I'll seperate all this stuff into sections, so it will be easier to read.

Female Force Comics

...totally suck, as far as I can tell. I flipped through the Sarah Palin one at Books-A-Million. You'd think since the comic is about girl power or whatever, it would be written or drawn by a female, or at the very least have a female character narrating it? But no. We have some middle- aged guy with some unfunny cricket sidekick narrating in a totally biased manner.

And he makes sure to go on for a panel about how hot Sarah Palin is. According for him, this is totally okay for him to say because she entered a beauty contest that one time. Yes, that totally give you a right to ogle at and objectify her in a comic that's supposed to be about her accomplishments. I mean, she entered a beauty contest, she's just asking for it right? Granted, Palin doesn't have that many accomplishments other than failing to become vice president and quitting as governor, so maybe he wanted to fill time. But I thought the comic was supposed to be about Palin, not this dorky narrator and how much he wants to do her? And let's not forget Sarah herself complained about the media focusing on her looks. Way to honor her wishes, buddy. (Especially ironic considering the narrator rails against the media for being so meeeeeaaan to Sarah later in the comic)

And yes, the format of the comic is totally stupid. Instead of, I don't know, having the comics from the powerful woman's point of view, getting into her head, examining the challenges of her life and the difficulties she faced, getting poetic and prosaic and talking about personal details not wildly known to the public, we get in NARRATED to us. It's like a friggin' history lesson, and it gives no more information that you'd find on Wikipedia. And I just have to stress it's narrated by a guy. In a comic called FEMALE FORCE. With an annoying sidekick that reminded me horribly of that little fairy in the "Wizard How to Draw Women" debacle. And he interrupts his little boring and poorly done history lesson with lame jokes and biased personal antidotes. Yes, his own personal anecdotes. When the comic is supposed to be about Sarah Palin.

"Sarah hunts? Oh boy, so do I! I love to hunt!" Should we care that you enjoy killing things, Mr. Narrator? I don't. "One of my favorite things about Sarah is she hunts." Oh yes, that's wonderful. It's so sexy how she passed that law about shooting wolves from helicopters. Killing creatures that weren't even bothering you while you have the advantage of a machine gun and being a gazillion feet above them, for no other discernible purpose than "population thinning" (work on thinning your own population first) is so damn sporting and honorable. Stupid namby pamby liberals complaining about hunting! Yes, we get it, Mr. Narrator, you're a douchebag. Why are you letting us know this when the comic is about Palin.

Also, though Sarah hunts, she can't stand holding the animals eyeballs. Well, Sarah, just imagine how it feels having those eyeballs plucked out of your skull! If you're so disgusted by the gore of what you're doing, maybe you shouldn't do it! (Yes, my animal lover self is rearing it's head.)

Oh, but it's not over! The media crucified Sarah, waaaahhhh! I thought this was supposed to be a comic about women's accomplishments, not Republican propoganda? I wonder if Hilary Clinton's comic complained about what the media did to her! Somehow, I doubt it. She never entered a beauty contest after all!

And the art. The narrator may SAY Sarah's attractive, but the art sure doesn't show it. She looks hideous, and she has this constant wrinkly face with a rictus grin. The art tries so hard to be photo-realistic it ends up looking ugly and awkward. I'd rather have cartoony art that that. In fact, a cartoony, fun adventure starring Sarah Palin as its fun-loving hero, rampaging through Alaska, would be a lot more creative and readable than this trash.

Female Force's greatest sin is that the next person they plan to do it Stephenie Meyer. That's right. And no, they haven't done, say, JK Rowling (whose books had a much bigger impact on our culture than Stephenie's, who has a far more interesting and heroic life story and is just plain better...and yes, they do people outside America, Female Force has already done Princess Di). They go straight to Stephenie freakin' Meyer. Before JKR! Criminal.

Maybe I should be grateful, I'd hate to see that dorky narrator drooling over JKR. Though apparently Stephenie's books gets to be narrated by Edward, so maybe we'd get JKR narrated by Harry. Which would actually be vaguely interesting if they did it right, which after the Palin comic, I doubt they would.

But if I did it... "J.K. Rowling lived in a house. It had a cupboard. Unlike me, however, she wasn't forced the sleep in it. She just did that to me to torture me. HOW CRUEL YOU ARE, JK ROWLING!" Yeah, that would be fun.

(EDIT: Looks like JKR may be scheduled for late fall, according to this one interview. Now I'm scared, slightly.)

After reading to comic and hearing this news, I'm going to have to agree with one of the commenters at Twilight Cornfield.

Keep in mind, Bluewater only launched this "Female Force" line after some other company did comic book bios of Obama and McCain; they started with Hillary and even used a similar cover design as the other publisher.

In other words, these comics have always been a quick cash-in, and never really had much to do with the celebration of women's accomplishments. (Hence why there are no women writers or artists on these books)

I'll say. I'm going to take a look at the Caroline Kennedy comic when I'm back at Books a Million, but I doubt it will be that great. Especially if the same guy's writing it, ugh.

Harry Potter

I was wrapped up in the Fandom Wank wiki the other day, because I was looking at backlogs of JKR's trial versus the Lexicon. For those of you who don't know, the whole Lexicon thing is like this:

Steve Vander Ark: I make an online reference for Harry Potter fans with lots of quotes from the book.

JKR: Good Job! Here's a fansite award!

Steve: Yay! May I publish this as an encyclopedia?

JKR: No, sorry. Your site is basically my work alphabetized and rearranged for reference, with lots of quotes from my books, and no original commentary. It would be plagiarism if you published it. Also, I'm planning to write my own encyclopedia.

Steve: STFU meanie! I'm going to get it published anyway.

JKR: What? I just said no!

RDR books: STOP TRYING TO STIFLE OUR CLIENTS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! THIS IS AMERICA! YOU ARE LIKE A NAZI!!!

JKR's Lawyers: Cease and desist.

RDR: No!

Lawyers: Can we at least see the book?

RDR: No!

