Popverse's top stories of the day

• Dan Da Dan's most emotionally devastating sequence proves that sometimes words aren't necessary
• WATCH: Inside the fiendish creations & comic book secret origin of David Dastmalchian in Popversations
• Every upcoming A24 movie, from 2024's Queer to 2025's The Legend of Ochi and beyond

Welcome back, Marvel Comics.

Oh, sure; Marvel has been publishing comics for its entire existence, so it’s not as if they’ve ever really gone anywhere. But the brand name ‘Marvel Comics’ has now officially made a comeback in print, thanks to a new social media presence, and a new logo, both unveiled over the weekend.

Technically, the social media isn’t entirely new — although the Instagram page is brand new, the X account (formerly Twitter, etc.) is actually a renamed account that previously belonged to Marvel Unlimited, Marvel’s digital subscription service… which, curiously enough, now has an all-new, locked X account for itself, under the name TBD. Hrm…

Both the Instagram and X accounts are promising reading recommendations, behind the scenes content, breaking news, and “weekly comic updates,” whatever those might be. (“Wednesday Warriors, we’re reading and reacting along with you every week,” the accounts explain, not entirely helpfully.) It’s part of a new attempt to simultaneously unify and diversify the promotion of Marvel content that has also seen the revival of the Marvel Television brand after five years, which coincides with Marvel president Dan Buckley publicly calling for a “reset” of the company.

Accompanying this new push is the unveiling of a new Marvel Comics brand logo, which is… not the best. (Rian Hughes, leading graphic designer who has worked on projects for Marvel in the past has already publicly announced it’s not his work.) The logo is intended to match the Marvel Studios and Marvel Television logos (as well as the Marvel Animation logo launched with Disney+’s X-Men ’97 series), but manages to miss the boat by not only failing to match the typestyle of the other logos — which is, to be fair, not standardized across the brand at all, frustratingly: “Studios” is in Tungsten Semibold, while “Television” and “Animation” are in Tungsten Bold;“Comics” looks to be in Tungsten Narrow Black, which is the same font family, but visibly different in terms of shape and spacing — but by accidentally making the COMICS read heavier and bolder than the MARVEL, accidentally de-emphasizing the actual brand.

While it’s not impossible that the logo could be updated to at least match Television and Animation — I even told you the fonts to use! — it’s not likely to happen anytime soon; this kind of rebrand and relaunch isn’t done overnight, or on a whim; multiple people had to sign off on this, so we’ll pretend that the discrepancy is intentional for now, and a sign that, while part of the overall Marvel family, comics stand alone as the source of the whole thing: a little thicker, a little bolder, and… nope. I can’t do it; the graphic design nerd in me just can’t. Someone fix that damn logo already.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Which Secret Wars comic the Russos are basing Avengers 6 off of
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Marvel's accidental closure on the Kang storyline
• Robert Downey Jr. is entering his villain era
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• For Marvel actors, the MCU also stands for the Marvel Commercials Universe
• The Fantastic 4: First Steps offers Marvel a visual makeover, courtesy of a classic movie designer
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga