Rob Liefeld whines again

Popverse says dreadful artist Liefeld is complaining that he's not listed as a writer/artist in one of Marvel's latest archives for New Mutants:

Rob Liefeld has never been shy about his opinions on... er, anything, really. But for our purposes, he's never held back on his opinions over how the work he did at Marvel has been handled by the company. Take, for example, a recent expression of his frustration regarding his work on the '90s X-Men title The New Mutants, in which Liefeld introduced perhaps his most famous creations, Deadpool and Cable. According to the seminal artist and Image Comics co-founder, a new collection of said comics miscredits him egregiously.

Liefeld's thoughts came via a social media post made June 6, in conjunction with Marvel's advertisement for an upcoming comic book omnibus. Specifically, that omnibus is The New Mutants Volume 4, which as some fans brought to Liefeld's attention, only credits him as an artist.

"Yes," said Liefeld, "despite writing the best selling issues of New Mutants ever published I am not listed [as a writer]."

But wasn't Louise Simonson the writer at the time? The only issues where he appeared to have credit as writer - or perhaps more precisely, as plotter - were the last 3, issues 98-100, and even there, it wasn't alone. It was with Fabian Nicieza. And I also noticed, interestingly enough, that issues 92 and 97 had Bob Hall and Guang Yap, respectively, credited as artists, not Liefeld. So it sounds like Liefeld's once again trying to give tabloid news sites like Popverse more material they can exploit for trivial matters, and simultaneously, Liefeld's trying to pretend he's one of the finest artists around, even though he's not. Rather hiliariously, he even admits he only "wrote" the last 3 issues in 1983-91's New Mutants:

Thus began a series of posts in which Liefeld not only voiced his annoyance of the oversight, but reminded readers of the success of the comic book the omnibus collects.

"It was through my writing that issues #98-100 sold 2.2 million copies," Liefeld said in another post. "That is more than the entire year previous to my joining. New Mutants was selling 110.000 copies in a sea of X-books selling 350k and above."

No kidding. It sold that much with his otherwise awful art? Well, I do recall the P.T. Barnum phrase "a sucker is born every minute", but even so, if anybody actually bought stories where it's not clear he was the writer per se as Nicieza was, it's a terrible shame they had to help prolong the dreadful career of such a pretentious artist.

Finally, Liefeld stepped back from his own experience to point at other artists who've conveyed their exasperation not just with the comic book industry, but with Marvel itself.

"In closing, Marvel treats creators like shit," Liefeld concluded, "They always have. Jack Kirby sued them. For two decades. The estate wants to sweep it under the rug now that they settled, but it turned Jack’s stomach. Steve Ditko sued Marvel. They can’t help but create the magic makers like shit."

Oops, did he really say "create" instead of "treat"? And since when was Liefeld a "magic maker" with that awful art of his, where he couldn't draw feet, let alone consistent panels with coherent art? Liefeld, alas, appears to be pretty arrogant, and with that kind of approach, is it any wonder he's otherwise on the sidelines now? It's a real shame Marvel had to hire him to work on at least 2 comics in their unsuccessful Heroes Reborn "experiment", which was like a textbook example of how mainstream publishers aren't marketing and selling on merit. Liefeld's only making clear he doesn't think his sloppy, derivative art is an embarrassment to the whole concept of artmaking. Yet all these pretentious news sites see fit to lavish attention on him they likely wouldn't give to writers like Chuck Dixon, or even artists like Brandon Peterson and Kirby himself, who're more talented than Liefeld ever was back in the day.

All we learn from this is that Liefeld's got a pointless grudge against Marvel, proving they shouldn't have ever done business with him in the first place. And Image shouldn't have let him take part in the company's founding.

A new book about the art of Michael Turner features some for a most inappropriate miniseries he worked on, and 3 unsuitable contributors

In this IGN article on Yahoo, it's announced that Aspen, the company originally founded by the late artist Michael Turner, worked on a crowdfunded art book featuring art he did for DC, and wouldn't you know it, one that includes some embarrassments based on what they were used for:

The late Michael Turner was undoubtedly one of the most popular comic book artists of the 2000s, with a proven track record of driving up sales on a series every time his art adorned the cover. Clover Press previously celebrated Turner's Marvel resume with The Marvel Art of Michael Turner, and now they're back with The DC Art of Michael Turner.

[...] The DC Art of Michael Turner is a 200-page 9" x 12" hardcover that reprints the artist's work on titles like Superman/Batman, The Flash, Justice League, Identity Crisis. The book includes an introduction by Ghost Machine editor-in-chief and former DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, as well as commentary from Jeph Loeb, Brad Meltzer, and Dan DiDio.

Turner may have been a talented artist, and some of his contributions to Image's Top Cow affiliate years ago were impressive, but what he drew for DC was all-style-no-substance, and that he would actually draw covers for Identity Crisis was disgusting and an embarrassing stain on his portfolio. I remember when Alex Ross told how he'd been asked to draw artwork for the vile miniseries that was offensive to victims of sexual assault, and in contrast to Turner, Ross wisely refused the offer. How is it Ross understood a story with a belittling structure could tarnish his resume if he'd participated, but Turner couldn't? And how come a site like Get Your Comic On is also obscuring the topics involved by putting one of the illustrations Turner did for Identity Crisis at the top of their article? Also, lest we forget, that Meltzer, Johns and DiDio gave introduction commentary for this project is also bad news. As for Loeb, his writing from the times was hardly a big deal.

What makes this additionally troubling is when a "feminist" site like Girl Talk HQ glosses over some art connected with one of the most repulsive miniseries of 2004:

In celebration of the Kickstarter campaign launch today, we are sharing some exclusive images from ‘THE DC ART OF MICHAEL TURNER’ – the artist’s iconic interpretations of Wonder Woman, which you won’t find on any other media publication!

One of those panels they highlight is a cover Turner drew for Identity Crisis, an issue where WW was made to look absurdly mechanical in-story, showing her using her lasso on an interrogated crook without actually showing her face, IIRC. That doesn't trouble them? I guess that says all you need to know about how some feminists aren't the responsible folks they'd like everybody to think they are. Oddly enough, another feminist/SJW writing for Book Riot actually woke up and recognized what was wrong with Identity Crisis 15 years afterwards, though she dampened the impact of her essay by continuing to embrace other forms of wokeness, IIRC. When will the writers for this other feminist site begin to wake up?

Comic Book Club Live also glossed over the news, and they say:

Like other volumes in The DC Art Of… line, the high-end edition will come in a 9″ x 12″ deluxe hardcover, featuring over 200 pages of art and commentary. The campaign will also feature an ashcan, a “sketchbook” edition featuring black and white art, “a Kickstarter-exclusive slipcase and dust jacket, and multiple DC Portfolio sets spotlighting Turner’s unforgettable takes on Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, and The Flash.” In addition, Geoff Johns has provided an introduction alongside “thoughts” from Jeph Loeb, Brad Meltzer and Dan Didio. Hopefully those thoughts will come in thought bubbles, but probably not.

And that says all you need to know where they stand regarding those charlatans too. Almost a decade after the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and they're continuing to sugarcoat some of the worst stories to bring down DC/Marvel over the past quarter century. That doesn't speak well for alleged "fandom".

Turner may have some decent artwork to build an art book with, but Identity Crisis taints the covers he foolishly drew for that. I would not advise backing the crowdfunding campaign for this financially, and when it comes to his DC artwork, I don't think it amounted to much in the end. Though if it matters, it was reprehensible when DC reprinted the Superman/Batman story reintroducing Supergirl in an anthology with censored panels for the girls' rear ends, yet violence against Lois Lane went by without any opposition. This was when DiDio was still in charge, and that too says quite a bit about his MO. So why is Aspen welcoming him to provide commentary for their new art book project? He's just one more reason why not to give the book any financial backing, because what if some of the profits go into his pockets? So I'm sorry, but I would strongly advise anybody who's a realist not to give this book about Turner's DC art any money.

Turner may have been a talented artist, I won't deny that. But again, he made some very sad mistakes that make it necessary to separate art from artist and/or take it with a grain of salt when it comes to his own portfolio.

What Polygon says about MTG cards based on Marvel illustrations

Polygon wrote a fluff-coated article about several cards from a new Magic: The Gathering collaboration with Marvel, and they sugarcoated at least a few things involving history, past and present. First, what's said about Contest of Champions:

Nowadays, Marvel Comics launches a new big event every year that’s all about stacking as many characters together as possible and seeing what happens. Well, it all started here. Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions is Marvel Comics’ first-ever limited series. Published from June to August 1982, it was written by Mark Gruenwald and penciled by John Romita Jr. It introduced the concept of crossovers, events involving characters from different comic books, getting together to face a big crisis that usually has an impact on the entire Marvel continuity.

Mark Gruenwald was an ante-litteram visionary. (Just check out his Squadron Supreme run: it was one of the first politically charged big superhero comics, before that became a cool thing to do.) Contest of Champions planted the seed of what would become a standard practice for the House of Ideas, and while that series is less ambitious than Crisis on Infinite Earths, it predates DC Comics’ famous crossover event by three years.

