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 discusses some of the announcements from New York Comic Con 2022.
As I’m sure you all already know, last week it was revealed that in the upcoming Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, the 34th direct-to-video Scooby-Doo animated movie, Velma was going to be revealed as being canonically gay. But for those who weren’t following the story closely, the response was pretty much what you’d expect from one of these incessant culture war eruptions. The initial reaction was overwhelmingly positive while the later, much smaller backlash was as overwrought as usual.
While this was certainly unexpected, more interesting to me is who Velma’s would-be love interest is; she’s Coco Diablo (which, according to the Internet is also the name of a “Mexican Cantina” style restaurant at the Belfast International Airport), the person responsible for creating the costumes for all of the would-be ghosts the Scooby Gang have pursued. Plus, there will be appearances by such classic Scooby-Doo villains as 10,000 Volt Ghost, Harry the Hypnotist, Charlie the Robot, Captain Cutler, and the Spacy Space Kook. Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! will debut on HBO Max on October 16, 2022.
A lot of news came out of this year’s New York Comic Con, but probably the most significant to me was the Superman panel which announced a rebranding of the Superman titles (see “NYCC: New ‘Superman’ Series Coming in 2023“). Writer Philip Kennedy Johnson said, “My one-word mission statement for Action Comics in 2023 is ‘Super-Family… We’re giving everyone in the House of El their own role and personal journey while still keeping Superman at the forefront.”
Along with their new roles each member of the family, excluding Connor Kent, will be receiving a NASCAR-style capeless outfits. Only the Clark Kent Superman will get to wear one an actual cape. This makes nothing but sense to me, given how much profit The Bat Family has generated for the publisher.
As a big fan of the series, the bad news for me is the cancellation in December of Superman: Son of Kal-El. It will be replaced by a six-issue miniseries Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, by writer Tom Taylor and Clayton Henry. And, I can always appreciate the issues we have left. Superman: Son of Kal-El #16 shipped this week and it’s a simple, straightforward Day-in-the-life of Superman-type story that makes for one of the strongest issues in the series. If you haven’t read a Superman comic in a long time, this one is a good place to start.
The biggest surprise that came out of NYCC was the Svengoolie panel, where it was announced that the Saturday night horror movie host was getting a comic of his own and that MeTV has teamed with Frank Miller Presents to produce two Svengoolie comics set for a 2023 release. If that seems like an unlikely publisher for the title, it helps to remember the company was co-created by former DC co-publisher Dan DiDio. The man who wrote 2019’s Svengoolie Meets the DC Universe comic (see “DC Inserts Official Rubber-Chicken Target”), the comic that ran in two-age installments in issues of DC Comics.
In some unfinished business from last week, I’ve written more than once, about how Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour by Franklin and artist Max Sarin was one of my favorite comics of 2021 (see “Hate Becomes A Hobby”). Well, last week its sequel, Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats #1 from writer Tee Franklin and artist Shae Beagle came out and are very much worth mentioning. Beagle is in no way imitating Max Sarin’s work, yet, you (or at least I) can see strong similarities in the characters’ expressions, and how every time Harley and Ivy are together we see the same flurry of slightly squished valentine’s hearts. It’s still a little too early to say, but this may become one of my favorite comics of 2022.
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.
Source: ICv2
