Perspective: Latest Reports from The Washington Posts ‘Comic Riffs’

Here are the latest reports form The Washington Posts ‘ Comic Riffs’.

‘Wait, why are Batman and Superman fighting?’: Your ‘Dawn of Justice’ primer

AHEAD OF the Dark Knight’s showdown with the Man of Steel in this weekend’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” the hashtag #whowillwin hit Twitter. But another apt hashtag for this film could be: #whyaretheyfighting? That’s because for every comics diehard who views “Batman v Superman” and sees the heavy influence of writer-artist Frank Miller’s classic […]

‘Tom Clancy’s The Division:’ A blockbuster that strings you along nicely, but won’t surprise

Tom Clancy’s The Division Developed by: Ubisoft Massive, Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Annecy Published by: Ubisoft Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One As a game developer, Ubisoft places a premium on settings. Two of the biggest franchises in their stable, “Far Cry” and “Assassin’s Creed,” are known for their lush locations and […]

How cartoonists are tackling Obama’s historic trip to Cuba

A PRISONER hanging from the dungeon wall, or stuck in a stockade, is a stock situation in gag cartooning — a trope that can hold the reader captive. That comic premise takes on a much more biting tone, though, when deployed this week for cartoons about Cuba. President Obama, of course, is paying a historic […]

‘Batman v Superman’: How its ‘Man vs. God’ themes exert a gravitational pull on fans

“Black and blue, god vs. man, day vs. night!” — Lex Luthor TRAILERS FOR for the new “Batman v Superman” could not telegraph the symbolism more heavily. Superman seems to levitate above the earthbound Batman like a supreme being. while the Dark Knight, despite the Batsuit, appears to have his caped wings clipped by the laws […]

Today’s winning Google Doodle invoking Black Lives Matter was designed by high school sophomore

JUST LAST month, Akilah Johnson was “surprised and overwhelmed” when she learned that she was a national finalist in the “Doodle 4 Google” contest for grade-schoolers. Imagine how she feels now. Akilah, a sophomore at Eastern Senior High School in Northeast Washington, has just been named Google’s big winner in the national contest, topping the […]

‘Divergent: Allegiant’ lost the box office. Are we finally sick of young-adult dystopian movies?

HAVE WE reached the saturation level with dystopian young adult movies? The mammoth “Hunger Games” franchise (which grossed $3 billion globally) seemed to birth a new wave of copycat projects in which young, demographically ideal stars are contractually locked in for an entire trilogy or tetralogy at a time. Kid characters might die violently in these dire […]

Donald Trump will win in a landslide. *(The mind behind ‘Dilbert’ explains why.)

SCOTT ADAMS remembers just how the game turned. He was young and improving at chess, but the masterful kid across the board would outmaneuver Adams till the game seemed a runaway. Now, this kid didn’t want to just beat Adams; he wanted to embarrass his foe. “So after he’d picked away three-fourths of my pieces […]

So why isn’t there more excitement for this week’s ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’?

WITH “BATMAN v SUPERMAN” finally arriving this weekend, it’s easy to wonder: Just how did DC’s cinematic universe become the perennial runner-up to Marvel, like the kid brother who never quite catches up? It’s intriguing because, if you know your comics history, you know that DC Comics once led this two-horse race by a mile. […]

Batman versus Superman: Who has the advantage?

Two iconic characters in capes rocketed the comic-book industry into the American mainstream: Superman and Batman, twin pop-culture monuments who, though born in the late ’30s, still reign ageless. And on March 25, these Spandex heavyweights will go (Super-)mano a (Bat-)mano for the first time on the big screen, in director Zack Snyder’s “Batman v […]

‘The Simpsons’ predicted a Trump presidency 16 years ago tomorrow. The writer explains why.

SOMETIMES “The Simpsons” is like a Magic 8-Ball that can seem to hold all the answers. Peer deeply enough into the long odyssey of Homer, say, and a certain warped wisdom can float to the surface. One example resurfaced early this year, when it was remembered that David Bowie and Alan Rickman, who died within days […]

From Elektra to the Punisher: Our 5 takeaways from today’s striking new season of Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’

NETFLIX HAS made the ideal deal with Marvel’s devil. Last year, “Daredevil” launched Netflix’s fruitful collaboration to build a section of Marvel’s live-action entertainment universe. Today, the show that started it all is back for a second season (now streaming), with new producers at the helm and a faster pace in the offing. The vigilante […]

Jennifer Lawrence’s last go-round? ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ trailer teases the universe’s feature

THE HIT FILM “Deadpool” has set the stage for 20th Century Fox’s next X-Men project to enjoy a trampoline effect. Now the X-franchise needs to realize a box-office bounce. And in the new “X-Men: Apocalypse” trailer released today, we get to see a bit more deeply into how these characters hope to engage a summer audience. An ancient […]

