Detective Comics recently won the GLAAD award for outstanding comic book, with most interpretative commentary skewed towards celebrating the "Elegy" and "Go" storylines from the past few months, though there' hardly a nod at The Question second feature which appeared in those books. Sure, Kate Kane is DC's undisputed kickass lesbian, but Renee Montoya has had her share of female empowerment, both in her side feature and in her Detective #859 cameo. And yet, awesome as their realistic portrayals might be, these characters owe a lot to Gotham City itself for enabling their storylines. Batman's turf have evolved beyond its crime-ridden alleyways to become a bootcamp of sorts for the emerging gay hero.
Besides the stunning examples of those two lovely ladies, there's Gotham's new DA, Kate Spencer, who has her gay co-counsel Damon Matthews, and gay-in-the-making son Ramsey. Gotham's a fair venue for such a large gay supporting cast; Characters who operate within it benefit from its notoriety. Manhunter relied on Crisis tie-ins to make its sales, her co-feature in Streets of Gotham pits her against Harvey Dent and makes a better story than whatever this Abuse fellow is doing in the main story. Gotham works that way, it's got Arkham and its architecture that give it a certain taste, the backdrop neccesary for a hero's coming out.
Even the most perverse reboot wouldn't be able to out a character from rural Metropolis. Imagine Jimmy Olsen as a fashion photographer, to regurgitate one possible stereotype. It can't even begin to work as well as the characters closer to the Wayne estate could actualize. The Batman villains represent subversions of Batman's realistic elements, corruptions of fear, wealth, law enforcement. Going back to Metropolis, the only place capable of generating the same buzz within the DCU, we have villains that do battle with idealization. They're the smartest, or the shrewdest. Gay characters, regardless of their heroic alignment, need to be challenged by flawed counterparts to develop the depth that can make them stable and established characters. Gotham is more than a springboard for those minor characters vying for the mainstream, it's what makes these realistic men and women the "accurate and inclusive representations" that GLAAD is looking for, wholeheartedly deserving those laurels from the gay community.
The magazine-inspired cover to "The Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange" is a great indicator of what's inside this "super issue". Four black and white stories centered around Marvel's "Master of Magic", each with a distinctive flavor, yet altogether embracing the mysticism of the pulp days. Turns out it's four bucks well spent, a revealing approach to one of Marvel's coolest characters and the universe around him that's only slightly joking with its campy offer of "More Thrills".
The first of two expected Big Reveals have happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight: the identity of Twilight, the mysterious force organizing Buffy's enemies and assaulting the Scoobies wherever they go. I had my suspicions of who Twilight might be for months now and can't quite decide how I feel about who it turned out to be.
SPOILER WARNING: Hit the jump for frank discussion of details you might not want to know!
This week's fresh batch lacks in big-name releases, which leaves you with a great chance to catch up on some of the collected editions that also come out today.
In the cape department, you've got Batman & Robin #10, which kicks off the Batman vs. Robin arc; or the Justice League: Rise and Fall Special which puts a black stain on Green Arrow and hopefully washes out the bad taste that Cry for Justice left in your mouth. The Mystic Hands of Dr. Strange #1 offers you four black and white short stories in 48 pages, and Amazing Spider-Man #624 covers the new Vulture's origin story.
Dark Horse continues its Solomon Kane showcase in Solomon Kane: Death's Black Riders #3 (of 4), and Image kicks off a new arc in Elephantmen #24.
For a change of pace, Oni's releasing Ghost Projekt #1 (of 5), about an investigation on an abandoned Soviet research facility with a supernatural twist. Marvel has a two-parter Breaking into Comics the Marvel Way for you aspiring writers, and for those who just can't wait for the A-Team movie, there's IDW's A-Team: Shotgun Wedding #1, which is awesome just for featuring Hannibal on the cover with a bible and pistol to accessorize with his alb.
Looking for collected editions? Marvel collects Jason Aaron's run on Ghost Rider with Ghost Riders Heavens on Fire, while DC updates their greek pantheon in Greek Street Vol 1 Blood Calls For Blood. Hellboy: Vol 9 Wild Hunt contains the eight-issue miniseries followup to Darkness Calls along with pages from the artist's sketchbook. Either that or the Twilight graphic novel.
You can catch the full distribution list through Diamond.
