Batwoman Rules
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
The collected trade editions of DC’s New 52 are starting to roll out, and the current title at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover graphic novels is Batwoman: Hydrology. Yep, that book with a near all-female cast of regulars, with a lesbian protagonist who is fully dressed as she fights crime.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the artist of the title is something of a creative genius who experiments gorgeously with panel design and extraordinary, powerful artwork… and the writing is also excellent, complex and intriguing.
I’m still reading a handful of New 52s, but there are only three titles from the original run that I would buy in trade, despite owning all the issues electronically: Batwoman, Batgirl and Wonder Woman. Not because I am deeply obsessed by the women of the Batfamily (I’m obsessed with a lot of things, including Black Canary and Justice League International, and I don’t buy their titles currently) but because these three are the best written, most engaging of the titles I have come across - and for me, portraying women in a non-sucky way is a dealbreaker when it comes to defining good writing and engagitude.
Batwoman is a brilliant title, and it makes me happy to see how many readers it has gathered, both of the female and male variety, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the occasional shower scene or lesbian clinch in the book - the characters are dealt with respectfully in the artwork as well as the script. I did suck my breath in a bit at the recent story development in which nasty things happened to a younger female hero in the ensemble, but I am trusting the writer to continue her story and allow her to have plot consequences played out, rather than disappearing her to serve the story’s hero.
Also, I have to say, while the iPad and Comixology’s motion moving thing are pretty damn good for reading comics, I do think that the experience misses out somewhat on the sweeping, clever layouts of these comics (though it is kinda fun to see the panels first and the pictures they form at the end of each page).
This is the comic that shows you don’t have to treat female characters as acrobatic cheesecake body pillows in order to appeal to readers - even male readers. Funnily enough, if you apply an awesome script, great art and clever arc plotting to a bunch of characters, the readers will flock to the title even if said characters are women. And they will TELL THEIR FRIENDS.
Meanwhile, over at Galactic Chat we have put up the panel we recorded at Continuum a few weeks ago, when Grant Watson, Russell Blackford, Alice Clarke and myself had a good old chat about iconic female superheroes, where they are, and why we need them to be treated better.
I’m feeling the need for some serious female superhero bloggery… ooh, a theme! More later, then.