Lawyers: Seriously, cease and desist. Or at least respond to our letters.

RDR: No!

Lawyers: Okay, see you in court then.

JKR: This saddens me. Other books about HP are mostly original commentary and philosophy and analysis. This...is just my work rearranged. Also, it is sloppy and has tons of errors.

Steve: STFU!

*courtroom smackdown, JKR is teh winnah of course.*

When this was going on, I didn't know a lot about it, as I was out of HP fandom at the time. When I first heard of it, I was like, "But lots of HP encyclopedias are published and I thought JKR liked the Lexicon? Then I went onto her website and read her explanation, and was like, "oh, that makes sense." The end. So it's really interesting looking back at the old trial transcripts and stuff. Also addicting. Damn you fandom wank wiki! It's amazing how wanky Steve is and his publisher does Godwins law a bazillion times. But the best thing is how incredibly good JKR is at delivering a burn. Check these quotes out:

It was clearly an emotional issue for Ms. Rowling, who had flown in from Scotland to testify. She was given a box of blue tissues after she said, “I really don’t want to cry because I’m British.”

She's so adorable. <3 (By the way, context, she was asked what Harry Potter means to her, and she got a little choked up about how it changed her life)

JKR was asked whether the Lexicon was “just a Xerox copy” of her work: she said it was “very slightly more than that.” David Hammer said that there was text for every character, and she said, “Yes, is that the best you can say for the Lexicon, ‘It has text’?” Mr. Hammer responded that a lot of work had gone into it, and she said, “Yes, it was a lot of work. I remember doing it.”


OH SNAP SMACKDOWN IN THE COURTROOM.

And about Rowling's fansite award:

Lawyer:  And what you say in that award is "This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a book store and buy a copy of Harry Potter, which is embarrassing. A website  for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home. That's your language, correct?

JKR:  That's my language.

Lawyer:  That wasn't written by Mr. Vander Ark, was it?

JKR:  Well, it probably will be at some point, but no, he hasn't done it yet.

EPIC burn is EPIC. JKR wins at life. It's amazing to see her snarky sense of humor is not just limited to her books. Oh, HP Fandom. I missed so much while I was away.

I've also been surfing the Harry Potter wiki which I didn't know existed, despite having my own wiki. But through it, I found out about this documentary on the year JK Rowling put out the seventh book. It's pretty good, some parts of it are really sad too, like how pressured she seems to feel when she releases the seventh book, because she knows how much expectation is on her. It's OK, JKR, I'll always love you, and I love the seventh book. Even sadder is when she visits her old apartment and starts crying...and remininces about her mum.

But the most interesting part of the documentary is part five, where she discusses stuff like Luna's future and Fred's death. A lot of it I already knew, but it's still very interestin for a fan.

The documentary starts here.

I should note fandom wank led to all of this. DAMN YOU FANDOM WANK!

Man, I really want that JKR encyclopedia now.

I know I should really be working on my Harry Potter fanfic instead of doing all that other stuff...but bah, I'm halfway through it! I'm working! 

---

Anyway, since I've already rambled on way too long, that's it for now. More news later.

Nice day at the comic shop today, I got to see my friend Angel and chat with her.

As for the comics:

Wonder Woman #34:

OMG, Dinah, I missed you! SO MUCH! You are such an endless cascade of dirty jokes and pep and badassery! Stay here forever please!

Meanwhile, Diana cuddles polar bears, and apparently still has her secret identity (boo!) though at least she admits she's terrible at it. Also, Amazons inspired the American flag. I don't REALLY think George Perez's origin for the costume needs to be retconned, but I'll admit, the sheer cracky awesomeness of the AMAZONS inspiring the American flag instead of the other way around is the best retcon I could hope for. I even suggested this myself on a Superfriends post bluefall made a few days back. Superfriends is canon now!

Also, there was a gay joke that flew over my head since I am dense and naive, and the Amazons are upset at Achilles for being Achilles-ish. Hopefully they will revolt, led by Hippolyta (she didn't really say anything this issue, just stood there looking vaguely stunned. Perhaps she is PLOTTING. Or things are moving too fast for her. "Wha- Zeus in a space suit? My daughter gone? I AM SO CONFUSED!") I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this whole thing yet, but we'll see.

And last page reveal... some woman is challenging Diana! I'm not sure who it is. My first thought was Nu'bia but I have no idea...bluefall, do you know? Should be interesting, anyway.

4/5

Detective Comics #855

This art. It is so damn pretty.

Alice is an interesting villian, and I like that she took the time to decorate her razor blade. We see a little more about Kate's past, her tragedy apparently involved losing her Mom. Her detachable wig demonstrates it's use. Her dad is protective. AND MONSTERS! Certainly interesting, and I'd buy it just for the art.

Rene makes lots of puns about school in the backup, and is generally cool. But she gets TAZED! OH NO! The plot really hasn't gotten into full swing beyond "generic bad guy" yet, but hopefully it will get better.

4/5

Wednesday Comics #4

Batman: Man, Bruce and Luna (I thought of Luna Lovegood and my mind was like "No...just no...) sure have some confusing dialogue in the second panels. Bruce is all "You know what they say about looks" and Luna answers: "Beauty is the eye of the beholder" and I'm like "What? No. It's "looks can be decieving". Wrong cliche! Clearly Luna is not the sharpest crayon. Then Bruce is all "Or skin deep" and Luna is all "Mine runs thick". And then they talk about imagination or something and I am LOST. They need to work on their banter. It sucks. Maybe that's why Luna decides to skip straight to the sex. I mean, the conversation ain't that great.

Kamandi: Kamandi is so cute. I want to pat him on the head. But his dog friend is in trouble. Oh no, Dr. Canus!

Superman: Ma Kent agrees with me and thinks Superman should shut up angsting.

Deadman: Boston continues to be old school and fun.

Green Lantern: Hal is cockier than a cocker spaniel.

Metamorpho: Thankfully not another splash page. And we get to see Element girl. And my god, Saphire is an intolerable ditz. Some shadowy figure talks to Rex. Things are picking up!

