Longform

My recent list of the most dated parts of the original X-Men movie included things like Hugh Jackman’s comparatively non-huge, non-jacked-man physique, Wolverine’s non-stop smoking, and the heroes’ black leather costumes. The list also included the relative lack of Easter eggs; even with about ten major roles in the film, the first X-Men movie is, at least by contemporary standards, a small movie. There’s no sense of a wider Marvel Universe beyond the edges of the frame, there’re few appearances by (or references to) other mutants, and there’s no post-credits scene to tease future films. It is a movie unto itself.

This weekend sees both the long-awaited debut of Nintendo's latest game console, Nintendo Switch, and the even longer-awaited release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In a change from Screen & Page's usual focus on anime, we thought we would use this occasion to look at the media history of perhaps the greatest Zelda game, A Link To The Past!

When there are four launch titles as bold, inventive and unique as Young Animal's line-up, it's hard to pick a stand-out, but Cecil Castellucci, Marley Zarcone and Kelly Fitzpatrick's Shade, The Changing Girl has established itself as a weird mix of deeply personal and super sci-fi high-concept, with one of the strongest collaborative voices in mainstream comics today This week, DC and Young Animal release the climax of Shade's first story, as Megan Boyer returns and wants her body back from the weird alien bird that stole it. ComicsAlliance caught up with Castellucci and Zarcone to talk about high school anxiety, Pinterest collaboration, and Shade's future in the larger DC Universe.

When Logan finally fades to black, it brings Hugh Jackman’s 17-year run as Wolverine to a close. It is an emphatic and definitive ending, not just to Jackman’s Wolverine series, but also to the X-Men franchise as a whole.

It's been just a few months since Amadeus Cho told nine-year-old Lunella Lafayette that she was "the smartest person in whole world" at the end of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #12. In the time since, Lunella has been condescended to by adult scientists, helped take down the Mole Man's monsters, and teamed up with two other girl geniuses --- the new and unstoppable Wasp, and Ironheart, aka Riri Williams. Lunella's brilliance makes her one in a long line of inspiring, super-smart Black characters in comics that can be traced back decades to the Black Panther's first appearance in 1966's Fantastic Four #52, by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

It's Love & Sex Week here on ComicsAlliance and, while a quick glance at the internet will tell you there's a whole lot of anime that fit this subject, I decided to go with one that a) won't get me fired and b) is visually daring, funny, and occasionally just plain disgusting. Today, we're talking about Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt!!!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe had its Big Bang in 2008, with Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr.’s debut as the incorrigible Tony Stark. In casting a charismatic leading man, feeding him some genuinely fresh one-liners, and stitching them together with a few impressive action setpieces, producer and MCU mastermind Kevin Feige had struck gold. He then went to work methodically stripping the mine clean, roping Chrises Evans and Hemsworth into multi-film contracts and watching as the billions rolled in. He devised a winning formula of easy screen-idol mass appeal and an eminently palatable house visual style to go along with it, a method still yielding massive success to this day. (Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor 3, and Spider-Man Who Even Knows What Number, coming to theaters in 2017!) And it all began with R.D.J. as an irresistible new breed of defender, the sort of guy you either want to be or be with. One year earlier, Marvel’s idea of a blockbuster superhero was Nicolas Cage as a flaming CGI skeleton clad in S&M biker gear.

Chris Sarris is a normal dude from Cleveland, Ohio. Co-workers describe him as “the guy in the office that says ‘This is what we did’ when giving a presentation to the boss, even though he did all the work.” Chris also has a bit of a secret: He played Steve Rogers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

We ranked 75 years of Batman movies in one list.

If you’ve read our full Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set visit, and you still want more details from behind the scenes of Marvel’s next big blockbuster, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s the nearly full conversation (which we’ve lightly edited for length and clarity) that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had with the assembled press on the set of Guardians 2. Below you’ll get more details on the film’s story (if you’re really worried about spoilers, you might want to skim that part), particularly how Yondu and Mantis fits into the new roster of the Guardians, along with some concrete details about the movie’s place in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. (No Thanos! No Infinity Stones!)