I shouldn't comment on this one.

I think what's making me irrationally pissed off about the "Silver Age had no meaningful women" argument going around is that I used to think that way.

I used to think that the female characters in the Silver Age were complete bubbleheads, bad sitcom women who stood on tables and cried "Eek a mouse" and spent all their time swooning over the male leads. There were a variety of "look at the sexism" scans in books and on the Internet to support that, after all. And we all knew the 60s were sexist.

Then, at my sister's urging, I read some Silver Age comics. The Essential X-men, in particular. And holy fuck, yes there was Jean mooning over Scott and the guy's making utter asses of themselves to get her attention. But there was also Jean throwing the biggest guy on the team across the room with just the power of her MIND, and Scott being the one who fainted, and the telepath/empath on the team was the old bald guy while the girl was the heavy artillery.

And there was Wanda Maximoff.

Holy shit, there was Wanda Maximoff the one-girl wrecking crew who just pointed at stuff and destroyed it. She was saddled with an overprotective brother... who ended up injured and on the ground much more often than she did. (Which made the couple stories where she accidentally takes him or herself out with her power much more humorous than insulting to me.) She was the pretty girl Magneto pointed out to lure guys like Namor to his side, but she wasn't there because she was pretty or had some controlling men power. She was there because she pointed at things and broke them. Behind that beauty wasn't the sort of fake power that girls get so much, there was real destructive power. She made bad things happen. She was the Scarlet Witch, and god help you if you knocked her brother down in the fight.

And then, in search of more Wanda, I found myself seeking out the Avengers. And the Essential Avengers features the fucking Wasp saving the asses of Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America on a regular basis, dammit. Yeah, she was a clotheshorse and kind of frivolous, but she had the power to shrink to a fucking spec and they used it and her cleverness to make her a force on a team with a GOD on it.

And I know, some of you are going to argue "Well, our point was girls who weren't derivative and could carry a story..." Well, stuff it. First, EVERY superhero is derivative of Superman, that's just comics. Second, these women could carry titles if it weren't for the constant glossing over of everything appealing about their early appearances by people who haven't bothered to look.

Seriously, if you find yourself arguing that Silver Age Nostalgia is exclusionary to women? Do yourself a favor and go read some fucking Silver Age comics. And if you have and you think that, you seriously missed something there. Because buried underneath all that 60s sexist shit is some solid gold.

Tales From the Chatroom: Dear Pietro..

Tonight in chat, Kalinara and I realized that even though Scott Summers and Pietro Maximoff have so much in common that writers swap them during Alternate Timelines and What-Ifs and they were effectively counterparts in the Silver Age, but they interact much more rarely than they should. Then it occurred to us that they must be penpals.

Dear Pietro,
How are you? I'm fine. The Professor just developed an evil split personality and tried to kill us. Or something. I admit, I don't quite follow. On the plus side, he mind wiped your dad, so you should get a few weeks of vacation out of the deal. I have to go, he's trying to kill us. See you soon.

Dear Scott.
I'm glad you're well. So am I. I am deeply impressed that you can tell the difference between an evil split personality of Professor Xavier's and his typical machiavellian plotting. Thank him for the memory wipe, as it allowed Wanda and I to finally have a quiet Thanksgiving.

~~~~~

Dear Pietro,
It's possible you will get a package from my former father-in-law. It is advised that you do not open it. Have a happy holiday.

Dear Scott,
Thank you for the warning. Enclosed is a magnetic bumper sticker backing that should provide some amusement next time you encounter my father. Happy New Year.

~~~~~

Dear Pietro,
How are you? I don't know if you've been watching the news lately, but we have a de-aged and amnesiac version of your father staying with us. He apparently is hitting it off with Rogue. Gambit is annoyed. It's vastly entertaining. Hope things are going well with you.