Teen Titans: Oh, shut up Trident. Shut up, random strawman medic. Nobody cares. And somehow Blue Beetle explodes the boat? Huh.

Strange Adventures: Okay, I was not sold on Adam Strange before, but his girlfriend being a complete badass may have done the trick. Especially since it involved a blue furry thing talking about how boring hairless girls are.

Supergirl: Haha! Streaky and the plane is so adorable. StreakyVision! I love Amanda Conner so.

Metal Men: Mercury is a cranky one. "Shut up and enjoy being saved." Meanwhile, bomb man! The art is clear and pretty, the writing continues to be just average.

Wonder Woman: I don't care what anyone says, I like how much story Caldwell fits into his pages, and I like the ghostly blue theme this one had. Wondy fights another mythical monster, and I found it easier to follow thn usual (I didn't even need a re-read, which I did the last few) so it was very enjoyable.

Sgt. Rock: A woman soldier! Otherwise, bland as usual.

Flash: Ah. Well if Barry can't even be bothered to slow down enough to listen to her or talk things out, I can understand why Iris is leaving. I renege my earlier complaints about her characterization. Meanwhile, time travel shenanigans! I'm enjoying this.

The Demon/Catwoman: What's the point of having them together if Selina can't talk? Etrigan is boring on his own, so Selina better get better soon.

Hawkman: Look! Hawkgirl! Otherwise, bleh.

This issue sure had a lot of girl power in it. I remember reading the first issue, that a lot of the female characters seemed to be in stereotyped, passive roles like vindictive harpy or ditzy girlfriend.(other than the women who had their own features, and Selina) but decided to let a few issues go on before I passed judgement. Now I'm glad I did, because this issue above all proved me wrong. Iris is well aware Barry's the flash and is leaving him because he's a dick, not because she doesn't understand the demands of being a superhero. Element Girl shows up in Metamorpho as a counterpoint to Sapphire's ditziness. A girl shows up in Kamandi and seems reasonably competent (she was well ahead of the apes before Kamandi crashed in) Starfire is take-charge in Teen Titans, Alanna is a badass, and we get a glimpse of Hawkgirl! And of course, Wondy and Supergirl are lovely. Selina has stepped down a peg to being a sabertoothed cat, but hopefully she'll be back soon.

5/5

It was a great week, really!


 

So, my job at the comic shop is going well. I work the register, put comics on shelves for new comic day, and sort the back issues (which isn't easy, considering the amount of X men titles there are alone, all files under X men in no particular order). Today, I set up a display of Disney comics that was very spiffy, if I do say so myself. My LCS is extremely laid back and cheery, and it's really fun talking to my boss/comic book guy, Darrin, because we share a lot of opinions. It's fun.

Darrin has a new baby, so he says he might be leaving me to run to shop at times. A whole comic shop to myself! Mwahahahaha!

Anyway, hopefully I'm a diligent worker. Darrin seemed impressed with my display. For a first job, this is really great and ideal! I'm in my element!

I've gotten Runaways #11 and Secret Six #11.

Runaways #11:

So Victor did a thing with hacking into the music and that made some guy think the Runaways were a target and crash an airplane into them... then there was this other guy?

Other than the slightly confusing plot stuff (which hopefully will be cleared up as we go along) and the random death, the snappy dialogue and character interplay, as well as decent art, made this an enjoyable issue. I plan to keep reading.

Also, this comic has a female writer, artist AND colorist. How cool is that? Lately, women seem to be breaking into the business more and more. I am pleased for this will make it easier for me to take over DC Comics and bend it to my whim.


3.5/5

Secret Six #11:

Lovely art as always from Nicola Scott. And Jeanette is wonderful. And Artemis is awesome! She will take your hand and wear it as a belt, thus depriving you us the only thing willing to give you pleasure! And enemies of Amazons rarely die lovely! REMEMBER THAT!

The Six sure are quick to shoot each other and stab each other in the stomach at the slightest sign of conflict between them. Must be a side effect of being villians.

There's no way Artemis is dead (especially as there's no visible cause of death...) but Wonder Woman's all jumping to conclusions and pissed and making Ragdoll "do something nasty in his tights". I love how Gail can always get through how damn scary Diana is when she's angry.

Another stellar issue.

5/5

The new show I'm in love with is Dexter. It is simply awesome, full of dark humor and twisted drama! I have a crush of a serial killer. But he's a GOOD serial killer!

www.cinemablend.com/new/We-Don-t-Need-More-Female-Superheroes-11455.html

OH MY GOD, what a MORON. I'm barely restraining myself from swearing here. That IDIOT.

Compulsory frustrated Steph:



I couldn't even get past the first paragraph. It made me want to bang my head against the keyboard. Hoping that scrolling down would make me feel better, to see people calling him out. The first poster's user names was Stephanie Brown.

YES GO STEPH.

Ahem, I know it's not really Steph, but just imagine her seeing this essay and hunting this guy down.

"Hi, I'm a female superhero, the kind we don't need more of. Now excuse me, I'm going to shove your head up your own ass, since it's clearly already there."

Then this would happen:



Asskicking for justice!

Okay, I'll actually read it now.


I'm sorry, but none of the girls I know have the sole dream of dancing till dawn and finding the right guy. I mean, some do, about the same amount of guys who just dream of dancing till dawn and having the right girl. But girls tend to have other interests. You know, like making money, funny situations, stirring adventures, gaining knowledge...and they like seeing that in entertainment. It's almost like they're people! A LOT of the girls I know like action. It's a human thing. People love the rush they get from seeing really awesome stunts and asskicking. It's visually nice to watch and it makes you feel all active and heroic even when yer not.

This guy takes up the argument that women who like superheroes are some kind of freaky abberation, like "men who like touchy feely movies". Therefore, we should be totally ignored, us freaky women. We don't count.

He even calls us "You women" in the comments.

