One-Punch Man

Last year, McFarlane Toys reworked its strategy a bit. Instead of focusing on a few longrunning lines, the company switched to a primary series that encompassed all its licensed properties. Dubbed Color Tops, each wave mixes up comic, gaming, television and film characters into a larger collection. While the big guns like The Walking Dead still make up the primary focus, now things like Mass Effect, Attack on Titan, and even Spawn all fall under one banner. Add in building sets, and you have quite a bit of promising content coming from McFarlane in 2017.

There have been a lot of action figures made for a lot of superheroes over the years, but I don't think there's ever been a figure made of a hero less suited for "action" than ThreeZero's brand-new 1/6 scale figure of Saitama from One Punch Man. I mean, at least the Man-Eating Cow from The Tick --- who actually did get an action figure --- ate a man once or twice.

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.

I'll admit that I never got into the Nendoroid craze until they started making figures of characters I really liked. I've bought plenty of more traditional figures of characters I was merely ambivalent about, but the investment in Nendoroid figures meant I had to be particular about who made the cut. With this new crop of toys shown at New York Comic Con, I'm afraid I've reached a tipping point, and will have very few Nendoroids I'm capable of turning down when it comes to adding them to my collection. I mean, just look at those faces. How can you say "no" to them?

If you haven’t read the manga or seen the anime based on it, you’re really missing out, because One-Punch Man is absolutely amazing! The premise is pretty easy to explain: a young man named Saitama decides to become a hero, for fun, and after an intensely rigorous training regimen (100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10km running. Every. Single. Day.), he becomes so powerful no enemy can withstand more than one of his punches. He’s then confronted with the only foes he can’t beat with his fists: the unshakeable ennui of being completely unbeatable, the boredom of being unchallenged, and the malaise of everyday life in Z-City. If you still don’t want to believe me, just take a look at all of this incredible fan art One-Punch Man has inspired, check out the artists’ sites, and have your mind changed, because not enjoying Saitama’s adventures is only hurting yourself worse than consecutive normal punches.

Pretty much ever since the original webcomic by ONE premiered in 2009, fans of the superhero spoof One-Punch Man have been aching for an anime adaptation. Last fall, Madhouse --- the geniuses behind Summer Wars and Death Note, among other things --- granted their wish with a 12-episode anime based on the manga by ONE & Yuusuke Murata, which the record will show we at ComicsAlliance are big fans of. Now, thanks to Viz Media and Adult Swim's Toonami block, an English dub of that anime is finally available Stateside. So how is it? Pretty damn good.

Yusuke Murata and ONE's One Punch Man is arguably the best thing going on in superhero comics right now. It's got it all --- hilarious comedy, genuinely thrilling action, a complex and engaging setting that gets a whole lot bigger than you think it's going to be, and some truly amazing character designs. The only thing it didn't have was a line of high-end action figures, but now, the good people over at Figma have finally corrected that oversight. In January, Figma and the Good Smile Company will be releasing an action figure for Saitama, the hero who can defeat any opponent with a single punch --- which means that someone will finally be able to stand on my desk and tell Destro and Batman how to really get things done.

Since 2012, Viz Media has fought the omnipresence of poorly translated bootleg manga by offering weekly manga chapters published simultaneously with Japan in the digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Now Viz has gone one step further in that cause by unveiling a new section of Weekly Shonen Jump's website with free official translations of popular and new series posted daily.

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.

Q: What comics would you recommend for someone recovering from surgery? Hoping for something fun, easy, pretty episodic. -- @raebeta A: I'm lucky enough that I've never had to go through an extended recovery from surgery, but I have spent plenty sick days in bed from the usual cold and flu, so I know exactly the kind of thing you're getting at. The thing is, while I always go into a bit of bed rest thinking that I'll use that time to catch up on reading, it never really works out that way. Then again, that might be because every time I get so much as a mild sniffle, I want to roll myself up into a blanket like a burrito and play Super Mario Bros. 3 until I feel better, a process that's been going on ever since that time I had a sore throat in 1990. For the record, this is the most effective medical treatment that science has devised, and I'd recommend it over chicken soup nine times out of ten.