merry season

happy fucking xmas everybody. hope you all enjoy it. bring on the comics cheer.


I really wanna be a slayer. a sober one by preference. or maybe a kick ass fuck you one. yeah. I wanna be Kennedy.

This is not Artemis

Artemis - Wonder Woman art for sale on ebay

Artemis - different hair. not asian. wears clothes. If you wish to sell titillating manga style pictures, by all means do so. But please do not label it Artemis unless you wish it to be recognisable as her.

Edit - actually, I don't mind her being asian. I mind her being generic with no individual recognisable characteristics.

How to draw men in tights

Comic artists, when drawing men in spandex, please take note of the picture below.

(Dominic Tuck, deaf ballet dancer).

Men in tights do not tend to be sexless. Please draw in the requisite bits.

I thank you.

Eh

Oy this again
I don't want to be protected. I want to be able to protect myself (quite possibly with high kicking kung fu moves. This is why I like Black Canary so much).
Christian vlaues did not stop sexual exploitation from flooding the town square. That's why there's always been prostitution. And rape. Sure, it may have kept it out of sight and condemned the women more than the men, but..oh right..that's not good is it?
The chilvalric code kept politeness but maybe not respect? I'd rather respect.
I don't want a society where the solution to gender inequality is that women have to rely on men to protect them. I want a society where I am not at risk of being raped, or mugged, or threatened or leered at. I want a society where the words slut, whore, slag, etc are not insults. Because it shouldn't matter what a women does in her privtae life. having sex does not denigrate her status as a human being. And using these words as insults does denigrate women.

Right now I'd settle for comics and literature that show a wide variety of possible nasty things that can hurt women at night. And also shows these women turning to face their intended attackers and having some power.
Let me explain. Currently, when women in comics are walking alone at night, one or more men will turn up, leer at her, and make sexual violence threats to her. You know, they never wanna just mug her or beat her up. there's always the sexual undertone. And the women always scream and run. They never turn round to face their attacker and stand up for themselves to fight, or laugh in their face, or anything. Their role is to run away. Fine, in the real life I guess this happens a lot. But I am sick of reading of women as victim. Some women fight back you know.
Some women aren't victims. I read a story in a women's magazine a couple of years ago where this women 'talked her way out of rape'. She got in a dodgy cab, the faux taxi driver drove off in the wrong direction, she realised what was happening and screamed and yelled and took control. She didn't get raped. (I can't remember how she got out of the cab - I'm 99% certain she wasn't left in the middle of nowhere though.)
So you know, it does happen. we can take control.

So stop showing me fiction where women can't help themselves. That doesn't gel with my experience as a woman. And I don't get threatened with rape every time I go outside at night.

Elseworlds Finest - Supergirl/Batgirl

Well I've just got round to reading Elseworlds Finest - Supergirl/Batgirl. I must say that Supergirl is absolutley lovely in this. She looks so strong, personality, not just body wise. There are lots of good things with this, but just a few bad things too. :(
Good: Hawkgirl's muscles!
Bad: Batgirl posing on page 2. I know she's meant to be drawn like Batman usually is, one leg resting on the ledge. And at first glance it looks pretty awesome, but then I look again, and it seems like just a little too much emphasis is placed on her boobs and butt. And I don't think spines work like that. (Unfortunately I don't have a scanner so can't post up pictures).
Good: Batgirl looking ominous with the cape on page 4. Shrouded in the cape. Teh awesome.
Bad: Batgirl having her suit actually sprayed on. Give me a fucking break.
Good: Diana in full trousers. A black Captain marvel. A black Black canary. The new Flash costume. Mmmm, streamlined. (But why also the mainline continuity Flash, Captain Marvel and Black Canary? What am I missing?)
Also good: Big Barda. Look she's just awesome ok?
Tre Good: Supergirl's tall! Like really warrior woman tall! Taller than Lex. Awesome.
Good: Page 13. Lex: 'We should have dressed you up - had a gown designed - something befitting your angel image. '
Supergirl: 'Flying down over them in a dress? That's not the image I wanted them to have, Lex!'
Hell yeah! (Do you hear me Michael Turner?)
Bad: We could have done with a bit more depth as to why Batgirl banned metahumans from Gotham.
Good: Page 18. BOOM! You gotta love anything that geos boom. You just gotta.
Meh: Oracle. meh. Tim Drake as the JSA stooge.
Bad: Why the JSA? Why not the JLA?
Good: Batgirl gets to look moody and stubborn just like regular universe Bruce. No pouting. No lippy. Just. 'I said I had it under control.' *scowl*
Supergirl with firey eyes.. Supergirl smash.
Good: Child Barbara with the gun. Oh hell yes.

