The Movies of April 2026
Anoher month where I wasn’t really watching that many movies, because my brain felt as if it was time to watch TV shows and/or do something else entirely altogether; I blame the fact that I somehow fell fully into a rewatch of The West Wing, more than anything else. (Eight of the films in the list below are shorts, so it looks deceptively long.) Nonetheless, I want to call out the following things:
- Gimme Danger, a documentary about the Stooges and Iggy Pop’s early career, is a genuine joy, and left me with all manner of warm feelings about Mr. Iguana Pop himself.
- Cool World is fascinatingly bad; it’s one of those movies that you watch, and then go research because it’s so bad and you wonder what kind of shenanigans went on behind the scenes, because surely that was no-one’s artistic vision. (Shenanigans did in fact go on behind the scenes, but having read up on what the original vision of the movie was, I’m not sure it would’ve been that much better.)
- The fact that The Housemaid was a massive hit and out-earned Sinners at the box office last year is truly depressing, now that I’ve seen both movies. The Housemaid is so flat and dull that it did little beyond convince me that Sydney Sweeney has anti-charisma.
- Teenage Superstars — a documentary about the Scottish indie music scene of the 1980s and (very) early 1990s — made me very happy not just for nostalgic reasons (but also, definitely that) but because it’s full of people telling the smallest story imaginable with good humor and occasionally a funny joke.
- I re-watched R.E.M.: Road Movie and R.E.M.: Tourfilm in one evening, speaking of music and 1980s/90s nostalgia. I wore both of those movies out on tape when I was a kid.
The Comics of April 2026
And this was the month where I remembered the local library existed, and used it to get a bunch of collected editions, including many DC Finest books, which are… kind of wonderfully complete? I also ended up getting far too into 1970s Marvel (including reading the complete run of The Cat, Marvel’s meant-to-be-feminist-but-it-was-the-70s-and-Marvel book, which I’d never read before), which was an experience at once nostalgic for something I wasn’t there for and also just wonderfully quaint. (See also my reading 1970s Legion of Super-Heroes and 1960s Justice League of America this month.) Comics! They’re a cheap time machine, if you know how!
- Justice League Unlimited (2024) #18
- Superman (2023) #37
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #480
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #2
- Legion of X #9
- Shazam! (2023) #2
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #23
- Star Wars (2015) #38
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #481
- Green Lantern Corps (2025) #s 14-15
- Super Friends #s 7-8
- Detective Comics #934
- Super Friends #9
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #24
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest 2024 Annual #1
- Star Wars (2015) #39
- MAD About DC #1
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #25
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #482
- National Comics: Madame X #1
- Super Friends #10
- DC Super-Stars (1976) #11 (Legion of Super-Heroes story only)
- Knight Terrors: Shazam! #s 1-2
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #s 483-484
- Bloodshot (2012) #s 7-8
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #234
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #s 485-486
- X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #1
- Bloodshot (2012) #9
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #s 3-4
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #26
- Super Friends #11
- Detective Comics #935
- Super Friends #12
- Suicide Squad (2021) #13
- The Flash (2016) #780
- Teen Titans Academy #13
- War for Earth-3 #2
- Dawn of DC/Knight Terrors FCBD Special Edition #1
- X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #2
- Detective Comics #s 936-940
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #235
- Knight Terrors: First Blood #1
- Transformers (2023) #31
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – Sssilent Missions Crimson Guard #1
- Green Arrow: Rebirth #1
- Detective Comics #943
- Judge Dredd Megazine #491
- 2000 AD Prog 2478
- Detective Comics #s 944-947
- Star Wars (2015) #40
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #s 5-6
- Green Arrow (2016) #1
- Super Friends #13
- Iron Man (1968) #s 95-96
