Ronald D. Moore hit IGN’s San Diego Comic-Con 2025 live show today to discuss his long career writing some of the most memorable sci-fi and fantasy shows of the past several decades, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica to Outlander to For All Mankind. Next up for Moore is Amazon’s adaptation of God of War, which Moore is serving as Executive Producer and showrunner on.

For starters, Moore said that while of course Kratos will lead the show, his son Atreus will also be a big part of the series. This perhaps isn’t that surprising, but is still the first confirmation we’ve got on that front that the father and son team will be core to Amazon’s God of War.

Indeed, the notion of parent/child relationships, and in particular missing or absent parents, has been a theme of Moore’s work, going back all the way to his first Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “The Bonding,” which depicted a child onboard the Enterprise who was orphaned after an away team mission. Deep Space Nine, which Moore worked on after TNG, features Captain Sisko and his son Jake moving forward in life after the death of their wife/mom. Battlestar Galactica also deals with themes of parent/child strife, and now here we are with God of War which, in the 2018 game, literally starts with Kratos and Atreus preparing the funeral pyre for Kratos’ wife.

Read on to find out everything the tight-lipped Ronald D. Moore had to say about God of War.

IGN: What drew you to God of War? I know you've said you're not really a gamer. What was it about the property that interested you?

Ronald D. Moore: It was just when I started watching it, I started looking at the cutscenes together, and there's so much material there, and I really responded to the characters. I responded to the story of Kratos and his son, and then they set out on this epic journey in this world that was finely detailed and really interesting, and there's a lot of combat and interesting monsters along the way.

But I kept coming back to this story of father and son, and it was just emotional and it was different, and I hadn't seen anything like that before, and I had no expectations because like you said, I'm not a gamer. I knew the title, but I didn't really know what the story was, so I didn't really know what I was going to be looking at, and I was just taken with it. And so I said, yeah, I'd love to do it. I think it's really interesting.

IGN: And you haven't really played, you've watched cutscenes, but you haven't actually played it?

Ronald D. Moore: I've tried to play it. I continue to try to play it, but I grew up in the arcade era, so I can bang away, just give me a Defender console or an Asteroids console, I'll kick your ass. But it's just a different thing. My family can do it. My wife can play video games. My wife plays Skyrim, but I lack the muscle memory of my thumbs. And so Kratos is fighting the troll and I'm constantly like, okay, which one's the B button? No, I'm dead. It is that kind of thing. But I try.

At San Diego Comic-Con today, a very enthusiastic Hall H crowd greeted the team behind Project Hail Mary, the upcoming film based on the beloved book by The Martian author Andy Weir. Several scenes from early in the movie were shown, as we saw Ryan Gosling’s mild-mannered teacher, Ryland Grace, be recruited for a mission to space to save the Earth from imminent destruction thanks to a strange cosmic event.

And while the moments of Ryland adjusting to life in space – completely on his own, no less – and being introduced to something like Zero-G for the first time were very fun and entertaining, the scene the fans were clearly most excited for was our best look yet at the onscreen depiction of Rocky. Rocky is the alien Ryland encounters during his journey, who has been sent from his planet to stop the same crisis as Ryland, which also threatens his people. Rocky is a name eventually given to him by Ryland, because the two can’t speak to each other on account of Rocky looking like, well… rocks, which includes having no discernible face or features.

We were shown the scene where Ryland first spots Rocky’s ship, which is far larger than his, and itself resembles two large, asteroid-like objects from afar that turn out to be connected together. But when it came to Rocky himself, we got a shadowy taste via his entire very first scene, which expanded on moments briefly shown at the end of the trailer.

In the scene, we see Ryland descending out of a hatch from his ship into an opening in the alien spacecraft, wearing a spacesuit and breathing heavily. He floats down the large, cavernous opening of the other ship and notices that the rock-like walls are covered in intricate lines and designs. Finally, he reaches the bottom of the cavern and sees a small window, possibly indicating a door is there - except he can’t find anything on the wall that would seem to help open it up.

He begins to knock on the window when suddenly Rocky’s hand slams onto it from the other side with a very effective jump scare for both the audience and Ryland, who stumbles back screaming. When he gets back up, Rocky’s hand touches the glass again. Ryland gets closer as he sees Rocky hold up a small, thin figurine, looking like it might be been made from metal. It’s crude – somewhat evoking a skinny version of A Nightmare Before Christmas’ Oogie Boogie – but Ryland begins to understand, asking, “Is that me?!”

Rocky’s body remains hidden in the shadows, as we only see his arms and hands, as he holds up a representation he’s also made of Ryland’s ship and then puppets the Ryland figurine so it’s moving back up towards his toy ship. Ryland asks, “You want me to go back into my ship?” Rocky’s hands repeat the motion of the figurine, gently but insistent.

