Comics review: Convergence week 5

Spoilers ahead (probably).

Convergence 5
I really cannot bring myself to care about this main title.  Skataris and dinosaurs are fun, but it's not necessary to read this to understand the tie-ins.  I suspect that I will be selling this mini.

Convergence: Justice League 2
There's some ridiculous bum and boob images in this.  Ignoring that, this isn't too bad,  It's pretty much a big fight between the League and Flashpoint Aquaman, with a bit of Vulko, ending with Mera killing Flashpoint Aquaman.  I can't imagine anyone not invested in pre 52 continuity enjoying this.  Fortunately, I like the pre 52 world a lot.  These 2 issues are keepers, really just for Supergirls' involvement in them.

Convergence: Superman 2
Just lovely.  Lois has been kidnapped by Flashpoint Kal, but he doesn't mean her harm, and he takes her to Flashpoint's Batman's cave.  Lois goes into labour and Flashpoint Batman (Thomas Wayne, a  doctor) says he can't handle delivering the baby so Clark does it.  Surprisingly, they show the labour as being quite drawn out, and not over in half an hour.  And at the end Lois and Clark and a baby boy.  It's delightful.  This is definitely a keeper.

Convergence: Batman and Robin 2
This appears to be one of the few tie-ins that lets it's heroes be heroes - i.e. not willing to go fight the opposing champion.  Of course it is, it's Batman.  Jason Todd and Damian are in this, and it turns into a father-sons piece.  The art is nice.  I couldn't care about the story.  I'll try and sell this.

Convergence: The Atom 2
I think I'd remember this more fondly if I hadn't watched Smallville's Booster episode last night (with the three Blue Beetles in it).  Which means that I'm getting my blue heroes muddled.  The comic was OK.  I find the Deathstroke vs the Atoms storyline strange, probably because I wasn't reading the pre 52 issues where Deathstroke killed Ryan Choi.  I do like that Ryan has been resurrected, that's a good thing about this event.  I am undecided as to whether I should keep this.

Convergence: The Question 2
This might be called the Question but really it's a Two-face/Renee story, with lots of support by Batwoman and Huntress.  Some of the storytelling through just art (no words) is pretty damn fine.  I highly highly recommend this.  Definitely a keeper.

Convergence: The Titans 2
Roy finds a way to save Lian and his friends, and Lian is the real Lian, and she remains alive at the end.  This resonated.  It's a keeper.

Convergence: Speed Force 2
This has a very flat, cartoony, style of art. It's not what I'm used to, but I can't tell if I think if it's bad, or if it's just different.  Reading it, I have trouble accepting this Flashpoint Wonder Woman.  She's too far away from the Diana I am used to.  Irey seems to have some sort of torso muscles, which is strange, given her age.  I think I thought this issue was nice enough, but it's not really got anything memorable in it.  I liked the first issue though, so I'll probably keep this.

Convergence: Harley Quinn 2
This was fun.  Harley tells Cap'n Carrot she has super fists, scorch vision, canary scream, awesome-portation and a magic hammer stolen from the Gods.  He believes her, because who lies about having super powers?  This plan backfires but it all turns out well in the end, and Harley is reunited with ivy and Selina.  But doesn't go back to her fella.

Convergence: Batgirl 2
Steph and Tim seemed out of character in this.  Tim says that he ignored her for the last year because she was no longer Batgirl. Now she is suited up again, he's interested again.  She gets annoyed at this, but then takes him back.  I prefer to think that Steph has more self respect than that, and that Tim isn't such a dick.  Possibly keeping for nostalgia reasons.

Convergence: Nightwing and Oracle: 2
This was good.  I really like the design of the Hawks, and Black Canary shows up.  The Hawks get defeated and are offered the chance to live in this Gotham, curating their culture.  That's how heroism works.  Then Babs and Dick get hitched and we see the second ever good comic book wedding dress.  The first was Canary's when she married Green Arrow, FYI.  These 2 issues are keepers.

One thing that I realised during this week's comics, is that the fights between champions aren't to the death.  I had assumed they were, but I don't think Telos ever stated that.  He just said one champion must be defeated.

I didn't read many of the divergent previews.  I doubt I'll be getting many of them.

Killing Hawkwoman

So, seeing as the whole DCU is gonna be rebooted after Flashpoint, what the fuck was the point in killing Hawkwoman off at the end of Brightest Day?    I mean, Flashpoint has changed the world already so the new universe doesn't have to tie in with the old, at all, so why not let Sheira survive Brightest Day?