Dear Scott,
As always, I am pleased to learn that Father has lost his memory. Today I ventured across the Island of Dr. Moreau Players production of Camelot. There is talk of some sort of scientific Grail Quest. I'd forgotten how little sense life makes at home.

~~~~~

Dear Scott,
How are you? I have unfortunately been trapped into working for my father again. I have been successful in curtailing his plans for light genocide this week, but this fixation with robots troubles me. Send Jean my well-wishes.

Dear Pietro,
I'm fine, how are you? I've sent you a package of electrical engineering text books. Use as you see fit. Jean is dead again, but I'll transmit your wishes when she comes back.

Dear Scott,
I am doing much better since receiving your gift. Father is rather upset about it. My condolences on Jean. I would like to attend the funeral, but am too busy preventing my father from murdering too many members of his Cabinet. Please accept this wreath and apologize for my absence when she returns.

~~~~~

Dear Pietro,
If someone comes to your door saying it is me, do not open it. I have been possessed by Apocalypse. DEATH TO ALL UNWORTHY!!! I am going to take a vacation on a fishing vessel. TREMBLE BEFORE ME MORTAL. Please tell Wanda I said hi. DIE INFIDEL. Best wishes.

Dear Scott,
Have relayed your greeting to Wanda, as well as your warning. Good luck with the possession. I am told that the trick is not to isolate yourself but to surround yourself with people who care for you, but I don't know anyone with a heart who has actually tried this. I certainly wouldn't risk my sister in such a way.

DEAR PIETRO,
HOW ARE YOU? I HOPE THINGS ARE WELL FOR YOUR SISTER. HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF A NEW CAREER ON LIFE? I HAVE A JOB OPENING AND YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD PESTILENCE.

Dear Apocalypse,
I move far too fast for pestilence. My father, on the other hand, is a plague upon the entire species. Contact him.

DEAR PIETRO,
HOW ARE YOU? YOUR FAMILY IS A SCOURGE AND A BLIGHT ON THE PLANET. ALSO YOUR SISTER WILL NOT RETURN MY CALLS.

Stay. Away. From. My. Sister.

Dear Pietro,
How are you? Sorry it's been a while since I last wrote, I was amnesiac on a fishing vessel and then had to get exorcised.

