Back on the internets

I've had a really busy couple of weeks. Been to London and saw The Wildhearts (very very good despite the crappy balcony seats) and then been promptly ill for a week and a half. There's this bloody cold going round that's wiping out half of Norfolk and it's pretty much decimated my office.
To get back in the swing of things I thought I'd do something easy and go through the backlog of comics and write a few words.
But before that, good news in England - there are moves being made towards allowing the first born, regardless of sex, to be able to inherit the throne. In addition to this, a heir marrying someone of a different faith would also be allowed to keep the throne. I am not a monarchist, but i think that's good news. I think the succession rules say a lot about a country, and it's just daft to not let women or men marrying catholics/Jews/Hindus/Muslims/Sikhs etc to not be king or queen.

OK, topical stuff out of the way, onto the (my) fun.
Super titles:
Superman Beyond 3D I succumbed to the gimmick. I didn't really enjoy the comic, I'm not to keen on random universe shattering stuff - I think a lot of the time everything gets too busy, and characters and worlds are included for the sake of being included, not because it's actually a good idea. I'm not explaining this very well.
I'm still confused as to what infra red massage is and how it keeps Lois' heart beating. The Lady Monitor of nil looks rather daft but I guess if I enjoy Unobtainium I should also enjoy Ultramenstruum. yet somehow I don't.. I do want to read more about Overman - Superman of earth 10 where the Nazis won the Second world war, yet I will not be picking up the second book.

Action Comics 869 This was good. Kara was good, she's tough, she's brave, she's desperate. Supes is, well Supes really. I'm thinking that Kandor may be a fake. Last I saw in the Supergirl comic Krypton was destroyed by phantoms and her mother was dead (except oh no, didn't issue 24 contradict that? I'm so lost, what's her origin story again?)
Loving the argo city protected by a dome though! How silver (?) age! And, has Brainiac just shrunk Metropolis?! Now that's great!

Brave and the Bold 17 Arggghh there was much gnashing of teeth with this one. Stand alone, this was a good comic (if you ignore Raven's choice of high school clothing, I say gratuitous). It's nice to see snarky Kara again, good to see her attempt to meditate. And the art was good. the scenes of Kara at home at night, brushing her teeth, really good to show her like a normal girl. Made her very human, and when that's juxtaposed with her flying off, well i just really like it.
The story was put together really well, the contrast between the students and Kara/Raven worked. The black and white art was really effective. And I like screwed up family stories.
BUT. Ithoughtwealreadywentthroughthis! Kara's dad is not evil, she doesn't have an innocent layer over a dark side, she's not meant to kill Kal out of revenge on her Uncle. *headdesk*
I hope the next issue resolves this and puts it in continuity.

Superman/Batman 52 Yay for the L'il league! Not so much fun as issue 51. Still enjoyable, grympy li'l Batman is a treat, as is grumpy big Batman actually, having to stay behind and look after the kids. 2 Dinah's is always a plus, particularly when talking about kissing Ollie (and I notice Dinah's in her old costume, awesome!) Big exasperated Luthor is tres enjoyable and I'm glad L'il Joker's stuck around.

Superman 680 Krypto's back! I LIKE vicious Krypto. I loved this issue, which obviously makes me very sentimental as it's basically the dog saving the day and Supes making everyone recognise this. Loved it.
Also, Renato Guedes art, still ever so good.

Bat titles:

Batman Confidential 21 The final issue in the arc. Wrapped up nicely. Barbara gets her due from Selina and gets to outwit the Joker in Arkham (and you can truly feel her panic when she thinks she may have to face him).
I've swung back round on the art question, although Babs and Selina's body types may be drawn similarly they have a full range of facial expressions. So now I like it again.

ASBAR 10 I miss the goddamn batman jokes. And the woeful batman thoughts.

On a similar note, I got my All Star Batgirl figure! She's WONDERFUL! Her belt and earring charms are Wonder Woman, Supes, Batman and Green Lantern sigils! When I get my phone to computer transfer thing working again I'll put up some pictures. (Betcha all can't wait ;) Her hair and cape are molded differently to that picture as gravity is affecting them but you get the idea. And she has freckles!!!

This is Madness

I know I said I was too busy to blog but i couldn't resist taking 2 minutes to put this up.

From notalwaysright.com.
-------------------------------------------

Customer: “Look! My friend told me I could get this type of hammer at your store! Now go get it for me!”

Cashier: “Sir, I already told you… we don’t have ANY hammers back here that aren’t already stocked on the shelves.”

Customer: “LOOK HERE. F**K YOU! I KNOW YOU’RE TRYING TO SAVE MONEY BY SWITCHING OUT YOUR STOCKS! GET ME THIS HAMMER!”

(At this point, I come to the front of the store, overhearing what’s going on; note that I’m the manager.)

Me: “Is there a problem?”

Customer: “Yes sir! Your employee here is not doing what I tell her to!”

Me: “Well, you need to calm down and understand that we don’t have what you’re looking for. So maybe you should go back to shelves and check–”

Customer: “F**K THAT!!! IT’S NOT THERE, OKAY?! YOU NEED TO F**KING GET ME WHAT I ASK FOR!”

Me: “That’s it. Get out of my store.”

Customer: “What? NO!”

Me: “Sir, get out, or I have to take you out.”

Customer: “Then do it!”

(I go around the counter and approach the customer. I yank him by his collar & drag him to the door.)

Me: “Now, then… you wanna apologize and maybe come back in?”

Customer: “No! I just want my hammer! God, what is this madness?!”

Me: *puts the customer down*

Customer: *confused* “… What is it?”

(I turn back to the cashier, who nods in approval. I then turn back to face the customer.)

Me: “Madness? THIS! IS! SPARTAAAAAAAAA!” *kicks customer out of store and slams door*

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Fucking awesome!

5 fictional characters meme

Jumped on from Kalinara at Pretty Fizzy Paradise who gave me the letter O.

5 Characters Meme
1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ (or blog).

Here we go:

1) Oracle
Barbara Gordon. She used to be Batgirl doncha know, until the Joker shot her in the spine, leading to dear old Babs becoming paralysed from the waist down. now she's in a wheelchair. And now she's Oracle, holding information for all the world's superheroes. And in my opinion she's far more interesting as Oracle. I think she's come into her own, I think she's a positive role model for wheelchair users and I think it's fantastic that she can still pretty much take anyone in a fight. She's works out, she's got pretty damn good upper body strength.

When I think of Oracle I think of a panel in Nightwing, drawn by Greg Land, whereby Dick has taken Babs to the circus and they are practicing on the rings, swinging about way up high, recapturing Barbara's feeling of freedom she had when she could walk. It's a really uplifting (no pun intended) panel.

Barbara apparently has photographic recall and a near (if not actual) genius intelligence. Now while I'm happy with the super bright aspect of her, I'm not with the photographic recall bit. It just seems that for someone who is not a meta human, the writers felt they had to stretch it a bit and make her more interesting by giving her a photographic memory, and that's a cop out. I want Barbara to be like an ordinary person, to be like me. And while I'm not a genius, I can work hard, I can understand things, I can test and strengthen my intelligence, but I can never have photographic memory and neither can the majority of people. I don't think she needs this aspect, I think she's capable of doing what she does w/o it.