After reading this interview I am keeping a more open mind about Babs becoming Batgirl again.  But given the choice, I would prefer her to remain as Oracle, as a wheelchair user.

Batman gets told off

There were a few good moments in War Games.  Only one or two mind.  This is one of them.

There.  That's the best bit of War Games.  Now no one else will have to read it, hah!

This reminds me of a scene with Babs, Cass and Bruce, that I will never ever get tired of:

No Mans Land - Babs sees the other Batgirl

This takes place before Cassandra puts the cowl on.  Babs discovers another woman in Gotham wearing the Batgirl suit.  She's understandably upset.  From Detective Comics 732.

Remember that Barbara stopped being Batgirl when the Joker shot her in the spine and no one has taken up the mantle since.  She's hurt.  I think the art is fantastic in this story.


Ps: don't forget to vote in my poll!

They'll break your face!!

Stolen from DCwomenkickingass:

Go Dinah and Babs!

(Blogging will be short and to the point, if at all.  I have another job app to do this week).

Where stuff that gets made public reveals a nasty side

Having joined up on twitter recently I have been following various people.  Some are famous, for example Gail Simone.

Following Gail Simone has increased my respect for her a thousandfold.  Her tweets are funny, and she's so far exhibited only decent-person ideas.  Today (Tuesday 8th June) she has been talking about The Killing Joke, y'know, that comic where Barbara Gordon, then Batgirl, got shot in the spine by the Joker and paralysed.

When editorial approval was sought for this particular plot, the editor (Len Wein) reportedly yelled down the hall:

'Cripple the bitch'

Isn't that hateful?  Isn't it venemous?  Granted, I do not know the tone in which it was said, but the words are ugly.  What struck me after asborbing this bit of (old) news, was the way in which feminist are accused of treating characters like real people.  Isn't that just what this editor is doing?  Why ascribe the word 'bitch' to a fictional character, in that context, if they are not in some way real to you?

And if Barbara Gordon is indeed real to you what does this say about your attitude to real flesh and blood women and wheelchair users?

Which is why I find the statement 'Cripple the Bitch' quite disturbing.  It's along the same lines as Bill Wilingham saying:

"I wanted to gun down those girls who kept asking about the memorial case"

at the recent heroes con (reported on here).

I am someone who believes words are important.  I think those sort of casual throwaway line regarding violence usually betrays some feeling of anger, hate or violence within a person.  Or at the very least some sort of detachment towards others.  You certainly can't fully appreciate and support the full meaning of those phrases without being a very malevolent person.*

So this leaves me kind of sickened.  And this is exactly the sort of thing that says women (and people with disabilities) are not welcome.  It's the same mentality that puts rape scenes into comics (or any popular culture medium).  It's the sort of shit that makes me very wary about the types of internet sites I inhabit and makes me distrustful of any new people I meet (men and women, because these views permeate all genders).

*I am not in any way stating that using a wheelchair is a negative thing.  But I believe that the editor who uttered those words thinks that it is a punishment of some sort.

ooh crumbs I missed a day

:o haven't done that in a long time.  It's cos I;ve been busy writing Valentine's reviews for New Readers...

Anyway, to make up for it here's some Batgirl scans I found on Scans Daily here:

 

 

And that shows why Batman is a knob, and why Oracle is awesome.  Cass really didn't deserve a father figure such as Bruce.

Superhero sign names - as part of Learn to Sign week

As it's Learn to Sign week I thought now would be a good time for a post combining comics and signing.  Here we go.

In British Sign Language we have something called sign names.  They are basically nick names and are a short hand way to refer to someone, as an alternative to fingerspelling their name.  One of my friends likes cake, so her sign name is the sign for cake with the lip pattern of her name.  My sign name is the sign for reading, (flat open palms with fingers together, palms face up, fingers slightly overlapping and move the hands round in one circular motion), with the lip pattern of my name, because I read all day, every day.  One of my old teachers name was based on his hairstyle, so it;s been a pony tail or a mohawk with his name.  You get the idea.

So I got to thinking what would the sign names of the superheroes be?  Signingtime, an American site has a forum which asks this very question.  That is however the only site I can find that deals with this issue.  If anyone knows of any others, please let me know in the comments.

In the UK, the sign for superhero in general is your right arm stuck out in a fist, a la flying.  That also works for Superman, and Supergirl would be the main sign + girl. I expect that Batman is Bat plus Man.  Buffy the vampire slayer is 'B+vampirefangs+a staking action'.  I expect Wonder Woman has her own sign.


