Alex Segura might be the nicest guy in crime fiction. He cheers on his fellow writers and enthusiastically recommends books, comics, and music. In his entertaining newsletter, Stuff & Nonsense, he chats with all sorts from the crime fiction and comic worlds. By day, he is Senior Vice President of Publicity and Marketing at Archie…
Before their film and television studios became entertainment powerhouses, Marvel Comics sold the rights to their characters to a number of different studios. Over the years, those rights have reverted back to Marvel, allowing them to introduce and incorporate a number of fan-favorite characters into their ever growing Cinematic Universe. Last year, Marvel Cinematic Universe…
In the current storyline in DC’s Batman and Detective Comics, Jim Gordon’s shaved his mustache, ditched the overcoat, and done some serious body sculpting for his new job—the pilot of a new robotic Batman suit that is protecting Gotham, because the real Batman is feared dead from a final confrontation with the Joker. I thought…
Noir has long been a male bastion in comics, from Frank Miller reimagining Daredevil and Batman to Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka creating Gotham Central, an inspiration for the upcoming Gotham television series. Female creators writing noir stories for comics have been few and far between. But that’s changing. Batgirl is being re-imagined by a…
How can Gotham be an interesting show if it doesn’t have Batman? It’s a question I’ve been asked numerous times since Fox Television announced that Gotham would join their fall schedule. The show will focus on a young Jim Gordon investigating the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne and track the evolution of the city…
Christmas is a time where an overweight immortal man pilots a sleigh of flying reindeer across the globe, an angel shows a suicidal man the impact he’s had on the world, and spectral entities show misers the error of their ways. So, we’re used to Yuletide tales of strange and in some cases frightening phenomenon.…
I wanted to hate the new Batwoman. She was a replacement for a character I liked very much, circus owner Kathy Kane. Kathy Kane was a silly Silver Age Batwoman who showed up in Batman comics in the 1970s as older, wiser, and tougher than in her previous stories. She was then abruptly killed off…
Wars are common occurrences in crime fiction. They can be gang wars between rival mobsters, a war on drugs, or an all-encompassing war against the forces of organized crime itself. The latter type of war has been waged by many memorable protagonists like Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, Richard Stark’s Parker, Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan, and…
If Ed McBain wrote a comic book, it probably would have been a lot like Gotham Central. You recognize the city name, of course. It’s Batman’s stomping grounds. It’s the town where all the wackos come out to play, wreak havoc, and then go home to Arkham Asylum. And, aside from Commissioner James Gordon or…
