Friday, September 30, 2011

Women getting the shaft on the new DCnU

Now that September has wrapped up and all 52 new titles are out, it is time to start taking a deeper look at the new DCnU.  While some excellent titles reviving the excitement on women superheroes have been released (including Batwoman being superb, Wonder Woman going back to her former glory and Batgirl back into kicking some butt) the new launch of DCnU titles seems to mostly fail trying to portray women comic characters and super heroines in any other way than sex symbols for comic dorks. Is this how they view us male readers? Like that’s what we would like in a comic? Like that’s what a new audience of young women and men would want in a comic? Do they really think I want to be embarrassed reading a comic book? And do they really think I want my daughters remotely close to these books? Here’s at the top of my head what we’ve seen in September:

  • Justice League Dark establishes proudly (at The Source) a new record for most ways of killing a blonde woman on the street displayed in one single splash page. Really?
  • Amanda Waller’s awesome stature, figure and presence gets reduced to a skinny, younger, exposed bra version of herself that only resembles her in name and race.
  • Catwoman likes to have her breasts and bras out in the air a lot. It seems Judd Winick (who I am a fan of) decided to unzip her outfit for every panel.
  • Voodoo spent a whole book in her underwear, literally beating Catwoman for exposition time, perhaps because being a lesser known character she needs to get more exposure. But this kind of exposure, really? This gem is coming from the man that put Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend in a refrigerator, who must have read “Boobs do!” instead of Voodoo as his assignment.
  • Harley Quinn got the look of a kinky S&M sociopath. That is going to end well.
  • Starfire got updated from a see-through bikini to a partial one, but got more splash pages than Playboy and Hustler this month. She also lost all memory of who she was and now has sex with all humans alike because we are all the same. Coming soon to a comic fan bed near you!
  • Karen Starr (Power Girl) showed up not in a book of her own but as a potential squeeze of the hour for Mr. Terrific. That's just that, terrific.
  • Hookers are getting killed in Gotham in the times of All-Star Western.
  • Iris West (not Allen anymore) is a stalking Barry. But that’s just because “she comes on a little strong”
  • Bleez’s behind gets a lot of screen time in two books that are not about her exclusively, and there is a great cover with her in a blood bath coming soon.
  • Martha Kent is dead.
  • Mary (from I, vampire) mixes sex with every item of conversation
  • Carol Ferris is not Star Sapphire anymore, she just wants to have Hal’s babies. He just wants a cosign for a car loan.

It is a shame that some of the good releases will be outdone by the multiple faux pas DC makes every week with the revamped DCnU. But DC is not even trying. Adding diversity and women in your books by making Ms. Izzy Izquierdo a partner in crime with Perry White is not going to cut it if you are going to destroy most women characters and over-sexualize the others.

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