How the nation’s humorists had the last laugh at Marco Rubio’s presidential bid

AS “Goodbye Rubio Tuesday” was trending this week, some of the nation’s cartoonists were ready to hang a name on him. And — to continue to strain the lyrical Stones vein here — some satirists still are going to miss him. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ended his bid for president Tuesday after losing even his home state. But the […]

How Charlie Cox works faster, harder, tougher for the new season of Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’

SUCCESS, Charlie Cox is learning, doesn’t beget a chance to relax. Instead, the hit status of his Marvel/Netflix show “Daredevil” only increases expectation. “It’s almost like because of the response from the first season, the pressure is on to maintain a quality and keep the show as interesting and as unique as it was in the […]

This ‘Daredevil’ actress used her karate skills to play one of TV’s toughest characters

“IF you get in my way, I’m going to kill you.” These are the words spoken by French actress Elodie Yung, in character as Elektra in the latest trailer for Netflix/Marvel’s second season of “Daredevil,” which begins streaming Friday. That dialogue is meant as a warning from Elektra to Daredevil (Charlie Cox) that things are […]

Gene Luen Yang took on Superman. Today the writer exits with a ripped, new creative muscle.

TODAY, GENE LUEN YANG ends his 10-issue run on writing the Man of Steel, as Superman’s 50th issue hitts newsstands virtual and physical. The writer and two-time National Book Award finalist (“American Born Chinese,” “Boxers & Saints”) said that the experience of writing a monthly superhero book was demanding, particularly because he comes from the world […]

‘Secret Wars’ goes hardcover, just the way this smashing Marvel event was meant to be read

Despite a few scheduling shifts and hiccups, Secret Wars — the galaxy-blasting moment that made the Marvel Universe whole again — indeed deserved to be called a comic-book “event.” The nine-issue miniseries, written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Esad Ribic (with covers by Alex Ross), has been collected in a hardcover edition that’s newly available […]

‘Doonesbury’s’ Trudeau on timely Wounded Warrior Project scandal strip: ‘Sometimes I get lucky’

IN JANUARY, when I wrote about a publisher’s creative team-up involving Wounded Warrior Project, I immediately heard from some readers who questioned the nonprofit’s financial doings, just hours before the New York Times ran a story about the organization’s alleged lavish spending. And one cartoonist who certainly seems to have his drawing hand on the […]

‘Daredevil’ actress grows into her Netflix character, even as she braces for dark turns ahead

DEBORAH ANN WOLL is braced for the dark fate that might await Karen Page, her character on Marvel/Netflix’s “Daredevil.” Woll did a deep-dive into Karen’s various comic-book storylines, and though some of those pages led her to brutal, even fatal places, she became convinced that there are endless possibilities for her role on “Daredevil,” […]

’10 Cloverfield Lane’s’ success proves it: The J.J. Abrams brand name is nearing the ‘Spielberg’ zone

HAVE YOU heard of the biggest new film in the land? Odds are if you’re reading this, you have, and “10 Cloverfield Lane” blipped onto your radar even before its impressive domestic debut over the weekend. Now — quick — had you heard of “10 Cloverfield Lane’s” director before this month? Odds are, unless you’re […]

Elektra and the Punisher report for new ‘Daredevil’ duty. But how will they fit in at Netflix?

HEADING INTO the second season of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” new producers Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez know they are working with an impressively stacked roster of superheroes. Under producer Steven DeKnight (who has moved on to the “Transformers” franchise), “Daredevil’s” much-lauded first season worked at a slow and steady pace as it built toward the transformation […]

Here’s how the rest of the world views Trump and campaign nastiness

LAST NIGHT, at the GOP debate at the University of Miami, CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked Sen. Ted Cruz whether he cared about how the rest of the world views the United States, given the nastiness of the current presidential campaigning. “Colin Powell this week said that the nasty tone of this of this presidential election is hurting […]

‘Captain America: Civil War’: How Marvel Studios just saved Spider-Man

FAN ANTICIPATION has been rewarded. Living up to expectation, Spider-Man has made his first official Marvel Cinematic Universe appearance, however briefly, in the new trailer for “Captain America: Civil War.” Spidey’s debut is preceded, of course, by so much more. In the 2 1/2-minute trailer, we get our first extensive look at the battle between friends-turned-enemies and fellow […]

New ‘Captain America: Civil War’ trailer gives a first look at the new Spider-Man

THE MARVEL filmmakers, trailers geniuses that they are, hold the biggest glimpse for last. The superheroes are picking sides in this battle over cooperating with the government, as Team Cap and Team Iron Man get ready to face off. And then suddenly, in the final seconds of the new two-and-a-half-minute trailer, a webshooter comes out […]

As the presidential election field narrows, political cartoons go deeper

THE SHARPER the presidential races come into relief, the more pointed, too, becomes the comic relief. The intensifying of the satire feels palpable. We’re ever so slowly moving past the easy clownish labels and short-fingered distractions. It’s now not enough to paint a candidate as pure cartoon or buffoon. As real numbers continue to roll […]

The New Yorker’s latest cover is a very moving view on racial tension in America

THE COVER commands you to stop, but not just because of the sign. The acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator Chris Ware (“Building Stories,” “Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth”) is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, rendering scenes that feel layered in meaning. And for this week’s issue, Ware again pulls in the reader with an […]

And the winner of the Comic Riffs 2016 Valentine’s Reader Caption Contest is….

