Longform

We're three issues into Civil War II now and the stakes have raised dramatically. There have been major deaths and lines crossed as the heroes contend with the predictive information provided by the Inhuman named Ulysses. With Civil War Correspondence, I'm recapping the story so far and providing offering a personal assessment of where I stand in the conflict. I reserve the right to flip-flop at will. This time around we're looking at the second and third issues of Civil War II, and the death of an Avenger --- at the hands of another Avenger.

As someone who thought she was a dude in the late 1990s, Preacher was the comic I looked forward to every month more than any other. As someone who knows she isn’t a dude in the mid-2010s, I’m looking back on this series and examining what still works, what doesn’t work, and what its lasting legacy is. This week, we look at the stories collected in the third volume, Proud Americans, courtesy of writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, colorist Matt Hollingsworth, letterer Clem Robbins, and editor Axel Alonso, with covers by Glenn Fabry. These stories are all thematically tied together by reconciling what seems to be with the way things are --- the myth versus the reality --- although in one case, we may not know it yet…

Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and premiering in the October 1912 issue of pulp magazine The All-Story, Tarzan of the Apes has become one of the most well-known heroes in fiction. He's been in hundreds of films, novels and video games, with the latest film, The Legend of Tarzan, hitting theatres this past weekend. But Tarzan has perhaps cast his biggest shadow in comics. Spanning newspaper strips, comic books and webcomics under a rainbow of comics greats, Tarzan has been a steady presence in the medium for almost 90 years.

Five Stars is a new interview feature in which Steve Morris looks back over an artist's career by discussing five of their milestone works. We kick off the series with an interview with Declan Shalvey. Throughout his career, Shalvey has chosen his projects carefully, and moved between creator-owned projects and work-for-hire in a way that has made him one of the most impressive and prolific artists of his generation.

“In a democracy,” says Holly Hunter’s Senator Finch in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, “good is a conversation, not a unilateral decision.” The 32 minutes added to the movie’s “Ultimate Edition,” now available digitally and released on Blu-ray and DVD July 19, include a lot of unnecessary shoe leather, and fills in gaps that don’t need the extra gob of narrative spackle.

Most anime is adapted from manga, often produced by the manga publisher to raise awareness and sell it overseas. But what about the anime shows or film that go the other way, adapted from the screen to the page? How do those works hold up, and what changes or stays the same? That’s what Screen & Page aims to explore. This week, we're talking about the weird action-comedy with even weirder sexual politics: Kill la Kill! Please note that this piece digs into issues of sexual harassment and assault.

If you’ve been following the news, you may be aware that the United Kingdom is currently teetering on the brink, and every hour seems to bring some new catastrophe straight out of the most biting satire. Throughout Europe and across the world, Britain is currently seen as an embarrassment and a cautionary tale about what happens when fear and prejudice is used to change the future of a nation. That’s why it’s time for a new Captain Britain, one who embodies the most positive qualities of our country, who can serve as an example of what the country is truly about. We need a Captain Britain who is of the people, who represents the very best of the nation that I call home. We need Faiza Hussain.

Is it Watchmen's fault that Captain America is a Nazi? That's the strange question I found myself asking after the last month's developments in superhero comics. Thirty years after Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen made its debut, the characters are being integrated into the DC Universe as part of the current DC Rebirth publishing initiative, seemingly as totems of the sort of superhero grimnness that Rebirth hopes to move away from. Meanwhile, at Marvel, the publisher's most principled hero has been retconned as a secret agent of a far-right hate group, at a time when a vocal segment of the audience wants to see a lot more love than hate in the character's life. Both developments are indicative of a tension at the heart of superhero comics. Thirty years after Watchmen, is it time to stop pointing out that heroes can have flaws, and time instead to acknowledge that heroes can have value?

As someone who thought she was a dude in the late 1990s, Preacher was the comic I looked forward to every month more than any other. As someone who knows she isn’t a dude in the mid-2010s, I’m looking back on this series and examining what still works, what doesn’t work, and what its lasting legacy is. If Gone to Texas was the fizzle, Until the End of the World is the bang. The second collection, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, with colors by Matt Hollingsworth, letters by Clem Robbins, and covers by Glenn Fabry, includes issues #8 through #17, and it's where Preacher truly takes off for me, all because of the lead-in story, which gives the collection its title.

What does your favourite superheroes' colors tell the audience about their personalities? Using the same color theory people use to group-think a corporate logo, or paint their room, we've been exploring what it means to superhero comics. Last time we mentioned that The Invisible Woman's blue and white is wise, and elemental, but what does invisible mean as a color? The Wasp's one constant through her many costume changes has been her transparent, flighty wings. And while Kitty Pryde, who also can't seem to settle on a costumes (or a name), isn't transparent as a color, she does actually pass through things.