Bleeding Fool Writer Outs Secret Facebook Group of Comics Professionals from Inside

On July 8, the pop culture website Bleeding Fool broke the story that a group of comics professionals were colluding in a secret Facebook group (a level higher than 'private' which allows it to evade being found by search results) where they would target and mock male peers within the industry.

When we reached the end of the previous episode, Courtney, as Stargirl (Brec Bassinger), had been locked in a fight with Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy), whom viewers know to be the daughter of Injustice Society member and mad scientist, Dragon King (Nelson Lee). The fight was interrupted, but not without Courtney sustaining injuries.

Her stepfather, Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson), rushed Courtney to the hospital and told them she'd been in a car accident. To cover his story, he then went out and purposely wrecked his vintage Buick, blaming the accident on his giving Courtney driving lessons.

Good news for fans of DC Comics on the small screen: CW has released a statement verifying that STARGIRL -- the show you should be watching -- has been renewed for a second season!

The statement from CW reads:

July 6, 2020 (Burbank, CA) – The CW Network today announced it has renewed the hit new series DC’S STARGIRL for a second season.  The CW will become the exclusive in-season home to the breakout superhero hit next season, airing on The CW Television Network and streaming the next day on The CW’s free, ad-supported streaming platforms.  The first season of DC’S STARGIRL is currently airing Tuesdays (8:00-9:00pm ET/PT).

Every comic book is someone's first comic book.

That's been a truism handed down from the founding fathers of the industry. You can tell the writers who adhere to it. You can pick up one of their books, no matter the issue number, and within moments you are pulled into the story with a comfort level where you don't feel like a stranger, and where you can enjoy learning the things you still don't know. Those are the writers who leave behind lasting books, and thankful fan bases.

Elaine Lee is not one of those writers.

While the departure was announced on BoardGameGeeks back in March, the departure of game manufacturer Asmodee from Alliance Distribution has been one that has happened a bit silently.

Alliance Distribution is the games arm of Diamond Comics Distribution, which took a major hit when DC Comics pulled out of their distribution contract this spring, opting to shift their operations to Luna Distribution and UCS, which allowed them to get product to comics retailers well ahead of their competition, who were still hamstrung with Diamond's COVID-19 related shutdown of operations.

When I saw STARRING SONYA DEVERAUX: SPIDER-SHARK VS. SNAKE-BEAR on the shelves at my local comics shop, I didn't even register the title or even the publisher. My eye was instantly drawn to the excellently done homage to the classic HOUSE OF SECRETS #92 (featuring not only the first Swamp Thing story, but also a portrait of comic book creative legend Louise Simonson on the cover). Only after it had already leapt into my hands did I notice any of the ancillary information.

Week after week, STARGIRL continues to impress, and after seven episodes I realize that I've never expressed just how much the overall soundtrack of the series contributes to its appeal. The music is just as much of the show's Americana as are the classic automobiles and clean-cut teenagers.

In this episode, two more characters make themselves known -- one of them in the very title of this two-parter. "Shiv" is the villain name given to Cindy Berman (Meg DeLacy). She's Blue Valley High's queen bee and HBIC of the mean girls. But more than that, she's the daughter of Dr. Ito, the Dragon King (Nelson Lee), whose approval she desperately seeks. Cindy is the only child of the Injustice Society legacy who knows about the ISA, and wants her seat at the table. She's the girlfriend of Henry King Jr. (Jake Austin Walker), but only because she's been assigned to him by her father to keep an eye on him until he exhibits his psionic powers.

Every month the staff at Critical Blast combs the cosplay community for up-and-coming cosplayers who deserve to have a broader audience for their work, taking into account not only costuming skills and spirit, but also how they use that ability in service to others. Through this, we've not only met some talented cosplayers, but also some fine human beings.

As the summer months heat up, we found ourselves a cosplayer who brings back the cool of characters that don't get a lot of attention in the cosplay community. (If you've gone to a convention and lost count of the Harley Quinns, you know what we're talking about.)

So light those fuses and get ready for fireworks, as we move into yet another hot month of cosplay. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our...

We saw this hinted at in the last LEGO BATMAN animated movie, FAMILY MATTERS. It was more than just an Easter Egg when Batman received assistance from a young boy named Billy Batson, as was revealed in the movie's after-credits scene that showed Billy boarding a mysterious subway car that whisked him away.

The GREEN LANTERN 80TH ANNIVERSARY 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTULAR is yet another prestige-bound release this month celebrating eight decades of a DC Comics brand. But whereas the anniversary issues for Catwoman and Joker focused on a single character, with stories viewed through the lens of some of the particular eras, this release is different. Because there is no single Green Lantern, but there are in fact a few thousand plus.

That's where this issue disappoints, because almost every story takes a different Green Lantern as a focus, turning this collection into something less "spectacular" and more into something that could have been just about any issue of TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS. That disappointment is compounded when you see the stories doing things like trying to retrofit the Golden Age Green Lantern's sexuality, or deliver yet another tired retread of the "people in red baseball caps are racist terrorists" trope.

The team comes together in the latest episode of STARGIRL, aptly titled "The Justice Society." After having successfully recruited Yolanda (Yvette Monreal), Beth (Anjelika Washington), and Rick (Cameron Gellman) as the new Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Hourman, Courtney (Brec Bassinger) is busted by her stepdad, Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson), for having absconded with all the JSA paraphernalia. The weaponry is simply too dangerous, and he charges Courtney to go get everything back from her friends.

Her friends, unsurprisingly, disagree. Yolanda finds hope for renewal in the saga of the first Wildcat, Ted Grant. Rick has a connection to his father and a way to hunt down his killer. And Beth has a rather cringey and uncomfortable connection to the A.I. that runs through her powered goggles.