LAST MONTH, we asked readers to share their captions for a new Valentine’s Day cartoon by our own Nick Galifianakis, and the creative entries came in by the quiverful. As Galifianakis judged this year’s caption contest, he noted that there were many variations on “stealing” the heart. There were, naturally, reams of references to the current […]

Exclusive: Rep. John Lewis on unity, Trump and his new graphic memoir, ‘March: Book Three’

REP. JOHN LEWIS, as an activist, speaks not just about “the movement,” but also in the language and sense and unshakeable cadence of movement itself. It’s the diction and conviction of moving forward; this civil-rights icon doesn’t believe in going backward. He does believe, however, in going back. Today, more than a half-century after the historic […]

‘Superhot’ review: A shooter game that’s impossible not to love

Superhot Developed by: Superhot Team Published by: Superhot Team Available on: Mac, PC, Xbox One For many, video games are more than a form of recreation. When people aren’t playing games, they’re often forming social bonds or hierarchies around them based on temperament and individual skill. (Noobz, griefers, casuals, pros — I salute you all.) […]

The story behind the art for Rep. John Lewis’s latest graphic memoir

NATE POWELL calls it “the most intensive thing I’ve ever done for a book cover.” Yet every step in a the five-month process, he says, was worth it. The art in question is the cover of the forthcoming “March: Book Three” (IDW/Top Shelf), the latest installment in the RFK Award-winning trilogy and civil-rights memoir by Rep. […]

What does it mean for the new Spider-Man movie now that Zendaya has been cast?

AHEAD OF the new Spider-Man’s debut in the forthcoming “Captain America: Civil War” (due out in May), Sony and Marvel have begun announcing who will appear in the franchise’s third reboot opposite the latest Peter Parker (Tom Holland). The new name out of the gate is Zendaya, an actress who could make a significant leap […]

How record-setting ‘Zootopia’ is the perfect film for this politically divisive campaign season

[Warning: Thar be spoilers ahead.] THE SCREENWRITERS behind Disney’s new hit “Zootopia” would seem to have the superpower of prescience, because the CGI caper has uncanny timing in reflecting the current presidential election. It’s as if the Mouse House Imagineers knew just how bitter and low this campaign season would go. “Zootopia,” in other words, might […]

Vertigo’s ‘Scalped’ gets a pilot order. But will the project get an all-Native American cast?

LAST MONTH, in the immediate wake of “Deadpool’s” R-rated success, Comic Riffs suggested other “mature content” comics that are ripe for Hollywood adaptation. We noted that one of those titles, “Scalped,” was being circled by WGN America. WGN America now announces that “Scalped” has received a pilot order. While it will be interesting to see […]

‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD:’ The best in the series

Developed by: Nintendo and Tantalus Published by: Nintendo Available on: Wii U Video games are excellent at occupying our time, but it’s rare for them to keep us company. They are designed to feed obsession, swallowing hundreds of hours in minute-long increments in an effort to reach some unreachable point of mastery. It’s rare for […]

If you’re an artist, you usually need a George Martin to reach your potential

WE ALL could use a George Martin. Scratch that. Most artists I know positively need a George Martin. The legendary music producer, who died Tuesday at age 90, helped numerous musical and comedy acts over the decades, and is most known for fostering the Beatles’ musical genius. The connection between artist and collaborator thrives out of our view. Martin […]

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s preview of his Black Panther comic is a leap in the right direction
“Can a good man be a king, and would an advanced society tolerate a monarch?”Two sentences. That’s all I needed from Ta-Nehisi Coates to get the feeling that the Black Panther, still the black superhero, was in good hands.Read full article >>

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s preview of his Black Panther comic is a leap in the right direction

“Can a good man be a king, and would an advanced society tolerate a monarch?” Two sentences. That’s all I needed from Ta-Nehisi Coates to get the feeling that the Black Panther, still the black superhero, was in good hands. In an exclusive to the Atlantic, Coates debuted the first six completed pages of his upcoming […]

If you’re an artist, you usually need a George Martin to reach your potential
WE ALL could use a George Martin.Scratch that. Most artists I know positively need a George Martin.The legendary music producer, who died Tuesday at age 90, helped numerous musical and comedy acts over the decades, and is most known for fostering the Beatles’ musical genius.Read full article >>

‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD:’ The best in the series
Developed by: Nintendo and Tantalus Published by: Nintendo Available on: Wii UVideo games are excellent at occupying our time, but it’s rare for them to keep us company. They are designed to feed obsession, swallowing hundreds of hours in minute-long increments in an effort to reach some unreachable point of mastery. It’s rare for a game to feel like a comfort one can dip into for a few moments of companionship. And the best games are able to offer that comforting companionship without needing to be played repeatedly. When I started “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD” it had been almost 10 years since I’d last played it, but I’d never really stopped thinking about it. It reappeared like a familiar face, creased with age but also timeless, its beauty easier to see without the facade of hype and novelty.Read full article >>

Vertigo’s ‘Scalped’ gets a pilot order. But will the project get an all-Native American cast?
LAST MONTH, in the immediate wake of “Deadpool’s” R-rated success, Comic Riffs suggested other “mature content” comics that are ripe for Hollywood adaptation. We noted that one of those titles, “Scalped,” was being circled by WGN America.Read full article >>

How record-setting ‘Zootopia’ is the perfect film for this politically divisive campaign season
[Warning: Thar be spoilers ahead.]THE SCREENWRITERS behind Disney’s new hit “Zootopia” would seem to have the superpower of prescience, because the CGI caper has uncanny timing in reflecting the current presidential election. It’s as if the Mouse House Imagineers knew just how bitter and low this campaign season would go.Read full article >>

What does it mean for the new Spider-Man movie now that Zendaya has been cast?
AHEAD OF the new Spider-Man’s debut in the forthcoming “Captain America: Civil War” (due out in May), Sony and Marvel have begun announcing who will appear in the franchise’s third reboot opposite the latest Peter Parker (Tom Holland). The new name out of the gate is Zendaya, an actress who could make a significant leap for the 2017 standalone Spider-Man film.Read full article >>

The story behind the art for Rep. John Lewis’s latest graphic memoir
NATE POWELL calls it “the most intensive thing I’ve ever done for a book cover.” Yet every step in a the five-month process, he says, was worth it.The art in question is the cover of the forthcoming “March: Book Three” (IDW/Top Shelf), the latest installment in the RFK Award-winning trilogy and civil-rights memoir by Rep. John Lewis (co-authored by Andrew Aydin). The cover depicts the 1965 violent showdown in Selma, and today, on the 51st anniversary of that “Bloody Sunday,” The Post’s Comic Riffs offers the exclusive first “sneak peek” at that art.Read full article >>

‘Superhot’ review: A shooter game that’s impossible not to love
Superhot Developed by: Superhot Team Published by: Superhot Team Available on: Mac, PC, Xbox OneFor many, video games are more than a form of recreation. When people aren’t playing games, they’re often forming social bonds or hierarchies around them based on temperament and individual skill. (Noobz, griefers, casuals, pros — I salute you all.) I doubt I’m the only one who first went online in the early 90s and made a beeline to the video game message boards. The creators of video games know their audience and recognize that their products function as community-building platforms.Read full article >>

Exclusive: Rep. John Lewis on Trump and his new memoir, ‘March: Book Three’
REP. JOHN LEWIS, as an activist, speaks not just about “the movement,” but also in the language and sense and unshakeable cadence of movement itself. It’s the diction and conviction of moving forward; this civil-rights icon doesn’t believe in going backward. He does believe, however, in going back.Read full article >>

And the winner of the Comic Riffs 2016 Valentine’s Reader Caption Contest is….
LAST MONTH, we asked readers to share their captions for a new Valentine’s Day cartoon by our own Nick Galifianakis, and the creative entries came in by the quiverful.As Galifianakis judged this year’s caption contest, he noted that there were many variations on “stealing” the heart. There were, naturally, reams of references to the current political landscape. There was even an impassioned note from a criminal defense attorney, hoping to shed light on the plight of incarcerated children.Read full article >>

Miles Morales’s most heroic stand as Spider-Man? The moment he embraces his biracial identity
IT TOOK only took two issues into his new Marvel series for Miles Morales to take a stand on a serious issue.Miles is now officially a part of Marvel’s singular post-Secret Wars universe, and a member of the Avengers. And the move to the big time has put Miles under a bigger public microscope.Read full article >>

Quote of the day: ‘Inside Out’s’ Pete Docter, on that inspiring Oscars speech to ‘make stuff’
MOST ACADEMY AWARD winners, at least those who haven’t been mauled by a CGI bear, are given very little time to make a speech during the ceremony proper. So it’s especially one neat feat when a recipient can say a lot in very few words.Read full article >>

Now you can design the new U.S. Silver Dollar coin
IT’S TIME to put their money where your inspiration is.Instead of a usual closed commission, the decision-makers at the U.S. Mint have chosen to open up their newest creative project to the masses. To make some coin, you need only be the one chosen to make their coin.Read full article >>

