Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett looks at the NYCC coverage and welcomes back Miranda Mercury.Naturally there was a lot of news coming up of New York Comic Con, but a surprising amount of it involved comics for kids.
I knew the first Marvel/Disney company crossover was inevitable (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Mickey Mouse, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."), but I never imagined it would be anything like Avengers Meet Prep & Landing (see "Marvel & Disney Synergy on Display"). It's a promotion for Naughty & Nice, the sequel to the first Prep & Landing animated TV special, and since there aren't any actual Disney Comics at the moment it's being folded into several Marvel titles. It makes sense to place it in the all-ages titles Super-Heroes and Spider-Man, but I have to wonder what regular readers of Avengers are going to think about it.
But perhaps the most interesting news is there's apparently going to be a comic book based on the Super Best Friends Forever shorts coming to the Cartoon Network DC Nation Block (see "DC Block on Cartoon Network"). Of course I haven't even seen the short the comic is supposed to based on, but knowing it’s being done by Lauren Faust, creator of the surprise cult hit My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic gives me a certain amount of confidence. Plus, if there’s a more girl friendly idea than having Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Girl be BFF's, I don't know what it is.
I must confess that I'm not much for dressing up myself but I don’t mind seeing others do it, and there sure were a lot of nice costumes this year at NYCC. Frankly it's hard not to appreciate someone who takes the time, energy and money to dress up like the Golden Age Red Tornado. In recent years just about every conceivable website has found a way to report on Comic Con cosplay (see "NYCC Friday Photos, Part 1"), but I was more than a little startled when the online version of Men's Fitness found their own unique angle on it.
Written by Jordan Buchette it was titled "NY Comic Con: Flabby Versions of Your Favorite Superheroes" and was subtitled "Ever wonder what Batman would look like fat? Read on, true believer!" That didn't bode well but the first paragraph began benignly enough.
"Comic book conventions are among the few remaining refuges of sincere, unaffected fun in an otherwise odious leisurescape of extreme binge drinking set to techno or gun claps. They're enjoyed by people of literally every age, ethnicity and economic disadvantage in celebration of the stories and characters on which they were all raised. It's a bully-free zone in which underwear is in no danger of violently wedgie-ing its wearer and freak flags are free to fly. Nowhere is this more evident than in the practice of costume play, or cosplay."
But Men's Fitness decided to send bullies into this bully free zone and what followed was a series of unflattering photos of people in superhero costumes with supposedly humorous captions running underneath them. Like a couple who were dressed as Marvel's Cloak and Dagger who but tagged as "Cloak and Dumpy." I have to appreciate them taking time out of their busy schedule of selling America a distorted body image (i.e., their covers regularly feature the kind of abdominal definition that’s all but unobtainable, unless you’ve been gifted with unlimited exercise time and the right genes) to heap scorn and derision on those who can’t live up to their standards. They had it coming, being out in public and innocently enjoying themselves that way.
I'm happy to report that the story started back in 2007 in the first (and only) issue of Brandon Thomas' The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury has finally been completed in the hardcover Time Runs Out. Brandon was good enough to send me a copy and, not surprisingly, it's just great. It's an epic fantasy that while following genre conventions always manages to seem fresh, thanks in large part to the fact it's full of a little something we used to call 'sense of wonder.' But ultimately what makes it genuinely heroic isn't the scale of the drama but that its protagonist, Miranda Mercury, is that rarest of things, a true hero.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