Also, Babs was a librarian in her day job, and that's just cool. :)

2)Ororo Munroe
Storm from the X Men. I don't read much X-Men, because I can't afford to follow two universes, and DC will always win out on the strength of their characters.
So far as I know, Storm was born in Africa whereby her tribes people treated her as a witch because of her mutant weather capabilities. At some point she came to America and was a master (mistress?) thief, and was picked up by Professor Charles Xavier and taken to the school for gifted children. I believe she led the X-Men for a bit.
In the X-Men movies she had a kick ass costume, in the 80s she had a lame ass punk inspired costume and I'm sure previously had a barely there costume. Using the excuse that she can control the temperature around her body due to her weather abilities, and therefore doesn't need to wear clothes, is not acceptable.
I understand that some people are offended that Ororo, who is black, has blue eyes and white hair. It represents a whited up version of the character, which is doubly offensive when there are so few black characters, who have black features, in the Marvel Universe.
I also recall seeing complaints that when Ororo got married she became a supporting character in her own book. That sucks.

3) Optimash prime
The Mr Potato Head version of Optimus Prime. This isn't cheating.
I didn't watch Transformers as a kid, I couldn't see the big deal about Robots that transformed into cars, or trucks, or stereos. Consequently I couldn't tell you if Optimus Prime is a good guy or a bad guy. Though I do know it's Autobots vs Decepticons. I quite enjoyed the Transformers movie. It's big, it's silly, it's full of plot holes so big you could drop one of the robots in it, but it's fun.
When I learned of the existence of Optimash Prime, I creased up. I think this is a wonderful piece of merchandise and it brightens my day whenever I think of it.
Potatoes in disguise!

4) Offler the crocodile god
From the Discworld. The Discworld has a massive pantheon of Gods, loosely based on our earth ones. I believe that Offler is inspired by an Egyptian deity.
He has a human body and a crocodile head. He talks with a lisp, due to his massive fangs. In theory he's quite keen on smiting the unbelievers, or anyone who disagrees with him, or offends him, but unfortunately he's also rather idle and so doesn't pay much attention to what's happening on the Disc.
Add this to the increasingly secular* nature of inhabitants of the Disc, and you get a God with dwindling power. Honestly, I think he just likes to it on Mount Olympus, eat and drink and play games with humanity using the Chess board style game of the Gods.

*By Secular I mean the denizens of the Disc know that the Gods exist, which is precisely why they don't see the point of worshipping or believing in them. You don't go around believing in chairs or tables do you?

5) Oberon, King of the Fairies.
Specifically, the Oberon that appears in A Midsummer Nights Dream, the only Shakespeare play I really care about.
This Oberon is a proud, selfish jerk. He treats Titania, his wife, abominably. She's taken care of this human child and Oberon wants the kid for himself. So he gets Puck to drug Titania so that she'll fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes up from the drug induced slumber.
This turns out to be Bottom, currently sporting an asses head. Titania woos Bottom and they fuck.
Oberon thinks this is hilarious. I think that's a fairly vile thing to do to your wife and should be construed as sexual assault.
However, Oberon isn't all bad, as he has a soft spot for humans. He sees the Demetrius/Helena relationship and gets Puck to lace Demetrius' eyes, except Puck laces Lysander's eyes, and then there's this massive balls up and a complicated love quadrangle between Demetrius-Helena-Lysander-Hermia.
Anyway, when Oberon sees how it's all gone wrong he berates Puck and fixes the situation so everyone loves the correct person. So he can do some good.
Basically, hes' a fairy, and fairies act as fairies act and that isn't according to human morals or requirements. Trust a fairy like you'd trust a cat.

Link post from the Curvature

When a man is the victim - a study in rape apology
Interesting post. Go check it out.

Whack a Lantern week!

Saw this idea over at Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER! A blog I have enjoyed for a long time but only recently bookmarked. Does what it says on the tin really. Here is my contribution, from Green Arrow #20 (1989:





Ollie's all mopey and emo because he shot an arrow in a kid he thought was carrying a real gun. It turned out to be a paint gun, but Hal is such a good mate of Ollie's he took him into the mountains and allowed Ollie to beat the crap outta him so Ollie'd feel better. :D
Coudlnt; decide which one to put up so you got all 3. I particularly liekt he throw down on the 3rd page!

meh and stuff

I'm currently reading Green Arrow, Mike Grell's run starting in 1986. the comis is labelled suggested for mature readers, and is more 'real' and gritty (not in Frank Miller ASBAR way) thana lot of other stuff around, now and at the time. There's no aliens fr'instance.
What struck me - apart from t he quality and maturity and depth of the comic - is the intelligence of the letters published and the debate that's occuring in these pages (titled Sherwood Forum). people are discussing the storylines, - such as gay bashing, drugs, the mafia, the morality of sex before marriage, what having kids does to a relationship, the abuse and torture of Dinah and Ollie, animal rights, environmental issues - as well as the depths of Ollie's and Dinah's relationship. Nearly every letter discussing these issues is well thought out andreasoned arguments are given, from both sides of the debate. People are inviting readers they disagree with to conduct the discussion 'offline' by providing their real address. This is the first time I've across this. I'm enjoying reading the letters page just as much as the comic itself, and that's a first I can tell you!

The stories themselves are intelligent and meaningful and the art isn't sexist or offensive, the nudity isn't gratitutious. Overall it's really rather good. Unfortunately I am having trouble locking into stories, but that's cos I'm generally dazed at the mo. Not sure why, but I'm feeling all over the place in the evenings lately. I blame work!

Comics to buy tomorrow include:
Batman Confidential
Booster Gold
Final Crisis Revelations
Green Arrow/Black Canary
Old copies of the Question/Green Arrow annual I spotted in a bric a brac shop on Tuesday :)

the link between porn and comics, or not...

well porn and pop culture in general really. And it should go without saying that this is obviously just my thoughts and me trying to establish them and I'm not saying I've got the definitive answer..
(or maybe I am? A-ha! we shall see!)

This post is inspired by a comment left my James Meeley at one of my previous posts. In it James said:
"I prefer my super hero comics and my soft core porn kept separate.

I'm sorry, but I just can't let this comment pass.

If you equate anything Jim Balent did on his Catwoman run (including this alternate reality mini-series) to porn (soft or hardcore) Then THAT is a true "fail." An "epic fail," as I believe the lingo of that goes.

I've read Jim Balent's Catwoman stuff and I've seen porn (soft and hardcore). Anyone who can't see a difference between the two either isn't trying, doesn't know what real porn is, or is simply a smarmy and snarky jerk (which, in MY book, is the worst of the three possibilities).

If someone doesn't like Jim Balent's art, that's fine. You want to say it is overly exaggerated or totally unrealistic, I can dig that. If you say it personally offends you, well, I'm cool with that, too. But to compare it to porn, even if only to be a snarky jerk, is a fundamental lack of understanding what porn is and how this is very different from it: in short, epic fail!"

(text in bold is quoting a comment from Toriach)

That comment led me to thinking. I have compared comic art to porn in the past *cough* Greg Land *cough* and I would still draw parallels between certain art styles and porn. But as James points out there is a difference.
I should probably point out here that I do watch porn. I am not an avid connoisseur I don't watch a lot and there's a lot of truly vile stuff out there. There's also some good stuff. But this isn't going to be a post about the type of porn I like, or even whether porn is a good or bad thing. It's also not going to be a post about whether we should have sexy women in comics.

