A little while ago, I covered the upcoming addition of Bunker to the Teen Titans team in this column. Now, as part of that, I mentioned how I thought it was a shame that they wouldn’t be focusing on people having negative reactions to him and his sexuality in the book, especially not from his fellow team mates.

Now, it has been asked of me why I think that’s a shame, and isn’t it better that a state of total acceptance is shown. And yes, that would be lovely in the real world, certainly. And when we get to that stage when it is the norm, then yes, we should definitely only have sexuality in comics handled as such. But sadly, that isn’t how it is in the real world. This is fiction we are talking about too, but sometimes fiction bears some powerful responsibilities in the context of the real world it’s released into.

My thoughts on this are maybe a little complicated, and I myself have been struggling to clarify it, so bear with me.

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So it started back in August, the 31st to be precise,
Some people were so hot for it and others cold as ice,
Some people saying that DC had destroyed and sold its soul,
For me comics is my music and DC my new rock and roll,

How can it be a bad thing with so many titles sold out?
The buzz it’s created for comics in the whole wide world throughout,
I don’t think that all are amazing but I still wouldn’t call them a waste,
I put it down to different people, who all have a different taste,

Ive stayed with all my favourites and have added new as well,
Would I call it a massive success? I suppose really only time can tell,
The Batman family comics in my pull list come to nine,
Of my 21 DC comic’s I call these lot here my spine,

All four Superman titles I am reading, so please add these to my list,
Green Lantern’s there, all of them too, because I couldn’t just resist,
I could go on but you get the gist about what this all means to me,
Quality writing and fantastic art on most you can guarantee,

Reservations, there were loads but I really shouldn’t have had a worry,
Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Barry Allan still rock and even now Arthur Curry,
To top that off, hot chicks there’s loads most showing lots of skin,
Ill admit I am getting suicide squad, but only to see Harley Quinn,

Two months in now I still feel the same and I am even getting two mini series,
The mystery woman who the hell is she? Ive now read so many theories,
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed as its time for me to conclude,
But one last thing I want to say FFS CATWOMAN WAS NOT TOO RUDE.

Alex Muldwych Giles

In the last few months with everything that has been happening in the comic book world I have noticed something, I have noticed that as in life so many people are negative and love to put down a comic, a character or a story line much more than they will praise it or even just say it was ok.

I've come to believe that the majority of comic book fans (not me or the people I talk comics with) are looking for something to be negative with, in fact there are a few who rip into everything from Marvel and DC yet praise all from Image or Dark horse which is clearly just because they don’t see them as mainstream so must be “cool”.

These comic book fans annoy me and I don’t mind telling you that at all, they are as bad as the music Nazi’s we all know, who love an underground band until they sign a major record deal and are then suddenly sell outs and crap, even though the first album is the same songs they were singing happily along too when no one knew who they were.

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Recently, it’s been announced that Teen Titans, as part of its New 52 reboot/relaunch, will be seeing a new gay member, in the form of the awkwardly named Bunker:

Bunker, real name Miguel Jose Barragan, is also Mexican, Catholic and camper than a row of tents (at least visually, as we have yet to see him in the pages on the comic actually speaking). He creates some kind of weird purple energy/telekinetic barriers, and his homosexuality is apparently a fundamental part of his character, so it will be focused on and dealt with, whilst still showing that he is heroic and a badass new member to the team.

But wait, what was that one word I used to describe him?

Camp, flamboyant, a flamer, queeny, gayer than the day is long, out and proud and throwing his hands around in such a fashion that there’s a genuine danger they could fling off him and cause a major traffic accident.

Hell, we can see it in one of the first images shared by artist Brett Booth, where Miguel appears to dress when out of his costume in a style of fashion not a million miles away from current famous gay teen, Kurt Hummel of Glee.

Bright, colourful, and a definite statement, it’s still an improvement on his rather garish superhero costume.