So that's a good thing these comics were "politically charged"? And that crossovers crowded out creativity? Wow, the writer here certainly isn't approaching this from an objective viewpoint, despite any suggestions to the contrary. Contest of Champions may have been one of the first limited series they published (years later, these would be more likely to be described as miniseries), but that doesn't make it one of the best. Nor is it truly a good thing we had to see Marvel/DC destroyed creatively by only so many crossovers that came about since. What does the writer even mean by "less ambitious"? Does that mean it didn't go far enough as Crisis did by killing at least a few characters like Supergirl and 2nd Flash Barry Allen? If that's what he means, that's quite tasteless, and the worst part is that years later, Marvel did go the killing route in some way or other with a number of characters, and in cases like Scarlet Witch's, subjected her to a fate worse than death in Advengers: Disassembled. Also vital to note is that around the turn of the century, that's when keeping consistent with continuity and decent characterization began to deteriorate more than ever before in the mainstream, and it's had a disastrous effect on storytelling cohesion ever since. Now, here's something even more unworthy of a MTG card:

This is more a personal favorite than one of the all-time greats, perhaps, but it’s still a milestone in Iron Man continuity. Written by Warren Ellis with art by Adi Granov, “Extremis” is a six-issue story arc that ran in Iron Man between 2005 and 2006. It introduces the Extremis virus (also featured in the movie Iron Man 3), which upgrades Tony Stark with real superpowers, allowing him to connect to his armor and other machines through a neural interface. Extremis is perhaps the last interesting Iron Man story published (except for the magnificent miniseries Infamous Iron Man, where Doctor Doom takes the mantle of Iron Man). It transformed Tony Stark from “former alcoholic rich guy in a suit” into his modern image of a futurist, before that term was spoiled by creepy technocrats.

Seriously, I can't see what's so appealing about Ellis' writing that he has to have his story become the subject of a trading card. Also note how the columnist sugarcoats one of the modern stories where the hero's replaced by a villain in the armor, or costume. As though it weren't bad enough Spider-Man had to be mind-switched with Dr. Octopus. And doesn't giving Tony actual superpowers contradict and defeat how he was first created, as a guy whose power was the armor suits he built? That was the emphasis for many years, and coming when these "real" powers did, it was just too late to work out anyway. So why does this tale of all things need a MTG card? And then, there's Infinity Gauntlet:

Thanos and his infamous Snap in Avengers: Infinity War became the most iconic moment of the golden age of MCU movies. 27 years before Josh Brolin “blipped” half of the universe away, Jim Starlin wrote one of the most important sagas in Marvel history, bringing back the character he created two decades prior. The six-issue limited series The Infinity Gauntlet shows the outcome of Thanos’s quest to collect the Infinity Gems (shown in The Thanos Quest). The Mad Titan has obtained absolute power over creation, but will it be enough to please his cold mistress, Lady Death?

Before Hollywood success went to his head (and ruined his comic book characterizations), Thanos was one of the most fascinating Marvel characters, a villain fueled by philosophical musings and unrequited love more than lust for power or conquest. This is Starlin’s Thanos at his best, and the incredible art by George Pérez and Ron Lim brings to life an apocalyptic tale unfolding at the edge of the universe, where gods are brought to heel and a Mad Titan finally gets his wish.

I think even this crossover can be subject to some objective viewpoints. The Infinity minis may not have had as many crossover connections as others did, but IIRC, they still had some nonetheless, and that was simply appalling, because it was entirely unnecessary in order to make it a story worth reading. That said, interesting that here, the writer actually admits Thanos' characterization was ruined later on, though it'd be a lot better if somebody commenting on these topics gave more attention to heroes who underwent the same. And then, Secret Wars gets fluff-coated:

If Contest of Champions opened the door for crossovers, Secret Wars smashed those doors down. Conceived as a big marketing gambit that would tie in with a Mattel toy line and an RPG from TSR, this massive 1984-1985 event spanned over 12 issues of the main limited series and more than two dozen crossover issues of ongoing series. Written by Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, with art by Mike Zeck, Bob Layton, and John Beatty, the series sees a host of heroes and villains transported to a mysterious planet dubbed Battleworld by an omnipotent entity known as the Beyonder, and forced into an all-out battle for survival.

In one of the most iconic moments in the series, the villain Molecule Man drops an entire mountain range (yup) on the heroes’ heads. The good guys barely survive in a wedge dug by Iron Man and Hulk, but the Green Goliath is carrying the entire weight of the mountains on his shoulders. To buy enough time to build a contraption to escape, Reed Richards insults Hulk since getting angrier makes him even stronger. Who else could have come up with this plan if not Marvel’s number one a-hole? It’s a pretty amazing moment and still one of Hulk’s greatest feats of strength.

That still doesn't justify the way Secret Wars was produced, as something where almost every Marvel title had to reference this story according to editorial mandate. Granted, unlike Crisis on Infinite Earths, it wasn't written for the sake of killing off any characters the editors considerd expendable, as DC did with Silver Age Supergirl. But it still has responsibility to shoulder for leading later to the disaster we see in the mainstream today, one that nobody writing these puff pieces has any intention of arguing against. And then, what does the writer say about one of Stan Lee's last creations:

Speaking of artists who loved to push the envelope, John Byrne’s run on Sensational She-Hulk in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s marked one of the few truly avant-garde moments in Marvel Comics history. Byrne took a minor character in the House of Ideas’ roster and turned it into a fourth-wall-breaking sensation. Towering over the series’ covers with a dominating, ultra-sexualized physicality, Jen Walters was threatening readers to rip up their X-Men collection if they didn’t buy her book, and openly mocking comics’ narrative tropes.

There’s no point in denying that the sexist tinges of Jen’s representation in the series were targeted at an audience of hormone-fueled, adolescent boys, but Byrne was still able to turn a relatively obscure character into one of the few culturally relevant women in Marvel Comics, at least for a while. It’s very cool that Magic’s homage to that historic run shows She-Hulk literally breaking the fourth wall.

Fascinating how the writer seems to be speaking with a forked tongue in regards to sexuality, though Byrne did have very questionable moments in his resume, including the time when he wrote a Superman story where Big Barda fell under the mind control of an alien from Apokalips named Sleez, who also brought Supes to heel, and then took them to a snuff filmmaker so he could film them engaging in sex?!? And you thought this kind of stuff was just relegated to fanfiction! That said, I think what the writer's telling about how Byrne handled Jen Walters is hypocritical, and certainly exploits it for the sake of pushing sex-negative visions simultaneously. At least the She-Hulk series Byrne launched during 1989-94 is more worthy of a MTG card than some of the above examples.

Anyway, this would've been a lot more charming news if it hadn't been for some of the more modern choices made like an Ellis story, and if it hadn't been for the realization the MTG franchise was subject to wokeification in the past decade. Who knows if they've reversed course since then? If not, that also dampens the interest.

How a classic back issue of Action Comics was stolen from actor Nicholas Cage, and when later returned, he sold it on auction

Far Out Magazine wrote about the history of actor Nicholas Cage's onetime ownership of an Action Comics premiere issue, which was once stolen from his estate but later tracked and returned:

Cage is such a big fan of DC’s flagship hero that he named his son Kal-El, which is Superman’s name on his native planet. He was famously tapped to don the famous blue suit in a movie directed by Tim Burton, but this never came to pass. He did voice the ‘Man of Steel’ in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies and appeared as the character via CGI in The Flash, although he wasn’t too pleased with this cameo.

Considering what a fiasco that movie was in more ways than one, it's no wonder the film would be such an embarrassment. Most angering is that it drew from what terrible writer Geoff Johns set up around 2009. DC may have moved back to spotlighting Wally West more than Barry Allen 12 years after that, but the damage had long been done, and Johns was among those responsible for starting it.

At one point in time, Cage owned a pivotal piece of Superman history. In 1997, he paid $110,000 for a copy of Action Comics #1, the comic book in which Clark Kent made his debut. This must have been a dream come true for the self-professed superhero nut, but his bliss wouldn’t last for long. Just two years later, a number of comics were stolen from Cage’s private collection, including Action Comics #1. One of the most valuable and important comics in history was now missing, never to be seen again…or was it?

Vincent Zurzolo, President of Metropolis Comics and Comic Connect and the man who sold the issue to Cage in the first place, warned the actor to keep an eye out.

It’s unlikely that whoever pinched the comic did so because they were a fan; they stole it to sell it, so all they had to do was wait. Sure enough, in 2011, Zurzolo and his partner Steve Fischler stumbled across a seller flogging what looked suspiciously like Cage’s copy of Action Comics #1.

Law enforcement saw to it the copy was returned to Cage, who later sold it again on auction to pay off some debts, and he was lucky to retrieve the stolen items, but it's still regrettable he's among many people who're setting poor examples by keeping old back issues around and not donating to museums. I'm sure there's plenty of archives that'd pay just as good as an auction can for products they can put on display for history exhibits. Yet all these prominent people only think of storing them away for who knows what reasons, and it sure doesn't speak well for Hollywood any more than more ordinary speculators.

