Popverse's top stories of the day

• Harley Quinn is making April Fools Day 2025 one to remember with a not-so-sweet-smelling DC comic book special
• Watch the D&D, Warhammer, Mega Man, and more anthology panel Secret Level from Prime Video, filmed at NYCC 2024
• Nintendo's long-time Mario voice actor reveals the secret behind voicing Mario's Dad in the movie (and how it goes back to his original audition decades ago)

---

Marvel Studios is born out of the cradle that is Marvel Comics, but ever since adaptations of comics into movies and TV have been made, there's been the question of just how to best promote the source material. DC Studios CEO James Gunn and his team have made it a point to promote DC Comics on the backs of its movie & TV trailers when released online, and now Marvel seems to be turning a corner in directing eyeballs back to the comics as well.

During a closed-door meeting with comic book store retailers at the ComicsPRO Annual Meeting, Marvel Comics publisher Dan Buckley said that his team is working "much more closely" with Marvel Studios than ever before, with a goal to "drum up excitement for comics relating to major studio events."

While Marvel has released a specific reading guide for people watching Deadpool & Wolverine, don't expect that to be the case for every upcoming Marvel Studios project; instead, Buckley says, this "coordination [will be] specific to each studio offering and sometimes."

While Marvel Comics are sold in bookstores and digitally, Buckley says that that Marvel's promotion of comics will be focused on driving MCU fans to comic stores.

Buckley confirms that Deadpool actor/producer Ryan Reynolds' tweet promoting the Marvel comic Deadpool and Wolverine: World War Three wasn't part of this cordination, but says it as "a very pleasant surprise."

As part of this, Buckley says Marvel Comics' previous efforts at doing this were "not coordinated as well as they could have been over the past couple of years," but says the various teams - marketing, sales, editorial, and creative - have "re-established closer ties... to ensure we’re pulling proper PR and digital marketing levers."

Buckley hasn't specified what these new efforts will be, but given Deadpool & Wolverine is roughly one month away from release, those plans would ideally begin to appear soon.

"It is a priority for Marvel Comics to leverage the power of Marvel Studios to generate awareness, trial, and traffic, with the intent to convert those MCU fans into customers for you," Buckley says, referring to comic store retailers.

---

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
• 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
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• 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
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• With Daredevil, and spinoffs from Black Panther, What If, and more, Marvel Studios' 2025 Disney+ slate is bigger than ever, and that might be a big deal for the future
• If Kraven the Hunter flops, Sony's Spider-Man Universe could look for a Marvel-assisted reboot
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.