The Marvel's Spider-Man 2 voice actors and cast are a huge range of accomplished performers, a mix of rising stars and acclaimed acting veterans to round out a whole range of heroes, villains and everything in between. If you've been swinging around the city and think you recognise some of the voices you hear on your adventures, here's the full cast of voice actors in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

All actors and voice cast for Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Here's the main Marvel's Spider-Man 2 cast and actors - just scroll down for more info on where you might recognise them from!

• Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Yuri Lowenthal
• Miles Morales/Spider-Man - Nadji Jeter
• Mary Jane Watson - Laura Bailey
• Harry Osborn - Graham Philips
• Norman Osborn - Mark Rolston
• Venom - Tony Todd
• Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven the Hunter -  Jim Pirri
• Ganke Lee - Griffin Puatu
• Martin Lee/Mr. Negative - Stephen Oyoung
• Curt Connors/The Lizard - Mark Whitten
• Yuri Watanabe/Wraith - Tara Platt
• Rio Morales - Jacqueline Piñol
• J. Jonah Jameson - Darin De Paul
• Danika Hart - Ashly Burch
• Felicia Hardy/Black Cat - Erica Lindbeck
• Flint Marko/Sandman - Leandro Cano

Of course, the cast of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 goes far beyond what you see above, with side characters, supporting roles and other minor figures across New York, but all the major parts are laid out for you clearly here.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Yuri Lowenthal

Yuri Lowenthal returns to the role of Peter Parker and the original Spider-Man, having played the character in both previous games, as well as other Spider-Man media like Marvel's Midnight Suns. Lowenthal's filmography goes a lot deeper though - he's been the English dub of Sasuke in Naruto, Simon in Gurren Lagann and the lead in Ben 10, among many, many others. 

In an interview we conducted with him, Lowenthal said that playing Peter in Spider-Man 2 took him to darker places than before - and you can definitely see that in the performance.

Miles Morales/Spider-Man - Nadji Jeter

Miles Morales is voiced again by Nadji Jeter, who like Lowenthal returns to the role after playing Miles Morales in the previous two games. 

It's not the first time - Jeter has also played the new Spider-Man in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and in the 2017 animated Spider-Man TV show, but viewers might also recognise (a much younger) version of him from the Grown-Ups movies, as well as playing Sam in the first The Last of Us.

Mary Jane Watson - Laura Bailey

Comic book icon MJ Watson is played here by Laura Bailey, one of the most recognised VAs in video games at the moment. Aside from being a core member of the hit internet show Critical Role (and tie-in adaptation Vox Machina), she's also played Abby from The Last of Us 2, Kait in Gears of War, Jaina in World of Warcraft and Nadine in the Uncharted franchise - and we've barely scratched the surface of her filmography.

Harry Osborn - Graham Phillips

Harry Osborn is heard in recorded messages in the first Spider-Man game, where he was voiced by Scott Porter, but now placed in a more central role, the character is taken over by actor Graham Phillips. 

This is Phillip's first major video game role, having more of a background (so far) in film, TV and musical theatre, probably most famous for being Zach Florrick in The Good Wife. Still, it'll be interesting to see if he takes a firmer foothold in nerd culture after such a major debut!

Norman Osborn - Mark Rolston

Veteran actor Mark Rolston returns to the role of former NYC Mayor and industrialist Norman Osborn, having played the character in both previous games. 

Rolston is an acclaimed actor recognisable in all sorts of roles - Drake in the horror/action classic Aliens, Bogs Diamond in the Shawshank Redemption, and co-starring as Agent Erickson in Saw 5 and 6. To stay within video games, Rolston's most famous role before this was probably the cutthroat mercenary Deathstroke in both Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight.

Venom - Tony Todd

The monstrous alien symbiote is played by a true icon: Tony Todd, who played the titular character in the Candyman movies, the ominous William Bludworth in the Final Destination franchise, as well as Sergeant Warren in 1986's Platoon. Add some prosthetics to his head, and you might also recognise Kurn, brother of Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven the Hunter -  Jim Pirri

Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven the Hunter, makes the leap from comic book to video game in Spider-Man 2, played by actor and fight choreographer Jim Pirri. 

If his voice sounds familiar, you might recognise him as Angelo in Red Dead Redemption 2, the biker bestie Boozer in Days Gone, and a string of other roles in both games and TV - including the show Victorious, funnily enough. I wonder if there'll be a crossover between that and Days Gone?

Ganke Lee - Griffin Puatu

Miles' best friend Ganke Lee is back in a similar role to the one he had in the previous game - the technician and "guy in the chair" that provides information and support while the Spideys are swinging about; and this incarnation of the character is played by Griffin Puatu.

An experienced actor even at a young age, Puatu is probably best known for playing Loius in Beastars and Naoto Tachibana in Tokyo Revengers, though he's had VA work of varying degrees for over two decades.

Martin Lee/Mr. Negative - Stephen Oyoung

A major character in the first game, philanthropist turned supervillain Martin Lee, aka Mr Negative, is played here again by actor, VA and stuntman Stephen Oyoung. We actually had an interview with Oyoung that you can read here, but while Mr. Negative is probably his best known role, Oyoung has also played Red Hood in Gotham Knights, KK in Ghostwire: Tokyo, and had roles in action movies like John Wick 3 and Terminator: Dark Fate.

Curt Connors/The Lizard - Mark Whitten

Only referenced in previous games, tortured scientist Doctor Curt Connors and his monstrous alter-ego, "The Lizard" make their series debut here, played by working voice actor Mark Whitten. 

Whitten has roles everywhere - he recently played Reed in Goodbye Volcano High, but is probably better known as Seteth in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Kyojuro Rengoku in Demon Slayer and Kaedehara Kazuha in Genshin Impact. Those with kids might also recognise him as the voice of the latter in the animated show "Home: Adventures with Tip and Oh".

Yuri Watanabe/Wraith - Tara Platt

A cop in the first Spider-Man game and now the vigilante Wraith, acclaimed VA Tara Platt returns to the character of Yuri Watanabe. 

Platt's full filmography would likely buckle the site, so here's some highlights - she was the character of Temari in Naruto, Edelgard in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Anna Williams in Tekken. If you think she and Yuri Lowenthal have good chemistry, there's a reason for that - the two have been married for over twenty years!

Rio Morales - Jacqueline Piñol

Jacqueline Piñol is an experienced screen and voice actor, who not only plays councilwoman and Miles Morales' mother Rio, but also Detective Espinosa in the TV show Bosch, and Doctor Sofia Amaral in Remedy's 2016 action game, Quantum Break.

J. Jonah Jameson - Darin De Paul

The belligerent, bellowing Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Bugle is played by Darin De Paul, a voice actor whose presence in video games has led to a string of iconic roles - and while JK Simmons' shadow looms large over the character, De Paul seems to handle the character perfectly.

That might be because he's got such a stories history in VA work, on a variety of characters that includes Reinhardt in Overwatch, the cyborg Samuel Hayden in Doom and Doom Eternal, Owl in Sekiro, the Hulk in Marvel's Avengers and both Venom, Ghost Rider and the evil god Chthon in Marvel's Midnight Suns.

Danika Hart - Ashly Burch

Contrarily, the chipper, positive host of the Danikast podcast is played by Ashly Burch, with countless credits to her name. She's Aloy from the Horizon series, Viper in Valorant, Mel in The Last of Us 2, Borderland's Tiny Tina, Chloe from Life is Strange, and plays Rachel in the show Mythic Quest - and we're barely scratching the surface.

Felicia Hardy/Black Cat - Erica Lindbeck

The master cat burglar who made her debut in the first game's DLC is played again by VA Erica Lindbeck, another hard-working actor who can be recognised from hundreds of prior performances. 

Just recently she played the tarot-touting Misty in Cyberpunk 2077, Captain Marvel in Midnight Suns, Peppermint Vandelay in the superb Hi-Fi Rush, Futaba in Persona 5 and about a hundred different performances of Barbie in various animated films.

Flint Marko/Sandman - Leandro Cano

Starting the game off with a bang, Leandro Cano plays the supervillain Sandman, aka Flint Marko, adding a gravelly (pun intended) quality to the iconic Spider-Man foe.

Cano was Simon Diaz in the podcast series Agent Stoker, played King II in the series Tekken: Bloodline, and appeared in shows like CSI: Miami, Castle and Boston Legal.

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Beast Boy is one of the most popular members of the Titans, but this winter, he's going to take the form of one of the biggest villains in the DC Universe - literally - as he transforms into Starro for Titans: Beast World, a new limited event series from writer Tom Taylor and artist Ivan Reis.

Billed as the "first Titans comic book crossover event," Beast World will be the Titans' first big test as the top hero team of the DC Universe, having taken over for the currently dormant Justice League.

In the story, another evil giant starfish known as the Necrostar surfaces, leading Beast Boy to take on the shape of Starro to challenge it. But with Amanda Waller and Lex Luthor waiting in the wings to exploit the situation, things don't exactly go as planned - and the Titans must act to save Beast Boy from being lost forever in the form of Starro.

Here's a gallery of un-inked pages and character designs from Ivan Reis, as well as the cover of Titans: Beast World #1:

"I'm beyond excited to bring this DC crossover event to life starting in November with our new Titans: Beast World series, featuring art by the incomparable Ivan Reis," states writer Tom King in the announcement. "Beast World will also thread the needle between the current series that I’m writing about the Titans. Friends will fall. Super Heroes will rise. And nothing will ever be the same again. Earth is about to become...Beast World."

Though he's not mentioned in the announcement, DC has also released art of a character who is apparently related to the story who appears to be an evil version of Doctor Fate, whose name may be "Doctor Hate" judging by the filenames of the included art.

Titans: Beast World kicks off in October's Tales of the Titans #4, which focuses on Beast Boy. The event proper will then begin with November's Titans: Beast World #1, going on to tie into the current ongoing Titans and Nightwing titles.

