SDCC News: IDW To Bring Back Out Of Print Comics Through New Imprint

Comic book publisher IDW has announced that it will be bringing back out of print comics through its new imprint called “It’s Alive!” Award winning editor Drew Ford will be overseeing the new extension of IDW.

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, IDW has acquired the reprint rights to several comic collections and graphic novels, and will be helping Drew Ford solicit and distribute the titles. It’s Alive! will bring foreign language comics to English-speaking audiences, as well as producing original content.

 The first collection to be published by It’s Alive! will be Red Range by Joe R. Lansdale and Sam Glanzman, which is a western graphic novel that tells the story of a mysterious rider who takes on the Klu Klux Klan in 19th century Texas.

The second title release for the imprint is Trina Robbins “Dope” a graphic novel adaptation of Sax Rohmer’s novel from 1919.

It’s Alive! plans to publish about six titles in 2017.

Stay tuned to Skatronixxx for more SDCC 2016 news.

DC Reveals Art For All-Star Batman At SDCC 2016

SDCC preview night has arrived!

DC Comics has just unveiled art for the upcoming All-Star Batman, which will be written by Batman veteran Scott Snyder and drawn by legendary artist John Romita Jr (JRJR).

Scott has called All-Star Batman “his Long Halloween” (The Long Halloween is Batman graphic novel by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale). His first arc will centre around Harvey Dent aka Two-Face. Scott has planned revolving collaborations with some of the top artists in the industry on this book, including Jock, Sean Gordon Declan Shalvey and Francesco Francavilla. All-Star Batman will be in continuity with the recent Rebirth relaunch that happened to the DC Universe this past spring.

Here is Jason Inman of DC All Access interviewing Scott Snyder and John Romita Jr. (plus more art shown)

Scott has also been previewing art on his Twitter feed. Follow him at @Ssnyder1835

All-Star Batman #1 will arrive on shelves (Comixology for digital fans) August 10th 2016.

More SDCC news to come in the coming hours and days. Keep checking in at Skatronixxx.com

GoComics SDCC 2016 Signings

GoComics is the largest online site for classic comic strips like Dilbert, Calvin and Hobb’s and Garfield. The strips are available for free with the option to purchase print collections of series via a link to Amazon.

 GoComics will be at booth #1505 where they will be giving away complete collections of Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, The Far Side, and much more. They will also have a huge prize pack. Attendees who stop by and collect a GoComics passport and complete the activities in it are entered to win signed comic prints, and all of these prizes as well:

This is GoComics signing schedule for SDCC:

Thursday, July 21

Lex Fajardo (Kid Beowulf) 5 – 6 p.m

Friday, July 22

Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) 2 – 3 p.m

Bill Amend (FoxTrot) 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Georgia Dunn (Breaking Cat News) 5 – 6 p.m.

Saturday, July 23

Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) 2 – 3 p.m

Nick Seluk (The Awkward Yeti) 3:30 – 4:30 p.m

Sunday, July 24

Dana Simpson (Phoebe and Her Unicorn) 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

With only two days left till SDCC, 2016 expect more articles from myself and the rest of the coverage team, keep checking back here at Sktronixxx.com/@Skatronixxx (Twitter) Daily.

Frank Cho Leaves Wonder Woman

Thought I would take a brief break from SDCC coverage to share some important news.

 

Bleedingcool reported yesterday that artist Frank Cho has walked off Wonder Women after drawing six covers. Frank was hired by DC to do 24 covers to coincide with the books bi-monthly release for the first year.

He explained why he left to Bleedingcool.

All the problem lies with Greg Rucka.

EVERYONE loves my Wonder Woman covers and wants me to stay. Greg Rucka is the ONLY one who has any problem with covers. Greg Rucka has been trying to alter and censor my artwork since day one.

Greg Rucka thought my Wonder Woman #3 cover was vulgar and showed too much skin, and has been spearheading censorship, which is baffling since my Wonder Woman image is on model and shows the same amount of skin as the interior art, and it’s a VARIANT COVER, and he should have no editorial control over it. (But he does. WTF?!!!)

I tried to play nice, not rock the boat and do my best on the covers, but Greg’s weird political agenda against me and my art has made that job impossible. Wonder Woman was the ONLY reason I came over to DC Comics.

