Happy National Coming Out Day

The whole world just recently celebrated #NationalComingOutDay, on October 11, 2018.

Whether you knew about this, in support of this or just plain indifferent to the whole thing, we all have to understand that the coming out process is not for everyone and that it all depends on the individual concerned and who they come out to.

And it’s because of this, I did a little re-read on this graphic novel that was released in December 28, 2016 and it’s called, “Love is Love”.

This is a comic book anthology compiled for the benefit of the survivors of the Orlando shooting on June 12, 2016. On that fateful night, a 29 year-old security guard named Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and left 53 wounded in a terrorist attack at a gay nightclub called Pulse. He was shot and killed after a 3-hour standoff.

There are indeed no words for that act.

But many artists, writers, inkers, directors and fellow Creatives had a lot to say about how this tragedy affected us all and how Love is truly Love, no matter how you look at it. No matter from whatever corner of the world we live in.

Director Patty Jenkins provided the Introduction and the entire anthology was the brainchild of Marc Andreyko and featured the works and words of who's who like actor Matt Bomer; Green Lantern artist, Ivan Reis; my favorite Buffy writer, Christopher Golden; X-men and current Justice League artist, Jim Lee; Marvel and Image Comics writer, Mark Millar; Wonder Woman writer, Gail Simone; Thriller novelist, Brad Meltzer and more.

With Wonder Woman herself on the cover and holding up the rainbow flag, the entries ranged from single paged stories to two-paged reflections on how the tragedy has affected everyone. One page showed Batman telling Nightwing how the victims were heroes and that they were not so different from the two of them, as some had to create identities to protect who they are and that those who hid their true selves actually found strength in what they had to conceal. It was simple but effectively written by Golden Globe and People’s Choice Award winning actor, Matt Bomer.

Marc Guggenheim (ARROW, LEGENDS of TOMORROW, GREEN LANTERN, PERCY JACKSON) also had a single page entry showing Batman at the scene of the crime and how the cops deduced that if the World’s Greatest Detective could not solve how the crime came about, then no one can.

Ivan Reis’ panel was a single paged black and white sketch depicting the Earth members of the Green Lantern Corps standing proud and showing solidarity with the colors of the rainbow shining outward from behind them. Batwoman, who will be the major focus of this fall’s CW crossover between Flash, Arrow and Supergirl was also in a panel comforting a kid who lost his mother in the shooting. She told him that the best thing she did as a costumed hero was to be true to herself. She acknowledged the grieving kid’s pain and that his own mother was equally brave to live her life in truth. She added that because of that, she was a hero herself and that her bravery will live in him.

These are the kinds of stories you will be reading in this 144-paged anthology, the proceeds of which will go to the victims, survivors and families of the affected tragedy through an organization called Equality Florida.

Say what you want about being gay, about being in the closet, about how hard or easy it is to find that one person to connect with and eventually share you life with. You would soon come to realize that the process is the same for everyone. We all want the same thing. We want the same feeling of joy. We want the same thrill of being in love and free from the pain of heartbreak when we fall out of love.

We all want the same things. We just want different ways to package it.

My love is not dependent on your approval. And yours doesn't require my vote either. All our journeys are different. We all just to accept that and allow everyone to live and accept their own reality.

We all may not be engineers, physicists, teachers, Olympic athletes  or coaches but we all can at least agree on one thing when we see it.

And that is, Love Is Love.

Period!

Let’s make it so!

Batman: Damned

The road to darkness has been mapped and it is currently being engaged…

That may be the feel of late for the DCEU or the Worlds of DC as they would prefer to be called, but the tone of the different titles of the comics have kind of reflected that same grim theme in the films; from their current crisis, Heroes in Crisis, to the upcoming Witching Hour as a 5-part crossover between Wonder Woman and the current incarnation of Justice League Dark, and to the latest offering of the new label called, DC Black Label.

The Black Label, as it certainly purports to everything less than cheery or Pollyanna-ish, is DC’s new publishing imprint that is dedicated to stories that are separate from the DC continuity and aimed at mature readers and those who are most open to the challenge of reading new stories that aim to deviate from the norm. One such title is the first offering called, Batman: Damned.

It is just one of the stories being planned and this salvo of a title is written by Brian Azzarello, a veteran of Vertigo comics, another previous “mature” DC imprint and Lee Bermejo, who was responsible for drawing the popular title, Batman: Noel in 2011. As of this writing, this limited series of which three are planned, is a sequel of sorts to Bermejo’s own graphic novel of the Joker in 2008.

The story opens, bleakly, as it is in most Batman storylines, with our caped crusader in a daze, bloodied and wounded and escaping from an ambulance that is bringing him to a hospital. He collapses in the alley and  is shocked to find out two things as he awakes in a hotel room, that his rescuer is none other than the supernatural con-man himself, John Constantine, and that the Joker is dead! Yes, finally Dead!

For the longest time, readers have always known and accepted that the Joker will always be the foil to the Bat, and no matter how cruel, twisted and maniacal the Joker’s schemes are, Batman will never resort to killing him. If this is his need for validation as the hero that Gotham needs, then keeping the Joker alive, no matter the toll is, fuels and cements that very same validation. For how can one be a hero, if there is no one who will serve to oppose that very same sense of heroism and thus perpetuate that same validation? Validation is validation whether it comes from the self or from others.