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So today's storm in the geeky teacup seems to be the new Catwoman comic. Its disgusting! Its pornographic! Its sexist! You know, the usual bullshit whenever a comic dares to come out with a female lead who doesn't look like a librarian. Well, like a stereotypical librarian. The one librarian I know is pretty foxy (hello Whittle).

So even though it wasn't on my must read list from DC's new 52 I picked this up and read it. Bit bad of me as a comic nerd I know... actually READING a comic before giving my opinion on it, but what the hell.

Lets go through the main complaints I've seen online. Gotta spoil a bit to explain, but before we do, lets get one thing straight. Im not some sad bastard wanking off over drawings. That said I see nothing wrong with a bit of T&A in comics. You ever read the original Rocketeer comics? There's some STUNNING art in there that looks like it should be on the side of a World War 2 Bomber plane. Same as I have no problem with Batman's six pack or The Flash basically being a naked Olympic swimmer sprayed red. Comic characters dont have to look like real people. If they do then you get Alex Ross books which for me lose a lot of the magic of comics. Give me stylised characters over photo real cosplayers any day. Anyway, lets get into it...

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So, last week’s column saw me looking at Stormwatch #1, finding myself left wanting with the obvious lack of mention of Apollo and Midnighter’s sexuality, or in fact any way of differentiating them from Superman and Batman in their now shared universe; and also, looking briefly at DC’s claims of improving diversity.

Then, last Wednesday, DC finally released Batwoman #1. So, today’s column is very much a sequel to last week’s, as we again delve into DC’s diversification claims, and look at somewhere DC are actually doing it right.

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Link: http://www.walkerofworlds.com/

Green Lanterns are intergalactic space cops. Mostly aliens but also three humans who have been gifted with a green ring that is the most powerful weapon in the universe. It is limited only by the wielder’s imagination and is fuelled by willpower, which its creators, the Guardians, believe is the most powerful force in the universe. Others disagree. In fact there is a whole emotional spectrum out there that has created a number of other Lantern Corps using different emotions as power sources. The Sinestro Core is fuelled by Fear, others by Hope, Love and so on and each is a different and appropriate colour. Then there are the Red Lanterns who are fuelled by Rage. The previous Green Lantern comic series has touched on the Red Lanterns, but this is the first time they’ve had their own ongoing book. It’s also focused on the creator of the Red Lanterns Corps, Atrocitus, who we’ve only seen as a villain so far. This is the first story told from his perspective and to me, it’s an interesting point of view.

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BEWARE: SPOILERS FOR STORMWATCH #1!

Last week saw the release of Stormwatch #1 from DC, written by Paul Cornell and with art by Miguel Sepulveda. More importantly, it features the return, or perhaps more accurately the introduction, of Apollo and Midnighter; two of comics most renowned homosexual characters.

As you may recall from earlier editions of Tales, I wondered how we might find these characters represented, what this would mean for LGBTQ representation in comics as a whole, and also how this marries up with DC’s claims of a broader, more diverse and inclusive universe.

With the issue finally out, I felt I should say something about it. However, I admit this is proving the hardest entry to write…because there’s not an awful lot to say. Maybe that in itself is worth exploring.

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I’ll start with a little bit of personal history for you: when I was in university, all those many years ago, I spent a lot of my time working with the university LGBT group, called AberPRIDE, as this all occurred in the far off sunny/windy/wet/drunken shores of Aberystwyth.

As such, LGBT rights and gay culture have always been on my mind and a major part of my life. Also as such, it means I often hear the question: “Do we really need gay pride events? What’s the point? They’re just big parties these days”.

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So with all new releases coming out and with me getting back into reading/collecting comics I have been spending a lot of time looking at titles which are out or coming out, along with revisiting the ones I used to collect to see if they still did it for me and I noticed something:

From the age of 12 (1990) until I was 23 (2001) and for the last 3 months, I have never collected a comic based around a female character, not one.

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