Right, onwards with the subject. A lot of comic artists feature what I view as overly sexed up, sexualised women that have been influenced by porn. For example, there's the Jim Balent art shown in my previous post, Ian Churchill, Greg Land, Michael Turner. Although Michael Turner gets kudos for not drawing Supergirl with massive bosoms. (Unfortunately this was then negated in my eyes by the extreme low rider jeans and the knicker string pulled up above her hips, I mean, really.)

Most women in comics are depicted sexy first and 'strong' (whatever that may mean) second. Most renderings of women are in a similar style - huge boobs, tiny waist, skin tight costume, high heels. Sexed up. Thongs are everywhere. Even Raven, who I don't view as being particularly sexual in herself, is shown wearing skin tight barely there clothes under the cloak. Women in comics are objectified and judged on their appearance. Men aren't. I'm not going to go into why this is, if you disagree with me you may be at the wrong blog...

It's the proliferation of the same type of women, the same type of sexy that bothers me. I recently read Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs - Women and the rise of raunch culture. In it she talked about the pornification of pop culture. How images and themes from porn are surfacing in our everyday public lives, where 10, 15, 20 years ago they were very much separate*. Things like thongs, full muff waxes, lap dancing acceptability, pole dancing lessons, faux sex in music videos, porn star in training t-shirts, playboy bunny merchandise (belts, clothes and kids stationery), Borat mankinis (am I pushing it here?) etc.**(EDIT)

This leads to the situation where there is only one type of sexuality on display - and it's all about women faking it. If women are copying women in porn, or being encouraged to copy women in porn, then there's no real demonstration of female sexuality. because women in porn aren't really getting off on it. (OK some may be, but the vast majority aren't in porn cos they just can't get enough sex. It's a job). Women copying or being inspired by porn are pandering to a male vision of what our sexuality is like. They are not doing it for themselves, they are doing it for men. Now there's something quite fucked up in there, especially when you consider it's a male view of what women should look like or be like before/during/after sex/to be sexy.

But back to the point, I think that this specific type of sexuality is what is displayed in comics, most of the time. Not always. For example, Renato Guedes, Alex Ross, Ale Garza, Cliff Richards, Mike Grell, J G Jones.
As mentioned above, Greg Land apparently traces his women directly from porn. Does he trace the men too? I don't know. (Still at least his women are anatomically correct). Others just use the (intended or not) pornification of our public lives and a lot of comic art is linked to porn. Maybe not equaling porn, but there is a definite correlation.

As I said at the start, I watch porn, I like some of it. I don't however want it or it's derivation in my comics and magazines. I don't think our lives should be over sexualised, I don't think women should be displayed in terms only of their tits and ass, I think there's more to us than that and I think it demeans both the viewer and the viewed when we are reduced to our component body parts, or portrayed in terms of our fuckability. But if you use porn as your inspiration that's what you get. I repeat, that's fine, in porn, when it's sole purpose is to make you get off, but not so acceptable when you are meant to be telling a story about heroics.

In short, I think both James Meeley and Toriach have valid points. But I'm siding with the view that Jim Balent's art is influenced by porn, as is a lot of other comic art.

Have I explained myself adequately? Have I even said anything at all? I shall come back and check tomorrow.

*I don't know, I'm only 28, maybe I've got my assumptions about past decades completely wrong. Can older readers help me out with feedback?
**EDIT - something I forgot to include which might help my point. All those images of women lying beaten ont he ground, with arched backs and thrust hips, gravity defying boobs, strategically ripped clothing and pouty lips. Utterly sexualised and woudl generally seem more in place in a porn mag or as a porn still than at the end of a battle scene, because it makes no bleedin' sense in context.

In defense of Superman and Siegel and Schuster society

Over on Greg Rucka's blog. He's dead on with his thoughts re Superman. Also, they are trying to raise money to repair the home of Jerry Siegel. I think it's a good cause. Go take a peek folks.

Edit: here's the ebay shop and here's the list of future auctions. Unfortuantely I don't have $10,000 knocking about. :(

Supergirl, Buffy and Manhunter (and how I think the Supergirl run was ruined)

So I didn't purchase much this week. I was considering getting that Superman 3d book, but lack of fund meant that I decided against it. I know it's a gimmick, I doubt it will be very good, but the idea of it entertains me. Much like Jaws 3D.
I wasn't very impressed with anything this week. :/
Manhunter #34, was alright, and of course I like seeing Zinda, but she and Huntress had a really small role, definitely not enough to warrant the cover anyway. I guess they are gonna be in the next issue though.
Boomerang's status confuses me, I first came across him in Supergirl (more on that later) and he was a good guy. then I read this intro into the DCU in Flash and he was a bad guy, I can't remember what he did in the Outsiders and now whenever i see him anywhere else I haven't got a clue what side he's meant to be on. Partly my fault for reading stuff out of order, but I dislike books that don't stand alone. A small editorial box explaining what has been happening or other titles to read would be really helpful.
Aside from all that, my main beef with this book is that it feels like this arc has gone on for ages and I'm now bored. I want plots to be wrapped up and dealt with in 3 issues. It's fine if they are longer if you are reading them in a trade, but monthlies suffer when a plot is dragged out over 6 issues or so. It's why I cancelled Birds of Prey.
And I still don't like the art. *sigh*

Buffy #18 Bah. Filler. Gorgeous cover:


I'm not liking Dawns' ride me jokes, they seem out of character and unnecessary. And this coming from me who loves a cheap laugh and bad puns. The tree guy part was good. Willow's orgasm mermaid (?) lady is an interesting development. Fray and future Willow's talk left me cold though.

Supergirl # 33 RUBBISH. Mostly rubbish cos I had expectations that were not only not met but destroyed and trampled under my feet. I (somewhat mistakenly) thought that 'Enter Empress' on the cover might indicate that maybe Empress would become a regular cast member. Bah. An explanation may be needed.

Supergirl is still upset about losing Thomas - she couldn't find a cure for his cancer in time. She's an angry young lady (this isn't a problem) and while she's beating up Clayface Empress turns up and lends a hand. Empress asks for Kara's help to rescue her parents who are toddler aged (this happened at the end of Young Justice). Kara agrees and it turns out that Empress has betrayed her - the bad guy wants Kara mind controlled so he can prove to the world that there is no such thing as heroes and that the bad can affect the good.
Empress went along with this guys plan because he threatened to kill her parents. Needless to say Kara breaks free with Empress' help and the bag guy gets captured. This situation leads to Kara accepting that she can be a hero again and needs to protect people and fight things she can win, i.e. not cancer.

RUBBISH. Empress is not helpless, or weak, or stupid, or liable to betray people. What would have made sense was for Empress to fill Kara in on what had happened and they work out a plan together. And the art was lame.
This just read like a desperately contrived way to wind up the story so that it's all fresh for the new creative team starting next month. Heidi Meeley, is you're reading this, don't bother with this issue. Start next month. Apparently they are gonna start tying Superman, Supergirl and Action Comics more closely together. This is good, because the last Superman book had a good depiction of Kara in it.

