Dan Dare

I don't know that any of us expected it, but 2016 is turning out to be a surprisingly great year for Dan Dare. Originally created in 1950 as the star of The Eagle, the erstwhile pilot of the future who dedicated his considerable skills to battling the sinister Mekon and his army of Venusian Treens seems to be undergoing a revival of sorts. Not only is there an upcoming collection of Dan Dare strips from his late-'70s tenure as a feature in 2000 AD, but Titan Comics has announced that it's going to publish an all-new Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future series in early 2017.

Time for a little bit of good news and bad news. The good news is that there is an awesome new Dan Dare action figure on the way. The bad news is that I do not have this action figure in my hands right now. Bleeding Cool has an early look at a prototype for the new Dan Dare figure, which is being manufactured by Day2Day Trading, the same folks that created those fantastic Buck Rogers and Flash Gor