Also, he knows shit about Wonder Woman. TONS of little girls read her comics in the early days. Just look at the letter columns. Also, women were an audience for that show about her. And a WOMAN is writing her comic right now. Golly gee wow. And she's like, an icon of feminism. Which means a lot of women must like her! Again, wowsers. And more woman would read comics if (here's a secret listen closely) they weren't constantly treating their female characters  like crap or sexying them up. Or if they actually attempted to attract a female audience. It's amazing, I know.

The best part is it's a guy pretending he somehow knows how a woman thinks and feels. Despite the fact he's not. A. Woman. I love it when guys do that. They complain about how we are sooo complicated, yet apparently they get to speak for us as a whole. Because they just KNOW what's best. Now get me a sammich!

God, I am so angry. I know it's just some stupid guy's opinion, but the fact it EXISTS ruins my good mood.

I'm a woman so I'm like so emotional ya know how it is. Oh, if only I could dance till dawn and find the right guy. Never mind that I hate to dance. That's because I'm some freakish minority, a girl who likes action. Who knows how many other things are wrong with me!

Oh boy, the computer has now figured out I'm a girl and a thingy telling about someone's amazing weight loss story has popped up. I'm not kidding that actually just happened.

The world just HAD to remind me how sexist it was.

Random guy, I'm not signing up for your site to cuss you out, but I hope you see this and try to argue with me. I will roast you, and then end each post with a pic of Steph beating up someone. It will be glorious. And very touching, like any woman wants!

I realize in my best and worse Mcthing I forgot to include all the wonderful stuff that happened to me as a comic book fan! With links to pertinent posts!

Best


*I went to the Heroes Con, where I met Jann Jones, Dan Didio, Darwyn Cooke, Amanda Conner, Todd Dezago, Matthew Sturges annnnd Michell Poust, who did my lovely Steph commission.

* I got a lovely Steph commission.

(nevermore999.livejournal.com/17353.html#cutid1)

*And a less lovely, but okay one. And a cute chibi Tim sticker. nevermore999.livejournal.com/17760.html#cutid  

* Jann complimented me in her DC Nation column. (nevermore999.livejournal.com/22551.html )

*This blog took off, and I made a bunch of nifty internet friends. ( nevermore999.livejournal.com/14085.html )

*Looking at that post, I remember Gail Simone commented on a couple posts! That was so AWESOME.

*Also I got tagged several times on WFA. ( nevermore999.livejournal.com/tag/when+fangirls+attack )

*My Steph wiki expanded and is now ridiculously  comprehensive, despite the fact I had to do 99% of it all by my lonesome. That's the power of obsession, folks. And someone even added it as a source on Steph's actual wikipedia page! Without any prompting from me! So I did wikipedia a favor and kindly linked them back. (stephaniebrown.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page ) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Brown_(comics) )

* I got hired for Big Shiny Robot! ( nevermore999.livejournal.com/29332.html )

*I scored an interview with Fabian Nicieza! (nevermore999.livejournal.com/39539.html ) ( nevermore999.livejournal.com/43386.html )

Worst

Hardly any worsts, my comic fan existence has been super cool. But here's two, minor, minor things.

*Jann Jones never answered my letter. I'm worried she's mad at me for slying saying Adam Beechen sucks in my thank you note.

*Various internet arguments, whether at Comic Bloc, Superdickery or Scans_daily, have annoyed me. Oh, Internet.


Now that the year is totally in review...Reviews!

Teen Titans #66

It's a flipping miracle.

I enjoyed this issue of Teen Titans.

OH EM GEE.

Forced to pick it up because Spoiler is in it, I was pleased to see not only did nothing horrible happen to her, she got to be kind of  cool. First, of all, she sparred with Traci 13 and they became friends. Steph is awesome, and Traci is awesome and together they are almost too awesome for the world to handle. Which is why I want them to team up more. Now they have a precedent!

And the scene was neat in general, characterwise. Steph was nice enough to hold back on Traci, but once Traci says "Show me what you can do" she roundly kicks her ass...or bruises it, rather. A nice display of skill (and of course, as always, Steph goes for the face kick) even though, as said, Traci isn't an expert, relying more on magic and awesome than martial arts.

And Traci laughs and says nice one! And Steph helps her up all nice! Clearly, they like each other. This makes me happy. Steph must guest star in Blue- crap, I forgot...curse you cancellations! *sigh* My heart would stop if that happened anyway, from sheer joy, so maybe it's just as well.

And then Bombshell comes in and is all jerkish. She really annoys me, just another example of Teen Titans thinking DRAMA and CONFLICT is someone on the team being a jackass and others inexplicably putting up with it.

But I kinda loved Steph tensing up for the fight, ready to take on a girl with quantum skin. (She could win if she convinced Amy to depower, by calling her chicken a lot. And then, two seconds later, fight over) And then Misfit teleports in. Oh Misfit. I'm disappointed a little she didn't go all "Hey, saw your autopsy photos!" to Steph.

And I liked Wonder Girl being nice to Steph. Some read it as passive agressiveness, but I didn't see it. It was awkward, all right, but how could it not be? She seemes to really be trying.

In fact, I liked Wonder Girl in this issue a lot. It seems McKeever's sticking to this whole "the lasso made her a horrible person, now she's nice again" business.  And she's going to get to be leader! Oh, YJ flashbacks.

Tim bringing Steph along for "moral support"  for when he quits is weird. What KIND of moral support? This was partly why, when I looked back on Steph coming out of Tim's room and realized he was in his undies when Cassie came in, I was all "Wait. Did they have sex or something?"

But I doubt it. Tim is an eternal virgin. He just seems to like talking to his ex girlfriends in his underwear.

....

Okay, moving on. Jaime was cool this ish, despite his inexplicable not wanting Traci to join the team (probably he doesn't want her to die. I know, Jaime, I know). So was Kid Devil. And it is HILARIOUS no one wants to join the Titans. Because why would you? It's a death sentence!

Oh, and also hilarity in how Tim's quitting speech was essentially "This team sucks. A lot. So I'm quitting. Because...um, Batman's missing? You can handle it Cassie kthnxbye."