So all in all, they managed to remove a lot of the women-for-the-male-gaze-only type art. Which is yay. Pity some slipped through. Booo.

And compeltely away from the women art etc subject. I'm not sure You can call this Batgirl part of Elseworld's finest cos she's not heroic enough.. 90% ofwhat we got was Batgirl as tyrant. Not Batgirl as hero. Still. Have a star for trying.

Various names

Stolen from Ami Angelwings:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Phoebe Bicycle

2. GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) - Vanilla Chocolate (Cookie is American for biscuit right?)

3. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Red Cat

4. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Gresa (MM that's nice isn't it?)

5. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, first tool that comes to mind, put “The” at the beginning) - The Blue Chisel

6. STRIPPER NAME: (favorite candy, the name of your favorite perfume/cologne) - Wispa Classique

7. PORN STAR NAME: (First pet and street you live on) - Pheobe Waterloo

Heh. fun. Now i'm off to read my dazzler comics. Cheerio.

Smallville episode 8

Oooh I quite liked this one! After the disaster that was episode 6 I did think that only the odd numbered episodes were gonna be any good. I was wrong. Number 7 was awesome, number 8 was pretty cool. However, I did note some superdickery going on.

If Clarke had stopped to think for a minute he have realised that Lara can probably handle herself, under the yellow sun and all. Get over your hero complex mister. And secondly, leaving the very human (ex?) love of your life alone with Lara, who has a homicidal superpowered kryptonian after her? Lana's gonna be able to help how exactly?!

And Lana. Lana Lana Lana Lana! Clark whinges about his lost mum, and it's all about you is it? Oh I know how you feel Clarkie, I miss my mum too, moan moan moan. Huh? How is that relevant?!

But ooh, Richard is Julian Luthor! Ooooh! I thought they were going for homoerotic moment between Julian and Lex there. Until the brotherly connection was realised. Damn shame that. I'm up for a bit to man on man action in this show.

Overall, 4 out of 5 stars.
Back to how the shows been doing -
Bizzaro - tre Awesome. But the first episodes always are, finishing off the cliffhangers form the previous season and all. And this version of Bizzarro is sooo much better than the my-head-hurts-to-read-it comics version.*
Kara - Mmm. Good. I liked the snarky and the sizing up of each other.
Fierce- Absolute rot. I think I may have documented my thoughts before.
Cure - Hmm. As I recall, this was so so.
Action - ahh, knowing meta fiction narrative methinks! Yeah, this rocked. Nice WiR debate too. Made me chuckle.
Lara - was this the one where we learnt half of Krypton has visited earth? If yes, then this is the one that really sucked.**
Wrath - Oh yeah, evil Lana, plot and character development, oh yeah! good one.
Blue. Yep. Already done this one.

Which was the one with Lana keeping Lionel captive? Cos that was also the awesome.
I think I just

I had 6 mince pies and frozen mango for my dinner. Not at the same time. I'm not sure if I'm proud or not.

I think I've scuppered my even/odd number theory.

*except for Bizzarro Linda Danvers Supergirl. She's adorable and I think I want a pet one.
**I'm willing to concede that my views on this are down to the fact that I'm a it of a purist. Part of the pleasure of the Superman mythology is that he was sent to an unknown planet and there are very few others that share the knowledge. Allowing all his family to visit kind of ruins this. (Then again, I've very much enjoyed the recent comics third kryptonian storyline.)

Smallville - Lara

Stupid stuipid episode. Why have Lara et al come to Earth? Why choose to make a superhero show and then fuck about with the main elements? I wouldn't have any objections if it was done well, but that was stupid.
And it appears Clark has Kara's crystal. Stupid. Am now to hacked off to watch episode 7. Grr.

Smallville episode 5

Ahh so much to love in this episode! Lionel's back! Lana shows more snarlyness - I guess this is the direction they'll go in to allow Clark and Lana to split? Clark gets the cape! Further persuasion to get Clark to be a superhero! WiR theory made into reality - ok so that's not so cool, but it made me giggle. Do we think they are addressing the blogosphere's concerns here?! A new character finds out Clark's secret identity and doesn't die or get mindwiped! Hurrah!
This makes up for the mess of last week's episodes.
Bad things - no Kara. Booooo. Good on Chloe for giving her a backstory though :)

In other news, I finally got and read the GA/Black Canary wedding special. Giddy Superman makes me laugh. He looks and acts like a 12 year old boy! The whole issue was pretty good actually, I like Dinah getting pissed Slade nicked her ring and I really liked everyone's reactions to the invite (especially Plastic Man's).

