Christopher Hastings

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is out later this year, and naturally Marvel is ramping up its related content to match with a new ongoing series for the team, a new Rocket Racoon title and now, Groot's very first solo ongoing. This May, Christopher Hastings and Flaviano launch I Am Groot, which sees everyone's favorite tree-alien space-hero stuck in his diminutive baby form and stranded on a planet without any of his Guardian colleagues and no-one who understands him.

In the 2016 Marvel mini-series Vote Loki, readers see what happens when a strong personality with no real beliefs outside of their own narcissism runs for the highest office in the land, and how easily a large portion of the voting public can be swayed into voting for someone based on buzzwords and a perceived common bond.

Over the course of a number of volumes, annuals and miniseries, Gerry Duggan and his collaborators have turned Deadpool into one of the most tightly plotted and rewarding superhero titles on the stands. Next March, the running tension between Deadpool and his wife Shiklah will finally reach a boiling point as the Queen of Monster Metropolis stakes a claim on the surface world, and it's up to Wade, Spider-Man, and The Mercs For Money to stop her.

When Marvel first introduced the character of Gwenpool, a lot of people were instantly turned off by what seemed like a blatant cash-grab. She’s Spider-Gwen + Deadpool, and inspired by cosplay; there doesn’t seem to be much there to her at all. However, under the watch of Christopher Hastings and Gurihiru in the pages of The Unbelievable Gwenpool, she’s actually one of the most interesting and complex characters in the Marvel Universe.

Today, we're looking at recent offerings from Marvel Comics that cater specifically to younger readers. Over recent years there's been a significant sea-change at Marvel that has allowed more young adult, kid-friendly, and inclusive titles to spring up and carve a corner for themselves, and we've chosen six of the very best for the kids and teens in your life.

Earlier this month on Super Tuesday, Marvel announced an upcoming series titled Vote Loki, featuring the God of Mischief setting his sights on The White House --- although they did so without a creative team in place at that moment. Yesterday at the “All-New, All-Different Marvel” panel at C2E2, it was announced that Christopher Hastings and Langdon Foss will be the ones ushering in Loki’s presidential bid this June.

Because somebody apparently demanded it, the character that Marvel Comics describes as "2015’s overnight sensation" is getting her own series by Christopher Hastings and Gurihiru. The Unbelievable Gwenpool #1 comes out April 13. Despite what you might have reasonably assumed, Gwenpool is neither Gwen Stacy nor Deadpool. She's a girl named Gwen Poole, who comes from a mundane, non-superhero Earth just like ours, where she was way into Marvel Comics and video games. So when she finds herself in the Marvel Universe, she figures she can do whatever she wants, and it turns out she's right.

Q: Who is the best President of the United States in superhero comics? -- @SAWinchell A: Ah yes. It's a Presidential Election year here in the United States, and with politics in the air everywhere you look, the next eight months are probably going to involve a lot of questions about elections, public offices, and other expressions of our American ideals of democracy. For those of you who aren't in America, this might seem like we're drawing things out a little bit, but I can assure you that it's been like this for like a year already. Anyway, to the question! Given how rarely we actually see the President playing a significant role in superhero comics, there are really only a few directions we can go with this. The obvious choices are, of course, Prez Rickard and Beth Ross, the two teenage presidents who have starred in different iterations of Prez, or Calvin Ellis, the Super-President from Earth-23, and if I was up for a bit of political satire, I could try to defend the Lex Luthor administration again. But really, if we want to talk about the best Chief Executive in all of comics, then there's only one real choice: President Maria Funkhouser, from Christopher Hastings' The Adventures of Dr. McNinja.

Marvel has announced an ongoing series for Gwenpool, star of the recent Gwenpool Holiday Special. The Unbelievable Gwenpool launches in April, written by Christopher Hastings with art by the team of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano, better known as Gurihiru. The Entertainment Weekly article announcing the book attributes the launch to the character's popularity, which means solo books for quantifiably more popular Marvel characters like Jessica Jones and America Chavez will surely be announced any day now.

I had absolutely no interest in Marvel’s Gwenpool Special #1 when it was announced. I like Spider-Gwen a whole lot, but what looked like essentially a gender-bent Deadpool in pink? Yeah, the best I could come up with was a shrug at the news that this random mash-up character would be getting a holiday issue. Which is why I’m quite honestly shocked that I liked Gwenpool Special #1. I liked it a lot. It’s a real Christmas miracle, people.