NYC pushes a propaganda comic to oppose deportation of illegal immigrants

The New York Daily News wrote a fawning report about a new comic published by NYC's education department that tells illegal immigrants about their "rights" as the Trump administration makes an effort to deport interlopers who entered the USA without proper permits:

As deportations rise in President Trump’s second term, New York City schools have made efforts on several fronts to inform immigrant families of their rights in a sanctuary city.

But education officials were in search of a medium to better share the information with young people.

This week, the NYC Department of Education released “Know Your Rights,” a 32-page comic book based on real events in the news and with guidance from Mayor Mamdani’s immigrant affairs office. In an introduction, the authors wrote their hope is the comic can help educate the public and prepare immigrant students and their families for potential encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or “ICE.” [...]

The rights presented in the comic represent a doubling down on New York’s sanctuary city laws, which, among other protections, maintain that non-local law enforcement, such as ICE, can’t enter a public school without a judicial warrant.

The city’s approach has been a flashpoint of controversy amid the Trump immigration crackdown. The Trump administration has tried going after the city’s policies for undocumented immigrants, including by filing a federal lawsuit last summer. Mamdani signed an executive order as recently as February reinforcing New York’s sanctuary status.

The comic book is the latest school-based initiative aimed at supporting immigrant students — a list that also includes a program that connects teachers with resources to support newcomer families, and informal networks of parents and advocates who serve as rapid response teams when a child or their parent is detained. It’s the 42nd comic published by the city’s public school system, which uses in-house graphic texts as part of its social studies and civics curriculum.

The comic is expected to be distributed in schools, alongside a resource guide and lesson plan for educators. So far, 75,000 copies of the comic have been printed in English, and 75,000 in Spanish. Education officials said they’re on track to translate the comic into a dozen other languages in a digital format this month,. [...]

In one of the stories, readers meet the fictional Alfonso family as an ICE agent knocks on their apartment door in Jamaica, Queens. Rodrigo Alfonso tells his son, Diego, to open the door. But Diego knows his rights and tells his dad: “Not yet.”

Rodrigo is uncertain, but at his son’s urging, complies. The graphic text instructs Rodrigo to ask the agents, some depicted in face masks to shield their identity, who they are, what they’re there for, and if they have a warrant to enter his home. The vignette shows the importance of informing students of their rights, Samuels said, “so that they can be advocates for themselves and for others.”

So in other words, the comic is lecturing all that law enforcement does not apply to anyone who enters the country without documented permits, no matter what they do upon entry. But that's the sad reality NYC's become practically in over several years, and now they're tarnishing the comics medium with something so insulting to the intellect, and in contrast to a lot of older comics stories from decades past, the NYC education department's comic villifies law enforcement whose job is to prevent criminals from infiltrating. This all reminds me of a line from the 1968 movie What's So Bad About Feeling Good? where a comical toucan said in a word balloon, "New York is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here." And it would be ill-advised to invest in the Big Apple's businesses with the way they could be going too.

Since when was Supergirl always stuck in Superman's shadow?

The Conversation wrote a sugarcoated item about Supergirl and the upcoming movie, that rather predictably takes no objective view of the Maid of Might's history:

Since her official debut in 1959, Supergirl has struggled to emerge from the shadow of her cousin, Superman. So it’s a bold move that the second cinematic release in the newly rebooted DC Universe will be Supergirl.

Milly Alcock first appeared as Supergirl in the epilogue to Superman (2025). Her Supergirl is a brash “party girl” – an immediate contrast to David Corenswet’s squeaky clean rendition of Superman. Based on the comic book Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021) by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, she is a traumatised character, dealing with the destruction of her home planet of Krypton. “I have no people,” Supergirl laments in the trailer.

Well that's the problem: it's based more on the overrated King's story than a screenplay that could stand on its own. Might I also add I don't find the posters showing Supergirl wearing a trenchcoat appealing? The sunglasses may be cool, but the coat ruins everything. And I don't think Supergirl was always in Superman's shadow as they say, if only because there were times in the past where she did have solo adventures printed. The problem is the publishers didn't always see her as the storytelling vehicle she could be if they wanted to invest in serious merit-based writing. And the article has a pretty big goof in the following:

However, Supergirl was not always so introspective. The character and her alter ego, Kara Zor-El, first appeared in 1938, to cash in on the popularity of Superman. She was a preppy teenager who played a supporting helpmate role, allowing Superman to display his paternal side.

Publishers DC Comics also flirted with the concept of Superwoman. A 1943 story had Superman’s girlfriend, reporter Lois Lane, dream that she was Superman’s female counterpart. In her book Supergirl: Contemporary Feminist Reboot of a Hapless DC Comic Helpmate (2022), Batya Weinbaum suggests this moment reflected the “changing position of women in wartime”. In a 1947 story, Lois Lane, Superwoman! from Superman issue #45, Lane is convinced she has superpowers, only to discover she is the victim of a ruse where Superman is using his influence to simulate the experience. This prompts her frustrated exclamation: “You men who try to keep women weak and defenceless – I hate you!”

Lane may well have been addressing the DC editors who published her adventures. In his cultural history of comic book heroines, comic book historian Mike Madrid outlines an excerpt from 1950s-era DC Comics’ editorial policy which reluctantly accepts stories featuring women, but only if the female characters are “secondary in importance”.

Somehow, it's hard to believe a company that readily published Wonder Woman all these years would have a problem publishing anything with a lady in the lead. Either way, they did have some impressive lady co-stars created at the time, and who went on to see better writing as time went by. Also notice the hilarious goof in the year of debut, which is actually Superman's, not Supergirl's, which was originally early 1959.

As for what Lois Lane was written telling in 1947, well, that could easily describe the situation decades later, when men and women alike who had lenient views on discrimination led to the publication of Identity Crisis. Yet that sees no mention in this puff piece, and that's the considerable weakness here. As is the following "explanation" why Kara Zor-El was originally terminated in Crisis on Infinite Earths:

Whereas Superman (played by Christopher Reeve) was introduced in 1978 by the same producers with a daring rescue of a plummeting helicopter, Helen Slater’s Supergirl performs an aerial ballet and frolics with woodland creatures. In comics, Supergirl fared even worse. The character was killed off in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, partly because of her threat to Superman’s unique status as “the last son of Krypton”, and partly because of the film’s disappointing box office takings.

Excuse me? What kind of monumentally stupid explanation is that? The staff may have wanted to establish Kal-El as the last Kryptonian at the time. But that doesn't make Kara a "threat" to said status. What the writer says is disgusting, and undermines any valid lamentation he's making, though he's right the editors used the film's failure as a justification, which is also sick. And then he adds insult to injury when he says:

In comic books, however, death is never permanent. Kara Zor-El and Supergirl were resurrected in 2004 in The Supergirl from Krypton. There was an attempt to add nuance to the character, with a greater emphasis on the trauma she suffered from witnessing the loss of her home planet. But this was rather undermined by various revealing costumes clearly designed to satisfy the male gaze.

And this inherently wrong because? Even years before, there were times when Kara Zor-El was drawn as quite a fashion plate, and the bare midriff costume was actually introduced around the turn of the century, at the middle of Peter David's run on the new take on Supergirl (I think Leonard Kirk was the artist), which was developed out of a character who first appeared in 1988. The real reasons to complain are that no concrete story accompanied the reintroduction in the Superman/Batman title published at the time, or even the solo title that followed, and that a very bad man accused of sexual misconduct was in charge of editing, that being Eddie Berganza, who was only fired from DC in 2017. If there's a valid complaint to make about fetishizing in what he oversaw, it can be blamed on Berganza, and also writer Jeph Loeb. Oddly, when Kara was reintroduced at the time, the figure as drawn by Michael Turner wasn't so busty, if at all. As for the costume, if there's anything wrong with it, and possibly has been for a long time, it's how it was long-sleeved, which makes it look silly. The article, interestingly enough, notes that the TV show starring Melissa Benoist appears to have followed up on the PC view of Supergirl's outfits:

In the pilot episode she finally strikes out on her own with the dramatic rescue of an airliner, assuming the mantle of Supergirl. In a show that employed several female writers and became known for its positive representation of LGBTQ+ issues, problematic topics such as Supergirl’s infantilising name and costume were directly addressed.

Kara refuses to wear revealing versions of the costume from the character’s comic book past. In discussions with her employer, CatCo Worldwide Media CEO Cat Grant, she is told: “I’m a girl. And your boss. And powerful. And rich, and hot, and smart. So, if you perceive Supergirl as anything less than excellent, isn’t the real problem you?” Significantly, Grant is portrayed by actor Calista Flockhart, known for the Ally McBeal series – a show that sparked debates about feminism and women in the workplace in the late 1990s.

