Category: Comic Books

The X-Men pay tribute to Krakoa in ‘X-Men: Hellfire Vigil’

Gail Simone, Jed MacKay, Stephanie Phillips and more will contribute to the one-shot.

With Krakoa gone, there’s no Hellfire Gala planned for this year, but the X-Men will mark the occasion with a vigil for their lost nation.

X-Men: Hellfire Vigil sounds more solemn than what we saw in the party-filled Hellfire Gala specials of years past. But Marvel is promising “a night of joyous celebration, delicious drama, and, of course, super hero high fashion,” so maybe it won’t be as depressing as it sounds.

The one-shot will feature the work of several current X-Men creators, including Gail Simone, Jed MacKay, Eve Ewing, Stephanie Phillips and more.

“We’ve been working towards the Hellfire Vigil for a year now, and all of the assorted X-creators came together to make this a moment of significance for the X-Men and their world as a whole,” X-Men Editor Tom Brevoort said. “If you’ve been wondering when somebody was going to encounter somebody else, the answer is right here in this book! It’s a capstone to events that began in From The Ashes and sets up major movements that will be playing out across the coming months. Plus it’s full-packed with great art and great character moments.”

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Corner box art will return just in time for the ‘Summer of Superman’

This summer’s Superman titles will feature an old staple with new art by Dan Mora.

Comic fans of a certain era will remember the days when a comic cover from Marvel or DC included not only a logo, but also a corner box that included the price, the Comics Code Authority symbol and artwork featuring the characters in the book. DC is bringing them back this summer as part of their “Summer of Superman” initiative, featuring stellar artwork from Dan Mora.

DC revealed five new Superman-themed corner boxes that will appear on Supergirl, Superman Unlimited, Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton, Superman and Action Comics. The new corner box images “celebrate the classic look of beloved DC comic book covers, which traditionally featured at least one of the stars of the title in miniature on the upper left corner of the comic,” according to DC.

Here’s a look at the revised cover for Supergirl #1, which features artwork by Sophie Campbell:

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DC resurrects a classic format this July with ‘Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All’

The Summer of Superman adds a treasury-sized story by Dan Jurgens, Bruno Redondo and Adriano Lucas.

As a part of their big “Summer of Superman” plans, DC is bringing back their classic “treasury-sized edition” formatting for a “larger than life” story by Dan Jurgens, Bruno Redondo and Adriano Lucas.

Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All will come in at 10 1/8” x 13 5/16” — the format used for several “Vs.” titles starting in the 1970s, like Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali and the Marvel/DC crossover Superman Vs. Spider-Man.

“Since Superman is the cornerstone on which our entire industry is built, the term ‘Treasury Sized Edition’ seems to be the perfect vehicle for him,” said Jurgens. “As a kid, the term ‘Treasury Edition’ meant that it was sure to be a special project and one that I just had to have. From the very start, most of those projects focused on Superman.”

Jurgens actually worked on the last treasury edition DC published, Superman vs. the Fantastic Four — which seems appropriate to mention, given it brought together characters who will be battling it out at the box office this summer.

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Marvel heads back to the beach this summer in ‘Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes, Rivals’

The iconic special returns with a new story by Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecs and Nick Bradshaw.

A staple of Marvel’s summer comics line-up will return in July as the company resurrects its infamous Marvel Swimsuit Special.

The special will feature swimsuit pin-ups of Marvel characters by Nic Klein, Marguerite Sauvage, Luciano Vecchio and many more, along with a story by Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs — the Local Man team — drawn by artist Nick Bradshaw.

Carla Hoffman revisited the classic Marvel Swimsuit Special back in 2021, noting that these would feature a whole bunch of cheesecake pin-ups as well as a story that explained why Captain America was wearing a bathing suit on Monster Island:

What was thought to be utterly salacious drivel by my mother when I tried to get a copy in my youth, the ‘93 Marvel Swimsuit issue has a story. Seriously: the Infinity Watch play a poker game, Pip the Troll wins, so he makes them all use the Infinity Stones to gather all the superheroes of the Marvel Universe to a party at Monster Island. When they are all suddenly transported there by the Space and Time Gems, they are forced into not fighting one another and having a good time by the Mind Stone, so a big beach party breaks out and Pip the Troll takes pictures of everyone in their swimsuits.

