comics

What if New York had a new superhero? Thanks to AI, we now do.

Do you love comic books and the pop culture world around it? It's time to celebrate here in Upstate New York and Utica.

Marvel’s ‘Daredevil’ has yet to release a frame of footage from its forthcoming Netflix TV series, but that hasn’t stopped followup series ‘AKA Jessica Jones’ from pushing forward. Not only do we know ‘Who’ the major villain of the Krysten Ritter super-detective drama will be, but David Tennant himself will portray the mysterious purple baddie.

Marvel publisher Dan Buckley gave a three-part interview with comic industry blog ICv2 this week in which he discussed the company's performance in 2014 and its strategies for the year ahead. The interview ranged across digital sales, graphic novel sales, and the impact of the Marvel movies on the comics -- but of particular interest to ComicsAlliance were Buckley's comments on reaching a more diverse audience of new comics customers. While acknowledging that Marvel and the industry at large has never done much consumer research, Buckley said the company has been "aggressive in trying a lot of diverse product over the last two years," as part of an initiative spearheaded by Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. According to Buckley, the results of that outreach have been very positive.

You might know Mezco from its diverse line of figures ranging from Axe Cop and the DC Universe to TV shows like Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad. While the company has mostly worked in the more standard (read: affordable) action figure market in the past, Mezco's new One:12 Collective line has a more high-end collector in mind. Last year, Mezco announced its first One:12 Collective figure, Batman from The Dark Knight Returns. Now, ahead of Toy Fair 2015, the manufacturer has provided new images of the second figure in the One:12 Collective line--none other than Mega-City One's Judge Dredd.

With the Justice League of America on its way to theaters as a result of some cruel Monkey's Paw wish, this week finds us going back into the history of DC's pre-eminent super-team to rustle up some strange facts about their origin! Find out about their first foes, their weird headquarters, how they were almost brought down by a teen who snapped his fingers a lot, and the strange connections between the JLA, major league baseball and Sailor Moon!

The last twelve months offered comic book readers a wide variety of work ranging from the most crowd-pleasing superhero epics to the most idiosyncratic of indies, and the return of old favorites to the emergence of exciting new talent. It was a busy and productive year for the industry, and one we’re pleased to celebrate with what we’re certain will be an uncontroversial, unenumerated list of awards that will prompt only resounding agreement and unbroken fellowship amongst our readers in the comments below.

We're less than a week away from the launch of Marvel's Star Wars line with the first issue of, hey, Star Wars, by Jason Aaron, John Cassaday, and Laura Martin, so Marvel has put out a couple of sneak peaks of the issue -- one lettered, one unlettered. We've helpfully brought them together so you can enjoy more of the story of fan favorite character Overseer Aggadeen and... the cast of Firefly, I think? I don't really know Star Wars; sorry. Star Wars #1 is an officially in-continuity comic (for now, anyway!) that picks up directly after the end of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, following the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow in the wake of the destruction of the Death Star. Finally, a sequel to Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope! I can't believe they've never done that before.

Like so many major films released these days, ‘Interstellar’ has a comic book tie-in. But unlike most comic book tie-ins, this one is actually written by the original film’s director and is premiering online. And yes, you can read the whole thing right now, free of charge. We’re going to jump straight into spoilers right at the end of this sentence, so if you haven’t had a chance to see Christopher Nolan‘s science fiction adventure yet, you may want to consider turning around.

In news that will probably baffle comic book fans and normal people alike, it was revealed that Thor (yes, the Avenger) is no longer worthy of his title and will be replaced by a woman. Yes, you are allowed to unleash a collective "What?!" right about now.