Read up on the best Teen Titans stories of all time.

DC's Knight Terrors crossover event continues with more heroes and villains getting the two-issue spinoff treatment. This week Superman, Nightwing, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and Punchline all get new Knight Terrors #1s.

Meanwhile, over in the core book, things have taken a very interesting turn - and continue this event's close connection to The Sandman. Spoilers for the issue ahead.

In Knight Terrors #1 by Joshua Williamson and Caspar Wijngaard, Deadman - currently possessing Batman's body - grapples with new villain Insomnia. Their confrontation leads to Deadman finding out some vital info about the architect of the nightmare wave. 

While we'd previously speculated that Insomnia would turn out to be an old enemy, we learn in this issue that he is, in Deadman's words "just some dude" who has been infected with Lazarus Rain - water cursed with magic when Lazarus Island exploded. Why he has such a vendetta against superheroes remains, for now, a mystery.

Insomnia's goal is to find the Nightmare Stone - a dark cousin of the Dreamstone that John Dee (R.I.P.) once possessed. Deadman is also looking for it and so he makes the drastic decision to resurrect someone who might be able to help: Wesley Dodds, the original Sandman.

Dodds is a Golden Age DC character who first appeared in New York World's Fair Comics #1 in April 1939. Created by Gardner Fox and Bert Christman, the original Sandman fought crime by using a sleeping gas to sedate criminals. He was also one of the founding members of the Justice Society.

Neil Gaiman later drew inspiration from the character when he was creating The Sandman. It was retconned that Dodds had unconsciously taken on the identity (and some of the looks, notably his gas mask) of the Sandman during Morpheus's extended absence from the Dreaming. 

Dodds was killed off in 1999, leaping to his death rather than reveal vital information to the villainous Mordru. This is not the first time he has been resurrected, however. He was also briefly brought back as a Black Lantern in 2009's Blackest Night storyline.

This is also another direct link to Gaiman's Sandman. The event's opening issue, Knight Terrors: First Blood #1, killed off John Dee and playfully referenced the sibling nature of both Dream and Death. At this rate we wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the Endless showed up before Knight Terrors' end...

Find out how Hal Jordan and Sinestro are doing in our interview with Knight Terrors: Green Lantern #1 writers Alex Segura and Jeremy Adams.

Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson have shared the spotlight in two Captain America titles since last year, but following the current 'Cold War' crossover event, Marvel seems to be switching gears for Steve with the end of his Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty title.

Following 'Cold War,' Marvel will publish Captain America Finale #1 by writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artist Carmen Carnero in August. The publisher's announcement doesn't specify the fate of Sam Wilson's title, Captain America: Symbol of Truth. Both titles with suspend publication in July for Captain America #750, a combined anniversary issue that also brings in guest creators to mark the milestone Legacy number.

The Captain America Finale one-shot promises the conclusion of Steve Rogers' current plotline, in which he's been squaring off with a secret society known as the Outer Circle - including his old pal Bucky Barnes, who has joined the villainous organization under suspicious circumstances.

"Steve Rogers sets his sights on releasing the world from the Outer Circle’s influence and ending the Century Game for good," reads Marvels description. "Within this thrilling confrontation also comes a new beginning—Bucky’s journey as the Revolution, Sharon Carter’s evolution as the new Destroyer, Black Widow’s new mission, and much more will continue later this year!"

What comes next for Steve, Marvel doesn't say, but the implication is that he'll receive a new title at some point down the road. At the same time Steve's solo title is ending, Sam Wilson is also stepping up as the Captain America of the upcoming new Avengers line-up. Could that indicate that something dire is in Steve's future?

"The Century Game is coming to its explosive end - and we're all so thankful for every reader who joined us for the ride," states co-writer Collin Kelly. 

"Sentinel of Liberty could never have happened without the visual mastery of Carmen Carnero, who brought every moment of this story to life with boundless imagination and truly human empathy," he continues. "Nolan Woodard's colors helped create a brutal, beautiful world, while Joe Caramagna perfected every character's voice. And our deepest thanks goes to our fearless editor Alanna Smith and her equally dauntless assistant editor Kaitlyn Lindvedt - who got us through the trenches and into safety on the other side."

"This series has been life-changing for Collin and me. Every page of Sentinel of Liberty was a labor of love, every character has become like family, every collaborator is among the best in the business," adds co-writer Jackson Lanzing. 

"We've had the true honor of being embraced by the Captain America fanbase - who work to bring Steve Rogers' moral clarity and goodness into the world every day. From the mystery of the Outer Circle, to the rise of the New Invaders, to the monster-filled chaos of 'Cold War,' this story has been a dream. And though it's bittersweet to bring 'The Century Game' to a close, rest assured that we aren't done with these characters or the arcs they've begun here."

Does that last bit mean that Lanzing and Kelly will be along for the ride on Steve's new mission, whatever form that takes? We'll find out.

Captain America Finale #1 goes on sale August 16 with a cover from interior artist Carmen Carnero, seen above.

Check out the best Captain America stories of all time.

Steve Rogers' comic book paramour Sharon Carter has been a part of Steve's new team of so-called Invaders as Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty has headed into April's 'Cold War' crossover with Captain America: Symbol of Truth. 

Now, in March 1's Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #10, Sharon has taken on a new costume inspired by a Marvel Comics legacy that stretches all the way back to the Golden Age of comics.

Following the death of the character Roger Aubrey, the WWII-era character known as The Destroyer who has also been a civilian ally of Steve Rogers since his retirement, Sharon Carter has taken up a new costume which resembles the skull-faced look of the Destroyer, designed by Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty series artist Carmen Carnero.

Marvel promises the design, seen here, will also appear on an upcoming Captain America variant cover.

Beyond the new skull mask, Sharon's new look is based around her classic white jumpsuit look that she's worn since her introduction as Agent 13 back in the '60s. It also includes a corset-like waist cincher and heeled boots - costume elements that have been called impractical for women in some examples. 

That said, Sharon's version of that sort of look also appears to be much more armor based, with the waist cincher seemingly providing protection to her kidneys and vital organs, along with full on armored bits on the shoulders and neck.

Marvel hasn't fully identified Sharon as the new Destroyer just yet. However the publisher also promises that her new costume is "the latest step in the bold journey the creative team has in store for one of Marvel’s most iconic espionage agents."

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #11 goes on sale April 5.

These are the best Captain America stories of all time.

Marvel's Ultimate Universe ended a little less than 10 years ago with 2015's Secret Wars. But now, Secret Wars writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Bryan Hitch, who drew The Ultimates (the Ultimate Universe equivalent of the Avengers), are bringing the Ultimate Universe back this June in a four-issue limited series titled Ultimate Invasion, which Marvel bills as the start of "the transformation of the Marvel Universe."

For those who don't know, the Ultimate Universe was an alternate continuity based in a different world of Marvel's Multiverse in which well-known characters took on new origins and new adventures, with dozens of Marvel's most popular characters populating a whole spin-off comic line.

The Ultimate Universe and the core Marvel Universe have crossed over before, notably in two Spider-Men limited series which paired up Peter Parker and Miles Morales, before Miles was brought into the core Marvel Universe with the aforementioned Secret Wars. Now, it looks a lot like the denizens of the Ultimate Universe will be crossing over with a whole cast of mainstream Marvel heroes and villains, including Miles Morales and the Maker, a villainous version of Reed Richards who originated in the Ultimate reality.

The above promo art from the announcement, which was originally revealed through Entertainment Weekly, shows Hitch's renditions of the Ultimates crossing over with Miles Morales, the Maker, Tony Stark, Black Panther, Reed Richards, Black Bolt, and Doctor Strange, many of whom were part of Marvel's Illuminati secret superhero society.

“[Revisiting the idea of Ultimate Comics] couldn’t be replicating or revisiting what Bryan did in the original Ultimates - creating a streamlined, modernized version that would eventually become the spine of the MCU, and it certainly couldn’t be what I did, which was a final chapter of a pre-existing universe,” Hickman tells Entertainment Weekly. 

“We also thought the very idea of Ultimate Comics needed to be inverted from what the original universe was - we wanted this to be something that could really only exist in the comic space: a new way of thinking about, and enjoying, a new version of the Marvel Universe," he continues. "I’m pretty happy to say that it feels like we’ve accomplished those things and we’re very excited for everyone to get to read it.”

That seems to indicate that the revamped Ultimate Universe could be around to stay, perhaps even with a renewed line of alt-reality spin-off titles.

Here's a gallery of some unlettered interior pages from Ultimate Invasion:

“It’s been more than 20 years since I started work on The Ultimates, a project that would have a big impact on my own career and beyond, so when Marvel came to me with the idea of revisiting the Ultimate Universe with the man who so brilliantly and spectacularly destroyed the last one, I was both feet in!” adds Hitch. 

“Jonathan is a terrific writer of big, sprawling epics, and we’ve talked about working together more than once so for this new Ultimate Universe adventure to unite us is very exciting," he states. "I get to bring two decades of new experience as an artist and storyteller to this. It’s new, different and familiar. It’s big budget, high-concept, widescreen storytelling. I feel right at home.”

It's unclear if this Ultimates revival is related to Jonathan Hickman's planned project with artist Valerio Schiti which was announced back in 2022, or if this is another aspect of Hickman's return to working with Marvel after some time in the creator-owned sphere.

Ultimate Invasion #1 goes on sale June 21.

Secret Wars is one of the best Marvel events of all time.

You can probably guess the plot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vs. Street Fighter by the title alone as this new comic miniseries will see the heroes in a half shell go to war with the cast of Capcom's classic fighter.

