Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett first shares his thoughts on Frozen 2, then talks about new-look comic characters, including the one he's most interested in seeing.

Well, as reported just about everywhere else there's going to be a Frozen 2, which I know doesn't really have anything to do with comics, at the moment anyway.  But the story is worth looking at if for no other reason than to remind us that in large part it was social media that helped create the word of mouth that led to it becoming a worldwide phenomenon.  Back in 2013, I wasn't  particularly interested in seeing Frozen (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Certainly The End Of The Beginning"), until Disney released a three minute clip from the film to YouTube of the song "Let It Go."  More than just changing my mind, it created a massive desire to see the film before it was released; something publishers should always consider before publicly complaining that they "can't afford" to "give something away."

I could dissect this as a business decision on my own, but I don't have to; instead I direct you to a piece by Steven Zeitchik that appeared in the L.A. Times, "'Frozen 2' marks the tip of the sequel iceberg."  Like me, he dislikes the idea of Disney doing theatrical sequels to their films and even questions the "need" for sequels in general but ultimately he acknowledges that Disney pretty much "has" to do this one.  Because capitalism.  Sequels are usually a safe bet to make roughly half the box office of the original, and since Frozen earned over a billion dollars at the box office leaving that kind of money on the table on the table would be most likely be considered criminal malfeasance by Disney stockholders.

But he also suggests that in this instance, a sequel is actually justified on a creative level because the movie was "an original, organic hit that has fans clamoring for more."  As to what the sequel might be, as someone online pointed out since Frozen doesn't actually adapt Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen (to quote its producer Peter Del Vecchio, "There is snow and there is ice and there is a Queen, but other than that we depart from it quite a bit") they could just use the original plot for the sequel.

Online fans haven't been heavily "shipping" Elsa with Jack Frost from the Rise of the Guardians movie so they always shoehorn a public domain version of the character in.  And they could always make the sequel a Christmas movie by bringing in Ded Moroz, who may sound like a character from 2000AD and dress as if he's a refugee from Middle Earth but is actually the Russian Santa Claus, Grandfather Frost.  Elsa was supposedly "born with," not "cursed" with, her powers, so maybe he's her grandfather.

There's a lot of "new looks" coming this year, first for some major DC characters (see "New Costumes for Core DC Characters").  Of course I don't expect any of these changes to still be around next January, but the news has gotten press which has gotten their base readership stirred up which is, of course, the point of these kinds of changes.  Not that it matters what I think either way, but the simplicity of the Blue Jeans Superman design makes for a nice change from the over-designed "New 52" outfit.  I don't mind the haircut though it wouldn’t hurt him to shave a little closer--not that I'm complaining.  It's still a definitive improvement over the last couple of months where Superman was running around with a full beard.*

From the initial images put online I first thought the Robo-Batsuit was just going to be a fairly generic exoskeleton, albeit one with funny ears.  I felt better about it after seeing Greg Capullo’s design on the Variant Cover for Convergence #1 (see "Greg Capullo's Take On The New Batman Costume").  Oh, it's still pretty generic looking but at least now the "bunny ears" look a little more like wings.  But is that a gun in Batman’s hand?

And finally there’s Wonder Woman.  I've long been an advocate for superhero women being allowed to fight crime fully clothed and in sensible shoes so I'm not bothered by the fact Diana is now completely covered.  I would like to say that it was the shoulder pads or the gratuitous stars but no, it's the blades that places the outfit squarely over the top.  It makes the design ever so Image Comics, circa 1994.

But this year's new look I'm actively looking forward to is Archie #1 by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples.  Archie, the publisher, has been calling it a game changer and after finally seeing what the comic is likely to look like, thanks to the variant covers to #1 they've just released (see “More Than 20 Variant Covers for 'Archie' #1”), I can't help but agree with them.  A comic about ordinary people, if done right, especially one with big brand name recognition like Archie, could appeal to a vast audience.  The sort who watch Glee every week on TV but would never think of picking up an issue of Batman or Star Wars.  I might be wrong, I often am, but I wouldn't bet against Archie.

* In the old days Superman with a beard meant he was marooned on an alien planet with a red sun or temporarily gone evil or had been exposed to red kryptonite.  Now it apparently just means he was just working out some personal issues.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.