute Universe and 'All In' was a breaking point for us where, I've said it before, Josh [Williamson] and I were reacting to what was a criticism, culturally, of superheroes because people were sick of that happening with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC cinematic universe, and Star Wars. They were getting tired of these huge, epic franchises with, I think, so many different components from multiple TV shows, and video games, and that," the writer began. 

The Robins just debuted recently in DC Comics' Absolute Batman, but there's two big ones missing: Damian Wayne and Carrie Kelley. Series writer/architect Scott Snyder didn't forget about them... his plans (yes, there's plans) are just a bit different and distant for those two.

"For me, the Robins like Carrie, I do have thoughts for Carrie Kelley, definitely. I've got to run them by [Frank Miller] because I would never do that without asking him," Snyder tells ComicPop Returns. "Carrie and Damian are the two that are kind of tricky because you want to stay with the ones that are more associated with Batman's mainline universe."

A new day has come, and there is a new "reinterpretation" of a classic story in town. This time, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is getting a graphic novel makeover from Die Hard writer Steven de Souza for publisher Gungnir Books. 

As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, de Souza is signed on for three graphic novels with Gungnir Books. Gulliver, you guessed it, will be a "dark reinterpretation of Jonathan Swift’s classic novel Gulliver’s Travels that leans into the elements of fantasy, science fiction and horror." Honestly, as someone who has survived being attacked by a horde of toddlers, that sounds appropriate. 

De Souza's other projects for Gungnir include a Sheena: Queen of the Jungle story called Frostline that "will take Sheena from the jungle to a frozen winter landscape in an action-horror story." Sheena: Queen of the... Tundra perhaps? Sheena vs. The Thing? Sheena vs. The Dogs From The Thing? I'll stop now. 

The liminal space between the known and the unknown can be thrilling; what comes next can be surprising or disappointing. In the past year, the 'Blind Bag' phenomenon came to comics in a big way; although Marvel Comics wasn't first to do it, they have quickly made it a key part of their method to increase excitement and sales of comics by exploiting the collectible component of the medium with the high of possibly getting something more than you expected. But as Marvel's Blind Bag programs have increased, they've increased so much that they are having trouble keeping up.

In celebration of '616 Day' this year, Marvel has created a Doctor Doom-themed blind bag for $14.99. While it's a blind bag, some of the contents are known and standard: a black-and-white edition of the recent Doomquest #1 with a new variant cover, a reprint of one of six past Doctor Doom-centric comics, and a Doctor Doom paper mask using art by original co-creator Jack Kirby. What they're teasing you could get is "ultra-rare" surprises such as hand-drawn, one-of-a-kind covers for one of the comics. In the past, it has featured superstar artists, up-and-coming artists, and even illustrations by Marvel boss Kevin Feige and Iron Man/Doctor Doom actor Robert Downey Jr.

The trouble is, Marvel Comics can't get them ready in time for retailers to release on June 16 (aka 616 Day). They have a plan to get most of them out to stores in a few days, but it's stopping there, to the point that it has canceled orders from stores that don't have good credit with Marvel's distributor, as well as any orders placed after its original order deadline of May 4.

Prolific manga-ka/radio personality Naoki Urasawa has announced plans to launch a new series this summer that taking aim at the rise of AI in comics. Titled Saigo no Manga Kyoushitsu (translated as 'The Last Manga Classroom'), the series will be published by Shogakukan, with whom he's worked nearly exclusively for the past decade. 

"In this era where AI can do everything... what are you trying to challenge?" reads the announcement for Urasawa's The Last Manga Classroom, with the character saying, "What is a must-have item?"

Urasawa is well-known to his fans for being a proponent of physical media, to the point of disallowing his manga to be available digitally until changing his mind in 2021. He has spoken out about the usage of AI, and specifically about it being used in manga creation before.

Being a teenager can feel like navigating a minefield, but there’s lots of beauty amidst the pain. Heartstopper is a coming-of-age webcomic that centers on the love story between two teenagers named Charlie and Nick. The webcomic, which has been adapted into a Netflix teen drama series, also tackles heavy topics like self-harm, eating disorders, bullying, and coming out.

Although the comic has serious themes, it never gets too dark and heavy, and Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman credits her readers with keeping things grounded. In fact, she has used them as an informal focus group as she produces the Netflix adaptation.

“That’s one of the challenges in writing Heartstopper,” Alice Oseman says during a discussion at BFI Flare 2026. “Finding the fine line between wanting to portray these issues realistically versus also not making it so heavy and dark that it just becomes sort of gratuitous and difficult to watch. It’s the same challenge that I face in writing the books to be honest. The helpful thing is that it’s an adaptation.”