Well if all they care about is putting down even creators with more common sense, along with pushing an agenda that did more harm than good, those are just some of the reasons why it's regrettable the Maid of Might's potential has suffered ruin for years. The TV show became increasingly political, and that's why it's more an embarrassment than a classic today. At the end:

The 2021 comic book Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow follows the young alien Ruthye Marye Knoll, who recruits Supergirl to seek revenge after her father is murdered. The story is told from Ruthye’s point of view, the fractured narrative lending the story a fatalistic quality. The narration also emphasises the mythic quality of Supergirl, “who lost everything and kept walking”.

It remains to be seen how closely the film will follow the philosophical source material. Meanwhile, in the pages of the latest DC comic book, writer and artist Sophie Campbell has returned to the brighter tone of the 1960s version of the character, merged with the sensibilities of the 2015 television series. The many interpretations of Supergirl continue to reveal the character’s durability and versatility.

If memory serves, the writer of the latest series is really a man with the name Ross, and it sure is ironic somebody who claimed earlier the outfits in post-2004 Supergirl were a problem suddenly makes no such arguments when somebody of "Sophie Campbell"'s standing is helming the new series. Predictably, no objective view is taken of King's overrated story either, and that takes away any impact this puff piece might've had.

Since the new movie's also a subject, Polygon says the director, as much as the screenwriter, did draw "inspiration" from both King's story and what the assigned screenwriter turned out:

"I very deliberately started with the script that Ana wrote," Gillespie says, "and I put together a lot of visuals around that coming from the script, trying to make something that I would be excited about and that had this grit and flavor of the Supergirl character, Kara." [...]

"After that, I went back and visited Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow and took some images from that," he says, "but I didn't want to start there because I didn't want to just do the comic book."

Unfortunately, that's just what he did nevertheless, and borrowing even remotely from something that pretentious doesn't help a bit. Nor did injecting feminism into the narratives of the TV show or even the comics themselves avail, but that's certainly a moot point by now. It remains to be seen what the box office results will be for this new Supergirl movie, and based on how it's crafted, I'd rather stay home and read the comics I own instead. These articles are just more examples of stuff that ultimately doesn't help the Maid of Might's reputation at all.

DC no longer celebrates USA anniversaries, with Superman or any other superheroes

A writer at the New York Post talks about DC's refusal, in all their far-leftism, to celebrate America's 250th anniversary, in contrast to a time in 1976 when they were willing to publish a Superman special where they celebrated the Bicentennial:

He may be faster than a speeding bullet, but even Superman can’t outrun globalization.

Back in the summer of 1976, one of my treasures was an oversize special edition comic book, “Superman Salutes the Bicentennial.” Reprinting a famous cover of the 1940s, with a bald eagle perched on Superman’s arm and a stars-and-stripes shield behind him, the publication contained six historical tales of the Revolution and the Spirit of ’76.

Today, a search of DC Comics’ website shows nothing celebrating America’s Semiquincentennial, by Superman or any other superhero.

Yet they're perfectly fine with celebrating LGBT pride month, which is a lot more than the one or two days Holocaust Memorial Day and 911 Memorial Day takes place on. Even USA Independence Day (4th of July) is only about that long, and when a politically motivated "celebration" goes on for as long as a month, that's also troubling. Let's also consider that the same people who don't celebrate USA Independence Day and Centennials also don't show any appreciation for foreign independence days like in Ukraine and Bulgaria to celebrate their independence from the Soviet Union, nor do they celebrate holidays like the near dozen France has, nor far eastern holidays like Japan's and Thailand's. Or even Israel's, in complete disregard of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's ancestry.

One might have thought that 1976 would be a terrible time for comics to commemorate America. Hundreds of thousands of boys who had read Superman in the 1950s and ‘60s had been sent to Vietnam, where 58,000 of them died. Watergate and Richard Nixon’s resignation had shattered faith in the political system, while assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, followed by devastating riots, made a mockery of the “American Way.”

Yet DC Comics, along with tens of millions of Americans, did celebrate the country. Though its values had been severely tested, Bicentennial America also had seen the greatest growth of the middle class and national wealth in human history, as well as the final push to ensure civil rights for all citizens, fulfilling the “promissory note,” as Dr. King put it, of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

That America’s most famous fictional hero — a symbol of the country around the world — would celebrate, too, seemed only natural, and it inspired young readers like me.

This patriotic portrayal continued. Thirteen years later, in September 1987, DC put out a special comic with the New York Daily News to commemorate the bicentennial of the Constitution. Traveling back in time, Superman, along with three young Americans, foils Lex Luthor’s plot to hijack the Constitutional Convention and install himself as dictator of the United States.

Amid the action, Superman delivers a mini civics lesson, explaining that while the Constitution did not outlaw slavery or give women the vote, the Framers had the foresight to allow it to be amended to fit the times.

Next to “Schoolhouse Rock,” Superman probably provided more civics education to young readers than most elementary classrooms could have hoped to do.

Times indeed have changed. In 2011, DC used Action Comics’ 900th issue as a platform to have Superman renounce his American citizenship, perhaps believing he felt more comfortable in Davos than Dubuque.

A decade later, DC officially changed Superman’s motto to “truth, justice and a better tomorrow,” a mash-up of adventure series and soap opera.

Given such changes, it’s no surprise that DC seems intent on ignoring America’s 250th.

That says more about DC than it does its most famous character. It seems the editors at DC no longer understand there is a reason that Superman was created in America, and not France or China. (DC Comics did not reply to a request for comment.)

Oh, that's not shocking either if they wouldn't respond to news writers about this. No doubt, they have a policy to shut out questions from anybody deemed patriotic and even sensible nowadays, and this is bound to be the case at Marvel too, where current EIC C.B. Cebulski rarely gives press statements like his predecessors at this point. On which note, if they're not celebrating the 250th with Captain America as a host icon, even that shouldn't be shocking. And back to DC, their story where Supes was depicted shedding his citizenship wasn't the only troubling tale they turned out back then. There was also one that downplayed the horrors of Iran's dictatorship very badly, and that definitely hasn't aged well in over 15 years, after the dictatorship slaughtered thousands of people opposed to their tyranny. When a USA publisher won't celebrate their own country, it should come as no surprise they can't even make a solid case for innocent and defenseless people overseas. Those Superman stories from 15 years ago are a stain on their resume as much as their reputation. I hesitate to think what they'd do with Golden Age-created characters like Liberty Belle too these days.

Anyway, if Paramount Skydance, as new owner of properties like DC that came with the WB purchase, has no intention of cleaning up such a mess, then that only further makes the case for why DC and Marvel can't remain under a conglomerate ownership.

Masters of the Universe movie goes into box office freefall

So the latest live action adaptation of what began as a toy line that later morphed into comics and cartoons appears to be another financial dud, as Variety states:

“Scary Movie” easily secured the No. 1 spot over this weekend’s other major new release, Amazon MGM’s sword-and-planet adventure “Masters of the Universe,” which debuted at No. 2 with a soft $29.3 million in North America. The film also earned just $25 million from 86 overseas markets for a global start of $54 million. It’s an underwhelming start for a movie that cost nearly $200 million to produce, not including the marketing budget. It’ll require substantial staying power to justify its price tag, considering that theater owners get to keep roughly 50% of ticket sales.

”This is a soft opening for an action adventure with franchise and series potential,” Gross says, adding that “right now, the only fantasy heroes doing strong business are the biggest and most established superheroes, like Spider-Man, Deadpool, Wolverine, and Superman.”

“Masters of the Universe” is based on the Mattel action figure known as He-Man and marks the toy company’s second theatrical film after “Barbie.” Inaugural crowds were 66% male and nearly 40% were above the age of 45 — meaning that mostly fans of the ’80s toy and cartoon showed up. So “Masters of the Universe” will need to cater to broader audiences in the coming weeks in order to become profitable in its theatrical run.

Not so simple if it didn't make a big splash in its first week. The results so far are certainly telling.

Anyway, there are questionable elements in this new film, which is not bound to be a surprise for anybody who's paid attention to the woke trajectory Hollywood sadly took in the past decade. Let's begin with the following review - or what I can glean from something where the majority of the text is largely restricted by pay options - from the Wall Street Journal, which says:

As imagined by director Travis Knight—best known for another toys-to-screen saga, 2018’s “Transformers” sequel “Bumblebee”—and a battalion of screenwriters, the new He-Man, lost prince from the planet Eternia, is a meek cubicle dweller named Adam. He lives in Oklahoma City. He works in H.R., wears a pink shirt, and drives a yellow Subaru. The last gets better mileage than the running gag about his ordinariness, which is still being used in the closing minutes of the film. Adam, played by England’s Nicholas Galitzine (“The Sheep Detectives”) with Schwarzeneggerian bulk, never stops babbling about conflict resolution and creating space for meaningful dialogue. His office-dweeb jabber would be the most overdone gag in the movie were it not for the many references to the kinds of actions a fellow called “Fisto” might undertake.

No kidding. Well, it gets worse, as this review from Peter Travers points out:

Galitzine, a self-described “hetero” who won raves for playing a gay prince in “Red, White & Royal Blue” and a queer Duke in “Mary & George” with Julianne Moore, plays it straight here as hapless Adam, a clueless charm boy with an office nameplate that lists his preference for he/him pronouns. That one quickly went viral and not in a good way.

