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 looks at comics for girls, people of color in Riverdale, Marvel's all-ages titles, and a possible shift in the zeitgeist.

Well I've been going on and on about how Marvel should have a girl-oriented superhero comic that would actually, you know, appeal to teenage girls, so you can probably approximate my delight upon reading the Comic Book Resources exclusive: "Her-Oes Hit Marvel" by Kiel Phegley.  Marvel Her-Oes is essentially a teen girl version of The Avengers featuring The Wasp, She-Hulk, Namora, Ms. Marvel and what sure looks like Vakyrie.  I definitely think writer Grace Randolph is right; the much maligned Wasp, basically a butt-kicking Tinkerbelle, is a character with a lot of intrinsic girl appeal.  Plus the piece hints about the appearance of "some classic Golden Age heroines to serve as mentors"--ooh, please let one of them be Sun Girl.

I Googled and Binged but couldn't find a single story online concerning Archie #608 (see ""It Starts With a Kiss"€ in April"), other that at the usual suspect comics news sites.  Which I suppose means either Archie had the misfortune of sending out their press release on a busy news day or an interracial kiss in a funny book just isn't all that controversial in a post-Obama world.  Though I do imagine the story might have gotten a bit more traction if it had been Betty Cooper snogging Chuck Clayton (the only black male teenager in Riverdale) on the cover.  Still I would have thought the announcement worthy of at least a snide comment on The Daily Show or SNL's "Weekend Update" segment.

I realize I shouldn't prejudge the story before reading it but I will go out on a limb and assume that a frank discussion of race relations in America won't enter into Archie and Valerie's budding relationship because Riverdale exists in a state of absolute color blindness.  Though the core gang remains exclusively white lately the company has done a pretty good job of introducing kids of color; currently attending Riverdale High is Raj, who's Indian, Kumi, the Japanese girl and Toño who's from Mexico.  And a quick trip to Wikipedia (the lazy writer's best friend) shows that there's another half dozen Asian and Latino kids in the class rolls.

The only trouble being that while Raj, Kumi and Toño were all announced with considerable fanfare none of them appear with any kind of regularity.  I don't believe this is race related; Archie Comics has a long tradition of introducing new supporting characters who make a few appearances then vanish without a trace.  On the other hand I think you can make a case that it's harder for these characters to take center stage when the bulk of Archie stories involve dating and traditionally the company has always been squeamish when it comes to miscegenation.*

At the very least as a start an effort should be made to have characters regularly appear in the background of stories so Riverdale would better reflect the real world.  Regular readers of these things know this subject is one of my favorite hobby horses (see "Conferssions of a Comic Book Guy--Too Many Superheroes?"), so I'm not just picking on Archie.  In the past I've chastised both Marvel and DC for not making even a minimal amount of effort to do the sort of thing Milestone Comics somehow always managed to do so well, but what better time than Martin Luther King Day to remind them they still have work to do.

Well it turns out the all-ages Marvel titles will be back basically as they were, with a slight name change and a price increase.  This is where I'd usually complain about the cost but the truth is given the markups I discover every time I go to the grocery store I'm guessing the average twelve year old (or his parents) won't blanche at paying $3.99 for a comic book.

And finally there's what the Bleeding Cool website likes to call the Marvel/DC Confluence; Marvel's Heroic Age Vs. DC's Brightest Day.  It seems simultaneously both companies have decided there just isn't any more money to be made from the current approach to superhero comics and at the very last moment decided to swerve back towards the hopeful and optimistic.  You would think nothing would please me more but frankly, even if they actually mean it (and I'll believe it when I actually see it), I don't know if they can.

But then that's a topic for next week.

* The most recent example of which can be read in Dwayne McDuffie's Web Column titled "Guess Who's Coming to Riverdale?" where he explains how back in 1992 Betty once sort of dated a back guy, until the publisher got cold feet.

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.