Jim Lee became a superstar during his X-Men run, and though his tenure on the team ended decades ago, Lee still looks back on his run fondly, saying that his time working on it was living his dream. 

Lee joined the X-Men franchise in the late '80s, working with legendary writer Chris Claremont, who shepherded Marvel's mutants for nearly two decades. After reaching the heights of popularity, Lee and Claremont launched a second ongoing series in 1991, with the adjectiveless X-Men title joining Uncanny X-Men as twin flagship series.

"It was a long time ago. Even though I worked at Marvel, I was working at home I was in the art studio I shared with Wilce Portacio and my inker Scott Williams and those early years - I say early years - I spent six years at Marvel, and the entire time I was there, it's like you were living out your dream," Lee says on the Masterplan podcast. "This was my mission. To get into comics, to work at Marvel, to work on my favorite characters as a kid, which were the X-Men. I finally achieved that, so I think it was just all-consuming. It was a passion of mine. I drew every single day, and I worked on comics every single day. Christmas, my birthday, whatever. And at the same time, I was learning how to draw, to become a better artist. So not only am I getting to live my dream, but I also get paid to become a better artist."

Absolute Batman has reinvented numerous characters in Gotham City starting with Batman and most of his biggest villains, but writer Scott Snyder is still fielding requests from fans to bring in versions of some of Batman's silliest and most obscure characters, starting with Crazy Quilt.

"I keep getting suggestions. Condiment King and Crazy Quilt are the two that I get the most," Snyder tells ComicPop Returns. "I did a really grim version of Crazy Quilt in the main universe in the Joker arc, where it was all about flesh, and being knitted, so I'd really have to outdo that one."

Crazy Quilt is one of Batman's most notoriously weird enemies. He's a villainous fine artist known as Quilt who has an obsession with patterns and colors, and who possesses a special helmet that allows him to see after he goes blind. In the New 52, Snyder rebooted him as Paul Dekker (his actual real name), a Wayne Enterprises geneticist turned supervillain with a nightmarish body horror theme.

Will Byers' coming out scene in Stranger Things season 5 is one of the most pivotal and emotionally impactful of the whole season, but it almost happened earlier in season 4 before the show's creators the Duffer brothers came to the decision to delay the development in order to put more time into establishing Will's sexuality.

"We were originally we're going to, it was going to happen in in season 4, and we realized as we got to those later episodes that we just hadn't given it enough time and space, we hadn't earned it, which is why I'm so glad that we didn't end up doing it in season 4," said series co-creator Ross Duffer during a live event with podcast Happy Sad Confused. "So when we built season 5, that was one of the first things we were talking about, is Will, bringing the story full circle, since he was the one that was first taken, and really seeing him come of age over the course of the season. And then of course tying in the powers is great, and also something we'd been building to for a while. So to do those at the same time was one of the moments, once we realized that, the season for us clicked into place. 

As fans well know, Will Byers was the first kid from Hawkins, Indiana taken into the Upside Down, with the end of season 1 foreshadowing a lingering connection to the sinister alt-dimension. In Stranger Things season 5, Will finally comes into his own not just by coming out, but also by finally harnessing that connection to summon his own powers.

Mark Waid loves comics so much that he decided to buy his own comic shop. In 2013 Waid bought Alter Ego Comics, a Muncie, Indiana area store. Waid admitted that the idea wasn’t to get rich. In fact, he compares the experience to setting his money on fire. The truth is he loves comics, and he wanted to see the industry from a retailer’s perspective.

“At that point, this was the mid-2010s, that was the only thing I hadn’t done yet,” Mark Waid says during an appearance on SKTCHD’s Off Panel. I mean, I penciled, I inked, I colored. I mean, never great, but enough to know. I don’t know if it will ever see print at this point, because it’s been kicked down the road a lot, but I actually for Marvel, I did a How-To book about every aspect of it. Not just how to write comics, but like every aspect of it from a beginner’s point of view, from lettering, coloring, designing. Everything.”

“I could do that because I had dabbled in all of that stuff, and I was eager to relearn it so I could write that book properly. I think the more you know about how comics work in every aspect, the better you’re going to be. It’s all informative. So, that’s why I bought a comic shop and set fire to a ton of money.”

The Russo brothers - Joe and Anthony Russo - made quite a splash when they directed their first film for Marvel Studios with 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They subsequently returned to direct Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. But as the MCU stretches onwards, are the Russo brothers expecting to stay on with Marvel after the Multiverse Saga wraps up?

