Ep.7B: NCBD! Demon Days, America Chavez, Nubia! + Industry News, Announcements & MCU Mutants Rumors!3/5/2021
This week's New Comic Book Day was FULL of amazing, thrilling surprises! In this week's new comics discussions, I cover the stunning beauty of Demon Days: X-Men, the return of a favorite character in America Chavez: Made in the USA, and the honest realities of Nubia: Real One. Plus-- DC's Infinite Frontier, Sonjaversal, Chariot, and more! I love seeing such quality material surrounding comic women and female creators!
In news and announcements from the broader nerd industries this week, we have an Obi-Wan Kenobi casting announcement, a new Tom King comic series, updates from San Diego Comic Con, renewals and release dates, and finally-- the Big Rumor of Marvel's The Mutants. Even though a lot of the news talk tends to be speculation, it's always fun to imagine what's in store! I'll be back with another full-length podcast episode MONDAY March 8th, where the bulk of the episode will be covering the WandaVision finale!
Continue Reading for full Podcast Notes!
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This is the only review I wrote for the week of February 2nd-3rd's releases, and Luna was easily my pick of the week across all publishers. For reasons I talk about in the review, I was completely blown away, and can't stress enough how much I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. High-Concept stories are often difficult to pull off in comics, and Llovet is off to a remarkable start. I can't recommend Luna enough! In other news, expect some mild restructuring in the way I do my posts here. As you probably know, I recently started a podcast version of this very blog, called Sensational She-Geek Live from Yancy Street (Yancy St. being a reference to the location of the Fantastic Four's headquarters, the Baxter Building). While writing has been a passion of mine my whole life, and this blog has been an excellent outlet for that, I've now realized that working on the podcast is more manageable for my free time. Where a blog post might take several days to write up, the podcast comes together from the past several days' thoughts on comics and comics culture, can be organized in under an hour, recorded in the same time, then posted in another hour. To sum up: It's easier, more natural to create, and has far more views than my standard blog post. So, I'm letting the blog writing take back seat so I can focus more on the blog, and on my own personal writing projects. Let me know what you think! In the meantime, Continue Reading for the discussion on Luna #1! Update #1: Issue-by-issue summaries have entries through Mister Miracle (v.1) #15! Continue Reading! Contrary to how it may look, Barda was actually the first character I did when I started these read lists, alongside Angela (Image/Marvel). Why aren't those the first two uploaded? I started those lists (gasp) handwritten. When I started the other lists, I had already started using an online, multi-device note-taking app, so the notebook was forgotten. Now that I'm uploading the rest of my lists, it's time to back and update Barda's. This is the best list I could come up with without having already read every issue. Oddly, there aren't many resources at all for other Barda reading lists, and the ones that do exist are missing pieces, haven't been updated, or focus on a Barda from a different Earth. In making this list, I've combined a few partial lists, filled in some spaces I knew were missing, and guessed for only a handful of likely no-longer-canon appearances. I'll get around to typing up my previously written notes soon, I hope, but the reading list itself is complete! Continue Reading to follow Big Barda's history, and always remember Barda Is! To absolutely no one's surprise, Black Widow continues to amaze. The best, in my opinion, of writer Kelly Thompson's three comic releases this week, I can't resist discussing the many fantastic aspects of this team's monthly efforts. You can find my review for the first issue here, and the second issue here, if you care about reading those before this. Continue Reading for the third installment discussion! This one just gets better and better. As usual, spoilers ahead! Captain Marvel #22 Review and Discussion10/15/2020 Excerpt: "I can see where this issue fits perfectly into the story of Carol Danvers. Post-Kelly Sue-era, Captain Marvel really got back up and running for me, personally, with Margaret Stohl’s Life of Captain Marvel in 2017. The mini-series reworked Carol’s origins, taking away the necessity of a man being involved, and giving her entire power-set more legitimacy. This Thompson run started immediately after that, taking the news or her half-Kree origin and giving it the same ugly spotlight our modern society realistically, and unfortunately, would have done. Thompson has taken Carol in an empowering arc since then, giving her relatable villains, heart-warming friendships, and having her deal with true Super-Hero problems like personhood separate from her heroism, dealing with the idea of failure on many levels, and where to draw the line of right and wrong." CONTINUE READING for details on the events of Captain Marvel #22, and more thoughtful discussion! Spoilers will be included! Black Widow (2020) #2 Review/Discussion10/8/2020
Immortal She-Hulk #1 REVIEW9/24/2020 Jennifer Walter's She-Hulk is an important character to me, for a number of reasons. She's smart, educated, and willing to stand up for whats right even if it means making some enemies along the way. She's clever, beautiful, sassy, and a ton of fun in general. But she also has a history of trauma, anger issues, and repressed emotion. She's dealt with her personal problems, time and time again, and never asked for help from anyone.