As I don't know any Deaf comics fans I cannot ask them what signs they use, so I will speculate.  Sign names are never official anyway, they are given by those who know you, or you give one to yourself.  I will approach this from the point of view of what will those people who know and love the heros, e.g. friends and family, use.

Let us start with Bart Allen.

We cannot simply give him the multichannel sign of speeding-off-into-the-distance, because that could be used for all speedsters.  We shouldn't really use Impulse or Kid Flash as that's his actual code name.  I suppose the general public could trace the lightening logo on their chest, to mean Flash, and Kid Flash could be Flash+kid, but that isn't distinctive enough to mean Bart.  I would be tempted to go with his big feet or his hair.  No one else in the DCU has feet and hair quite like him, and I don't think he would be offended by it.  You could sign big-feet-racing-forward and provide the lip pattern for Bart.  I think that's fairly apt.

How about Speedy (Mia)?

Well, you can't simply sign speedy, or fast, because in all honesty that is far more likely to be associated with the Flash type heroes in the DCU.  Speedy's hero thing is her arrow shooting, but I find the sign for bow and arrow rather unwieldy, so would prefer not to use it.  I also would prefer to choose something that would be distinct from RoySpeedy, so it needs to be feminised or be something completely different.  Considering Mia's cocky personality I think I will go with the sign for Cheeky.  I'm sure Ollie would agree.


Black Canary.

 For her public name, I'd go with black+canary.  Black is a thumbs up hand shape swiped along your cheek from near your ear to off your face by your mouth.  Canary is a local sign in Norfolk, our football team is nicknamed the Canaries (these birds have a long association with the city, due to the influx of Dutch traders in earlier centuries).  As such, both Canary and Norwich are the same - the bird sign over your left breast where the football logo is on a shirt.
As for her private name, for 80s hero Dinah we could trace the headband shape+name.  For florist Dinah we could do flower+name.  For a joke we could do computer+name.  Although that might be best for Barbara.  As a really boring sign we could do blonde+name, or martial arts+name.

Guy gets the bowl haircut sign, no question and no matter how long he's had a new style for.  Batman has his own special sign for Guy though -  falling over (as in being knocked out)+name.

The possibilities are endless!

My beef with the Oracle mini

Well, I still want to get this off my chest, if only to get the thoughts out of my head (and possibly also the words out of my arse..) so I'm damn well gonna put something down and post it.
Then I'm gonna stop pressuring msyelf about writing.

OK, so I inferred in an earlier post that I thought the Oracle mini was pointless, and I feel I should explain. I'm not so much going to look at the quality of the writing, that's fairly subjective I reckon. Well I doubt anyone's going to say it's a masterpiece but I hear some folks did find it rather enjoyable.

I think my main issue with it is that the mini was set up as an important spin off, or at the least as an important episode in Babs' life. Birds of Prey ended, setting this up to (potentially) be an important examination of Barbara, her life and character. The mini came out under the header 'Battle for the Cowl'. The first issue introduces the anti life equation, so there's also a Final Crisis connection.

And yet, the conclusion of this arc did fuck all for Babs, for the question of who would be Batman or Batgirl or anything for the anti life equation.

What did this series reveal?

• The Calculator is the father of Wendy of wonder twins fame. Then did nothing with this information. It gave the calculator a reason to delve into the internetz and gather the anti life formula, but in the end it wasn't used.
• Babs agonized (again) over the Joker's shooting of her, then didn't get to walk again (which for political reasons I am thankful for).
• Oracle doesn't understand online RPGs - if you would grant me a moment of fan entitlement let me say that I consider that characterisation to be incorrect.
• Fat girls want to play naked blonde bosomy warriors in the aforementioned RPGs. Yes. This rankles with me.
• Oh look, rape threats again. Glad to see they are still common in the DCU. Apparently these drive Barbara into a near homocidal rage ---> on second thoughts if the joker did rape her after he shot her I can see why this incident, coupled with the murder of the cheese fiend and the recent ponderings over the shooting accident, might drive her to a battering frenzy.
• Wendy woke up from her coma, yells for her dad (did she not know he was evil?) and discovers she can't feel her legs.
  

Nothing very important is it?

There is no big Batgirl reveal, there's no big reconciling of Barbara's feelings over the Joker's attack and Wendy hasn't decided to become an Oracle copycat.

