Peter Parker was always an outsider—but studios are too risk-averse to explore what that really means today

A black headlining superhero character is rare enough; that he is a scientist and engineer too is unprecedented

Why must Marsalis suffer to be considered good? Plus: A vote for Sega is a vote for Microsoft; comics creator Stan Lee's disputed legacy.

The past year has brought breakthroughs in female superheroes, meta-comics, and comics etched on beer bottle labels

The king of DC comics on his latest series, the lack of diversity in superheroes, and the new "Wonder Woman"

From Europe's battlefields to today's big screen, Nick Fury's story is the story of America's last half-century

King of a technologically advanced country, Black Panther is a scientific genius

From "Rat Queens" to "Black Widow," comics have never starred more complicated, compelling female superheroes

"Fargo" creator Noah Hawley will helm a Doctor Doom film, news that highlights a longstanding problem for the MCU

Ed Brubaker, who brought Bucky back from the dead in "Captain America," is among comics' most distinctive voices

Ezra Miller aside, the film lacked the vision to set itself culturally apart from the usual multiverse shenanigans

Kamala Khan is a teenage Muslim girl from Pakistan, now living in Jersey City

Titles like Marvel's "NAM" show how comics dealt with growing American ambivalence about the Vietnam War

"Be a hero" vs. "I need a hero" — comics are still sending boys and girls different messages

The prolific critic spoke with New York Magazine's Abraham Riesman about comic books and the outsider experience