Ryland nods and enthusiastically tells Rocky, “Okay. I'll talk to you later! Bye!” before waving back through the window and going back up towards his ship, ending Ryland and Rocky’s first encounter and the scene.

The panelists spoke at length about the challenges of depicting Rocky onscreen, with co-director Phil Lord saying that their approach was to take Weir’s ideas from the book and treat them like “creative provocations to us that we honored. We never wanted to make our lives more convenient by changing something that Andy did.”

Lord's directing partner Christopher Miller said that when they were asked how the audience could care about a character without eyes, a mouth or a face, their reaction was, “Pixar made us care about a lamp. It’s possible!”

Lord and Miller ended up reaching out to Neal Scanlon at Lucasfilm to create Rocky, with Miller noting he “built a practical creature that was puppeteered by an amazing puppeteer named James Ortiz and his team of five. We call them the Rocketeers. And it was amazing having Rocky there on set every day so that we could have a real interaction and shoot the whole thing practically. And ultimately, it's going to end up being a beautiful blend of creature puppetry and animation. He comes alive in a way that you really would die for this character. Rocky does not have a face. He has no eyes. He has five legs with three fingers on each leg.”

Lord added praise for visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert, whose work will be blended with that of Scanlan and Ortiz for the final version of Rocky, describing it as “a real handshake to create this really lovable person out of minerals.”

Lord and Miller said the final crucial component to believing in Rocky was Gosling and his performance and how he interacts with the character, with Lord describing him as akin to “the sixth puppeteer, because you need a scene partner to bring those characters to life, because he has to treat it like somebody that's really there.”

Gosling meanwhile was humorously coy about his onscreen dynamic with Rocky, remarking, “He's my friend, and he's not here to speak for himself, so I don't want to give up his secrets.”

Shortly after the panel, Lord, Miller and screenwriter Drew Goddard (who previously adapted Weir’s The Martian) stopped by IGN’s SDCC studio, where Goddard spoke more about the challenges of imagining Rocky’s onscreen depiction, saying, “It’s always the screenwriter's nightmare, because you don't even have a face, right? So how do you communicate? I think the very thing that makes it hard is the thing that makes it special. The challenge is what gets us all excited. The book is about empathy and about seeing something from someone else's point of view, even if that other person is a cosmic alien who has no relation to humans whatsoever. That's the point. And so every scene is about empathy.”

Describing Project Hail Mary, Lord remarked, “The movie is not a Mac, it's a PC. It's a machine. The ship is a machine. There's complexities that are visible to the audience. We're not trying to buff them out; when there were weird edges, we embraced them. The movie is very beautiful, but it's not pretty, and it's not ever slick.”

Project Hail Mary opens March 20, 2026.

The rebooted DC Universe is in full swing, with Superman out now and HBO Max show Peacemaker Season 2 out soon. But what else does DCU steward James Gunn have up his sleeve for fans? In an interview with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Gunn gave us a scoop that fans who have worked out who’s who in the History of Metahumans DCU Mural will find very interesting indeed.

If you haven't seen Superman yet and you're wondering what all the fuss is about, the movie reveals that metahumans have played an active role in the DCU for the past 300 years, and the mural depicts which costumed heroes have appeared so far.

This week, Gunn published the full Hall of Justice History of Metahumans mural online for all to see, sending fans into a frenzy as they tried to work out the identity of each of the 26 featured characters. This was the first time fans could see the mural clearly after it was shown in blink-and-you’ll miss it form during Superman.

Warning! Minor Spoilers for Superman follow.

James Gunn and the cast of Peacemaker stopped by IGN’s studio at San Diego Comic-Con today, where Gunn revealed some new info about what to expect in Season 2 of the series and where Christopher Smith/Peacemaker is in his life... including how he feels about Superman following the events of the movie.

John Cena makes a brief cameo as Peacemaker in Gunn’s recently released Superman, where he’s seen on a talk show, giving a litany of reasons he’s never trusted Superman. So did the end of that movie change his perception of the Man of Steel? Said Gunn: “I think that Peacemaker probably admires Superman a little bit more than he did.” But Gunn notes there is a bit of a murky area there, because as we see in Peacemaker Season 2 trailer, Chris is trying to join the Justice Gang in Season 2.

As Gunn put it, “We see him in the movie and he's talking crap about Superman and I think he probably admires him a little bit more than he did beforehand [now], but also he really wants to get in with the Justice Gang. So he's not going to say any more mean things about Superman knowing they're his pals.” As for his previous statements about Superman, if they were brought up, Gunn said Peacemaker would “walk it back. He's got no backbone with stuff like that.”