Publisher IDW has announced the five-issue miniseries will launch in May 2023. Written by Paul Allor, the series will feature art by Ariel Medel and colors by Sarah Myer. The story picks up as the turtles arrive in Atlantic City for a fighting tournament where, naturally, they run into the Street Fighter crew "and their legendary Psycho Powered fighting forms." The plot thickens with a wave of disappearances around the town and some mystery around the tournament's benefactors.

In a press release, Allor also provides a few hints on how the characters will interact, "from Mikey and Chun-Li’s unlikely bond to Raph and Guile’s rivalry and mutual - but very grudging - respect." Preview pages show a bit of how that fight between Raph and Guile goes down and, well, it looks like Guile's about to need a new jaw.

Both TMNT and Street Fighter have historically been franchises big on crossover events. In the comics world, the turtles have met everyone from Batman to the Power Rangers. In games, Capcom's roster has been part of some of the greatest crossover fighting titles ever made - and the turtles even ended up as DLC fighters in Injustice 2. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised to see them cameo in Street Fighter 6.

Time will tell if this ends up being one of the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories.

Not everyone is excited by DC's big plans to have its upcoming games tie into the larger cinematic universe, including Marvel's Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon.

This week, the ten-year plan for DCU Chapter One was unveiled with piles of details about upcoming films and TV shows. As part of that announcement, DC Studios co-head James Gunn reiterated earlier assertions that games would be part of the larger DCU, and he suggested that actors who play heroes in live-action films will likely cross over into TV and animation, too - which has led many to assume that this actor crossover will apply to games, too, an idea that's already drawing criticism.

"This would have been a nightmare for us on Midnight Suns," creative director Jake Solomon says in a tweet. "I understand the desire (I think) but movies and games are so, so different. And the pressure this puts on the amazing voice actors in the games space? Different universes. And that’s how they should/will stay."

While it's unclear if Gunn really wants live-action actors in video games, he's been saying for months that games will be part of the larger DCU. Even so, in an official interview, he's suggested that games might tell stories that are related to the movies without retreading similar ground.

"It’s not like we’re going to have the Superman movie come out and have this Superman game come out," Gunn said. "It’s more like we’ll have the Superman film come out, then maybe two years later, we have the Supergirl movie coming out. So, what’s the story in between there? Is there a Krypto game that we can play that comes in between them? Something that’s still set in the world with these characters, but is its own thing. We want to give the prominence to games that they deserve."

That /might/ help the very different production cycles of games and movies from interfering with each other, but exactly how that plays out in the long term remains to be seen. (You can sign me the heck up for a Krypto the Superdog game no matter what canon it's in, though.)

The DC reboot is an exciting fresh start, but what's it going to mean for newcomers?

While Marvel Comics is still in the midst of promoting writer Jason Aaron's crossover finale to his Avengers run 'Avengers Assemble' in the pages of Avengers and Avengers Forever, the publisher has also made it clear the franchise will be getting something of a new direction after Avengers Assemble Omega in April.

We know for sure the title will get a new creative team (and we suspect Jed MacKay is on top of the leaderboard of candidates for a new writer) and a new logo calling back to a fan-favorite era. And because this is Marvel in the year 2023, it will almost certainly get a relaunch and a new #1.

But what we don't know about the new incarnation is what's always at the heart of any Avengers era - the make-up of the team roster.

Like their DC counterparts, the Justice League, Earth's Mightiest Heroes have always been defined by their line-up - from the founders and mainstays, to "Cap's Kooky Quartet," to the West Coast branch and the aforementioned "Mighty Avengers" and leather jackets eras, to the New Avengers all the more modern off-shoots.

And like the Justice League over the last decade has cemented the Wonder Woman - Superman - Batman core, Marvel has somewhat settled into a standard core line-up that has been one part a reflection of the title's origins and one part a reflection of the Avengers' status in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Despite some fluctuations, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor have been at the center of Avengers titles more than they have not for many years now.

But with Cap, Iron Man, and Thor either deceased or in Thor's case, focusing on his adopted daughter in deep space in the MCU, Marvel Comics no longer has the same synergistic rationale to keep those characters at the heart of its Avengers comic book titles.

At least not right now.

They'll always be the classic line-up, and Marvel will always eventually return to them sooner or later, but with a new era arriving soon and a new dynamic in place in the MCU, Newsarama thought it'd be the perfect time to consider what a brand new Avengers line-up could look like.

So without further ado, here's our best shot at a new line-up that tries to acknowledge the history of the team while at the same time trying to pump in a little bit of fresh air, and keeps Marvel's need for the comic books to at least partially reflect the goings-on of the MCU, all at the same time. 

The Hulk

We consider this a no-brainer. Not only is the Hulk a solo title star and co-founder of the Avengers (albeit in a clunky way), but in 60 years he's rarely had a genuine stint on the team as a member in good standing. 

And the timing works out perfectly because the Hulk is also simultaneously due for a reinvention in the pages of his own ongoing series.

The Hulk's history has always been about different iterations of the man-monster conflict. After a few years steeped in horror, and the past year in a sort of sci-fi psychological bent, it might be time to let the Hulk be a full-fledged superhero again for a stint, like during Peter David's well-received '90s run (that inspired Mark Ruffalo's current 'Professor Hulk' persona) in which he played nicely with the superhero team the Pantheon.

In addition to being the team's smartest and most powerful member, the Hulk's inclusion would also be the first time his place in the MCU Avengers would be reflected in the comic books as the other original 2012 movie members have been.

Sign us up for a super-smart, heroic Hulk leading the team he helped found …. finally after all these years.

Spider-Man

If Captain America is to the Avengers what Superman is to the Justice League, then Spider-Man should be its Batman.

The Avengers should always have a place for Marvel's most popular and iconic superhero, and Spidey is no more ill a fit on a team than the Dark Knight is. In fact, the fish-out-of-water element is what makes the fit fun.

After years of flirting with the team, Spider-Man finally joined in 2004's seminal New Avengers, which Newsarama has long argued paved the way for the MCU as we know it.

Sure, Spider-Man served a few years on the squad but was always low in the leadership pecking order behind the mainstays.

It's time Marvel carved out a regular role for its most popular superhero on its most popular superhero team that doesn't make him feel like a temporary interloper. 

The Wasp/Janet Van Dyne

We may be aging ourselves here, but there was a time this founding member had risen to the ranks of Chairperson even while Cap, Thor, and Iron Man were members and came into her own as a team member and superhero and not just the wife/sidekick of Hank Pym.

The Wasp has had only temporary flings with the team and its off-shoots since that era, but it's time for her to join fellow founding member the Hulk in the hierarchy of the Avengers.

There are not one but two Wasps in the MCU and about to get the spotlight in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, so it's time for Janet Van Dyne to again step out of Ant-Man and Hank Pym's shadows and be embraced again in the role she's earned - as one of the greatest Avengers.

Monica Rambeau/Photon

The new/old Avengers logo might somewhat lend itself to the suggestion Monica is returning to the team anyway, like the Wasp she's a former popular Avengers chairperson who's been given various roles on other superhero teams like the Ultimates and Thunderbolts in more recent years.

The star of a current limited series that's harkening back to her days on the Avengers, Monica will also go full-superhero for the first time in the MCU in July's The Marvels, so it's the ideal moment to let her shine again where she's shined the brightest, as a member and a leader of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. 

Scarlet Witch

Wanda Maximoff is starring in her first-ever ongoing series, so her to return to the pages of the core Avengers title lines right up. Wanda had become more of a mainstay of the West Coast branch and more contemporary off-shoots like the Uncanny Avengers over the years, but her most infamous modern interaction with the team was its destruction that led to the formation of the New Avengers.

We've argued that for a long time, Wanda was more villain, victim, and object of a love triangle than the hero of her own story, and now she finally seems in a place to claim a role in the leadership tier of the Marvel Universe her history and her power level dictates.

It's time the Avengers and Avengers readers get a Scarlet Witch in charge of her own destiny and with full agency for the first time in their history with each other. 

Daredevil

Yeah, he's got his hands full in writer Chip Zdarky's solo title right now, and as leader of the Fist, his mission in the pages of his solo series wouldn't be an ideal fit with a stint on the Avengers.

But like the Hulk and Spider-Man, he's one of those long-time solo stars that the Avengers is supposed to be a teaming of.

Yes, Matt Murdock had some limited runs with Avengers teams in the aughts, but lately Daredevil has come to realize he wants to save the world and not just keep the streets of New York's Hell's Kitchen safe from mobsters. Once his big showdown with the Hand and the Punisher is over, Daredevil should decide his new mission would be best served as one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

And DD's recent introduction into the MCU which leads to Disney Plus' longest MCU streaming series in 2024 is just another reason to include the Man Without Fear in Marvel's highest-profile team title.

Black Panther/Shuri

Shuri has recently embraced the role of Black Panther in the MCU in Wakanda Forever, so it's time Marvel Comics made room for her as Black Panther (again) in the comics. But it doesn't have to be at the expense of T'Challa's place in his solo title.

The Avengers would do well to keep relations with Wakanda in good standing as well as retain access to its resources. As Hippolyta has from time to time represented Themyscira on the Justice League as Wonder Woman, Shuri can break out of T'Challa's shadow as an Avenger not as his replacement but as a Black Panther alongside him (as many Wakandan traditions as that may shatter.)

Shuri will almost certainly play a role as Black Panther in the MCU's upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and/or Secret Wars, so Marvel Comics would just be getting ahead of the game. 

Clea Strange

Clea is giving up her solo comic book series and title of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme to the returning (from the dead) Doctor Stephen Strange in the next couple of months, but these Avengers could use some expertise in the realm of magic, so perhaps Clea can stick around the Earthly plane and join the squad.

We considered Doctor Strange himself but with the Hulk on the roster, it felt a little too 'Defenders.'

