In our weekend edition of Comics Relief, we’ve got news on Marvel shining a spotlight on the cosplay community that has shown so much support for them over the years, as well as Deadpool throwing some big time shade at Marvel’s #1 rival, DC. First though, a comic book icon officiates DC Comics’ first legal same sex marriage since the ruling came down in June from the Supereme Court. Read on for more details …
Wonder Woman Becomes First DC Character To Officiate A Same Sex Marriage
This past June, LGBT citizens around the country and their allies celebrated as marriage equality became legal all over the United States. Although there have been same-sex marriages before in comics, none since it all became legal. DC Comics is the first major company to show a fully legal same-sex union take place since the ruling came down, and they’re showing it by having Wonder Woman officiate a wedding for two women, with Clark Kent in tow, in this week’s issue of Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman, Chapter 48.
Wonder Woman makes sense, of course, as the first DC character to officiate a gay wedding, because as she points out in the story, she’s from an island of all women. Where she’s from, it’s not gay marriage, it’s just marriage, period. Secondly, there is likely no bigger comic book icon for the LGBT comics community than Wonder Woman, for various reasons. William Marston created Diana to be a beacon of love, equality, and progressive social politics back in 1941, so it’s no wonder (pun intended) she’s become the favorite of so many an LGBT fangirl or fanboy.
The story is written by Jason Badower, who makes his DC Comics debut with this issue. In a statement, he said “I saw this Wonder Woman story as an incredible opportunity to have one of the most recognizable, iconic characters in the world to be among the first to step forward and officially endorse this new law. But I thought, let’s not just have Wonder Woman embrace this new law, let’s have her celebrate it.”
My one complaint about the issue is that Clark Kent even has to ask Wonder Woman if she’s for marriage equality. Dude, do you even know where your own girlfriend comes from? [Huffington Post]
Deadpool Mocks DC Comics In New Variant Cover
It used to be that back in the day, Marvel and DC comics would constantly take little pot-shots at one another, usually in the back of the letters column, places that Marvel would throw shade and call DC Comics their “distinguished competition.” Although they’ve been doing less of that sort of stuff in the past few years, they still get away with it when they can…as with this upcoming Deadpool cover, that mocks DC’s new tacky trend of having half page ads for Twix bars on pages with story and art included.
Now Marvel has revealed a new “Candy” variant cover by Dave Johnson to November’s Deadpool #1 with Wade Wilson and Rhino in a brawl before being interrupted by a phony ad for a protein bar called “Exxxplodo!” This variant will be pretty rare, only one copy for every 4,999 ordered by retailers. If that seems like a random number, that same month DC is releasing a Jim Lee sketch variant to Dark Knight III: The Master Race, which is one in every 5000 copies, so Marvel’s is one copy short of theirs. So much shade! [Newsarama]
Mike Mayhew Illustrates Latest Star Wars: Shattered Empire Exclusive Cover
Speaking of variant covers from Marvel, the latest Star Wars: Shattered Empire cover has been released, this one an exclusive to San Diego comic book store Yesteryear Comics, who has debuted the image on their Facebook page, from artist Mike Mayhew. The cover features the classic trilogy characters in their orginal incarnations, minus Lando and Yoda for some reason. Hopefully Lucasfilm won’t pull this cover at the last minute like they did to artist Adi Granov recently with his variant cover for Shattered Empire. [Bleeding Cool]
ComiXology Has Harley Quinn Sale
DC’s Harley Quinn has gone from being the Joker’s girlfriend and sidekick in a few early episodes of Batman: The Animted Series twenty years ago to being one of DC’s most popular female characters in their entire publishing history, and next year’s upcoming Suicide Squad movie seems very much centered around the former Dr. Harleen Quinzel.
Now DC and ComiXology are taking advantage of Harley’s popularity and is having a sale on their selection of books featuring the character. ComiXology is dropping the price on collections down by a little more than half, and included in the bunch are her original solo-series, as well the New 52 version and some Batman: The Animated Series books as well, including Harley’s origin story Mad Love. You can check out the sale by clicking on this link. [Comics Alliance]
Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock Announce Compass South OGN
Hope Larson, author of the A Wrinkle in Time graphic novel adaptation and her own book Mercury as well as several others is teaming with illustrator Rebecca Mock for a new series, compromised of two books, which is aimed at middle school-age readers. The first book is called Compass South and is set to come out June 2016. It deals with 19th Century twins Cleopatra and Alexander and their adventures with pirates and seeking out treasures. Here’s the description from the publisher:
It’s 1860 in New York City. When 12-year-old twins Alexander and Cleopatra’s father disappears, they join the Black Hook Gang and are caught by the police pulling off a heist. They agree to reveal the identity of the gang in exchange for tickets to New Orleans. But once there, Alex is shanghaied to work on a ship that is heading for San Francisco via Cape Horn. Cleo stows away on a steamer to New Granada where she hopes to catch a train to San Francisco to find her brother. Neither Alexander nor Cleo realizes the real danger they are in — they are being followed by pirates who think they hold the key to treasure. How they outwit the pirates and find each other makes for a fast-paced, breathtaking adventure.
A second volume called Knife’s Edge, is set for release in 2017. [Comics Beat]
Four-Year-Old Boy Proves He’s a Real Superboy and Saves His Family
In a story that could warm the heart of even the coldest Grinch, a four-year-old boy in Trinidad proved himself to be a real Superboy, as he helpted to save his mother and aunt after their car drove off a cliff. Their car skidded, and the young boy’s mother, Amanda Graham, swerved to avoid oncoming traffic, sending the vehicle into a ravine and throwing all the occupants through the back window. The boy’s mother told him to climb about 100 feet up to the road to find help, which he did, and then and flagged down a passerby. His aunt suffered a broken shoulder and his mother a broken rib in the accident. However, the four year old remained uninjured.
Which makes sense, as the boy’s name is Kal-El, named after Superman’s Krytonian name. He’s a Superboy in action as well as in name. [CBR]
Marvel Debuts Cosplay Variant Covers For October
Cosplay has become a huge part of fandom over the last decade, to the point where comic conventions feel as much like cosplay exhibitions as anything else. Marvel Comics is paying tribute to those cosplayers who have supported their characters over the years by offering up over 40 cosplay variant covers for their titles this October. The publisher has now released images of the first 19 of them. Among the titles are Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Ms. Marvel, and many others. You can check out all nineteen covers released so far in our gallery below: [Comic Book]
