Andrew Wheeler

The stakes are high in August's Action Comics #692, as Superman faces a fateful decision to put a stop Doomsday (and we all know how that's worked out for him in the past). The second of the month's Action Comics issues from Dan Jurgens, Stephen Segovia, and Art Thibert brings the "Path to Doom" storyline to its conclusion that could spell the end of the world for someone. Of course, stakes don't always have to be Doomsday-sized to feel like the end of the world, and a schism in Gotham Academy's Detective Club probably feels just as apocalyptic to Maps in August's Gotham Academy Annual #1, from writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher, and artists Adam Archer, Michael Dialynas, and Christian Wildgoose

As you know, straight men are the most persecuted group in the world today. They used to live in a utopia where everything was tailored to meet their needs, but that's changed. There's a female Ghostbusters movie coming out! The video game Rust randomly assigns gender! Two different Star Wars movies have female leads! And also, sometimes there are naked women on Game of Thrones that they don't want to bone! The social justice warriors did all this, of course. They rode into town with their feminism and their rainbows, and they ruined everything, and suddenly people are expected to respect the essential humanity of all people. It's political correctness gone mad! But perhaps the greatest crime of the SJW agenda was that time people suggested that using a sexualized image of Spider-Woman by acclaimed erotic artist Milo Manara (a tribute to one of his own Penthouse Comix covers) to help promote a book courting female readers was inappropriate. It's censorship! Thankfully Frank Cho was on hand to protect the struggling marginalized voices of men who want women's bodies to be used to sell products regardless of intended audience. And though that Manara cover came out two years ago, Cho hasn't given up the fight.

DC has made some interesting moves since its relocation from New York City to Burbank, California, last year, including the upcoming line-wide relaunch DC Rebirth, and a notably uneven line of Hanna-Barbera-inspired comics. Perhaps the most surprising announcement came at Emerald City Comicon earlier this month, when DC unveiled Young Animal, a new line of superhero comics masterminded by Umbrella Academy writer and musician and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. Described as a "pop-up imprint," Young Animal includes a new Doom Patrol series by Way and Nick Derington; a Shade relaunch, Shade the Changing Girl, by Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone; Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye, by Way, Jon Rivera and Michael Avon Oeming, and the Gotham-set Mother Panic, concceived by Way and written by Jody Houser, with art by Tommy Lee Edwards. But that's just the start. ComicsAlliance sat down with Way to find out how Young Animal came to be, what his longterm plans are for the imprint, and how involved he is with all the books across the line.

Marvel unveiled its July variant cover theme at C2E2 this past weekend, and the pictures definitely tell a story. As a follow-up to March's "Women of Power" covers, which highlighted the strength of Marvel's heroic women, the July covers are dubbed "Mighty Men of Marvel." While "covers with men on them" might seem like an unremarkable theme, given that it describes most Marvel covers already, it's clear from the art released thus far that the concept was meant to be more bold than that --- but it's equally clear that Marvel missed its target.

When Marvel's Star Wars: Poe Dameron comic arrives in stores next month, it will be the first official glimpse fans have had of the dashing flyboy hero since his introduction in The Force Awakens --- and with Episode VIII still a couple of years away, the ongoing series may be the only fix of Poe we get for a while. That means there's a lot of pressure on writer Charles Soule and artist Phil Noto to satisfy the fans. Judging from the preview pages released by Marvel, we can at the very least expect entertaining skybound antics, Poe Dameron looking handsome, and some probably adorable interactions with BB-8. That's pretty good for four pages, but it does leave one big question unanswered.

Donald Trump held a special pity party on Thursday night after running scared from a Republican debate because he doesn't like outspoken women. Ditching the debate because broadcaster Fox refused to bow to his demands to bench moderator Megyn Kelly, the racist Cheeto bloviated to adoring fans at an event intended to raise money for wounded veterans, though the money is routed through Trump's own Donald J. Trump Foundation, which hasn't been noticeably generous to veterans in the past. Among the chief donors to the fundraiser were billionaires Ike and Laura Perlmutter, who gave Trump $1 million, or one sixth of the total amount raised on the night. Ike Perlmutter is the reclusive CEO of Marvel Entertainment, who avoids publicity and either doesn't like having photos taken or doesn't show up in them. Trump thanked Perlmutter personally from the podum, referring to him as "Ike Perlmutter from Marvel" and calling him, "One of the great, great men of our country in terms of business and talent."

GLAAD, the advocacy group that monitors lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender representation in the media, has announced the 2016 nominees for its annual Media Awards celebrating positive LGBT representation, including five comic book series that provided outstanding examples of fair, inclusive, original and impactful LGBT characters in 2015. Four publishers are recognized this year; DC leads with two nominees, Harley Quinn and Midnighter. Marvel's sole nominee is Angela, Queen of Hel, while Boom's Lumberjanes and Image's The Wicked And The Divine complete the list. For the first time, the GLAAD website lists the artists for the books rather than just crediting the writers.

Spider-Man foe Venom and Peter Parker foe Flash Thompson are two characters that found new purpose when they bonded together as a secret agent, superhero, and guardian of the galaxy. Currently they co-star in the ongoing Venom: Space Knight series in the role of cosmic protectors in outer space. The alien symbiote Venom has become a sort of prosthesis for Flash, a wounded veteran who lost his legs in combat, but regained mobility by wearing the symbiote suit as a costume. A story from writer Robbie Thompson and artist Ariel Olivetti will show Flash Thompson taking off the suit and learning to walk with prosthetic legs in order to reassert his independence, and the story has been developed by Marvel in consultation with the service member support organization Wounded Warrior Project.

This week's announcement of a second Captain America title, Captain America: Steve Rogers, to run alongside the current Captain America: Sam Wilson series, is the latest example of a Marvel legacy hero getting to share a name with its originator. It's a trend that reflects two facets of Marvel's approach to major heroes. On the one hand, the publisher almost always gives big name legacy identities to characters that provide greater diversity than their predecessors, whether it's Cap, Spider-Man Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Wolverine, Nick Fury, Giant Man, or Ms Marvel. On the other hand, Marvel's big name heroes almost always come back. The new Cap comic has plenty of promise; Steve Rogers is a popular and beloved character, and the team of artist Jesus Saiz and writer Nick Spencer should deliver great stories. Spencer is also the writer on the Sam Wilson title, so it's reassuring to know that he hasn't passed up Sam for Steve, and that Sam will still hold on to the iconic round shield. But Marvel's decision to make Sam Wilson the Captain America felt like a big deal. Is it still a big deal if he's just a Captain America?

Marvel released a bafflingly oblique teaser image on Tuesday, the words 'DEAD NO MORE' against a black background, prompting fans to speculate which of Marvel's heroes is next in line for a resurrection, even as they're debating which hero will die (for a while) in the pages of Civil War II. Before any kind of consensus could be achieved, Marvel released a second teaser today, 'BEST BEWARE MY STING', against a black and yellow background. A quote from Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, the line and colors both suggest the character Wasp, aka Janet Van Dyne. But Janet already came back from the dead; surely the first teaser can't be about her? So what other theories do we have? Well... is it possible that Marvel is hinting at a relaunch of Slingers?