When people say they want strong women in comics, they don't mean brute strength MMA fighters. They mean well-developed, realistic, rounded, and believable women. Even the strongest of us have moments of weakness, and Jen truly is the strongest among women. Continue Reading to learn why I loved this single issue so well, and what it means for Jen Walters and She-Hulk. Giant-Size X-Men: Storm REVIEW!9/20/2020
ULTIMATE Magik Read List!9/11/2020
I originally wrote this review as part of my comics Pick List from week #29. It was one of about six premier issues that came out that week, and stood out among the twenty-four comics pulls so bright that I wrote an extended review on it for that week's picks. I've gone back to that review a few times already, and as Black Widow continues to get positive buzz, I feel like I should give this issue its due spotlight. Among other reasons, this series premier is helmed by three women, all of whom more than pull their weight in making the issue a supreme success! Continue Reading for my full review of Black Widow #1 by Kelly Thompson, drawn by Elena Casagrande, with colors by Jordie Bellaire!
I've been saying it for ages, and even wrote it on this site at one point: Wonder Woman needs a female writer, and I'll add it to my pull list when that happens.
Ladies and germs, the day has finally come! On July 29th, DC released Wonder Woman #759, the first issue to be written in a run by Mariko Tamaki. Joyfully, I'm familiar with Tamaki's writing from HULK/She-Hulk at Marvel. She's also known for DC's Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass and Supergirl: Being Super with Joelle Jones, plus a number of other comics and graphic novels. To say that I was excited going in would be an understatement, as saying I'm happy with how it turned out would be. I loved this first issue so much, I say up last night with notes about WHY it was so good spiraling though my brain, and writing it all out before bed. With a few additions, continue reading for my full review of Wonder Woman #759 by Mariko Tamaki, with art by Mikel Janin and colors by Jordie Bellaire! A Note on FEMALE FURIES1/14/2020 As a woman who reads comics, this industry doesn't revolve around people like me as their target audience. Which is something women are sadly used to--while we're welcome in the community, women are often seen as second-class comic nerds, as if our gender determines what our interests should be, and how much of those interests we're allowed to know about. Clearly, this isn't the reality, and tons of women of all ages are interested and work/live their lives in comics., regardless of the male domination. This means that when something DOES get actively targeted towards female comic readers, it feels like a gift from the creators made just for us. To clarify, I'm talking about traditional comics themes and characters, but written to actively include female readers in the target audience. One recent example of this is the limited series, Female Furies. It was set up for success among female "sweaties" like me from the start: female driven creative team, female leads, accurate female relationships, recognizable metaphors for our own society, and best of all--it was set up with the backdrop of classic DC comics characters and stories (Hello, Apokalips). In fact, it even includes the original Jack Kirby source material from the old-school Mister Miracle and New Gods books in the back of the collected edition. Needless to say, I tore through the volume in an afternoon, and it left me with chills. I loved it endlessly and want to breathe it's spirit into every comic reader who will listen. But somehow, even through all of this, female Furies is misunderstood. Continue Reading to learn what I mean by that, and why Female Furies is such a perfect battle cry to women everywhere. NEW Comic Books for JANUARY 1ST, 2020!12/29/2019 Happy New Year! I've been AWOL for a week or two, as last week didn't have much by way of comics, and I was still pretty swamped with work and hobbies through the holidays. Plus, what an INSANE week we had just before Christmas, with average pull lists of dedicated readers reaching over twenty books that Wednesday. Thea year is starting off a little easier on our wallets than that, but that's not to say the books being released are any less interesting. In fact, the year starts off strong this week with three new series' that I'll be reading, among the other pulls. Last year, one of my goals was the broaden my comic book reading list--add variety. I feel like this year I've done a great job of that, and because of it, I've been reading some really excellent books. This year, I'll grow off that sentiment, and say my comic book reading goal is to not waste my time (and money) on series' that aren't what I wished for. In short, I'll be continuing to read just as much and more, but I'll get a little picky. If I'm not feeling a series, that's fine, there are plenty more to replace it with. Adding on to that as well, I already have a few creator-owned titles on my list for their debut in March, so I expect my comic pull list t be very rounded out by the end of 2020. With all that out of the way, continue reading to find out what's good for the first week of comics in 2020! Harleen #2: This Isn't Going to End Well11/18/2019