Super Toons-day: Here’s how cartoonists are making fun of Trump and Clinton
IT’S FINALLYSuper Tuesday, the mega-state melee when each remaining candidate heatedly points fingers, no matter their length. The political playground has become a sandbox, and you never know quite how low that rhetorical quicksand goes.Read full article >>

This director won an Oscar for a movie inspired by his grandfather’s painful disappearance
POLITICS AND CAUSES laced many an Oscars acceptance speech Sunday night, as celebrities used the global platform to raise awareness about sexual and child abuse, racial and gender discrimination and climate change. But one bittersweet film holds within its creative heart a source of less overt political intensity — one that may escape the viewer’s eye.Read full article >>

Oscars 2016: Animation proves to be as diverse as ever
CHRIS ROCK, as a veteran voice of the “Madagascar” series, has to know that animation is often a better reflection of diversity than much of Hollywood.That fact might not have fit neatly into the #OscarsSoWhite narrative that the host mined for laughs and his larger platform, but the animation categories stayed true to form in that regard on Sunday night.Read full article >>

‘Far Cry: Primal’ follows the tried and true Ubisoft formula for success
Far Cry: Primal Developed by: Ubisoft Published by: Ubisoft Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox OneOn a recent rainy afternoon, I re-watched Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” which reverently presents images from the Chauvet Cave in France. Closed to the general public, the place houses the oldest human art ever found: wall paintings, some of which date back over 30,000 years. Pondering the dizzying gulf of time that separates us from those elusive artists Herzog says “We are locked in history, and they were not.” Hearing his words, the imagination can’t help but take flight. We know that the people who painted those rock surfaces with woolly mammoths and other animals existed, but otherwise, they fall outside our sense of time.Read full article >>

Oscars 2016: Which movie poster wins best picture?
OF THE MANY disparate disciplines within the apparatus of Hollywood craft, the one that often aims to capture our eyes first involves the art of the best picture.Not best picture, which the Academy Awards will crown this weekend, but rather: What telling pictorial attributes of a best poster most compel you to see the film it’s selling?Read full article >>

He once made a pilgrimage to see Herblock. Today, ‘pretty emotional’ artist wins Herblock Prize.
MARK FIORE was in college, eager and career-anxious, when he made the pilgrimage.“I was a nervous young kid who wanted to be a political cartoonist more than anything,” Fiore remembers. It was the early ‘90s, while he was attending Colorado College, and he had decided to head to Washington to meet the legend.Read full article >>

TV recap: How ‘The Flash’ coyly unmasks more questions than answers
Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen last night’s episode of “The Flash” and don’t want to know the secret identity of Zoom, turn away. Now. ET TU, Jay Garrick?Perhaps you’re feeling a bit heartbroken since it was revealed during last night’s “The Flash” that Zoom, the central villain of Season 2, is none other than….Jay Garrick?!Read full article >>

The Oscars: How ‘Spotlight’ is a master class in the art of visual nuance
I LIVE for composition. Whether staring at a still-life or gazing at the glow of a projected image in motion, there is something beguiling about the balance of objects created in space and manipulated to trip the wires of our minds. To decode composition is to understand what the artist is saying without words; you are invited to join in this telepathic dance.Read full article >>

Frank Miller on his ‘Dark Knight Returns’ 30 years later: ‘I was rooting for Batman all the way’
IT WAS “devastating,” Frank Miller says. That is how the comics legend describes, with intentional hyperbolic flair, the event that helped him script and draw one of the greatest Batman tales ever told.Read full article >>

How ‘Deadpool’s’ record box office kicks off the Year of the Superhero Team-Up
LO, IN THE Mesozoic era of The Superhero Movie in decades past, the caped crimefighter could stand alone in a film, one well-known name usually enough to stir curious filmgoers into a state of flock-and-awe. But as the cinematic superhero evolves, it is just that sort of fading solo-hero approach that “Deadpool” so knowingly mocks with one dead-on jab.Read full article >>

‘Fire Emblem: Fates’ is a shockingly captivating JRPG
Fire Emblem: Fates Developed by: Intelligent Systems Published by: Nintendo Available on: Nintendo 3DSI have a secret. The last classic-style JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) I finished was “Shining Force,” a relic of the 16-bit era. I apologize. I’ve never played “Final Fantasy VII.” Cloud Strife means nothing to me.  And it gets worse. Though I’m an admirer of Hayao Miyazaki, I couldn’t bring myself to finish the demo for “Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.” When I think about why I’ve overlooked such a slice of the gaming scene for decades, I’m left guessing.Read full article >>