As reported by Deadline, the Russo brothers shed light on their future with Marvel Studios during an appearance at SXSW London. “The stories that we’re focused on now are complete. Doomsday and Secret Wars speak with one another as two films and they form a complete expression. Whether or not we all collaborate with Marvel beyond that is certainly a possibility, but right now, the vision, the narrative vision is just for Secret Wars," Anthony Russo said.

“We’re going to see what we look like in photos in 2028 and then we’ll let you know,” his brother, Joe, quipped. 

The first hallway fight scene of the Netflix Daredevil show set the bar high for Marvel's Man Without Fear onscreen. And for Daredevil: Born Again season 2's action director, Philip J Silvera, had a tall order to accomplish in designing fights that could wow fans. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Silvera broke down where the inspiration for the climactic fight between Kingpin and Daredevil came from in season 2, episode 6 ("Requiem"). "One of the key things about Daredevil sequences is that everything comes from a place of emotion when we design these fights — never punches and kicks. It’s so many conversations on who the characters are and where they at."

"When Vincent [D'Onofrio] is in control of the sequence, we have a very steady handheld moment and then when Daredevil’s moving around, we go back to this in your face handheld moment." The article also noted that the action director "also took inspiration from the 'Devil’s Reign' run of comics by writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Marco Checchetto: 'It’s the iconic moment where Daredevil wraps his baton around Kingpin’s head.'"

Rob Liefeld has never been shy about his opinions on... er, anything, really. But for our purposes, he's never held back on his opinions over how the work he did at Marvel has been handled by the company. Take, for example, a recent expression of his frustration regarding his work on the '90s X-Men title The New Mutants, in which Liefeld introduced perhaps his most famous creations, Deadpool and Cable. According to the seminal artist and Image Comics co-founder, a new collection of said comics miscredits him egregiously.

Liefeld's thoughts came via a social media post made June 6, in conjunction with Marvel's advertisement for an upcoming comic book omnibus. Specifically, that omnibus is The New Mutants Volume 4, which as some fans brought to Liefeld's attention, only credits him as an artist.

"Yes," said Liefeld, "despite writing the best selling issues of New Mutants ever published I am not listed [as a writer]."

Upcoming DCU film Supergirl is introducing the world's non-comic-reading, wide-moviegoing audience to a little character called Lobo this summer, and when we found that out, we were as excited as we were just a tad confused. See, the Craig Gillespie film is based on the Tom King-written, Bilquis Evely-drawn Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic, in which DC Comics' bounty-hunting Main Man (played in the film by Jason Momoa) does not appear. What you might be even more surprised to learn, though, is that the movie is staying true to that comic's earliest iteration.

Because as Tom King tells it, the book was originally a Supergirl x Lobo team up.

Eisner Award-winner and DCU contributor King appeared on the Word Balloon podcast with host John Siuntres in mid-2023, about a year after the Woman of Tomorrow miniseries wrapped. Getting into the space opera's origins, King revealed that the choice to focus on Supergirl in the lead role came after he had already started developing the project.

In all of Exandria, there are few relationships as important to the Critical Role fanbase as Caleb Widogast and Essek Thelyss. The human wizard and hot boi drow ended Campaign 2 as an item, and ever since, we’ve been getting hints at their future beyond the events the fanbase files under The Mighty Nein adventures. Caleb himself, AKA OG Roler Liam O’Brien, has refused to go too deep into their much-requested relationship deets, but in a recent interview, was willing to share this one ship snippet:

While Caleb and Essek do stay together, they might not stay exclusive.

O’Brien revealed as much in a recent episode of Critical Role’s fan Q&A series, Fireside Chat. Along with castmate Sam Riegel, O’Brien was asked by one curious Critter whether Caleb had ever considered marriage, especially since Mighty Nein teammates Jester Lavorre and Fjord Stone have canonically tied the knot.

Whether or not Franklin Richards, the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four, is a mutant or not is one of the most hotly contested topics in Marvel Comics. For years, Franklin was a mutant, even appearing with the word "mutie" scrawled across his face in promotional art for the X-Men storyline, "The Fall of the Mutants," back in the late 1980s. But in 2020, writer Dan Slott retconned Franklin as never having been a mutant to begin with in Fantastic Four #26. In the issue, Professor X told Franklin that the lad had used his reality-warping powers to make it appear that he had the mutant X-Gene when in reality, he didn't. 

