Games

I’m referring to Steve McNiven’s famous cover for Civil War #7, which came out 19 years ago today. It depicts Captain America and Iron Man fiercely fighting each other, making a final stand alongside their respective teams. Iron Man is unleashing a powerful attack, while Captain America bravely defends with his shield. The image perfectly captured the emotional weight of their conflict. Interestingly, even though this exact scene didn’t happen within the comic itself, it was the ideal cover to represent the conclusion of Civil War.

Starfleet Academy recently unveiled the USS Athena, a completely new kind of starship with a distinctive design and a specialized function. The Athena functions as both a stationary base and a fully operational spacecraft. Its unique construction allows different sections to connect and work together, or even separate, enabling it to land on planets. Essentially, the Athena is a high-tech, mobile university campus intended to provide Starfleet cadets with practical, hands-on experience exploring the galaxy. While it’s been fascinating to see the ship in action, it’s unlikely to replace the USS Enterprise anytime soon.

After the disappointing performance of films like Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter, Sony has decided to halt production on all of its Spider-Man-related projects. This includes a Spider-Woman movie, which many believed had the potential to be a standout Marvel film, and was reportedly going to be directed by Olivia Wilde. With the project now canceled, the future of the character Jessica Drew remains uncertain.

In 1970, video games as we know them didn’t exist yet. Most games were shared between programmers as experiments or demonstrations. However, that year saw the creation of Chess 3.0, a computer version of chess that won the first U.S. Computer Chess Championship. The competition was unique: players moved pieces on physical chessboards, and operators entered those moves into a mainframe computer. Although not a commercial success or widely played, Chess 3.0 was an important step towards the computer chess games we have today.

This week, Square Enix announced that Nier: Automata has reached a significant milestone: 10 million copies sold worldwide. This is a remarkable achievement, as few action RPGs like Automata ever reach this level of success. The game’s prequel, Nier: Replicant ver.1.22474487139, has also performed well, selling 2 million copies.

Hogwarts Legacy takes place long before the Harry Potter stories, but it’s full of hidden references and details that enrich the wizarding world. Many of the game’s optional quests reveal interesting information about wizarding history. Recently, a player discovered a detail that explains the origins of the basilisk – the giant serpent from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The game might finally answer the question of how Hogwarts ended up with such a dangerous creature.

I was surprised to learn that Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions is ending its publishing partnership with Marvel. They announced that the agreement will officially terminate on March 31st, 2026, and apologized for any trouble this might cause. The announcement itself was pretty straightforward. It’s still unclear exactly what this means for future projects, but it does make sense now why that one Marvel/Shonen Jump crossover is wrapping up soon.

Not all of Batman’s enemies are brilliant, but many are truly formidable. Some of the most intelligent villains in comic books have fought against the Dark Knight, and their cunning has made them dangerous opponents. Here are seven of the smartest, posing a real intellectual challenge to the world’s greatest detective.

As a big fan of the Star Cops audio dramas, I was thrilled when the seventh series, Star Cops: Conflict: Suspicion and Sabotage, came out in 2026. And now, the second part is finally here – Star Cops – Conflict: Shadow of the Moonlight! The story kicks off with a film being made about the Star Cops, starring the iconic Coral Goldfinch. But things take a turn when her co-star is found murdered on the Moon, and Spring and the team get pulled into the investigation – uncovering a much darker side to the world of fame and filmmaking.

Many failed superhero projects, both before and after the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, weren’t failures of concept, but of execution. The core ideas and characters had potential to build something truly great, even a connected universe like Marvel Studios created. The problem wasn’t if a franchise could work, but how the story was told. With a better approach, any of these projects could have succeeded.