To DC’s credit, especially [Art Director] Mark Chiarello, they have been very accommodating. But they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

I just wanted to be left alone and do my Wonder Woman variant covers in peace. But Greg Rucka is in a hostile power trip and causing unnecessary friction over variant covers.

This is just Cho’s side of the story. Greg Rucka (writer of Wonder Woman) has yet to respond to tell his side.

 

Whether what Cho said is correct or not, the man felt bullied out of a job. Regardless of who you are, that’s a horrible feeling. I remember him posting about going to California to chat with DC. He said the only reason he was working for DC was the for the Wonder Woman Gig. Cho’s work on Wonder Woman seem very tame compared to his previous work; I don’t see the problem with his interpretation of Wonder Woman.

Claims of censorship from surprisingly not DC but writer Greg Rucka is very odd considering a writer (at least in the work for hire game) never has the power of an editor. It seems that despite the DC staff’s approval of Cho’s work one person (who is not a permanent DC employee) had the “power” to say I want it my way.

Greg is a big name writer, with a huge following. He is well respected by SJW’s (social justice warriors) and people who are PC (politically correct) for his portrayal of women in comics. Cho, on the other hand, is hated by SJWs and the PC crowd. They believe his art is over sexualized and demeaning to women and look for every opportunity to call him a misogynist and voice their disgust for him and his work.

It’s fine not to like Cho’s art; it comes down to personal taste. What you can’t deny is his talent and his right to create, and his right to be employed despite political and social differences. Cho made an agreement with DC, not Greg Rucka, if DC had said, we don’t like it, that’s their right they own the property. I understand why Cho left and why DC couldn’t do much about it, you have a superstar writer who’s not a fan of a superstar artist, a bit of a catch 22.

The past few years I have noticed the shocking influence the social justice, and PC culture has had on the comic book community and society in general.(my country Canada is pretty close to changing our national anthem from “all thy sons command” to “in all of us command”….sigh ). For the most part, I see nothing but whining, complaining and hypersensitivity to any comment or differing opinion from their own.

The truth is they do not represent the majority; they have been getting mostly positive influence and support from the media which make them seem larger than they are.

I’m acutely aware of issues of sexual harassment and inequality in the comic book industry. I realise a lot of creators in a position of influence are keeping quiet on the topic.I don’t condone it; I believe it’s something that should be talked about but not over social media, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter. It turns into a mob of your ignorant or your an idiot, from random people wanting to put their two cents in. Nothing will get accomplished that way.

The sad thing to me about mainstream comics today is that no one is saying I want a story that’s told well by talented creators, regardless of gender, religion, creed or sexual orientation. Are there creators that are female, and POC that deserves a shot at mainstream comics properties? Absolutely. There are also many people who deserve to play in the NFL or the NBA that never get a chance despite their talent. Countless reasons for this are known and unknown to the public and the professionals. It happens in every creative and athletic market, not just comics. Shouting at the top of your lungs for “Diversity” in a mainstream industry who is interested in making money is not working. Sales have declined for many of Marvel’s books mainly, for giving into to an immature movement. Lots fans feel they are force fed an ungenuine form of diversity.

If you feel like your not represented in comics, I suggest exploring indie comics, or better yet make your own. If you believe there is an audience for your particular comic start a Kickstarter campaign, people will support it. You have the ability to outsell Marvel and DC if you have the right book and the right marketing of it. If you have time to complain 24/7 from your keyboard, you have time actually to do something productive and make a “real” difference. What the social justice community and even fanboys need to realise is that all this extremist hate and an argument are over FICTIONAL CHARACTERS (Ben Affleck’s best line in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back by the way) they are not real, we all need to step back and remind ourselves of that sometimes.

The social justice culture is no different than religious groups who force their views down your throat or vegans pushing their agenda, or people who believe we should all cut out gluten from our diet.

It’s easy to get caught up in a movement or belief system and lose sight of common sense and treating you fellow man(persons for the PC crowd) with respect. The big question is why do we to act like were children or even like were in high school? What happened to real constructive criticism and fair debate?

I hope this incident with Frank Cho doesn’t occur to another artist but with the way our culture is right now I don’t see it getting any better. For the sake of comics, I hope I’m wrong.