Dear Scott,
Quite well. How was the fishing?

~~~~~

My favorite Jim Hammond in uniform image.

This is my favorite image of the original Human Torch in uniform. I like the mid-change effect, and the face Parel draws on Jim. It has been the background on my computer for a few months, and I actually went so far as to inquire about the cover when ordering the comics. I almost never do that, but I like this image that much. (My retailer didn't get that particular variant, though.) I hope some day it gets offered as a poster.

Happy Birthday, Dad

One of the annoying things about being on another continent is that your timezone is shifted from everyone else's. This makes things like Birthday phone calls difficult to accomplish.

So, in lieu of the traditional phone call I would like to instead send a Birthday Blog Post to Papa the Foul. As a present, here is an in-uniform image of my current favorite among superhero cops: The Original Human Torch.



And for good measure, here are some pages of him on his day off.



Fortunately, Jim is a speed-welder in the off hours, and was easily able to stop the car. But the rest of his day off went pretty much as you'd expect.



Hope your leisure time is a little better than Jim's, Dad.

This is getting old.

Dear David,

I believe I aptly explained why I feel that Rucka has merely copied the Indigos with his rationalization, and that Diana was clearly placed in Violet due to the combination of her prominence and her gender and not because of any suitability in her modern age character. (Aside to the spectators, supposed pre-Crisis know-it-alls should RTFP and RTFC before piping up--DC's made a conscious effort to remove Aphrodite's influence as of the reboot, and it was quite successful.) As such, I figured you should understand just why I find the situation unacceptable.

Then I read your statement regarding love:

I think you could have as easily made the argument that Superman loves all creation and is willing to fight for it, and thus could have easily been a Sapphire. But perhaps Johns has a story reason for wanting Supes to remain undead a bit longer... or (more likely) no one ever thought Superman could rock the pink outfit. And at the same time, I try to see the positives here, in that we're talking about Love, dammit, and I actually LIKE the idea of super-heroes filled with love for humanity, love for the world, as the M.O. for doing what they do. In a world of vengeance-driven characters like Batman, I WANT someone to say "love must triumph," so I admit -- I can't get too outraged at the continuity/treatment/event/momentary-lapse-that-won't-affect-her-solo-title-four-months-from-now.

Before I get into the sweeping problem here, let me note that not wanting to put Superman in a pink costume but being willing to change Wonder Woman--who has the same hair/eye/skin color and costume color scheme--to a pink costume is homophobic and sexist and therefore wrong. So it's not a good excuse for using Diana rather than Clark for this particular twist.

But that's not where we get screwed up. You seem to find the idea that Love is what saved Wonder Woman from Death to be unequivocably positive, but even without the promblematic setup of the Star Sapphires Love is quite a loaded word, and there is definitely a gender disparity here. For male characters, Love is a positive addition to an already heroic character. It makes a powerful character more powerful. It adds to their supporting cast and gives them inspiration to achieve greater heights. They tend to be the hero first and the brother/father/husband/son/lover afterwards.

Female characters more often than not from conception have their LIVES revolve around Love and relationships. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, lovers (even as bad guys, they are often potential lovers) to male characters first of all. They live, sleep, and breathe love and romance. Most of them are introduced as love interests and many that begin as heroes in their own right find themselves quickly paired off with the writer's and fan's favorite guys. Precious few gain and keep satellite male love interests that enhance their stories. Most female characters are used to enhance a male character's story, to teach them the power of love and the ways of the heart.

And outside the superhero genre? Men get to be reluctant romantic leads and learn to open their hearts, but they are also action and adventure and dramatic leads as well.

Women are overwhelmingly romantic leads and workers of love with hearts that yearn to be open. They are sometimes dramatic leads, but that's usually folded in with romance. They are RARELY solo action and adventure leads who explore their problems with wit and courage. Even when they get action and adventure roles, they tend to be romantic and emotional in nature, or learning the value of love for family, for men, or for strangers.

See, it may be an amazing and special thing for you to read a male hero learning to open up himself to love and it making him stronger. And it may be fun for you in the same way to read a woman tap into love to draw strength. That's because to you, it's not the same old theme to every story about you. You get a variety of themes about human nature.

We get love conquers all. In the large and the small, in the personal and the global. Love conquers all. All the time.

That's why for many of us the amazing and beautiful thing is watching a woman be independent and confident and hopeful without attaching herself as a helper to a man. The special thing is watching a woman reach wholeness by opening herself to other emotions--emotions like righteous anger (that we're often urged to repress) and enduring hope that aren't the theme behind every story we've ever read

