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Comic-Con 2009 update: Twilight, Young Avengers, Obsidian and more!
The annual nerd prom started this week and, while the exhibitor floor didn't have any flashy displays like last year's Watchmen Owl Ship, it doesn't sound like the geek culture mecca has calmed any. Usually, Thursday's panels feature the convention's version of the D-list but this year Thursday's panels included the likes of Twilight and James Cameron's Avatar. So what have the interesting bits of news to come out of Comic-Con? We've got the round-up for you. Twilight all night
New Moon's Taylor Launter, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Those of you who've been to Comic-Con before are probably aware of the tremendous size of Hall H, where all the big panels are, but that didn't stop Twilight fans from forming "Camp Twilight" where fans camped in front of the convention center overnight to ensure they'd have a good spot for the The Twilight Saga: New Moon panel. In a sign of how much of Comic-Con has grown, the last time I made it to San Diego, people were lining up for popular panels an hour beforehand, but now I guess you've got to pull an all-nighter to get in. After some generational tension within Camp Twilight, the fans were treated some new footage of the highly-anticipated movie and got to hear hunky star Taylor Launter talk about how he got himself buff for the film's shirtless scenes. Which, I guess gives me an excuse to post Launter's New Moon poster.
Waiting for Hulkling and Wiccan
It's been nearly three years since the last issue of Young Avengers came out. While the series is groundbreaking for featuring gay teen couple Hulkling and Wiccan, it also gained a following for the clever way out creator Allan Heinberg played with Marvel continuity and kept a good story going and giving it a wide audience eager for more. In the meantime, we've gotten the Young Avengers Presents mini-series, but those stories made sure to leave the characters unchanged for when Heinberg could return to them. Thus, at the "Mondo Marvel" panel, Marvel editor-in-cheif Joe Quesada was asked about the future of the gay-inclusive series and Quesada promised that Heinberg is "knee-deep in writing a massive Young Avengers-related project" but nothing will be announced until the script is finished to prevent any delays. It's good to hear Marvel hasn't given up on Young Avengers, but considering how long Heinberg took to wrap up his first Wonder Woman arc, my hopes aren't getting too high so far. How are you feeling about the prospects of seeing this Young Avengers project? Obsidian: out of the shadows?
I usually get the feeling that Marvel and DC take turns being the leader in gay visibility. Right now, Marvel definitely is out in front. So when is DC going to try to catch up? Here's something to give us some hope — at a JSA panel, writer Bill Willingham mentioned that he has plans to finally put Obsidian in the spotlight after months of the character being the JSA's "barely-there gay". When asked, Willingham promised Obsidian wouldn't be joining the list of gay characters who were eventually "straightened out", joking, "I'm almost 97% certain that there won't be a scene in an upcoming issue of JSA where Obsidian goes, 'I'm cured! I'm no longer gay! I like women!'" It's been ages since I've read anything by Willingham, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed he can do justice to Obsidian, who's been ignored for too long. How are you feeling about the prospect? Bat Boy lives on
Meanwhile, comics publisher IDW has added to some gayness by announcing that out editor Bob Schreck will be joining the company, but I have a feeling gay comics readers are going to be more interested in their upcoming mini-series based on the campy tabloid The Weekly World News. IDW publishes a lot of licensed titles like Doctor Who so it'll be fun what they do with out-there concepts like Bat Boy and the PhD Ape. Geek Screen
Comic-con is also a spot where TV shows try to market themselves to the geekerati and, so far, that's included a table read of the last, unaired episode of ABC Family's lamented scifi comedy The Middleman (which starred the frequently gay-adjacent Matt Keeslar). The announcement that the upcoming Dexter season will be preceded by prequel webisodes and Bruce Campbell joking about a potential Burn Notice/Evil Dead mash-up. Probably the most anticipated panel will be the panels for Doctor Who, Torchwood and Being Human on Sunday, which will include Russell T. Davies, John Barrowman, Russell Tovey and David Tennant. I wonder how things will go when Davies meets with angry Janto fans. The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has been following many of the TV panels. I'm sure she'll be a reliable source for whatever comes out of Sunday's panels. Submitted by on Fri, 2009-07-24 16:28. |
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ugh god...
i hate the twilight craze more than i hate the hannah montana craze. i am still ashamed that i sat through the whole movie. *tries to erase experience from brain*
...and i dont find either robert pattinson or that taylor dude attractive AT ALL. robert always looks...dirty. ick
I can't wait to hear about what goes down during the torchwood gathering. should be interesting. i'm picturing pitchforks. :-P
Atr least the Hannah
Atr least the Hannah Montana craze is just based on tween sensationy stuff. It's a pretty wholesome and meek series.
Twiligt? Mysogynic, promotes spousal abuse, promotes staying with abusive spouses, stalking, women are subservient to men and all the other Mormon crap. And millions of idiot tweens are going nuts over it. Yah...
Thank you!!
I'm so happy to hear I'm not the only one who hates it. I read the first book as a dare and was horrified on every page: Edward is constantly insulting and threatening Bella (who was intentionally written sans personality so that the 13-year-old reader could more easily project herself into it), and it's considered ROMANTIC? No, honey, that's emotional abuse and no amount of prettiness will excuse it.