 

Image Comics Exclusives & Signings SDCC 2016

Image Comics was formed by Marvel’s top artists frustrated with their work for hire policies at the time. In 1992 Jim Lee, Todd Mcfarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri,     Erik Larsen,  Jim Valentino and Rob Liefeld left their high-profile books at Marvel to form a comic company dedicated to creators owning 100% of their rights to their creations.

Image went through some highs and lows, with creators, sales and even partners over the years. In the past five years or so though Image has been putting out many quality titles. Their sales have risen significantly in single issues and trades. With Image’s sales and popularity growing many of Marvel and  DC’s creators have left to pursue their ideas at Image.

Here is a list of exclusives and high profile creators Image is bringing with them to SDCC.

SDCC Variants Sold At The Image Booth #2729 (Limited Quantities)

Paper Girls Book Plate with art by Cliff Chiang (free with purchase of Paper Girls, Vol. 1 at the booth)

Snotgril #1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung, $10

Monstress Vol.1  hardcover by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda, $40

Throwaways #1 by Caitlin Kittredge & Steven Sanders, cover art by Roberta Ingranata, $10

Convention Exclusives:

Toyko Ghost, Vol. 1 Convention hardcover by Rick Remender & Sean Gordon Murphy, $35

Sex Criminals Vol.3 convention hardcover by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky, $35

Complete Signing Schedule:

Wednesday, July 20th

Charlie Adlard, 6 – 6:45 PM

Thursday, July 21st

Joshua Williamson & Adam Guzowski, 10 – 10:45 AM
Sina Grace: 11 – 11:45 AM
Kyle Higgins: 12 – 12:45 PM
Brandon Thomas & Juan Gedeon: 12 – 12:45 PM
Keenan Marshall Keller & Tom Neely/Brian Schirmer & Jeremy Saliba 1 – 1:45 PM
Jason Aaron & Jason Latour: 1 – 1:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Terry Dodson: 2 – 2:45 PM
Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung: 3 – 3:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Charlie Adlard: 3 – 3:45 PM
Brenden Fletcher & Babs Tarr: 4 – 4:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Brian Haberlin: 4 – 4:45 PM
Meredith McClaren: 5 – 5:45 PM
Otis Frampton: 5 – 5:45 PM

Friday, July 22nd

Jim Zub: 10 – 10:45 AM
Joe Harris: 10 – 10:45 AM
Cliff Chiang & Jared Fletcher: 11 – 11:45 AM
Nicola Scott: 11 – 11:45 AM
Caitlin Kittredge: 12 – 12:45 PM
Charlie Adlard: 12 – 12:45 PM
Rick Remender: 1 – 1:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Joshua Williamson: 1 – 1:45 PM
Man of Action Group: Steven T. Seagle, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Duncan Rouleau: 1 – 1:45 PM
Steven T. Seagle & Jason Katzenstein: 1:45 – 2:30 PM
Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda: 2 – 2:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung: 3 – 3:45 PM (ticketed, 3item limit)
Spawn Kills Everyone: J.J. Kirby, Liana Hee: 3 – 3:45 PM (signing 100 limited edition Spawn Kills Everyone posters featuring the art of all three SKE covers)
Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie: 4 – 4:45 p.m. (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Ed Brubaker: 4 – 4:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Andy Belanger & Becky Cloonan: 5 – 5:45 PM
Emi Lenox: 5 – 5:45 PM
Max Landis: 5 – 5:45 PM (ticketed, 3-item limit)
Robert Kirkman: 6 – 7 PM (ticketed)

Saturday, July 23rd 

Scott Snyder & Jock: 10 – 10:45 AM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Caitlin Kittredge: 10 – 10:45 AM
Ed Brubaker: 11 – 11:45 AM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie: 11 – 11:45 AM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Chris Dingess: 11 – 11:45 AM
Tula Lotay: 12 – 12:45 PM
Dustin Nguyen: 12 – 12:45 PM
Man of Action Group: Steven T. Seagle, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Duncan Rouleau: 1 – 1:45 PM
Jason Latour & Jason Aaron: 1 – 1:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Brian Buccellato: 2 – 2:45 PM
Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda: 2 – 2:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Brandon Thomas & Juan Gedeon: 2 – 2:45 PM
Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung: 3 – 3:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Matt Fraction: 3 – 3:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Nick Spencer: 4 – 4:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Rick Remender: 4 – 4:45 PM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Shawn Martinbrough: 4 – 4:45 PM
Emi Lenox: 5 – 5:45 PM
Kyle Starks: 5 – 5:45 PM

Sunday, July 24th

Howard Chaykin: 10 – 10:45 AM
Brenden Fletcher: 11 – 11:45 AM (ticketed, 3 item limit)
Cliff Chiang & Jared Fletcher: 12 – 12:45 AM
Ivan Brandon: 2 – 2:45 AM
Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung: 3 – 3:45 AM (ticketed, 3 item limit)

As always for all you’re SDCC news and announcements keep checking in at Skatronixxx.com/@Skatronixxx.

