Report
45 CommentsMarvel Games declares war on homogeneity
Marvel Games' creative director Bill Rosemann used his DICE keynote earlier today to urge games companies to focus on inclusiveness and diversity.
Like Jeff Kaplan's Overwatch keynote yesterday, Rosemann chose to use the DICE 2017 theme of "world building" as an opportunity to celebrate inclusivity. Taking Marvel's history of creating great superheroes as his central narrative, he called on developers to step up.
"We can create worlds that affect others," he said. "When you go back to your studios and your teams and it's time to make decisions about the worlds you build, be like Spider-Man and realize the power we have and use it wisely. Be like Captain America and do the right thing."
Marvel
Guardians of the Galaxy
In an interview with Polygon after his...
Cover Story
Issue
26
February 27, 2017
What the game industry thinks of Nintendo’s Switch
We talk with third-party developers and industry executives about what to expect.
Read moreMovies
12 CommentsWarner Bros. is giving a solo Nightwing film to The Lego Batman Movie director
Director Chris McKay, fresh off The Lego Batman Movie, is in negotiations to reprise his turn on some of the DC Universe’s most famous characters. The Hollywood Reporter announced today that McKay is negotiations to helm a stand-alone, live-action film about Nightwing, the superhero formerly known as Robin.
There have been many Robins over the years, but there is only one Nightwing (generally speaking): Dick Grayson, the first teenager to make up the younger half of Batman’s Dynamic Duo. Grayson was Robin from 1940, a year after Batman’s own debut, until 1984, when he was aged up a bit and branched off on his own under the code name Nightwing.
Warner Bros. has already tasked screenwriter Bill Dubuque (The Accountant, The Judge) with crafting a script for the as-yet unnamed film. The...
News
5 CommentsAtari’s bringing back its Swordquest comics
More than 30 years ago, Atari and DC Comics teamed up to release a series of video games for the Atari 2600, Swordquest, that tied into comic books published by DC. The Swordquest series was memorable for two main reasons: Atari held a competition through the games, promising $150,000 in prizes to players who solved their puzzles, and the fourth game in the series never came out, due to Atari’s financial problems.
But Swordquest is coming back, at least in comic book form, thanks to Dynamite Entertainment.
The original Swordquest comics were packed in with the three released Atari 2600 games: Swordquest EarthWorld, Swordquest FireWorld and Swordquest WaterWorld. The comics helped explain the plot of each Swordquest game and included clues that would help players solve the...
Issue at Hand
26 CommentsComics have a big problem: They’re sold all wrong
There’s something broken about the comics industry in America, and it’s been broken ever since comics stopped being readily available at any newsstand — and when a single company got its hands on the exclusive rights to print and ship the books of every major comic publisher in the United States.
That particular knot of business ties, logistical constraints and publishing customs is the subject of the latest episode of Issue at Hand, Polygon’s series about the weird world of comic books, where I explain the best way to buy comic books.
It should be an easy thing to explain, but it’s not. The way monthly comic books are shipped in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom forces retailers to be incredibly conservative in what they buy and minimizes the purchases of casual...
Comics
0 CommentsBaby Groot is getting his own comic, just in time for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
At an annual meeting with retailers today, Marvel Comics announced that everybody’s favorite Vin Diesel-voiced, monosyllabic character — give or take an Iron Giant — will get his own comic series.
It’s hard to say that Groot was the breakout star of Guardians of the Galaxy, considering that the majority of the film’s characters were completely unknown to audiences outside of entrenched comic book fans, but Baby Groot certainly stands to be the breakout character of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Fans have been playing a dedicated game of locating the tiny character — all that was left of the massive Groot after his heroic sacrifice in Guardians of the Galaxy — in every new official photo, teaser and trailer from the movie.
I Am Groot will focus on a small Groot, stranded on a strange...
Comics
6 CommentsDragon Age: Knight Errant takes us back to Kirkwall
Yesterday we brought you the news of a brand new Mass Effect comic, and today we’re doing much the same — but with BioWare’s other blockbuster RPG franchise, Dragon Age.
In the latest in a long series of collaborations, Dark Horse Comics will be publishing Dragon Age: Knight Errant, a five-issue series about the elven thief Vaea, who arrives in Kirkwall just in time for the appointment of the beleaguered city’s latest Viscount — dwarven adventurer, professional second son and bestselling author, Varric Tethras.