Regarding his overall approach to Season 2, Gunn explained, “I think the theme of Peacemaker Season 2, if anything, is about redemption. This is a character who knows he did wrong in the past. He has changed dramatically from Season 1. The one thing I didn't want to do is have Peacemaker act exactly like he did at the beginning of Season 1. We saw dramatic things happen to him in the way he's connected with other people in Season 1, and he has changed because of that. His friendship with Leota Adebayo has changed him completely. And now this is a new Peacemaker who is struggling to try to be the best person he can be. Often failing, but really trying his best to do that, and then all of a sudden his past won't let him go, whether it's his relationship with his father, who's now gone, or his relationship with Rick Flag Jr's dad [played by Frank Grillo]. So it's really about that struggle about looking for redemption and also looking for love.”

On that last point, Gunn elaborated, “There is a love story in this. The first season was about the relationship between Leota Adebayo and Peacemaker. This in a lot of ways is about Peacemaker and Harcourt and their relationship.”

Among the additions to Season 2 is Sol Rodríguez as Sasha Bordeaux, a character primarily associated with Batman in the comics. Rodríguez said she felt “Sasha's essence is still there from the comics, but she's bringing new vibes,” and that when it comes to the DCU's eventual version of Batman, “She has nothing to do with that.” Though who’s to say if Gunn was joking or not when he replied, “Yet!” to that statement about Sasha and Batman having no connection.

When Rodríguez added she very much didn’t know who will eventually be playing the DCU’s version of Batman, Gunn then added, regarding all of the fan speculation, “I don’t know who’s playing Batman!”

Coming in hot from San Diego Comic-Con 2025 is a new trailer for Peacemaker Season 2, which finally reveals how John Cena’s Chris Smith jumps from his DCEU dimension to an alternate DCU dimension.

DCU steward James Gunn is bringing most of Peacemaker Season 1, which was a part of the DCEU, into the DCU canon with Season 2, which takes place one month after the events of Superman.

Making peace with yourself is harder than it looks.

Season ✌️ of #Peacemaker premieres August 21 on HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/kMHIU5z3Gt

— HBO Max (@hbomax) July 26, 2025

Peacemaker discovers a new universe via a Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC), with Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. out for revenge for the death of his son. We see Peacemaker go through to the other side, which he instantly finds more appealing (the grass is always greener etc.). However, as teased in the video, Peacemaker ends up meeting alternate dimension Peacemaker and of course the two end up in a fight.

However, there are 100 alternate dimensions of the DCU, and we see one of those in the trailer with a war-torn battlefield packed with what look like giant spider creatures with skulls for heads.

Peacemaker returns for its eight-episode second season on Thursday, August 21 at 9pm ET on HBO Max. James Gunn wrote all eight episodes of Peacemaker and directed three, including the first episode, which features Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl from Superman.

During a panel at Comic-Con, Gunn confirmed other characters from Superman (besides Rick Flag Sr., Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, and Maxwell Lord) will return in Peacemaker Season 2. Michael Rooker (who starred in Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel), plays a character named Red St. Wild, who acts as "Eagley's Lex Luthor," according to Gunn.

Here's the official blurb:

In season two, Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Marvel Comics held a panel focused on the wildly popular Ultimate Universe imprint at SDCC 2025. There they revealed that Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto's Ultimate Spider-Man will be ending with December's issue #24, as the entire Ultimate Universe braces for the imminent return of The Maker.

Marvel and Hickman alike are adamant that the series isn't being canceled, but merely reaching its natural, preplanned conclusion.

“This was everything that I pitched,” Hickman said at the panel. “Nothing has deviated. It’s been really nice to execute the plan well and everything culminates into this issue. Fans of the Ultimate Universe are going to love it. It’s been a real pleasure being the writer of Ultimate Spider-Man.”

Family Guy Halloween and Holiday Specials return exclusively to Hulu later this year.

Announced during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, the Halloween Special premieres Monday, October 6 on Hulu.

In the Halloween special, “A Little Fright Music,” Brian and Stewie realize there is a shortage of quality Halloween songs, so they set out to write a hit, and Peter and the guys discover that lying about trick or treating can have deadly consequences.

The first-look image is below:

The winners of the 2025 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been revealed at San Diego Comic-Con. Essentially the equivalent of the Oscars for the comic book industry, the Eisners highlight the best and most noteworthy releases of the past year.

Among the notable winners this year were Absolute Wonder Woman winning Best New Series, Joe Sacco's "The War on Gaza" winning Best Single Issue/One Shot, and upcoming TMNT writer Gene Luen Yang winning Best Writer and Best Graphic Album - New for his and LeUyen Pham's graphic novel Lunar New Year Love Story. IDW's lavish hardcover collection David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition won two awards - Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books and Best Publication Design. DC Comics was the biggest winner of the show with five awards (including two shared).