I think my point is that for such a hyped series I would have expected something big to come out of it, like a new Batgirl or Barbara being able to walk again. Instead this is just a run of the mill story that could have featured pretty much anywhere and been written anywhen. (OK you might need to remove the references to the anti life equation, but it wouldn't be difficult to come up with something else implausible to replace it.) Barbara is particularly angry and violent in this mini, but there's nothing to indicate this is a permanent personality change for her.

How does this segue into Batgirl? There are no links. You may as well have put 'Next: Batgirl /1' at the end of Booster Gold, or Green Lantern.

So yeah, pointless.

On the theme of Batgirl, I'd just like to add that I really don't think Steph (Spoiler) should be Batgirl.. Before her 'death' she really badly wanted to be part of the Bat family, but in her return I felt that she came back with her own distinct identity - she doesn't need their approval anymore. So I feel that she should be an ally of the Bat- clan not a fully paid up member. I also cannot see Barbara putting herself in the junior role of Batgirl either.

As for who's under the Batman cowl - I will try and buy the comic on Friday, please if anyone writes about who has taken up the mantle please hide the new identity under a spoiler banner!
Me - I'm itching for it to be Alfred.
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;)

Just so long as it's not Tim. That would be very very wrong. But I guess with the advent of the Batman and Robin book it's pretty definitely not gonna be Tim as Batman right?

Query time: Oracle the Cure

So, now the whole mini is in, let's have a discussion.

Pointless or not? You decide!





You can guess where I stand on this. I'll put up a post explaining why later.

Check out the pretty!

http://theinevitablemediocrespinoff.blogspot.com/2009/04/here-have-some-wallpapers.html

The Supergirl one is now my desktop wallpaper. Batwoman might follow later. Pretty pretty pretty :-)

The Oracle one now looks completely unoffensive, as opposed to when I got the comic. I believe that is because it is not surrounded by other boobs. I admit that the colouring is very pretty on the cover of the Oracle books but I still don't think you need to show a female character's breasts to sell a comic. You'd be better off writing good stories.
One thing I forgot to mention- at least there was consistency between the cover and the inside of the book. She was wearing the same tight shirt inside.

That's probably the last post from me this weekend. I'm off on a stag do tomorrow, back on monday. Hopefully I'll get some internet access over the weekend, I am going with a bunch of techy nerds.

(Supergirl 40 was great! We know who Superwoman is!)

So, intentional disgrace or just mere ineptitude?

You decide! I am referring to this week’s batch of boobalicous comics, which I briefly highlighted in yesterday’s post. Now I am all lemsipped up feel I may be able to take a more considered and thoughtful approach to the subject, to ask DC, really, what the fuck were you thinking?

(In case I’ve put anyone off, or in case people think I’m being I’m being a bit melodramatic or dumb, I take the position that considered and thoughtful approaches can also involve coarse language. Having finished writing this post I now am not sure how considered it is. My lemsip may have worn off.)

This post was originally going to be a conventional review post, but after brooding on the issues in questions I have decided to focus around the women in each issue.

I bought 4 comics this week

Action Comics # 876
Oracle, the Cure # 2
Superman/Batman #58
Green Arrow/Black Canary #19
Included in each of these comics was DC Nation, with some promo art for JLA - Cry for Justice


Of these, all except for Superman/Batman #58 included Human/Kryptonian women. Superman/Batman #58 had the two heroes in the microverse, both encountering new civilisations. Whilst the folks Batman met may have included female people, they weren’t obviously coded as women and no mention was made of their sex. Although I enjoyed the issue I shall not discuss it here, because depictions of gender and sex differences were not apparent.

Let’s start with looking at the three remaining covers. In Oracle we are standing above Babs looking straight down her shirt. Her boobs are so pert and separate that I can see her torso. Her facial expression is one of emptiness, vapidity and shock. Bloggers had an issue with Kara’s Final Crisis cover. Although I quite liked that art and disagreed with the criticisms it has nothing on Bab’s positioning and facial expression.

Having read the issue, I can see now why Bab’s is shocked – she’s found the Calculator in the internet and he’s threatening to rip her apart. But if you compare the cover with the actual art in the issue, they are miles apart. In the issue we view the scene from the left and just behind the characters - there’s no breasts on view, in fact her chest is obscured by her arm. Her expression is of shock, horror and dismay.

The cover doesn’t really have the same effect. She looks full of wide eyed wonder, of innocence. While I have my doubts as to whether that is a true representation of Oracle’s character, that isn’t really the point. The point is that by giving her that expression and juxtaposing it next to that specific breast shot it becomes really exploitative. She looks like she has all the wordly guile of a child. To then also letch on her and choose that particular viewpoint would indicate that the artist (or editor, or whoever decided on the particular setup) is not able to think beyond his own knob. The colouring doesn’t help.

