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May. 11th, 2006 01:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holliYou know, I wasn't going to wade into the latest round of Comics Are For Girls Too, Goddammit. I mean, yes, I'm totally going to pitch in with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monkeycrackmary's girl_wonder project, but I didn't really want to get into the whole fight, becuase it's been fought before, and it's going to be fought again, and I don't even read that many comics anymore, and I'm not really *that* angry, am I?
But then I started responding to this thread at Pandagon, and you know what? I'm angrier than I thought I was.
Here's the thing. Female comics fans aren't angry solely because the art is exploitative. If it were just the art, you know what? I could deal. I'd still find it a little hinky that Jim Lee had Huntress running around with a bare midriff, considering the woman's been gut-shot before and should probably cover that shit *up*, but I could deal. I could deal with Supergirl looking and dressing like Super Paris Hilton, with Jade's ass cleavage, with Wonder Girl morphing from a goggle-wearing bewigged preteen to yet another blonde nymphette-- all of it, i could deal with, if it weren't for the writing.
Jesus god, the writing. Why can't anyone come up with a better way to put their (nearly always male) heroes through the wringer than by offing their girlfriends in (nearly always sexualized) ways? Why does Robin II have a case in the Batcave, when Robin IV seems to have been forgotten entirely by everyone but her best friend? Why does editorial let their writers get away with goddamn *lazy* storytelling, when it's so often at the expense of female characters? For that matter, how is the mentality that led DC editorial to tell Alan Moore to "cripple the bitch" in The Killing Joke still-- fucking *still*-- the one that dictates the lives of the characters I love?
I wish I were a Marvel fan too, so I could give you cites that aren't DC-- but then, *not* being a Marvel fan means I only read the stuff that comes recommended, so I can be happy about Jessica Jones or the Young Avengers without having to deal with all the bullshit.
For a while there, I was dropping close to $50 a month on comics. These days, when I bother at all, there are maybe three books I'm still willing to buy. And if DC doesn't seem to want my money, why should i bother? What's the point in being a fan, when all it means it that I know enough about the medium to be consistently pissed off at the way female characters get marginalized, objectified, killed off and forgotten?
monkeycrackmary's girl_wonder project, but I didn't really want to get into the whole fight, becuase it's been fought before, and it's going to be fought again, and I don't even read that many comics anymore, and I'm not really *that* angry, am I?But then I started responding to this thread at Pandagon, and you know what? I'm angrier than I thought I was.
Here's the thing. Female comics fans aren't angry solely because the art is exploitative. If it were just the art, you know what? I could deal. I'd still find it a little hinky that Jim Lee had Huntress running around with a bare midriff, considering the woman's been gut-shot before and should probably cover that shit *up*, but I could deal. I could deal with Supergirl looking and dressing like Super Paris Hilton, with Jade's ass cleavage, with Wonder Girl morphing from a goggle-wearing bewigged preteen to yet another blonde nymphette-- all of it, i could deal with, if it weren't for the writing.
Jesus god, the writing. Why can't anyone come up with a better way to put their (nearly always male) heroes through the wringer than by offing their girlfriends in (nearly always sexualized) ways? Why does Robin II have a case in the Batcave, when Robin IV seems to have been forgotten entirely by everyone but her best friend? Why does editorial let their writers get away with goddamn *lazy* storytelling, when it's so often at the expense of female characters? For that matter, how is the mentality that led DC editorial to tell Alan Moore to "cripple the bitch" in The Killing Joke still-- fucking *still*-- the one that dictates the lives of the characters I love?
I wish I were a Marvel fan too, so I could give you cites that aren't DC-- but then, *not* being a Marvel fan means I only read the stuff that comes recommended, so I can be happy about Jessica Jones or the Young Avengers without having to deal with all the bullshit.
For a while there, I was dropping close to $50 a month on comics. These days, when I bother at all, there are maybe three books I'm still willing to buy. And if DC doesn't seem to want my money, why should i bother? What's the point in being a fan, when all it means it that I know enough about the medium to be consistently pissed off at the way female characters get marginalized, objectified, killed off and forgotten?
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 06:22 am (UTC)See, this is the thing. I think the bad-female-writing happens a lot ess in Marvel than it does DC, but that might just be my giant anti-DCU bias talking. The worst case I can think of is Jean, but again, I'm horribly biased against her as well, so I don't know if it's just my dislike of her character or real bad writing there.
Probably the case that annoys me the most is the Millar/Land combination currently working on Ultimate Fantastic Four. In previous issues, even those not written by Warren Ellis who has the comic midas touch, Sue was awesome, badass, and pretty much had it over Reed, Johnny and Ben in every way. But Millar and Land come along and, well, ew. So wrong in so many ways, and I'm not just talking about the pornstar photo referencing Land uses all the time (no rly). Even Emma Frost is a well-rounded character compared to Millar's Sue, and to say the last I'm really not liking Whedon's writing of Frost in Astonishing. Not because it's bad or exploitative, but because it's cliched and predictable.
I think the worst case of pointless eyecandy I can think of that isn't DC is Priscilla from the Wildstorm universe. Even during the serious stuff where she lost her legs (and regrew them thanks to her alien DNA after she got refrigerator'd) she was still kind of... does "DCish" make sense in this context? ;) I dunno. Before that she was just depicted as an airhead shopaholic and a dancer who really was only in the fighting team because of her halfbreed status that meant she had shapechanging abilities. Never really had anything filled out with her like Zealot did and all.
I shall have to go away and find some real Marvel examples so you know what to avoid.