It was a year of turmoil for comics professionals. Livelihoods were on the lines as those who worked in the industry began to see their peers picked off right and left, as the field of comics was being laid waste by the scythe of a force that had found it ripe for harvest. There were rules, arbitrary and unwritten, that had been broken, and the piper had come with the invoice, stamped "Past Due." In a rush of adrenalin-fueled panic, those still standing cobbled together a promissory note, a token to the aggrieved that they would change their behavior, codified for the world to see.

If you think this is a summary of the events of 1954 that led to the Comics Code Authority, it would be understandable. But it's 2020, and the professionals in comics are circling the wagons to protect themselves from threats internal, not external.

Few villains have had the impact on literature as have the tricksters. Loki. Anansi. Joker. There's a magnetism that draws the reader into their story whenever they are involved.

Batman's arch-nemesis celebrates 80 years of crime and carnage this year, and to commemorate the event DC has released the JOKER 80TH ANNIVERSARY 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR, with handsome card stock, variant covers, and some of the best talent the industry has to offer. The issue includes some of the more iconic covers of DC Comics stories that spotlighted the character, as well as some gorgeous pinups, interspersed among the stories, the likes of which haven't been given to The Joker since the Martin H. Greenberg anthology, THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE JOKER.

Some television shows take the viewer on cross-country trips to find the best hidden restaurants. Others take you on house-hunting journeys, or tag along with CEOs who get an incognito look inside their own companies from a new perspective.

Madison Young's trek across America is to discover, illuminate, and partake of the sexual kinks practiced in different regions. And if you think that this is all something that stops with leather and handcuffs, then you've only read the opening sentence of the opening paragraph of the encyclopedia set of sexual paraphilia.

The new generation of the Justice Society of America expands this week as Courtney (Brec Bassinger) recruits one member while a second forces her way onto the team.

But before getting into the plot, I just want to say how incredibly well filmed this series is. The staging of things is done with such style that it draws you in and makes you part of the story; scenes like Courtney following Rick Tyler, or where the heroes are watching a holographic replay of the original Hourman's murder. The execution here isn't just flawless, it's unique in its cinematography, and really makes this series stand out from anything done prior in any Arrowverse series.

Critical Blast Publishing will be releasing their newest anthology, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW on July 1, 2020.

The speculative fiction collection -- featuring the works of Jared Baker, Erica Ciko Campbell, Sarah Cannavo, Michael W. Clark, Christopher Cook, Andra Dill, Cara Fox, R.A. Goli, Gerald A. Jennings, Kevin Kangas, Daryl Marcus, Damascus Mincemeyer, Steve Oden, Evan Purcell, Troy Riser, Joseph Rubas, Hannah Trusty, Wondra Vanian, Henry Vogel, and KD Webster -- recounts tales of meetings with the literary Devil, in the vein of "The Devil and Daniel Webster," "Faust," and other such similar conventions. With stories set in the past, present, and future, and ranging from comedy to horror, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is designed to appeal to as wide a readership as possible.

The Legion of Super-Heroes. A group of teens with powers, one thousand years in the future, inspired by the legend of Superman and brought together to show teamwork and unity among the citizens of different planets. Over the years, I've been there for the classics. The death and resurrection of Lightning Lad. The sacrifice of Ferro Lad. Reflecto. The Great Darkness. The Cockrum era. The Grell issues.

You might say I'm a bit of a fan.

When THE HUNT was first publicized, it was received with a tremendous amount of online criticism. The elevator pitch was that it was going to be a riff on "The Most Dangerous Game" except that those hunted would be kidnapped Trump supporters released into the wilds of a private estate, to be chased down and killed in gruesome fashion by powerful elites. It was seen as further persecution of conservatives in some corners, and as the seal of approval or an open season on GOP voters by others. Paranoia, as the bards put it so eloquently, runs deep.

In truth, the film is actually a riff on "The Most Dangerous Game" except that those hunted would be... oh. Okay, so maybe the elevator pitch plot was actually spot on in that regard -- but it was hardly the whole story.

The Devil has gone to Hell...and taken his readers with him.

The fifth and final issue of Dynamite's DEATH-DEFYING DEVIL pits the masked hero against the ultimate evil -- The Devil. But the father of lies has slipped a little over the eons, having fallen over the edge of the abyss into a bottomless pit of banality as he gets into a street brawl with Bart Hill, the Death-Defying Devil. Or, in this case, the Devil-Defying Devil, which someone must have thought was a cute idea.

Let's recap the last year of issues succinctly: Bart Hill awakes in a strange house populated by a handful of random people who talk his ear off and serve food. The street gang outside that harasses them constantly are actually demons, sons of Lucifer, and he wants a soul.

Where is this house? Who are these people? Why are they there? How did Bart get there? For that matter, does good triumph over evil, and see the righteous rescued from the clutches of the demonic hordes?

Batman is having a very long night. With Catwoman finally having filled him in on how The Designer met with the four major villains in Gotham and helped them work out their most nefarious plans, Batman went on to fight Deathstroke while Catwoman and Harley Quinn battled their way through a squad of zombied police officers (and we still don't know how these zombies operate or how The Designer sees/speaks through them; it's just comic book magic).

Having gained nothing from his fight with Deathstroke, Batman now finds himself challenged -- and I used the term loosely -- by The Riddler, who walls off the city (a feat that would challenge even the Wayne fortunes) into a crossword puzzle grid. Batman has to solve the clues for each block, and wrong answers will trigger bombs. And to make sure Batman doesn't cheat, he blocks off all electronic transmissions to Batman's cowl.