Panels For San Diego Comic Con 2016

SDCC is now just seven days away! As we get closer to the opening day of the convention, more news and announcements are being released. Here is a list of some of the panels taking place at the convent next week.

 Many of these panels have been announced by the properties themselves already and not officially from SDCC yet, all times, locations and people on the panels are subject to change.

Saturday, July 23rd

Movies

Aliens 30th Anniversary Panel-Hall H.  James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver, Gale Anne Hurd, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Michael Bien, Carrie Henn.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Reunion -5:30 PM, Room 8. Lewis Smith, Billy Vera

TV

American Dad-1:45 PM, Ballroom 20. Scott Grimes, Dee Bradley Baker, Rachael MacFarlane, Wendy Schaal and executive producers Matt Weitzman and Brian Boyle. See a preview of the new season and a live table read from the hilarious cast.

Arrow -5:45PM-6:30 PM, Ballroom 20. Echo Kellum, Stephen Amell.

Ash vs Evil Dead -6:45PM-7:45 PM, Room 6A. Bruce Campbell, Lucy Lawless, Rob Tapert, Dana DeLorenzo, Ray Santiago, Lee Majors, Ted Raimi, Sam Raimi.

Ash vs Evil Dead Screening -10PM, Room 6DE.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow -4:15PM-5PM, Ballroom 20. Brandon Routh, Arthur Darvill.

Family Guy -1PM, Ballroom 20. Alex Borstein, Mike Henry and executive producers Rich Appel, Alec Sulkin, Steve Callaghan give a preview their new season.

The Flash-5PM-5:45 PM, Ballroom 20.  Danielle Panabaker, Keiynan Lonsdale, Grant Gustin.

Gotham-2:10PM-3:00 PM, Indigo Ballroom. Special Video presentation, as well as Q&A with cast and producers.

Grimm -2:30pM-3:15PM, Ballroom 20. Sasha Roiz.

Celebrating 50 Years of Star Trek– 2PM-3PM, Hall H. William Shatner, Scott Bakula, Michael Dorn, Jeri Ryan. The panel will be moderated by Bryan Fuller, executive producer of the new Star Trek television series, which premieres in January 2017.

Supergirl -3:30PM-4:15 PM, Ballroom 20. David Harewood

Comics

 

Skybound Panel-4:15PM-5:15 PM, Room 6DE. Skybound Entertainment Chairman Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead franchise, Outcast), CEO David Alpert, Dan Murray, Skybound Interactive President, and Rachel Skidmore, Skybound’s Director of Media Development, will also join the panel. Writer Max Landis will join the panel to discuss his new Skybound comic series Green Valley. The panel will be moderated by Yvette Nicole Brown.

Top Cow Panel -11 AM. September Mourning.

Torchwood Titan Comics Panel -3:30PM, Room 5AB.  John Barrowman, Carole Barrowman.

Special Interest Panels

Writer’s Workshop-2PM, Room 30CDE. Q&A based workshop covering movies, TV, and comics. J. Michael Straczynski.

 How To: Documentary filmmaking-6PM, Room 2.  Jessica Hernandez, Mike J Nichols, and Amanda Spain. Moderated By: Edward Doty.

Sunday, July 24th

Movies

Batman Unlimited: Mech vs. Mutants. World premiere.

Crackle Presents Dead Rising: Endgame-12:30PM-1:30 PM, Room 8. 10th Anniversary of Capcom’s Dead Rising franchise with a discussion about the recent release of, Dead Rising: Endgame from Crackle and Legendary Digital Media. Jesse Metcalfe, Marie Avgeropoulos  Jessica Harmon and Keegan Connor Tracy will join in a panel discussion, along with director Pat Williams, co-writer and producer Tim Carter and executive producer Tomas Harlan.

