Full of Whoa!

glockgal:

fullofwhoa replied to your post: Do you have a, shall we call it, “forever fandom”,…

Haha, I’m kind of in the opposite place right now. The “DC new 52” kinda broke my enthusiasm for DC. But lately I’ve been getting back into Harry Potter, after mostly staying away for several years!

OMG it’s like a reversal!  :D  

I don’t blame you for feeling broken after the 52 Reboot thing.  If I was actively passionate and collecting comics while that happened, it would’ve broken me too. Thinking about it, I can’t quite remember why I abandoned DCU in the first place? It happened around the whole Bruce Wayne: Murderer event, but I honestly think my interests just waned.

(Unlike say X-Men, where I remember being actively repulsed by the Onslaught crossover event where Prof X lusted after Jean Grey…ugh.  omg that was in 1996.  JESUS I AM SO DATED.)

OMG, it IS a reversal! What’s weird is that after I was kinda like “ehhh I’m sick of HP”, one of the first DC trades I bought was Bruce Wayne: Murderer (and then the BW: Fugitive ones). I can see why that event would be frustrating when buying it monthly, but reading it in trades I enjoyed it overall, despite it’s problems. (But then I think I’m more interested in his supporting cast, so that arc was kinda like “Batman’s Family And Sidekicks Are Amazing, Bruce Learns To Be Nicer And Grateful But Will Probably Forget That Lesson In Two Months”.)

But yeah, basically the majority of what I liked had been disappearing from the DCU (Oracle, Cass Cain, Roy and Lian Harper, Jaime Reyes, Booster Gold and his undying love for dead Ted Kord, etc) and the new 52 was just like, “yeah, it’s ALL gone now”. Grrrr.

Now I am suddenly interested in Post-Hogwarts and the Trio and Weasleys being old farts with kids everywhere! (Speaking of which I *LOVE* the Fred/Angelina +kids art you did.)

When do you say, “enough”?

dcwomenkickingass:

“This is an initiative to build and reshape an industry we all love…” Dan DiDio, DC Nation June, 2011.

“This is a great opportunity for people to come in and start collecting comics .. We’re trying to get new fans, people who never even bought a comic before to get excited about the medium .. We’re here to grow the industry and we’re going to do everything we can to do that.” Jim Lee, New 52 video, June 2011

As part of a two-pronged strategy to try to revive its moribund business and draw newer, younger readers, the nation’s oldest and best-known comic-book publisher has also decided to start over from scratch. Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2001

“There is a generational opportunity to get new readers,” said artist Rob Liefeld, who is drawing DC’s new “Hawk and Dove” series. “The industry has been stagnant, and it’s the right time to hit the reset button.” Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2001

 “The launch of DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 galvanized the traditional fan base for superhero comic books: male readers, who were already—or have at one time been—comic book fans.” DC Comics the Source, February 2011.

I said this morning on Twitter that I have never been more depressed about comics. The last few days it has become clear that despite the greatest make-over over at DC Comics in history,  a “generational opportunity”, there was really no change at all. There are few new readers and the demographics haven’t changed. Not that we didn’t know they wouldn’t. 

In the end I can’t even be mad. I am just sad, very sad. Sad that with the opportunity to revitalize an industry and put it on a path to a healthy, vital future it seems as there have been some some deck chair moving on a sinking ship.

An industry can’t grown if the audience does not grow and bring in fresh blood. Stealing share from your competitors can help your bottom line but doesn’t help the overall bottom line of the industry.

For years, there’s been lots written about how DC (and Marvel) need to expand beyond their traditional fan base. God knows, I’ve written plenty about it.

In the last few days with the results of this survey, there has been more written, not just by me but by other outlets. They point to the lack of young readers and the untapped potential of the female audience.

Over the last few days I have received notes telling me “STFU, see you don’t matter.” And “women DON”T read comics”.  It’s not unexpected and doesn’t bother me. It’s not as if most of these people need a reason to belittle women.

But I admit these results have bothered me and have left me asking myself, “Do I bother to try any more? Is the industry ever going to look outside their base? Do I try and recruit more readers to club where they are not really wanted except as a “nice to have?”

I honestly don’t know anymore. I really don’t. Earlier this week when DC announced the new digital comic Smallville, I was ready to write a post about how this was an excellent opportunity to bring female readers into comics.

But I’ve written that post so many times. And so many times, nothing happens. There’s no push, no marketing, no follow through.

I’ve written about the opportunities of marketing to women many times - the money sitting on the table.  I just interviewed a former DC editor about it two weeks ago. I’m not going to rehash it here.

So, yes, Smallville is an opportunity. But I doubt it will mean anything if things don’t change. And if they didn’t change in the biggest rebranding event in the history of the company, why would they now?

I hope I am wrong, but I suspect I am not.

When it comes to superhero comics and the opportunity of the female demographic it is like banging one’s head on a brick wall for all the change that comes.

I don’t know about others who share my view but my head is sore and the wall looks the same.

So, do you get a helmet? Or do blow a kiss for luck and walk away?

I think it’s time to think about that. 

re: Wonder Woman’s new origin

odditycollector:

steenar:

odditycollector:

steenar:

fullofwhoa:

steenar:

odditycollector:

First of all, that’s exactly what you are doing. You’re accusing someone (who you do not know personally at all) of sexism based solely on the fact that they gave Wonder Woman a dad.

Second, I never said it was “missing” some Greek mythology. I said they wanted to more DIRECTLY tie it to the mythology. In the origin you sent me, Wonder Woman was a creation of the gods’. In this new origin she is a direct descendant of a god. She would in fact be PART god.   