Clea is one of Marvel's oldest characters who nearly 60 years after her creation is just coming into her own in the comic books, and given Charlize Theron plays Clea in live action, we suspect her MCU profile will also eventually be significant, even if for the moment we don't know where or when. 

The wildcard/protégé

We were going to cap our suggested Avengers roster at a nice round and manageable eight. Not too few, not too many. But we also can't overlook that the Avengers have something of a history of adding young, somewhat out-of-left-field members to mentor.

Think Living Lightning, Silver Claw, and Firebird.

For this role, we're going with Mosaic. The superhero created in 2016 got his own limited series that year and has more or less disappeared since.

The former professional basketball player is sort of DC's Deadman meets Quantum Leap meets Marvel's own Super-Adaptoid, and his unique Inhumans/Terrigen Mist-granted power set and funky visuals satisfy the wildcard criteria. 

And oh yeah…

…we'd bring back the Avengers Mansion.

DC and Marvel both like to up the ante on superhero headquarters, and the Avengers have gone from the 5th Avenue townhouse to an island, a skyscraper, a mountain, and a Celestial corpse base of operations, and back to various iterations of the mansion in-between, which always seem to get destroyed by supervillains.

But as quaint as it may be, we still like the good 'ole three-story with its cool subterranean levels illustrated in the old Marvel Handbooks best. The juxtaposition of the cool tech, labs, and meeting rooms with a house overseen by a butler will never be improved upon, with due apologies to Wayne Manor and Alfred. 

So those are our picks for a new Avengers roster, here's a look at the best Avengers members and the oddest Avengers ever. 

It's now 2023, and with the new year comes a whole slate of new and continuing comics from Marvel featuring characters like the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Avengers - along with many, many more - in their own ongoing titles.

But what's actually happening with Marvel and its most popular heroes right now? If you're looking to get your hands on some hot superhero action, we've got the rundown of what's going on with all of Marvel's ongoing superhero titles, broken down by franchise.

Spider-Man

Spidey's flagship title Amazing Spider-Man is in the midst of a crossover with the X-Men (more on them in a moment) titled Dark Web, in which the clone villains Goblin Queen and Chasm try to destroy Jean Grey and Peter Parker and steal their souls.

Meanwhile, in his adjectiveless second title Spider-Man, Peter Parker and other Spider-heroes are dealing with the apparent destruction of the so-called Spider-Verse. 

And speaking of Spider-Verse, there is of course a third Spidey comic, Miles Morales: Spider-Man, which just underwent a relaunch, meaning now is a perfect time to get in on the ground floor of Miles' ongoing series.

In Venom's Spidey-adjacent world, the ongoing Venom title is caught up in a time-travel adventure featuring a new villain symbiote named Bedlam. And the current Carnage spin-off is dealing with the fallout of the Carnage symbiote's latest evolution. Both titles are about to be joined by Red Goblin in February, which stars Norman Osborn's grandson along with his very own symbiote.

All three of those titles, and perhaps more, are headed for a crossover event titled 'Summer of Symbiotes' later this year.

X-Men

The core X-Men team is currently in the middle of a crossover with Spider-Man, though the actual core X-Men title is actually wrapped up in a separate crossover with Captain Marvel's ongoing title (we'll mention her again later) where they're fighting the Alien Xenomorph-like Brood, with their Dark Web action mostly taking place in the Dark Web: X-Men limited series.

There are also several X-Men side teams with ongoing titles, including the paramilitary-style X-Force, who are about to fight an experimental villain known as the 'Omni-Mutant.' And there's the Krakoan navy, the Marauders, who are about to end a major arc with March's Marauders #12.

Meanwhile, Wolverine has his own ongoing title in which he's about to face off with none other than Beast (who has become increasingly corrupt in recent years) in the story 'Weapons of X.' There's also the upcoming Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain ongoing title which will follow up on threads from the recently concluded Knights of X.

And there are three other X-Men titles, Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, and Legion of X, which are about to be on hold for the 'Sins of Sinister' event, which replaces those titles with alt-universe versions of their concepts titled Immoral X-Men, Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants, and Nightcrawlers, respectively.

Avengers

Just like in the MCU, the Avengers are at the center of Marvel Comics, with a team of heroes who have their own titles, and a few spin-offs of teams.

Right off the bat, there's the core Avengers title and its spin-off Avengers Forever, both of which are embroiled in the 'Avengers Assemble' event story which will end current Avengers writer Jason Arron's run on the title before a relaunch of the core Avengers series later this year,

When it comes to the individual Avengers, there's Invincible Iron Man, Tony Stark's recently relaunched new title which will soon welcome Emma Frost of the X-Men as a supporting character ahead of a full X-Men crossover titled 'Fall of X' later this year.

As for Captain America, there's Steve Rogers' title Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty as well as Sam Wilson's title Captain America: Symbol of Truth, which are about to crossover in a story titled 'Cold War.'

For the third of the so-called 'Big Three' Avengers, there's Thor, who is about to take on Doctor Doom. 

There's also Carol Danvers' Captain Marvel title, which is currently wrapped up in a Brood-centric crossover with the ongoing X-Men title. And there's Black Panther, in which T'Challa is currently absent from Wakanda, which is undergoing political upheaval.

And then there's Hulk, which is about to relaunch with a new creative team after April's Hulk #14, while his cousin She-Hulk is about to face off with a brand new villain in March ahead of April's milestone She-Hulk #175.

At the same time, Wanda Maximoff just launched her own ongoing Scarlet Witch title, in which she's dealing with a new, magic-resistant element. 

Finally, speaking of magic, Stephen Strange is soon returning after being dead for a while (that's comics for ya), with the current Strange title which features his ex-wife Clea as Sorcerer Supreme coming to an end to relaunch as Doctor Strange. And then there's the spin-off title Strange Academy: Finals which tells the story of Doctor Strange's school for magical youngsters.

The rest of the Marvel Universe

Though each of Marvel's three big pillar franchises have many titles, it's not all just Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man on the shelves. There's a whole Marvel Universe of other characters with their own ongoing titles.

There's Fantastic Four, which recently relaunched and is wrapped up in a big mystery about a tragic event that forced the team out of New York and diminished their public opinion. 

And when it comes to other non-Avengers teams, there's Guardians of the Galaxy, which is about to relaunch in April with an ominous story titled 'Grootfall.'

Speaking of Marvel's cosmic wing, there's also Cosmic Ghost Rider, an alt-universe version of Frank Castle from the future who is about to get his own ongoing title. And there's also a good old-fashioned Ghost Rider title starring the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, though he's about to be joined by his successor Danny Ketch.

And then there's the core Marvel timeline's Frank Castle and his Punisher title, which is headed into a big crossover with Daredevil, in which Matt Murdock and Elektra are currently sharing the Daredevil name.

On the topic of gun-toting Marvel vigilantes, there's also Deadpool, who is battling a version of the symbiote villain Carnage in his recently relaunched title. 

Meanwhile, recent MCU star Moon Knight is teaming up with Hunter's Moon, the other fist of Khonshu (who has two hands after all), to fight a villain with mind control powers.

That brings our list of Marvel Universe ongoing titles to a close. Marvel also publishes licensed titles based on Predator, Alien, and Star Wars, and will soon add Planet of the Apes to that list. And that's not mentioning the many, many limited series the publisher spins out of the Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man franchises each month.

In other words, no matter what Marvel fans are after, Marvel Comics is sure to have something on tap for 2023 that will satisfy your superhero craving.

In the mood for some classics? Check out the best Marvel Comics stories of all time.

In comic books when there is an Alpha there is usually an Omega, and that'll hold true when Marvel Comics publishes Avengers Assemble Omega #1 in April, the bookend special to writer Jason Aaron's Avengers swan song.

The Omega one-shot special is part 10 and the final chapter of the Avengers-Avengers Forever crossover (which Marvel calls an "operatic showdown at the edge of reality between an army of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the most vile forces in the multiverse") that began in November's Avengers Assemble Alpha #1 and continues in the monthly Avengers series through April.

Javier Garrón - who illustrated over 30 issues of Aaron's run - and a "all-star cavalcade of artists" including Aaron Kuder, Jim Towe, and Ivan Fiorelli will draw the Omega special.

"It's definitely the right time to bring this all crashing together and finish some of the character arcs that I've been building for years now," Aaron tells Comic Book Resources. 

"We talked about what a big, epic war story this is. It's got a lot of different characters punching each other and a lot of different versions of Avengers from throughout time and space. In the midst of all that, though, we have all the character moments, beats, and arcs that have been part of my run since Issue #1. So, one of the goals is to make sure we don't lose all of that among all the fighting and crazy moments. There are some huge character beats to come at the end of this, and a lot of these characters are ones I've been working on in some form or another for more than a decade now. It does feel like the right time to wrap all of that up."

Avengers Assemble Omega #1 with a cover by Aaron Kuder goes on sale April 19.

As a story billed as the Avengers' biggest story ever starts, catch up on the best Avengers stories of all time.

The best DC Comics stories of all time feature heroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the rest of the Justice League, all of whom are about to return after being thought dead due to the events of the story Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, which concludes in December 20's Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

And true to form, DC is once again drawing on its vast legacy of legendary tales for the latest comic event in the DC Universe - but among those many stories, what are the best DC Comics stories ever told?

Whether you're a time-worn DC fan who's looking to re-read some favorite comics, or a DC newcomer looking to dip your toes in the comic books that started it all, here are Newsarama's picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time.

10. Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow?

How do you eulogize the history of a character in two short issues? That's the question Julius Schwartz sought to answer, and he hired Alan Moore to do it - and he did with 'Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?.'

With the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths effectively ending the Silver Age, Schwartz imagined that his last two issues editing the Superman line were to be the last in human history. In two short issues, Alan Moore created a road map through Superman's history that included his most fearsome villains and his closest friends.