The full list of nominees is below, with the winners in bold:

Best Short Story

• “Anything Sinister,” by Ross Murray, in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)
• “Day 1703,” by Chris Ware, in Smoke Signal #43 (Desert Island)
• “Pig” by Stacy Gougoulis, in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)
• “Spaces,” by Phil Jimenez, in DC Pride 2024 #1 (DC)
• “Water I’ve Loved: Moving Day” by Pam Wye, in MUTHA magazine,
• “You Cannot Live on Bread Alone” by Kayla E., in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)

Best Single Issue/One-Shot

• Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone by Isabella Rotman, Marnie Galloway, and Sage Coffey (Silver Sprocket)
• Ice Cream Man #39: “”Decompression in a Wreck, Part One,” by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo (Image Comics)
• PeePee PooPoo #1, by Caroline Cash (Silver Sprocket)
• Sunflowers, by Keezy Young (Silver Sprocket)
• Unwholesome Love, by Charles Burns (co-published with Partners and Son)
• The War on Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics)

Best Continuing Series

• The Department of Truth, by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds (Image)
• Detective Comics, by Ram V, Tom Taylor, Riccardo Federici, Stefano Raffaele, Javier Fernandez, Christian Duce, March, and Mikel Janín (DC)
• Fantastic Four, by Ryan North, Carlos Gomez, Ivan Fiorelli, and others (Marvel)
• Santos Sisters, by Greg & Fake, Graham Smith, Dave Landsberger, and Marc Koprinarov (Floating World)
• Ultimate Spider-Man, by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto (Marvel)
• Wonder Woman, by Tom King and Daniel Sampere (DC)

Best Limited Series

• Alan Scott: The Green Lantern, by Tim Sheridan and Cian Tormey (DC)
• Animal Pound, by Tom King and Peter Gross (BOOM! Studios)
• The Deviant, by James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson (Image)
• Helen of Wyndhorn. by Tom King and Bilquis Evely (Dark Horse)
• Rare Flavours, by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (BOOM! Studios)
• Zatanna: Bring Down the House, by Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodriguez (DC)

Best New Series

• Absolute Batman, by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta (DC)
• Absolute Wonder Woman, by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman (DC)
• Minor Arcana, by Jeff Lemire (BOOM! Studios)
• The Pedestrian, by Joey Esposito and Sean Von Gorman (Magma Comix)
• The Power Fantasy, by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard (Image)
• Uncanny Valley, by Tony Fleecs and Dave Wachter (BOOM! Studios)

Best Publication for Early Readers

• Bog Myrtle, by Sid Sharp (Annick Press)
• Club Microbe, by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain, by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye)
• Night Stories, by Liniers (Astra Books)
• Poetry Comics, by Grant Snider (Chronicle Books)

Best Publication for Kids

• How It All Ends, by Emma Hunsinger (Greenwillow/HarperCollins Early Readers)
• Next Stop, by Debbie Fong (Random House Graphic/Random House Children’s Books)
• Plain Jane and the Mermaid, by Vera Brosgol (First Second/Macmillan)
• Weirdo, by Tony Weaver Jr. and Jes & Cin Wibowo (First Second/Macmillan)
• Young Hag and the Witches’ Quest, by Isabel Greenberg (Abrams Fanfare)

Best Publication for Teens

• Ash’s Cabin, by Jen Wang (First Second/Macmillan)
• Big Jim and the White Boy, by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson (Ten Speed Graphic)
• The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag (Scholastic)
• The Gulf, by Adam de Souza (Tundra)
• Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (First Second/Macmillan)
• Out of Left Field, by Jonah Newman (Andrews McMeel)

Best Humor Publication

• Adulthood is a Gift! by Sarah Andersen (Andrews McMeel)
• Forces of Nature, by Edward Steed (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Kids Are Still Weird: And More Observations from Parenthood, by Jeffrey Brown (NBM)
• A Pillbug Story, by Allison Conway (Black Panel Press)
• Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It, by Tara Booth (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Anthology

• EC Cruel Universe, edited by Sierra Hahn and Matt Dryer (Oni Press)
• Godzilla’s 70th Anniversary, edited by Jake Williams and others (IDW)
• Now: The New Comics Anthology #13, edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• Peep #1, edited by Sammy Harkham and Steve Weissman (Brain Dead/Kyle Ng)
• So Buttons #14: “Life and Death,” by Jonathan Baylis and various artists (So Buttons Comix)

Best Reality-Based Work

• Djuna, by Jon Macy (Street Noise Books)
• The Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War, by Carl Sciacchitano (Gallery 13/S&S)
• The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien, by John Hendrix (Abrams Fanfare)
• The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History, by John Vasquez Mejias (Union Square)
• Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S., by Caitlin Cass (Fantagraphics)

Best Graphic Memoir

• Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60, by Alison McCreesh (Conundrum)
• Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• The Field, by David Lapp (Conundrum)
• I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together: A Memoir, by Maurice Vellekoop (Pantheon)
• Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love, by Sarah Leavitt (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Best Graphic Album—New

• Final Cut, by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
• Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (First Second/Macmillan)
• My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two, by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Sunday, by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics)
• Victory Parade, by Leela Corman (Pantheon)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

• Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story, by Patrick McDonnell (Abrams ComicArts)
• Lackadaisy, vols. 1–2, by Tracy J. Butler (Iron Circus)
• The One Hand and The Six Fingers, by Ram V, Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell, and Sumit Kumar (Image)
• Rescue Party: A Graphic Anthology of COVID Lockdown, edited by Gabe Fowler (Pantheon)
• Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience, by Kelly Goto and Sam Goto (Chin Music Press)
• UM Volume One, by buttercup (Radiator Comics)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium

• Thomas Piketty’s Capital & Ideology: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, by Clare Alot and Benjamin Adam (Abrams ComicArts)
• The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben, adapted by Benjamin Flao and Fred Bernard (Greystone)
• The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, adapted by Manu Larcenet (Abrams)
• Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, adapted by Travis Dandro (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Worst Journey in the World, Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, adapted by Sarah Airriess (Iron Circus)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

• All Princesses Die Before Dawn, by Quentin Zuttion (Abrams ComicArts)
• The Jellyfish, by Boum, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dascher (Pow Pow Press)
• Mothballs, by Sole Otero; translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)
• Return to Eden, by Paco Roca; translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)
• Sunday, by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

• Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, by Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba, translated by Asa Yonola (Kodansha)
• Hereditary Triangle, by Fumiya Hayashi, translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley (Yen Press)
• Kagurabachi, vol. 1, by Takeru Hokazono, translated by Camellia Nieh (VIZ Media)
• Last Quarter, vol. 1, by Ai Yazawa, translated by Max Greenway (VIZ Media)
• Search and Destroy vol. 1, by Atsushi Kaneko, based on the work of Osamu Tezuka; translated by Ben Applegate (Fantagraphics)
• Tokyo These Days, vols. 1–3, by Taiyo Matsumoto, translated by Michael Arias (VIZ Media)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips

• All In Line, by Saul Steinberg (New York Review Books)
• Frank Johnson, Secret Pioneer of American Comics, vol. 1, edited by Chris Byrne and Keith Mayerson (Fantagraphics)
• Stan Mack’s Real-Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995, by Stan Mack, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
• Thorn: The Complete Proto-BONE Strips 1982–1986, and Other Early Drawings, by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books

• The Complete Web of Horror, edited by Dana Marie Andra (Fantagraphics)
• David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
• DC Comics Style Guide (Standards Manual)
• The Farewell Song of Marcel LaBrume, by Attilio Micheluzzi, edited by Gary Groth and Conrad Groth (Fantagraphics)
• Wally Wood from Witzend: Complete Collection, commentary by J. David Spurlock (Vanguard)
• X-Men: The Manga Remastered, vol. 1, edited by Glenn Greenberg and others (VIZ Media)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

• The Beat, edited by Heidi MacDonald and others, https://www.comicsbeat.com
• ICv2: The Business of Pop Culture, edited by Milton Griepp, icv2.com
• INKS, The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, edited by Susan Kirtley (Ohio State University Press)
• SOLRAD: The Online Literary Magazine for Comics, edited by Daniel Elkin, www.solrad.co (Fieldmouse Press)
• Zdarsky Comics News, edited by Allison O’Toole (Chip Zdarsky)

Best Comics-Related Book

• American Comic Book Chronicles: 1945-49, by Keith Dallas, John Wells, Richard Arndt, and Kurt Mitchell (TwoMorrows)
• Kate Carew: America’s First Great Woman Cartoonist, by Eddie Campbell with Christine Chambers (Fantagraphics)
• Q&A, by Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Reading Love and Rockets, by Marc Sobel (Fantagraphics)
• Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, by Caitlin McGurk (Fantagraphics)
• Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Ultimate History, edited by Daniel Kothen Schulte with text by David Gerstein and J. B. Kaufman (TASCHEN)

Best Academic/Scholarly Work

• Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture, edited by Jonathan Najarian (University Press of Mississippi)
• Drawing (in) the Feminine: Bande Dessinée and Women, edited by Margaret C. Flinn (Ohio State University Press)
• From Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich: The Materiality of Cheap Comics, by Neale Barnholden (University Press of Mississippi)
• Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics, by Daniel Worden (Ohio State University Press)
• Singular Sensations: A Cultural History of One-Panel Comics in the United States, by Michelle Ann Abate (Rutgers University Press)

Best Publication Design

• Bill Ward: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition, designed by Kayla E. (Fantagraphics)
• Brian Bolland: Batman The Killing Joke and Other Stories & Art, Gallery Edition, designed by Josh Beatman (Graphitti Designs)
• David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, designed by Chip Kidd (IDW)
• One Bite at a Time, designed by Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics)
• Scott Pilgrim 20th Anniversary Color Hardcover Box Set, designed by Patrick Crotty (Oni Press)
• Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Ultimate History, designed by Anna-Tina Kessler (TASCHEN)

