And we’re back – though to be honest, not a lot of good books came out this week – a large amount of them were just… meh.  On the bright side, we got a lot of cool news this week and a look and what’s coming in July.  Then Marvel made news with Ice-Man and their “Readers decide Reboot” comment.  (That’s right, there’s a link in the intro, gotta keep you on your toes somehow).  Let’s get to the news and (and a couple) reviews here at Spandex and Capes!

Review List
April 26th, 2015

“What do you mean I lose the vote?” - J. Todd

PREVIOUSLY…

Solicitations:  So first up, we have the July solicitations.  Lots of interesting stuff here as Secret Wars goes monthly and DC introduces a few more of it’s new titles.  Here they are for your perusing pleasure in the order that I saw them: Image Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Circle Comics, DC Comics, IDW Comics.

Daredevil: Yes, I watched Daredevil.  Yes, it was fantastic.  And, even better, it’s getting a second season.

Sneak Peeks: Here are the announced sneak peaks for Week 3 of DC Comics 8 page previews.

Girl Power: This is fantastic.  Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and Mattel are creating DC Superhero Universe for Girls.

Miracle Man:  Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham will return to Miracle Man to pick where they left off in 1993.  This means I will probably have to catch up at some point.

Movie News: Zack Snyder has released both the Superman v Batman Posters and a look at the costumes.  Both look pretty good.  This picture, coupled with the recent “colorizing” of the Man of Steel, I have to say like the Superman costume better in the bright light.  It makes it look more like Superman.  Meanwhile, Marvel has named it’s writers for Captain Marvel – previously they have worked on Guardians of the Galaxy and Inside Out (the upcoming Pixar movie about emotions).  So I’m guessing this movie will be some what funny.  Meanwhile Sony has team with Valiant to announce that they are ruining another set of comic book movies in the Valiant Film Universe, starting with Harbinger and Bloodshot.  The good news is I don’t care about any of these characters, so Sony can do whatever they want to them.

Suicidal Joke: Suicide Squad director David Ayer released the first good look at Jared Leto as the Joker on Friday.  I am very ok with this look.  The only thing I don’t care for is the tattoos on the face, because I think the Joker is at his scariest when he’s dressed up in some type of suit.  Other that, this reminds me a lot of Grant Morrison’s Joker from his Zur-en-arrh run.  I think there are worst places to pull inspiration from than Grant Morrison.

Coming Out: So, in the first bit of infuriating news this week, Ice-Man was outed by Jean Grey in the worst way possible.  She read his mind and confronted him.  One, she has to stop doing that.  I mean seriously stop it.  Two, this makes no sense whatsoever.  While it has been alluded to several times in the past that Iceman is gay, the present day Iceman identifies himself as straight.  So what the hell does that mean?  And the dismissal of the idea of bisexual for Bobby was crass.  Bisexuals already have a hard enough time getting people to believe that they can love someone of either sex that dismissing the idea in that way was wrong.  My problem isn’t that Ice-Man may be gay – it’s the way it was handled and the way it was presented that i have a problem with.  If the current Ice-Man comes out as gay – I’ll be there to champion that decision.  Having his younger self be outed because someone invaded his privacy and decided that he was done hiding in the closet was wrong.  With the story told in this way, at best, Mr. Bendis is outing Ice-Man in the worst way possible.  At worst, he’s saying that bisexuality is a myth and that a person can choose to be gay or straight throughout their life.

Frank Miller:  And now to the second bit of frustrating news.  While I suppose it was inevitable given Batman v Superman, it’s still a large disappointment to see DC allowing Frank Miller to return the  Dark Knight Returns universe.  DC announced this week that they will be publishing DK3: The Master Race.  Before you get all excited I want you to remember the complete travesty that the Dark Knight 2 was and the hellhole that the STILL unfinished All-Star Batman became.  I can tell you two things about this right now – one, it will be a cold day in hell if this series comes out on time and two, I won’t be buying, reading, or reviewing it.

REVIEWS

 

Convergence: Justice League of America #1 (DC)
By Fabian Nicieza with art by Chriscross
So, this week was kind of… light in regards to books that I was able to muster up enough energy to care about.  One of these caught me off guard – the story of Justice League Detroit.  Normally, this league is the most ridiculed, but this story made them seem worthy of the title they possessed.  It was good to see Ralph and Sue again.  I thought one of the most wasted opportunities of the 52 mini-series was not giving them their own ghost detectives book when it was done.  It was I also found it interesting in the difference between this book and other books that had the same characters.  In Aquaman’s own book, he could breathe underwater – in this it was a power that got taken away.  John was stuck in his human form here, while he reverted to his superhero form in Justice League International #1.  I wonder if that’s just the writer’s perspective or if it’s how the character was viewed during that timeframe.

Iver, Timewalker #4 (Valiant)
By Fred Van Lente with art by Clayton Henry
So this was an excellent time travel book.  It had just the right about of humor, hope, and crushing despair.  I liked how the more she tried, the more desperate the attempts got.  It was even interesting to see her future selves had learned some type of lesson about changing time.  The book also got into a few interesting areas of time travel.  Like, I wonder if she was the cause of her father’s accident or if she just subbed in for the original cause.  And the bartender was very calm for having sixteen of the same person in the room with him – even when the future cyborg Neela came in, he just seemed shocked at her look.  Now, I haven’t read Valiant before, so I don’t know who Iver’s brothers are or why he has to fight them, but between that and the Oblivi-1, I am looking forward to the next arc.

Amazing Spider-Man #17.1 (Marvel); Avengers World #20 (Marvel); Black Widow #17 (Marvel); Convergence: Adventures of Superman #1 (DC); Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders #1 (DC); Convergence: Green Lantern Corps #1 (DC); Convergence: Hawkman #1 (DC); Convergence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (DC); Convergence: Swamp Thing #1 (DC); Convergence: The Flash #1 (DC); Convergence: The New Teen Titans #1 (DC); Convergence: Wonder Woman #1 (DC); Convergence #3 (DC); Flash Gordon #3 (King); Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues #4 (IDW); Guardians of the Galaxy #41 (Marvel); Hulk #15 (Marvel); Inhuman Special #1 (Marvel); Mortal Kombat X (DC); Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #31 (DC); Solar: Man of Atom (Dynamite); Star Wars #4 (Marvel); Suiciders #3 (DC); The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #4 (Marvel); Wolverines #15 (Marvel)