Andrew Wheeler

Poe Dameron is probably only accidentally a gay hero. He wasn't originally meant to survive the first act of Star Wars: The Force Awakens according to writer/director J.J. Abrams, so he doesn't have a real arc of his own. On paper, Poe Dameron is just a device to advance the plot. It's in Oscar Isaac's performance that he becomes something special, and someone Abrams knew he had to keep around. Isaac gives Poe Dameron his charisma and smoldering intensity, and because his primary (human) relationship in the movie is with John Boyega's Finn, he gets to direct that charm and intensity towards him. In one of the characters' most pored over scenes together --- a scene that only exists because of Poe Dameron's reprieve from death --- the pilot gives Finn a look that's indistinguishable from lust, even biting his own lip as he tells him to keep the jacket they've come to share. It's one of the gayest things I've seen in a blockbuster movie, in the most positive and celebratory sense of the word, and it gave us reason to hope that Poe Dameron could be Star Wars' first onscreen gay hero. But is Poe Dameron actually gay, and what happens to our hopes and dreams if he's not?

If you know that a crime is going to happen, how far should you go to prevent it? That's the question at the heart of Marvel's first 2016 crossover event, according to a piece in Sunday's New York Daily News reporting on a recent Marvel writing summit for Civil War II. A sequel to the 2007 event Civil War, which inspired this spring's big Captain America movie, the new series from Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez will see Iron Man go up against Captain Marvel in a battle of ideologies and punching, rather than pitting Stark against previous Civil War opponent (and movie rival) Captain America.

The Old West probably wasn't a great place to be a kid, but that's never stopped it seeming like the perfect place for kids to have adventures. That's certainly part of the appeal of Andy Hirsch's upcoming middle-grade graphic novel Varmints, from First Second. Originally created as a webcomic, Varmints sees the bickering brother-and-sister team of Opie and Ned using all their wits to take on a crime kingpin in an effort to avenge their Ma.

Boom Studios had an impressive 2015, thanks to a stong roster of new titles by exceptionally talented creators --- with standouts that include Welcome Back, The Fiction, Cognetic, Curb Stomp, Diesel, The Spire, Wild's End, and... well, you get the picture. It was a good year. Tthat must come as a relief to the publisher, because this was also Boom's tenth year in the business, and that put those folks in a partying mood. One notable way they marked the anniversary was with special variant covers that celebrated both their books and the artists working on them. As the clock ticks down on 2015, we've collected the covers together in one gallery for you to enjoy.

I'm not really sure I understand why Old Man Logan is a thing. The original series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven is one of the most miserable and misanthropic comics you'll ever be unfortunate enough to read, and injecting that streak of vinegar into the Marvel Universe doesn't feel like much of a win. Besides, the character's main distinction from the usual Wolverine is that his hair is grey. Logan was already a grumpy old dude. Oh, and this Logan is alive. That's a pretty good distinction. This refugee from another timeline in the newly rebooted Marvel Universe allows Marvel to keep telling new Wolverine tales without hurriedly backtracking the death of the previous Wolverine, who got turned into a hood ornament not so very long ago. It's a deft bit of shuffling to create the illusion of permanent change, but if the result is that Laura Kinney gets to be Wolverine for a little bit, I'm in favor of it. Plus, this new Old Man Logan series comes from Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, and that's a solid creative team. Maybe they can make something great from this wet wodge of unhappiness?

A few months after Marvel and Netflix first announced plans for a live action Iron Fist TV series as part of their Defenders slate --- which also includes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the upcoming Luke Cage --- the website Nerds of Color launched a campaign calling for an Asian American actor to be cast in the lead role. We covered that campaign at the time, but interest has surged following the recent appointment of former Dexter writer Scott Buck as Iron Fist showrunner, and a conversation has emerged around the #AAIronFist hashtag on Twitter. Yet, according to one report, Marvel has already considered the fans' appeal for an Asian American Iron Fist and rejected the idea. Hopefully this is not the end of the conversation, because the conversation itself has exposed an uncomfortable truth; Iron Fist is a troubling concept to sell with a white guy in the lead. Comics fans have debated the pros and cons of turning a white martial artist into an Asian hero, but the debate has largely ignored the reality that Iron Fist's whole origin and conception belong to the past --- if he's a white guy.

Sherlock Holmes is surely one of the most versatile characters in fiction; he can be updated, reinvented, pitted against vampires, or reimagined as a mouse, and still the essential qualities of the great detective endure. That's even true in stories where Sherlock Holmes isn't Sherlock Holmes, and that's an idea that Roger Langridge and Andy Hirsch will explore in their upcoming all-ages adventure series The Baker Street Peculiars, from Kaboom, unveiled exclusively here on ComicsAlliance. In the Baker Street Peculiars, there is no Holmes; the real brains of the operation is his supposed housekeeper, Mrs Hudson. With too many cases to solve, she's brought in some new help in the form of three precocious kids and a dog, for what promises to be a wonderful all-ages action comedy. Roger Langridge, who usually provides his own art for books like Fred the Clown and Abigail and the Snowman, is providing the scripts this time around, joined by artist Andy Hirsch, best known for his work on Adventure Time and his all-ages Western Varmints. Langridge and Hirsch spoke to ComicsAlliance about working together, the idea for the series, and what makes Sherlock Holmes so iconic.

The first trailer for Marvel's Captain America: Civil War dropped late last night, and it riled up all the feels that Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are used to; the thrill of seeing a new character in action (hey, it's Black Panther, finally!); the wonder at the awe-inspiring action and athelticism (Steve doing helicopter stretches!); the worry about how Black Widow's wig will look this time (pretty good). But this trailer --- and this movie --- brings extra feels, because it's the third and possibly final chapter in the MCU's greatest romance; the ballad of Bucky and Steve. If you came to this trailer hoping for some lingering glances and barely concealed intimations of love, you weren't going to leave disappointed. Let's review the gayest Stucky moments (that's Steve/Bucky) in the Civil War trailer.

As the latest guest artist to head out to camp with the Lumberjanes, Carey Pietsch is well qualified. Not only does she know her way around a campfire, but her previous comic work includes a series of self-published mini-comics that combine exactly the sense of grandly fantastical and intimately personal that has made Lumberjanes one of the most important hit comics of the past couple of years. Pietsch joins writers Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh for the latest Lumberjanes arc, featuring an encounter with a possible werewolf, starting with issue #21, in stores this week. ComicsAlliance chatted to Pietsch to find out how she landed the gig, and what sort of experience she has in the wilderness!

Album-inspired covers seem to be all the rage this year, with both Marvel and Black Mask going the hip-hop route --- but the idea is nothing new. Back in the days when albums were actual physical objects, their nearly-square covers provided a cover for some iconic images that became indelibly familiar. Titan Comics is the latest publisher to tap in to the cultural cachet of classic album art, with three new Doctor Who variant covers by artist Simon Myers riffing on albums from David Bowie, Blondie, and Bob Dylan. The covers feature on the upcoming third and fourth issues of the Twelfth Doctor series, featuring Peter Capaldi's Doctor and Jenna Coleman as the companion Clara, and a retailer-exclusive cover for the first issue of the upcoming Eighth Doctor series, featuring Paul McGann's take on the Doctor.