And for a lot of women, there is nothing special in watching a woman tap into a reservoir of love so that she can draw strength from that because that's what 99.9% of female characters do when they're strong anyway. And though a lot of women still greatly enjoy it, it's as common as dirt and they can find it anywhere. And everyone enjoys variety. Even those of us who adore apples like to eat a pear once in a while and don't like when that pear we were in the mood for suddenly turns out to be another apple.

To clarify, I'm going to have to discuss spoilers for Green Lantern Corps #42-43 here.

Now, I have said in the past that I absolutely adore Miri, and I have blogged in the past that I was surprised at how well the Kyle and Soranik relationship worked out. Soranik is a very clinical, willful woman. She's never allowed herself to be in love because she's specifically been afraid of being hurt. And she has a superstitious streak (she insisted back in her first appearance her ring was cursed because Sinestro went bad and Katma died), so she must have been afraid of Kyle's fucking amazing bad streak. Not only that, she's from Korugar where Green Lanterns are despised and Kyle is The Green Lantern, the Torchbearer, the reason we all HAVE Green Lanterns right now. It's a beautiful blend of complementary personalities. He's artistic and neurotic. She's logical and hot-tempered. He's from a chaotic and diverse world and she's from a very well-ordered world that hasn't had freedom long enough to be accustomed to it. (We can infer the difference in natural states from how Sinestro reacted to Earth in the Secret Origin storyline, suggesting that Korugar was never so wild even before he took over.)

So opening herself up to love was a multifold experience. She was overcoming a number of fears and exposing herself to a completely different culture and mindset. It worked beautifully, and wonderfully. It wasn't innovative, but it was well-crafted.

Then Blackest Night started. And Kyle and Soranik's relationship was tested by Black Lantern Jade. It came out ahead. Then Kyle sacrificed his life, blowing up in the middle of telling Soranik he loved her.

It was heartbreakingly beautiful.

It was clearly not the end.

Kyle's sweetheart, after all, is a neurosurgeon, and the best medical professional on Oa. so one of the expected solutions is that she would be able to work through her panic, desperation, and grief to revive him from the dead. That she would, through her skill be able to save her love.

There are times when you expect a plot to continue in the obvious direction along a well-worn path, only to have the writer pull the rug out from under you. Before you know it you see the tips of your shoes cross the backdrop of a beautiful summer sky, but it doesn't hurt. You landed on soft grass and you can feel the warm sunlight on your face, so you laugh because you got surprised and you loved it and it was part of this wonderful game!

Kyle's death was one of those times.

Kyle's resurrection was not.

The plot had been marching down an obvious direction (though there were still many forks available that weren't cliched) but it was not a well-worn or unwelcome path. It was an unusual path because the Doctor with the material skills and logical mind was a female character and the one who'd sacrificed himself for love was a male character. This may not be as unusual as it used to be, but it was still a riveting departure from the typical setup and the romantic fairy tales of our youth. Tomasi pulled Miri--thus far the best of the Star Sapphires so I credit him with creating her--into the mix. Soranik finds herself without the skill to save Kyle, and is unable to balance her emotions in the center of the battle. Miri creates a link between the two lovers and uses Soranik's love to resurrect Kyle.

An inspiring example that love conquers even death, no? I'm sure Tomasi thought as much. He was thematically incorrect, though. Since it was Miri swooping in as a Deus Ex Machina, this was solely Love conquering death while Will sat on the sidelines. But if Soranik had done so using her measured skill with or without the quasimystical help of Miri, it would have been an example of will mixing with love to conquer death, and a better echo of the overall theme of Blackest Night--that these forces cannot prevail alone. You neglect in your argument that "Love Must Triumph" is most certainly not the only thematic alternative to vengeance-obsessed protagonists. I enjoy reading about people who achieve their goals through strength and intelligence and just plain never giving up. I enjoy watching a protagonist who wishes to preserve the thing they care for above all else, but I also like a protagonist who has a strong sense of what is fair and just and acts in order to correct injustice and balance. I like heroes like Green Lanterns, who apply their skill and their wits and their courage to make sense of the universe. Love's a wonderful experience, but it is not the prime motivating factor for everyone who does something altruistic or even just good, and stories where love alone doesn't get the job done can be incredibly uplifting.

More importantly, the sour taste I found in my mouth came from this: A woman's love can conquer anything is a theme that reverberates across fiction. You can find it anywhere if you want to look for it. But here Tomasi had a storyline that was different and exciting, and he threw it away for the sort of cliched climax that can be found in a 13-year-old's Mary Sue fanfic.

(I will give him that the potential fallout from this impromptu battlefield marriage is juicy as all hell, so I'll continue reading, but the resurrection sorely disappointed me. Also, Miri is a fairy godmother, but she's also fairly awesome--the first genuinely positive example of a Star Sapphire so far. This is a misstep that hasn't soured me on his using her.)