And ultimately, he gives the man who has everything the one thing he lacked: a perfect ending. Part of the reason that this is such a pitch-perfect tribute to the Man of Steel is that legendary artist Curt Swan handled the art. He had been drawing Superman since 1948 and from the opening letters "This is an imaginary story" to that final, knowing wink from 'Jordan Elliott,' this one feels like a Superman story through and through.

It honors the legacy of one of the world's greatest heroes while simultaneously thumbing its nose at the continuity changes that were to take place.

Buy: Amazon

9. The Return of Barry Allen

In the wake of Crisis On Infinite Earths, Wally West became the new Flash, graduating from sidekick to superhero with the death of his mentor Barry Allen. Wally's transition wasn’t without growing pains, however. He failed to gel with readers until Mark Waid began his landmark run on Flash, giving Wally the depth that his predecessor had often lacked.

While it’s hard to argue that there was ever a lull in Waid's original Flash run, 'The Return of Barry Allen ' is likely its apex. In this story, Wally is confronted with the return of the deceased Barry Allen – a story that, under another writer's pen, might have been heartfelt schmaltz, but for Waid, was an examination of Wally's ascent to true heroism, and the moment that solidified him as the one true Flash.

Over the course of six issues, Wally and Barry struggle to share the mantle of the Flash until the truth of the return is revealed. Written in a conversational style reminiscent of Wally recounting the tale to a friend, it's as much a conversation between Waid and readers about legacy and heroism as it is between the characters on the page.

'The Return of Barry Allen' is something of an unsung pioneer of modern comic books, blending an everyman perspective with a modern narration and a grasp of classic ideals that make it one of the best examples of late 20th-Century superhero storytelling, and one of the best DC stories of all time.

Buy: Amazon

8. The Judas Contract

When 'The Judas Contract' began in New Teen Titans #42, the surprise wasn't Terra's apparent heel turn. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez had spent nearly a year introducing Terra to the Titans and making her part of the group and then letting readers in on her terrible secret months before the Titans would learn her true nature.

The shock of that issue was just how totally and thoroughly she and Deathstroke owned the Titans because she knew all of their secrets at that point. At the height of their creative energies, Wolfman and Perez's stories were about the unique individuals that made up the Titans. All of the characters are so strong that the introduction of a wildcard like Terra to the team was a great way to shake things up.

'The Judas Contract' also focuses on the story of Dick Grayson versus Deathstroke as the two warriors maneuver their allies to counter the other's forces, culminating in the one-time Robin's transition to his new superheroic persona as Nightwing. 

Just as Grayson moves out of his mentor's shadow, this story proves that the Titans are much more than just a Justice League junior varsity team.

Buy: Amazon

7. Sinestro Corps War

For years, the Green Lantern Corps stood as the universe's best and brightest, defending the galaxy through the use of the most powerful weapon in the cosmos — their emerald power rings.

But with the action-packed space opera epic 'The Sinestro Corps War,' Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons, along with A-list artists such as Ivan Reis and Patrick Gleason, showed Hal Jordan and company they weren't the only ring slingers in town.

Featuring the debut of the fear-powered Sinestro Corps, 'Sinestro Corps War' was a pivotal moment for the Green Lanterns as both an organization and as a franchise, with a murderer's row of iconic DC supervillains thrown against the team, including Parallax, Cyborg Superman, Superboy-Prime, and the Anti-Monitor himself. 

Yet this book also had key moments of the Green Lanterns rising to this unprecedented challenge, with beats such as John Stewart trading interstellar sniper fire with the hermit crab-like creature known as Bedovian, the Guardians revoking their eons-old edict against killing, or the promotion of Daxamite Green Lantern Sodam Yat as the new, all-powerful Ion as he tackles the unstoppable Kryptonian Superboy-Prime.

Culminating with some huge battles and personal redemptions, 'Sinestro Corps War' also led to a greater expansion of the Green Lantern universe as a whole, hinting at the rise of five more corps based on the colors of the emotional spectrum. This explosion of creativity and action not only solidified this as one of the greatest Green Lantern stories but one of the greatest DC stories in history.

Buy: Amazon

6. The Dark Knight Returns

30+ years after its original four-part release, Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley's The Dark Knight Returns is undeniably one of the most powerful Batman stories ever told. A violent tale acted out behind a backdrop of Cold War paranoia and nightmares of a teenage uprising, The Dark Knight Returns follows Batman as he comes out of retirement to wage war against a Gotham City that will no longer tolerate one man taking the law into his own hands.

Miller's Bruce Wayne is a silver-haired cowboy dropped into an '80s dystopia, a burly bag of aching bones who finds himself physically outmatched by a new generation of vicious gangs and the return of his arch-nemesis the Joker. Finally, as nuclear war breaks out between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union, it's up to Superman to take down a Batman hell-bent on cleaning up Gotham's streets.

Although written and illustrated when Miller was just 29, The Dark Knight Returns feels like the work of a much older man. It's a satirical look at the evolving media landscape of the '80s when TV became more youth-oriented and even the news began to turn towards entertainment, as exemplified by the many talking heads who narrate the book's events in ways that benefit their own twisted agendas.

Although time and countless issues of a harder-edged Batman have since softened the original impact of Frank Miller's pessimistic take on the World's Greatest Detective, its place in comic book history cannot be understated. For that reason alone, 'The Dark Knight Returns' deserves a place in every reader's library.

Buy: Amazon

5. The New Frontier

In a modern era of cynicism in comic books, the late Darwyn Cooke was able to showcase the latent optimistic potential of the DC Universe in the now-classic New Frontier. The story is everything that Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns aren't, with DC's marquee characters exhibiting their best traits and inspiring the world and readers alike to fight towards a better tomorrow at the dawn of the nuclear age. Cooke captures an America fresh from World War II and before a cultural shift where the only way comic books could be respected was if they were dragged through the gutter first.

New Frontier is unabashed in its love of the superhero as an icon for what humanity could strive towards. Often under-served characters like Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Adam Strange are given their best interpretations here. Cooke simultaneously gets to the core of these characters and, through this, reinvents them at the same time.

Cooke's art is a perfect marriage of influences from DC's storied history - from Jack Kirby to the Fleischer Superman cartoon and Batman: The Animated Series. Even the creator's art style brings out the best of DC's Silver Age with each hero smiling into the sunrise in a post-war art deco style. Darwyn Cooke's magnum opus, New Frontier is a portrait of DC's best side and embodies all the courage and hope that these characters represent in a perfect love letter to the Silver Age of comic books.

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4. All-Star Superman

Grant Morrison's intent with the 12-issue series All-Star Superman, one that took almost three years to finish its original publication run, was to create a Superman story that was both fresh and timelessly classic. He does so by tasking the simple question of how Superman would spend his last days on Earth.

In a way that's an antidote to his previous exploitative death of the '90s, Superman is seen completing a series of tasks, or 'trials' in the most mythical (or perhaps even biblical) sense. It's a narrative that celebrates everything we have ever loved about the Last Son of Krypton. Morrison funnels his encyclopedic knowledge of the Man of Steel into a singular story in a way that never feels didactic, allowing cameos and appearances from virtually every era of Superman comics without ever needing to crack open the Multiverse to do so.

Stripping the character down to his most heroic of essentials, Frank Quitely makes a career-defining turn on the book, casting the hero as a super relaxed version of a near-omnipotent alien. From the barrel-chested Superman, a logical extension of what the ultimate human being would look like, through to the polar opposite in the vulnerable Lex Luthor, Quitely has a way of capturing both the majesty and the humanity of these characters.

All-Star Superman remains a quintessential Superman story for new readers through to those with much deeper long-boxes.

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3. The Great Darkness Saga 

Legion of Super-Heroes' 'The Great Darkness Saga' is one of the oldest stories on this countdown, and hasn't seen many references in the modern DC Universe, but it stands steadfast as an example of what DC stories can accomplish when they combine the classic with the nouveau and find common ground in disparate ideas.

'The Great Darkness Saga' tells the tale of Darkseid, dark lord of Apokolips, making his way into the 31st century. The story brought together numerous villains of the Legion of Super-Heroes, uniting them with aspects of the 20th Century DC Universe. It defined the era of the Legion and set the stage for what came for years after.

'The Great Darkness Saga' is not just the highlight of Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's run on Legion of Super-Heroes, it's one of the greatest tales of the modern DC Universe, and a prime reason so many fans still clamor for the Legion even when they aren't part of DC's line.

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2. Crisis On Infinite Earths

DC's continuity leading up into the '80s was rich with nostalgia but convoluted with inconsistencies, leading to the first real mega-event in the company's history: Crisis on Infinite Earths, which shook DC to its core, remixing its timeline and heralding the beginning of a continuity-shuffling practice repeated every decade since.

Introducing the literally Earth-shattering threat of the Anti-Monitor, this Crisis threw together dozens of heroes from across the Multiverse and was the scene of the then-shocking deaths of Barry Allen and Supergirl. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez juggled a universe full of characters, packing together more panels and action in one issue than many modern series fit into a trade. Earths lived and Earths died, resulting in a true epic that has withstood the test of time 30 years later.

The legacy of Crisis also cannot be overlooked, with the streamlined continuity establishing Wally West as the new Flash, and launching into well-received series such as John Byrne's Man of Steel, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman arc 'Year One' and George Pérez's Wonder Woman run.

Buy: Amazon

1. Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come, Mark Waid and Alex Ross's tale of the old guard of DC heroes facing obsolescence in a world protected by a younger and more vicious generation of superheroes is just as powerful now as it was when it was first published in 1996.

Thanks to Waid's understanding of the titanic personalities he handles, his presentation that makes them feel human instead of lofty gods, and Ross' gorgeous painted visuals, Kingdom Come is often the first book mentioned when people are asked what their favorite DC stories are.

