ROY THOMAS

Anyone who partook of Netflix’s Iron Fist could recognize the series’ issues extend beyond casting, though we still wonder how things might have gone with a more culturally appropriate Danny Rand. That concern in particular hasn’t made inroads with the Marvel character’s co-creator, who shares a harsh response over “cultural appropriation and crap like that, which just makes me furious.”

Valkyrie is one of my favorite Marvel characters, even if she's always been a bit of a B-lister. She's a woman warrior who's never afraid to be aggressive and take what's hers. Indeed, it would be easier just to say that's she's never afraid, period. She's a mainstay of my favorite Marvel team, the Defenders, and she's also probably the only Marvel Asgardian who never stood in Thor's shadow.

Today, Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers is one of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe, one of the company's most powerful and popular characters. She's the star of her own best-selling series, she's a high-profile member of The Avengers and The Ultimates, her visage adorns merchandise from apparel to action figures, and she's a major part of the "Phase Three" expansion of Marvel's movie universe. But it hasn't always been like this. Since she made her first appearance in a supporting role to a second-string hero on December 12, 1967, Carol Danvers has walked, flown, and fought her way along a twisting and often-confusing path.

Dedicated fan, influential creator, esteemed editor, respected historian; the legendary Roy Thomas, born November 22, 1940, has assembled one of the comics medium's most diverse and wide-ranging resumes over the course of his six-decade-plus career. From helping to establish the groundwork for organized comic fandom in the early '60s, to his much-loved stints writing many of Marvel and DC's best-beloved characters, to his modern-day work as editor and author of numerous reference works, he's long been one of the most knowledgeable and passionate voices in the industry.

The brave hero. The wicked villain. These archetypes, and the tales of their struggles, lie at the heart of the comic book medium, providing the basis for many of our favorite stories. While some may scoff at these aspirational stories, we know that they can be empowering, uplifting, and even inspiring. That's often especially true when the hero at the heart of the story is a woman. When women slay monsters, the stories are never just about protecting the kingdom and preserving the status quo. When women slay monsters, they challenge their own oppression, they overturn expectations, and they seize control of the future. When women slay monsters, they change the world. These are some of our favorite comic book stories that celebrate that idea.

Doctor Strange is a second-tier character in the Marvel pantheon, but he's making the leap to the big leagues thanks to the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. To help get you up to speed with the character, we've compiled a list of ten of the best Doctor Strange stories ever published. These are the stories that will introduce you to his major foes and his main supporting cast, and get you acquainted with all the many great talents that have worked on the character over the years.

Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and premiering in the October 1912 issue of pulp magazine The All-Story, Tarzan of the Apes has become one of the most well-known heroes in fiction. He's been in hundreds of films, novels and video games, with the latest film, The Legend of Tarzan, hitting theatres this past weekend. But Tarzan has perhaps cast his biggest shadow in comics. Spanning newspaper strips, comic books and webcomics under a rainbow of comics greats, Tarzan has been a steady presence in the medium for almost 90 years.

Welcome to Cast Party, the feature that imagines a world with even more live action comic book adaptations than we currently have, and comes up with arguably the best casting suggestions you’re ever going to find for the movies and shows we wish could exist. Just last week, news emerged that the movie rights to Namor the Sub-Mariner may have reverted to Marvel Studios, so this seems like the perfect time to imagine what a Sub-Mariner movie might look like. It should play up the contrast between Namor's two worlds. Under the waves is a realm of the fantastic, while a world much like our own exists on land.

Ghost Rider, the daredevil stuntman with a skeleton head made of fire, debuted in Marvel Comics on this day in 1972, and despite being one of the most definitively '70s Marvel concepts, along with Power Man and Iron Fist, the character has retained a lasting appeal and remains endlessly fun.

We’re more than three years into the Disney era of Star Wars. Since 2012, when Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion and change, we’ve seen a new canon take the place of the old Expanded Universe, with two seasons of the animated Star Wars: Rebels; the release of the most successful movie in the franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens; multiple new novels and short stories; and the launch of a new line of Star Wars comics from Marvel. But Jedi and Sith have tangled in the Mighty Marvel Manner before. Marvel was the original publisher of Star Wars comics. Starting in April 1977 --- a month before the original film’s release --- and running until June 1986 for 107 issues and three annuals, the original Star Wars comic book was many things: zany comedy, thrilling adventure and, in its final years, a meditation on soldiers in peace time, all written and drawn by some of the greatest writers and artists in the industry. But before all that, it was a logistical problem.