Finding out the truth in this mystery is top priority. But if Batman’s head is clouded and is beset by visions of his childhood wherein the Enchantress, a evil and powerful sorceress who is known more for her association with the Suicide Squad, has appeared to him more than once, then can his own mental faculties even be counted on to solve the crime of a lifetime? Could he have done it and not remember? Or could a higher and more potent supernatural force have tricked him into performing the one act that will literally damn Bruce Wayne for the rest of his life?

The issue brilliantly uses Constantine as a narrator and observer of the proceedings. It is his vantage point on things and of the supernatural that makes him the best person to drive the story forward and clue in the reader as to what Batman himself has been possibly missing. Batman, or as R’as Al Ghul calls him, The Detective, seems to always have had that “inhuman” quality of always being one step ahead of others, even against members of the Justice League. But what happens if his skills fail him because the supernatural is one mystery that he himself cannot prepare for and cannot comprehend? Just like Dante, he therefore would need his “Virgil”, his guide, into the gothic and paranormal underworld of Gotham City. Take this as the beginning of a journey, one that would both test the mettle of Bruce Wayne, both as the Caped Crusader and as a man dealing with his own past and re-examining his reasons for doing what he is doing and has done. 

The artwork by Lee is as real it gets. Gritty with vein-popping realism. The key to appreciating horror or at least understanding it, is to look at it head on, and not to turn away. And the art and penciling, not to mention the inking gives you more reasons to stay on the page, rather than away from it. Yes, dark reads! FTW!

The maiden issue also has drawn flack for showing Batman undressing in his Batcave and not just showing his rear side, but a glimpse of his  manhood, flaccid and dangling. Honestly, there is more to the story than just getting incensed about Batman’s “Dark Knight”. The label is for mature readers. And if people can’t look at a male organ without blowing up the internet, then DC should just pack it up and go and admit that this new imprint is a sham and not worth your time. But alas the comic titan has succumbed to pressure and DC has openly acknowledged the backlash and has promised to censor future reprints of the issue. So while, there are still maiden issues being sold, it is advised to quickly grab hold of one or settle for the scaled down version in future reprints. The issue itself has also increased it’s retail price in the US and is being sold at $60!!! You do the math!

As the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” then what more for a man who is in doubt and at the risk of being damned. One step may not all be what is required of him. He is to rise above his doubt, his mortality and learn to accept the horrors of his past and the true horrors that happen alongside reality and live just outside the fringes, looking from the outside, hoping to find a way in.

Issue #2 of Batman: Damned is expected to drop on 11.21.18

Heroes in Crisis

Growing up we always felt that our childhood superheroes were extraordinary and perfect. All they needed to do was suit up, answer a call for help or fight injustice and go back to heroes headquarters after their work is done.

Who cares about their private lives? They don't need one.

In fact, we all thought that they never deserved one. Because they were heroes...our heroes who could fly, see through walls, punch a big hole in that same wall and perform feats that perpetuated our fantasy. That our heroes were gods and they were perfect.

But as time wore on, we found out that they were far from the shining beacon of hope that we pegged them to be. In truth, they were just like us. Human. Able to feel pain and would need some consolation and “Me-time”, when circumstances dictated it to be necessary.

That was the goal of Sanctuary; a place of healing and recovery for all heroes in the DC Universe. Created by the Trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, it was the one place where our heroes can have their personal quality time to recuperate and recharge.

                                                                               

                                                     * S  P  O  I  L  E  R  S  *

That is until Superman arrives to find all of them dead!!! From Hot Spot to Blue Jay to Arsenal and even to the Flash (Wally West), all murdered in cold blood!!!

Meanwhile in another part of Nebraska, at a diner we see Booster Gold having a moment with Harley Quinn before we see them duking it out after Harley stabs him with a steak knife. He claims that she killed the heroes in Sanctuary. But Harley maintains that it was he who is off his rocker and that it was, He, Booster Gold, the superhero from the future, who killed them all. Granted that Harley Quinn herself was a former paramour of the Joker no less, she may be off her rocker herself.

And thus the mystery begins.

Written by Tom King, who is an ex-CIA counter terrorism officer and who wrote storylines that centered on violence and war for different titles like THE OMEGA MAN, THE SHERIFF of BABYLON, MISTER MIRACLE, VISION and GRAYSON and Clay Mann who has both worked for both DC and MARVEL, this is the kind of a first issue that shows a lot and yet does not. The kind of issue that urges readers to ask more questions than they are given answers. But that's the whole point of this former 6-issue but now turned 9-issue mystery of a mini-series. We don't know much about the history of Sanctuary. We don't know who were the other heroes that were treated and primarily who went berzerk and decided to dispose of their comrade-in-arms as summarily as he, she, or they did. What was the motive?

Compared to IDENTITY CRISIS by Brad Meltzer this first issue certainly angered fans who felt that some heroes needed to stay alive. But in a war for sanity and order, where casualties are bound to pile up and where post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) looms in every corner for every hero, every breakdown and case is a crisis in itself. And if our Heroes did not have someone else to turn to deal with their own issues, to a point where their inner demons take over their heroic persona, then we indeed have a crisis right here.

Issue #1 of HEROES in CRISIS now available in all local comic book stores. 

Issue #2 which features Harley on the cover using the Lasso of Truth on Batman will be available on October 24.