I have to start this review with a disclaimer; I consider the writer of Sugar Glider, Daniel Clifford to be a good friend of mine. I occasionally offer him some bad advice and lackluster support, which is why he felt it necessary to give me a mention in the special thanks section at the front of the second issue of Sugar Glider. This will in no way affect the way I write my review, you can try to bribe me with your 'special thanks' Clifford but we both know this book is all you and artist Gary Bainbridge and I'll judge it as so ;-)

Sugar Glider #2 starts with our hero, Susie Sullivan, still reeling from her first foray into super-heroics, battered and bruised with her family now aware of and condemning her desire to become Newcastle's finest vigilante. On the delicately, well designed cover there is a pull quote that top's the page "The Empire Strikes Back of Comics has arrived", this comment is so acutely accurate, with issue one things ended on such a downer with everything falling down around our heroine. So, does this mean this next installment should be 'Return of the Jedi'? I can't even decide whether that would be a good thing or not?

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So, last week I looked at the characters leading the charge of gay rights and representation in comics, and I heavily involved Apollo and the Midnighter in that. I praised the gay marriage and relationship the pair had, and I queried what may be to come as the pair find themselves part of the new DC Universe. Well, it would seem that some of our questions are answered now. Or at the very least, we have a little more info. Sadly, that info is a bit of a mixed bag.

Dan Didio was recently interviewed by Advocate, an LGBTQ news magazine and website, looking at diversity within the DCnU, with obviously a queer bent. The topic of Apollo and the Midnighter and their gay marriage came up, which is when Didio said this:

“The only thing that we discussed long and hard was the idea of where those characters would be in relation to their [own] relationship. Because they had an established relationship in the stories that were being told within the Wildstorm universe—and this is the first time they’re being seen in the DC Universe—we wanted to build them from scratch and watch an emerging relationship between these two characters. So in this particular case, Apollo is much more out and much more comfortable with himself [while] Midnighter is naturally a little more repressed.”

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As a gay man, I feel pretty strongly rooted and secure in my identity and connection to gay culture. As an avid comics reader, I feel strong in the thought that I am not overly fanboyish and can remain reasoned and thoughtful through the multitude of characters and situations I digest on a weekly basis.
So, you can imagine my concern when I find myself feeling these ideals of the structure of my personality come into question.

One such thing that I have found has the habit of doing this (not often, but casually, and recurring in such rarity that I’m always left for a momentary loop when it happens) is the comic Invincible.
For those of you who don’t read Invincible (something I’ve recently learned there are far to many of), it’s the brainchild of Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker. Following the adventures of young, new superhero Invincible (Mark Grayson) on his rollercoaster, rocket-fuelled ascendance as one of the leading superheroes in his world, the story is fraught with family drama, betrayals, teen angst; and yet it’s bold, exciting, funny and, most of all, fun.

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Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zFdwWFk2WE&feature=related

There was nothing on the TV, it was a saturday afternoon and I stumbled upon the Five US channel, until this point I didn't even know such thing existed. The best part of this fortuitous discovery was that they were showing re-runs of the old US version of Whose line is it anyway?, a show I loved growing up, well the original British one anyways. They started with a game called Superheroes, something that always pushed the performers straight into the frontline and always guaranteed so outlandish behaviour right from the start as each new player tries to outdo the previous whilst screwing over the next guy. I figured it would be a nice idea for Something Silly this Sunday to take a walk down memory lane and ask the question why this show is not still being made?