While Kingdom Come stands as an emotional testament to Mark Waid's almost superhuman knowledge of the DCU and Alex Ross's immense talent behind a brush, it also rewards readers who find themselves coming back again and again to Waid and Ross's dystopian Elseworlds series. 

Whether it is the fact that Ross used the image of his own father, a reverend himself, as the inspiration for point-of-view character Norman McCay or Waid's cameo-filled final showdown that still reveals new heroes amid the din of battle, this story feels new with every reread despite being on shelves for over 20 years.

Kingdom Come is a classic in every sense of the word, and continues to stand as the best story that DC has produced – and with 2021 marking the 25th anniversary of the story's release, we expect some renewed attention from DC.

Buy: Amazon

Superstar artist Greg Capullo has confirmed his impending return to Marvel Comics, first as a cover artist, though with plans to do "a project" at the publisher.

Speaking to Mark Millar on his Millarworld podcast, Capullo stated that he's been in talks to work with Marvel Comics for some time after his landmark run as the artist of Batman and several subsequent event stories, including Dark Nights: Metal and its sequel Dark Nights: Death Metal.

The artist briefly worked for Marvel in the late '80s and early '90s including a Quasar series at the start of his career. It was his work on X-Force in 1993 that got the attention of Todd McFarlane, who recruited Capullo to become the main Spawn artist, which, along with Batman and the Metal and Death Metal series at DC with Scott Scott Snyder, is one of the titles the artist is best known for. 

In fact, Capullo's art can currently be seen in the brand new DC-Image crossover one-shot Batman/Spawn #1, written by McFarlane, that went on sale Tuesday, December 13.

The last panel of the 48-page one-shot teased a sequel, but neither DC nor Todd McFarlane Productions have officially announced a follow-up.

Though he has no plans to work on an ongoing series at Marvel, Capullo will create some covers for the publisher and is gearing up to work on a mystery project that includes interiors.

Capullo offered no further details about what the project might be but teased that he may work alongside writer Donny Cates, who Capullo has been trying to work with him for some time.

He also revealed that he almost worked on a Fantastic Four story with Dan Slott, but he was under a deadline for another project and had to pass on the assignment.

Cates has recently stepped away from his Marvel ongoing series Thor and Hulk announcing somewhat cryptically he's been "working with and in the background on something INSANE..."

Newsarama has identified Cates as an odds-on favorite to become the new Avengers writer in 2023 following the upcoming exit of writer Jason Aaron, though Capullo's reveal that his Marvel project wont be an ongoing series seems to take Avengers out of the equation.

Marvel had no comment on whatever Capullo's plans with them are. 

Avengers Assemble, the massive epic story that will bring together "every Avenger ever" to conclude writer Jason Aaron's years-long Avengers run, ramps up in February with the resolution of some of the longest-running subplots in Aaron's run, including the reveal of the true identity of the mysterious Multiversal hero Avenger Prime, and the introduction of some intense new villains.

Marvel's early preview of Avengers titles for February 2023 shows off the advance covers and solicitations for February 1's Avengers #65 - part 6 of the crossover - and February 15's Avengers Forever #14, part 7.

First up, Avengers #65 will reveal the identity of Avenger Prime, "the most important Avenger in the Multiverse." Avenger Prime has been instrumental in organizing the team against Doctor Doom and his Multiversal Masters of Evil, though his true identity has remained under wraps.

And in Avengers Forever #14, several teams of Avengers including the core team, the Multiversal Avengers Forever team, and the prehistoric Avengers will all finally come together to face down an ominous new foe: Doom the Living Planet, an apparent mash-up of Doctor Doom and Ego the Living Planet from somewhere in the Multiverse.

"Readers should prepare for a war beyond all imagination as Avengers Tower at Infinity's End falls under assault by the ultimate forces of evil including the Multiversal Masters of Evil and Mephisto," reads Marvel's announcement. 

"The Avengers that fans know and love will unite with heroes from the past, future, and far reaches of the multiverse to defend Avengers Tower and the fate of Marvel history as we know it," it continues. "Can they work together? And will their power be enough to prevent the end of all that is?"

Stay tuned to Newsarama for Marvel's full February 2023 solicitations, coming later this month.

While you wait for Avengers Assemble, read the best Avengers comics of all time.

Kevin Conroy, the actor famously voiced Batman for decades, beginning with Batman: The Animated Series in the '90s, has died aged 66.

Warner Bros. Discovery, the studio behind the Batman series, confirmed the news in a press release. "Actor Kevin Conroy, the most beloved voice of Batman in the animated history of the character, died Thursday at age 66 after a short battle with cancer," the company said, noting that Conroy voiced Batman in almost 60 projects, including 15 films, another 15 animated shows consisting of over 100 hours of TV, and multiple video games. Conroy also played Batman in live-action for the Crisis on Infinite Earths Arrowverse crossover. The actor also penned a moving story for DC Comics' 2022 Pride Anthology, titled 'Finding Batman', about his life as a gay actor and how he came to voice the Caped Crusader.  

Tributes from Conroy's co-stars and admirers have been pouring in. "Kevin was perfection," said Mark Hamill, who frequently voiced the Joker opposite Conroy's Batman. "He was one of my favorite people on the planet, and I loved him like a brother. He truly cared for the people around him – his decency shone through everything he did. Every time I saw him or spoke with him, my spirits were elevated."

"Kevin was a brilliant actor," Hamill added. "For several generations, he has been the definitive Batman. It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the exact right guy for the exact right part, and the world was better for it. His rhythms and subtleties, tones, and delivery – that all also helped inform my performance. He was the ideal partner – it was such a complementary, creative experience. I couldn't have done it without him. He will always be my Batman."

"Kevin brought a light with him everywhere," said Batman: The Animated Series producer Paul Dini, "whether in the recording booth giving it his all, or feeding first responders during 9/11, or making sure every fan who ever waited for him had a moment with their Batman. A hero in every sense of the word. Irreplaceable. Eternal."

"Kevin was far more than an actor whom I had the pleasure of casting and directing – he was a dear friend for 30+ years whose kindness and generous spirit knew no boundaries," said Andrea Romano, casting and dialogue director on Batman: The Animated Series. "Kevin's warm heart, delightfully deep laugh and pure love of life will be with me forever."

"I struggle to find the words to describe how much Kevin Conroy and his voice mean to me," wrote comic book writer Mitch Gerads. "BATMAN TAS changed my life both professionally + personally, in a very real way. I always meant to meet him at a show and tell him how important his work was to me, but never did. Dammit." 

"Very sad news: our beloved voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, died yesterday," wrote Diane Pershing, voice of Poison Ivy in The Animated Series. "He's been ill for a while but he really put in a lot of time at the cons, to the joy of all of his fans. He will be sorely missed not just by the cast of the series but by his legion of fans all over the world."

"Completely heartbroken over this one," wrote comic book writer James Tynion IV. "RIP Kevin Conroy. The only Batman voice I’ll ever hear in my head."

Legions of Batman fans have also taken to the internet to share their heartbreak and their tributes to the late actor. Conroy is survived by his husband, his sister, and his brother. 

On December 13, Batman and Spawn will meet again for the first time in nearly 30 years – and it's all because of the Court of Owls, who enlist the Hellspawn to destroy the Dark Knight.

Batman/Spawn is a 48-page one-shot crossover written by Todd McFarlane and drawn by Greg Capullo.

Batman/Spawn #1 will be sold at Barnes & Noble (in addition to Direct Market comic book shops), with an exclusive cover by McFarlane and Capullo. This is the mainline DC comic to be sold at the book retailer since 2019, when Barnes & Noble carried the milestone Detective Comics #1000.

"Look, this is really simple. I get to play with one of the greatest comic characters ever (Batman), get to reunite with amazing artist Greg Capullo, AND am able to mix in my own creation (Spawn) into the storyline. These are the types of projects many of us creators in the comic industry only get to be a part of a few times in our careers," McFarlane says. 

Capullo adds, "I was fortunate enough to be able to draw both Spawn and Batman each for over a decade. Now I get to use those decades of experience to bring fans the event they’ve waited nearly 30 years to see happen. Spawn and Batman together again. It’s gonna be fire."

DC has recently released a first look at special DC/Spawn-themed variant covers, featuring the character along with other DC heroes. 

Here's a gallery of those covers, along with the schedule and list of artists:

On sale Tuesday, November 29

• Superman: Kal-El Returns #1 by Dan Mora/Tomeu Morey

On sale Tuesday, December 6

• Batman #130 by Clay Mann/Tomeu Morey
• Poison Ivy #7 by David Nakayama
• The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #3 by Tony Daniel/Tomeu Morey 

On sale Tuesday, December 13

• Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 by Ryan Sook
• WildC.A.T.s #2 by Ben Oliver
• Wonder Woman #794 by Jim Cheung/Jay Ramos

On sale Tuesday, December 20

• Catwoman #50 by David Marquez
• Nightwing #99 by Javi Fernandez/Tomeu Morey

On sale Tuesday, December 27

• Harley Quinn #25 by Kael Ngu

And here's a look at interior pages by Capullo:

Finally, here's a gallery of all variant covers to Batman/Spawn #1 including the Barnes & Noble exclusive. Batman/Spawn #1 will feature main cover art by Capullo and variants by McFarlane, Gabriele Dell'otto, Sean Murphy, Franceso Mattina, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, Jason Fabok, and Brett Booth, with signed covers available from both McFarlane and Capullo.

Batman/Spawn marks the first reunion of these two characters since 1994's Batman/Spawn: War Devil, written by Doug Moench, Alan Grant, and Chuck Dixon, and illustrated by Klaus Johnson, which marked the second official meeting of Batman and Spawn. The first was Spawn/Batman, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by McFarlane. Both will be reprinted in Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection on November 15.