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #7
- Detective Comics #s 948-949
- Batwoman: Rebirth #1
- Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1
- Batwoman (2017) #1
- Justice League of America: Vixen Rebirth #1
- Justice League of America: The Ray Rebirth #1
- Justice League of America: Killer Frost Rebirth #1
- Justice League of America: Rebirth #1
- The Wild Storm #1
- Iron Man (1968) #97
- Harbinger Wars #1
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #26
- Black Cat (2025) #9
- Iron Man (2026) #4
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #8
- The Flash (2023) #31
- Green Arrow (2016) #2
- The Cat #1
- Iron Man (1968) #98
- Detective Comics #950
- Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #1
- Detective Comics #s 951-956
- The Wild Storm #2
- Knight Terrors #s 1-2
- Green Arrow (2016) #3
- The Cat #2
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Doom #1
- Green Arrow (2016) #4
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #236
- All-New Collector’s Edition C-55: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes
- Green Arrow (2016) #5
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #27
- Harbinger (2012) #11
- Bloodshot (2012) #10
- Harbinger (1992) #1
- X-O Manowar (2012) #1
- Harbinger Wars #2
- Harbinger (2012) #12
- Bloodshot (2012) #11
- Harbinger Wars #3
- Harbinger (2012) #13
- Bloodshot (2012) #12
- Harbinger Wars #4
- Harbinger (2012) #14
- Bloodshot (2012) #13
- Harbinger (2021) #15
- DC/Marvel: Supergirl/Blade #1
- Marvel/DC It’s Jeff/Aquaman Infinity Comic #1
- Harbinger (2021) #16
- Green Arrow (2016) #6
- Justice League of America (2017) #1
- Batman and the Outsiders (2023) #1
- Harbinger (2021) #17
- Iron Man (1968) #99
- Harbinger (2021) #s 18-19
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Green Goblin #1
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Abomination #1
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Loki #1
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Red Skull #1
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Dormammu #1
- Bring On The Bad Guys: Mephisto #1
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #75
- Judge Dredd Megazine #s 490-491 (Fargo & McBane stories only)
- Green Arrow (2016) #s 7-8
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #s 76-77
- Harbinger (2012) #s 20-21
- Harbinger: Bleeding Monk #0
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #28
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #237
- Green Arrow (2016) #s 9-10
- Harbinger (2012) #s 22-25
- Harbinger: Omegas #s 1-3
- Unity (2013) #2
- Imperium #1
- Harbinger (1992) #s 2-3
- G.I. Joe (2024) #21
- Green Arrow (2016) #11
- 2000 AD Prog 2479 (Brink story only)
- Green Arrow (2016) #12
- Detective Comics #s 1107-1108
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #s 78-78.BEY
- Black Cat (2019) #1
- Iron Man (1968) #100
- The Cat #3
- Harbinger (1992) #4
- Batwoman (2017) #2
- What If…? (1989) #100
- The Avengers (1963) #152-153
- Giant-Size Marvel Adventures: Avengers #1
- X-Men: No More Humans OGN
- Doctor Who Magazine #s 584-589 (Liberation of the Daleks only)
- Detective Comics #s 958-959
- Iron Man (1968) #101
- The Avengers (1963) #154
- Super-Villain Team-Up #9
- The Avengers (1963) #s 155-156
- Black Cat (2019) #2
- The Cat #4
- Batgirl and the Birds of Prey: Rebirth #1
- Green Lantern (2011) #s 38-40
- Batman Eternal #2
- The Avengers (1963) #s 157-158
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #s 9-10
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #79
- Detective Comics #s 960-962
- Green Lantern (2011) #41
- Detective Comics #957 (The trade is out of order? Don’t ask.)
- Avengers: Twilight #1
- Detective Comics #965
- Uncanny X-Men Annual 2026 #1
- Uncanny X-Men (2024) #26
- The Mortal Thor #9
- The Avengers (1963) #159
- Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #s 1-2
- Iron Man (1968) #102
- Green Arrow (2016) #13
- Detective Comics #966
- Green Arrow (2016) #14
- Detective Comics #967
- Green Arrow (2016) #15
- X-Men United (2026) #2
- Green Arrow (2016) #16
- Black Cat (2019) #3
- Black Canary (2015) #1
- The Avengers (1963) #160
- The Defenders (1972) #20
- Green Arrow (2016) #17
- Detective Comics #968
- Justice League: Intergalactic Special #1
- Batman (2025) #9
- Swamp Thing 1989 #1
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29
- Detective Comics #s 963-964 (Yes, this trade was out of order as well?)
