For a long time, it’s felt like superpowers only went to lantern-jawed white men… but if we urge you to consider two up-and-coming Thirst Objects: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II — who started his comic book adaptation career as a villain in Aquaman before donning the blue paint of Watchmen’s Dr Manhattan — and Simu Liu, who went from Toronto car rental outfit in Kim’s Convenience to “master of kung fu” Shang-Chi in the upcoming Marvel movie. Sure, representation matters etc but it’s important to note that these two are tall drinks of water and we want several sips.

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In this week’s Slate Plus, we’re joined by multi-hyphenate award-winning author and editor Roxane Gay, tackling Channing Tatum in ‘Explain Yourself’... Roxane is working on a couple projects with Channing, and the thing is, we’re already kinda onboard, so it’s more of a ‘tell us more” than “tell us why.” It’s a good time.

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