"One of the great pleasures of collecting comics is being around when 'event books' are released. Each time one of these events happened I was always glad I was collecting at that moment because I felt like I was part of something really cool happening in our comic industry," McFarlane says. 

"So now, to be able to gather DC Comics and Image Comics together to release a new reprint of those two wonderful books from yesteryear; Spawn/Batman and the Batman/Spawn: War Devil crossovers to a new generation of collectors who missed out on all the excitement of when they first came out," he continues. "This, to me, is why I got into drawing comic books in the first place...to have as much fun and joy as I could. These books do that!"

Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection will be available November 15 from DC, and Batman/Spawn #1 will be available December 13.

Spawn is one of the best non-Marvel or DC comic book superheroes. 

Next week, DC debuts The New Golden Age #1, which ushers in what DC has called a "new Golden Age" of its superhero universe. And the publisher recently retconned a bunch of new "Golden Age" heroes into its history. 

At the same time, Marvel Comics is drawing on "Bronze Age" nostalgia for a set of connecting covers by artist Phil Jimenez which depict the Avengers of that era for the upcoming Avengers Assemble crossover.

But what does it mean when DC and Marvel refer to the "Golden Age" and the "Bronze Age," or the commonly named "Silver Age?"

When do those eras start, and end - and what separates them in the history of comics? We'll explain the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the other eras of comic history right here.

The Golden Age

The term 'Golden Age' is used to refer to a lot of eras - not just comics. And it usually means the same thing: the era when a concept or idea was on its rise and at its peak of popularity in the public consciousness.

In comic terms, this boils down to the late '30s all the way through the late '50s, starting with the first appearance of Superman, the first fully formed American superhero, in 1938's Action Comics #1. 

Following the introduction of Superman, the Golden Age broke loose, introducing dozens of still famous heroes such as Captain America, Namor, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice Society, as well as hundreds of now long-forgotten early attempts at the medium.

The Golden Age technically lasted through the mid-'50s, but the mid to late '40s saw a huge downturn in superhero comics thanks to public hysteria over the content of superhero stories, drummed up by anti-comic book activists (it sounds like a comic book plot itself).

In those years, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman managed to stick around with much more lighthearted, often silly stories. But then, in the mid-'50s, superheroes came back in a huge way.

The Silver Age

The mid-'50s, specifically the years 1956-1959, saw the slow start of a return for superheroes, culminating in the dawn of the 'Silver Age,' and the start of the modern concepts of superhero storytelling that persist to this day.

1956 brought DC's introduction of Barry Allen in Showcase #4, who revived the name of the then-dormant Golden Age hero the Flash, kicking off a wave of such revamps for heroes like Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Atom, and more, and the eventual introduction of the Justice League as an updated version of the Golden Age team the Justice Society.

The success of DC's revamped superhero line led to the start of the Marvel Universe in 1961 with Fantastic Four #1, followed by the introduction of still-popular heroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk.

The Silver Age brought the first inklings of the kind of stories that would be told in superhero comics in just a few years, with interconnected universes (or even Multiverses) of characters and a focus on the emotional interplay of the heroes and villains as well as their dynamic exploits.

The Bronze Age

Around the start of the '70s, the medium of superhero comics began to expand and evolve again, with a new wave of creators who were already well-versed in the Marvel and DC Universes coming onto the scene. 

With them, they brought new, somewhat more esoteric, and often psychedelic stories about cosmic beings clashing with down-to-earth heroes, all the while pushing the old guard of creators to meet them in the swingin' '70s. 

This is the era that introduced heroes such as Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Storm, and Luke Cage at Marvel, while at DC heroes like Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen were getting into far more openly political territory in their joint Green Lantern/Green Arrow title.

Many of the concepts that are now part-and-parcel in superhero comics started in the '70s, such as the ramp-up of inter-title crossovers, the expanded X-Men team, the New Gods, and even the death and return of some characters.

The Modern Age

Here's where things actually get a little hazy. There's some debate on where the so-called 'Modern Age' begins and ends, with some folks going so far as to place the start all the way back at the 1973 Spider-Man story 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died.' 

However, most agree that while that story marked the start of a more mature level of storytelling in superhero comics, the Modern Age actually begins in the mid to late '80s with the rise of stories such as X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga, Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns, which began to elevate the medium of superhero comics in the eyes of the public. 

The other key marker of the start of the Modern Age is the subsequent speculation boom of the early '90s that sent comic book values skyrocketing, and had hundreds of people lining up at comic shops to get ahold of comics they perceived would increase in value over time.

There's also some debate on when (or if) the Modern Age ends - or if that's even the correct terminology for comics that are now 30-40 years old.

Some refer to the late '80s and early '90s as the 'Chromium Age,' referring to the habit of putting reflective chromium material on 'special edition' comics of the era, though that term is not nearly as common. 

There's also the somewhat jokey delineation of the early '00s and beyond as the 'Diamond Age,' referring in part to the rise of Diamond Comic Distributors as a monopoly in the industry, which has only begun to fade in recent years.

Speaking of comic history, now is a perfect time to dive into the best Marvel Comics stories ever and the best DC stories ever.

Marvel Comics is known for its universe-wide events, but in the latter half of 2022 into Summer 2023, the publisher seems to be focusing more on smaller, more self-contained events that impact different corners of the Marvel Universe. At least, that's the way it looks judging by the timeline of upcoming comic events Marvel released during New York Comic Con 2022.

With no less than six crossovers planned between now and summer 2023, Marvel's got a full slate of stories coming up, focusing on the Avengers, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Venom and the Symbiotes, Captain America, and more - and that's not counting anything it has yet to reveal.

So where do the next six Marvel crossover stories take place, who stars in them, and what are they about? We've got everything you need to know to dig into the top Marvel Comics stories coming in 2022 and 2023.

Avengers Assemble

Writer Jason Aaron has been leading Marvel's Avengers franchise since 2018 as the writer of the main Avengers title and several spin-offs, including the current Multiverse-based Avengers Forever spin-off, and the tie-ins based on the prehistoric Avengers 1,000,000 BC.

Now, all three of those teams, the main team, the Avengers Forever team, and the prehistoric Avengers are all coming together for Aaron's final Avengers story, titled 'Avengers Assemble,' which is being billed as the biggest Avengers story ever told, bringing in "every Avenger ever," according to Marvel's promotional materials.

What kind of threat is big enough to require dozens if not hundreds of Avengers from across time and space to come together as one? Well, it's a two-fold problem. 

The devilish villain Mephisto has banded together with versions of himself from across the Multiverse as the so-called 'Council of Red,' while Doctor Doom has assembled a team of villains from different realities as a new incarnation of the Masters of Evil.

The story kicks off in November's Avengers Assemble Alpha one-shot, and continues in the main Avengers title, the Avengers Forever spin-off, and more yet to be announced.

Spider-Man/X-Men: Dark Web

Starting in December (after a November prelude issue in Venom #14), Dark Web is a crossover story that brings together Spider-Man and the X-Men along with a host of their supporting characters as they take on Madelyne Pryor/Goblin Queen and Ben Reilly/Chasm, a pair of villains with deep-seated history with both Spidey and the mutants, but who are teaming up for the first time.

Spider-Man and the X-Men have teamed up plenty of times in the past, but 'Dark Web' is a little different, because the two villains, Goblin Queen and Chasm, are both clones of heroes who are involved - Jean Grey and Peter Parker, respectively - so they share an agenda, if not a history.

Dark Web officially kicks off with a December one-shot and runs through Amazing Spider-Man, Venom, and several tie-in titles starring Norman Osborn as the Gold Goblin, one starring Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, and a team-up title for Mary Jane Watson and Black Cat. 

Two spin-off titles will also come out of the end of Dark Web, a Red Goblin title starring Norman Osborn's grandson, and a title starring the new villain Hallow's Eve who will debut during the event.

X-Men: Sins of Sinister

Speaking of the X-Men, come January they'll have serious problems of their own with the onset of Sins of Sinister, an X-Men line crossover that pays homage to the original 1995 Age of Apocalypse saga by flashing forward ten years to a future timeline ruled by Mister Sinister, in a world remade in his image.

The whole premise is similar to the concept of Age of Apocalypse, in which Apocalypse became the ruler of a timeline in which the original X-Men never existed. But rather than happening by accident, Sins of Sinister seems to be taking place due to purposeful machinations by Sinister to create a world where he's the ruler.

Like most of Marvel's other upcoming event stories, Sins of Sinister begins with a pair of December prelude issues in Immortal X-Men #9 and #10, then the full event kicks off in January with a one-shot titled Sins of Sinister #1 along with three tie-in limited series which will take the place of three core X-Men titles.

Those limited series, each consisting of three issues, include Immoral X-Men (replacing Immortal X-Men), Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants (replacing X-Men Red), and Nightcrawlers (replacing Legion of X) - all of which take the core concepts of their main titles and twist them into something that fits into Sinister's bizarre reality.

Sins of Sinister then runs until April, wrapping with a one-shot titled Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1.

Captain America: Cold War

There are two Captain Americas in the Marvel Universe right now, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson, each with their own ongoing titles, their own adventures, and even their own shields. 

But in Spring of 2023, both titles will come together for the crossover Cold War, which ties into recent events in Steve Rogers' title, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, as well as Sam Wilson's title, Captain America: Symbol of Truth.

In Symbol of Truth, Sam has been dealing with a complex political situation in Africa while working alongside Ian Rogers, Steve Rogers' adopted son from the villain Arnim Zola's artificial reality known as Dimension Z.

And in Sentinel of Liberty, Steve Rogers has been facing down a secret criminal organization known as the Outer Circle that has ties to his past - and who will seemingly welcome Winter Soldier into their ranks as a villain leading up to Cold War.

Summer of Symbiotes

Looking a little further ahead to summer 2023, Marvel is planning to put a spotlight on Venom's corner of the Marvel Universe with an event titled Summer of Symbiotes with the weirdly hilarious tagline "Sun's out, tongues out."