So....*drumroll*...I think I'll actually pick up this title again. Mostly to see how NewandImproved!Cassie does as leader. I'll drop it like a hot potato when/if it gets bad again tho.

Complaints though: Cassie's new costume is ludicrous. She's an Amazon without bracelets. Why? And how does she expect to deflect bullets and lasers and whathaveyou? And HOW does she move her arms with that metal thing? Come ON. Change costume now please.

The art in general sucked actually. Eddy Barrows cannot leave soon enough. His spines are made of silly putty, his anatomy is off, the girls lips look like they've been pumped with collagen and had glue like lipstick applied, and his boobs are all the same-perfectly round and moving as a seperate organism from the body. Also, the girls have a weird square pelvis thing going, especially apparent on Cassie in the old Titans picture. Oh, and all his clothes are impossibly tight. Not just the spandex, Cassie's outfit and Misfit's and Traci's too. AND, finally, the abdomens are impossibly concave and painful looking.

Yeah. Well.

4/5

Blue Beetle #34

AWESOME. As usual. I absolutely LOVE it. The Scarab's "Oops" and subsequent resuscitation, Jaime's one liners: ("Don't you guys ever stay dead?" "Not traditionally!"), attack of the immigrants, Brenda and Paco being awesome, Brenda being snarky, Jaime's family tackle hugging him and finally, an surprisingly nice resolution to the immigration issue, where Jaime finally gets to speak up and says he's not being dragged into the Border Patrol because he's supposed to be a hero for everyone, but he will follow the laws. And then, the most awesome afterthought "And all this? Caused by a rich white guy. Just sayin'." Oh, Jaime. MARRY ME.

Matt Sturges really has gotten his groove. I knew he would, he was nice to me at a comic convention!

They can't cancel this title. Whhhhyyy.

*cries*

5/5

Wonder Woman #27

A really enjoyable issue. Donna was awesomesauce, Genocide gets more threatening, Cassie was caring, and I LIKED Tom. Whoa.

Pretty art too. Excited for the next, as always.

4.5/5


Superman #683

Hi, Zatanna! Pretty art, but not much happening. Poor Kara, though. The punching page was pretty powerful. And nice fragment monologues from supporting heroes. (I could've done with one from Wondy, though).

3.5/5

Whew! Ending this post with a picture I did of Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Girl!

( I kinda like it, too. )
Also, did a review for a Marvel mini I really like, NYX, on BSR! It's written by a woman too! Yay, more women in comics!

www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/3308

Whew! Been doing a lot of comic related stuffs lately. Let's see, in order:

I read "The Spirit: Femme Fatales" and some of Darwyn Cooke's The Spirit (they only had the second volume) at books a million, and LOVED IT. Everyone's all "Will Eisner is a genius!" and I'm all "Well, I'll have to check it out" and I did, and he IS.

The stories are just fun. And not the cotton candy type of fun of Superman and Batman stories, but fun like a toffee chocolate bar, light and tasty, yet with crunchy delicious nougats of substance.

Mmm, chocolate...

Anyway, I was saying. I totally loved the trade and bought it. The first thing I noticed about the stories were the art- since I am constantly aspiring to be a half way decent artist- it's so expressive. You can't help but love Denny, because he's always got these wonderful goofy expressions on his face so you can see he's not taking himself seriously at ALL.

Also, the female characters- it was written in the 1940's, so there's some stereotypes and questionable stuff (the scariest one was when Comissioner Dolan was positively gleeful his old battleax of an aunt was in the hands of a convicted wife beater. DudeNotFunny. Though the same story had said aunt drugging innocent men and forcing them into marriage...so ickiness on both sides there) but Will's "femme fatales" are competent, both physically and mentally often the Spirit's equals. You know how in the old stories Catwoman always got completely owned and tricked by Batman (and even in some today?) Well, that never happens to Silk Satin. She's one step ahead of him, and every inch his equal. She doesn't throw herself at him either, like most of the other girls (well, at least not after the first story) Also, her first appearance? She walked in with a bullet in her arm, saying she got in a bit of a scuffle and knifed a guy, and then fishes the bullet out of her arm using a clean razor and some iodine. "There's the little beggar!" If that's not badass, I don't know what is. Satin rocks.

Obviously, Satin is my favorite female character, but I also like Silken Floss. She's a physicist and a surgeon! Also, a complete badass!

Of course, all the women Spirit meets throw themselves at him in one way or another, but I can't really blame them, I kind of got a crush on him just reading the book. I love a man with a sense of humor. Also one who is perpetually confused.

Of course, Ebony was an awful stereotype and stuff, everyone knows that. He totally rocks in Darwyn Cooke's series though, in fact pretty much everything does. Hee, the Flobert Factor!

I did massive updating on the Steph wiki this weekend, internally linking stuff and updating profiles like crazy. I'm still not done. It's like a sickness.

But apparently someone's putting some my stuff to good use. Check out this Youtube channel! It is a freaking Spoiler explosion!

http://uk.youtube.com/user/StephsVoice

I thought I was the most Spoiler obsessed person on the planet, but this person is totally a contender! Check out Spoiler vs. Suburban Ninja in which the person MADE A SPOILER COSTUME, wore it, and pretended to fight a ninja! From the suburbs! The costume is spectacularly good, the fight staging...not so much.

Also, they link to my wiki. Yay!

In fact, one of their favorites is a video about Steph that someone else made that appears to uses pictures from the wiki. They're cropped just like mine, anyway. But I don't care. Because it's a music video! About Steph! Eeee!

(boywonderiii directed me to this person, who friended him)

Also, this is the best thing ever:

http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/search/label/super-endorsements

Drink it in. Drink in the awesome.

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Reviewwws:

Huntress Year one #2

This book continues to be awesome. Actually, the amount of content in this one was amazing. We see Helena failing to break her cousin Salvatore out of prison, wondering who keeps helping her NOT get arrested, fall in love with a boy from the Angelo Mob family, show a bit of her religious faith, see her female  cousin be a victim of sexual violence from said boy's father, then her cousin says Helena hit her, making her estranged from her remaining family members... We see her engage in her first vigilante style beatdown, Salvator dies, she turns 21, she finds out someone's been stealing some of her inheritance, threatens a mob lawyer, goes on another vigilante raid...

Oh, and some more feminist sentiment, we have flashback to Helena at an opera with her tutor, and Helena asks why their aren't any girl heroes, and her tutor explains there was in fact a female pope once, but history has buried her, and besides, the purpose of women in operas is to be young, innocent, and die.

Of course, this doesn't extend outside operas!

        

Moving on....

This book is a real gem, and it's great to have another quality female writer in the biz. I hope Madison gets lots of work, including the Huntress ongoing she mentioned!

5/5

Blue Beetle #27

Eh. Average issue.

That's really all I have to say.

Traci's cool, though.

3.5/5

Teen Titans Go! #54

Yes, that's right I JUST got this in the mail.

2nd to last issue! *sniff*

It really is a shame, because this was pretty awesome.

We get YJ era Cassie, not the mopey one we have now. And she's exactly as she should be- a little on the bratty side, but full of spunk and tenacity. She idolizes Wonder Woman, she's super competitive, she's hyperactive and she LOVES flying and punching things. This is a Cassie who stole artifacts from a museum so she could be Wonder Woman's sidekick, who has a yellow skateboard and spraypaints a red G on her Wonder Woman T shirt. She flies to Paradise Island and challenges seasoned superheroes. She squeals in joy when she thinks she gets a T communicator, only to find out Mom grounded her!

Donna's not bad either. In fact, this is the coolest Donna I've seen in a long time. She's remarkably self assured and comfortable in her own skin. She's friendly, and good at what she does. She's sweet, and in command, obviously good leader material. Yet her obvious competitiveness gives her an edge and keeps her from being a Mary Sue. She says "I'd like to see you try" when other Amazons and Superheroes try to beat her, she scoffs at Cassie when she first appears and makes a comment about her size and age.

Oddly enough, this issue of TTG got the heart of what it MEANS to be Wonder Girl. The way I see it, the main traits of Wonder Woman's sidekicks are being ridicuolously confident and comfortable in their own skin, sure of their ability to lead and do. After all, isn't Wonder Girl supposed to be a role model for teenage girls?

Cassie and Donna, as they were originally concieved, both shared the traits of being very confident, very comfortable with themselves (despite Donna's unsteady origin), competitive, and powerful. Leader material. Yet Donna is very down to earth. She's everybody's therapist too. Have a problem? Go to Donna. She's so sweet it makes your teeth hurt, and so good with other people it's scary, but as I see her, she should have a feirce temper and too self assured sometimes.

Cassie is 2.0 and a more modern version. She lacks Donna's down to earth ness and therapist qualities, yet she's such a strong personality, it's overwhelming. She's a self starter, and extremely gung ho about everything she does. She's impulsive, but a good thinker. She'll butt heads with anyone and everyone, and she loves what she does.

Look at Donna and Cassie now. Due to bad writing, shadows of what they once were. Could you look at modern Cassie and believe this is the girl who was gutsy enough, lively enough to steal powerful artifacts to go face a huge villian because GOD, she wants to help Wonder Woman! She wants to be hero! Could you believe Cassie as she is today could stand up to Zeuss, and demand her give her superpowers because she's brave enough and strong enough for them, dammit!

Well, I can't.

And Donna Troy...well, Countdown. So not Donna.

Wait, I was talking about TTG, wasn't I?

Yeah, this issue was great.

5/5.

Well, that's it. 4 days till the Robin/Spoiler special!

Was just thinking about the term (okay for a reason, but best not to get into that)

It is HORRIBLE to compare women (or men) who get passionate about feminism to nazi's.

Maybe I'm just a very sensitive person. I am not Jewish, or close to anybody Jewish, but I am human, and just hearing the word "nazi" if I'm in a particular mood, will send me into a flashback of all the literature I've read on the subject (for some reason, I do find myself reading about World War II a lot. It's inexplicable, sort of like how I ended up reading a lot about anorexia...actually, I think I was trying to convince myself not to obsess over my weight...it worked, though the growth spurt helped) and all the videos and my stomach just CHURNS and I get so ANGRY over what happened.

I'm not perfect, I have used the term  "nazi" lightly. In a fit of anger I called my Mom one a few weeks ago actually. But then I thought "Did I REALLY just compare my fairly awesome if not obsessed with my grades and every little detail of my life mother to a friggin' NAZI?" And I said sorry.

I mean, it's so CUTE. "Hey, you can put nazi at the end of feminism! Whenever someone argues with you, you can call them a feminazi! It will automatically shame them and render their opinions invalid. Look how the words go together it's like "rawesome" !

To compare someone passionate about sexism in COMICS to a nazi?

YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT A COMIC BOOK. SOMEONE WHO DISAGREES WITH YOU or hell, even if they DO think they're superior to you, is not a nazi.

This is debating on the Internet about comics. Consider that this is actually not that big a deal in the big scheme of things.

I try to keep myself in check when I debate about comics. I catch myself getting too passionate about Steph or something, and I have to remind myself there's REAL injustices out there.

I have never, ever met a women complaining about sexism in comics who does not actually love comics. I love comics. But I will complain if it is called for.

And no, I don't mind seeing heroine's in peril. In fact, I love to see my favorite superheroines  and get the shit beaten out of them. It makes me root for them harder. I don't mind when they die. Ferinstance Gert in Runaways was my fave character in that book yet you never see me complain. Cuz it was good death. An awesome, heroic death. It was touching, and she was strong 'till the end, and it actually served a purpose in the story.

Oh right, I was talking about feminazi's or something.

It's not cute or a good descriptive word. It's like saying "You're like Hitler!" in an argument, it shows you think you're so great obviously your opponent is an EVIL FASCIST! That somehow, by insulting them, by hurling this loaded word at them, you've defeated them.

