Welcome to XOXO, Popverse! Our Valentines gift to you this year is a week-long celebration of all things love and romance in pop culture, from our favorite couples to which superheroes would make the worst dates. (It's the X-Men.) Find our love notes to you right here. 

Dear Future Valentine,

Love is, as the song goes, all around. Especially at this time of year, when Valentines Day is on the minds of store owners and greetings card makers alike; we can only hope that you’ve already started to plan out how you’ll be observing this year’s scheduled celebration of all things romantic and loving. If not, we’re hoping that the next week is going to help with all of that.

Simply put, XOXO, Popverse is what happens when the minds that make up the collective Popverse unit turn their attentions to all things passionate, affectionate, and tender — or, at least, pop culture’s take on all of the above. We’re hijacking St. Valentine’s gig by spending the next five days to consider how pop culture treats romance in all its forms, from comic books to television, movies to gaming and whatever else finds its way into our brains for the next few days. (In our defense, St. Valentine has been dead for 18 centuries; we don’t think he’d mind that much.)

We’re going to sharing our favorite pop culture couples and telling you what we love about them, discussing the finest love song ever recorded — well, according to Popverse faithful Grant DeArmitt, that is — and revealing just why the X-Men are the worst superheroes you could possibly hook up with. We’ll be putting Star Wars under the microscope from the point of view of its core relationships (spoilers: it won’t end well for the Skywalkers), and more. Even regular columns like Gamify My Life and Popverse Jump will be getting in the mood, as well.

Yes, we’re jumping on board the love train — yes, this love train; after that, we’ll be having a go on the love rollercoaster, before heading on down to the love shack — earlier than some might expect, seeing as it’s almost two weeks to go until St. Valentine’s Day itself, but that’s very intentional: we’re here to celebrate (and, in some cases, shake our heads askance at) the many ways in which pop culture seeks to portray love in its many splendored ways without distracting you from celebrating our own loved ones on the day itself. We’re not here to distract, more to get you in the mood… Well, so to speak.

Just sit back and get ready for a little more love in your life — or, at least, on your internet — for the next few days. Think of it as an early Valentines gift created just for you. Our love language is 'talking about pop culture in its many different forms,' after all.

XOXO, Popverse.

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

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