namor

Since the dawn of the Silver Age, legacy characters have been a staple of superhero fiction, and having a new character step into a well loved roll can open up new opportunities for writers and artists to tell different kinds of stories. In The Replacements, we’ll look back at the notable and not-so-notable heroes and villains to assume some of the most iconic mantles in the superhero genre. This week, in honor of Mutant Week, we’re looking at the X-Men’s most storied legacy position. That’s right, we’re looking at the women, men, and clones who have at one time or another called themselves Phoenix.

Who are the greatest ever X-Men? We’re going to try to answer that question with your help, by putting the spotlight on different individual X-Men from across the franchise’s long history and pairing up your votes with the votes and opinions of our panel of highly opinionated X-Men fans. Your scores will be added to ours to determine the top 100 X-Men. Even by X-Men standards we're rating a remarkable collection of X-Men today; a shape-shifting terrorist, a time-tossed gay teen, an Atlantean monarch, that one original X-Man that you totally forgot existed, and whatever the heck Doop is. But do any of them rate among the all-time greats?

Although cosplay has been present for decades within the comics, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, social media has played an integral role in the thriving communities of costuming that exist, such as Cosplay.com and the Superhero Costuming Forum. Over the years, the cosplay community has evolved into a creative outlet for many fans to establish and showcase some impressive feats of homemade disguise, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics at conventions. 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.

Bristling with hubris, superiority and snark, Namor the Sub-Mariner is not only one of Marvel's most heavy-hitting titans, but also one of its first. He was one of the original supermen; the first superhero to fly; and one of the first comic book anti-heroes, waging war on the human world even from his earliest appearances. To celebrate the different sides of the character across more than 75 years of comic book history, and perhaps to help quench your thirst for much more Namor, we've compiled a gallery of some of our favorite Sub-Mariner art.

With Avengers: Age of Ultron just around the corner, interest in these heroes has never been greater, so we’ve decided to pit all the official comic book Avengers against each other in a battle for your affections. Who is the greatest, best, favorite Avenger of all time? Only you can decide. We’ve created voting groups that mix up different eras of Avengers membership. Group C includes the first lady of the movie team, Black Widow; comics founding member Hank Pym; a couple of Avengers you might usually think of as Defenders; and Darkhawk, the people's champion. The two or three most popular Avengers will go through from each group, so you’re encouraged to vote tactically.

Today's poll is all about sex. Some superheroes are known for their provocatively sexy costumes, and because sex in superhero costumes isn't always terribly sophisticated, that often just means costumes that are revealing and/or skintight. But just because a costume is sexy doesn't mean it can't also be stylish. Here are five costumes and characters known for their eye-candy appeal.

From Wally West and Linda Park, to Harley Quinn and Mistah J, we're asking you to vote on comics' most famous couples so we can determine the best (and worst) romantic partnerships that comics have to offer. If you think the couple is star-crossed and meant to be, vote 'True Love.' If you think they've got unstable chemistry and can only end badly, vote 'Bad Romance.' In today's polls, a classic theme; beauty and the beast. Monsters and the people who love them are a recurring motif in fiction, and the tradition has proved especially popular in comics, whether it's Bigby and Snow, Bruce and Betty, or Swamp Thing and Abby. If a monstrous outcast can find love, is that the truest love of all? Or are some people too terrible to love?

From Wally West and Linda Park, to Harley Quinn and Mistah J, we're asking you to vote on comics' most famous couples so we can determine the best (and worst) romantic partnerships that comics have to offer. If you think the couple is meant to be, vote 'True Love.' If you think they've got unstable chemistry and can only end badly, vote 'Bad Romance.' In today's polls, we trace a course from one storm to another through several Marvel characters. Some of these relationships led to big weddings, some led to bigger breakups, some were rebounds and some were affairs (or could be affairs). But are they true love, or a bad romance?

Changing the racial identity of characters has become a contentious issue amongst fans of superhero comics and their adaptations in other media. The awful practices of casting white actors to play people of color, or of turning previously non-white characters into white characters, is all too common in movie adaptations of books, cartoons, TV shows, or even real life stories -- but rather surprisingly, superhero comics and their adaptations have mostly avoided this problem. In comics, the controversy takes a different direction. Several white characters have become non-white, mostly in movies, and sometimes in reboots. Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm in the new Fantastic Four; Helena Bertinelli aka the Huntress in the New 52; Nick Fury in the Ultimate Comics line and on screen. These are changes that agitate some readers -- but realistically, the changes don't go far enough. Superhero comics have a cultural bias towards white characters that has everything to do with their institutional history and nothing to do with what makes sense to the stories.

The movie rights to Marvel's superheroes are famously divided. 20th Century Fox plans to build a cinematic universe around the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, which are the Marvel franchises whose film rights Fox controls. Sony is working on a similar masterplan for Spider-Man and his related characters. Marvel Studios retains the lion's share of characters and has already built its cinematic universe around characters connected to the core Avengers team. And then there's Namor. Earlier this year, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that the movie rights to the Sub-Mariner are locked up at Universal. There's been no word since 2006 that Universal is doing anything with him, yet Marvel has made three Iron Man movies, two Thors and a Captain America in that amount time. Universal, it's time to pull your finger out. Here's why.