Ranker.com writer Eric Diaz has been taking criticism since posting his recent entry titled "The 10 Most Important Gay Moments in Comic Book History". Tom Spurgeon, Dirk Deppey, and Chris Mautner have all taken issue with the list's pretension, which fails to acknowledge any comics outside of DC and Marvel, and even then, restricts itself to the superhero genre. Diaz defends that
If I had written this article for a comic book centric website, then I would have said "Top Ten Gay Moments in SUPER HERO Comic Book History" But for a larger audience, "Comic Book" still means "Super Hero."
...
This wasn't a list based on quality, otherwise the awful Rawhide Kid series or Alpha Flight's coming out issue wouldn't even be here. Those stories got headlines in the mainstream press. Stan Lee went on CNN to talk about their "gay cowboy" book. Rictor and Shatterstar were all over sites like Perez Hilton and similar ones.
Which is where he loses me. You could argue that the overtones between Batman and Robin caused a media frenzy when they were more prominent, but to argue that they're significant, or even mildly relevant to LGBT(QI) acceptance in comics simply can't be a honest statement. Doonesbury is a syndicated strip with an expansive readership, and exposed thousands of readers to heartfelt commentary in Andy's battle with AIDS, which, while we're discussing semantics, is much more of a "moment" than the haphazard pairings and character names that appear on the list. No one can blame Diaz for trying to expose his readers to these admittedly prominent, gay characters, but the article would've hugely benefited from additional, comprehensive research and more selective diction. What comics do you think would better fit the "Important Gay Moments" mantle?
I swear this isn't turning into the Grant Morrison Comics Blog, but if he's willing to do another photo shoot such as the one Rubber Justice linked in the Twitter feed, for real, I could start a Grant Morrison Comics Blog. I'd call it "The Sound of One Hand Fapping". I could go there.
Grant Morrison has talked repeatedly about his desire to incorporate all the crazy silver age stuff into the mainstream Batman storyline, to undo the retcons and reboots and alternate whatevers, and he's done a lot of that with the Batman R.I.P. story and now with Batman & Robin. More than that, though, more than just feeling around under the couch cushions of the Batman mythos to see if there's any crazy left in there, Morrison has taken that over-the-top aesthetic and elevated it from silly to sincere without feeling the need also to divorce it from the camp that for many of us is an essential component of what makes the property work.
Issue #9 of Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin is in a lot of ways not the strongest example of that effort, but it concludes the most recent story arc in admirable fashion and it surprised me by its remarkably literal, linear nature. Morrison doesn't do a lot of dallying around with one-liners and such in this issue, and we get to see three of the most direct examples of characterization we've seen to date.
X-Factor #200, released in December but not winding up in my hands until a couple of weeks ago, saw the series re-numbered and a bit of a re-launch as the team moved to a disused funeral parlor in New York and took on an interesting case: the disappearance of The Invisible Girl.
This issue is months old, yes, but there was a lot to like in it - more of Strong Guy's struggle to synthesize his sincere friendship to Rictor with his unexpected difficulty accepting Rictor's relationship with Shatterstar, a story arc I'm finding more compelling the more I think about it and read about it. There's a great interview at CBR in which Peter David discusses what bothers Guido and why he constantly has to crack jokes at Rictor and Shatterstar's expense, saying:
"My feeling is that, as far as Guido is concerned, he grew up in one of those tough neighborhoods where no one was gay," the writer explained. "Which is to say that guys didn't cop to being gay because they'd get the crap kicked out of them. And sure, Guido is a liberal guy who's open minded, or at least likes to feel that he is. His attitude is that whatever some dudes do in the privacy of their bedroom is their own business. But now here's someone who he thought he knew, and it turns out he didn't know him as well as he thought, and now he's got a mental image of Shatterstar and Rictor going at it, and the whole thing just leaves him feeling kind of squeed about it. He doesn't hate them for it, but it's outside of his comfort level, and he's even frustrated by that because he didn't know it was a problem for him. So he feels guilty about feeling the way that he does, but he can't help how he feels. Consequently, he's dealing with it in a way that comes naturally for him: Making jokes about it."
There's also a great fight scene in which Strong Guy and The Thing go at it only to have Shatterstar step in and do his thing to great effect. It ends with an amusing and appropriate pop culture allusion that's both a callback to an earlier moment in the same issue and a perfect illustration of how Shatterstar's character is developing from tight-lipped emotionless Other to amusing and outgoing person. It reminded me of the transition my friends and I witnessed during college when one specific friend went in the course of a year from reserved, baritone-voiced dude bragging about the prestigious fraternity he was rushing to cracked-voice queen we came to call The Diva. Shatterstar isn't turning into a nelly queen but he is gaining an understanding of the theatricality of human relationships and adventure. He's becoming more comfortable with himself and exploring different ways of expressing himself, and I love that.
The main reason I want to pique your interest in a book published three months ago, though, is that the back of X-Factor #200 has detailed biographies of every member of the team. Every member of the team. If the story of Shatterstar and Rictor's kiss last year got you curious about X-Factor but you didn't think you could jump in at the mid-point in a book handled by many different writers and put through many different cast changes, ask your comics shop to order issue #200 for you. It will tell you everything you need to know to have some context. I'm going to be reading future issues of X-Factor with #200 close at hand just for reference material.
Peter David's "X-Factor": Earth Moving, Star Shattering [Comic Book Resources]
I've now read and re-read (and maybe re-re-read) Joe the Barbarian #2 and I am having trouble finding the right degree of hyperbole to express my enjoyment of it. No holds barred, this title is strongly recommended: beautiful art, great writing and a story that just breaks my heart. Grant Morrison, let's just move to DC and get married, okay?
Spoiler Alert: Hit the jump for more specific thoughts!
Geoff Johns and Jim Lee flexed their publicity muscles this Wednesday when they conducted an open twitter discussion on FIRST WAVE #1 by Brian Azzarello and Rags Morales.
In case you didn't hear the announcements from him, or him, or them, DC's new creative chief officer, along with its newest copublisher would be reading and replying in real time to the new release. Under the hashtag #DCReader, tweeters could share their thoughts as they flip through the pages and receive creative commentary from other readers, including Johns and Lee. The end result proved to be a mostly insightful forum that generally avoided all-too-common twitter trash, like a fast-moving Oprah's book club with an insane audience member rambling in the seats.
Highlights of the discussion follow, so you would do well to finish the issue before reading on.
The internet was all atwitter last week with speculation about the cryptic "Stan's Back" ad campaign. Though it was no question that the distinctive signature belonged to the illustrious Stan Lee, it opened the podium to ask, "Back to what?"
Today BOOM! studios announced that the renowned Mr. Lee will "present" three new series, all superpower related, of course. BOOM!'s big man Mark Waid is writing one of these, and additional announcements on the other "A-list writers" will follow. The extent of Stan Lee's involvement isn't yet clarified, though it's likely he'll be listed as Creator. This seems to be a new trend for Lee, who last year collaborated with Hiroyuki Takei to produce the Ultimo Manga.
BOOM!'s as-of-yet unnamed series will hit stores later this year.
via [LA Times]
I read the debut issue of this new The Tick book from New England Comics - a holiday-themed issue about a superhero Secret Santa party - and while I enjoyed it, and I thought some of the art was great and some of the zany creativity typical of The Tick was on display, to be honest I was kind of underwhelmed. It seemed to have all the right individual elements, yes, but I wasn't entirely convinced that the old magic still worked.
Two months passed, though, and when The Tick #2 landed in my bag I found myself surprised at my excitement to see it there. When I got around to cracking it open over brunch on Sunday, I laughed aloud at least four times. Issue #2 conjures up plenty of classic Tickery, full of puns, visual gags and allusions - including one joke that manages to be all three at once and which I simply refuse to spoil for you - and that's what The Tick is supposed to be. It also features a B story that suggests they are, in fact, building towards an overall narrative featuring a classic Tick villain, which would be pretty sweet.
The art in this book is also very strong. I think it's as good as if not better than the art for issue #1, much better than the art in "classic" Tick comics (and the show) and it's better than the art I've seen in some "serious" comics lately. I definitely appreciate the effort that's going into this new book, and I think it shows that the NEC folks are making full use of the extended time between issues.
When I said last week that I'd picked up X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back in hopes of something fluffy to cut the taste of metaplots, this is what I should have been reading instead. I really enjoyed this second issue and I can't wait to see what they produce in April. If you're a fan of comedy in general or The Tick in particular, pick it up.
I've now read through the first in this four-issue series and I have to say that it took its time appealing to me. I bought it mostly for novelty, read the first few pages thinking it had been a mistake, found myself intrigued and then fell in love with it. Yet again, the shadows around Utopia hold the most interesting stories and narrative opportunities.
Read on for more!
Enjoy the latest headlines from our other sites!