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #239
- The Flash (2016) #768
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #240
- Giant-Size Creatures #1
- Marvel Chillers #3
- Black Cat (2019) #4
- The Defenders (1972) #21
- Iron Man (1968) #103
- The Avengers (1963) #161
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241
- Detective Comics #969
- Avengers: Twilight #2
- Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral #1
- Detective Comics #s 970-974
- Detective Comics Annual (2017) #1
- Detective Comics #s 975-981
- Flash Gordon (2024) #0
- M.A.S.K. (2026) #1
- 2000 AD Prog 2480 (Brink story only)
- Avengers: Twilight #3
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #23
- Venom #255
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #24
- The Defenders (1972) #22
- Iron Man (1968) #104
- What If…? (1977) #3
- The Defenders (1972) #23
- Daredevil (1964) #s 77-78
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #11
- What If…? (1977) #12
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #242
- The Brave and the Bold (1955) #109
- Detective Comics (1935) #554
- Batman (1940) #388
- Detective Comics (1935) #555
- Batman (1940) #389
- The Defenders (1972) #24
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #243
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #30
- Jenny Sparks #1
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #12
- Daredevil (1964) #79
- Detective Comics (1935) #556
- Iron Man (1968) #56
- Jenny Sparks #2
- Justice League of America (1960) #86
- Batwoman (2017) #3
- The Defenders (1972) #25
- Giant-Size Defenders #5
- The New Teen Titans (1980) #1
- Justice League of America (1960) #87
- Batwoman (2017) #4
- Batman (1940) #390
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #27
- Captain America (2025) #9
- Marvel/DC: Spider-Man/Superman #1
- Justice League of America (1960) #88
- Iron Man (1968) #105
- Daredevil (1964) #80
- The Avengers (1963) #162
- The Defenders (1972) #26
- The New Teen Titans (1980) #2
- Justice League of America (1960) #89
- The Sentry (2026) #2
- The Infernal Hulk #6
- Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Echoes of the Empire #1
- Wade Wilson: Deadpool #3
- Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Guy Gardner #1
- Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1
- Action Comics #1098
- The New Teen Titans (1980) #3
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #244
- Silver Age (2000) #1
- Silver Age: Justice League of America #1
- Silver Age: Challengers of the Unknown #1
- Silver Age: Teen Titans #1
- Silver Age: Dial H for Hero #1
- Silver Age: The Flash #1
- Silver Age: Doom Patrol #1
- Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1
- Silver Age: Green Lantern #1
- Silver Age: Showcase #1
- Silver Age 80-Page Giant #1
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #245
- Iron Man (1968) #s 106-107
- Daredevil (1964) #81
- The Avengers (1963) #163
- The Champions (1975) #1
- The New Teen Titans (1980) #4
- Justice League of America (1960) #90
- Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #1
- Blackhawks (2011) #1
- Justice League of America (1960) #s 91-92
- The New Teen Titans (1980) #5
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 311-312
- 2000 AD Prog 2481 (Brink story only)
- Avengers: Twilight #4
- Spider-Man: Life Story #1
- Fantastic Four: Life Story #1
- Avengers: Twilight #5
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #51
- Absolute Green Arrow #1
- Batman/Wonder Woman: Truth #1
- The Champions (1975) #2
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 300-302
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #246
- Avengers: Twilight #6
- JLA 80-Page Giant #3
- The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground HC
- Detective Comics (1935) #557
- Batman (1940) #391
- Detective Comics (1935) #558
- The Brave and the Bold (1954) #137
- Batman Family #17 (Man-Bat/Demon story only)
- Spider-Man: Life Story #2
- Fantastic Four: Life Story #2
- Spider-Man: Life Story #3
- All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1
- Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (2017) #1
- Detective Comics (1935) #s 482-485 (Demon stories only)
- Wonder Woman (1942) #s 280-282
- Batman (1940) #392
- Detective Comics (1935) #559
- Spider-Man: Life Story #s 4-6
- Spider-Man: Life Story Annual #1
- Justice League of America (1960) #94
- Planet She-Hulk #6
- Captain America (2025) #10
- The Ultimates (2024) #23
- Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #3
- Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (2017) #2
- The Champions (1975) #3
- Uncanny X-Men (2024) #27
- In Your Skin #1
- Justice League of America (1960) #95
- Batman (1940) #393
- Superman Unlimited #13
- Batwoman (2026) #3
- The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #s 252-255
- Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #s 91-92
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #141
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 303-304
- Batman (1940) #394
- Detective Comics (1935) #s 560-561
- The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #s 256-257
- Marvel Team-Up (1972) #s 142-143
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 305-306
- Justice League of America (1960) #96
- Challengers of the Unknown (1958) #3
I Shiver When You’re Near
That’s My Superpower
It’s that time again! Well, technically, I feel like it’s actually a little past that time; don’t I traditionally start sharing annual playlist tracks before the end of April? Maybe I’m misremembering. Anyway, as I’ve done for the last few years and shared here, I make an annual playlist on Spotify and add songs to it that are either new to me or that I’ve become newly obsessed with. (Here’s the last time I did that from the 2025 playlist, which contains links to the earlier post that year.) I do it in batches of 50 songs at a time, although as of writing, I’m up to 65 songs on the list itself and will undoubtedly be further by the time you read this.