Stan Lee calls ‘Deadpool’ among ‘the best’ of his many movie cameos
IT IS surely Stan Lee’s most adult cameo yet, putting the bold “R” in racy.As comics’ best-known global ambassador, the Marvel mastermind has famously made cameos in dozens of films, most often when a Marvel character has swung into action. But his latest, in Fox’s smash hit “Deadpool,” is arguably his most eyebrow-raising: The legendary nonagenarian spins the discs as a strip-club DJ who sets up a “chastity” joke.Read full article >>

Inside sketchbook: How a Post artist builds a still-life ‘toy painting,’ step by step.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Comic Riffs asked Washington Post artist and designer Mark Giaimo to illuminate how he creates his still-life paintings — what he likes to call “toy lifes.” Here is a step-by-step look at he approaches a new canvas.Read full article >>

Why ‘Deadpool’ is actually a western
EMERGING FROM a second viewing of “Deadpool” this week, as I aim to deconstruct just what makes this huge hit tick beneath its sex and violence and “Adventure Time” wrist watch, I began to remember what Steven Spielberg recently predicted.Read full article >>

How Justice Scalia’s death got politically bitter so quickly, illustrated
THIS IS the inevitable reaction that circles a political figure’s death. Before the first dirge notes can even be played, the polarization plays out in the memorializing of the man. But what has played out so far since last weekend’s passing of Justice Antonin Scalia has hurtled forth with rather startling rapidity, like a caisson careering downhill, out of control. To the point that even the politicization of his passing has itself become politicized.Read full article >>

These are the ‘R-rated’ comics that Hollywood should put on screen next
BY MORE THAN doubling studio expectations for its opening-weekend success, “Deadpool” hasn’t simply opened the Hollywood portal to a potential new array of X-character stories. The Ryan Reynolds passion project will also surely open the film industry’s eyes to the massive market for R-rated comic-book adaptations.Read full article >>

‘Daredevil’ teases new season with philosophical battle more brutal than any presidential debate
SOMETIMES the devil’s due is a fresh punishment.Netflix and Marvel have released a new trailer for Season 2 of “Daredevil,” which debuts March 18, and in it we see a battle — for the very soul of Hell’s Kitchen’s — that pits two of Marvel’s darkest vigilantes.Read full article >>

How ‘Deadpool’s’ massive opening has just redefined the future of the R-rated superhero film
IT’S A TWIST of nomenclature worthy of a comic book. If you were going to cast a costumed man to help redefine what an “R” can pull off in Hollywood, it might seem too far-fetched — too perfectly neat or on the nose — that his own initials be a triple-R.Read full article >>

Valentine’s reader cartoon contest: Write a great caption and win this Nick Galifianakis art!
IT’S BACK!Ever since Comic Riffs’s first Valentine’s Day Reader Cartoon Caption, you’ve responded by the hundreds with your witty and funny and dry and punning and sometimes off-color offerings. And fortunately, we relish all of the above. So now, with V-Day 2016 upon us this weekend, we again unfurl cartoon Cupid’s pink-and-red carpet.Read full article >>

Welcome back to the A-list, Ryan Reynolds
WELCOME BACK, Mr. Reynolds. It’s so good, after so long, to see you with a hot career once again. Because now, thanks to “Deadpool,” we can embrace the return of the old you like some prodigal son of a — um — gun.Read full article >>

See Batman and Superman ratchet up the action with one last ‘Dawn of Justice’ trailer tease
JUST WEEKS away from the film’s release, Warner Bros. and director Zack Snyder have dropped one more trailer for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” And so we click with one foremost question: What could possibly top the last trailer, which revealed the presence of none other than Doomsday, DC Comics’s classic bad guy/Superman killer?Read full article >>

‘Firewatch’ review: The mix of subjects will appeal to office-bound dreamers everywhere
Firewatch Developed by: Campo Santo Published by: Panic Available on: Mac, PC, PlayStation 4Long before I started writing about video games, I noticed that my friends and I would sometimes refer to such software as what we were working on: as in, “I’m still working on getting the diplomacy ending in “Civilization IV.” Video games blur the relationship between entertainment and work. They demand time and concentration like other art forms but moving among them — especially leapfrogging between genres — often requires the accumulation of new skills and the establishment of long and short-term goals. When one also considers that games are typically the products of intensive labor practices, it seems only logical that more game designers should look toward the subject of work as an inspiration for their projects.Read full article >>

Why debate artist Ann Telnaes loves to live-sketch Clinton, and why she’ll miss Christie
WHEN ANOTHER campaign debate rolls around, Ann Telnaes stocks up.Pencils? Check.Brushes? Yep.Read full article >>

Ryan Reynolds has found the perfect superhero-film suit and four other fanboy takeaways from ‘Deadpool’
AMONG MANY of his comic-book fans, Ryan Reynolds had two strikes on him.First, he had swung and missed in 2009’s misguided “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Through no fault of Reynolds, the “Merc With a Mouth” was inexplicably saddled with sewn-up lips. Plus, bizarrely, an entire katana blade emerged from his wrist. That was enough evidence for many of us to suddenly hope that a stand-alone Deadpool film would never get made.Read full article >>

