carol danvers

In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

Although cosplay has been present for decades within the comics, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, social media has played an integral role in the thriving communities of costuming that exist, such as Cosplay.com and the Superhero Costuming Forum. Over the years, the cosplay community has evolved into a creative outlet for many fans to establish and showcase some impressive feats of homemade disguise, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics at conventions. In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

As Marvel fans the world over take in Netflix’s Jessica Jones this weekend, newfound fans of Jessica’s best friend Patsy “Trish” Walker (Rachael Taylor) may be surprised to learn that the series almost featured Carol Danvers instead, better known as our future Captain Marvel.

If you saw Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, then you, like us, immediately began mentally fan-casting the incredibly kick-ass Rebecca Ferguson in pretty much every upcoming film — in particular, we’d really love to see her join the MCU as Captain Marvel. According to the latest rumor, Marvel really wants that to happen, too.

You know how much we love cosplay at ComicsAlliance; we put a spotlight on it every week. Fans who create their own costumes and dress up as their favorite heroes are some of the most passionate and enthusiastic people in comics, and the level of talent and committment on display at conventions seems to get more impressive every year. If there isn't a Carol Corps cosplay meet-up or a whole dang Spider-Verse at a show, you'll probably go home disappointed. So it's great to see Marvel paying tribute to these fans with a selection of cosplay variant covers on several of its All-New All-Different launches this fall. The Marvel Cosplay variants place fans of Spider-Gwen, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Thor (both versions) and more on the covers of the books they love. Cosplay connoisseurs will see some familiar faces among the cosplayers, including Birds of Play's Amanda Lynne Shafer, cosplay legend Yaya Han, and Marvel's own in-house cosplay blogger Judy Stephens as Captain Marvel.

Of all the books announced by Marvel during this week's big All-New, All-Different unveiling, one of the surprise titles that generated the most buzz was Ultimates, by Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort. Though the name echoes back to the Ultimate Universe version of the Avengers, this is a very different team, comprised of some of the Marvel Universe's major powerhouses and most brilliant minds as they tackle cosmic threats on the scale of... well, Galactus. ComicsAlliance spoke to Ewing to learn about the big idea behind this big team and the sort of threats they'll be facing, and to discover what drew him to put characters like Black Panther, Captain Marvel and America Chavez on one team --- besides the fact that they're all obviously the best characters.

Yesterday we learned that Kelly Sue DeConnick will not continue on Captain Marvel when the title returns after Secret Wars --- an unsurprising move given her creator-owned successes and her increasing involvement in movie and TV production through her Milkfed Criminal Masterminds shingle. Today we've learned who'll replace her on the next iteration of Captain Marvel; the writing team of Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, best known to Marvel fans as the showrunners on the Agent Carter TV show. They're joined by artist Kris Anka, who also worked with the writers on a tweaked costume design for the captain.

Sad news for those who loved Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel tenure: the end is in sight. “Captain Marvel” has been a number of people. Only two of them, Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau, have been women, and only one of those has been blessed with such auspicious circumstances: when Carol Danvers became Captain Marvel, her title benefited from both a new, quite obviously more considered costume, and a woman writing the adventures, with a social media platform that permitted no obstacles. Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel inspired the Carol Corps: when you’ve got your own highly visible, economically dedicated grassroots fan club, you have arrived.

Marvel and director James Gunn have already started looking at actors for the sequel to last year's surprise hit Guardians of the Galaxy, due for release in May 2017. It may be too soon to expect any immediate announcements, but the coming months should give us a better idea which new characters will be introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the second installment. At least one more member is likely to join the team, and Gunn has said he hopes to have "at least two women in the next iteration of the Guardians." That would be a welcome change for a team with just one woman right now, Gamora, and four characters that present as male --- but which women from Marvel's roster of cosmic characters would fans like to see join the team? Here's your chance to weigh in!

Who is the greatest Avenger of all time? You probably have your personal favorites. You probably also have a pretty good idea who the popular favorites might be. We wanted to know for sure, so to mark the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron we conducted a giant-size poll to give you the chance to choose between more than 100 Avengers members, and rank them from least to best. Now the results are in. And we think there are a few surprises.