Last Update September 14, 2026
Oni Press honors Mike Wieringo at Baltimore Comic-Con 2026 – Comicsbeat
SPX Expo involved in union dispute between Montgomery County, Maryland, plus Marriot Hotels, and various supporting groups – SPX
Interview with Tạ Huy Long and his new graphic novel Song of the Whale – Vietnam News
Tạ Huy Long is one of Việt Nam’s leading contemporary comic artists. His graphic novel Yersin – Khúc hát Cá Ông (Yersin – The Song of the Whale), about French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin’s journey across central Việt Nam, blends history, fiction and folk mythology. The book won the Aspiration Award at the Cricket Children’s Awards earlier in 2026..."
Grocery store stuffed superhero heads
"Mahershala Ali is at his Blade-trained best in his new movie" – Vulture MSN
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is a film about faith, grief, fatherhood, and stabbing people to death, and it whips ass in a way that makes its origin story feel downright serendipitous. Tariq and Ali were both attached to Marvel’s now-defunct Blade remake, which died on the vine after years of delays and corporate indecision. Tariq, who left the project in late 2022, wrote the original screenplay with Ali in mind..."
Why the "multiverse' is bad for comics – Comicbook
One of the main complaints being voiced here is that alternative universes contain meaningless changes, in effect, lazily altering the window dressing of a familiar story. Replaying that story with the "new" changes is, in a way, selling the same item all over again but with new packaging.
Multiverse Mechanics
Ideally, multiverse stories highlight the thing that makes a character unique in the first place by creating a foundational conceptual change. The new circumstances either demonstrate that the character perseveres the same way as a moral creature with a particular integrity, or, in a kind of Rousseaun view, new conditions creates a differently molded character responding to the new situation. But, like the magic trick of "deconstruction," the trick only works effectively when the thing being deconstructed (or, in this sense, "alternated") is strongly grasped by the audience witnessing the magic trick. To have impact with the alternative difference, the original core concepts have to be strong and understood by the audience.
But the success of using the gimmick of the multiverse over and over is blurring what superhero stories are, such that multiverse stories are becoming synonymous with superheroes.
What is an "Alternative Universe"?
The concept of alternative universes is a long-standing science-fiction device that also appears, in different forms, in interpretations of quantum mechanics and in some theories of cosmology and string theory. In fiction, it seems to be a branch out of time travel stories, such as, "what happens if I go back in time and assassinate Hilter?" In its simplest form it is a mini-theme of regret, like the universal experience of the reaction of a person getting into a car wreck: "if only I hadn't used this route," "if only I wasn't speeding," and more extreme "what if I hadn't even got out of bed this morning".
Alternative universe ideas generate interest from the "what if" element of human curiosity, the wish for different outcomes from past choices, or simply changing those past choices from its starting point. As a sales gimmick, though, it is governed by the rule of entertainment gimmicks in general: it gets worn out from too much use and goes out of fashion.
With comic books, the current problem is that the gimmick won't go away long enough to be rediscovered and made fresh again (the same problem afflicts deconstruction). It is blurring what is "real" and what is speculative within the constrained fictional world of superhero comic book characters. It is removing the weight of real moral choice and rendering meaning, well, meaningless. When everything becomes a "do-over" nothing is solid (or, more succinctly, nothing is real.) In a way it is gaming culture barging into superhero books, where there's always an additional "life" to be had to try again, though in this multiverse case, life might just mean a different character decision, cancelling an earlier decision.
The Cute Trick
In superhero movies, a multiverse is a cute trick to explain things, for example, why the different actors who portray Batman look, well, different. They're each from alternative worlds, or dimensions, or timelines, etc., is an easy explanation that's easy to understand and also convenient for humour. But this underscores how much this gimmick is corrupting the host creature it is feeding off of.
Currently, the booming numbers for DC's Absolute Universe titles are impressive, but only within a limited view of the American superhero comic book sales universe. As good as those numbers are, we know that a percentage is driven by speculators driving up the margins with hoarding and selling. There's money to be made on the volatile fringe of a popular comic book title, but it throws a fuzzy number of sales into the mix obscuring the number of people who read the comic book.