I decided to re read all the Supergirl issues over the last couple of days, as I'd forgotten a lot of detail. And read in a straight run they really don't make sense. Each story arc stands alone OK, but together it looks bizarre.

Lets get down the things I like about this Kara:
At the start, she's snarky, she's messed up, she's rude, she's got this enormous pressure on her because she's got all these buried issues re Krypton and her dad and Superman. I know how it feels to have this other side to you fighting to make you do bad things, so I can identify with that and I feel for her. And despite all this, she generally does the right thing be it trying to be a hero with The Outsiders, getting rid of the phantoms (now if only someone could tell me how she did it..), or finding out who's trying to kill her. She removes herself from Kal because she doesn't trust herself to be near him. She stands her own ground, she may be a mess but she doesn't let others walk over her. I think that's admirable. And I totally buy that she'd wear that outfit. I wore stuff that short and high when I was 15-19. Possibly not at the same time, but that's just a matter of taste.

So I like this Kara, a lot. She's finding it very difficult to fit in on this planet, again, I get that feeling of missing the book of rules that will make everything make sense. I think there has been a growth of sorts to Kara, but sometimes it only makes sense in each particular plot arc.

The problems with the books lie with the editors. (If it is them which is responsible for the catalogue of disasters I'm about to list....let me know if I'm wrong.)

For the record, I like her intro in Superman/Batman and I like the first trade - #1 to 5. Yes there are some artistic problems, but I can get behind the story.
What doesn't work, and hasn't worked the entire way through is the crossovers. 60% of the time I don't understand what's happening because I'm not reading all the other DC books.
Why does the first page of #6 say 1 year and one month later, and the cover of # 7 have the 1 yr later logo on it? Why were they in Kandor? You only found out a number of issues later that Kara was in Kandor because she had to get away from Clark because she was scared of killing him. That should have been established in her book, not in Infinite Crisis, as I assume it was.

The standalone issues work, # 10 where she goes to school and # 12 where she goes clubbing and meets Terra. Why introduce Terra if that's the only time we'll see her here? I really liked Boomer and Kara's relationship, why hasn't that continued? He was regular for all of 6 issues.
#12 takes place after #10, thereby breaking up the story in #11 and 13. Which incidentally has the worst artistic depiction of Grace Choi ever.

The Power Boy arc was..OK. I could not fathom why Batgirl was evil in #14, because I don't read the Bat books. See, DC that's a bad thing, you are alienating readers!

#16 and 17, her origin story. I liked that. I like the crystals, I like the phantoms. But why the bleeding hell was the earth under a red sun in issue #17??!! Ale Garza art is tres good though.
#18 Kara vs Kara was rubbish and was basically a fuck you to fans who didn't like snarky Kara.
#19. This cover. Huh? This issue was Kara apologising to everyone. There was no death of Superman. Again, an issue I really liked, but the cover is the most misleading thing ever!
#20 through 22 are Amazons Attack and Countdown tie ins. They don't make sense w/o reading the main titles. This wouldn't be a problem if it was a one off, but it's been happening all the way through the series.
#23. is this a tie in to somewhere else? Cos lord knows where it came from. Clark and a Green Lantern ask Kara to follow a space ship. This one has lots of good art, but little dialogue.
#24. Continues the weird story from last issue, and we get to see into the past so Kara gets to lay more demons to rest. Which is Good and all, except that her visions of the last moments of Krypton are different to those shown in #16 and 17. I thought she killed her mother?! Good art here though.
#25 - Reactron man. I like her and Kara's discussions. I like Kara's reactions and questions, I like the way her brain is working. her helplessness at not knowing how to help everyone was heartbreaking.
I don't like how this led to 6 issues of Kara trying to saving Thomas. Except for #30, which has jack all to do with the rest of the issues it's sandwiched between. And is yet more Kara coming to terms with her past. On the plus side, Resurrection Man and Kara's interchanges are very good.

Foe some reason I'm missing #27. :(

So there you have it, that's a list of what I think's wrong with this Supergirl run. part of the problems were caused by having so many different creative teams*. The other thing that may have helped was to include Kara coming to terms with her past and her origin in one story arc, maybe spanning 6 issues? Then move on to the Thomas arc, where she grows up and learns you can't fix everything, and have the odd few issues, separated from other plot lines, where she meets Reactron and has some stand alone adventures.
Currently, it looks like a hack job. Only die hard Kara fans like myself are still reading. I re read all these issues thinking I'd find plenty of ways to defend these issues. And I went the other way.
The way I make sense of these is to create my own story in my head and keep each little distinct plot arc separate. But it would be nice to not have to do that.

Currently listening to the Wildhearts' Stop me if you've heard this one before covers album. Current favourite - Understanding Jane (originally by The Icicle Works) and The World comes Tumblin' (originally by The Distillers).
*Linked from Maid of Might, for all your Supergirl needs.

Share the (musical) love

For about 2 months now I've been getting out of my mind excited about a gig I'm going to on 20th September. The band in question is The Wildhearts and I've been a fan of theirs for about, ooh, must be getting on for 14 years now. They are proper rock, sweet melodies, hard drinking, hard sounds, hard living awesome. Proper Geordie* rockers.

This particular gig is the 15 year anniversary of the earth vs the Wildhearts album, and they are going to play every track on the album plus the b-sides to all the singles. Every one of which is a cracker. Now I've seen them many times before, so I know I'm in for a treat, as they have never disappointed.

Their singer is a 6 foot plus ginger bloke with dreadlocks, at least he used to have dreads. I've met him once and it's the only time I've ever got proper fannish. I giggled like a 12 yr old and couldn't say anything, (well not after I'd got him to sign my boob anyway ;) ). I didn't even do that when I met the other band that got me through my teenage, utterly depressed years (teh Manic Street Preachers since you ask). That could be cos the manics suck now, but the Wildhearts are getting even better.

The other awesome thing about this is that I'm going with old school friends I haven't seen for at least 5 years, some I haven't seen for 8 years. I can't wait! :)

If you like metal, puck or rock I really really urge to check out their stuff.** 'Someone that won't let me go' is a current favourite. And they are still working their arses off and producing records and touring constantly. I wish more bands has a work ethic like that. These guys will be touring till they're dead.


*For the non Brits of you, Geordies are people who live in Newcastle, it's a northern city in England.
** Their best stuff isn't linked on that site. Earth vs the Wildhearts and PHUQ are fan favourites and heavier than the songs linked on their site.

Damn viruses

We got a virus (turns out it's entirely my fault, I really should get more computer literate), which means I've lost all my favourites and rss feeds... which is really annoying. Thank god the feminist comics reading community is so incestuous because it's not too bad trying to track everything down!

Jim Balent (and Kim DeMulder) FAIL

From the Elseworlds title, Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham.

This worlds Two Face:

FAIL

This world's version of Alfred:FAIL

The 3 costumes in the top panel:

FAIL

Smallville - Apocalypse (season 7, episode 18)

This is the most fanservicey episode ever! Seriously, it took them an alternate universe to make Lois a Pulitzer prizewinning journalist, Clark to sweep her off her feet, her to see his super powers, give Kara the Linda Danvers name, make Kara work closely with Lex for a number of years and trust him implicitly, whilst Lex is President of the USA, and properly eviiil, and also put Clark in journalist and glasses mode?!

