catman

The Lego Batman toy line has been going strong for over a decade now, but with this week's release of the Lego Batman Movie, we've seen a truly unprecedented explosion of merchandise based around the Caped Crusader's blockiest incarnation. And with that many figures, going from the Dark Knight himself all the way down to super obscure deep cuts like the Mime and March Harriet, our course here at ComicsAlliance is clear. We need to rank them. So today, we've dug through every single Lego Batman Movie minifig (and eliminated simple variations like "Batman with a slightly different face") to rank them all, worst to best.

Blind bag toys have been a huge market these past few years, and perhaps no brand knows this better than Lego. Since launching the blind bag minifigures back in 2010, Lego has had tremendous success with the collection, which has had 16 proper waves alongside special edition series like Disney and The Simpsons. Early next year, another special series will see Lego celebrate the launch of The Lego Batman Movie, and you might be surprised to see who's being packed inside.

The Question is the feature where we ask our contributors for their personal responses to some of the big questions weighing on our minds! This week is Bisexual Awareness Week, a campaign that seeks to accelerate acceptance of the bisexual community. Bi visibility in fiction is an important part of that effort, as bisexual people are often marginalized or ignored in fictional worlds. Thankfully there are a growing number of bisexual characters in comics today, so to celebrate #BiWeek, we asked our writers; Which bisexual characters do you think deserve a bigger spotlight?

There was a time not so long ago when one could count off all the LGBTQ superheroes at Marvel and DC on the fingers of one hand. We’ve seen an increasing number of queer heroes make their debuts in recent years, and a few established heroes have come out as LGBTQ, but the number of queer superheroes at the Big Two in any given month is still sometimes small enough to count on one hand. To celebrate Pride, and the many LGBTQ heroes that have appeared at Marvel and DC over the years, we’ve assembled a panel of ComicsAlliance contributors to hold a fantasy draft. Our writers will take turns building up seven-member dream teams of LGBTQ superheroes from the ranks of both publishers.

DC's big Convergence event seems set to bring back a lot of familiar faces, with solicitations teasing new stories featuring characters ranging from Ryan Choi through to the married Clark Kent and Lois Lane. But more than anyone else, it's the return of a certain blonde Batgirl that really got people talking. After recently showing up in Batman: Eternal under her guise as Spoiler, this April sees the return of Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, for a two-part story from the creative team of Alisa Kwitney, Rick Leonardi, and Mark Pennington. Trapped under one of Brainiac's domes as part of Convergence, the two-parter sees Stephanie, Cassandra Cain and Tim Drake join forces to protect Gotham from -- what else? -- a giant rampaging gorilla. Gorilla Grodd, no less. And Catman's there too! With so much going on in just two issues, we spoke to Kwitney about what we can expect from Stephanie Brown's return this April.

It's Celebrate Bisexuality Day today, also called Bisexual Visibility Day -- a day to celebrate and promote recognition of those who are sexually attracted to people of more than one gender. The day exists because people with non-monosexual queer identities face unusual challenges in being recognized by both mainstream and queer cultures, yet visibility helps break down barriers and encourage acceptance. In superhero comics, the problem of bisexual invisibility is as ingrained as anywhere; the medium struggles to acknowledge the existence of anything that didn't exist in The Honeymooners or The Andy Griffith Show, unless it's a space god, a shapeshifter, or a parasitic psychic monster. Having a character say, "I'm bisexual" is apparently more implausible than any of those things. There are signs that the industry is changing in this regard -- but slowly, and rather half-heartedly.

Superhero comics have a diversity problem. The leading characters are largely male, mostly white, and overwhelmingly straight. By definition, well-established characters come from an era when the culture was even straighter, whiter and more male than it is today, and as a result the characters fail to represent the diversity of their audience. ...

Toys: HK Figure Club has posted images of Mattel's second wave of Batman Legacy action figures. The inclusion of Catman and Bat-Mite should have fans stoked this fall. TV: It looks like ABC's Incredible Hulk series is moving forward. Guillermo Del Toro told FEARnet the team is "lining up the pages" after turning in and rewriting an outline...