Comics
Hi, I'm alive. Things have been a bit hectic and I've also had very little drive to blog lately. But hello again, world.
Since things have been hectic, I hadn't picked up comics for... oh, about two months. I finally did, and I'd like to make a short post about The Women Comics-- not the indy stuff, or stuff like Runways that people give to chicks they'd like to get interested in comics (although whoever thought of doing that to Runaways seriously hates all that is good and right with the world)-- I mean the small handful mainstream comics starring women that accumulated in my box while I was off trying not to go crazy. Considering how long I've been out of the loop, a couple of these are a bit old now, but oh well.
Gotham City Sirens, Issue 1: I get the feeling I want to like this more than I really did. I don't think the series is bad, and it certainly avoided some of the traps that female-centric comics often fall into, but I think the fact that I'm not much inclined to like Poison Ivy or Harley influenced my opinion. I like the idea of a group of women getting together to cause mayhem, but I also feel like not only have I seen this plot before (the Harley and Ivy comic comes to mind), it bothers me a little that often the only time we see a bunch of women grouping together for their own mental health they're often the bad guys.
Weirdly, I think my favorite scenes in the issue revolved around male characters-- Boneblaster and Riddler's mini-scene was hilarious, and The Broker may be one of my favorite character concepts ever. I'm not sure if this is my latent tendency to prefer side-characters coming out again, or whether there's something about the treatment of Harley, Ivy and Catwoman that is turning me off.
Wonder Woman, Issue 33: I can't be the only one who thinks having the Amazon Queen replaced by a man is entirely missing the point of Themyscira in the first place, can I? I mean, it's "The Island of Women" and supposedly, the Amazons seriously suck at dealing with men of any kind, which is why Diana was their ambassador to "The World of Men" in the first place. It doesn't really make sense that it's suddenly totally okay for a man to take over Hippolyta's mission and men to move onto the island as relief for the Amazon warriors. No one suggested that maybe all of this would have worked a little better if Zeus had, oh say, made their relief to be another group of women, and that freaked me out.
I love Gail Simone's writing as a general rule, but the turn of this plot is freaking me out with it's epic point missage. Personally, I'm not sure that the way a group would react if they were told they were being "replaced" by the sort of people they generally consider their antitheses.
All New Savage She-Hulk, Issue 3 (of 4): It's a cute mini-series and the rather obvious plot twist still made me laugh, if only because LOL giant green lady grabbing Norman Osborne and kissing him when he least expects it. I'm not sure how they're going to tie up all the plot threads in the last issue, what with the Dark Avengers and She-Hulk and Lyra and time travel and alternate universes all over the place, but I approve of a comic with a sense of humor about what it's doing and I double approve of any comic She-Hulk is in. The comic hasn't really fleshed Lyra out as well as I'd like, although the back-up comic gave her a little bit more Oomph than she had before.
Also, Noh-Varr's bitchy little speech about parallel universes will never not be awesome.
Marvel Divas, Issue 1 (of 4): I was expecting to get hit in the face with sexism and cheesecake after reading the book's summary a month or so ago, but it's about Monica Rambeau so I couldn't not buy it. Despite the extraordinarily cheesecake-y cover (giant tits! waists smaller than their thighs! feet that are perpetually in fuck-me heel posture even without the shoes!) the story itself is decent and the art surprised me at how cheesecake-y it wasn't. The plot it definitely more Sex and the City than I'd like, and there's a lot of talk about boyfriends, but I think that they actually got a lot of good character development in. It seems as though the book is being set up to be very fighting-light, considering that the book revolved around Hellcat's book premier, discussion of their friendship and relationships and the reveal that Firebird has cancer. On the other hand, the author has a good grasp of smalltalk, and he's managed to work in a lot of nice details about the characters.
While I have some minor issues about the fact that there's a lot of very stereotypically "feminine" responses in the book-- sniping about the A-List heroines, talking about boyfriends, and the like, I like the slice-of-lifeness enough to overlook its problems. And kudos to the artist for slipping in a cute fat chick in one scene.
Miss America , Issue 1 (of 1): HEY MARVEL! Why the hell isn't this an on-going monthly? I would definitely buy the monthly adventures of Madeline Joyce, as she battles Madame Mauzer, Penny Panzer, L'Vichy Vixen, Fraulein Fatale, and Axis Annie (Girl Spy). While they author was clearly attempting to make a statement about women in WWII, I think that an on-going series with that kind of self-awareness might be interesting. Marvel also wouldn't have to worry about it in relation with their current continuity stuff, seeing as how it's set in the 1940s. But... no.
Anyway, I liked it, even though it was ridiculously cheesy, and was seriously irritated that the back-up 1940s reprints in the book were about The Whizzer and not about Miss America.
I know there are other Comics What Are About Girls, but I don't buy them. If there's one you think I should, tell me.