Dark Horse has given Polygon a sneak peek of the comic’s first cover, interior art, and story. Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, with art by Fernando Heinz Furukawa and covers by Sachin Teng, Knight Errant’s first issue will hit shelves on May 10, 2017. Teng also...
Comics
8 CommentsYour first look inside Mass Effect: Discovery, the first Mass Effect: Andromeda comic (update)
Mass Effect: Andromeda will hit stores on March 21, and just a few short weeks later, BioWare will publish its first expansion on the story of the long-awaited game, Mass Effect: Discovery.
Created as a part of the game publisher’s longstanding relationship with Dark Horse Comics, we now know that Discovery will follow a Turian soldier going undercover in the Andromeda Initiative — a private multi-species coalition seeking to travel beyond the Milky Way to the Andromeda galaxy.
And courtesy of Dark Horse, Polygon can reveal a sneak peek of the comic right here. The first of five issues of Mass Effect: Discovery, written by Jeremy Barlow with art by Fabriel Guzman and Michael Atiyeh, will hit shelves on April 12, 2017.
Update: Dark Horse has sent Polygon corrected information on Mass...
TV
2 CommentsMarvel’s Legion, explained
There are dozens of solid story lines and characters that FOX could have spun out of the X-Men franchise for an ongoing TV series. They chose Legion, which airs tomorrow, Feb 8, on FX.
Legion is an odd, but bold choice. At best, he's a tragic, multi-layered former supervillain with incredible powers. At worst, he's yet another figure that demonizes those with mental illness. But either way, Legion is not a very well-known character, particularly if you haven't been keeping up with Marvel comics in the last decade. We're here to help.
David Haller is a mutant — as in X-Men, mutant. While he appears alongside (and against) many of the X-Men in Marvel comics, the FX show will take place in an unconnected universe to the established films. “The US government is in the early days of being...
TV
19 CommentsLegion review: a terrifying funhouse that redefines what a Marvel show can be
One of the best new TV series this season
Issue at Hand
25 CommentsBatman’s had five Robins — here’s why
For one of the most famous superheroes in the world, Robin has featured in big screen Batman movies a surprisingly small number of times. It’s almost as if there’s something about our modern idea of Batman that’s at odds with a wise-cracking teenager wearing primary colors.
The perception that Batman spent most, or even any significant part, of his career as a lone vigilante simply isn’t true, and this week’s episode of Issue at Hand, Polygon’s show about the weird world of comics, is all about busting up that myth.
There are really only a handful years in of Batman’s more than 75 year history where there wasn’t some kid or another serving as the Dark Knight’s kid sidekick, from Dick Grayson to Jason Todd to Tim Drake, Damian Wayne and Stephanie Brown. And if you’ve never heard of...
Opinion
12 CommentsThe New York Times gave up on graphic novels
Comics critics, retailers, creators and fans were rocked this morning by a sudden shakeup in The New York Times’ best seller lists. After eight years, with no warning and little explanation, the paper has decided to stop compiling and printing its Hardcover Graphic Novel, Paperback Graphic Novel and Manga best seller lists.
When asked for comment, The Times gave a statement to The Beat, saying:
“Beginning February 5, The New York Times will eliminate a number of print but mostly online-only bestseller lists. In recent years, we introduced a number of new lists as an experiment, many of which are being discontinued.”
Among the lists The New York Times will be keeping on are “10 Children’s Young Adult Hardcover Chapter Books” and “Advice Miscellaneous.”
OK, look, do you know what ‘The...
Opinion
35 CommentsRiverdale frames statutory rape as a sexy forbidden romance
This week, the CW premieres its new teen drama, Riverdale, based on the Archie Comics characters who first appeared in 1941. We’ll see Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica in a new light as they toss their cheerful, child-friendly comic origins for a grittier, sexier Gossip Girl feel.
For anyone who’s kept up with Archie, they’ll know this isn’t totally out of left field for the gang. Like with all comic series, the kids of Riverdale have been reincarnated in so many forms it’s hard to keep track. The Life with Archie comic series saw Archie marrying either Betty or Veronica and getting shot and killed by the close of the final issue. They’ve met the Punisher, Barack Obama, the cast of Glee and fought off the Predator and Sharknado. The Afterlife with Archie series even sets the gang in...
