Misty Knight

In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent. This week's selection of the best cosplay ever includes Juri Han versus Spider-Gwen, Snorlax, Misty Knight, Carrie Kelly, and more!

The problem with "sexiest women in comics" lists is that they tend to get wrapped up in the presumptive male gaze and the assumption of a male readership. Basically, you end up with a bunch of sexist ideas about what men want women to be. So we wondered, what would such a list look like if the male gaze was taken out of the equation? We gathered some of our queer female and non-binary writers to nominate, vote for, and write up our own list of the hottest female characters in comics, from a queer perspective.

Black Panther is one of the hottest characters under the Marvel umbrella right now. Not only does he have a huge blockbuster film on the horizon for next year, but there are two critically acclaimed ongoing titles that bear his name. Later this year, that number climbs to three as current steward of the franchise Ta-Nehisi Coates team up with poet Yona Harvey and artist Butch Guice for Black Panther and the Crew, which takes T'Challa to Harlem and re-teams him with some of his closest friends.

Our chief cosplay correspondent Betty Felon was on hand at New York Comic-Con to document as much of the amazing cosplay as she could find. Check out more of the very finest cosplay from New York.

Sure, Luke Cage may have the title focus, but a more than sizable chunk of fans will watch Marvel’s latest Netflix premiere for Simone Missick’s Misty Knight, and an otherwise stellar supporting cast. As such, Misty gets her own Luke Cage poster, along with Rosario Dawson’s increasingly-integral Claire.

It's no secret that white male leads have dominated comic books since --- well forever. In the '60s, Marvel and DC finally started to put a change to that with the addition of super-powered people of color, which led to some of today's biggest names in comics. But it still wasn't enough. Eventually the lack of diversity led to the onset of Milestone Media in the '90s, where Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle crafted several intriguing characters. With an increasingly active black nerd, or blerd, community, new black characters are being created every day --- primarily through independent publishers, though Marvel has also kickstarted a focus on one of its most notable black characters --- but more on that later. To celebrate Black History Month, ComicsAlliance is running down our list of 20 Great Black Comic Book Characters. Our list considers old staples as well as some new favorites, including a certain katana wielding badass, space explorers and of course, plenty of superheroes.

Just a few scant hours ago, Marvel’s Netflix Luke Cage cast a key villain, and already the Hero For Hire has a major new ally to balance the scales. Simone Missick has been cast in the role of Marvel’s Misty Knight, a super-powered detective in her own right, and potentially our first link to Netflix’s Iron Fist series.

  Monica Rambeau is on her fourth superhero codename. In the pages of Mighty Avengers she's Spectrum, having previously gone by Captain Marvel, Photon and Pulsar. The Captain Marvel identity now belongs to Carol Danvers, also on her fourth codename after Ms. Marvel, Binary and Warbird. Her first codename now belongs to Kamala Khan, the fourth Ms. Marvel after Danvers, Sharon Ventura and Karla Sofe

The power of cosplay at New York Comic Con: Our own Chris Sims spotted three cosplayers dressed as Misty Knight, Hawkeye and a slightly afro-challenged but nonetheless resplendent Luke Cage on the convention floor. Sweet Christmas. Check out the full image after the cut...

With the massive box office success of The Avengers (the film has earned more than one billion dollars at box offices worldwide), Marvel Studios has accomplished an extraordinary feat in franchise building; it has created a shared cinematic superhero universe based on the characters originally created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee...