Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/7/15
What a week! Just yesterday, DC Comics announced a new rebranding of their entire New 52 line! Gone are the last vestiges of that reboot and the DC house style! Now they want to produce a variety of comics for the wide variety of people that read comics! That’s exciting news. Marvel has found a ton of success going down that route, and if DC is willing to bite the bullet and follow Marvel’s lead, then we’ll all benefit.
The most important thing is that we will get good comics. Like this week’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.
Squirrel Girl #2 easily picks up Comic Book of the Week for being so gosh darn hilarious! I hope you’re reading and laughing along with me. But this week also so good issues for Ant-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star Wars and the long-awaited return of Hawkeye! Matt Fraction and David Aja’s archer-led comic was close to capturing the top spot, but it took a little stumble.
This week you can check out my review of Black Vortex Alpha over at Word of the Nerd. It’s a cosmic crossover between the Guardians of the Galaxy and the All-New X-Men, and while writer Sam Humphries is having some fun, it’s not better than the sum of its parts.
Comic Reviews: Angela: Asgard’s Assassin #3, Ant-Man #2, Batman Eternal #44, Hawkeye #21, Ms. Marvel #11, Star Wars #2, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2.
2 New Robin Comics Coming This Summer; DC’s ‘New 52’ Out the Door…Kind of!
Breaking comic book news today is that DC Comics is going to do a little rebranding of the New 52 this June. They aren’t producing 52 comics a month anymore, so the name doesn’t make any sense. The New 52 continuity and characters will remain the same, but they’re bringing in 24 new comics and basically just doing away with the ‘New 52’ name tag. All of this will launch after the April-May Convergence mini-series. IGN has part of the scoop. And CBR has some more! And Newsarama has even more!
Chief among the new comics will be something called We Are Robin. I have no idea what this is, but I am hugely excited!
I’m going to be scouring the Internet for any news about this series. Will it star the various Robins already hanging out in Gotham City? Or, like the cover implies, will it be about a bunch of street kids who wear Robin-branded clothing? Who knows! I am beyond excited to find out.
Also announced is a new solo series for Damian Wayne, which will replace the Batman and Robin ongoing. Robin: Son of Batman will be written and drawn by Patrick Gleason, a true superstar!
No word yet why Robin will be teaming up with a giant red monster.
There will also be new comics for Bat-Mite, Bizarro, Black Canary, Cyborg, Dr. Fate, Martian Manunter and many more. My favorite comic book artist, Bryan Hitch, will also be taking over both writing and art duties on Justice League! Check out the various titles at the links above.
Another announcement I’m excited about will see Starfire split away from the long-running Red Hood and the Outlaws comic into her own series, written by the Harley Quinn team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, with art by Emanuela Lupacchino. That sounds pretty amazing, considering I love me some Harley Quinn comic. The Outlaws book will be shrunk down to just Red Hood/Arsenal. Could this be an attempt to finally cater to fans of the Teen Titans cartoon? Starfire’s new costume seems to suggest as much (though she’s still wearing incredibly short shorts)!
That is a damn good idea, since everybody was pretty soured to Starfire in the New 52, whereas she could be getting a ton of fans.
I’m going to try to update this post throughout the day with new information as it comes in! For me, I’m just excited to see Robin getting some attention! I can’t wait to find out more about We Are Robin!
What do you henchies think? Any of these new comics look good to you? Or do you think DC should do away with the New 52 entirely? Looks to me like they’re going to take a play out of the Marvel NOW! playbook and just introduce waves of new titles to see what takes off. The focus of this new rebranding is to reach out to a wider audience. When the New 52 launched, it was rigidly tied to DC’s grim and gritty house style, but then both Marvel and DC had much more success with a wide variety of comics (like Ms. Marvel and Batgirl). Now it looks like DC learned their lesson. The house style is out and variety reigns!
I like the sound of that!
Sound off in the comments!
——————
Gamer Girl & Vixen – Meet the Characters
Gamer Girl & Vixen is a story about love and shenanigans. It’s a story about finding someone to love through all the obstacles that both we and the world put in our way — especially for same sex couples, for whom those obstacles are more vast and obtrusive than anyone else might realize. But those obstacles can be overcome no matter who we are or who we love. Whether it’s a disapproving parent or a misinterpreted text, women like Bianca Crowley and Liz Jaczynski can still be with one another.
When they’re not busy committing super-crime, of course.
All the crime!
Gamer Girl & Vixen is a supervillain lesbian love story. It’s about two costumed criminals whose crime spree turns to romance — and they just happen to both be women. It’s got burglaries, betrayal and superhero battles, but it’s also got a lot of love and tenderness.
The goal behind Gamer Girl & Vixen is to tell a fun and exciting comic book story — one that also just happens to be about not only women, but gay women. Because, quite simply, there aren’t enough of these types of stories out there, even in superhero comics. There is a strong movement in the comics community these days to feature more comics about women, to acknowledge that women and girls read and love comics. We whole-heartedly agree, and we want to get our comic in the hands of all kinds of readers.
That’s why we’re on the Road to Kickstarter later this Spring. I’ve written a lot about the comics making process on my blog, and now it’s about time that everyone got a better look at our characters and story!
Vixen
Name: Bianca Crowley
Age: 18
About: Bianca Crowley is gay, but it’s a secret. Don’t tell her boyfriend. And definitely don’t tell her mother. Mommy dearest doesn’t approve, and Bianca has locked herself in the closet since high school. Now in college, she’s a cheerleader, the darling of her sorority and is dating a track star. She’s living the perfect life, just like her mother always wanted.
But Bianca’s got another secret: she likes to steal stuff. Her father used to be a notorious thief, and her mother has a lot of rich friends. So most of Bianca’s late nights involve dressing in black and committing a little felony burglary. It’s her own little rebellion.
Bianca is about to embark on her biggest heist to date, and whether she realizes it or not, she could use a helping hand.
Gamer Girl
Name: Elizabeth “Liz” Jaczynski
Age: 20
About: Liz Jaczynski is an out and proud lesbian, an engineering student and a self-proclaimed video game fanatic. She resents the fact that Sega lost the original video game war, has started petitions to have a female protagonist in the next GTA, and is holding out hopes for an Angry Birds/My Little Pony crossover. She’s also a budding superhero with dreams of glory.
When she was younger, Liz’s dad was a bit of a con man, and she used to help out on jobs. But when he was killed in a grift gone wrong, Liz decided she had to do better and succeed beyond his wildest dreams. Liz designed a set of gauntlets capable of producing hard-light hologram constructs, programmable for whatever sort of weapons or equipment she might need. That she programmed in a bunch of video game weaponry is just how she rolls.
Now as Gamer Girl, Liz is ready to achieve the glory she was always destined for — it just might not be the destiny she was expecting.
Bianca and Liz are our two main characters, but the story isn’t just about them. Join me after the jump to meet the supporting players of Gamer Girl & Vixen, and learn a bit more about the story’s premise.
Doctor Who LEGOs are Happening!
I asked for it years ago, but now LEGO is making it official: Doctor Who LEGOs!
Just like the Ghostbusters last year, this new set comes via the LEGO Ideas crowd-produced program. Basically, LEGO lets fans design and submit their own LEGO models, and then everybody votes for the ones they want. Any idea that reaches 10,000 votes then goes before the LEGO review board and they pick the ones they want to make
And Doctor Who has made the cut!
No details have yet been released, but this is still pretty awesome news!
Though I still haven’t bought that Ghostbusters Ecot-1 set yet…
——————
First Daredevil Trailer is Dark and Bloody!
There’s going to be a Daredevil TV show, people! Live action, potentially multiple seasons, and it’s coming out in April on Netflix! It’s still hard to wrap my brain around this amazing fact! Now we can check out the first trailer!
No red costume yet, but we know it’s coming (hopefully they skip the yellow one)! The show looks dark, gritty, and yet heroic too. I’m really excited for this show – and this is coming from a guy who enjoys the Ben Affleck movie.
What a time to be alive!
————
Henchman-4-Hire 