"Young Romance: The New 52 Special" (DC)

[pkristen]

Summary: A collection of six romance stories set in the New-52 universe, with one of the pairings being fav gay couple Apollo/Midnighter

Review: Ironically, I was thrilled at the release of this comic NOT because of the inclusion of Apollo/Midnighter, but because it featured Superman/Wonder Woman "romance" and would give me a chance to rant about them.

I am absolutely a hater of people who try to pair that couple (and it keeps happening over and over and over again.) I admit it could be fueled by the fact that I'm a Lois Lane fan, and that I am very frustrated that Princess Diana's biggest value to DC seems to make her alpha female dating material for their other males.

The stories in this comic special are teasers more than anything else, obviously to entice you to check out the series where these couples came from.

And frankly, Clark and Diana are the most boring couple in the entire set (though I admit I didn't read the one featuring Nightwing). They NEEDED supervillains to interrupt them to make their encounter semi-interesting.

Plus, I am so glad that it was announced that Clark and Diana are headed for splitsville.

Okay, as for the Apollo/Midnighter pairing, even though it was written by one of my fav writers Peter Milligan, I wasn't satisfied with its inclusion from a positive LGBT activist perspective. Admittedly that pairing wasn't really a fully formed couple in the "Stormwatch" series so it kind of made sense that this installment would be a tease. But the beginning and ending in a sleazy Seoul gay bar would have been fine if it had been kept in the audience of the "Stormwatch" readers, who was used to the grittier portrayals of these anti-heroes. However, since the collection of the other more hetero-sanctioned couples would pull their type of readership, that installment seemed to support the less positive aspects of gay stereotypes.

And where was Kate (Batwoman) Kane and Maggie (uber-cop) Sawyer?!

Not a prized part of my collection all things considered.