If you have Spotify yourself, you can find the playlist right here; I recommend all of the songs, obviously, but just know that “Baby It’s You” and “Empathy” were on repeat during Emerald City Comic Con 2026, and “Lion” was the soundtrack that kept me sane during the Chicago/PAX East work weekend from home. That said, the Aldous Harding track and the (incredible) Kate Ireland track are probably the ones that have gotten the most play so far this year.
Built on Shifting Sands
On the one hand, I love the fact that we are all — to use the terminology of both modfather Paul Weller and comics icon Steve Ditko — Changing Men (and Women, and Non-Binary Folk). There’s something comforting to me about the fact that we’re not tied to one particular definition or even identity if we don’t want to be, and the self-actualization implicit in that reality is also a comfort, in its own way; we get to make our own realities to a certain degree, and the change implicit in that is evidence of a particularly good thing.
On the other, I am more than slightly unnerved about my recent discovery that my bellybutton has, at some point in my life, changed from being an innie to an outtie, and I didn’t even realize when it happened.
Look, I’m all too aware that my body is becoming that of not just any middle aged man, but my fact when he was in his mid-to-late 40s; my stomach is swelling, and I’m not doing anywhere near the right amount of exercise to take care of that. (I will, I promise, just not right now; I have a blog post to finish, after all.) And it’s possible that my increasing width around the midriff is what’s changed the polarity of my bellybutton. Still, there’s something… unexpected about it.
It’s not as if I’ve ever placed too much value on the innie or the outtie as a meaningful thing in any manner; it’s not something that defines you as an introvert or an extrovert, or any similar thing as much as that would be a fun connection. Nonetheless, catching sight of my belly the other day and going, that doesn’t look right was one of those moments where your brain just takes a brief moment to click and your thoughts start to veer off into another direction, entirely unexpectedly. I thought I knew what I looked like; turns out, I didn’t, not entirely.
So: I’m not who I thought I was. Part of me is different, and I’m just sitting here thinking, I’m okay with that, really while being just a little unsettled as well. In the strangest way, that in itself feels somewhat fitting. After all, what is change, if not an inability to stick in one fixed form? It’s ambiguity itself made into action, so perhaps I can have some ambiguity in how I feel about it, as well.
My Speech Was All Planned Out
Looking Back with 20/20 Hindsight
When I was doing my Masters degree, I came up with the seemingly-smart-at-the-time idea of writing and illustrating a book that would display my talents and influences in one place at one time. It did both things, although looking back now, I feel self-conscious about how heavily influenced much of it was by the usual suspects, and how simultaneously obvious and oblique much of the writing was; that said, the quality of the book — and, indeed, the book itself — isn’t really why I brought the whole thing up right now. Instead, I’ve been struck by remembering how it came together.