Also got ASBAR 7. Awful. but awesome. but awful. but awesome. And was that meant to be Black Canary, or some random Irish chick who dresses just like her? And do we think that Frank Miller may be writing himself as Batman? Or at least, writing himself as he wants to be.

Kara Smallville

I like Kara on Smallville. I liked her snarky in episode 2, I liked her self assuredness and her meeting in the forest with Clark. Episode 3 however, was bollocks. There was no need, character development wise, for a beauty pageant. The weather girls plot was just rubbish. And now I'm a little afeard that they might try and make Kara and Lex have a relationship. Grr.
And Lana appears to have come back with no toughness. Surely the strength she shows when aroudn Lex should also show when she's around Clark? But it comes across as two entirely seperate people, and I prefer the tough Lex Lana. *sigh*

Wonder Woman = housewife ?

or tidy upper-er, or cleaner? You wouldn't think of her as that would you? Except that this artwork up on ebay at the moment has her "indulging in a little tidying up, picking up someones pants"

Why would Diana be picking up someone's pants? Is she doing a spot of light cleaning round the watchtower?

And why are her feet in that position when she's not wearing heels?

Tales of rape in fiction

Been thinking about this lately. I think the reason I loathe I so much is because it always seems to be saying look, women, this is an ever present threat in your lives, you will never escape it and if someone wants to hurt you like this then you can't stop them. And oddly enough I take offence at being told I should be fearful all my life. I know this probably isn't how the writers mean it, i'm sure when writers put rape or near-rape scenes into their fiction it's to show how bad the assaulter is, it's an easy way to get us to feel disgust. But it doesn't always read like that.

WiR. I cry WiR!

Black Canary number 4. Making it look like Sin was killed by Ollie just so that Ollie could be made to look less selfish so that Dinah could than say yea to the proposal? Wir! What a load of crap.
And don't even get me started on the stupidity of not including Dinah in the faux death plan. (oh no, wait. if Dinah was included then Ollie couldn't be made to look better. of course.) Or how Dinah did not get pissed at Ollie for the effing stupid patronising plan. and for pretending to kill her daughter. and for such a weak way of ending an otherwise good mini. arg. losers.

Statues, Kryptonians and lesbians

I was following the MJ statue furore closely but after so many posts I got a little disheartened. It's really good to see so many people talking about it, it's good to see different points of view. However some responses have really bothered me.
The one I'm mostly disturbed by is people saying that MJ looks like a skank, or a whore. Where do people get off judging others for how they dress? There's a lot of hatred behind calling someone a whore. And of course there's the value judgement of being a prostitute is *bad*, it's the worst thing a woman could be. If a woman's a whore, she's not worth anything - she's the lowest of the low. Or am I reading too much into it? It seems to me that people slagging women off based on their style of dress is deeply wrong.
How other's dress has got nothing to do with anyone, except the person themselves. It doesn't tell you about their morality. It seems to me to be running along similar lines of she wore a short skirt she was asking to be raped.
If anyone is reading this, I really would like your thoughts.
Posts that I have enjoyed about MJ are this Nerd Selection one and this livejournal one which talks about other Adam Hughes statues. The Livejournal one makes a lot of good points, and I came away from that post confused about the merits of the statue again. Plus, I love those other statues. Especially the Wonder Woman and Power Girl one. And the Hawkgirl one. And the Zatanna one. Oh. That's all of them you say? Well ok they all rock. Someone buy me them. Please.

In other comic readings, I finally got Runaways 2 and 3, not as ass kickingly awesome as numbers 1 and 6, (but maybe that's due to the hangover), but pretty damn good all the same. The art is lovely, the way the paper is printed is lovely. The characters are written and presented as humans first, men and women second. They have different body types and their personality is shown in each face. It's what the feminist blogosphere has been crying out for!
I for one, love Gert, partly cos she's fat. So rare to see a fat chick in comics. She has attitude.
And I'm so pleased by the lesbian relationship! That is one of the reasons I wanted to pick the books up, it's a lesbian relationship that is presented as normal, and not as 'other'.
(and for a wordy book equivalent of this check out Tamora Pierce's 'Magic in the Weaving'

Supergirl number 16 and 17. *SPOILERS to end of post*



Now I really liked the origin story number 16. A different spin on Jor-el, Zor-el revealed not be an insane nutter, a reason given for Kara's instructions to kill Superman. It explained the crystals a bit, thought I'd still like to know exactly how they are implanted in her and how that works. Good stuff I thought.
And then in number 17 they ruin it by hinting that it's not Zor-el who is speaking to Kara, it's two other mystery people. Now that sucks. And then the other Supergirl turns up.
I didn't read 52 but I do know the conclusion reintroduced the multiverse. And as I have also read theories saying that this Kara's Krypton is different to Superman's Krypton, (something to do with crystals and hair apparently, I should really pick up Superman), I assume that the Kara we have known so far is from a different universe. I hate guessing plotlines. Especially when I'm right. Hopefully I'll be wrong.

