Help for a comic fan who can use some cheer

[abriel]

Mods, if this is not allowed feel free to tell me to buzz off. But I wanted to boost the signal even more.

This story came out a week or so ago and it made me so furious upon reading it that I nearly broke my mouse from clenching my fist around it so hard. To sum up for the linkphobic: Mike Meyer, a 48 year old mentally disabled man who lives on SSDI and works parttime at Micky D's to supplement his meager income has few pride and joys in his life...among them his vast Superman memorabilia collection. Toys, action figures, art, comics, you name it. A former coworker got wind of his collection, won Meyer's trust and got the poor man thinking he was his friend...then robbed him one night while his girlfriend distracted Meyers by watching Superman DVDs with him.

A lot of stuff was stolen including some one-of-a-kind shit, some pretty valuable comics, and Meyer's peace of mind.

It seems I wasn't the only one made furious about this as thousands of comicbook fans have joined a FB group dedicated to building up Meyer's collection.

The group has addresses where you can send stuff and there is another article here about where to send stuff. Even if it's just a nice note, a drawing, or something I'm sure it would mean a lot. I myself will be sending some artwork I got off eBay. It's the least I can do. I was the victim of a robbery 4 times in my life and know how much of a massive violation it can be, and how it can rob your faith in humanity.



Apologies for the crappy quality. From Batwoman #1.





So that tells us three pieces of good news. A) DC has kept Kate a lesbian even after the reboot. B) Her relationship with Montoya hasn't been tossed down the crapper, even though it seems they aren't together anymore and C) She might be getting a new girlfriend! The woman is a Detective Sawyer working on the same missing children's case Batwoman is working on.

Comments

[cyberghostface]

Stuff like this makes me lose my faith in humanity.

[shadowpsykie]

never mind, missed the main article.

makeyourself feel better. watch John Quinones in What Would You Do. that almost never fails to make me feel better about humanity

[darkknightjrk]

"DC has kept Kate a lesbian even after the reboot."

Okay, I know it's almost become standard to hate DC and believe they're made up of nothing but nasty mean apes, but did anyone SERIOUSLY think that would have been changed?

[abriel]

I honestly would not have put it past them.

[icon_uk]

That one genuinely hadn't occurred to me as a possibility.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah... no sorry i think few people thought DC would do that. thev;e made some stupid/narrow judgements, but they would never have done that.

[ian_karkull]

Nope.

[shatners_bassoon]

When the character is best known for being gay, why would DC change that? That's what's been attracting the most attention from this valuable extra-comics audience they've been apparently trying to reach with the reboot, why remove her major selling point?

[stubbleupdate]

Why take a photo of your screen when you can PrtSc it?

[abriel]

Because my PC sucks. I'm working on a dinosaur.

[stubbleupdate]

My local ran out of Batwoman.

[abriel]

I've had to go to comixology for about half of the DCnU issues because my comic shop was out of them. Thank goodness for same day digital uploading.

[stubbleupdate]

I would have gone for it in digital anyway, but my tab isn't big enough to deal with all of the detail of JH Williams III.

Wonder Woman, that's going to be digital.

[clutzycricket]

Really? Mine ran out of Demon Knights. (Guy just in front of me got the last copy- stupid me ran to the library first since it was on the way.)

The manager called the other store when I asked about it and got me a copy ordered. So yay! (And reserved a copy of Wonder Woman for next week.)

General question- Does comixology do something more Amazon's digital order thing? Or is it iTunes-like? (Hates iTunes redownload system with a passion. Amazon is love and win with regards to that.)

[ian_karkull]

Everyone should just read Comicsalliance instead of people constantly reblogging their articles here. It is seriously the best site for comics fans. (Sorry, nothing personal, it's a pet peeve of mine.)

Kate being a lesbian has been one of her biggest selling points for DC Marketing from the get go (I unfortunately still remember the interviews and solicits calling Batwoman a "lipstick lesbian") so keeping her after the reboot just to make her straight seemed unlikely, if not outright impossible.
Anyway, I can't really read those scans, what's the word on Renee's current status?

[abriel]

I appreciate that everyone thinks I was paranoid for no reason and such, but this is the same company who seems to have thrown Wally West, who was the Flash for at least two generations of fans, out the window into the Limbo pile. They've gotten rid of Donna Troy apparently since we haven't heard anything about her, and she was a very important character to a lot of people. They made Barbara into Batgirl again and basically completely ignored the outraged cries of an entire generation of fans who grew up with Oracle and seem to have written Steph and Cass off. Not a word has been said about the Marvel family or any indication made that they'll be around in the DCnU at all, and unless they plan on putting Power Girl on Earth 2 since they're bringing that back I haven't seen any indication of them bringing her into it either.