I don't care if they are the most annoying person in the world, if they call mysogyny everywhere and hate comics. That doesn't make them a nazi. It just makes you pathetic for calling them one.

Oh, and while we're at it, you're arguing on the INTERNET. Making the assumption someone hates men or something is very grand considering you don't know who they ARE.

And, yes, I have been called the feminazi. It made me laugh in an incredulous sort of way. YES BEWARE MY HORRIBLE HATRED YOU HAVE ANNOYED ME RARGH! I'm so frightening.

( I am the Internet )</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
ME: Wait...so being fully clothed and having normal body proportions isn't sexy?

Excuse me if I don't run out and get a boob job and wear a bikini upon hearing this.

When a character is just "sexy" they are NOT a character. They need to have something more to them or else they're just something for fanboys to masturbate too. Selina may be sexy, but there's a lot more to her than that. She's also morally ambiguous, dangerous ect. Saying if you take away her sexy she's just generic is a huge disservice to the character.

Selena is sexy. But she's still sexy if she doesn't have magical inflatable boobs and decides to wear clothes while, y' know, being an unpowered crimefighter against dangerous criminals.

If you want an example of "sexy without character" look at the Catwoman movie. Halle didn't wear clothes. So obviously that movie totally got the character amiright?

---

Chris was just SPEECHLESS about my reply. GodDAMN, I had no idea I was so shocking. This had nothing to do with tits! He wasn't saying anything about boobs! This really confused me since I only mentioned boobs, like, once.

Meanwhile, reflecto congratulated me on my awesome. Haha, kidding. But he did congratulate me. Finally, some backup!

And Chris continues to obsess over, HE NEVER MENTIONED BOOBS DAMMIT!

Me: You were responding to a quote about women being normally proportioned a clothed by saying taking away Catwoman's sex makes her generic. "Normally proprotioned" generally refers to breast size. And that was only a small part of my reply.

I'm pretty sure Holly being boring as Catwoman had more to do with her not being Selena, and not having Selena's experience or attitude. But you've changed your argument around a little, so yes, I do agree being sensual is a part of Selena as Catwoman, but only one part. She has other things going for her, like her dangerous attitude and teetering on the edge of right and wrong. Being normally proportioned and fully clothed like she is now does not take away anything from her.

Chris pretty much responded: BUT I NEVER MENTIONED BOOBS! SELENA SHOULD BE SEXY!

...I decided to leave well enough alone.

But it wasn't over. Oh no.


Haven't read past page 6, but I think I'll jump in here and say that I go by Brian LaBelle's philosophy here. When men in comics are depicted with realistic proportions, then you gals can start your case on that issue.

....

....

People are still using that argument?

Me: I wish I could pull out the bingo card here, but it's my school computer so I can't get to the link...

First of all, it's not "you gals". There's lots of men who want female characters to be respected too.

The issue is men in comics are designed to be the power fantasy for men. Women in comics are designed to be the sexual fantasy...for MEN. They give men teh muscles because they want them to look powerful. They give women teh sexy because they want them to look like "I'd do her."

Both women and men in comics are generally drawn by men. They are aimed to that demographic. So making men have big muscles is apparently what guys WANT.

It's not just about breast size. It's about the shutting out of females everywhere. Do you ever wonder why there aren't more girls on this board? It's not because girls don't like action, or superheroes, or comics. The fact that manga and shows like Avatar and that kind bring in a huge female demographic proves that.

It's because the superhero industry doesn't care enough about women to make the effort to stop drawing and writing their heroines to randomly pose sexily in the middle of a fight, or wear cleavage bearing shirts for no reason, or to always be downplayed for male characters. They shut out a huge potential audience in doing that.

It doesn't matter if the women are sexual. My examples prove that. Look at manga, women are sexual there. Look at Avatar, there's equal oppurtunity fanservice. But those women are aimed to appeal to females as well as males, therefore they can be sensual without being objectified. And the men are sexualized just as much, unlike in our genre.

(I don't read Manga by the way, my best friend does and this is what she tells and shows me)

And just because there's a problem with how men are depicted in comics doesn't mean we're going to force ourselves to ignore the problem with women. That's like ignoring racism because sexism is also a problem.

/rant over. I've said what I want to say, and I know it will never get through to some of you.

Besides, this is actually a thread about Catwoman being cancelled and stuff, before it was derailed (which happened before I arrived, thanx.) Soooo what does everyone think about that?
...

YEAH MY RAGE IS RIGHTEOUS!

Actually, I didn't really care. I just felt the need to refute the ridiculous argument.

But it went on.

Chris:

you are right. I'm like a boob zombie....I just ale around the comic shop with my arms out going BoOoOOoobS! BooooOOOOoOOOOoBS! it's awesome.

Oh I also prefer men

...

...He really does think about them a lot doesn't he? This is especially suprising considering this last line means he's gay, I take it.

But my OTHER opponent had a bit more meat to his argument:


I fail to see a lot of blatant disrespect of women in comics these days. There are a bunch of female lead characters in DC and Marvel, and they get some solid writing and great character development. But hey, I lean more to the writing than the art when I think about a book.

...

Wow. Three sentences in and I had no idea how to continue. No. Blatant. Disrespect.

Hmmm...we were talking about Catwoman?



Ouch. And yet Selena's one of the lucky ones.



That argument can make just as much sense if you flip it around the other way. This isn't to try to belittle your opinion, but I can just as easily say that it's a power fantasy for women, and that men drawn that way are a sexual fantasy for women.

Oh, and please stop with the "teh" stuff, I get why you do it, it's to make the point that someone saying it is stupid, but it really hurts your argument as a whole.


...Now he's telling me how to talk. And that a simple flippant word hurts my ENTIRE ARGUMENT!  And...this is a power fantasy for women...because huge boobs? THEY ARE POWERFUL! Sticklike arms? Heels? Skimpy costumes? SO POWERFUL? And how the hell could it be a power fantasy for women if...women aren't usually involved in the creative process.

