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 ahead to the rest of 2014.

Not that you need to concern yourselves with my problems I must confess that there are weeks when it's harder than others to find things to write about.  Oh, I can always find something to rail against or react to, but sometimes the level of care just isn't there.  Take, for example, Star Wars.  I like Star Wars just fine but I'm afraid I just didn’t squee the way so many others did when the cast of Star Wars VII was revealed in the pages of Entertainment Weekly.  The only Star Wars-related item I'm even remotely interested in seeing is the one hour Phineas & Ferb: Star Wars special coming later this summer on the Disney Channel and Disney XD.  It's one of the few things that I'm really looking forward to this year.  Also on the list:
 
The Venture Bros. Special--Space, which is either a half hour or one hour special (the official press release has it both ways; you’d think someone would have caught that).  It's coming later this year, serving as a lifebuoy for hardcore fans (such as myself) who can't wait to see the still unscheduled Season Six.  This was announced at the Adult Swim upfront where they also announced that along with being the "cable leader with millennial viewers in the 18-34 demographic," the "female composition of its audience is 43%."  After which, according to a piece that appeared in Variety, a slate appeared on a screen reading "No, really, why do you look so surprised?"
 
Well, maybe it's because Adult Swim has always specialized in programs which almost exclusively featured all male casts and content with a decidedly hostile transgressive/regressive bent, relying heavily on the scatological and profane.  It's frat boy comedy for guys who couldn't get into a frat, and (as much as I love it) that includes The Venture Bros., a show about an all-male family of desperate failures which has exactly one regular female role--voiced by a man.  I know I don't have to "get" everything, the same way you can't make assumptions about what someone will like along gender lines, but even so I just don't get how the show could have such a thriving female fan base.  And it does; I know; I've seen the convention cosplay photos.  Maybe someone out there would be good enough to educate me.
 
Guardians of the Galaxy.  Yeah, I know I said I was going to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but the reviews put me off, not that it needs me as it's breaking worldwide box office records.  In spite of which there are murmurs from would be industry insiders that the movie isn't "exceeding expectations."  Which is understandable seeing as how this one isn't just setting up the prerequisite sequel but a Sinister Six movie and a Venom movie as well. 

So, that's out and while it's getting surprisingly good reviews, having paid to see the Matthew Broderick version* I just can't bring myself to see the new Godzilla.  So this summer at the movies I'll most likely be just going to see Rifftrax Live: Sharknado in July and Guardians of the Galaxy in August.  By now you've all no doubt seen the second trailer (see "New 'Guardians of The Galaxy' Trailer and Poster") and having seen it it's pretty clear everyone who had previously called the movie a big risk for Marvel will have the opportunity to be really, really wrong.  My only objection, while original Guardian Yondu makes an appearance his teammate Charlie-27 (the big-boned Jovian in the kickass yellow spacesuit), does not.  Maybe in the sequel.
 
And finally there's Disney's Big Hero 6.  My expectations for this one have been fairly high for a while now.  And while I can't imagine it'll be anything as big as Frozen (but then, how could anything be?), having seen the sneak peak the studio just released (see "First Disney-Does-Marvel  Details") I'm even more confident at the very least they'll have themselves a respectable hit on their hands.  And, more importantly (to me anyway), another good movie. We could always use another one of those.
 
* In 1998 I went to the down on its luck multiplex just down the street from Dark Star III, the comic shop I was managing at the time, and bought myself a ticket for Godzilla.  I can't say that I was actually enjoying it but I was paying attention, enough anyway that I noticed when the theater made the final reel change.  It was kind of hard to miss, seeing as how the movie started running both backwards and upside down.  Part of me still doesn't believe that's physically possible but it happened.  I have witnesses.

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