TV

 

Animaniacs Live– 3PM-4:15 PM, Room 6DE.  Rob Paulsen, Tress MacNeille, Jess Harnell along with series songwriter Randy Rogel.

Buffy Interactive Musical: Once More With Feeling– 3:15PM, Room 6BCF.  Juliet Landau.

Supernatural-11:15AM-12:15 PM, Hall H.  Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins,  Mark A. Sheppard, and executive producers Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb.

Comics 

Comics on Comics -4 PM. Clayton Thom, Dani Fernadez, Scott Joseph, Georffrey Golden, Jacqueline Lopez.

Skybound Comics-12PM-1PM, Room 7AB. Skybound editor Jon Moisan and Skybound creators  Juan Gedeon (Horizon), Brandon Thomas (Horizon), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), and Chris Dingess (Manifest Destiny) will discuss their work and the comic book industry.

Special Intrest Panels

R2 Builders-12PM-1PM, Room 30CDE.  Mike Senna, Michael McMaster, Victor Franco, William Miyamoto, Chris Romines.

Geektastic Careers in Video Game Media -4PM-5PM, Room 29AB. Genese Davis, Kiri Callagan, Aaron Carter.

 

Update: IDW and Top Shelf’s just released their schedule for SDCC here

Lots of choices and planning required if you’re attending SDCC and plenty of information to follow right here on Skatronixx.com if you’re not attending. Stay tuned.

 

Heroes And Villians Need Your Help

Heroes and Villians is an independent comic book shop, currently struggling to keep their Diamond Comics account (distributor you need to deal with to get Marvel and DC titles and most direct market books) Diamond has given them until July 18th, 2016 to come up with 6000.00$ if not their account will be closed. While the store will not close if they don’t come up with money it will drastically affect the future of their store.

 

Owners Vanessa and Stephen Mielke opened their shop in Courtland, N.Y USA. They were inspired to do so by their son Dallas’s growing passion for comics as well as their own. The community of Courtland had also not had a comic shop in over a decade, so the Mielke’s saw this as something that would also benefit people of all ages in the community.

Vanessa has been reaching out to pro comic creators to help get the word out. Creators such as Mark Waid, Gail Simone, and Kelly Sue DeConnick have shown support by retweeting Vanessa’s go fund me campaign on Twitter.

Mom and pop comic shops like Heroes and Villians are ideal for any community; it gets kids reading and interacting with like-minded people. The Mielke’s are not particularly happy about asking for money but due to situations, they have no choice. They believe once they get over this obstacle they will be able to pay it forward in the future.

If you can support them financially, please do so here

If you’re not able to support financially, please follow @HndVcomics on Twitter and retweet their tweets for the go fund me campaign.

Check out Heroes and Villians website for their full story

Alex Ross Art Exclusives for SDCC

For those of you unfamiliar with Alex Ross, he is an illustrator and painter known for creating super realistic versions of comic book characters. Ross is best known for his work on Kingdom Come, Justice League: Secret Origins, Justice League: Liberty and Justice, and Marvels. He has also done many covers and variant covers for DC, Marvel, and Dynamite Entertainment.

Sal Abbinanti is the official art dealer for Alex Ross (alexrossart.com) and will be selling art books, comic book variants, sketch covers, exclusive prints and other geeky art goodness.

Batman #47 Set of 3 Signed Variants: 100$

Black Panther #1 Alex Ross Incentive Signed Variant Exclusive: 100$

Exclusive Han Solo and Chewbacca Print

Avengers, Captain America Joins Mini-Canvas: 150$ (11.5″x17.5″ Canvas Giclée)

Alex Ross 2016 SDCC Sketchbook: 20$

Batman Scars Lithograph (11″x16″): 50$

New Alex Ross Print: Flash Gordon’s 35th Anniversary

Flash Gordon’s Sam Jones will be signing copies of Alex Ross’s print Thursday, July 21 from 12pm-2pm. Booth #2415.

So if you happen to be at SDCC this year check out Alex Ross’s booth, there are some excellent exclusives to get framed and or put on your wall!

Keep checking in at Sktronixxx for more SDCC news and announcements.

San Diego Comic Con 2016 Coverage

It is approaching that time of year again. The originator and biggest convention of the year SDCC, with over 130,000 attendees last year.

