Diver

The laws of physics have always been immutable… until now! For still-inexplicable reasons, everything is suddenly very, uh, mutable and the String Divers desperately fight to save our world from complete quantum chaos!

Ashley Wood brings his new multi-platform creation “String Divers” to IDW with this debut issue, scripted by Chris Ryall and illustrated under Wood’s direction by Nelson Daniel. The concept — a group of scientists sending androids to the subatomic regions of space to investigate the strings that tie together existence — is immediately intriguing and Ryall’s script is structured well, but the comic has a difficult time landing the audience to whom it is speaking. The book does a great job of jumping into the stream of action and guiding readers through the functions of each of the diving team through show and tell. Readers are given a breakdown of each character on the title page and see how their different personalities interact with one another as they investigate an undefined region of subspace. Ryall has a natural flow for the plot and, though the rest of the team doesn’t appear until the midpoint of the issue, there’s never a moment where the audience is lost. The story catches i

Few of this year’s Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) titles market their upcoming arcs as well as DC’s “Divergence” does. This issue teases big changes to three titles — “Superman,” “Batman” and “Justice League” — and each preview introduces its concept sharply. As with many FCBD titles, “Divergence” is essentially a trailer, so these entries are written to build anticipation rather than to build story. In that, they succeed rousingly. It remains to be seen how DC will execute on these ideas, but they are certainly attention-grabbing. Note: The stories in this issue are short and entirely dedicated to setting up their premises, so it isn’t possible to substantively review them without discussing those premises. I’ve avoided spoilers where possible but, if you really don’t want to know what the big pitch is for these series, I’d recommend you read “Divergence” first. “The Rookie,” Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s “Batman” story, introduces a new status quo for Gotham. Snyder’s affection fo

Earth Defense Force 4.1 spinoff casts players as Wing Divers D3 Publisher released the Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wingdiver the Shooter spinoff game for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on Wednesday. D3 Publisher announced the release date last week. The new game is a top-down vertical scrolling shooter, and a spinoff of its Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair game. In the game, players take the role of a Wing Diver, a character class introduced in Earth Defense Force 4.1, and combats aliens from the game. Players are able to choose from many weapons from the original game, and equip up to two, while collecting power-ups from within a level. XSEED released Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair in North America on the PS4 in December 2015, and D3 Publisher released the game worldwide on Steam in July 2016. The PS4 game originally shipped in Japan in April 2015. D3 Publisher announced in June that it is delaying its Earth Defense Force 5

At New York Comic Con, Women of Marvel podcast hosts Sana Amanat and Judy Stephens held a panel alongside assistant editor Kathleen Wisneski, writer Margaret Stohl, writer Leah Williams, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg and artist Jen Bartel. The purpose of this panel was to discuss what it’s like working in comics from a female perspective and what fans can expect from Marvel in the future. During the panel’s Q&A session, a young female fan brought up the topic of dipping sales, asking the panelists if they believed decreased sales were due to “forced diversity” and “hiring people without experience.” RELATED: NYCC: Sana Amanat, Judy Stephens Bring the Women of Marvel to the Center Stage “No, absolutely no,” Amanat replied. “There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. People try to conflate things at times, and that’s not necessarily the case,” William