The comic book medium isn't struggling, but within that medium the superhero comic book is madly trying to keep its marketshare as it gets crowded out steadily by alternative hero fiction, i.e., manga. The war, as it were, isn't American superheroes against manga, though, its American superhero comics against itself, and that's what the constant drumbeat of multiverse stories highlights, and the gimmicks that depend upon cannibalizing the memory (and reflexes) of a shrinking audience.
Superhero doldrums
The same old problem persists: how to patiently build a mass audience that shows up to buy titles month after month, year by year. How long can DC and Marvel feed off of a clientele that was "evangelized" in the 1980s and 1990s? Superhero comics used to have a firm grip on the fiction hero marketplace of comics, especially with kids, but that environment has changed. While gimmicks provide sudden, quick sales jumps, it's only temporary.
Since at least the Pandemic, when I go to any of the three Barnes and Noble stores near me, there are a couple of book cases devoted to American comics, and then a subsection of shelves of the two bookcases are for American superhero comic collections. Those two bookcases are a fraction compared to the 16 to 20 bookcases I see devoted entirely to manga, let alone the end-cap sections which promote various particularly popular manga titles, an action that tells me that Barnes and Noble believes in backing certain manga titles for walk-by traffic. Not the case with American superhero comic book collections.
For some context, consider that in the beginning of the 1970s the Neal Adams' Green Arrow-Green Lantern issues were hailed for being revolutionary in their handling of contemporary cultural issues, but they were constantly on the verge of cancelation because their sales numbers were in the 150K-175K range. Neal Adams said later in the 1980s that if a title was to get 150K in sales "now," DC would award the creatives a medal, showing how much the sales count shrinkage had hit the industry over that decade, that is, when 150K could get you cancelled, ten years those numbers meant you had a bestselling title.
Superhero Future in 4-color
Superhero comics aren't going away anytime soon, they have a primitive power and universal concepts rooted deep into what humans feel about the world. But the financial return on that root storytelling of sequential superhero panel art and text can certainly shrink further, because the market determines what's acceptable on a mass scale.
It looks like the big companies can weather a lot of trouble with the publishing wing of superhero comics because the sheer momentum of the characters in sales for toys, TV animation, movies, etc, is the real money-maker, but obviously incubated on the comic book printing level.
But if the print comics of superherodom are alienating a mass audience, year by year, it will eventually catch up to the rest of the apparatus and then Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the rest will seem as boringly familiar and unloved as any other well-known but dormant pop culture character.
Sometimes it looks like the big companies publishing superhero books believe hero fiction are just stories with some violence and costuming larded into it, and what the audience really wants is soap opera and dialogue-heavy meditations on the minutia of inner emotional lives. Alternative universe stories are just another way to flip that hamburger on the griddle, but since its the same burger no matter how many times it is flipped, it's going to get burnt.
Looks like Spider-Man Brand New Million A Day is going to make a new record on domestic box office – Variety
Spidey is close to eclipsing the 2015 Star Wars: Dawn of Another Trilogy domestic haul of $936.6 million (the record high for domestic box office) with the webslinger now at $935.27 million. In another week it will surely beat Luke Sykwalker and crew.
"Big announcement coming on Spider-Man" – Bleeding Cool
Dark Horse announces Concrete Omnibus – Seven volumes coming? Bleeding Cool
Interview with Richard Bruning – The Comics Journal
The Estonian Academy of Arts opens Nordic‑Baltic comics exhibition titled "Mythbusters" – News Err EE
Warner Bros. Batman Day plans include rerelease of some classic Batman films to theatres – IGN
Ramblin’ Hobo comic book art show of pages from the series – Watauga Democrat
Along with artwork from the comic series, the exhibit will display two pictures of Watson’s grandparents and his sankofa banjo with the words "This Machine Goes Back to Fetch It" on the banjo head. Sankofa is a proverb from the Akan people of Ghana that translates to "Go back and fetch it," meaning to return to tradition and bring it forward with a different spin. Watson said the core of his series is rooted in Sankofa, bringing a lesser-known folk story back with his own spin...."