Culture
1 CommentArchie out of Context shows off the mature side of Archie characters
Archie Comics has been rather safe comic-book humor for almost 80 years now. It gets a lot edgier when certain panels are taken completely out of context, leaving the reader to form a risque assumption
Ashleigh Rajala, a 33-year-old filmmaker from Vancouver, started the Archie out of Context Tumblr to highlight some of the funnier scenarios. Rajala started collecting different comics, using editions from each decade Archie ran, and began posting them online.
“About five or six years ago, I shared a house in Vancouver with five other roommates,” Rajala said in an interview with Polygon. “One of them, when she was unpacking, found a couple of Archie comics from her childhood in a random box. For the next couple months, we slowly acquired Archie comics from various sources, including my...
Comics
5 CommentsWhat was the New 52?
It’s been a rocky road for DC Comics for the past few years, to say the least. Struggling sales, editorial hurdles and a newly rebooted universe that still felt unsettled after more than four years of work (not to mention a parent company doing its worst to produce a cinematic universe based on the company’s properties).
“We were met at a couple of panels with a level of apathy that I hadn't seen for a very long time,” DC co-publisher Dan DiDio has said of the company’s presence at 2015’s New York Comic-Con. “There was a disconnect with the fan base, more than we’d even perceived. It felt palpable.”
But the DC universe turned a major corner this year, and we wouldn’t be Issue at Hand, Polygon’s video series about the weird world of comics, if we didn’t explain to you exactly how it was...
Comics
8 CommentsAdventure Time gets spectacular with Marshall Lee
Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time has a huge, delightfully weird underbelly — and the most popular of those is undoubtedly the version of the show where all the characters’ genders have been flipped. And also Jake is a cat named Cake.
It’s a universe where Princess Bubblegum is Prince Gumball and Marceline the Vampire Queen is Marshall Lee the Vampire King, and that’s precisely whom Adventure Time Marshall Lee Spectacular is all about.
Available on Jan. 18 on Comixology, the Marshall Lee Spectacular is a collaboration between the digital comics retailer, Cartoon Network Enterprises and Boom! Studios, the comic book home of Adventure Time. It’s one of three books launching with the Comixology Originals program, meaning that it will only be available through Comixology and Kindle —...
Movies
11 CommentsGreen Lantern Corps movie will be ‘Lethal Weapon in space’
Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern Corps may not be due to hit screens until 2020, but the movie has a redefined concept and a new writing team as of today, according to Deadline. David Goyer, of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, will co-write and produce.
Justin Rhodes (Contract Killers) will also co-write, with Jon Berg and Geoff Johns — the recently appointed co-runners of the DC Expanded Universe — to executive produce.
Deadline also has a slightly more detailed and redefined version of the film’s concept:
The new version is described as Lethal Weapon in space, and it’s based on a comic book origin story. The focus will be on two characters: Hal Jordan and John Stewart. The latter is an African American Marine sniper before he joined...
Culture
38 CommentsMark Hamill reads a Trump tweet as the Joker, and it’s perfect
On Twitter, Donald Trump's megalomaniacal cadence and vocabulary make him a perfect match for a cartoon supervillain. Mark Hamill thinks so, too, and brightens our day with this tweet, done in the style of his iconic Joker.
The Trumpster quote #1#ANewJeersToast https://t.co/qZQEGU18r6— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) January 8, 2017
The tweet he’s referencing is this one. Now, Hamill reading soybean futures in The Wall Street Journal as The Joker, a role he's made famous in cartoons and video games over the past 25 years, would be awesome. But the Joker's self-satisfied chortling and lingering fascination with his own voice imbue that Trump tweet with more meaning than hearing it in Trump's voice would.
In an interview with Polygon back in November, Hamill made it clear that he's no...
Active Discussions
Nintendo, often dismissed as being "kiddy", has actually made the best console for adults
in Nintendo Switch by silellak
Polygon Weekly: March 13 - March 19, 2017
in Off-topic by James Elliott
Anime, Cartoons, Comics! Plight Vol. 4 No. 10: An Alternative Memory
in Off-topic by Cobaltios
Notifications and Flags
in Meta by KAllenBoone
Subject: Sport video game special contributor
in PlayStation 4 by Chananya Freedman