Gee, and it doesn't get any better with what's told in the following review from Region Free, about crude sex-related jokes involving genitals turning up, which I'm not going to highlight directly since what's described is so alarmingly vulgar. For something turned out in part by a toy company, how odd they want to inject crude lines into the mess, just because they want a PG-13 rating and believe that's the only way it'll sell. What that shows is just how lacking confidence many entertainment producers are, and it's doubtless been that way for a long time. And what makes it additionally insulting to the intellect is how, according to Screen Daily, the relationship between Adam and Teela is "chaste". How odd indeed. Yet that's been pretty much the norm for years now, to eschew romantic chemistry between the leads almost entirely, and points to either/both a lack of creative freedom for the writers/directors, or goes to show how creatively bankrupt they are at this point.

And then, from Vanyaland, we learn this film can't escape certain stereotypes that're apparently still acceptable among Hollywood leftists:

...Meanwhile, there are the scenes set on Earth, full of a simmering rage at the “feminizing” ways of corporate culture — “I have the power” reinterpreted as a seminar chant, conducted by Adam’s boss, a black woman with a shaved head and overly-cautious-yet-peppy HR demeanor — which is intended to provide a polar counter-balance to the hyper-masculine expectations of those on Eternia.

And I thought it was already bad enough the Golden Age of comics had some unfortunate stereotypes of black women with short hair, making them look far less attractive than their white counterparts. Obviously, the stereotype still exists, and, if the above description is any sign, has gotten considerably worse. What's so "feminine" about what they cite? It's nothing more than a slight to black women, and no doubt, a result of the woke notion that guys aren't allowed to admire even them. PC certainly leads to victimization.

Since we're on the subject of race-related issues, I also noticed the film's simultaneously got a case of race-swapping, with the mentor-like figure Man-At-Arms - who was white in original incarnations in toys and cartoons - changed to black with the actor Idris Elba in the role. It's rather ironic since Elba also claims to believe James Bond shouldn't be turned woke or its star have his race changed. But then, why didn't he make the same argument regarding the co-star he plays in MOTU? Is it because this is a minor character by contrast? Does that suddenly make it justified? Or was Elba too eager to receive a paycheck for a screenplay so laughable? They had a chance to introduce an original character who could fill the specific role here played by Elba, and instead, yet again, political correctness triumphed over organic writing. What a joke.

The studio's presumably planning a sequel spotlighting She-Ra, but I think it'd be better if it all stopped here, since PC is bound to influence such a project even worse than what this MOTU movie's already turning out to be. And if box office results say anything, it probably will grind to a halt anyway. Just another ridiculous merchandise-based movie starring actors and actresses I've never heard of, and the result of Hollywood's barrel scrapings in their desperation for what they can adapt to live action. Stuff like this is why it's better to stick with comics and other books instead, so long as they aren't woke.

A clue how AI doesn't make the best source for recommendations

A writer at Tom's Guide says he asked ChatGPT to list some comics recommendations based on an analysis of his personality. The results are about what you could expect:

After ChatGPT dove into my biggest personality traits, it also pointed out that I value consistency, enjoy larger-than-life characters, am a truth-seeking individual, love character archetypes like “The Enlightened Warrior” and more. With a full read of who I am and what I’m into, the chatbot finally listed out an array of perfect comic book reading material split out across the roadmap I presented it with:

5 'start here' comics: Kingdom Come, Batman: Year One, Invincible, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns.
5 Comics that challenge my worldview: Transmetropolitan, V for Vendetta, The Invisibles, Maus and DMC.
5 Comics that perfectly match your interests: Planetary, Batman: The Court of Owls, East of West, Saga and Black Science.
5 underrated gems: The Manhattan Projects, Tokyo Ghost, The Human Target, The Strange Talent of Luther Strode and Global Frequency.
5 comics that could become lifelong favorites: Planetary, Kingdom Come, Watchmen, Invincible and Batman: The Long Halloween.

And no Superman in sight. Come to think of it, no Robin or Huntress in sight either. Indeed, why don't the spinoffs from Batman's world count? And if larger than life matters, why not Colossal Boy from Legion of Superheroes and Nuklon from Infinity Inc, based on their enlarging powers? I also don't find the citation of Warren Ellis-penned GNs appealing either, nor the citation of V for Vendetta and Saga. Also note that Marvel seems to be out of these results, and that too is decidedly troubling.

So what's the use of AI if it's going to offer such predictable results? What's so wonderful about all this darkness in selection either? This is just miserable, and while DC/Marvel, lest we forget, collapsed years ago, that an AI program would be so obvious should make clear AI's not the best at everything when it can only recommend a majority of dark titles.

Has a writer for neo-Valiant been un-cancelled?

About a year ago, an Argentinian writer working on Valiant's Bloodshot appeared to be blacklisted over alleged negativity to LGBT ideology. Now, according to Comic Book Club Live, he's been reinstated:

Nearly a year after Valiant — and publisher Alien Books — were hit with serious blowback online thanks to what was seen as anti-trans text in Bloodshot #1, writer Mauro Mantella is back on the book with the June release of Bloodshot #4 – Man Made Hell #1, a “new” three issue series with art by Kristian Rossi.

To briefly review what went down in August of 2025, the rebooted Bloodshot featured a storyline about vampires fighting the nano-tech powered warrior using his own nanites. While a lot of it skirted cultural commentary/satire, one bit in particular stuck in reader’s craws. Specifically, this line of text: “There are kids who want to be bitten to become vampires because their favorite influencer says they are one. And parents who force their children into that irreversible change… just to feel modern… and believing that they’ll be thankful for it when they grow up.”

As many readers pointed out, this bit seemed to be specifically mapping onto anti-trans messaging, and Argentinian writer Mantella came under fire for including it. For their part, Alien Books immediately offered a statement on the dialogue, and laid out several steps for addressing the issue including updating dialogue for the trade and undergoing “a more intense review by our proof readers as part of our editorial process.”

Unfortunately, immediately following that in came to light that Mantella had repeatedly retweeted anti-trans and anti-vaccine memes, multiple times in the past. And in response, Mantella deleted his Twitter account and posted a lengthy response/explanation about his reposts, as well as the offending line of dialogue in Bloodshot. [...]

Well, after that absence, Bloodshot is back — and so is Mantella, with the new issue hitting stores on June 24, 2026. While this is pure speculation, it seems likely this fourth issue is the first completely crafted since the fallout from everything detailed above. Whether it will be addressed in the issue, or referenced in any way? TBD.

Does this mean they came to realize how bad it looks when they cancel a writer over petty issues and politics, so they reversed their previous approach and reinstated Mantella at the helm? We can only hope so. But if Mantella and company actually address anything related to this, that's something they decidedly shouldn't do, unless they're willing to prove they can defend the dialogue as originally written last time. Something they probably won't do, unfortunately.

An attempted "boycott" of DC for the wrong reasons was called off

Popverse tells, in their most expectedly sugarcoated way, that a group that was calling for a boycott of DC because they lacked Black characters in a stand-alone ongoing stopped their call for one:

Last week, a group called Black Comic Alliance announced a boycott against DC Comics in response to the publisher not having an ongoing series featuring a Black character in its mainline universe. But after significant backlash online, the group has ended the boycott and has released a statement regarding the matter.

According to a press release from Black Comic Alliance and leader James Portis III, "This decision comes after a lot of reflection and conversations with members of the comic book community. While the boycott was launched to draw attention to an issue we believe remains important, it became clear that the conversation surrounding the boycott was often overshadowing the larger goal of the campaign."

The statement responded to a line of criticism that emerged in the wake of the boycott's announcement, mainly that the lack of a Black character-led ongoing series in DC's mainline universe doesn't negate the other books featuring marginalized people both on the page and behind the page.

"However, we also recognize that many fans and creators we care about felt the boycott unintentionally minimized books, characters, and creators whose work provides meaningful representation for women, LGBTQIA+ readers, people of color, and other marginalized communities. That was never our intention, and we apologize for that impact. We heard those concerns, and they played a major role in our decision to reevaluate the boycott," the statement continued.

That such "advocates" could still be active with all this nonsense is almost hilarious, mainly because: they actually care about mainstream comics, let alone DC? No, they do not, or they would've called for a boycott more than 2 decades ago when Identity Crisis marked DC's descent into misogyny. Just why do SJWs like these still want anything to do with DC and Marvel long after they ceased to matter? Mainly because it's unlikely they'd buy the products they demand, if they had their way.

So what comes next? According to the statement, "DCSoWhite will continue as an awareness and advocacy campaign rather than a boycott effort," and that they will encourage fans to preorder comics before FOC (Final Order Cutoff date) at their local comic shops. "Pre-orders are one of the clearest indicators of reader interest and help publishers and retailers determine future investments in characters, titles, and creative teams. We encourage fans to support the books and creators they want to see succeed, particularly those from underrepresented communities."

