People like to say the X-Men have the most complicated backstory and continuity in comics. And that might be true. For Marvel Comics. But at least a tie for messiest history would have to be DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, the teen team from the future. And that’s not even factoring in that we’re on our…
If you’re going to do a thing — any stupid thing at all — it should be done right. The Splash I don’t know who runs social media for IMDb (which, by the way, is one more part of the Amazon empire if you didn’t know), but they should be fired — preferably into the…
Phew! Good Ol’ Chip wasn’t lying when he said this one changes EVERYTHING. Buckle up for DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1 from Chip Zdarsky, Chris Mooneyham, Manuel Garcia, Le Beau Underwood, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Clayton Cowles. Vishal Gullapalli: “ONE MORE DAY”! We’re getting “One More Day” again! I’m sure this will be nothing but delightful and…
Learn whether mutants are bound by Xavier’s dream or by trauma in issue #3 of Hellions, from Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia, David Curiel, and Ariana Maher. Austin Gorton: Welcome back to the ongoing baroque body-horror nightmare that is Hellions! We last left our crew of villainous misfits beset by Zombie Marauders led by their demented…
Sometimes you find a way to concur death, and wouldn’t cha know it? Someone died in a dimension obsessed with creating #content and you gotta find out if this is some ARG or a real murder. That’s where X-Factor comes in. They investigate the deaths so that mutants might once again live. Join Leah Williams,…
Krakoa is under attack from alien forces. This has happened multiple times in the last few issues, and frankly? The council is putting together plans to stop it from being such a nuisance. Till then, Magneto is gonna wreck it in Jonathan Hickman, Leinil Francis Yu, and Sunny Gho’s X-Men #11. Chris Eddleman: Empyre, like…
The original version of this piece appeared on my blog, The Matt Signal, on Aug. 23, 2013, shortly after news broke — and stink rose — that Ben Affleck would be playing Batman in a yet-to-be-named live action movie. Seven years later, we find ourselves in a similar situation, so I think it’s time to…
As far as comic storytelling formats go, one rapidly gaining popularity over the past year or so is the season-based format. It is essentially when a story is divided into 6- to 12-issue, self-contained arcs. It also allows for special or one-shot issues in between. Writer David Booher and Artist Drew Zucker released Canto last…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. Batman: Three Jokers #1: No one picked this, but it feels silly to ignore the elephant in the room of this week’s releases, DC’s long-threatened Black Label Bat-mini by writer Geoff Johns and artist…
In 2012, 10 years after the first Free Comic Book Day, Diamond Comic Distributors rolled out Halloween ComicFest, a similar promotion in which comic shops gave out free (to customers) books on the last Saturday in November. While not having quite the same cache as FCBD, it capitalized on a holiday when kids and fans…
In the summer of 2018, times were strange but good. Since my youngest had been born only that spring, he was still pretty attached to my wife, Christi, which led to a new division of labor, in which I got our eldest son to bed while Christi went to bed early with the baby. Now…
Bryan Edward Hill and Gleb Melnikov revitalized and reimagined Angel for a new age in Angel & Spike. This September, Zac Thompson and Hayden Sherman are continuing that reimagination, starting Sept. 23 in Angel & Spike #14, and hoping to create stories in the BOOM!-fyverse that both capture the magic of the original series and…
Taco Bell. Just the name brings up images of garbage food you get at a drive-thru at 2AM and savor every bite of. Not every menu item is good. I’d even say most of them are bad. But some of them are great. Just like characters in the X-Men franchise! Today I bring to you…
After the events of Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer, Kimberly is determined to purge the world of Lord Drakkon’s legacy, starting with Deadlock; the prison tower where Drakkon held all those who opposed him. But even the Ranger Slayer has no clue of the true power kept in Deadlock — and what unlocking the doors will…
There was once a dark age. A time when there was no internet. A time when the knowledge of comic book characters’ backgrounds could not be found in wikis, but in the memories of fans and in specially printed comics. Comics called handbooks or guidebooks. This week, DC released a guidebook to its “Dark Nights:…