DC Black Label's Harleen #110/4/2019 With the launch of DC's new "R-rated" comic line, DC Black Label, we've gotten some seriously unique and inventive comics that otherwise never would have happened. Batman: White Knight showed us a parallel universe just slightly off from ours, where Batman is becoming a public nuisance, and The Joker becomes sane. It's follow-up series, Curse of the White Knight, is currently on it's third issue, and DC recently announced the two series' are officially part of the "Murphy-verse" after writer and artist Sean Gordon Murphy. Murphy is also known for drawing the indie series Tokyo Ghost, which was written by his Curse of the White Knight co-artist, Matt Hollingsworth. Aside from the Murphy-verse, DC Black Label has brought us Batman: Damned, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, and Superman: Year One. All three of those titles have legendary creative teams who've been given much more freedom in their writing than a standard DC comic. It's no wonder every issue published under Black Label sells out! And there's more coming later this year, and early 2020. For now, I'd like to talk about the Black Label series next up on the list to premier: Harleen, by Stjepan Šejić. Harleen promises to be a retelling of her infamous Mad Love origin story, written by her creator Paul Dini. Under Black Label, this series will be able to explore more intensivley the psycological path Harleen Quinzel takes to becoming Harley Quinn. Continue Reading for more on the first issue of this series, and what it means for our favorite Clown Princess of Crime! New Comics September 11th, 20199/9/2019 In writing out my pull list for the week, it occurs to me how many limited series I read. This week, 4 of the seven titles I'll be picking up are limited. It makes me wonder, is it me liking limited series' or is it publishers putting more of them out? Either way, these are the issues I'll personally be reading this week. It's an exciting week of women-based comics, space adventures, and epic tales. Be sure to stop by your local comic book shop to get this week's books! Continue reading for my full recommendations!
Women of Marvel Alignment Chart9/8/2019 It's been a lazy Sunday! Last night I came across all these alignment charts, and did a quick search on what Comic Book ones people have made. Unsurprisingly, I think I saw about 6 women total on over a dozen comic book alignment charts.
As a just-for-fun project today, I whipped up this alignment chart for the women of Marvel comics! It was fun brainstorming characters to fit each box, maybe I'll do another with a different set of characters! But first I'll do a Women of DC chart next. What would you Women of Marvel Alignment chart look like? Have a great week, and Stay Sweaty! They're a pair as classic to comic fans as peanut butter and jelly. Harley Quinn, the former clown-princess of crime turned "chaotic neutral" force for sometimes-good, and her bestie Ivy, former botanist turned literal plant lady. They've been close friends, confidants, and occasionally something more across decades of history and multiple media formats. But they've just had one of the biggest changes ever in their relationship: death! In Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy #1, writer Jody Houser explores the new, still-changing dynamic between the Sisters of Evil! OK, team name is in the works. Continue reading for the scoop and my ensuing thoughts on this new series! Feminist Lens Comic Book Trivia!9/7/2019 This is an ongoing project I've been thinking about for a couple months now. I always found myself thinking of "deep cut" comic trivia questions that were targeted more towards female readers than male. The inspiration came from this first trivia question no one I knew could answer: "What does the A in A-Force stand for?" It got me thinking about how the SAT's are notoriously written for a white middle-class audience. It wasn't done on purpose, but through research it was discovered that the test's questions had an ethnic and social class bias that favored that group. I started thinking about how on a smaller scale, many "geeky" trivia quizzes are probably the same, by favoring the male audience as opposed to female. So I figured, why not set out to create my own women-based trivia? I've been working on it for about a month now, and have almost 200 questions in total! The questions cover topics like Comics, Movies, TV, and Creators, and are all as female-based as I can make them. As it was the first section I started off on (and the one I have the most questions of overall), I'm going to start by uploading the Comics section. It's a PDF, and the answers are listed right below each question. If you'd like to request the page setup to be different, or need help figuring out scoring, "sweat level" (difficulty), or just have any general questions, head over to my contact page and let me know! Or find me on social media! Holler at me on Instagram @annawiththecomics or Twitter @annakskills. Download link is just below, and enjoy the trivia!
Pull List Recommendations 8/21/198/20/2019
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