“You’re accusing someone (who you do not know personally at all) of sexism based solely on the fact that they gave Wonder Woman a dad.”

I assume you are responding here to me, as the person responsible for the original post. However, I can’t offer the rebuttal I’m practically certain you deserve from me, as I remain unsure who it is you think I’m aiming such a [le gasp!] horrid and indelible accusation towards. Unless it is [double le gasp!] every person ever?

On reread, I find that I was merely implying a connection between the inevitable, irreparable insult that any respectable male ego must suffer on its encountering a woman who has, on every literal level, never needed a man, and the recent and most necessary “repair” of her origin (by some small but fearless clade of men at DC Comics) to correct that error.

But, hey! Nevermind any of that! If the new Wonder Woman canon makes you feel slightly less empty in those existentially dangerous morning hours, you may reassure yourself that no amount of ladies being hysterical on the internet may take from you your justifications of the change as narratively satisfying and objectively unproblematic.

And smile to yourself, secure once again of your indispensability to the world.

And drift yourself gently back to sleep.

1. Could you be any more full of yourself?
2. By connecting this supposed “fear of Wonder Woman” to the changes in her origin you are accusing Brian Azzarello of sexism.
3. This change, in the long run, is not as major as people are making it out to be. She isn’t any less of the awesome, strong, empowered Wonder Woman she was before. In fact, by going against her own father and in turn a GOD she is even more awesome.
4. What Azzarello is writing has made Wonder Woman more interesting to a wider audience. If you don’t like his changes, then don’t like them. But don’t try to turn them into some big conspiracy DC is putting in place to connect every character to a man because they’re intimidated by a woman who has never needed a man.

1. Oh, my. Yes.

2. So? Everyone’s a little bit sexist. You’re a little bit sexist; Well, I’m a little bit too. Admitting it is not an easy thing to do… But I guess it’s true.

And I wouldn’t single out Brian Azzarello. I don’t know how the rebooted DCU was stirred together, but I’m sure there are plenty of gatekeepers to share the blame. It’s the result that matters, and it’s the context of the result that matters.

I’m ALSO not claiming the original post is the end all of explanations. It’s only a conversation that I found, in retrospect, exceedingly interesting. You may draw your own conclusions from it.

3. This change is an insult. This change is a slap in the face. And if you don’t understand the outcry, it’s because you were not the one insulted.

4. Azzarello is good at what he does, no argument. In fact, I have enough faith in his skill that I think he’d have succeeded even if the “Zeus” thing was shot down as it should have been.

And please. No one is positing a conspiracy, except as a bleak joke. What DC’s more likely guilty of is groupthink, is putting together a crack team of creative minds who are working from a set of similar and unchallenged assumptions that… well.

Brought us to a point where bleak jokes about conspiracies are necessary, I guess.

If there are annoyingly loud cries of “sexism!” at the changes to Starfire and Harley Quinn, and at Supergirl’s bared and red-framed side-butt, and at an un-weighty Amanda Waller in a cleavage bearing shirt, and at Wonder Woman’s story shifting to be about her reaction to a Paternal Figure she never needed before…

At some point, there starts to emerge a pattern.

re: Wonder Woman’s new origin

steenar:

odditycollector:

The most amusing (read: “amusing”) thing is that a couple years ago, I was discussing Wonder Woman with someone who offered that “Wonder Woman makes guys uncomfortable.”

Me: What, cause she can beat them up?

Her: No, because no man was involved in her genesis. Simply by her existence, she’s a threat to the assumption of male necessity.*

But of course, I did not take this theory very seriously!

People the joke is on: ME.

*English major. I am paraphrasing, but I got the impression she’d just finished an essay on the topic.

Really? I don’t see this change as the writer or editors or fans feeling intimidated by Wonder Woman’s original origin. They simply wanted to tie her more directly to Greek mythology. 

But I guess if you want to make everything about sexism. That’s your choice. 

“But I guess if you want to make everything about sexism. That’s your choice.”

“But I guess if you want to make everything about sexism. That’s your choice.”

“But I guess if you want to make everything about sexism. That’s your choice.”

“But I guess if you want to make everything about sexism. That’s your choice.”

“But I guess if you want to make everything about sexism. That’s your choice.”

Also:

“They simply wanted to tie her more directly to Greek mythology.”

Yeah, clearly her origin was missing some Greek mythology.

TELL ME SOMETHING I HAVEN’T HEARD

(This is to accompany this. Since apparently text-cuts don’t work in photo posts! Uhg, tumblr, why?!)

For a larger version of this image, go here.

About halfway through drawing this, I realized what I had created was effectively a Bingo Card, but perhaps a slightly more emotive one. So I’ll explain a bit of what’s behind it.

I first got into comics through feminist criticism of comics. I’m a feminist. And I love comics. The two things for me are inseparable, and I make no apologies for it. Both are a part of who I am. I’m also a fan of superheroes and superhero comics.

When it comes to discussions about women in comics, sexism in superhero comics, and so forth, I’m always reading, sometimes linking, and commenting a bit here and there. If you pay attention for a while as a female (and possibly feminist) comics reader, and/or superhero fan, you start to hear the same things over and over again. It becomes predictable and repetitive pretty quickly.

Below I’ve expanded on what I’m talking about. It’s lengthy, so it’s behind a text cut.

Read More

WHEREIN DC HAS AMNESIA

outofthecavern:

inventrix:

So I am reading that Cracked.com article, “The 6 Most WTF Special Edition Comics Ever Released”. Now first, for a quick refresher, here are the current Robin and Red Robin:

NOW THEN, take a look at these.

And please, note the comments.

hmmmmmmm

haha

lllawwlll

“Wings still do not work.”

(via failedblackwoman)