"The DCSoWhite campaign is not ending. The petition remains active. We will continue to highlight Black creators, promote Black independent comics, document industry trends, and advocate for greater investment in Black characters across mainstream comics."

With that in mind, writer Stephanie Williams (who is nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Writer this year for books like Roots of Madness, Street Sharks, and Temporal) and artist Clayton Henry are working on Wonder Woman #35 and #36 out this July and August, while Absolute Catwoman #1, co-written by Che Grayson, will be hitting stands on June 10. Currently, Green Lantern John Stewart is one of the leads of the Green Lantern Corps ongoing series by writer Morgan Hampton, while Jamal Campbell is nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Writer-Artist with his Zatanna.

This is basically a clone of the #OscarsSoWhite "campaign", which was all about demanding privileges and awards galore without consideration of merit. All the organizers of this comics-based campaign are doing is calling for throwing a lifeline to a company that's long collapsed in terms of merit, and won't improve under the current ownership unless maybe Paramount, as new owner of WB's assets, decides to clean house, make improvements in their properties, DC included, and even do away with much of what the past 2-plus decades have resulted in, which was awful.

It's also no surprise Popverse would devote so much attention to such a trivial issue that's been moot for years, make no effort to call for improved merit and reparations for the DCU, and also fail to acknowledge that DC's attempts at DEI 2 decades ago were a huge failure. Today, most of the characters who were introduced as replacements for 3rd tier white protagonists (the Asian Atom, Black Firestorm and Latino Blue Beetle) have largely disappeared, mainly because they weren't introduced based on merit, which ultimately led to their collapse, yet at this point, the saddest thing is that DC won't restore most of the white protagonists they forced out of their costumes back to their regular statuses, if at all. That's all you need to know they're not emphasizing merit, yet do the organizers of the DCsoWhite campaign care? Not one bit. Nor do they care that even the quality for comics starring white characters has also long collapsed under what Dan DiDio started, and continues with Marie Javins at the helm. That's why this Black Comic Alliance is such a joke. If they were serious, they'd be calling for a boycott of DC/Marvel based on how bad their stories actually are today, and making a case for supporting independents instead. So why do they continue to attach themselves to companies that're no longer run by merit?

Ohio Maltz Museum's exhibition for Jewish comics contributions

NPR-WOSU covers an exhibition of Jewish comics contributions at the Maltz Museum in Ohio. It was also organized by a historian who was involved in getting a NYC street named after Jack Kirby:

“Icons in Ink, The Jewish Comics Experience,” on view at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood through Aug. 23, is a revelation and a celebration, albeit with some limitations and questionable aspects.

The show’s core material is conveyed through colorful, large-scale graphic layouts resembling magazine pages that reach from the height of one’s knee to above one’s head. The layouts are filled with text and reproductions of pages from comic books. It’s an eye-grabbing approach that produces visual overload at times. Also, transitions from one section of the show to another occasionally lack continuity and flow.

But when it comes to the core goal of highlighting Jewish contributions to comic book history, the show delivers fascinating and sometimes surprising insights.

Organized by Roy Schwartz, a New York-based pop culture historian, the exhibition opened in 2023 at the Center for Jewish History in New York and is now in the middle of a five-year national tour.

It brims with Schwartz’s zeal to highlight the Jewish roots of what he described in an interview as “a unique American art form,’’ and “the bastard child of literature and art.’’ His expertise includes having written the 2021 book, “Is Superman Circumcised?: The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero.’’

For Cleveland, Schwartz and the Maltz expanded the show to highlight the city’s role in the evolution of comic books, in collaboration with Samantha Baskind, the Cleveland State University professor of art history known for her extensive scholarship on Jewish contributions to the visual arts.

Hidden meanings of Superman

Naturally, Superman, the brainchild of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish high school students in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood who invented the “Man of Steel’’ in the 1930s, is a major focus.

Superman’s birth on the doomed planet Krypton and his parents’ effort to save him by launching him to Earth is a familiar tale. It may not be widely appreciated, however, that the story echoes that of the finding of Moses, and that Superman’s name at birth, Kal-El, is a Hebrew phrase often interpreted as “voice of God’’ or “vessel of God.”

Superman’s powers evoke the myth of the Golem, a massive, Samson-like humanoid purportedly molded in clay by a 16th-century rabbi Prague to defend Jews from pogroms.

As the show points out, Jewish fans have certainly understood such signals.

Somehow, I'm not so sure they do, seeing how some of those who stick with leftism are so hostile to Israel, their country of origin, that it's hard to believe at this point they care about any "signals". Speaking of which, this exhibit features at least 2 comic creators who decidedly aren't worth seeing there:

Also featured in the Cleveland section of the show are printed works and original drawings from Harvey Pekar’s ironic and self-deprecating “American Splendor” series, Peter Kuper’s hilarious “Spy vs. Spy” episodes in Mad Magazine and Terri Libenson’s Jewish-centered narratives in series, including “The Pajama Diaries.”

Cleveland Heights native Brian Michael Bendis is represented by outstanding works including a spectacular 2006 ink drawing for an Avengers episode depicting an explosion on a crowded street in what could be Downtown Cleveland.

When somebody as awful as Bendis is included, despite how overrated and atrocious his writings were on - but not limited to - series like the Avengers, something is terribly wrong. What's so "outstanding" about his cheap approach to science fiction? It's also troubling that somebody like the late Pekar was included, despite his negativity to Israel that he practically wove into a GN titled "Not the Israel my Parents promised me". These are the kind of "creators" whose works we need to see? Nope.

Conspiracists and paranoiacs might see the show as piling on more evidence for the hate-filled fantasy that Jews supposedly control everything from Wall Street to Hollywood.

On this, it's bizarre said conspiracists would want anything to do with Jewish creations, if that's how they feel, and have no interest in producing their own entertainment products that hopefully aren't laced with prejudicial visions. And then, in a very sad hint at where this NPR affiliate really stands, they say it needs an "update":

It’s also striking, given its attention to the social and political context of comic books in prior decades that “Icons in Ink’’ doesn't bring its story fully into the present.

The show’s generally triumphal tone feels oddly off-key amid the recent uptick in anti-Semitism on the left and right, and the post Oct. 7 backlash against Israel.

Debate over Israel’s military conduct in Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, or settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, has inspired authors and pundits of all political persuasions.

“Icons in Ink’’ hasn’t been updated to reflect the turmoil. It could be said that because the show was organized in 2023, there hasn’t been enough time for a significant response to current events from Jewish creators of comic books or graphic novels to warrant attention.

But it seems to be a missed opportunity that the show doesn't mention the conflicted feelings about Israel that Pekar explored in “Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me,’’ published in 2012 as one of his last books.

There’s also no mention of the three-page spread criticizing Israel’s conduct in Gaza published in The New York Review of Books in February 2025 by Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the Holocaust-related graphic novel “Maus,’’ whose work is otherwise lauded in the show at Maltz.

Such publications and others like them represent an intriguing opportunity to revise “Icons in Ink’’ as it continues to travel. The exhibition argues successfully that the Jewish experience in comics needs to be understood more deeply.

Given that goal, some freshening could make the show even more relevant and up-to-the-minute. After all, as the exhibition demonstrates, Jewish comic book creators and graphic novelists have been pulling no punches for decades in messages both overt and subtly coded.

When they insist Sacco's a recommendation, and no right-wing creators like the late Joe Simon are mentioned at all, or even Will Eisner, that speaks volumes as to where they really stand on this. It's actually amazing Pekar's screed didn't turn up at the exhibit, but even so, he's hardly somebody I'd consider a perfect choice any more than Spiegelman. Also note how the news site omits issues like Jews being murdered by the Religion of Peace, and all they care about is making Jews look like the sole ones responsible for anything bad happening post-October 7, 2023, while obscuring the more serious issues caused by said religion.

I'll give Schwartz and company this: they may have deliberately avoided some of these issues because they realized Pekar's POV was divisive, and it wouldn't do any good post-10.7.2023 to bring something like that into the mix. Even so, if they didn't bring in something that could provide a more positive viewpoint on Israeli issues like a Japanese mangaka's publication, then it's otherwise a defeat, though not in the way NPR wants to frame it. What they say about the exhibit in that context is shameful, and if that's their position, why'd they even bother to cover the project?

DC desecrates Wonder Woman for "pride month"

Warner Todd Huston at Breitbart informs that for their latest, pointless "pride month" special, DC's included a transsexual pseudo-Wonder Woman, using a previously created character to put in the costume:

DC Comics has announced the introduction of a transgender version of Wonder Woman for Pride Month.

The plot of the upcoming Justice League Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event #1 comic follows the company’s transgender character, Nia Nal, aka Dreamer, as she and several other characters enter into an alternate reality where Nia, not Diana Prince, had become Wonder Woman. [...]

The character first appeared on TV in 2018 — but not in the comics. Transgender actor Nicole Maines first portrayed Dreamer on the CW’s Supergirl TV series that aired from 2015 to 2021. The character finally made the switch to comics in 2021 — also in a DC “Pride” event issue — after Supergirl was canceled. [...]

