Editor's Picks

Archie Comics has announced that it is canceling its Kickstarter campaign effective immediately. The campaign had come under fire from some, including myself, for a wide variety of reasons ranging from the company's financial status to the cost of backer rewards. The good news is that the company stands by the three new titles that the Kickstarter would have supported, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and Life With Kevin --- but instead of funding them via crowdfunding, the books will be delayed until the publisher can afford to put them out.

Fox has announced a potential new direction for its enduring X-Men movie franchise, and it's one that should please a lot of comics fans. The studio has signed a deal with The Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone to co-write and direct New Mutants, starring a junior team of mutant heroes. Boone will co-write the film with Knate Gwaltney, and X-Men movie stalwarts Simon Kinberg and Laura Shuler-Donner will produce. The movie will surely draw heavily on the comics, but its cast won't necessarily be limited to characters that served in the original New Mutants line-up, or even in later versions of the team. There are decades of Westchester student mutants to choose from. In order to make the filmmakers' choices a little easier, we want you to pick the characters you'd most like to see on screen.

Marvel is definitely not messing around right now. In addition to hiring a pair of talented ladies to script their upcoming Captain Marvel solo film, the studio has their eye on one very awesome woman of color to take on one of their “diverse” upcoming movies: Selma director Ava DuVernay is reportedly being courted by Marvel for either Captain Marvel or Black Panther, and either film could benefit from having DuVernay behind the camera.

Since her debut in September, Marvel has been making a lot of hay out of the new Thor being somebody readers will recognize, and playing up her secret identity as a big reveal. As often happens, that big reveal was leaked online before the release of Wednesday's Thor #8. In response, Marvel confirmed the news to The New York Times, and the holder of the hammer is definitely someone longtime fans will be familiar with. Spoilers ahead.

I don't know about you, but I did not wake up this morning expecting to see the phrase, "Jughead relaunch from the writer of Sex Criminals." And yet, here we are. Following up on the upcoming relaunch of Archie with Mark Waid and Fiona Staples, Archie Comics announced today that they plan to expand the rebooted Riverdale through a Kickstarter campaign. The goal is set at $350,000, with the money going to a trio of rebooted comics: Jughead from writer Chip Zdarsky and an unannounced artist, Life With Kevin by Dan Parent and J. Bone, and, maybe the most surprising one of all, a new Betty & Veronica #1 written and drawn by Adam Hughes.

Writer Gerry Conway, who created several characters during his time at both Marvel and DC (including Firestorm, Killer Croc, Vixen and The Punisher) took to his blog recently to discuss and throw a spotlight on the way DC pay credit to their creative talent for the characters they created while working for the company. By introducing what they call ‘creator equity participation’, DC was one of the first publishers to offer royalty payments to creators for when characters were used outside of the comics medium --- such as in television, cinema, toys, or video games. Chuck Dixon, for example, is paid whenever Bane appears in a film or video game, as he is cited as the character’s co-creator.

We're already quite excited about A-Force, the new Avengers team from writers G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett, and artist Jorge Molina, that brings together some of Marvel's all-time greatest heroes as perhaps the greatest super-team of all time, including Captain Marvel, Dazzler, America Chavez, Nico Minoru, Spider-Gwen, and She-Hulk. Now we're especially excited because of this unlettered preview that shows them fighting sharks.

If either of them ever come back to the squared circle any time soon, former WWE superstars CM Punk (a.k.a. Phil Brooks) and Dave Bautista may have to tussle over ownership of Drax the Destroyer. Marvel announced at C2E2 in Punk's hometown of Chicago this weekend that he is the co-writer of a new Drax ongoing series set to debut late this year. (Bautista played the character in last summer's Guardians of the Galaxy movie.) The publisher unveiled an Ed McGuinness-drawn cover to the first issue, but hasn't yet named the artist for the series, nor Punk's co-writer.

Nearly 30 years after the release of The Dark Knight Returns, and almost 15 after The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Frank Miller is coming back to DC comics for a third installment in his series of stories about an older Batman in a world of corruption. It will be out this fall. Let's generously say that the title is...interesting: The Dark Knight III: The Master Race. Miller is set to co-write the eight-issue series with Brian Azzarello, who wrote a somewhat controversial Batman story of his own, "Broken City," back in 2004. According to DC's blog, an artist has yet to be named. (Which seems to mean Miller won't be drawing it.)

By now, it's the "slut" heard 'round the geek world: during their press tour for Avengers: Age of Ultron, actors Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans referred to Black Widow respectively as a "slut" and a "whore." They've since apologized - well, Evans apologized, Renner offered something else. Plus, a new clip from the movie reveals a rape joke - something proud feminist Joss Whedon should know better than doing. But is the fuss about these things worthwhile? Well, yes. Words have meaning. And the words chosen by Renner, Evans, and Whedon in these situations happen to be words that demean women. When Black Widow is routinely left off of Age of Ultron merchandise, the fact that major players in the movie chose these words is extra uncomfortable.