Best Digital Comic

• The Beauty Salon, based on the novella by Mario Bellatin, adapted by Quentin Zuttion; translated by M. B. Valente (Europe Comics)
• Beyond the Sea, by Anaïs Flogny; translated by Dan Christensen (Europe Comics)
• Gonzo: Fear and Loathing in America, by Morgan Navarro; translated by Tom Imber (Europe Comics)
• My Journey to Her, by Yuna Hirasawa (Kodansha)
• The Spider and the Ivy, by Grégoire Carle; translated by M. B. Valente (Europe Comics)

Best Webcomic

• The Accidental Undergrad, by Christian Giroux, https://solrad.co/tag/the-accidental-undergrad (Fieldmouse Press)
• Life After Life, by Joshua Barkman, https://falseknees.com/comics/24ink1.html (False Knees)
• Motherlover, by Lindsay Ishihiro, https://motherlovercomic.com (Iron Circus)
• Practical Defence Against Piracy, by Tony Cliff, https://www.delilahdirk.com/dd4/dd4-p188.html
• Rigsby WI, by S. E. Case, https://rigsbywi.com (Iron Circus)

Best Writer

• Tom King, Archie: The Decision (Archie); Animal Pound (BOOM! Studios); Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse); Jenny Sparks, The Penguin, Wonder Woman (DC)
• Ram V, Rare Flavours (BOOM! Studios); Dawnrunner (Dark Horse); The One Hand (Image); Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! (Image Skybound)
• Kelly Thompson, Absolute Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey (DC); Scarlett (Image Skybound); Venom War: It’s Jeff #1 (Marvel)
• James Tynion IV, Something Is Killing the Children, Wynd (BOOM! Studios); Blue Book, The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos (Dark Horse); Spectregraph (DSTLRY); The Department of Truth, The Deviant, WORLDTR33 (Image)
• Gene Luen Yang, Lunar New Year Love Story (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Writer/Artist

• Charles Burns, Kommix (Fantagraphics); Final Cut (Pantheon); Unwholesome Love (co-published with Partners & Son)
• Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two (Fantagraphics)
• Jon Macy, Djuna (Street Noise Books)
• Paco Roca, Return to Eden (Fantagraphics)
• Olivier Schrauwen, Sunday (Fantagraphics)
• Maria Sweeney, Brittle Joints (Street Noise Books)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

• Filipe Andrade, Rare Flavours (BOOM! Studios)
• Nick Dragotta, Absolute Batman (DC)
• Bilquis Evely, Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
• Manu Larcenet, The Road (Abrams ComicArts)
• Javier Rodriguez, Zatanna: Bring Down the House (DC)
• LeUyen Pham, Lunar New Year Love Story (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist

• Frederic Bremaud and Federico Bertolucci, Donald Duck: Vacation Parade (Fantagraphics)
• Leela Corman, Victory Parade (Pantheon)
• Benjamin Flao The Hidden Life of Trees (Greystone)
• Merwan, Aster of Pan (Magnetic Press)
• Eduardo Risso, The Blood Brothers Mother (DSTLRY)
• Maria Sweeney, Brittle Joints (Street Noise Books)

Best Cover Artist

• Juni Ba, The Boy Wonder (DC); Godzilla Skate or Die, TMNT Nightwatcher and others (IDW)
• Evan Cagle, Dawnrunner (Dark Horse), New Gods, Detective Comics
• Bilquis Evely, Animal Pound (BOOM!); Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
• Tula Lotay, Helen of Wyndhorn #1, Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #3, Dawnrunner #1, Barnstormers TPB (Dark Horse); Somna and other titles (DSTLRY); The Horizon Experiment (Image)
• Hayden Sherman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Batman: Dark Patterns, Superman, Ape-ril, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) (DC)

Best Coloring

• Jordie Bellaire, Absolute Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America, The Nice House by the Sea (DC); The City Beneath Her Feet (DSTLRY); The Exorcism at 1600 Penn (IDW; W0rldtr33 (Image); G.I. Joe, Duke (Image Skybound)
• Matheus Lopes, Batman & Robin: Year One (DC); Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
• Justin Prokowich, Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze (Titan Comics)
• Javier Rodriguez, Zatanna: Bring Down the House) (DC)
• Dave Stewart, Dawnrunner, Free Comic Book Day Comic 2024 [general], The Serpent in the Garden, Hellboy, Hellboy and the BPRD, Paranoid Gardens, Shaolin Cowboy Cruel to Be Kin Silent but Deadly Edition (Dark Horse); Ultramega, Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! (Image Skybound)
• Quentin Zuttion, All Princesses Die Before Dawn (Abrams ComicArts); Beauty Salon (Europe Comics)