Is there a ‘special place in hell’ for these cartoons about the New Hampshire primary?
YOU KNOW the presidential race is really heating up when, between Madeleine Albright’s “special place in hell” damnations and Gloria Steinem’s “where the boys are” accusations, apparently Bernie-backing women can expect everything to go to hell in a gland-basket.Read full article >>

The definitive rankings of superhero acting styles, from stiffest to Ryan Reynolds
NOWHERE IN Hollywood can the question “What suits your talents?” be applied more literally than in the world of superhero casting. Cartoon costuming and character traits are so closely interwoven that actors not only must fit the uniform, but also possess an acting style that befits their comics-sprung crimefighter.Read full article >>

With a nod to Alan Moore, here’s how ‘Supergirl’ just gave us one of its best episodes yet
“FOR THE Man Who Has Everything” is one of Superman’s classic tales, told more than 30 years ago by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, the same legendary comic-book duo who gave us “Watchmen.” Last night, CBS’s “Supergirl,” channeled that Moore and Gibbons story — and gave us one of the show’s best episodes yet.Read full article >>

How one Batman writer conquered the concern: ‘What if everybody hates it?’
SCOTT SNYDER has long said that the day would come when he would write the big return — when Bruce Wayne would go back to being Batman. But even such long-view awareness could not allay the author’s trepidation.Read full article >>

‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’: Do we want another superhero team-up? Time (travel) will tell.
Wait. Are these guys really legends?You may well ask yourself that upon first seeing the CW’s next superheroes show, “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” which debuts tonight at 8.“Legends” is a direct extension of Greg Berlanti’s connected TV universes of the CW’s other superhero hits, “Arrow” and “The Flash.” The new show rounds up CW heroes who are co-stars elsewhere, but who individually might not be able to carry a show. When thrown together quite (literally — they are all technologically bonked on the head and given the option to become heroes in the time-stream), these characters have the makings of, well — not the Justice League, but certainly a team that can get the job done.Read full article >>

From hip hop to politics: Four cartoonists confirmed for this fall’s National Book Festival
TWO GRAPHIC NOVELISTS who plumb the dynamics of culture, and two editorial cartoonists who plunge into the culture of politics, have been confirmed for September’s National Book Festival, the Library of Congress is announcing.Read full article >>

Hollywood won’t give biracial Spider-Man a shot? These enterprising filmmakers come to the rescue.
WHEN THE future of Spider-Man’s next feature-film identity seemed still up for debate, a group of Washington-area filmmakers took notice and waited.Some rumors suggested Marvel Studios, having recently acquired rights from Sony to share the character between the studios, was considering using Miles Morales as the Spider-Man who would team with the Avengers. But that ended up not happening. Tom Holland was cast to play Peter Parker, and is set to make his first appearance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming “Captain America: Civil War” movie.Read full article >>

‘Supergirl’ recap: Amid workplace drama, who’s the Manhunter and who’s the man-hunter?
Mars attacks? No problem.The boss has an attractive son? Uh-oh.First things first: Monday night’s”Supergirl” had the Girl of Steel caught in the crossfire of a Martian civil war brought to Earth. White Martians have arrived with one mission: Destroy the hidden Martian Manhunter (who we now know disguises himself as Supergirl’s government ally Hank Henshaw).Read full article >>

Marvel gave its amputee superhero prosthetic legs — with the help of an Iraq War vet
DAN NEVINS knows the little things that only an amputee would know — like what it does to your mind when you no longer sense the Earth beneath you.Which made Nevins — who was wounded in Iraq in 2004 — the perfect person to inform an otherworldly new story.Read full article >>

TV recap: The reverse plot twists fly fast in this week’s ‘The Flash’
IF YOU thought the return of Eobard Thawne on Tuesday night’s “The Flash” was going to add one yellow blur of a plot twist for the rest of Season 2, well … the reverse happened.Yes, the Reverse Flash was back (just as advertised in previews and online images). Not only was this the real deal Eobard (actor Matt Letscher, instead of Tom Cavanagh’s Harrison Wells); it was also a Reverse Flash from another time. A time when he had yet to be defeated by Team Flash (when his distant relative Eddie Thawne killed himself to make the Reverse Flash not exist).Read full article >>

Can Marvel and Star Wars franchises go on till … ‘forever’?
IN 2009, when Disney struck a $4-billion deal to buy Marvel, I asked the company’s mastermind editor and co-creator Stan Lee to size up the meaning behind the moolah. Just what was the Mouse House getting, exactly?Read full article >>