Aside from the understanding that it'll involve Venom, Carnage, and more symbiotes (and their respective titles), the biggest thing we know about the story is that it'll supposedly include new stories and titles - and even potentially new symbiotes.

As for what those might be, we're guessing the upcoming Red Goblin title, in which Norman Osborn's grandson Normie Osborn gets his own Red Goblin symbiote, is part of the Summer of Symbiotes. But other than that, we'll have to wait and see. 

Fall of X

Finally, following December's Dark Web event and January's Sins of Sinister Event, the X-Men will be involved in a third big story on Marvel's timeline - Fall of X, coming in Summer 2023.

We don't know what Fall of X is just yet, but the name seems to indicate that it'll mark the next era of the X-Men franchise, going by the naming convention that started with the House of X/Powers of X limited series which launched the current Krakoa status quo,

First, there was Dawn of X in 2020, then Reign of X in 2021, and of course the current Destiny of X era in 2022 - so it looks like the next phase may be Fall of X, which will kick off sometime around the 2023 Hellfire Gala event.

The name Fall of X also calls to mind the classic '80s crossover Fall of the Mutants, which marked the start of a radical new status quo for the X-Men, so the title Fall of X could indicate a similar shift for the X-Men line - perhaps even the end of the Krakoa era.

As always, we'll keep you posted witup-to-the-minutete coverage and news of Marvel's events line-up for 2022 and 2023 as it arrives.

Time will tell which of these crossovers could earn a place among the best Marvel Comics events of all time.

It's now the spooky season, as we head toward Halloween, or 'All Hallows; Eve.'  But for Spider-Man, Hallow's Eve doesn't mean fun and friends, it's the name of a new villain debuting in the upcoming Spider-Man/X-Men crossover 'Dark Web,' and she's getting her own title spinning out of the story.

Though we know next to nothing about Hallow's Eve, we know that she'll be sticking around following 'Dark Web,' in a series written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Michael Dowling.

But Hallow's Eve hasn't even debuted in Marvel Comics yet, as she'll make her first appearance in November 23's Amazing Spider-Man #14, in the midst of the upcoming 'Dark Web' crossover story that brings together Spider-Man and the X-Men in a conflict that also involves the villainous X-Men foe the Goblin Queen, Madelyne Pryor, as well as newly minted villain Chasm, AKA Peter Parker's clone Ben Reilly, who transformed as part of the story 'Spider-Man Beyond.'

As for who Hallow's Eve is, we have absolutely no idea - Marvel has been forthcoming with the plans for her new title, but her identity, goals, and the concept of the story itself remain undisclosed. 

What we can guess is that she has some connection to classic Spider-Man enemy Hobgoblin, who will return to Marvel Comics in upcoming issues of Amazing Spider-Man leading into the 'Dark Web' crossover.

Hobgoblin is a Spider-Man villain whose secret identity is often a mystery, with stories involving the character sometimes centering around which version of the Hobgoblin is actually appearing in the story while Spider-Man tries to discover his identity.

Hallow's Eve #1 goes on sale in March 2023.

Stay up to date on all the new Spider-Man comics planned for release in 2022 and beyond.

The long-awaited crossover between Fortnite and Dragon Ball Z is now here, but for many, it's proved to be the tipping point in their ability to take the battle royale seriously.

Shortly after the crossover began, one player took to Reddit to ask "how is this a real game," posting a pre-game lobby featuring new arrival Goku preparing to fight alongside Naruto, Rick Sanchez, and Darth Vader. A similarly popular post swapped out Skywalker Sr for MCU big bad Thanos, but the overall message remains.

That sentiment has been echoed around the community. One tweet highlighted the peculiarity of Lebron James' use of the Fortnite Kamehameha against John Wick. At the same time, a similar clip saw a gun-toting Ariana Grande meet a similar end at Rick's hands, all while wearing an Among Us crew member on her back. 

It's not clear precisely why Dragon Ball Z has been the tipping point - Fortnite's been crossing over with most of the world's major franchises for several years now. Thanos was an early arrival, but several other Marvel heroes have made their appearances, along with characters from Star Wars, DC, Ghostbusters, Halo, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Assassin's Creed. That's not to mention the real-life celebrities that have made their way to the game; as well as James and Grande, there's streamer Ninja, musician Marshmello, and sportspeople including Chloe Kim and Harry Kane. 

Perhaps it's the stylish Kamehameha kills, but for some people, this particular crossover appears to have proved their personal event horizon for their ability to take Fortnite seriously. YouTuber Matt Castro cited the mix of characters, stating "life is a simulation," while journalist Jay Castello said that "Fortnite has reached a singularity point for me and when I try to think about it it just warps my brain. There's too much going on." 

Are we going to have to add Fortnite to our list of the best anime games?

Neil Gaiman has revealed why the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman isn't set in the DC universe, despite the fact that his original graphic novels are. The Sandman graphic novels were published by Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, between 1989 and 1996 and there is plenty of crossover between the two universes, unlike in the new streaming series.

"The Sandman itself started out in the DC Universe, the comic, and then it just sort of wound up wandering off into its own place," Gaiman told Variety. "Its world joined up more and more with our world and became less and less a world in which costumed crime fighters fly around and so on, which meant that by the time The Sandman finished, it had its own aesthetic which really wasn’t the DC Universe anymore."

One example of the graphic novels' DC links is the character John Dee, played by David Thewlis in the Netflix series. In the comics, he lives in Arkham Asylum and he strongly resembles the skeletal DC villain Doctor Destiny, an enemy of the Justice League. However, in the TV show, the character lives in a nondescript institution and has an unremarkable appearance. 

Gaiman added: "We didn’t want a TV show where you felt that you had to have read a whole bunch of comics published in 1988 and 1989 to understand what was going on."

All 10 episodes of The Sandman are available to stream now on Netflix – you can read our reviews of episodes two, three, four, and five through those links. If you've already caught up, check out our guide to the other best Netflix shows to add to your watch list. 

Spider-Man's old anti-Spidey arch villain Venom will kick off the festivities when the newest anti-Spidey arch villain Chasm (Ben Reilly to his friends) teams up with the X-Men foe the Goblin Queen (Madelyne Pryor to her friends) in the Dark Web crossover this fall-winter.

November's Venom #13 by Al Ewing and Bryan Hitch will serve as a prelude and "set the stage" for the Spider-Man/X-Men crossover, which will begin in earnest in December's Dark Web Alpha #1 and then take place mainly in the pages of writer Zeb Well's Amazing Spider-Man but will also include spin-offs into other titles including one-shots, limited series, and ongoing series like Venom.

According to Marvel, after Eddie Brock is forced to watch his son Dylan die from across the timestream, Eddie (the current King of Black) returns to Earth but finds himself surrounded by enemies.

"Alone, and with no one to trust, he finds an unexpected ally in Madelyne Pryor, as the stage is set for the most epic crossover of the year!" reads Marvel's description. 

"After taking Eddie to the far ends of time and space and the darkest corners of reality, it's kind of nice to drop him back in New York City - the home, and the family, he's been trying to get back to ever since #1," Ewing says in Marvel's announcement. "Unfortunately, this may not be a happy reunion for anyone concerned, because when Eddie crosses paths with fellow single parent the Goblin Queen, he gets tangled up in a very Dark Web..."

Vemon's involvement while now official was recently teased by the publisher at Comic-Con International San Diego. At the con, Marvel revealed a piece of promo art showing the characters involved in the crossover including Venom, a host of Spider-Man and X-Men characters, along with someone in Hobgoblin-esque colors on the left side of the piece, who is a new character named Hallow's Eve.

Check it out below: 

Chasm, Titan, and Moira - meet the new wave of Marvel heroes turned villains.

Kingdom Hearts 3 developer Square Enix is offering players a replica chess set for $700, and the only problem is that you can’t actually play a game of chess on it. 

Inspired by the young Xehanort and Eraqus scenes in Kingdom Hearts 3, the Alba and Ater set is available on the US Square Enix store for $699.99. Although visually striking and a must-have for truly devoted Kingdom Hearts fans, the 'chess' set is merely a decorative piece, and you can't actually use it to play a real game of chess.   

Just like in Kingdom Hearts 3, the set comes with several intricately detailed chess pieces, 16 light and 16 dark - all of which represent a character in the Kingdom Hearts series including Sora, Kairi, Riku, as well as series enemies Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, and more. A quick glance from a chess professional would be able to tell that this is not appropriate to play on, but just in case, Square Enix also states on the website that: "This is not a game. No rules are included."

Kingdom Hearts fans are currently living their best lives after it was revealed that main protagonist Sora would be joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a sword fighter. Nintendo and Kingdom Hearts fans alike thought it would be almost impossible to get Sora into the fighting game considering Disney also holds the rights to the Square Enix property. Even Smash series creator Masahiro Sakurai said he had little hope for the crossover until he had a chance encounter with a Disney representative at an award show. 

Fancy giving the Square Enix x Disney crossover game a go? Good news, the complete Kingdom Hearts series is now available on the Nintendo Switch via cloud versions. 

The worlds of Capcom, Sega, and Namco Bandai will spread into one delicious tactical RPG sandwich when Project X Zone releases on June 25 in the U.S. Publisher Namco Bandai updated its listing for the 3DS crossover game (via NeoGAF) which stars more 50 characters from Street Fighter, Space Channel 5, Tekken, Tales of Vesperia, Xenogears, and beyond.

Project X Zone's European release is remains 2013. The action-tactics mash-up won't actually have localized voices, just subtitles, so with luck it won't take too much longer to arrive outside the U.S. and Japan.

Check out our roster to see the game's dozens of disparate characters, and read up on how the pairs and loners will team up to take down interdimensional evil in our gameplay preview.