Brilliant. I remember back in season 1 we saw a premonition whereby Lex was in a white suit in the White House, and the countryside had been ravaged by what we assumed was a nuclear war, all burned out and blackened anyway. Well that's what transpired in this episode. My guess is they originally planned for this to happen in the seasons properly, but it didn't pan out that way. Hence Lex destroying the world with Braniac in this episode.

Also, Kara is exceedingly heroic in the fortress. Far more so than Clark. Clark is still a bit of a dumbass, but hopefully less emo after this episode.

2 more to go in this season, then bring on season 8. And please god give him the costume at least once somewhere! And flight!

Smallville - Sleeper

Brilliant! This has stealth Jimmy dressed like a ninja being coerced by the feds into spying on his girlfriend Chloe so that he can find out what secret government info she's after as the feds think she's a terrorist. Chloe gets caught, beaten up by scary tough fed lady, Jimmy distracts the feds by plugging his DS or somesuch into the pc terminal, gets all violent and rescues her. It's all intrigue and double dealing and threats of prison. Wonderful!
THEN when you think it can't get any better we find out Kara is on Krypton in the past and Braniac is trying to kill baby Kal so Clark has to make his way to Krypton asap so that he can prevent Braniac killing baby himself and therefore won't ceased to exist.
intergalatic time portal indeed!

This is FUN.

Comics review again

Finally got down to the comics shop today. I realised that I actually should have gone in last week as I was waiting for Batman confidential 20 and Superman/Batman 51. Nevermind.
This week's haul turned out to be pretty good. In addition to the above, I got:
Teen Titans, 62
Teen Titans yr 1, 6
Final Crisis - Rogues Revenge, 2
Superman, 679


Batman Confidential 20. Pretty enjoyable. I liked Selina and Bruce's exchanges, and Barbara has been pretty fun to read about. It's a shame that the cover features Babs and Selina in strategically ripped costumes, but at least the art inside isn't overtly sexualised. Having said that, I'm not too keen on the art. There isn't enough distinction between Selina and Babs other than their costumes and hair. It's done by a guy called Kevin Maguire, I figure he may just need to develop some more.


Superman 679. Really good. Lois's and Clark morning conversation I loved. Kara's immediate response to Clark's situation was heroic. I'm confused as to why she was sitting in the zoo with all the lions, other than it made a good picture, but it was very random. I am totally hooked to see where this story is going. And it seems that Krypto is here to save the day. I think that's awesome.


Final Crisis Rogues Revenge 2. Again, really really good. The Rogues are a particularly human bunch of enemies, they have their own code, they never kill a Flash (until they did, of course, but that's partially cos Inertia tricked them into it), and we know their back stories. They aren't through and through evil, they care about and look out for each other. And they're all sane (except for this new Trickster, who I'm convinced is actually psychotic). They know what choices they make, they've got everything on their conscience, and they're happy with that. To me, this is what makes them interesting to read about.

And now they've come up against a bunch of pretenders, who think they can take over. Well, they got showed pretty good, din't they? They were destroyed by the current Rogues, because having a weapon doesn't make you deadly. Having experience and viciousness does.
Now Inertia is wearing the Kid Flash costume he's gonna get his arse handed to him on a plate when the other Flashes find out, or any superhero. Except that I've got a feeling the Rogues will find him first, and they'll give him a mighty beating.

Teen Titans yr 1, 6 I don't get this issue. :/ It's been so long since I read the number 5 that I can't remember what was happening before, but for the life of me, I don' recall that it had anything to do with events in this issue. So, I don't get it. :/ Nice art though!

Teen Titans 62 I liked. I know this is unpopular because they killed off Wendy and Marvin, in a particularly violent way (they befriended a mystery dog who turned into a giant killer dog and tore our Marvin's insides then went after Wendy, I reckon Sean McKeever is a cat person), but I enjoyed the issue. Lord knows where M'Gann has gone, Robin had a mini breakdown at Cassie, Eddie is Eddie and I don't know enough about Blue Beetle to have much of an opinion on him.

The dialogue was weird in this issue. I know Cyborg and Eddie waffling on about how much Wendy and Marvin meant to the team was there for dramatic tension to make their deaths more tragic, but they way it was done, and the way that they reacted, coupled with an issue of 52 included in the death panel has led me to a theory.

I reckon that this earth (as in this real life one where DC characters are fictional) and their earth are going to somehow merge and the characters are going to meet the DC writers and staff. That's what the Final Crisis is all about. So basically it's all going to go meta. A bit like the Dark Tower books where Stephen King met his fictional characters (which was a shit part of the series by the way). You just wait and see, I'll be right. ;)

Superman/Batman 51 This is hands down the most awesome and funny comic published in a long long time. In fact, the Impulse issues were the last ones to compete with these. It's THAT good. Lots of l'il leaguers turned up - cutesified mini rotund versions of the JLA. There was a goddamn Batman joke. Lil Batman and Big Batman's conversations were wonderful. L'il Batman's origin story is that his parents got shoved when he was 8 and that made him realize there was evil in the world. L'il Supes origin is that it rained a lot on Krypton so his folks sent him to earth so he could get some sun. L'il Kara cries when people fight and blows up windows.
There's hearts and lip shapes in the air when they see people they crush on!
It's freakin' adorable. So much squeee. Love love love.

Edit: And of course Mister Mxyzptlk said that he brought the l'il leaguers in to sell issues. Which backs up my Meta theory. Right?!

Sometimes

Warning: news re rape of a 12 yr old by a 24 yr old.
I read stuff that just makes me want to cry. A lot of what is said in the blog entry I don't need to repeat.
But -
"“Girls and young women need to be protected from their own immaturity and sexual curiousity at that vulnerable age,” he said."

What? Firstly, yes there's sexual curiosity, but that's not a problem. it's not a mistake, it's not immoral, it's a normal part of growing up.
Secondly, we don't need to 'protect' girls, because by using that word we insinuate that we can't change the rapists behaviour. Which goes back to the whole blaming the victim thing.
Don't say we need to protect girls, say we need to teach people it's wrong to rape.
Thirdly, I can't help but get the feeling that he's assuming that most girls are nymphomaniacs who can't wait to bed an older bloke (at least in the context of the rest of the article). wrong wrong WRONG.

Fucking hell what the fuck is everyone's fuckgin difficulty with a really basic common sense obvious, considerate way of thinking.

Graffitti and Elephants

The top elephant is called the ancient mariner and you can see the second one is a bee. I;'ve really enjoyed having these around town the last month and I'll eb sad when they're gone (this weekend). I still haven't caught all of them.

Also I was wandering back from work today I noticed some new graffitii sprung up.

Isn't that detailed?

I am so very impressed by this next one:

A bit confused about the 'oh aero' comment, but the art is amazing.

From whence came this name?

I call my blog Pai, because *ahem* that's what the boyfriend calls me as a nickname *blush*, ok I call him the same back, but still *blush*. Anyway I've known she was a manga character for a while but haven't quite managed to read any of the books. This shall now be rectified! I've found them on the bookshelf, they're called 3x3 eyes. I hope they turn out to be good or I'm gonna be very embarrassed. At least I'll have lunchtime reading at work. I'm completely failing to finish the English patient, because Catwoman is that much more interesting.