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Mike Mignola + Giuseppe Manunta bring a prose Hellboy story to comics

The one-shot ‘Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Professor Harvey is Gone’ is based on a ‘Weird Tales’ story by Mignola and Christopher Golden.

A prose Hellboy story by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden will find new life in comics, as Mignola and artist Giuseppe Manunta team up for the one-shot Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Professor Harvey is Gone.

The story originally appeared in the prose magazine Weird Tales, but Mignola said he reworked it into a comic script for Manunta to draw.

“I’m a big fan of Giuseppe’s work so I was thrilled when he told me he wanted to do a Hellboy story—the only problem was that I had sort of (finally) run out of Hellboy stories,” Mignola said. ”My head is so much in my new Lands Unknown series now that for a while I was really drawing a blank. Then I remembered a plot I had given to Chris Golden a while back. He wrote it up as a Hellboy story for Weird Tales magazine (The City in the Sea—Weird Tales issue 367) but that was an unillustrated prose story and there were (I thought) some terrific visuals in that story so I thought Giuseppe would be a terrific artist to put those on paper. So I reworked that original story and idea, and turned it over to Giuseppe to work his magic.”

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It’s Werewolf by Night vs. Dracula in a new special by Michael Giacchino + David Messina

The one-shot arrives at the end of July.

Michael Giacchino, director of the excellent Disney+ Werewolf by Night special from a couple years ago will return to the character in a new comic, Werewolf By Night: Blood Moon Rise.

He’ll be joined by artist David Messina for the one-shot, which will feature Jack Russell going head-to-head with Dracula. Current Werewolf by Night: Red Band writer Jason Loo will contribute a back-up story.

“It could be a lost story from the original run, in a way,” Giacchino told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s a fun twist to it that I think is going to be really interesting for people who are into Jack Russell and that lore.”

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Gerry Duggan + Javier Garrón team for ‘Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe’

The five-issue miniseries kicks off in July.

Godzilla’s trip through the Marvel Universe in recent time-spanning one-shots will culminate in a new five-issue miniseries, Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe.

Writer Gerry Duggan and artist Javier Garrón will pit the king of all monsters against just about everyone in the Marvel, starting in July.

“Godzilla was as important to me as Marvel Comics growing up,” Duggan said. “My father enjoyed watching baseball on TV, and I would root for rain outs so the NYC stations would run a Godzilla movie. When I discovered that Godzilla had appeared in the Marvel Universe, I obsessively collected every issue. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be contributing to the tradition of Godzilla rampaging in the Marvel Universe.”

Mark Brooks provides the wrap-around cover for the first issue:

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Hellboy + Anastasia’s adventures continue in ‘Hellboy in Love: The Art of Fire’

Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Alex Nieto bring a hunka hunka burnin’ love back to the Hellboy universe.

Dark Horse Comics has announced the two-issue miniseries Hellboy in Love: The Art of Fire by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Alex Nieto. The series will continue to explore the romance (how sweet!) between Hellboy and the archeologist Anastasia Bransfield, as they had to romantic Iceland (Oh!) to stop a network of occultists (Ahhh … waitaminute, that doesn’t too nice … ).

The Art of Fire follows 2023″ Hellboy and Love, and will feature lettering by Clem Robins.

“We’re having so much damn fun with this series,” Golden said. “Sending Hellboy on these romantic adventures with Anastasia fills in a vital missing era of his life, but Anastasia’s own research is also illuminating some key elements of the Mignolaverse’s ancient history. We’re digging into that more in this two-shot. Readers are going to love Alex Nieto’s gorgeous, playful take on Hellboy and Anastasia…and the evil at the root of Anastasia’s story!”