And I am pleased to learn that Rikki Barnes-- Bucky's female alternate dimension counterpart-- will be getting her own mini-series, Nomad: Girl Without a World in September
Since things have been hectic, I hadn't picked up comics for... oh, about two months. I finally did, and I'd like to make a short post about The Women Comics-- not the indy stuff, or stuff like Runways that people give to chicks they'd like to get interested in comics (although whoever thought of doing that to Runaways seriously hates all that is good and right with the world)-- I mean the small handful mainstream comics starring women that accumulated in my box while I was off trying not to go crazy. Considering how long I've been out of the loop, a couple of these are a bit old now, but oh well.
Gotham City Sirens, Issue 1: I get the feeling I want to like this more than I really did. I don't think the series is bad, and it certainly avoided some of the traps that female-centric comics often fall into, but I think the fact that I'm not much inclined to like Poison Ivy or Harley influenced my opinion. I like the idea of a group of women getting together to cause mayhem, but I also feel like not only have I seen this plot before (the Harley and Ivy comic comes to mind), it bothers me a little that often the only time we see a bunch of women grouping together for their own mental health they're often the bad guys.
Weirdly, I think my favorite scenes in the issue revolved around male characters-- Boneblaster and Riddler's mini-scene was hilarious, and The Broker may be one of my favorite character concepts ever. I'm not sure if this is my latent tendency to prefer side-characters coming out again, or whether there's something about the treatment of Harley, Ivy and Catwoman that is turning me off.
Wonder Woman, Issue 33: I can't be the only one who thinks having the Amazon Queen replaced by a man is entirely missing the point of Themyscira in the first place, can I? I mean, it's "The Island of Women" and supposedly, the Amazons seriously suck at dealing with men of any kind, which is why Diana was their ambassador to "The World of Men" in the first place. It doesn't really make sense that it's suddenly totally okay for a man to take over Hippolyta's mission and men to move onto the island as relief for the Amazon warriors. No one suggested that maybe all of this would have worked a little better if Zeus had, oh say, made their relief to be another group of women, and that freaked me out.
I love Gail Simone's writing as a general rule, but the turn of this plot is freaking me out with it's epic point missage. Personally, I'm not sure that the way a group would react if they were told they were being "replaced" by the sort of people they generally consider their antitheses.
All New Savage She-Hulk, Issue 3 (of 4): It's a cute mini-series and the rather obvious plot twist still made me laugh, if only because LOL giant green lady grabbing Norman Osborne and kissing him when he least expects it. I'm not sure how they're going to tie up all the plot threads in the last issue, what with the Dark Avengers and She-Hulk and Lyra and time travel and alternate universes all over the place, but I approve of a comic with a sense of humor about what it's doing and I double approve of any comic She-Hulk is in. The comic hasn't really fleshed Lyra out as well as I'd like, although the back-up comic gave her a little bit more Oomph than she had before.
Also, Noh-Varr's bitchy little speech about parallel universes will never not be awesome.
Marvel Divas, Issue 1 (of 4): I was expecting to get hit in the face with sexism and cheesecake after reading the book's summary a month or so ago, but it's about Monica Rambeau so I couldn't not buy it. Despite the extraordinarily cheesecake-y cover (giant tits! waists smaller than their thighs! feet that are perpetually in fuck-me heel posture even without the shoes!) the story itself is decent and the art surprised me at how cheesecake-y it wasn't. The plot it definitely more Sex and the City than I'd like, and there's a lot of talk about boyfriends, but I think that they actually got a lot of good character development in. It seems as though the book is being set up to be very fighting-light, considering that the book revolved around Hellcat's book premier, discussion of their friendship and relationships and the reveal that Firebird has cancer. On the other hand, the author has a good grasp of smalltalk, and he's managed to work in a lot of nice details about the characters.
While I have some minor issues about the fact that there's a lot of very stereotypically "feminine" responses in the book-- sniping about the A-List heroines, talking about boyfriends, and the like, I like the slice-of-lifeness enough to overlook its problems. And kudos to the artist for slipping in a cute fat chick in one scene.
Miss America , Issue 1 (of 1): HEY MARVEL! Why the hell isn't this an on-going monthly? I would definitely buy the monthly adventures of Madeline Joyce, as she battles Madame Mauzer, Penny Panzer, L'Vichy Vixen, Fraulein Fatale, and Axis Annie (Girl Spy). While they author was clearly attempting to make a statement about women in WWII, I think that an on-going series with that kind of self-awareness might be interesting. Marvel also wouldn't have to worry about it in relation with their current continuity stuff, seeing as how it's set in the 1940s. But... no.
Anyway, I liked it, even though it was ridiculously cheesy, and was seriously irritated that the back-up 1940s reprints in the book were about The Whizzer and not about Miss America.
I know there are other Comics What Are About Girls, but I don't buy them. If there's one you think I should, tell me.
And I am pleased to learn that Rikki Barnes-- Bucky's female alternate dimension counterpart-- will be getting her own mini-series, Nomad: Girl Without a World in September