Whether it’s Angouleme or the Oscars, credibility wanes if diversity does
AFTER THE debacle in which judges saw fit to nominate no women, Angoulême moves on even as it opens up.The esteemed international comics festival begins today as it joyously takes over the French town for which it’s named. And the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée (FIBD), which needed several attempts to right its course after all 30 lifetime-achievement award candidates named earlier this month were male, has just named its winner of the prestigious honor.Read full article >>

As Jason Rezaian returns, an imprisoned political cartoonist is still in Iran
AS JASON REZAIAN walks the halls of The Post’s gleaming home this week, saluted and celebrated by colleagues and administration officials, I smile at his homecoming after 18 months in an Iranian prison. But today, my thoughts are also with a woman who reportedly still sits in the prison that Jason just exited.Read full article >>

Exclusive: Creators launch ‘Black’ comic Kickstarter to move beyond ‘Cosby Show,’ ‘cookie-cutter’ diversity
IT’S NO LONGER difficult to find diversity among comic-book crusaders, of course, what with major comic book publishers tossing the mantles of some of the most well-known superheroes onto the shoulders of characters of color. But do these new heroes bring about significant change in the worlds they inhabit?Read full article >>

Exclusive: ‘Lunar Chronicles’ author Marissa Meyer will write her first graphic novel — with androids
MARISSA MEYER is bringing her intergalactic characters into a new dimension.Meyer is the author of “The Lunar Chronicles,” the series of YA sci-fi novels that sits atop the bestseller lists, in stellar company with “The Mazerunner,” “Divergent” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” And now, surely to much rejoicing soon by her legions of fans, the Washington state-based author is entering the graphic-novel market.Read full article >>

‘The Witness’ review: A daunting, confounding, maddening, and beautiful game
The Witness Developed by: Thekla Inc. Published by: Thekla Inc. Available on: PC, PlayStation 4Like most who have played an immodest number of video games, there are many I never completed.  The majority of those unfulfilled ventures I hardly think about. And, though I may never find eternal rest if I don’t finish reading “The Man Without Qualities,” I suppose I’ll scrape by if I don’t reach the credits of every Zelda game (and, hand over heart, I fancy Zelda plenty.)  But I’ve never spoken to anyone about how I’ve yet to reach the conclusion of “Braid” (2008) without broadcasting a pang of regret.Read full article >>

Haven’t watched DC’s animated Batman? New ‘Bad Blood’ is the most dynamic reason to begin
ONCE AGAIN, with care, DC Comics has taken a Batman tale from the comics and transformed it into an animated movie worth watching.Following in the cartoon boot-steps of such movies as “Batman and Son” (based on comics from Grant Morrison) and “Batman vs. Robin” (based on Scott Snyder’s Night of the Owls storyline), “Batman: Bad Blood” succeeds in being the best Batman animated movie yet. And that’s with Batman often being off-camera in this new story.Read full article >>

From sexism to ‘fake awards’ prank, the Angoulême festival needs an intervention
WITHIN THE span of mere days, France’s Angoulême comics festival put on such a poor face before the world’s comics industry, it should have considered instead donning mime makeup — and stayed suitably silent.Read full article >>

Marvel’s top editor sketches out the details for its next big event: ‘Civil War II’
AXEL ALONSO, as Marvel Comics’ editor in chief, was in a meeting with senior editors and his publisher when the question was posed to him: What would he do if the Marvel Universe had another Civil War.Read full article >>

Trump’s humble pie and Clinton’s pseudo-crown: How cartoonists drew the Iowa caucus results
DONALD TRUMP entered Iowa as a big-talking strip of New York sirloin. He exited as a second side order of high corn.Still, he remains undiminished as satiric red meat. The steely knives of America’s political cartoonists are close by, primed for serrated illustration.Read full article >>

There could be a Google Doodle invoking Black Lives Matter, thanks to this student
FOR THE first time, a Washington winner is in the running to be crowned the national champ as a student artist for Google.Today, the California tech titan is announcing the 53 state and territory winners for the Doodle 4 Google contest for grade-schoolers. In years past, D.C. was not eligible to enter the states-only competition. (Comic Riffs joined the chorus of voices urging that the District be included.)Read full article >>

How Deadpool survived the ’90s, a decade when most new comics superheroes faded away
PERHAPS EVEN more impressive than mutant regenerative abilities or ninja-level skills with katana blades, Deadpool has one super-power that now seems to stand above the rest:The “Merc With a Mouth” somehow survived the ’90s.Read full article >>

All of your pressing ‘Deadpool’ questions answered
THE LONG-GESTATING “Deadpool” film arrives in theaters this weekend with so many questions. Has Ryan Reynolds found the right comeback vehicle? Does 20th Century Fox need to shed all its superhero films that don’t involve mutants? Can quarter-century-old comic-book tricks feel fresh again when adapted for the screen? And of course, do you dare take the (older) kids to this visual orgy of stylized violence punctuated by sexual one-liners?Read full article >>