Blahblah Big muscles are the evolution of an art form...

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

And we have liek so many women on this board!

Yeah, a lot less than on Superdickery though, I noticed.

Something about Pretty Woman and Rambo that made no sense...

And...

"I don't think that's the case at all. There are (Or at least until recently, were) a bunch of female characters that had their own books. They are very much in a position where both male and female readers care about them, and writers, both male and female, do a heck of a job writing them. "


As for he art, take a look at the first few arcs in Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey. I believe the artists were Joe Bennet and Ed Benes, who draw very much in the vein that you complain about. Large chests, skimpy outfits and the like. There was a woman writing the book, who has a history of not taking too kindly to women being demeaned in comics, so if it was really that disrespectful, don't you think that Gail would have said "No, those shorts are too small, or Helena's chest is too large" ?

Once again, too huge of a understatement for me to argue.

Just two things:

There are (Or at least until recently, were) a bunch of female characters that had their own books

I do believe he just argued FOR me.

There was a woman writing the book, who has a history of not taking too kindly to women being demeaned in comics, so if it was really that disrespectful, don't you think that Gail would have said "No, those shorts are too small, or Helena's chest is too large" ?

Um, no? Because that's not her job? And saying something like that might put her job in jepeordy? And the fact Gail doesn't like women being demeaned in comics pretty much mean women ARE being demeaned, doesn't it? Thus tearing his argument to shreds?


Well, you won't hear me bad mouth Avatar, I think the show is brilliant (haven't read the comic, wasn't even aware there was one), but I say it's story content over all, I think stories are more geared to female readers than men.

*blinks* Um, Avatar is geared towards females?

...The, uh, main character is a male. And the action figure peoples forgot about the female character when they put them out.

But, because this show has strong female characters who are a lot of times more badass than the guys and equal oppurtunity fanservice, it's OBVIOUSLY female geared.

I'd say Avatar is geared towards everyone. And that's why it's AWESOME.

He then goes on about the anime art style which has nothing to do with anything...

And he just basically said in his post (parts not posted here) women didn't like action as a majority (I am a freakish mutation, y'see)

Avatar has a helluva lotta action.

But it's geared toward women?

It's like he's on my side!

And...


"But that's the thing, there really isn't much of a problem at all. It's pulp art. It's supposed to be over the top and fun."

...Sexism is fun?

The rest of the thread was people yelling at reflecto and telling him to leave.

So, I realized, my argument was pretty futile. So I made one final post and ran for the hill. To complain on my blog. And brag about how superior I am to everyone else. BECAUSE THIS IS THE INTERNET!




...I'm a writer. It is my dream. I pay tons of attention to the writing.

...The female lead characters are being marginalized a lot. I don't understand how you can't see that. There are some good female solo books, but not in comparison to the sheer number of male solo books out there. I believe just comparing the relaunch of Wonder Woman and how it was handled as to how Batman and Superman have been handled...yes, they wised up and got Gail on the job, but she has a hell of a mess to deal with. Do you really believe this would have happened with Batman? I could go on with a ZILLION examples. But, you know what? I can't. It's too mind boggling.

I'm not going to get into a huge circular argument. I get too emotionally involved in most arguments on the Internet, and really, I'd just lose. I'm only sixteen and I make a lot of mistakes.

So I'm gonna check out of this thread. However, a lot of you, and I've seen this attitude a lot around the 'Bloc, simply seem to thing misogyny does not exist. This is also mindboggling, since do you REALLY thing Girl-Wonder would exist if there wasn't at least sort of a problem? That Mother Jones would publish an article? That there are so many feminist blogs about comics out there?

So, pretty much far too tired to go into a screed on my own about it, I'm just gonna link a few blogs. I hope this doesn't seem elitist or cowardly or anything, I just know these people express it better than me.

If any of this intrigues you, by all means, check out the blogs. "Girls Read Comics" in particular is very enjoyable for me, because Karen's funny. I always advise reading up on the opposition's arguments if you're going to make one against it. And you might learm some cool stuff!

Here's some Bingo. I think you guys are perilously close to getting it.

http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?p=66

And here's why those arguments wont work!

http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?p=4

Here's an article from Ami Angelwings. She likes netspeak, which from you "teh" comment I understand you hate (by the way, I will type in whichever fashion I choose, and I really don't care if you think something that trivial hurts my argument) but she makes some excellent points.

http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?cat=17

And here's Goodbye to Comics, by a woman who actually worked at DC! It's a pretty moving story, if a little graphic in some parts. Scroll down and go back a few pages to get to the beginning. And this is legit. Valerie has given her full identity to the internets and there's been some actual media stuff.

http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogsp...%20To%20Comics

And for the shear NUMBER of women and men blogging about sexism in comics? When Fangirls attack is an awesome archive of this. Seriously, there's some good stuff in there, not only protesting sexism, but celebrating women in comics. And from the opposition as well. The archive is huge, so...

http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/



There. Now I take my leave. This thread is supposed to be about Catwoman, and I never wanted to start a huge thing. I don't like stirring stuff up, I'm much fonder of being silly. Maybe we should split some of this stuff into a "Gender in comix" thread?

And none of the girls I know like Pretty Woman.

I'm just saying.

And Avatar isn't a comic, don't worry about that. I never said that. :/

And I don't understand why you think it's geared towards females. It's geared at everyone as far as I can see.

....

And so I ran away. Like the true heroine I am.

Oh, hey! I already have a response!


"Wow. I think a lot of people in here need to chill.

I know the internet feels like your own personal soapbox, but c'mon, it's just a difference in opinion.

The way I see it, some people need hard evidence before they accuse someone (especially someone that they don't personally know) of something and give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise, and some people are ready to declare war at what they personally feel is the first sign of trouble (usually trying to use their personal feelings/perceptions or, others who feel the same way as they do, as evidence... which sadly, it isn't)."

...What? Does that? Mean?

*Throws hands in air*

Okay. I'm chillin'. Like a VILLIAN! : P





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