Best Lettering

• Becca Carey, Absolute Superman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Plastic Man No More! (DC); Radiant Black, Rogue Sun (Image); When the Blood Has Dried, Murder Kingdom (Mad Cave Studios)
• Leela Corman, Victory Parade (Pantheon)
• Clayton Cowles, Animal Pound (BOOM! Studios); FML, Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse); Absolute Batman, Batman, Batman & Robin: Year One, Birds of Prey, Jenny Sparks, Wonder Woman (DC); Strange Academy, Venom (Marvel)
• Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two (Fantagraphics)
• Nate Powell, Fall Through (Abrams ComicArts); Lies My Teacher Told Me (New Press)

For more on the best comics of the last year, check out IGN's pick for the Best Comic Book Series or Original Graphic Novel of 2024, and learn why the Absolute Universe is DC's most exciting launch in years.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

The upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy got a teaser trailer today at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that not only offers our first real look at what to expect from the show, but also some references to the Trek of yesteryear — including a major Deep Space Nine reference.

While Starfleet Academy is set in the same time period as Star Trek: Discovery's later seasons — in the 32nd century, so some 900 years after the Original Series era — the trailer features several namedrops of favorite characters, like the James T. Kirk Pavilion at the Academy and a wall of names of past officers, from Tom Paris to Data to Nog to Scotty and beyond. But the biggest callback is to DS9's Captain Sisko.

🚨 NEW TRAILER for #StarTrek: Starfleet Academy!

The new first-look welcomes Cadets back to #StarfleetAcademy in San Francisco, plus introducing the new Starship - the USS Athena!

🖖 Coming Early 2026!#SDCC pic.twitter.com/fZ3brdYadk

— Trek Central (@TheTrekCentral) July 26, 2025

At around the 1:10 mark, we see Kerrice Brooks' character Sam looking at a display about "The Fate of Benjamin Sisko." Captain Sisko, of course, was played by Avery Brooks on Deep Space Nine. In addition to being a Starfleet officer, he also became known as the Emissary of the Prophets, a holy figure in the religion of Bajor (the planet that Deep Space Nine was based near). Spoilers for a 26-year-old series, but in the DS9 finale, Sisko seemed to sacrifice himself to save the day, falling with the villainous Gul Dukat into the Bajoran Fire Caves. But while his physical form was apparently destroyed, he continued to exist on a higher plane with the Prophets, the god-like beings worshipped by the Bajorans.

So that's a lot right there, but the question is, why is Sisko being teased in the trailer for Starfleet Academy? Will the show somehow connect back to Deep Space Nine and Sisko' fate? Modern Star Trek has certainly been willing to bring back older characters, like Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine on Picard and Robert Picardo's The Doctor on Starfleet Academy itself. That said, Brooks has seemed disinterested in pursuing his connection to Star Trek in any meaningful way in recent years, so the idea that he might actually return in some form seems unlikely.

The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds team surprised the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 today with an announcement video teasing Season 4 of the sci-fi series... and a puppet-themed episode.

In the video, a puppet version of Captain Pike sits in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise and gives his familiar order to "hit it," before realizing that he's all alone on the bridge. "Did you go to Season 4 without me?" he says.

The episode will feature Enterprise crew members in puppet form, with the puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Jordan Canning (Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock) will direct the episode.

Strange New Worlds has become known for its high concept episodes, including a crossover with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, a musical episode, a LARPing episode, and this week's Season 3 episode “A Space Adventure Hour,” which features a murder mystery (on the holodeck, of course).

“A Space Adventure Hour” was screened for the Comic-Con audience today in advance of its Paramount Plus debut. (The episode will be free to stream from Thursday, July 31, through Wednesday, August 6, on Pluto TV, Paramount+ channels on Amazon, Apple and Roku, the Free Content Hub on Paramount+, and the Paramount+ YouTube channel.)

We've rounded up the best deals for Saturday, July 26, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.

Mario Kart World for $71.99

Announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has been renewed for a fourth season that will also mark the end of the line for the series. Following the reveal, the show’s stars, Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier) stopped by the IGN SDCC studio to discuss the series now heading towards its conclusion, with Season 3 first debuting this fall before they go into production on Season 4.

Asked about the decision to wrap up the show with Season 4, Reedus explained: “That was always sort of the plan.” After the first two seasons took place in France, Season 3 will move the action to Spain and Reedus revealed that’s where the show will remain through its conclusion, as he remarked that the story had gone “through France, through Spain, and it wraps up in Spain.” He then declared: “it wraps up in a satisfying way.”

While The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will be wrapping up after four years, viewers obviously have a much longer connection to Daryl and Carol, given the fan favorite characters were the only two to be a part of the original The Walking Dead series for its entire 11-season run prior to the spinoff. Reedus and McBride were mindful to avoid any specific spoilers about what’s to come, and when asked if they could elaborate on how fans might feel when the series concludes, Reedus reiterated, with a grin: “All the storylines wrap up in a way that will be satisfying to the viewers.”

