Comics / Comics News

#Binquirer May 5 2014 Edition

By Hervé St-Louis
May 5, 2014 - 09:15

Black Astronaut

No Black Supervillains?
The Toronto Star’s film critic Peter Howell wrote an interesting article on why there are few black super villains. He claims that while there is no shortage of black super heroes, that there is a taboo about portraying black bad guys. Citing actor Morgan Freeman, he writes that Hollywood doesn’t want to increase the perception that blacks are criminals. Howell sets up The Amazing Spider-Man as challenging taboos. In the movie, Jamie Foxx plays black villain Electro. But Howell's ignores several precedents. To preserve Electro’s uniqueness, he argues that the black Kingpin in the 2003 Daredevil movie was not a super villain. For Howell, the Kingpin, played by African-American Michael Clarke Duncan, was a crime lord. It’s like saying that Batman is not a super hero because he lacks powers. Then, he forgets how Samuel L. Jackson portrayed as Mr. Glass (Elija Prince) in M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable in 2000. Jackson also portrayed Octopus The Spirit’s arch enemy in 2008’s Frank Miller’s The Spirit. African-American super villain Black Manta appears quite often in Justice League cartoons. Howell doesn’t address these examples. He also lists the Falcon as the first major Marvel black super hero. This is wrong. The Black Panther and several DC Comics characters appeared much earlier.

The Harlem Hellfighters
Random House released Max Brooks and Caanan White’s The Harlem Hellfighters in April 2014. The graphic novel is about 369th all-black infantry regiment that fought in the First World War. The graphic novel illustrates the soldiers’ fight against adversity and racism. The Harlem Hellfighters (ISBN: 978-0-307-46497-2) is 272 pages.

LGBT Comics

Greek Love
German gay comics publisher Bruno Gmünder has just released a new graphic novel by Dale Lazarov called Greek Love. In Greek Love, the God Eros forces a demigod to have sex with a shepherd. Greek Love (ISBN: 978-3867876766) is 64 pages. Lazarov has also released the latest issue of his gay erotic comics Manly #3. While available as a digital comic, don’t expect to see any of Lazarov’s work in ComiXology. The app maker refused several of his comics for distribution earlier this year, as explained by Bleeding Cool.

Poseidon-T
Are you unsure about getting gay cartoonist Franze’s Poseidon-T graphic novel about a man in love with a rugby player? GayComicGeek provides a quick safe for work video review of the graphic novel on YouTube. Publisher Bruno Gmünder released the 64 pages Poseidon-T (ISBN: 978-3867876407) in November 2013.



Free Comic Book Gay
An interesting experiment that was not reproduced this year for Free Comic Book Day is Free Comic Book Gay. In 2012 and 2013, several queer cartoonists like Mari Naomi, Sam Orchard, and Annie Mok, gave digital comics for Free Comic Book Day. However, there was nothing new in 2014. Have the queer creators abandoned Free Comic Book Gay?

Books

Hunter. Parker: The Hunter
Darwyn Cooke continues his association with IDW by providing new artwork for Parker: The Hunter. Parker: The Hunter is a new edition of Richard Stark’s novel written in 1962. Cooke has adapted Stark’s The Hunter, The Outfit, The Score, and Slayground as a graphic novels since 2009. An advance unveiling of the new edition of The Hunter will occur on May 10 and 11 at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.
 
Movies

Terminator Reboot
Matt Smith, the actor better known as Doctor Who joins the cast of Terminator. Terminator is a reboot of the franchise. He will play a new character related to John Connor. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions have cast Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi and Byung Hun Lee. Expect the new film on July 1st 2015.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12