Green Arrow to feature HIV-positive sidekick: The Associated Press reports that the latest issue of Green Arrow reveals that sidekick Mia -- a former prostitute -- is HIV-positive. Here's writer Judd Winick:

"Mia is coming to terms with it in the way most young people are. It isn't about death and dying. Young people, for good or for bad, are still pretty fearless. With drug combination therapy people are living a very long time. She seems to be unafraid of death, she's mostly feeling like no one is ever going to love her. She's HIV-positive and who's going to want to be with her now?"

Update: MTV.com chimes in with its own story, adding some comic-book history to the mix:

"In 1992 indie comics publisher Image introduced ShadowHawk as the first superhero to have AIDS (he was injected with a syringe that contained the virus), but Speedy is the first mainstream hero to be diagnosed with the disease. When HIV and AIDS have been addressed in the mass-market comics, it's mostly involved secondary characters. The Incredible Hulk introduced an HIV-positive character in 1988, and in 1996 Superman discovered an orphan whose parents had died of AIDS."