The end of my Masters degree was this strange time; my entire post-graduate program was a compressed one, a solid year with only a couple weeks off for Christmas that included both a post-grad and MA degree course squished into 12 months, meaning that if I passed the post-grad, I’d find out in May, and then have just three months to complete the MA portion of it; in order to assist doing so, the few of us in the course (maybe 12 of us in total? Maybe less? It was a handful, at best) were given the entire otherwise empty art school for the summer as studio space and told to get it done. The clock was ticking.
What this meant was, of course, we just worked. Our lives became airtight work modules, losing a summer to just getting it done, whatever “it” looked like to each of us. (All of our work was very different, very distinct from each other.) The countdown to the deadline was something we were all far too aware of, having to plan and execute our final-final show almost immediately after our post-grad degree, which was itself just a year after our graduate degree, and it was appropriately suffocating and high-stress the entire time.
In deciding to make a book — and a hardcover book at that — I accidentally set my own deadline earlier: after all, I had to have all the material finished and ready to be bound by a third party earlier than the actual deadline, in order to let the book binder do their work by the actual deadline. I seem to remember my end-of-work deadline was three weeks earlier than everyone else’s, which isn’t a small amount when the entire thing lasted three months. For me, it all came down to staying up overnight the day before I had to get everything to the book binder, printing the book out page by page on a laser printer in a friend’s house.
I’d made my life harder through my ambition: I was making five editions of the same book, but each one was, I seem to remember, around 100 pages and using different paper and card stock throughout, with the dimensions of the book unusual for reasons I don’t even recall anymore. The night wasn’t just printing, it was collating, cutting all the pages down to size, sorting out paper jams and swapping in new toner cartridges as necessary. In all, the whole thing took about 12 hours of activity; I finished just as the sun was starting to come up.
What I remember most about that night was the way in which it felt like the entire post-grad/MA program in miniature: starting with ambition and goodwill that got increasingly frazzled and worn as exhaustion set-in, regretting said ambition by the end of the whole thing and wishing I’d gone for something easier. A manic excitement surrounding the entire enterprise that felt more fragile the more it continued, and a sense as everything became worn through that maybe it would never end, somehow.
That I find myself feeling nostalgic for that night, decades later, feels ironic given how much I was not enjoying it at the time — even a little masochistic. But there was a magic to that time of my life, even if I didn’t realize it at that moment; perspective that I should probably remember for every moment, moving forward. Everything can look amazing, in retrospect.
Same As The First
I read something the other day about internet outlets “pivoting to video” again at some point in the near future. The whole concept of “pivot to video” is something that I’ve gone through at least three or four times since I started writing for the internet as a career 20-odd years ago, and it’s something that feels more and more ridiculous each and every time.
I’m not saying that video is ridiculous, please understand; more that, as has been demonstrated over and over again through the earlier attempts to “pivot” — which is to say, publishers deciding to concentrate on video production and output, rather than the written word — audiences for written stories and audiences for video are different audiences, and one can’t easily replace the other. It’s something that you’d think publishers would understand themselves, because think about it; you yourself, dear reader, know that sometimes you want to read something (or, at least, have something written that you can scan through quickly) and sometimes you want to watch something, and that those aren’t the same impulse at all, as an audience member. And yet.
More to the point, making video is so much more labor-intensive and time-consuming than it is to write a story, something that I’ve come to realize working with Ashley and the video folk at Popverse. It’s also an entirely different skill set; I’ve seen what happens when non-filmmakers try to make video thinking how hard can it be with the answer always being harder than you thought. It’s not just setting up a camera and talking. (At one point at Popverse, we were all asked to make a selfie video for something — I can’t even remember what — and it was so uncomfortable and awkward for me, I walked away thinking, thank God I don’t have to do that daily.) The whole idea of “pivoting to video” suggests that it’s an easy off-shoot of creating written stories, as opposed to an entirely different, arguably more difficult and certainly more complicated, discipline altogether.
The fear with all of the attempts to “pivot to video” from publishers is that it’ll mean that writers lose their jobs before publishers come to their senses; the difference now, I worry, is that we might be looking at a reality where writers lose their jobs and publishers don’t come back after, instead looking to AI to fill the gap. If there’s one thing that 20 years of the “pivoting to video” cycle has taught me in my profession, it’s that there’s little that publishers value less than the writers who create the majority of their output.