With that out of the way, however, we get a different picture of Franklin Richards in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering x Marvel Super Heroes set. The Franklin Richards, Ascendant card lists him as a "Mutant Hero," a far cry from the status quo that Slott established in his Fantastic Four run. It's also worth noting that the Marvel Super Heroes set is rooted in the lore of Marvel Comics, rather than Marvel Studios. 

So why is this? Well, in 2024, Fantastic Four #18 by Ryan North, Carlos Gómez, and Jesus Aburtov, Franklin referred to himself as having "been an immortal, a god, an Omega-level mutant." Of course, he says this in the past tense, but it still confirms the legitimacy of his having been an Omega-level mutant in the first place. We don't know for sure what source material Magic: The Gathering used for their characterization of Franklin, but given that the set is coming out in June 2026 and Fantastic Four #18 came out in March 2024, I don't think it's out of the question to suggest that Magic was following the precedent set by Marvel Comics here. 

Creating a hit manga is something of a double-edged sword. It brings a level of stability and success that many dream of, but it also can create incredible pressure on the mangaka. Spy x Family has proven to be incredibly successful over the years, but Tatsuya Endo needs a little more time before he’s able to continue the story. After the most recent chapter of Spy x Family went live, he announced that the series is going on a hiatus with no plan for when it will return.

“Spy x Family Chapter 136 has been updated,” Tatsuya Endo posted on his social media this week. “Buckle up and prepare for an explosive ride.” However, the bit that has caught fans off guard is the next part of the post. “Also, sorry about this, but the next update on 6/22 will be on hiatus… I’d appreciate your understanding.”

It is worth mentioning that breaks like this aren’t unusual in manga. Even with a team of assistants and editors, it typically comes down to a single creator who is responsible for the comic. When they need a break or have health issues, it can cause everything to come to a halt unless they have built up a bit of a buffer. It doesn’t sound like Endo was able to do that.

Berserk fans are used to a long wait, but soon we’ll get to sink our teeth into the first brand-new Berserk chapter in almost a year. We don’t know the reason for the long delay other than the fact that the artwork is always incredibly detailed and the characters are remarkably difficult to write. However, the man who has been in charge of guiding Berserk to its eventual ending since Kentaro Miura’s death has posted a sincere apology to fans for the long delay.

“Berserk will be featured in Young Animal, which goes on sale tomorrow,” Koji Mori wrote in a recent social media post. Mori has been writing Berserk since Miura’s death. The two mangaka were longtime friends and colleagues. “I’m truly, deeply sorry for keeping you waiting so long. This chapter is an episode that Miura agonized over for twenty years, and even I, who heard it from him dozens of times, found it incredibly challenging.”

As for the reason for the delay, Mori talked about the extensive rewrites that he and the editorial staff went through to get Berserk Chapter 384 onto shelves. “We somehow managed to reach the finish line after going over the dialogue countless times with [Akira] Shimada-san, who was our editor at the time and has been a longtime mentor to both Miura and me. Once again, everyone at Studio Gaga, starting with [Yoshimitsu] Kurosaki-kun, did absolutely outstanding work!! I’d be thrilled if you enjoyed it.”

There are several iconic moments in the Baki The Grappler series, but few have reached the same viral status as the image of Retsu lying on the hospital bed in Hanma Baki: Son of Ogre Chapter 101. Soon after the chapter was published, fans had photoshopped it in creative and hilarious ways. According to editor Yuki Yokoi, this memeified part of Baki history only came about because of some last-minute changes Keisuke Itagaki made to the chapter.

The image of Retsu Kaioh lying in the hospital bed with his leg missing following his fight with Pickle is one of the more emotional reveals in the series. So, of course, fans quickly found the humor in it by photoshopping it so that Retsu’s whole body was cut off and he was just a head lying there. There were also some, shall we say, less family-friendly versions of the meme, because of course there are. 

Yuki Yokoi is the assistant general manager of the business IP department at Akita Shoten, the publisher of Baki the Grappler. During a recent interview, he explained how this now-iconic scene came to be – and how it almost didn’t.

What's the biggest comic book shop you've ever been to? Midtown Comics in New York City? Forbidden Planet in London? Mile High Comics in Denver? Well, now you have another shop to add to your bucket list: Third Eye Comics in Glen Burnie, Maryland. 

According to the shop's website, Third Eye Glen Burnie is opening in a 10,000 square foot building that used to be a Walmart. It will serve the greater Baltimore area and is located 5 minutes from Baltimore/Washington International Airport, "right off I-97" at 7990-2 Crain Highway, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 21061. 