Along with comics writer Jadzia Axelrod, actor Maines also helped to write the Wonder Woman switch issue, according to reports. [...]

DC has turned several of its top stars into queer characters over the last decade.

In 2023, DC issued a line of comics in which Alan Scott, who is the Green Lantern, turned out to be gay. But the comic flopped hard and sales were dismal.

The year before that, DC’s attempt to make Superman’s son, Jon Kent, into a randy bisexual character also flopped and was cancelled after only 18 issues.

DC has also pushed a list of their long-standing character into the LGBTQ+ theme, including Midnighter and Apollo, Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and the Tim Drake version of Robin.

Well this is more than enough reason to practically avoid advertising in their comics, based on how they're desecrating even so much as the costume of an iconic figure, putting a politicized, badly created character in the outfit. And they keep doing it despite how rock bottom sales have been for all these repeated shovings down the throat, which they also refuse to stop keeping canon. Some can reasonably ask if the new Paramount ownership intends to let DC keep receiving funding if all they care about is wasting it on propaganda that's not selling. But chances are just as possible they won't take any steps to make DC quit, so we can only hope. The best to hope for at this point is if Paramount ownership will close down the publisher, which would probably be the best thing to do for now. And even then, they don't belong under a conglomerate ownership.

The whole pride month propaganda's been going on too long, and what's also aggravating is how this is what they consider a big deal, not holidays from foreign countries like Thailand's Yi-Peng lantern festival. All this LGBT propaganda only underscores the stunning lack of creativity now dominating the mainstream.

Basketball star develops a comic with Archie

Variety reports Shaquille o'Neal, famous veteran basketball player, is developing a comic at Archie, about the history of a former African king who'd fallen victim to slavery and gained freedom through piracy:

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has partnered with Archie Comics to develop “Vengeance Unchained: The Legend of Black Caesar,” a new comic book series about the rise of the mythological West African pirate. Stephanie Williams will write the series, while Ray-Anthony Height and Studio Sky-Tiger will handle the art.

The official logline for “Vengeance Unchained” reads, “An African king of extraordinary physical presence must navigate the brutal transformation from royalty to slavery to piracy, searching for his kidnapped love while discovering that freedom in the Caribbean comes only to those willing to take it by force.”

“Growing up I always loved stories about warriors who refused to quit,” said O’Neal. “Black Caesar starts as a king, loses everything, and takes his freedom back on his own terms. That’s the kind of story I want to help tell. We built something that’s going to entertain you and make you think, and I’m ready for the world to see what we created with Archie Comics, an iconic brand I have been a big fan of for many years. Archie has such an incredible legacy of storytelling and being able to collaborate with a brand that has meant so much to generations of fans made this project even more exciting for me.”

What I don't understand is why O'Neal wants to do this with a company that's long succumbed to wokery, and based on that, is hardly the best place to do such a project. There's bound to be plenty of independent publishers where he could've produced this project, and it would've been just as significant. I'm sure the history O'Neal's building on has importance, but doing it at Archie is decidedly not recommended. They tainted their legacy in the past 15 years, and it still doesn't seem like they'll ever mend it.

Marjane Satrapi, artist of Persepolis, passes away at 56

The UK Guardian reported that Iranian-born artist Marjane Satrapi, who created the GN Persepolis, died at just 56:

Marjane Satrapi, the French-Iranian artist, film-maker and graphic novelist whose acclaimed memoir Persepolis helped reshape international perceptions of Iran, has died at the age of 56.

In a statement provided to French news agency AFP, relatives said she had “died of sadness” after the death of her husband, the Swedish producer Mattias Ripa.

Ripa died on 8 April last year. Later that month, a series of messages posted on Satrapi’s Instagram account revealed the phrase: “For I lost the love of my life.”

Tributes have been paid to Satrapi from across French politics and culture following news of her death. President Emmanuel Macron said Satrapi was “a great artist who turned her Iranian childhood into a universal tale,” adding: “With her childlike perspective, her irony, her tenderness, her inner demons, the author created a moving world with which readers identified.”

Writing on X, Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the French National Assembly, said: “Marjane Satrapi had turned her work into an act of freedom. With Persepolis, she had given a face and a voice to the Iranian revolution, proudly carrying the fight for women’s freedom and dignity. France loses an immense artist. To her family, to her loved ones, I offer my most sincere thoughts.”

Born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran, near the Caspian Sea, Satrapi was raised in Tehran by her father, an engineer, and her mother, a dress designer. As a teenager, she left Iran after her parents sent her to Europe to continue her education, hoping to spare her from the restrictions imposed under the Islamic Republic. She eventually settled in France, arriving in 1994 and later becoming a French citizen in 2006.

Throughout her life, Satrapi was a vocal opponent of Iran’s clerical establishment.

In 2000 she published Persepolis, a comic book memoir that became an international publishing phenomenon. It told the story of a rebellious and outspoken young girl navigating the upheaval in Iran after the shah is overthrown in 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The story follows the protagonist’s attempts to understand the country’s violence and ideological control before she is sent alone to Europe at the age of 14.

Satrapi told the Guardian in 2024 that Persepolis was about making western readers reflect on the humanity of Iranian people, that, “Oh, they’re actually human beings like us”.

The memoir sold millions of copies, established Satrapi as one of the most widely read Iranian authors in the world, and its success challenged many western assumptions about Iranian society and culture.

She was clearly one of the few who showed the courage to speak out against an Islamofascist regime like what Iran's been for 47 years, and it's rather hypocritical for somebody like Macron to suddenly offer her praise for her GN, considering he didn't do enough to oppose Islamofascism himself, and wouldn't help in the recent war against Iran.

It's sad she's died too young, because here, the Islamic regime and terrorist machine in Iran is hopefully falling apart, and will ensure future generations of women who don't want to be forced to follow sharia dictations like having to wear niqabs won't have to. That's what makes Persepolis so valuable as a comics biography, and it remains to be seen how many more around the world who actually believe in civilized values will agree on that. Including the Guardian themselves, considering their leftist stance doesn't exactly speak the positions of Satrapi.

Mandalorian movie now a certified flop, and new Supergirl movie may be next

John Nolte at Breitbart recently spoke about how the Mandalorian and Grogu film has thudded harder in its 2nd week:

Back in 2018, when Solo: A Star Wars Story was bombing, it grossed $29.3 million in its second weekend, which represented a collapse of 65.2 percent. After ten days, its total gross was just $149 million.

The Mandalorian and Grogu’s second weekend gross will land at right around $23 million, which will put its ten day gross at around $135 million.

The Mandalorian will be lucky to cross $175 to $200 million domestic.

We’ll see what the overseas number looks like, but $450 to $500 million is the likely break-even number. Solo died off with $393 million global. The Mandalorian will be lucky to hit $300 to $350 million.

So, yeah, Disney’s groomers are looking at a massive loss.

Tee hee.

Gee, how will Disney blame the fans for this one? In the past (and even though pretty much every Star Wars fan loves the female-led Rogue One), we’ve been slandered as sexist for hating on Disney’s Skywalker sequel trilogy. Well, The Mandalorian is led by a guy. We’ve been smeared as homophobic for hating all the queer shit in Solo (pansexual, robot-humping Lando). Well, as far as I can tell, the Mandalorian character isn’t queer.

Disney will never blame itself. So what’s left…?

You gonna blame it on Star Wars fatigue when there hasn’t been a Star Wars movie in seven years?

It is pretty fascinating how, when the last of the previous trilogy left theaters, so too did pretty much anything else SW-related. The excitement of the SW franchise, alas, is gone, and the Mandalorian movie's proven it by now.

In addition to the above news, Nolte also brought up the overall costs of the Supergirl film's production, and how the box office prospects don't look good:

Tucked away inside the far-left Deadline’s free ad (“Supergirl Advance Tickets Go On Sale Before DC Pic’s June 26 Opening”) for the upcoming Supergirl is the real news: this sucker cost $175 million to produce.

From here, the math is pretty simple. Add at least $75 million for promotion (that’s me being generous), and what we have here is a price tag of a quarter of a billion — with a “B” — dollars.

That puts its break-even number somewhere between $450 to $550 million. Early tracking says that’s not happening.

Quite laughably, Deadline writes: “Supergirl we hear cost $175M net before global P&A spend with breakeven at $315 global box office.”

You catch that? The “breakeven at $315” million??? Really, breakeven is $315 million off of a $175 million production budget that doesn’t even include promotion costs?

Yeah, no — no way.

But that’s the magic of being a major studio in a corrupt media world where everyone wants access and your advertising — the more your movie costs, the lower the breakeven number. Yep, Democrats sure got it good.

Already, early box office tracking for Supergirl is not good. As we get closer to the late June release date, these numbers could go up or down, but as of now a $47 to $65 million domestic opening is expected. That is less than half of Superman’s $125 million opening in July of 2025, and Superman only grossed $618 million global. Warner Bros. and director James Gunn insist Superman still made a profit. Color me skeptical.