Speaking of manga, I've decided to actually buy some yaoi. I won these off of eBay:
The Moon and Sandals (Vol 1)- Fumi Yoshinaga (rated M)
Black Knight (Vol 1& 2)- Kai Tsurugi (rated M
I'll be your slave - Miki Araya ( rated M)

Does M mean rated medium or rated mature? I only chose these ones cos they were going cheap and from the amazon reviews seemed a reasonable place to start. Anyone read these? Will they be good or awful?

The mighty Selina Kyle

Yep, I am currently reading the Catwoman books. I finished volume 1 (1993 to 2001) a couple of days ago and now I'm on volume 2 (2002 to the present).
I'm mostly impressed, especially with the 90s stuff, I thought they'd be very painful to read, but no! The Selina shown in this run is brave, confident, daring, intelligent, resourceful and independent. She takes on jobs for the challenge and excitement of it as much as the payoff. She's carefree and not an out and out villain, she robs, but she doesn't kill and she always stands up for women and doesn't let anyone pull any sexist shit.

I particular enjoyed 9 deaths of the Cat (45) wherein Selina fights off 9 assassins with the assistance of Z, a very short man who's double crossing a guy named Rumboldt who put the hit on her, because Selina sank his yacht and pissed him off.

Number 54 is the favourite of this run. Selina steals a diamond, decides it wasn't difficult enough to steal so puts it back. This is repeated several times, purely to annoy and test the museum staff. After the final heist, she realises the owner has bankrupted himself with the insurance premiums and is actually hoping the diamond will get nicked. So after a chat with the owner she leaves it with him and a warning not to change the insurance policies or the security arrangements.

Number 58, wherein the Scarecrow gives Selina fear serum was also a pretty good story arc. Unfortunately this fear serum only bonds with estrogen, so apparently it won't affect men. I say that's some dumbass writing. Get thee back to a basic biology lesson please.

So, up until Selina moves to Manhattan it's a pretty Good series. Jim Balent's art was atrocious, but the plots made up for that. However when she moves to Manhattan, it all goes nuts. She decides to take over the biggest company there, becomes CEO, then runs for mayor, has various hits put out on Selina Kyle so as Catwoman tries to fight the assassins, and ends up throwing 'Selina' off a building in order to fake her own death.

Later during No Mans Land she has to break back into Gotham to get Batman some computer discs, which is fine and actually sensible. But then, Gordon decides he has to put her away, so she ends up captured, sent to a correctional facility and goes a bit nuts. She's broken out by Harley, given drugs to make her persuadable and nearly kills Gordon. Meanwhile she is reliving her childhood and talking about a sister who has never been mentioned before. And writing a letter to heretofore non existent sister. And Deathstroke is sent after her. And she and Batman finally kiss.
It made no sense.

Thankfully v2, from 2002 on is wonderful! The lovely Darwyn Cooke did a lot of the early issues' art, Catwoman has a spanking new costume, is no longer mad, has decided to not steal anymore and is trying to clean up the East End. we get 2 supporting cast members - Holly and Slam, and we meet her sister and sister's hubby. She's nearly a hero, but still herself.

Today due to a hangover gleaned from spending Friday night and most of Saturday in pubs, sampling wines and awesome beer, I have mostly been listening to Cold, Human Waste Project, Godsmack, Hole and Marilyn Manson. They helped! I am now going to catch up on Smallville season 7. Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday my UK readers, for the international ones, have a good rest of your weekend! I shall be going back to the beer festival tomorrow ;)

Views requested! What do non comic readers think of comics readers?

Heidi Meely has put up an interesting post here. She has polled a selection of her friends/acquaintances about their views on comics fans. Interesting reading. What I want to ask of anyone reading this blog, is please can you respond to the following questions:

1. When you think of comic book fans, what is your first thought?
2. Why is it acceptable to go see comic book movies but not read the books which the material springs from?
3. Have you ever read comics? Which ones? For what period of time? Why did you quit reading comics?
4. Are you aware of the fact that many of the people reading comics are female?
5. Would you ever attend a comic book show?
6. Have you heard about the sexual harassment that has occurred at comic book shows?
7. Any last thoughts?

Obviously this isn't very scientific, and won't yield a large sample group. Nonetheless PLEASE if you are reading this could you take the time to respond to the questions. I am very interested in the answers.

Thank you. :)

No. No no no no no no

This is really not a good idea. Batman works a as a dark movie, yes. Batman is a dark character, that's fine that works for him. Superman isn't. Superman is about light and hope. That's partly why the Supes/Bats comics work so well - light vs dark. They bounce off each other.
Applying the same methodology and thinking to both of them will result in at least 1 fucked up movie. Plus, the darkness wasn't what made The Dark Knight movie so good. There were loads of other factors - plot, acting, characterisation, detail, thought.
Superman doesn't work when he's made dark. He's uplifting, he shows us there's a better way, and he shows us what the possibilities are. He's not Batman!

And also I thought Superman Returns was a damn good movie and Bardondon Routh made a good Clark and Supes. As a lifelong Christopher Reeve fan that's saying something! The only fault I can find with it is that more dialogue would have been good - it was very action orientated. That doesn't make it a bad movie, but it could have been better. And the apparent stalking doesn't bother me, at all.

EEek

My sexual assualt post got linked at WFA. :o I'm not particularly proud of that post as I reckon it's a bit incoherent. Ahh well.

Comic reviews

Spoilers for Final Crisis Revelations, GA/BC\11, Booster Gold \11, Action Comics \868.
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Final Crisis Relevations \1. I got suckered in. It's gonna feature the Question and Batwoman. And it has a religious theme. I'm suckered. And it was actually pretty good! I do like the Spectre, I like the whole idea and concept. I'm intrigued as to how Renee's gonna get out of this mess, I like the whole moral debate and resentment Crispus has for carrying out the Spectre's duties. It's interesting.
I would have even liked Dr Light apparently getting torched, except that he appears to have Raven, Starfire and Donna Troy cowering in ripped rags, tears and fear by the bed. Now I'm not reading Titans, or any other Final Crisis minis (except for Final Crisis) which I guess is where this led in from, but I can't quite fathom why these 3 women are cowering like that.
Even if they were stripped of their powers, they'd still fight and they wouldn't be scared of him, they'd be disgusted.
And because of that I think the whole scene is a fake. Y'hear that DC? Rampant misogyny makes the storeis fail!

Booster Gold \ 11. Time travelling fun! Alternative histories and a really good cover. I likrd. Lighthearted.

Action comics \868. I don't buy that Kara has never seen breast Implants before. So I choose to ignore that panel and assuem she's taking the piss out of the reporter. Lovely art and a good story. I particularly enjoyed Kara's horror at seeing Brainiac and her gentle puzzlement over where Kal is. Given that I am jumping on in the middle of an arc yet I wasn't lost about the plot, is a testament to good well placed writing. it seems obvious but so often this basic stuff is forgotten. There's a lot of crap out there.

GA/BC \ 11. I love these covers. Thsi issue totally felt like a filler. I know we found out who shot connor and who the faux Ra's is, but this issue really won't make sense on a standalone basis. Still, it moves the plot on and I'm still interested so it's cool!