So pardon me if after all that I didn't put it past them making Kate straight for one moment.

[ian_karkull]

No one is trying to ridicule your suspicions or suggest that your opinions do not matter and if it seemed that way, I apologize.
However, all of these examples have one crucial thing in common though: They please aging Silver Age fanboys, DC's most devoted demographic (or at least the one it cares most about), whereas as turning Kate straight would not. While Batwoman is a Silver Age property, Kate Kane is arguably a completely new character and with the reemergence of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, she would be completely redundant, were it not for the promise of tittilating readers with the potential of lesbian erotica (something aging fanboys do like a great deal).
Now thankfully, creators who have handled her in the past and are handling her right now have always been smarter, more humane and more invested in the character than to stoop to such low levels of pandering, DC Editorial & Marketing on the other hand never have (again, "Lipstick Lesbian", straight from the horse's mouth).
So while the characters is in safe hands with creators who actually seem to like her, calculations about enticing the readership seem very likely to be on Editorial's mind.

[abriel]

Okay, sorry for the overreaction. I can be sensitive at times.

You have some good points. I was just concerned and for the reason you stated, that since this reboot is catering to the Silver Age fans that they might push Batwoman back to the way she was back then. It wasn't too hard to imagine. So yeah, reading this issue was a sigh of relief.

[drmcninja]

Montoya's status? Still a cop, still gay, and that's good enough for me.

[shanejayell]

But is she ALIVE? Several fans think that's a memorial wall....

[frostedone]

Woah. That story is heartbreaking. What kind of monster would do that to a mentally handicapped man after gaining his trust? That is wrong on so many different level. Theft is one thing, but taking advantage of and manipulating someone like that is terrible too.

[abriel]

It's even more heartbreaking if you read the comments from his cousin on the FB page, about how he didn't even get Christmas presents from his parents growing up :( And that makes all the stuff coming from strangers around the country mean even more to him.

[sigmund_droid]

It seems unfortunate that this victim cannot identify the thiefs last name.It should be fairly simple to check records of the previous employ if the first name is correct.

Tsh, you couldn't even rob his wallet or something. You had to go the route of stealing sentimental material.

He'll be caught.

[domino_blue]

Reading that article made me cry. I once had to move out my uncles old comic collection, keep in mind he had some great comics and I read them all. Even the weird book adaptions. I could not think of what I would do if I lost some of them, because it was my family and the poor guy has go through that.

[wonderwomanhero]

This is so heartbreaking. :(

Also...Kate...why can't you just grow your hair out? Please? For me?

[rdfox]

Given that this is the same Batwoman #1 that was *supposed* to come out in February, until Dankor got the idea of doing a reboot of the entire DCU and delayed it until now, to make it part of the reboot, I'm not surprised she's still gay.

And if you've read Gotham Central, or just about any significant amount of 90s Superman books, you know who Maggie Sawyer is.

[selke]

Ah, my nightly rage. What an asshole.

[proteus_lives]

I was so angry and sad after reading about Mike I had to step away and have a smoke.

I have already joined the FB group and I've collected all my Superman comics and will be sending them to Mike tomorrow.

Thank you so much for posting about this.

P.S.
If I ever ran into the two worthless sacks of shit who did that to him, I'd get the tire iron out of my car and personally send them to the fucking Phantom Zone.

[baihu]

I admit, I lolled when they described Gary as having a goatee. Somehow that just makes him so much more dastardly, and satisfying to capture!

[baihu]

Omg, Mike even drew him (with Superman holding him up like a trout), and he's EVERY BIT DASTARDLY AS I IMAGINE HIM TO BE!

[leoboiko]

The most touching part for me was his explanation of why he likes Superman:

“He uses his powers not to benefit himself, but to help others.”

Now this right here, this is a true superhero fan.

[fifthie]

Like really the only just resolution to this would be Superman literally coming alive out of the comics and punching the dude who robbed this guy, and be like, "man, the fuck is wrong with you".

THAT SAID it is real nice so many people are trying to help this dude out, it is actually kind of nice to see a bunch of people doin' the right thing like that.