“In the comics, you have loads of toys and I don’t have very many. So if you break one of my few, of course I will be unhappy!”I'd add a note on durability myself. There aren't that many toys for girls to begin with, and only a few really good and/or durable ones. There are a lot of toys for boys at the start, and most of the ones that we know the editors will go through the trouble of fixing after they've been crunched especially badly by a careless writer or editor are the ones for straight white men.
In the DCU we can be confident that Wonder Woman and Lois Lane will get brought back to status quo from any low point. The rest of the "iconic" characters (including the best known supporting cast members) are straight white men. Any other female character, any black character, any Asian character, any Hispanic character, and any established LGBT character runs the risk of being left by the wayside until they need cannon fodder in the company crossover. That's how DC Comics is set up and has been for decades -- good intentions and good resumes don't negate that.
Because I'm a jerk, I'm going to ignore your point altogether and just say that you should add Catwoman to the list of durable female characters. She's one of the most recognizable costumes in the funnies, and she'll always be kept in circulation in some way.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago, I was in a comic book store. This little girl was getting so excited about the different Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman statuettes on display, but she ended up buying a bunch of Spiderman back issues. (Presumably she's bought comics with other heroines?) I felt badly because there really weren't any good superheroine comics to point her to.
ReplyDeleteThat little girl, and many children like her, is the reason why we--to borrow from Kitty--shouldn't have our toys broken in the first place.
--Sandicomm
You know those hype-driven creative teams that join a book and instantly propel it to top ten status? You know those teams that do that AND tell good stories to boot?
ReplyDeleteImagine if there was an effort to put one of those teams, or maybe even successive teams, on one of these books that just never seem to have much intelligent effort invested in them.
Better yet, imagine if they did that for HAWKMAN! Whoo! Yeah!
Status quo? That's debatable.
ReplyDeleteI mean, we don't see Lois Lane going back to a woman desperate to get Superman to marry her? We don't get Wonder Woman following Steve Trevor...
Of course, to be fair, we don't get Batman with a gun, either.
The status quo does shift from era to era. But what I would say is that we can be sure that we will get back to the package of
traits that make a character iconic - not that we get back to the status quo of the series.
Actually, Lois is a bit more fortunate than Bruce, because she actually has personality traits in her set of iconic status traits. Diana does, as well. These are the things that your man-on-the-street would name as her attributes.
So, I guess I just said my comment was pointless.
- Your Loving Sister-Troll
Yes, I was very surprised to see Greg Rucka say what he said, as he is one of the writers I absolutely trust to write female characters as people, rather than adjuncts to male characters, and he is particularly good with lead female characters (Wonder Woman, Elektra). I trust him with my toys - even if he breaks one, the breakage is deliberate, so that he can bring it back better than before. Unfortunately, when I try to add to the list of writers I trust, it tends to start with "Rucka" and end with "Simone". Brubaker is on probation!
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