The birds eye view is also tied in to power relations, I think. If you’re standing over someone like that you have the upper hand. Now Babs in the comic would be able to defend herself, no problems (and in fact does). Babs on the cover looks like she couldn’t lift a finger. Because the point of view gives us such a sexual image, it could be read as another rape threat. You know, there’s just not enough of those in popular culture.

Next up, is Green Arrow/Black Canary # 19.
That cover is bad art. Bad bad bad art. I will forgive Cupid’s costume, she’s a new character, that’s her suit, she’s all about the obviousness. Dinah on the other hand…..her hip seems to be twice as long as you’d expect, her waist has shrunk to nothingness and her breasts are bigger than her head.

So, artists and editors. Couldn’t get past the breasts could you?

I have said previously how I loved the cover to GA/BC #17, and I stand by that. There’s a massive difference between the two covers. On #17 we see Cupid's expression. she's daring you to make something of her. Also, she’s in proportion, big breasted, sure, but in proportion. Whereas there is no in context explanation that will redeem the cover of #19.

What about inside the comic. Well, Cupid is bonkers and more than a little bimbo-etteish, she reminds me of ‘maths is hard’ Barbie. Dinah actually gets to do something, e.g. saving Ollie, and I enjoy the way she psyches out Cupid. But, Dinah can’t direct her sonic scream anymore? She doesn’t carry lock picks around? And she hits Ollie? I would rather this couple weren’t so much with the spousal abuse. That’s not a happy, healthy relationship. This needs to be picked up within the text and explicitly stated as being wrong.

Suddenly this looks like a pretty sexist issue all round. Hell, the creation of the Cupid character and the premise of two women fighting over their man could be argued to be a sexist one. I won’t go down that path, because I think there’s room for many different characters in the DCU, and so long as you’ve got good women characters than we can also have some crazy obsessional ones. Or indeed alien princesses with no nudity taboo.

My third beef of the week is the DC Nation column. How I’ve been waiting and longing for this series. I only wish it were an ongoing and not a mini. So on first reading I was all hurrah for the new book, wonderful art, great characters, yaaay! Then the positioning of the art struck me.

Now I’m going to be charitable and say that maybe DC wanted the S logo to be central to the page. Maybe this indicates Kara will have a big role in the new team. Now how were they going to make the S logo central? Well zoom up on her chest of course, isn’t that what they do with Superman? Well, yes it is, but zooming up on a woman’s chest has ve-ry different connotations to zooming up on a man’s chest.

The image disembodies her. By not using her face we see no personality, she becomes a passive object. She has no agency and no input into the scene. We’ve seen images like this before. see Supergirl \1 by Peter David for instance, but they haven’t been so offensive. In that particular image the symbol itself is the focal point of the piece, you can see at least part of their faces and there is no one else in the scene.

In the DC Nation column you have 4 other characters, all men, and no other women. The men are all shown standing and we can see their whole bodies, none of which are sexualised. If you get a kick out of them then that’s you projecting onto the image, not the image saying sex sex sex sex sex see my bits sex sex sex.

If you want the S logo to be central to the image then you could have had Kara floating above the other characters with a similar expression on her face. Or put her in the middle of the group – but that option seems unlikely as Green Lantern needs to be central, being the team leader and all. Still, there are plenty of ways to make the S shield central.

If you don’t want to be charitable, then DC produced this image deliberately in the same way that the Oracle and GA/BC covers were done deliberately.

There has been a lot of discussion of this column going on over at Supergirl Comic Box Commentary. I would recommend reading the comments. Some bloggers think it is a crap and exploitative piece, others disagree and believe that it was DC’s way of highlighting the symbol.

Jeff Caporizza makes a fair point when he questions what Supergirl written by a woman would be like. To quote:

“What I'm saying is that for Kara to be what she could and should be, it only starts with making sure her breasts and belly are accompanied by her head and legs, it ends with some real effort made to capture what a 17 year old demi-god would really sound and act like against a landscape filled with fantasy and wonder. Until then she may as well just show that skin, because who needs to read the word bubbles anyway?”

Landry Walker (writer of Supergirl Cosmic Adventures) then steps in and there is an interesting discussion about who is qualified to write what.