MJ, again

And I'd also like to add that I love that MJ took the surname of Watson-Parker when she married. That is awesome. Whenever I discuss with people the merits of retaining your own name of taking a double barreled one after marriage I am met with confused looks.

That MJ statue...

Yeah, so there's been posts all over the internet about that new MJ statue, you can view it on the Digital Femme blog, which includes a link to the art it was based on.
I don't think I've ever before given my comments about the latest furore on the 'net, but this time I thought I had something to add. So here goes.

I don't like the statue, MJ's proportions are off, it looks weird. I like it even less when you get the 360 degrees photos. When people have commented that it's bad art, I have agreed. It's rather odd that of all the things to produce a statue of, they've produced one of MJ doing Peter's laundry. It can definitely be read as a woman's place is in the home, looking after her man. I don't like that.

However, I also think that I've done hand washing in my fancy clothes before. I've also done hand washing in tracky bottoms and baggy t-shirts before. It depends on what I'm wearing at the time. So I can totally buy that MJ is doing handwashing in pearls, a thong, tight-ass jeans and a plunging top. If that's what she was wearing anyway that day. And you know, she's a top model right, she wears stuff like that. I'd be surprised if anyone changed clothes just to do the handwashing.
Maybe she'd just doing him a favour handwashing the suit. Maybe the washing machine has broken.
I can also buy that she's in that cheesecakey provocative pose. Maybe Spidey has just walked in and she's flirting with him, and has arched herself just for a second. Hell, I do that for my boyfriend all the time.
So maybe it's not so bad.

But then again, I notice the height of the bucket; she'd have to be bent down all the time to use that. Or realistically sitting down, or kneeling. She's a tall lady, she will get backache bending down for too long. Especially with breasts (trust me, I know about large boobs).
Actually, realistically, she'd be doing the washing in a sink.

And MJ is a tough independent woman. Why not put her in a pose that reflects that? Unless they were going for the flirty tease Peter thing, and think it's an independent woman controlling her sexuality or something.

Then I remember that it's probably designed for fanboys to wank over.
And I think of all the other superhero statues made.
And I sigh and remember that the site producing this has removed all the comments complaining about the statue, and left the comments praising it.
And the statue is apparently already sold out.
And I realise again that this statue is a by-product of all the sexism in society.

I rather like Digital Femme's idea of adding a second statue "featuring Peter Parker wearing a towel and Spider-Man booties while grinning sheepishly". That would work.

For lots more links to other blogs discussing this have a peek at When Fangirls Attack.

I'm with the Bat..

Nearly. I'm getting to know Batman a bit better lately. He's growing on me. (Although for my non superpowered male hero kicks I think I'll still go for Green Arrow. Got the Moving Targets trade recently. Awesome. )
Anyway, I read Arkham Asylum yesterday. Written by Grant Morrison. Illustrated by Dave McKean. He who drew Wolves in the Walls. It's wonderful. His drawing rocks. everyone should go have a look.

That's all.

The problem with relaunching superheroes

Or more specifically, the problem with relaunching Power Pack.
I first came across Power Pack in the back of the Thundercats comics in the 80s. They were awesome. Even when the Thundercats stories turned into tripe it was worth getting the comics for the short Power Pack strips. I recently went on ebay and bought the majority of the run of the 80s Power Pack comics, and man, they are still fantastic. Well they got a little odd and silly towards the end, but the final issue, the holiday special, that cleared up and wiped out the previous rubbish plotlines made up for it.
Louise Simonson was the original writer for the Power Pack, and she is good. She also did some of the Death of Superman storylines - but to be honest I preferred the Pack stuff.
Anyway, a few years ago (I guess) Marvel decided to relaunch Power Pack. I eventually got round to buying volume 1 in the digest size edition, and, well, it sucked. It was boring. the characterisation was off. It was told from Katie's perspective but she didn't feel like a real little girl anymore. Too cutesy, not enough depth. I didn't like it.
For some reason I thought I'd pick up the X-Men/Power Pack crossover trade, The Power of X, from the library the other day. probably just to confirm my suspicions that it remained bad. It was. So I'm gonna tell you what is wrong:

