Patrick Stewart to be Knighted

Patrick Stewart, who is best known for his performance as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation is reportedly slotted to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on New Year's Day. I wonder if there is any irony in a British actor being knighted for a career best known for playing a Frenchman.

At least the soon-to-be Sir Patrick can finally be equal with Sir Ian McKellan whenever they decide to make that X-men prequel featuring a young Xavier and Magneto. Here's hoping that they'll hire Dame Judy Dench to play Destiny and we can have a cornucopia of british nobility!

Givin' Up That Mary Jane

We scoffed at the rumors about the new ending to Watchmen. We scoffed at the news of Heath Ledger as Joker. We comic book fans/moviegoers might be the scoffingest fandom in all of geekery, becoming that stock character that we loathe most in science fiction, the arbitrary skeptic (well sure, aliens and ghosts and time travel I can believe exist, but cuddle parties?). Perhaps all the picture books with men in tight pants shooting lasers all pew pew from their eyeballs has exhausted our imagination. Or that some websites' layouts are programmed in such a way that merely looking upon them causes a chemical reaction in our brains that's similar to being neuralyzed, and every time we go on IMDB or IHeartChaos we lose a little more of the memories necessary to maintain the jaded disillusionment that would prevent us from paying to see the very same movies we hexed and cursed on our blogs. I'm not willing to rule this out as a possibility. Joe Lieberman just declared war on Yemen . As far as reality is concerned, all bets are off.

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Hit-Girl Trailer is KICK ASS!

I was browsing the intertubes and came across this gem of a movie trailer, for KICK ASS. Despite the inclusion of Nicolas Cage, this trailer is full of so much win, I can hardly stand it.

Northstar To Be Featured In Nation X, Art and Story by Gay Comic Artist!

Northstar. For queer comic fans he is the longest running joke in Marvel. Since his groundbreaking coming out in 1992 (after a series of unfortunate events including a short stint as a fairy and adopting an AIDS baby who then died), Northstar has occupied an interesting place in the hearts of gay comic book fans. On one hand he was a trailblazer, a shining rainbow beacon in Marvel's four-color world; on the other hand, he was generally misused and abused by many writers throughout his tenure with the X-men, and also remained perpetually single.

Northstar's reintroduction into the ranks of the X-men (after he was killed by Wolverine, resurrected by a clan of evil ninjas and then forced to attack his friends and allies) briefly introduced Northstar's first canon boyfriend, Kyle. This hanging plot thread is finally being addressed in January's issue of Nation X. And even better, mainstream comic's first openly gay superhero is in the hands of openly gay comic artist and writer, Tim Fish.

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Merry Christmas from Scarlet Betch!

Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday! And for those of us who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope the Chinese food was good last night! :P

Funnily enough, my Chinese family went to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas (which was very untraditional for us) and were surprised to be celebrating Christ's birth/PRESENTS surrounded by a boat load of Jews. Oh the irony.

Also, remember that Marvel and DC both shipped their comics this week, and are skipping distribution next week. So make sure you get your last pull list for 2009!

Happy Holidays!

Comic Book Poetry Corner #1

Having graduated from college, I am now living the art student's dream life; unemployed, living on donated food, and praying for the sweet release of death. While God gets around to filling my order, I've decided to write terrible poetry for loved ones in lieu of thoughtful gifts and cards with a recent picture of me looking like I'm trying to hard to look like I'm not trying too hard to be smug. I thought it would be a nice holiday gesture to give you a poem to you, Scarlet Betch. So here's Comic Book Poetry Corner. If you like it (or are vocal enough in your dislike of it) there will be more.Let the angst begin!

Chartreuse is the color of loneliness by Bruce Banner
I am a ticking time bomb
of self-loathing and apathy
painted green like the bloated
rotting corpses of little lovers
thrown into the sea to feed
the insatiable appetite of human cruelty
That wretched monster is my inevitable friend
and with every car or building full of people
I heave at it I am drawn closer to it,
like bitter enemies drawing towards the
mistletoe because their hate is their love
and the fire of hate is warmer than the
candlelight of fleeting affection
My heart is a benevolent scientist
mercilessly doused in gamma radiation
And I want to smash him

Superqueeros! for December 23rd, 2009

You know the schtick: I scour the solicitations each week for LGBTT-SAP...etc. characters and you guys make your pink dollar known. If you let me know when I've missed somebody, I'll edit the entry faster than Barry Allen on a sugar high!

Speaking of lesbians, this is Ladies Week at your comic book store! Hot on the heels of Bling!'s coming out last week in the pages of X-Men: Legacy, we have a jumbo week of SIX queer and queer-adjacent titles, all of whom heavily feature our female forces. So let's see who's gaying it up this week:

Detective Comics #860

The end of an era!!! This is the last issue of J.H. Williams III's AMAZING run on the interiors of this book, so if you haven't picked up a copy yet, this is your last chance (before the trade)! And for those of us who are now devout Williams-ites, make sure you don't miss out on what is sure to be another stunning issue. Batwoman dons her costume for the first time in this, the third piece of her origin story. My prediction? AWESOME. And for those of you still weeping over Williams' departure, rest assured that he'll be doing the cover art well into 2010, if not longer. Just think of him as Kate Kane's Jo Chen. #artistgasm

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow (One-Shot)

Speaking of Jo Chen, she's got half the covers of this month's BtVS issue, a Willow one-shot! I didn't use it on the side bar because I couldn't find a small version of it online, but rest assured that there is plenty of snake-goddess-on-Willow action basically everywhere in the book. Willow has gone through some of the most drastic changes (or at least drastically mysterious) since the end of season 7 and it's in this issue that we get some answers. I am more turned on by the prospect of this issue than if I woke up next to X-Factor's Rictor! #notreally #omgwillow!!!

New Mutants #8

Necrosha is scary! It's the New Mutants + Warlock (+ Doug?) vs. The Hellions + Feral!!!?? (+ Doug?) in the ultimate issue of the New Mutants' run in the Necrosha event. As a book whose characters have a history of tying up their loose storylines with angst-y, explosive deaths, this event is working the C-list cameos like there's no tomorrow and it is BETCHIN'. Expect blood, fire, resurrection, death, and Catseye! #fierce

Wonder Woman #39

Oh Gail Simone. Why are you so amazing? Evidently basically everyone in this book is a liiittle gay plus we get an explanation of Wonder Woman's new powers (wikipedia is failing me on this so much rgt now!) and a reveal of her newest nemesis! All in all, I think this is gonna be a rawkin' issue and, given Simone's penchant for working half-naked beefcake into her work, INFINITELY rewarding! #awesomecovertoo

X-Men: Legacy #231

DESTINY!!!!!!!!!!! Man, this week does not let up with the heavy hitter lesbians, does it? Destiny is far and away the best conceptualized, best written, and most mysterious lesbian character besides Batwoman (imo) and guess what: she's back! Expect three issues of tender moments and all-out brawls as Destiny works her way out of Selene's clutches to protect her daughter, Rogue. And, given Carey's consistent use of queer characters as guest stars, expect some cameos from your fav LGBT muties. #anissueofonlyanoleplz #DESTINY

Gotham City Sirens #7

I debate every month whether to add this title, but I've read some recent reviews that have been pretty positive and the three-issue panorama cover is BEAUTIFUL, so I'm giving Harley and Ivy the last slot in this week's Superqueeros. The focus has been on Harley for the past few issues, but now it's time for a little Selina and that is always #hawt!