So when is this all happening? Third Eye Glen Burnie will be opening its doors on July 25, 2026, just a week before Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters. This is the ninth location for Third Eye Comics, and will feature the debut of a "new category" of merchandise: Third Eye Thrift, which is "vintage finds and limited time great buys." 

The year was 2015, and Archie Comics was in need of a facelift. Archie Andrews and his Riverdale High classmates had been entertaining comic readers since 1941, but by the 21^st century things had slowed down. The teen comedy comics line had modest sales, but they were never going to compete with Marvel, DC, or Image.

Hoping to reenergize the line, Archie Comics came up with their New Riverdale publishing initiative, which reimagined Archie as a teen drama. The characters were given a more realistic art style, and gags were discarded in favor of more serious storytelling. Mark Waid, a writer famous for his work in the superhero genre, was brought on to write Archie, the new line’s flagship title. For Waid this was a challenge, as Archie wasn’t a character he had given a lot of thought to.

“That’s an example of a character I had given zero thought to before taking that book on,” Mark Waid says during an appearance on SKTCHD’s Off Panel. “We all knew because those characters are one-dimensional as hell. There’s no ‘there’ there, so I hadn’t given any thought to it. So, it really is a matter of, okay, it’s not just that I’ve been thinking about these characters all my life, because when I look at it through that lens, well, I hadn’t been thinking about Archie all my life, but it was the same process. Just sitting down and just vomiting out everything I can think of that makes this character unique and interesting and so forth. And I ended up with like a 25-page manifesto.”

Frank Quitely has been part of his fair share of ground-breaking comics. From the eternally hopeful All-Star Superman to the Watchmen pastiche Pax Americana to the delightfully trippy Flex Mentallo, Quitely's unique style has graced some of the most impressive examples of the medium in the past couple of decades. So it stands to reason that he would be a good person to answer - what does society need from superheroes, or at least superhero stories, in this day and age?

That's exactly what Jake Zawlacki asked him.

Writing for The Comics Journal, comics journo Zawlacki posed the question to the artist and frequent Grant Morrison collaborator at a signing at Now or Never Comics in San Diego. After bringing up the much-talked-about idea that superhero storytelling helped set the stage for the rise of strong men authoritarian figures like Donald Trump, the interviewer asked Quitely where he felt superheroes fit into our modern condition.

Here's something you might know if, like me, you're not terribly good at D&D. Occasionally, if your GM is gracious enough, you get a chance to reroll one of your actions; to make a better choice that not only improved your turn but, more importantly, helped the overall narrative of the TTRPG play. Now, the Critical Role cast is very good at D&D, but that doesn't mean they don't also relish the chance to revisit a choice.

In fact, that's something Travis Willingham loves about making Prime Video's The Legend of Vox Machina. 

That's what Willingham revealed in a recent Q&A session he and castmates Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, and Sam Riegel took part in for YouTube channel Fall Damage. Focused on fans' "hot takes," the discussion veered into the differences between Critical Role's Campaign 1 and the Vox Machina TV series.

As a lifelong fan of anthology horror comics, I can't remember having more fun with a modern take on the genre that with Michael Walsh's The Silver Coin. Hopping around between different types of horror and different historical periods, each issue of the Image Comic frightfest is linked by its titular cursed object, the holder of which usually meets some type of grisly end by the comic's final page. And if that sounds like a blast to you (or if you were buying the issues like I was), I have great news: 

More Silver Coin is on the way, and we even know what type of horror one of the issues will focus on.

That's because at C2E2 2026, I had the wonderful privilege of chatting with Walsh himself. And though we had plenty of comic book goodness to cover, I wasted no time in asking what I was probably most curious about: are you working on any more Silver Coin at the moment?

James Tynion IV has created some stand-out horror villains over the course of his comics career. There's the Star-Faced Man in The Department of Truth, The Fox Mask Killer in Exquisite Corpses. But one that stands out even among those creepy critters is the enigmatic Walter from Tynion's DC Vertigo series, The Nice House on the Lake. And that might just be because, out of all his villains, Walter is the most like Tynion himself.

The storied Batman scribe revealed as much during an interview with Popverse's own Editor-in-Chief Chris Arrant at C2E2 2026. At one point in the discussion, Chris asked Tynion if his writing was ever a way to process the real-life struggles he goes through, and the Wynd author got into specifics about what parts of himself go onto the page.