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‘G.O.D.S’ will join the ‘One World Under Doom’ crossover this July

Ryan North + Francesco Mortarino bring Wyn and company into the fray in a one-shot this summer.

Doctor Doom’s dominance over the Earth following his ascension to Sorcerer Supreme has not gone unnoticed by the Marvel Universe’s cosmic players, and in July that’ll lead to a confrontation in G.O.D.S.: One World Under Doom by Ryan North and Francesco Mortarino.

Created by Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti, G.O.D.S. reimagined Marvel’s cosmic hierarchy, introducing the “Magic God” Wyn, his apprentice Mia DiMariato and several other cosmic players to the Marvel Universe. Wyn hung around a bit with Doctor Strange, so I’m sure he’ll have some opinions on Doom’s actions.

“I will say it is absolutely a fool’s errand to follow after Jonathan Hickman in a corner of the Marvel Universe that he personally invented, but G.O.D.S. are a lot of fun, and the chance to see where Mia and Wyn were after their story — and how Doom would intersect with all of it — was too alluring to let up, North shared. “If you’ve never read G.O.D.S., this is a great way to meet the characters and if you have —welcome back. Mia is not having a great time of it, but Emperor Doom sees something in her…”

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Are these the worst comics of all time?

A poster on Reddit compiles a list with many not-unexpected choices.

I realize that’s a very loaded question — everyone’s got opinions, after all. But this list at least is based on more than one person’s opinion.

On Reddit, a poster who goes by the name ComicBookCanon put together a combined “Worst Comics of All Time” list based on several sources — including bloggers, comic news sites and even Reddit itself. Some of his sources covered specific publishers, while others covered events and story arcs. And the final list of 25 doesn’t look that surprising to me, having spent a good portion of my life reading people’s opinions of comics on the internet — although I would have guessed a different title would have appeared in that No. 1 spot.

Here’s the top 25 — or maybe that’s bottom 25? It does start with the one that received the most hate, and goes backwards from there:

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Wolverine + Deadpool host Bring Your Daughter to Work Day in July

Cody Ziglar and Rogê Antônio will unite the Wolverines — Logan and Laura — and the Deadpools — Wade and Ellie — in a new miniseries.

Marvel has announced Wolverines & Deadpools, a three-issue miniseries by Cody Ziglar and Rogê Antônio that’ll debut this summer. It’ll feature both current Wolverines and both current Deadpools in a story about father/daughter bonding.

OK, I realize that may not be enough information, because when you take the multiverse into consideration, there are a LOT of Wolverines and Deadpools I could be talking about. This miniseries will feature the OG Wolverine, aka Logan, along with the former X-23, Laura Kinney, teaming up with the OG Deadpool, Wade Wilson, and his daughter Ellie Camacho (who is currently a “Deadpool” herself.)

Is that confusing? Well, here’s the cover, which shows all four of them:

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Christopher Monfette + Miguel Martos explore the supernatural South in ‘TexArcanum’

Dark Horse Comics will publish the miniseries beginning in July.

Dark Horse Comics has announced the “horror in the Heartland” comic TexArcanum, a fun play off of Texarkana, the city that sits close to the Texas-Arkansas border. The title will mesh “unfamiliar mythologies and American identities into one new story,” according to the publisher.

The miniseries is by television writer/producer Christopher Monfette (Star Trek: Picard, Marvel’s Vision, 12 Monkeys) and artist Miguel Martos. They’ll be joined by colorist Patricio Delpeche and letterer Michael Heisler. 

“Avery might wear a cowboy hat, drive a pick-up and talk with the dry wit of a Middle-American noir-PI, but he travels through pockets of culture and folklore that are seldom explored and yet the very definition of this country,” said Monfette. “American horror is too often defined by Western European scares – vampires, werewolves, Victorian-style ghosts – and the truth is that this country is made up of communities who’ve brought their own unique folklore along with them.”

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