david liss

Professor James Moriarty, the “Napoleon of Crime” and the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, is one of the most iconic villains in fiction. And that’s always been a little odd. As any die-hard Sherlockian could tell you, if you go strictly by "the Canon" — the four Sherlock Holmes novels and 56 short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — Moriarty is not all that important. Referenced in the novel The Valley of Fear and a few later short stories, Moriarty only really appears in 'The Adventure of the Final Problem', where he does what he was created to do: kill off Holmes so Doyle wouldn’t have to write him anymore. Obviously, this didn’t last. Moriarty really only gained his mythic status and place as Holmes’ rival through later adaptations in radio, film, TV and of course comics. For their part, outside of direct Canon adaptions, comics have tended to portray Moriarty as an antihero.

On sale this week is the first issue of a curious new Marvel Comics miniseries that's so elusive and mysterious that it very nearly escaped our notice. Appropriately, it's called Mystery Men, and it reveals the heretofore unknown history of the Marvel Universe as it was in the 1930s...

After the groundshaking events of "DoomWar," all the vibranium in the world has been destroyed and T'Challa, also known as the Black Panther, has been left adrift. He is no longer ruler of his homeland, and he needs to find himself. What better way to do it than to...

The answer to Marvel's "Who Will Be The New Man Without Fear?" teaser mystery has finally been answered. As revealed yesterday by G4's "Attack of the Show," The Black Panther has beaten out his nearly equally outlandish rivals Nova, Kraven, Gambit and Falcon as the new guardian of Hell's Kitchen...