* Andrew Wheeler calls for more diversity in corporate superhero comics in 2014. Johanna Draper Carlson makes the crucial point that diversity in the stories and characters begins with diversity in the creative lineups. As a kid reading comics, Marie Severin, Ramona Fradon and a few others stood out as female comics creators in a male-dominated industry, and I can't even think of any creators that I knew at the time weren't white. The situation has improved a smidge in the last 40 years, but nowhere near as much as it should have.
* The Star Trek: Khan comic appears to be filling a giant hole from Star Trek Into Darkness in an interesting way. Here's the preview. It's too late now, but including this plot point in the actual movie might have made people hate it 5 or 10 percent less, by making Khan's plight evoke some sympathy (which the movie seemingly intended to but failed mightily at), and at the same time explaining why he no longer looked like Ricardo Montalban. Which opens up a huge can of worms in terms of most of the other actors; I can accept Quinto's Spock and Urban's McCoy as being close enough in both look and characterization, but at no time in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films did I ever lose myself enough believe Chris Pine was the Captain Kirk I grew up with. The same goes for most of the other actors playing original series crew members. So I can understand trying to use the comic to patch the leaks that condemn Into Darkness to the same non-canonical fan purgatory as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (the one where Spock had an older brother, Scotty and Uhura were lovers, and Kirk defeated God), but I don't think they thought it through all the way, because the greater implications ultimately derail the plausibility of not only Into Darkness, but the Abramsverse Star Trek as a whole.
* Uncomics: Mick Martin wonders if writing can save him. I've asked myself some of the same questions as a writer, and found the aforementioned Andrew Wheeler's essay on varying types of writers helpful in coming to peace with my own habits.
* Uncomics: While searching for that Wheeler piece, I stumbled onto his ranking of the best-to-worst episodes of Agents of SHIELD. I agree entirely with his analysis, although I've lost more interest than he has, despite loving almost everything Joss Whedon has had a hand in. I don't know if I'll bother to revisit the series when it comes back from its mid-season hiatus, but Wheeler makes a good case for who's to blame for the show's problems and demonstrating which episodes have gotten it right. Interesting that his top two episodes (I agree with him on those, too) are both directed by Star Trek veterans, while the bottom five are all the product of Whedon's usual go-to colleagues. I'm not sure what that means, other than that if the series is ever to improve, it probably needs new blood and not the usual Browncoat treatment.
* Lefsetz highlights some thought-provoking differences between the one percent and the rest of us.
* Uncomics: Just a reminder that I am away for work the rest of this week, and am not organized enough to have scheduled some posts to run in my absence, so regular posting should resume sometime between the weekend and a week from today. Thanks for your patience.
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