This weekend, well from Thursday, I re read the first 50 issues of Teen Titans. :o Love that book.

As I've gvien up on Trinity I won't be buying anything this week which will be good on ye old finances. At least until I spend an extra tenner next week buying the Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis trade. I've read one issue and the art is breathtaking. Should be good.

Rather creepy..yet fun

Mocked up Batman cover. Actual art, fake words. Courtesy of Like Scratches in the Sand.

Lovely

Something about this is just really lovely (The lady is working at a music store):

Customer: “Hi. I’m coming from the intersection at *** and ***. How would I get to your store from here?”
(I give the guy directions. I can tell he’s tuned me out after the first street or two. He then cuts me off before I finish.)
Customer: “Good, good! I got it. Thanks!” *hangs up*
(The phone rings again five minutes later.)
Customer: “Hi! I just called you a few minutes ago, asking for directions.”
Me: “I remember.”
Customer: “Yeah… I took that turn on *** like you said. Then I got lost again. I’m at *** and *** now.”
Me: “Okay…” *gives him directions again*
Customer: “Okay! I got it this time. Thanks!” *hangs up*
(Phone rings again five minutes later.)
Me: “Hi again. Where are you now?”
Customer: *laughs* “I’m at *** and ***.”
Me: “Okay. You’re almost here. Turn on *** and go straight until you see a gas station. We’re in the strip mall a little after it.”
Customer: “Okay!” *hangs up*
(Phone rings again five minutes later.)
Customer: “It’s me again! I’m at the gas station. I don’t see your store.”
Me: “We’re in the strip mall after the gas station, it’s down the road a little bit.”
Customer: “Oh! I see it. Okay, I’ll be right there.” *hangs up*
(Phone rings again five minutes later.)
Customer: “I’m in the strip mall now… and I don’t see your store. I’m gonna feel SO stupid if I’m in the wrong strip mall.”
Me: “At this point, I’m not even sure you’re in the right state.”
Customer: *laughs*
Me: “Okay. Do you see a donut shop?”
Customer: “Yes! I see a donut shop!”
Me: “Good. Drive to the donut shop. Now, do you see a cell phone store?”
Customer: “Yes! It’s next to the donut shop.”
Me: “Good. Drive to the cell phone shop. Now drive a little past that. Do you see the girl in the next store who’s on the phone and waving at you?”
Customer: “Yeah! Is that you?”
Me: “Yeah. Come on in…”


From notalwaysright.com Well worth a chuckle.

More shameless self promotion

I'm still selling stuff on ebay. Free comic to anyone who buys something and says they foudn ti via this blog.. Yes I will post stuff internationally.

Shameless self promotion over. Thanks for listening!

Assualt, sexual violence and the confusion around this issue

Trigger alert?
It's possible that this post may trigger some people..there won't be anything graphic in here it's just me speaking about the general attitudes around this, but I don't want to set anyone off if I can help it.

This is a really loong (and possibly unfocused) post, but if anyone gets to the end I would appreciate their comments.

-----------------------------------

I've been reading bits and bobs on the blogosphere recently about assault against women. No surprise there, it happens a lot, the sites I want to read cover this.
One site is When Fangirls Attack! This is usually a link blog, but as explained in this case, they sometimes cross post. The post in question is this one, dealing with the sexual assault experienced by women at the San Diego Comic Con this year. And I do believe that what is described is sexual assault, I am not here to debate whether that judgement is correct or not and if you disagree on that point I would suggest you don't read any further.

I'm feeling rather sensitive about this subject, you may have guessed.

Like every single woman I know I have been groped, leered at and had stuff shouted at me. I have been told not to walk home alone at night on my own for my own safety, to expect 'attention' if I wear something low cut or revealing, to be told I look whorish if I wear something revealing. At the same time I've been told I'm prudish and not sexy if I wear something more modest, because god knows my main aim in life as a woman is too look sexy and all my self worth should be tied up in that.
(Do a search for women's fancy dress. Of all the modern costumes, being sold in stores now, do you notice a theme? Is that really the only option we've got? To be consumed by the male gaze? I refute that, that's not what I'm here for, I have other functions as a human being and I am worth more than my body).

Anyway, the link to the WFA post. I soundly agree with that essay. Completely. I don't see how anyone could not. Take a look at the comments. Yep, I got involved, but as this isn't a hey look at me post, please look at what the others are saying. You can see why I got involved, I won't repeat myself here.

But the discussion seemed to spiral away from the initial post (not helped by me, I know) until the options became either/or. It doesn't have to be that way, as Ragnell said there are 3 possible approaches to take. (Although I would take issue with the idea that being assertive helps against attack..I have complicated reasons for thinking that which are muddled enough in my own head that I can't go into here. I don't know if she's right or wrong.)

Nevertheless, the views that upset me are that most or all people are taught that sexual assault is wrong, and UNDERSTAND that it is wrong. People really don't know this. Or they don't know what constitutes sexual assault. They think grabbing someone's ass isn't assault. It IS. But because they think everyone knows the difference, they think that it is just 'some' people who don't care. I don't think it's that 'some' people don't care, I think it's that 'most' people don't know what constitutes wrong behaviour.

Ask 100 random people on the street is sexual assault wrong, my guess is most will say yes. Ask them what if the woman was drunk, or wearing 'sluttish' clothing. Then you'll get different answers. Break it down into someone attempting to kiss another, and attempting to have penetrative sex with another, you'll get different answers. Oh but it was only a kiss! It's still assault.

The education I'm talking about would teach respect for other people's bodies, it would cover all the areas above. It will teach why victim blaming is wrong. I don't think that this will eradicate all sexual violence, but it sure would go a long way towards helping.

I don't mean to insinuate that we should never be prepared, we should never fight back, but if we're talking about this issue and we fall back on the personal responsibility argument, we will never get away from victim blaming. We will never start talking about how we teach people that it's wrong to assault others, in any way shape or form. Personal responsibility, when taken by itself, is a reductionist argument that doesn't allow any other views. It takes the emphasis away from the real problem. Looking at why victim blaming is wrong will force many people to look at their behaviour in the past and consider whether it was acceptable or not. And I bet we've all done wrong things, men and women.

My opinion on tackling this problem? Education first. Rules in the handbook/convention book/whatever stating that assault and abuse will not be tolerated, combined with a real system in place to deal with problems as they happen. And lastly, if anyone tries something on smack them in the face. Without fear of retribution. I'm totally with the Digital Femme on this one.

If you want more views on the SDCC controversy here's a second useful link list from WFA:

http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/2008/08/fallout-from-sdcc-and-other-stories.html

This whole discussion has come up about because we don't understand that women's bodies aren't our own. We don't understand that our bodies are not a public commodity. We focus the whole debate on what women are doing to themselves and with themselves. On a similar note, I found this essay (through WFA again) about the depiction of the female Muslim within comics, in this case, the X-Men. I link to it here because part of it also deals with women's bodies and how we view them. In this case, how America depicts a female Muslim.