"The Nice house on the Lake is a very personal horror story for me," Tynion explained, "And the villain of that story is very much based on me. The character of Walter. If you look at Walter in the comic, it's like, you know, he looks a lot like me. That's on purpose."

Marvel Rivals has had over 50 million players since its 2024 launch. That’s a lot of potential new comic book readers, and Marvel hopes they can capitalize on it. However, the publisher knows that decades of continuity can seem daunting to fans of the free-to-play combat game. Marvel Comics editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski says he’s constantly thinking of these potential new readers and wants to make sure they don’t feel intimidated.

“We really focus on the fact that we want every Marvel Comic to be new reader friendly,” C.B. Cebulski says during an appearance at Singapore’s Marvel Makan Masterworks 2025 event. “I understand how daunting it can be for a new fan to become a fan of Miles Morales or become a fan of something that’s happening at the Rivals video game, and they go into a comic shop and they say, ‘Oh my god, where do I start?’ It’s 65 years of history and it can be difficult to figure out where it should be. But every Marvel Comic we produce is made so that it could be somebody’s first comic.”

Cebulski reminded the audience that there is nothing unusual about comic readers starting an ongoing title with the current issue. The editor used himself as an example, saying it made him a lifelong fan.

Something I am eternally grateful for is the fact that high school does not last forever. If you're the leads in a hit comedy franchise about two law officers who infiltrate one, though, I can see how you might wish it lasted a bit longer than it actually does. That wish seems to have been granted for the cast and crew behind the 21 Jump Street movies, as Sony has officially announced the next film in the story.

And they're even leaning into the fact that it's getting a little old.

Let's take a step back. We heard about the new film, 24 Jump Street, via the folks at Variety, who were themselves reporting on an image producer Neal H. Moritz posted to his Instagram. The very simple pic is of a new script bearing the next film's title, along franchise stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum's names under the writing credit. As a nod to the gap between now and the last movie, the tagline reads:

I'll be honest - my favorite character in Alien: Earth was that freaky eye thing. Coming in a very close second, though, was the villainous humanoid synthetic character Kirsh, partially because of how similar he looked to another iconic human replicant of the sci-fi genre - Blade Runner's Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer. And if you share the same reasoning, you might be excited to know that the similarity was entirely on purpose.

Take it from Timothy Olyphant himself.

Justified and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood star Olyphant recently sat down for an interview published in this month's edition of Empire Magazine. During the wide-ranging discussion, Olyphant pulled back the curtain on how he went about figuring out his character's appearance.

Who knew that Robin was originally slated to appear in the 1989 Batman movie with Michael Keaton? Sure, we know that Marlon Wayans was cast as Robin for Batman Forever when he was 19 years old, but it's surprising to see Robin tussling with the Joker in storyboards from Batman '89 several years before. 

A set of storyboards from Tim Burton's first Batman movie has gone up for auction at Heritage Auctions online, depicting a scene where the Joker and Robin brawl while Batman remains trapped beneath some debris. The description for the listing reads, "Robin struggles with the Joker in this spectacular set of four original storyboard drawings depicting an alternate scene from Tim Burton's Batman. Excitingly, this sequence offers an inside look at what might have been, as Robin ultimately never makes an appearance in the final film."

The drawings were made by artist David Russell, who worked on classic movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Take a look at them below. 

There's more to Hereditary than we thought.

At least, that's what writer and director Ari Aster has made clear with his revelation that, sometime in between making his boundary-pushing, avant-garde horror flicks, he has written the script for a Hereditary prequel. I know, I know, we starting looking for a release date just like you are now, but here's the problem: the Beau is Afraid director might not actually turn said script into a movie.

Let's back up a sec. All this comes from an interview Aster did with Gold Derby at the American Cinematheque in LA. Aster was appearing at a Q&A on Sunday, June 7, and we're assuming he shocked the crowd when he touched on his classic of modern horror, the Toni Colette-starring Hereditary.

If you want to know more about a Game of Thrones character, you usually turn to the pages of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, or one of its spinoffs. For fans interested in House of the Dragon's Alys Rivers, though, that's not such an easy task. Though the character is briefly mentioned in Martin’s Fire and Blood, the version played by Gayle Rankin in the series appears very different, and questions regarding her true identity and past have swirled in the fandom ever since her introduction in season 2.

But according to Rankin herself, answers are on their way in House of the Dragon season 3.

Rankin recently sat down for an interview with ScreenRant, published June 10. During the discussion, the GLOW star revealed that, though the origins and intentions of her character are murky on-screen, she had already determined a lot of the healer's truths off-set.