There's only so many "blockbusters" today that could seemingly make millions and still not turn a profit, or not make enough money to fully cover all the productiona and promotional costs. Even so, it's a shame anybody should spend so much money going to theaters for all these modern films that're little more than special effects-flooded junk. In the end, what I certainly think is that it's a terrible shame Otto Binder and Al Plastino's wonderful Silver Age creation for building up the Superman family will be done another injustice, easily worse than the 1984 film starring Helen Slater. Sometimes, it's better for some classic creations to just remain on the printed page, where it can be much more relaxing as a reading experience than as a movie.

LA's Skirball Center exhibition explores how comics shaped America

The Los Angeles Daily News wrote about the Skirball Center's current exhibition on comicdom's history as part of the USA as a whole:

A year ago, the Skirball debuted its first comic-themed exhibition in years, “Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity,” a celebration of the life and work of Kirby, who helped create such comic book icons, such as Captain America, the X-Men, Black Panther and the Avengers.

Now, with “Inventing America,” the center has widened its gaze to include the story of comic books from the early decades of the 20th century to the present, examining creators such as Kirby, yes, but linking the art and adventures to the story of the United States over the past century.

“We greenlit both of them at the same time, knowing they would build on each other,” says Michele Urton, the Skirball’s museum deputy director and co-curator of “Inventing America” with comics expert Patrick A. Reed.

“The overview, because it’s an American history exhibition, we really wanted to time that to America 250,” she continues. “And for practical reasons, we needed a bit more time to do a larger survey.”

I do wonder if it'll cover stuff leading up to say, 2020, by which time quality long plummeted, and if they'll take an objective look at history? Sad logic suggests they won't.

In many ways, “Inventing America,” which runs through February 2027, tells a parallel story of the rise of youth culture in America.

“Comic books were really that first flowering of youth culture,” Reed says. “The first time that there was an entertainment form targeting kids, not only as the audience but as the direct consumer. Publishers recognized that all of a sudden, they can be selling things for nickels and dimes and targeting the kids directly.

“That’s sort of Ground Zero for everything that follows,” he says. “Today in America, youth culture is the driving force of pop culture. That all emerged following the comic book, the 45 RPM record and Saturday morning cartoons.

On this, one can only wonder if youth culture still holds the same influence it once did, seeing how in the past decade, there was less of it in films and TV. And based on how younger generations have been indoctrinated in schools to be uncreative and unproductive, can anyone be surprised if that's another reason why comics have fared no better than other entertainment forms in providing youth culture with what to enjoy when they're uninterested? If sales today are poor, that tells something, and prices long went up far beyond nickels and dimes.

Many of the early comic book creators we still remember today – Superman’s Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel, Batman’s Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Captain America’s Jack Kirby and Joe Simon – were the children of European Jews who immigrated to the United States.

“A lot of that’s because the industry was founded in New York City, which was a major center of immigration,” Reed says. “The comics companies that were sort of low-end publishing coming out of pulp and broadsheets were an industry founded largely by immigrants, by Jewish Americans.

“And if you were a young Jewish American in New York City, and you had artistic aspirations as Jack Kirby did, if you wanted to work in the arts, the comic book was there.

“The kids in the Lower East Side [where Kirby was born] weren’t necessarily attending fine art programs or going to art schools,” Reed says. “They weren’t necessarily able to jump straight to commercial illustration. So to work in comic books was a way to express your creativity and also provide for your family.”

And the comic book industry has remained, to varying degrees, a world of art and storytelling with its doors open wide.

“As comic books move from the Marvel-DC model and expand in the 1960s, you get the whole underground movement,” Urton says. “People began self-publishing. They’re coming at it from a different angle.

“I think that because the comic book is a format that continues to change and evolve, and that can be created really inexpensively and self-produced, you continue to see entry into this field for a wider and wider range of folks,” she says. “As Patrick likes to say, anyone with a pencil and a piece of paper can become a comic book artist.”

To Reed, that openness creates an energy and vibrancy in comics that’s not always present in the mainstream creative arts.

That can certainly be what it's like today, when the mainstream have long been taken over by conglomerates who disrespect everything the original comics were built on, and practically threw out anybody who didn't adhere to their PC mindsets, including, but not limited to, conservatives, recalling even a liberal like Larry Hama was blacklisted, and that still seems to be in effect. Even Jews aren't respected, and all they're doing is making clear how ungrateful they are to the very community that worked so hard to develop those comics in the first place. In that context, it's not a place where doors are open wide, and we must consider some of the embarrassments that occurred in the past decade and even more recently. So I wish they wouldn't sugarcoat the present, because that's what they're doing.

I'm sure an exhibit like this has its values, but all this failure to examine everything more objectively is harming the industry in the long run, and it doesn't bode well for creativity or even productivity. And whatever one thinks of independent creations, Marvel/DC cannot continue to remain in the hands of conglomerates who don't respect the creators and their creations.

Without merit, USA comics won't have "everlasting" appeal

The North State Journal (Raleigh, NC) wrote about why American comics are so great:

Pick one up. Be seduced by its glossy cover. Gaze upon the impossibly muscular body clad in a skin-tight suit. Our hero or heroine will surely be soaring, shouting, blasting a villain into next week.

They are ridiculous. They are addictively great. Comic books, of the superhero variety, are 100% American.

Compare the thin comic book to Europe’s graphic novels, and they come off looking flimsy, infantile. Compare the American comic to Japanese Manga and they appear innocent in their fixation with heroism; they hark back to a departed American age.

Once a nickel, a dime, a quarter, now the price of a latte, they are objects of American consumer capitalism. The comic is literature in junk-food version.

Well it used to be, but that doesn't mean it was always perfect even back in the Golden Age. And if you consider how, by the turn of the century, they were on their way to putting far more forced emphasis on leftist ideologies, that's why it doesn't make much sense now to say they're objects of capitalism. The American age in question has sadly departed, and they're not fixed on heroism like they were before.

Yet what truly makes them American objects is what plays out in their 32 pages month after month, decade upon decade.

When the Fantastic Four took their fateful space journey in 1961 and “cosmic rays” transformed the quartet into unwilling superheroes, comics entered a weird realm where the all-powerful were also the unwilling, decidedly modern victims of science and circumstance.

Spider-Man, the Hulk, Wolverine (the list goes on) were given supernatural abilities that made them outcasts, obliging them to be flawed messiahs.

They were, by some quirk of the American character, bound to Peter Parker’s moral imperative: “With great power comes great responsibility.” They are versions of an American Sisyphus, bound to saving us over and over again.

What could be more American — that might, when lashed to a sense of justice, eventually, makes right? So honorable, so naïve.

Well now even the phrase from Spidey's 1962 premiere has been throughly trashed for the sake of pointless directions, not the least being the erasure of the Spider-marriage. When the paper, possibly a college-type one, won't get into any of those issues, something is decidedly and terribly wrong. There's no justice to be found in modern comics when they force in so much leftist ideologies at the expense of coherency.

To this day, though the tone is darker, Marvel and DC, the two mammoths of comics, continue to reimagine the American character.

Once side attractions in a world of leading white men, Gwen Stacy, Jean Grey and Susan Storm have in recent years emerged as leaders to reinvigorate the Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four sagas. Absolute Wonder Woman has broken ground with beautiful art. Miles Morales is Spidey for a new generation.

And when they make such ambiguous statements about these leading ladies, something is wrong here too. Note the absurdity of bringing up what I assume is Spider-Gwen, some kind of otherworldly take on the 616 universe Gwen, without even making anything clear, or asking if it really does favors for the Spidey franchise. Also, not all art is good today, what with the woke damage of the past decade still being felt, and the Titans' title in the DCU is one that's suffered as a result. And they don't have a problem with the darker tone? That's practically what brought down comicdom in the long run. Also, do they have a problem with white men? One can only wonder if the writer's saying he considers Peter Parker expendable.

Yet the central fissures remain.

Bruce Wayne can’t connect with anyone other than his butler; he is the lonely individual in an atomized America. Steve Rogers bears the burden of representing the “Greatest Generation” from World War II. He is a Captain America forever out of place, even in his own land.

And could there be a more iconic tech magnate toying with humanity’s fate than Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor and his delusions of grandeur? If only our world had a bespectacled Clark Kent keeping an eye on things. Just in case.

Umm, even this is flawed if they'd consider there were stories where Bruce had affairs with ladies like Vicky Vale, Silver St. Cloud and even Catwoman. Where do they get off using that kind of laughable lecture anyway? The writer's also oblivious to how there were several stories over the years where Marvel tried to replace and harm the reputation of Capt. America for the sake of publicity stunts, and it goes without saying that today's dialogue for a lot of the regular cast doesn't feel like that of the older comics anymore.

So what's the point of this article? Practically nothing, since like a lot of other such modern articles, it won't explore what went wrong over past decades, nor will it take an objective view of Marvel/DC in their modern form. Once again, comicdom's getting nowhere fast as a result of all these phonies writing about what's hardly coverage of history.