"Go, or go ahead and surprise me." -- Rufus Wainwright
Marvelman/Miracleman coming to Marvel Comics
Marvel Appears to be on the verge of gaining publishing rights to the Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman Miracleman comic book series. You'll note that in Neil Gaiman's end of the run he included the revelation that one of the superpowered members of the Miracleman family was gay and the story dealt with his coming out.
Also, this news apparently "broke the Internet in half".
I'm sure that when RTD
I don't think so
You can't blame people for getting attached to characters, and being upset at their demise. If you want people to get invested in a show, people are going to care, and they're going to have an emotional reaction to what happens in the show. And then, on top of that, there's also the symbolic importance of Jack and Ianto being the first and, so far, only male same-sex couple in sci-fi. It's understandable that people will be shocked and hurt when that's broken.
There's also the fact that Ianto's death means that there has been a 100% employee turnover since the first episode. I'm disappointed, not just because I'm a Janto fan, but because I'm a fan of good character development and relationships. You can't have that when you're constantly replacing characters. Killing off characters, once in a while, is understandable. But to kill four people (Suzie, Owen, Tosh, Ianto) in two years? That's too much. I can't get emotionally attached again. And that means I won't care as much about the show anymore, which is a shame.
I have not seen all of COE yet. It's on my DVR. From what I've heard, it seems we'll at least get some sense of closure about Ianto, which is great. But that doesn't change the fact that Ianto's death completely gets rid of the Torchwood that I know. (I do like Gwen, but she's not enough on her own.)
What, is he your Daddy or something?
Davies is almost chronically incapable of even acknowledging that other people are in the room except as an audience to listen to him praising his own brilliance. He wouldn't last five minutes if held to the fire and forced into a serious debate. His only method of coping with criticism is telling himself, and everyone else, that the audience just isn't smart enough to appreciate how clever he is.
He's not capable of taking anyone down a peg, and will only look like an arrogrant prig if he tries.
However, if we're very lucky the Comic-con attendees won't even bother with that. They'll just drag him up the hill to the zoo and feed him to something large and carnivorous.
I find it funny that were
Obsidian a barely-there gay?
I'm not sure that's a fair characterization. He's never actually been a member of the JSA, or even a regular supporting cast member. He's the son of one of the members, and as such gets pulled in when it's appropriate. He got more screen time in the series than his straight sister, for example.
And when he has guest starred, it's usually in a pretty prominent role. If you read the stories he's appeared in, he's far from "barely there." Take, for instance, his most recent appearance, in which he trapped the team in their headquarters to protect them, and they assumed he'd gone nuts again and wound up fighting them. Standing alone against half the team in order to keep them safe isn't exactly "barely there."
Wallpaper duty
Obsidian was actually a member of the team when the series was rebooted, but for the most part he was essentially on "wallpaper duty" (as he referred to it in Manhunter). Once in a while he got in a line or two, but he usually just stayed in the background.
That you didn't know he was even a member of the team shows how much his character was actually used.
And whenever he appeared on one of the covers, it was usually as two eyes in the shadows (for example, the cover for #1, behind Hawkman and Wildcat, and the cover for #26, between Sandman and Alan Scott).
The issues you're referring to where he traps the team in their headquarters was written by a different writer, Jerry Ordway, after the regular writer, Geoff Johns, had left the series.
As for why he got more screen time in the series than his straight sister Jade; that's because she's dead.
Obsidian
Well, it probably shows more that the post-relaunch version of the book is tedious shit that I don't do more than flip through most of the time. And the fact that their membership list would make the Legion gape in horror.
He got more screen time than her during the several years of the series that she was alive, as well.
Obsidian
He was still the most underused character in the entire team. He was barely even there.
That was before he came out in Manhunter.
Not to mention most of that screen time was as a crazy villain.
More Obsidian
He was outed as... well, something vaguely label-hating... in JLA long before JSA even existed. He wasn't explicitly G.A.Y., since Gerard Jones' gender- and sexuality- bending book eschewed labels for everyone, but he was pretty clearly non-straight in some way.
And I was contesting the "barely there" label, so pointing out that he was a villain isn't really relevant to my point.
In Justice Society of
In Justice Society of America#1-26, Obsidian served as a member of the team. While there, he barely showed up and did almost nothing of importance.
So why is the article incorrect in stating that he spent several months "being the JSA's 'barely-there gay'"?
Wait a minute! He's
Wait a minute! He's 17?!..... well, i'm alowed to oogle any how (i'm just almost 19).... but i still feel guilty. for some reason i'm slow to to get over the fact that everbody over a year younger than me isn't a "baby" because i still see it that way..... go figure lol
but oogling over him seems to help me get over my silly notions, so i'll oogle away
<drooling with a blank expression>
Brits
Gay Happenings at Comic Con
There are plenty of gay happenings at Comic Con. Prism Comics (http://www.prismcomics.org) - the nonprofit association for all things gay in comic books - has a downloadable brochure about CC'09 called The Gay Agenda that shows what's what, and Prism has a booth #2146.
The Gay Agenda can be downloaded at http://prismcomics.org/display.php?id=1763
It is great to see the association and all its talent working hard at Comic-Con to give a voice to the GLBT community in the comic book industry.
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