a-force

If you've been waiting to see what the first half-of the year is going to look like when it comes to Marvel Legends, look no further. Hasbro unleashed a hefty salvo of new figures and sets tied to Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and more at this year's Toy Fair. While Thor: Ragnarok was nowhere to be found, there are dozens of new figures planned to arrive already, so Marvel Legends fans of every size and scale will have plenty to look forward to in the coming months.

This year, I've been more than a little bit obsessed with TinyCo's mobile superhero management game Avengers Academy. Its cute designs and fun scripts have been a bright light of superheroic fun, and its willingness to feature new and niche characters alongside A-list heavyweights has been a highlight of the gameplay experience. However, since the game's launch, there have been a number of characters fans have been clamoring to get their hands on, and now it seems a number of them are coming all at once, as Marvel and TinyCo have announced the December event will be themed around A-Force, bringing the likes of Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Ms. America to the campus.

Last October, Marvel embraced the creative world of cosplay with an awesome line of Cosplay Variants featuring dedicated fans geared up as their favorite superhero, gracing the cover of that character's comic. It seems like the line was so popular that it's getting a second outing, as Marvel has unveiled the first look at this year's round of Cosplay Variants, debuting in stores from September.

The comics world is full of questions — like “Who would win in a fight?”; “Which one of the Powerpuff Girls is best?”; and “Who is the handsomest hero and why is it Gambit?” Here at ComicsAlliance, we spend a lot of time thinking about everything from the big questions that matter a whole lot to the small ones that are still kinda fascinating. With The Question, we’re going to give our writers the opportunity to give their answers, because if we’re always thinking about this stuff anyway, we might as well write it down. For our latest question, we wanted to keep things simple. We’re now more than halfway through the year, and 2016 has brought so many exciting new comics. With all that in mind: What's your favorite comic of the year so far?

Over the weekend, I saw Ghostbusters. I loved it, but I’m not here to review it. Obviously one of the things that everyone has talked about is the female cast. There’s been a lot of backlash against it, and a lot of people defending the choice, and a plenty saying it shouldn’t matter. But honestly, I think it does matter, and I’m all in favor of it. In fact, I want to see more women-dominated reboots of previously male-dominated properties. Here’s the thing: We need more movies with woman-led casts, and that makes a movie like this even more exciting, but there’s more to it than that. Changing up the cast automatically gives the movie a freshness it wouldn’t have had with men.

A-Force #5 begins a new storyline, and introduces a very exciting new creative team. Kelly Thompson, writer of IDW's Jem and the Holograms, has been co-writing with G. Willow Wilson since the second issue, but with the fifth she takes over as sole writer. Meanwhile Ben Caldwell, recently of DC's Prez, is the new artist. Caldwell's versions of the main characters are unique and lovely, and he also does an excellent giant dragon (which is relevant to the plot of #5, it turns out).

A-Force, an all-woman take on the Avengers written by G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett with art by Jorge Molina, was one of the most anticipated books of the Secret Wars crossover. Of course, it didn't turn out to be quite what readers expected, since Battleworld was populated with alternate versions of everyone's favorite characters, rather than the originals. But now that Secret Wars is over (or at least, soon will be) Wilson and Molina are giving us exactly what we wanted: a team of powerful women set in our preferred Marvel Universe. The new A-Force #1 will be available January 6th and features Singularity, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Dazzler, Medusa, and Nico Minoru.

We're big fans of Kevin Wada here at ComicsAlliance, because we have eyes and we can see. We're also a big fan of A-Force, bringing together the formidable women of the Marvel Universe in butt-kicking high style. So after a long and exhausting work week, what better treat could we have than an exclusive look at Kevin Wada's variant cover for the upcoming A-Force #3?

Our critical rundown of the All-New All-Different Marvel line moves on to the seven Avengers (or Avengers-adjacent) team titles, which includes three teams with Avengers in the name, plus A-Force, the mighty Ultimates, a bunch of villains stealing an old Avengers-related name, and the Squadron Supreme, who aren't really Avengers at all, but we don't have a Justice League section.

A-Force is an alternate reality limited series that's a part of the current Marvel Comics crossover event, Secret Wars. Written by G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett and drawn by Jorge Molina, it's been greatly anticipated due to its pile-up of Marvel's best and lesser-known female superheroes, leading many to believe that it would be an all-women adventure. At first it seems like an island full of women, and then it seems like an island full of superheroes. It’s neither. It’s not. This is no Themyscira.