SDCC will take place July 21st-24th. We at skatronixxx.com have formed a little coverage team to cover the pop culture event. I will be personally covering comic news and announcements. Unfortunately, we won’t be at SDCC, but it will still be fun none the less reporting from the comfort of my computer desk.

Here are some of the signings already announced.(for those of you lucky enough to attend and for the curious people unable to attend)

 

The Creator of Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O’Malley is giving an exclusive preview to fans of his new graphic novel. It’s not the traditional preview you might be thinking of. Bryan is giving out 50 art print’s based on his new graphic novel per day (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) at the Penguin Random House Booth #1515. If you want 1 of the 200, exclusive prints get to the booth early as possible each morning to grab a ticket for the 1 pm signing.

 

Kidrobot will be hosting some big name talent at SDCC this year. Kidrobot will have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator, Kevin Eastman and Street Fighter creator Yoshinori Ono. You will need a specific wristband for each signing for Eastman and  Ono. The only way to get a wristband is on preview day and purchase a medium Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure for the Eastman signing or buy a medium Street Fighter figure for the Ono signing. Only the first 50 purchases of each type of figure will get wristbands. Kidrobot’s booth number is #5645. Here is their complete  signing schedule

Thursday, July 21st Kevin Eastman 2:30pm-3:30 pm

Friday, July 22nd Scott Tolleson 11:00am-12:00pm  Jesse “J*RYU” Yu 1:00pm-2:00pm
Yoshinori Ono 3:30pm-4:30pm

Saturday, July 23rd Frank Kozik 1:00pm-2:00pm  Josh Mayhem 4:00pm-5:00pm

 

Action Lab Entertainment is bringing a huge variety of creators to their booths for signings this year. Some of the Creators include:

Dan Mendoza-Creator of Zombie Tramp

Jamal Igle-Creator of Molly Danger

Emily Martin-Artist of Princeless

Nicole D’Andria- Editor and writer of Miraculous

Brian Hess– Artist and co-creator of Awake

Enrica Jang– Writer of The House of Montressor

Daniel Logan-Artist of Puppet Master: Halloween1989

And more will be signing at booth #1735 and Action Lab: Danger Zone #2006 in the Independent Publishers Pavilion.

Stay tuned to skatonixxx.com for more SDCC news and announcements, also check out Skatronixxx’s article on wave one of Funko’s Pop Vinyl SDCC exclusives here .

 

Marvel Anounces New Female Iron Man

Marvel Comics announced yesterday day through  Time Magazine that  Tony Stark would step down as Iron Man after  Marvel’s current event  Civil War Two ends. He will be replaced by a 15-year-old black female genius who attends M.I.T. Her name is  Riri Williams.

While it might seem very odd of Marvel to reveal such a drastic change before the last issue of civil war two is out, they assure fans this will not spoil the conclusion to the big summer event.

Riri Williams was created by Marvel veteran writer  Brian Michael Bendis,  who as always gets a mixed reaction from fans and internet trolls alike about his work. People, in general, seem to welcome the idea of a young female minority as  Iron Man, or whatever new name the character might take on.

The main criticism from others appears to be that while they are happy for the new character, people are not satisfied a “famous white male” is writing her. They would rather see a POC (person of colour ) or female write Riri Williams. There is also a reignited dialogue about the fact Marvel hires very few non-white or female creators.

I believe it is important to know if you already don’t, that Brian Michael Bendis has a mixed race family. He and his wife adopted two daughters. Sabrina from Ethiopia and Tabatha from a local agency in the states. Now with that knowledge does it not make sense Brian would be writing a character like Riri Williams. Brian has also been producing consistent quality work for Marvel for the past 15 years or so and has created many characters that are female and or mixed race (e.g., Jessica Jones, Miles Morals aka Ultimate Spider-Man). No one in comics writes the same character forever. I’m sure other creators regardless of race or gender will get to write Riri.

It will be interesting to see how Riri becomes the new Iron Man at the end of Civil War Two. It will also be interesting to see what happens to Tony Stark and whether or not he will remain a part of the Marvel Universe.

Could Tony end up like Logan (Wolverine) and just not be used for a while?  Could this change in the comics eventually affect the Marvel Cinematic Universe down the line?

Opinions, comments and questions are welcome down below.