• Katie suddenly using her powers to hurt people, willingly. Ok she's defending herself. But the Katie I know went through a massive guilt period because she'd nearly destroyed one of the Snarks. She then decided not to use her powers. She didn't want to hurt anyone anymore, she didn't think it was right. I don't care if it's a bad guy, (In this case The Marauders), she wouldn't do that. You're taking away her maturity for the sake of a (crappy) fight.
• Julie telling a science conference the origin of their powers (posed as a hypothetical origin). This is not Julie. She's the cautious one. Sure, she wants their parents to know, but not like that!
• Power Pack suiting up and fighting in plain sight at the above mentioned science conference, where their folks are also attending. And not even using Jack's cloud cover! Or getting masks!
• Shouldn't Beast have heard of Power Pack? I mean, they're good friends with Logan, and Shadowcat.
• Julie's boyfriend. Ok, so I figure they've got older. But Julie is definitely not more than 15. She's probably not more than 14 or 13. So how come she has a boyfriend that is doing a science internship? I mean, how old do you have to be for that, 18?, 19? At least. Certainly not left than 18. So 14 year old Julie, with an 18+ year old boyfriend. Ewwww.
• Julie is in an off kilter, tilted semi-coquettish pose on the cover. Jesus she's a young kid! That's wrong.

And the stories don't flow. This comic sucks.

Birthdays and bowels

Dan's told me to stop talking about my bowels, apparently it's a little bit gross. I think people are prudes. Anyway, I had my bowels washed out at the weekend. There's wasn't as much in there as I thought there would be But there again, how big can my bowels be? How much can they hold? I would have felt better if the lady doing so hadn't held a certificate from the National College of Holistic Medicine, (sounds a little Gillian McKeith-esque to me), saying she could do this, but no damage was caused, and psychologically speaking, it's nice to see all your shit taken out. To know that you're cleaner inside. I would be happy to have it done again, but maybe not with this particular lady.
And it took me two days to poop again, and it was a really good poop.

On to the other B subject, I am 28 today. No, I'm 27. Oops. Typo ahoy. Honest. You may wonder why I am on t'internet now instead of celebrating or boozing it up. Well, I dislike celebrating birthdays. It makes me uncomfortable. I'm happy making them like every other day. But with less of the going to work action. There has been chocolate, but no booze. In keeping with my booze free plan. And diet plan. I've lost a stone now. So I'm now back at roughly what I was a year ago. How depressing. Well, maybe in a month I could be at 9 stone 7. That would be awesome. I've never been 9st7.

Scuppering of the plans

So blogger has been bought up by/gone into partnership with google then. Not very impressed. Google being the company who are assisting the Chinese government in blocking non approved websites. Hmmm. Tossers.

Anyway, in me news, electrolysis! the things we women do for hair removal. Ow. Ow times alot I say. I mean, yay, the hairs are removed, and will grow back weaker if not outright killed off, but man, I swear I heard something sizzle. Several times. I must have some really tough deep rooted hairs.
I would say, my god the things we women do for beauty, except I don't want them removed to look better. I want them removed because I feel like a I have a parasite alien infection in my face when they grow. I hate them. If I was primarily concerned with how they looked I wouldn't be taking off my face attempting to pull them out. At least with the electrolysis the most I may possibly get will be bruising, which fades. It wouldn't however look like I had a massive acne problem and it won't leave scarring.

And in good news, more and more peoeple are coming round to the idea that the recent incarnation of Supergirl is not inherently awful, it may actually be a good comic and it shouldn't be cancelled. See Alex in Wonderland's blog.

Yes she's drawn in a sexist way, yes she's not sweet and lovely, yes she's stroppy, yes she's confused, yes she may have more in common with Paris Hilton than you'd like (I personally disagree on the last one), but this doesn't make it a bad comic. I think Kara is getting more complex, I think there are a lot of interesting ideas in it the blogosphere isn't picking up. For example, the way she claims she doesn't want to be a part of the Superman legacy yet is always wearing the S symbol, his symbol. And it is his, for the moment, anyway.
I would love to continue this thought but I have unfortunately had two very long days and tomorrow's is going to be even worse. So I shall salute. Goodbye. Ciao. До свидания.

(And the reason I like this Kara is not cos of the the smex. Although I do think she's beautiful. But then again I think Paris Hilton is fairly hot. I realise I am in the minority here.)