Spider-Man 5 may take a long time to happen – Fiction Horizon
Avengers Doomsday presales pile up $50 million already
Story at Cosmic Book
The digital best sellers at Neon Ichiban – Comics Beat
Is manga here to stay? – Publishers Weekly
The top selling Graphic Novels of August – ICV2
This Wednesday comic book releases – Covers at Fresh Comics
Spider-Man A Brand New Million Every Day continues to top box office charts after six weeks in release – Manila Standard
Gal Gadot talks about her exit from Wonder Woman role at DCU – Bounding into Comics
Star Trek: DC vs Gold Key vs Marvel – 13th Dimension
The Hal Foster Tarzan comic strip 1930-1937 – The Comics Journal
Hey, whatever happened to the those great super-villain-teams that Marvel used to put together? – Comic Book
You can buy the $32 million Bruce Wayne Mansion but you don't get the Batcave with it – MSN El Mundo
2026 summer box office offically breaking records – Variety
Reviving forgotten 1960's superhero Atlas the Mighty – Something
Austin was looking for lesser-known golden-age superheroes that had entered the public domain to create a low-budget live-action "Superzeroes" cinematic universe as an alternative to the many polished superhero franchises. Atlas grabbed his attention because of his extreme obscurity and his ridiculous costume...."
It is verboten
"DC Comics and Lunar Distribution have issued a formal warning to comic book retailers nationwide: do not sell, display, or distribute any Batman Day 2026 materials before the official event date of September 19" – Tech Times
The samurai-action franchise Onimusha "hasn’t seen a new entry in 20 years" - that's about to change – Comic Book
The upcoming 81st Annual Reuben Awards and National Cartoonists Society Conference in San Diego, CA – National Cartoonists Society
Iconic Amazing Spider-Man covers from the first 300 issues – Overstreet Access
On September 30, 2026, Spider-Man will reach a major milestone with Amazing Spider-Man #1000. Marvel is honoring the momentous occasion with a litany of variant covers by iconic Spider-Man artists and many other great talents working in the industry. But before we grab a variant (or 25) of issue 1000, we are looking back at just a few of the many iconic Amazing Spider-Man covers from the first 300 issues.
A pretty good display of cover types, but they forgot this one:
Spider-Man A Brand New Million Every Day is leading the way for a record setting box office summer – Deadline Hollywood
Rentrak reports that we’re $112.2 million away from having a record summer at the domestic box office, the previous high being 2013 with $4.756 billion. Per sources this morning, it looks like we’re going to get there with the Friday-Monday Labor Day frame ringing up over $118M..."
Spider-Noir not getting another season – Deadline
Spider-Noir fared well with both reviewers and viewers, earning a 92% critics score and 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and landing 11 Emmy Award nominations — the most of any Prime Video series in 2026..."
Too bad, it was a solid effort at using a two-genre mashup to tell a not-entirely familiar story of Spider-Man with a trenchcoat and under a hat. Instead of getting cancelled, everyone I know who saw hoped it got another season and a lot more budget to produce it.
Lehigh Valley comics shops answering call of growing demand for comic books – Allentown Morning Call
Comic books are an $18 billion industry, one that’s expected to grow to more than $27 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. While the market is dominated by customers in Asia-Pacific countries, the U.S. market continues to grow, in part bolstered by comic-related conventions and other events, Fortune said..."
Spider-Man Brand New Day at $2,345,132,864 Worldwide – The Numbers
This means Spider-Man A Brand New Million Every Day is #2 in the Top Earning Superhero Films of All Time list.
Ed Brubaker apparently in hot water with law suit alleging "Hostile Work Environment" – Hollywood Reporter
A former production assistant on upcoming crime drama series Criminal has sued Amazon MGM Studios and Big Indie Pictures, accusing the companies of turning a blind eye to a hostile work environment created by showrunner Ed Brubaker...."
Interview with Charlie Jane Anders about the new IDW Star Trek comic book – Comicsbeat
I have been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember. When I was in first or second grade, I had a Starfleet uniform shirt that I wore literally all the time, including to school. Somewhere in my pile of old trade paperbacks there’s a collection of the Gold Key Star Trek comics that I doodled all over as a little kid..."
Batman #13 rules best seller list
Story at Bleedingcool [
Encouraging literacy through comic books – Publishers Weekly
Interview with Shannon Hale "the beloved and versatile author of more than 50 books for young readers and adults."
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