He did stress that the last couple of episodes have yet to be written so he couldn’t actually speak to specifics, though it’s worth noting that Reedus and McBride, who are also both Executive Producers on the show, are likely well aware of what the overall plan is for the ending by now — but understandably, secrets must be kept!

The bond between Daryl and Carol became an integral one on The Walking Dead, making it a big deal when they were reunited in Season 2 of TWD: Daryl Dixon after a long separation. Asked how either of the characters might handle it if they were separated again, Reedus said he felt that at this point, even if they weren’t together physically, “There’s a bond there between them that they probably won’t ever lose each other.”

Both McBride and Reedus said they’ve seen their fair share of fan theories about where storylines might go but revealed they felt it was never a good idea to let that guide the actual storytelling. As Reedus put it: “Sometimes it’s better to do the opposite of what people expect so they’re surprised.”

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 premieres September 7, 2025, with Season 4 expected sometime in 2026.

The long-running saga of the infamously shelved live-action/animated hybrid film, Coyote vs. Acme, looks like it will finally see a happy ending with a global theatrical release in August 2026.

Announced by Will Forte during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Coyote vs. Acme hits theaters on August 28, 2026.

Eric Bauza voices nine characters in the film, including Bugs Bunny, who acts as a deep throat type informant for Will Forte's lawyer character. Animated cameos include Miss Prissy and a sheep on the jury, and Playboy Penguin carving ice sculptures as courtroom sketches.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch is back in the world of Predator via an extended version of animated movie Killer of Killers — and it’s sent fans of the long-running sci-fi franchise down a lore rabbit hole that calls into question the endings of the original movies and what was thought to be a canon Predator video game.

This week at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, current Predator custodian Dan Trachtenberg announced a surprise extended version of Killer of Killers that shows Dutch from the original Predator and Danny Glover's Mike Harrigan from Predator 2 captured and frozen by the Yautja. Trachtenberg said during a panel at Comic-Con that Schwarzenegger had given his blessing to use Dutch in future stories, leaving the door open to a Killer of Killers follow-up that would see Dutch and co revived and pitted against a Predator once again.

BRAND NEW PREDATOR KILLER OF KILLERS EXTENDED ENDING FEATURING DUTCH AND MIKE HARRIGAN pic.twitter.com/xoDYwLmLFP

— MOVIEDEATHS (@MOVIEDEATHBLOWS) July 26, 2025

The extended version of Killer of Killers is out now, so fans are already analyzing it to within an inch of its life. Reaction appears to be mixed. While some are excited about the iconic characters' return, some are disappointed with the idea that the Yautja kidnap victorious humans in the first place. Let’s remember the iconic scene at the end of Predator 2 where an elder Yautja rewards Harrigan with an antique flintlock pistol as a trophy. The suggestion now is Harrigan was later kidnapped and put in stasis, which some believe devalues the human victories seen in previous Predator movies.

“It just feels like shit knowing your favorite human survivors are just going to be kidnapped and probably killed in an arena by another human or by the Warlord,” said redditor Vector_Mortis.

“Why would the Yautja congratulate Harrigan, give him the pistol, and leave just to come back, take the pistol, and kidnap him?” wondered Slow_Obligation2286.

“I'm not a fan of this at all,” added Hanesman12. “Harrigan and Dutch had good endings. Zero reason this needed to be done. Purely nostalgia bait.”

“This removes everything we previously knew about Dutch and Harrigan’s timelines after the movies,” said Originalname888. “This removes the honor code. This removes everything.”

Fans are now latching onto a potential explanation for what is going on here: that the whole kidnap human survivors thing is the work of the Yautja tribe we see in Killer of Killers, which does not represent the Yautja as a whole. Perhaps this particular tribe has gone rogue and will eventually be put in its place. On that we’ll have to wait and see, but what is irrefutable is that it is now canon that Dutch and Harrigan were kidnapped soon after the events of their movies and remain in stasis at this undetermined point in the future.

But there’s an additional tricky Predator lore question that revolves around Dutch. 2020’s Predator: Hunting Grounds, developed by IllFonic, features Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as Dutch. In the run up to the game’s release, the developers talked about working with people at previous rights holder Fox (this is before Disney bought the company and its franchises) to cement Hunting Grounds’ place within the official Predator lore.

This was exciting for fans as it meant Hunting Grounds officially revealed what happened to Dutch after the events of the first Predator movie — and there was no mention of being kidnapped by Yautja. Indeed, Hunting Grounds shows an older Dutch in the year 2025.

So, is Hunting Grounds no longer canon? Is Trachtenberg ignoring it? Is there another explanation? These are just some of the questions fans are trying to answer in the wake of Dutch’s return in Killer of Killers.

Whatever Trachtenberg’s master plan, there remains huge interest in the upcoming Predator: Badlands, the first 15 minutes of which were shown at Comic-Con. The Alien franchise links are clear, but will there be an AVP movie afterwards? We’ll have to wait and see.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.