I don't know know anything about Islam really, I suspect that if I do read and agree with a comment about the burka and it's role in preserving modesty, that that doesn't show how much I know, but rather how much I've been shown and haven't questioned. I.e. white privilege. Which is really something I should sort out. For my tuppence worth, I think anyone should be able to wear what they damn well like. So long as it's not imposed on you by anyone else, what's the beef? If we in the west say arr it's a tool of the patriarchy and you're subjugating yourself, aren't we saying that our value systems are better than theirs? And doesn't that stink of privilege and colonialism and racism?

WFA's back!

Hurrah!! And it looks liek I'll be picking up Action Comics from now on. It's got Supergirl in it. And a really lovely drawn Kara at that. And what looks like irreverent wittiness as the dialogue.
Hurrah!

I'd also like to point out these panels from a recent Hawkman comic. An example of truly truly bad writing. Who agreed to that?

Comics frenzy!

Yup. It's been a comics frenzy. God I've read so much recently.

Spoilers ahoy.

JLElite mini - re-read this after I finished Batgirl. Really really good. I got a lot more out of it now I know more backstory etc.

Trinity - still reading it, but am no longer offended. I don't really care either way to be honest so I can probably drop it soon.

Joker's asylum - Scarecrow and Two Face - Ooh yeah, I really really enjoyed both of these! I didn't know much about the character's before but now I'm really intrigued.

Two Face year 1 - issue 1. I also really enjoyed this. Bought it from a shop in Romford with a very chatty sales guy, who gave me a discount and also pointed out his sexy corner!*

Huntress number 6 - Wonderful. :) Although the last panel was corny. I shall enjoy the whole mini in sequence soon.

Manhunter 33 - I don't like the art on this. I can see why people like it, but I like my art glossy, and this isn't. The plot and everything else is good though, so I shall keep getting it.

Supergirl 32 - Oh Kara, you've matured! Love the older her costumer. And poise. She makes the right decision, she felt like her own person, finally. Not like a supporting cast member. And Empress is in the next issue! I like Empress, a lot, I still think her powers etc are a bit dubious, but she is great.

Buffy 17 - Not as exciting as I had hoped :/ And I'm quite frankly shocked to see Willow turn to the dark side again. I'd assumed it was Drusilla leading the way. Nice of them not to put a Buffy upskirt shot on the cover.
I'm on Buffy season 3 at the mo, and by god the main cast's attitude towards Faith is irritating. So she has sex, she dresses like a 'bad girl', get over it! I realise this is a fairly accurate portrayal of some teenagers attitudes, but it's so hypocritical. You just know that Willow is the same between the sheets (As evidence I submit to you Evil vampire Willow and her later more open relationship with Tara) and Buffy has a wild streak in her (Spike sex), yet they pretend to be so bloody puritan and innocent. Grrr. I've never understood people like that. It's ok to say you like sex! It's not a character failing! *Gnashes teeth*

Robin 176 - I only bought this cos it's Spoiler. I cannot start buying all the bat titles, I don't have the room or the money. Must. Not. Buy.

Superman/Batman 50 - Aww I love this title! So far I've been buying the trades but decided to sue this issue as a jumping on point. It's great! I love seeing the two of them interact, light and dark and all that. :) And the fathers meeting retcon pleases me too, I like the concept of fate in my books.

Final Crisis 1-3. I wasn't gonna buy in. I wasn't'. I'd bought Rogues Revenge but that's because I'd just finished the Flash and I'm narked that they killed Bart off. But then I saw that gorgeous Supergirl cover. And remembered it was written by Grant Morrison. So i caved. And it's pretty darn good! I'll need to re read it to get it all to sink in - I was a bit stressed on first reading - but yeah I'm impressed. Here's that Supergirl cover:

Isn't it beautiful?

And finally I'm reading JSA 16, annual and 17. For this I blame Heidi Meeley! And the Alex Ross cover. And the Power Girl theme. I didn't like the inside art that much - it felt very static, and some was just poorly done, but the story of a God coming to earth, healing everyones pains, that's the kind of thing I'm a sucker for. And as Heidi says, it is all going to go to hell in a handbasket. The other reason why I like these sorts of stories.

And I still haven't talked about Babs giving Cassandra that teeny weeny bikini in Batgirl yet. Really it's more a piece of string than a bikini. Babs would never do that to a vulnerable girl like Cass. Babs knows she isn't ready or used to male attention and she knows exactly what will happen. In short, Babs doesn't need Cass to look hawt. Babs also understands you can look hawt while wearing more than two very tiny circles and some string. The same plot point could have been demonstrated with Cass wearing a swimsuit.

*gnashes teeth*

*Where the Grimms Fairy Tales and Witchblade stuff was! get your mind out the gutter!

Things that go MMMMM (magazines)

Magazines.
Me, I been reading a few lately. Diva I tend to get every month and last month it did a gender issue. Tres interesting. Articles on drag kings, passing as a man, trans issues, butch v femme, lesbian books, unisex toilets, muff operations, facial hair and why lesbian pole dancing is not a good thing. Twas good to read.
My only complaint, as usual, is that it very rarely looks at bisexuals. We sit neither here nor there, I'm not entirely relaxed in straight company and neither am I entirely relaxed in gay company. I sit in my office and hear the odd joke or comment (nothing outright homophobic) that very promptly 'others' anyone not straight. The few times I go out with gay people I am always assumed to be straight.
I am only truly comfortable with a few friends who firstly remember that I like women and secondly know that's it's not a big deal. And it would be be nice to have a magazine that recognises this, especially as the reason I started buying Diva regularly was because I was having a bit of an identity crisis. You know, we really need some prominent bi people in the public eye, not girls snogging each other to get in the papers. Woulda made my life a lot easier growing up.
But then I read in the editorial Diva's comment on that stupid research I talked about a while back. And they also asked where did this leave bisexuals, hurrah! I'm not invisible!
I haven't found anything in the current issues that recognises Bi people though :/

From the lesbian contingent to the thoroughly straight contingent. Glamour. Christ. At least Diva recognises feminism and there is this underlying assumption that anyone reading it is feminist, and knows that feminism is a good thing. Lesbians - more self assured than hetero people anyone? Probably not. But maybe more self assured about some things. Or maybe that's a very dumb thing to say.

Anyway. the editorial in Glamour rocked! It talked about the media fabricated female rivalry between, well any successful woman int he public eye. It talked about how it's a myth made up by men to demean us all. It talked about the vileness of criticising women simultaneously for being too fat or too thin and the horrible double standard applied to men and women who have sex (Rod Stewart and Ulrika Jonsson being given as examples). It mentioned how despite what some (men) may think or want to think, we are not competing against each other for a bloody man. It even suggested the swap the gender game, where when you read an article trashing women, put men's name in instead and see how ridiculous it is.

Sublime! And then it gets ruined by focusing purely on shopping, marriage, the new rules of sexy, a vile interview with P Diddy who shows himself to be a homophobic dickwad, and dating rules. ugh. But this wouldn't be a problem if we had women's magazines that weren't dedicated to the above. At least Glamour doesn't circle perfectly normal bits of women's bodies with For Shame! printed in big letters. It doesn't put women down for being fat or ugly, and it provides info on work stuff.
But my god it's just fluff. And the underpinning basis of the magazine is that you must buy clothes and make up and look hot. And you must do so in an up to the minute and utterly fashionable way.
Ugh!