Bumblebee

It's been just a few months since Amadeus Cho told nine-year-old Lunella Lafayette that she was "the smartest person in whole world" at the end of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #12. In the time since, Lunella has been condescended to by adult scientists, helped take down the Mole Man's monsters, and teamed up with two other girl geniuses --- the new and unstoppable Wasp, and Ironheart, aka Riri Williams. Lunella's brilliance makes her one in a long line of inspiring, super-smart Black characters in comics that can be traced back decades to the Black Panther's first appearance in 1966's Fantastic Four #52, by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

The DC Bombshells may have started as nothing more than a fun twist on nostalgia and the DC Universe, but over the past five years the line has evolved into something much larger. Since the first Bombshells statue arrived, the fan following has continued to grow exponentially, and DC Comics and DC Collectibles have expanded the reach and realm quite a bit. Now the Bombshells aren't just collectibles --- though there are still plenty of those --- they're also the stars of an acclaimed comic series. This week, DC Comics and DC Collectibles will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Bombshells with the release of The Art of DC Comics Bombshells, a hardcover collection of process art for the statues, variant covers, and comic. And following next month, DC Collectibles will release Bumblebee as the 19th statue in the Bombshells series. We got an advanced look at both, and fans of the Bombshells line won't be disappointed in either.

The DC Super Hero Girls debuted more than a year ago, but to this point, the rollout of tie in merchandise has been incredibly calculated. Mattel's action dolls, the flagship figures for DC Super Hero Girls, have only just been in wide circulation for a few months after a soft launch of exclusivity at Target. For what it's worth, the line has apparently been a success. It's hard to find the figures anywhere. Hopefully fans will have better luck this winter when Lego kicks off its part of the DC Super Hero Girls partnership with a number of building sets set in that universe. The first wave of Lego DC Super Hero Girls sets is due out this November, but today Lego has announced the second batch, which will hit stores in January of next year.

It's no secret that white male leads have dominated comic books since --- well forever. In the '60s, Marvel and DC finally started to put a change to that with the addition of super-powered people of color, which led to some of today's biggest names in comics. But it still wasn't enough. Eventually the lack of diversity led to the onset of Milestone Media in the '90s, where Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle crafted several intriguing characters. With an increasingly active black nerd, or blerd, community, new black characters are being created every day --- primarily through independent publishers, though Marvel has also kickstarted a focus on one of its most notable black characters --- but more on that later. To celebrate Black History Month, ComicsAlliance is running down our list of 20 Great Black Comic Book Characters. Our list considers old staples as well as some new favorites, including a certain katana wielding badass, space explorers and of course, plenty of superheroes.

Back in April, DC Comics and Mattel (as well as other merchandising partners) revealed the DC Super Hero Girls to the world. Back in the spring, there was little information about what the line would be beyond vague promises of figures, dolls, comics, books and clothing themed around a new interpretation of DC's incredible stable of female superheroes. At New York Comic Con, the world got its first in-person glimpse at the stylized line, including dolls based on Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Harley Quinn and more, along with other items like skateboards, t-shirts, notebooks and headphones. It seems DC and its partners are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to the DC Super Hero Girls line. Good. For too long, the market has been devoid of items targeted specifically at the one demographic that's been desperate for this kind of attention--young girls. DC Super Hero Girls takes a bit of inspiration from lines like Monster High and Ever After High, both of which have seen tremendous success under Mattel's watch. Instead of crafting original figures based on monsters or storybook characters from hundreds of years ago, this line has the advantage of featuring familiar heroes and villains from DC's vast stable. I'll admit to being a little worried about the style based on those previous Mattel figure lines. After seeing the DC Super Hero Girls in person, those worries were assuaged. It's clear that DC and Mattel, and more importantly the fans, are going to have a lot to look forward to when the DC Super Hero Girls launch in 2016.

When you get right down to it, it's not that unusual for kids who see one of the Transformers movies to tell their parents that they want a giant robot of their own. I mean, I don't want to blow anybody's mind here, but that's kind of the point of the entire franchise, to get those impressionable youngsters into toy stores so they can go home with their own Optimus Prime or Megatron. But for one child in China, a toy wasn't going to do it. He wanted the real deal. So his father built him one. After catching the Transformers movie with his son in August of 2014, Wang Liansheng spent a year building a life-size version of Bumblebee out of discarded auto parts --- and now he's working on Optimus Prime.

I've never liked the Transformers. The franchise didn't get its hooks into me as a kid, and while I've tried to give it a shot as an adult, it never really clicked. But now, with a recommendation from almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale that left me with three years worth (and counting) of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics, I'm going on a quest to see if these comics can turn me from someone who has never cared at all about Optimus Prime into someone who uses words like "Cybertron" and "alt-mode" with alarming regularity. And Primus help me, it's working. This week, it's the last stop before Dark Cybertron as Swerve continues to be better than everyone.

I’ve never liked the Transformers. The franchise never really got its hooks into me when I was a kid, and while I’ve tried to give it a shot as an adult, it’s never really clicked. But now, with the recommendations of almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale, I’ve found myself in possession of three years worth (and counting) of IDW’s More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics. I’m working my way through a story arc every week, and if I have to read about these robots, you’re coming with me. This week, the Decepticons have a time machine. So, you know. That's not good.

I’ve never liked the Transformers. The franchise never really got its hooks into me when I was a kid, and while I’ve tried to give it a shot as an adult, it’s never really clicked. But now, with the recommendations of almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale, I’ve found myself in possession of three years worth (and counting) of IDW’s More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics. I’m working my way through a story arc every week, and if I have to read about these robots, you’re coming with me. This week, the Cybertronian Provisional Government gears up to rebuild society. So basically it's House of Cards if Kevin Spacey could turn into a truck.

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