So overall, those two issues and the DC Nation column seem to say:
‘Women, you may be intelligent and capable and well respected, but what’s really important is your breasts! Your other achievements pale into comparison beside those breasts! Who cares what you’re actually like, you’ve got breasts! And because 'I' like breasts I‘m going to focus on just those, forever and ever and ever.’

And this is important because it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. This is not a one off example, and it’s tied in so deeply with women’s position in society in the real, non fictional world, that it’s worth pointing out, again and again and again, that judging women by their bodies is wrong. To judge women does a disservice to both men and women.

I know that DC can do it right, because I have read this week's Actions Comics. Action had none of the above problems. None at all. No objectification and no gratitutous breasts, despite the skin tight and ripped costumes. We are getting three dimensional characters. Oddly enough, the story was pretty good too.

The thing about bad art is that it detracts from the story, it pulls you out, or throws you out if you will, and suddenly you're an observer, not engaging with it. That is a problem in storytelling. It means the finished product isn't very good. It needs to be fixed.

Fix this problem, DC will get a bunch more readers. And I doubt will lose any.

Brain hurt

After reading the latest WFA post I really want to comment on the atrociousness of DC's releases this week. I mean, look at the Oracle cover, DC Nation boobs picture, and the GA/BC cover..





Way to objectify the women there. Fuck off DC. Oracle and GA/BC were obviously deliberate. i can see how the Kara shot *may* be accidental. Put them all in conjunction, all released in the same week, and this is fucking insulting.

I do intend to write about all of these more fully, but I think I'm coming down with something (not rage, although that would be quite appropriate), and I'm in no state to write considered reviews of anything. I don't even think I can watch Smallville now. I should go to bed.
In a state of rage.

Last weeks comics - JLA,, Oracle and Supes

Late reviews of last weeks comics. Spoilers for:
JLA 31, Superman 686, Oracle - The Cure 1
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JLA 31
I bought this because of other people's reviews, and was still surprised by the rubbishness of certain aspects of it. Dinah punching Ollie? Not cool. (For more on this check out WFA) And somewhat out of character. Dinah has morals, she's a superhero for god's sake. She knows what abuse is. So, the beating when combined with Dinah's other odd, very needy, erratic behaviour has led me to the conclusion that she's having a breakdown.
The cover to it is gorgeous (and even though you can see half of Diana's ass, it's not exploitative, because of the muscles and the pose, she looks like a warrior), but I wonder where Dinah has been on past covers? Given that she's the Chair of the league on all, she seems conspicuously absent (unlike this cover), in a way that I imagine the big 3 aren't.

Speaking of Dinah, she's going to get a back up slot in the Green Arrow comic, hurrah! I've said many times before that she seems to be second tier in her own book, so this should sort that out. I also pick up the first GA/BC trade tomorrow :-)

Oracle - The Cure 1
Contrary to how I may come across I really don't want all my favourite characters to be symbols of something. Usually, I just want them to be well rounded creations. When I rail against the sexism etc inherent in any book, I'm actually just angry at the creators for having shitty attitudes.
Having said that, I don't want Oracle's paralysis to be cured. I think there is an assumption out there that all disabled people want to be cured, that they should be fixed, that there's something inherently wrong with them. Now, not all disabled (differently abled? I'm having a semantics issue here) people want to be made 'normal'. Many are happy and content and are vehemently opposed to anyone 'fixing' them.
I think that if the writers do 'fix' Babs and make her walk again, that it would tie into the ideas that folks in wheelchair are wrong and not good enough. That makes me sad.

Or, it could be used as a way for Babs to explore her identity, if it's dealt with maturely and in depth. But you'd need a skilled writer on the case from the get go, and I think having one skilled writer in charge is unlikely to happen.

Or it could be that The Cure relates to the destruction of the anti life equation and has nothing to do with Babs in a wheelchair. The joke would be on us then eh?

Away from the politics and back to the geekishness, Babs is just damn well fine in a wheelchair. She tough, she can take anyone on, she's not helpless. She's brains first then brawn, and very down to earth with it. She's a refreshing change from your cookie cutter mould hero. I love her.

Last criticism, to the artists (or editors) - women of Babs' age (mid twenties?) don't have boobs that round and fleshy. They drop a bit, they change shape. yes, you have given her very beautiful breasts and it's a pleasure to look at them, but try not to make everything about the boobage ok?

I get the feeling this mini will be a middle of the road jobby.

Superman 686
Oh my lord this was perfect. The art was phenomenal, the layout was spot on, the handover from Kal to Mon was executed wonderfully. If you haven't already got this issue I urge you to go purchase it. It is fantastic.

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.