But I'll even give you that Miri's solution could have been quite ingenius if Kyle had been the one standing helplessly at Soranik's side (this wouldn't have sent Guy into a rage, but they could have placed it afterwards--like she got hit while reviving him), and Miri had linked hearts to bring her back to life. Why is it so different? Because a man's love in stories tends to be expressed by the physical deeds he does for it, and doesn't need to manifest as a mystical quality.

Female heroes don't often get to express love through feats of strength or skill. Love wells up from the bottom of their soul and springs forth as inspiration or magic, and puts things right on a spiritual level. (And at DC, love wells up from the bottom of a crystal cocoon and springs forth in a neat little pink package that shows lots of cleavage!) It would have been a hell of a thing to see Soranik Natu save her lover through her skill, and then be saved by the pure power of his love because that would be her love-driven skills and his pure emotion rather than the usual trope of emphasizing the woman's pure emotions and the man's skills.

Love stories may be an undiscovered country for men, but this is far from a new frontier for women. It's always been our playground. It's where we're assumed to have our greatest power, and it's the place we're relegated to in story and song.

Love is the kitchen of genre fiction.

So to a lot of us? Yes, this is a negative.

And the fact that in DC, love is overwhelmingly personal (Wally and Linda, Kyle and Soranik, Miri and her late husband are all examples of when the power of love has manifested supernaturally, and it has ALWAYS been personal), sexual and seems to be exclusively the domain of women--to the point that even a character like Diana who is established as downright virginal and much better suits another established realm is STILL rationalized into that domain (with the description of the other established realm, which went to a male character... which had a history that even suited the established description of what makes a Star Sapphire)--is an incredible negative.

I will say this much... I do want a love story. But not the one we've been getting. I want the undiscovered country.

I want something starring a male Star Sapphire.

I won't even come CLOSE to everything that's wrong with this picture...

Edit 8 JAN 10 1720 CET: I've promised to tell everyone know that Chris wrote his very astute Blackest Night: Wonder Woman review before I wrote this, and note that he is very handsome. At least one of these statements is objectively true.

Blackest Night spoilers ahead, but you can't really be much further behind that I am.

I'm sure I've written about it before, but I absolutely despise the Wonder Woman bondage origin claims. Whatever creepy personal ideas Marston had that were leaking (or being leaked) into his creative life (and probably not coincidentally, the creative lives of just about everyone writing and drawing comics back then because it sure as hell wasn't just Diana getting tied up in that period), it is a documented fact that he pitched the character as a comic for girls. That he wanted to bring female readers to the superhero genre. He wanted to give girls a story they could read and enjoy.

So Wonder Woman counts among one of the very few superhero genre characters that are legitimately a gift to young women. She is not a character to be marketed to young men. Marston assured the company the boys would read as well, but she's custom designed for young women. For god's sake, she's a princess who talks to animals. Her entire supporting cast, with the exception of one blockheaded love interest, was women. She is a character made with little girls in mind.

The bondage urban legend always struck me as a mean-spirited attempt to rob us of that. To strip her of all innocent and generous beginnings in favor of something uber-sexualized. To say that we weren't worth our own superhero princess, she had to be secretly aimed at young men. That she was really meant for boys. It's a way to steal Wonder Woman, and claim she wasn't ever stolen.

To be honest, that's why I've always felt they had trouble with her. She is a female-oriented character that they keep marketing to a widely male audience. They fill her with T&A and hire writers who figure she should either be a complete bore or the "woman you wish you could date" in the hopes that men are biting. Then they further ward off women by spreading the story of bondage in her origins and skimp up the outfit even more than possible (No one's seen her in shorts in how many decades?), and wonder why no one is buying the world's preeminent superheroine.

In the past five years, though, I'd gotten the feeling that maybe this had changed, that maybe letters and postcards about other female characters had suggested to them that there was an opportunity to market characters made for female readers to female readers. They started hiring female positive writers and female positive artists for the character, treating her as an equal to Batman and Superman, propelling her to a more prominent place in-story, and just pushing her more greatly than they had been for decades. She even got an animated movie! There were stumbles, but I figured maybe they were giving it a shot.

Then I clicked a link on Twitter and saw this monstrosity.



Wonder Woman in a fucking Star Sapphire outfit.

Let me make this clear, as I have complained about her lack of romance as relative to having Aphrodite as a patron extensively. In the Golden Age, this would work. She followed Steve off the island for love. But Steve's not the love interest in the modern age. They made him too old, wrote him out and married him off. He's been replaced by Superman--No... Hermes--No... Guy Gardner--No... Trevor Barnes--No... Io--No... Batman--No... Nemesis... Oh wait, we can't decide on a major love interest because every writer has to make their own or pair her off with their favorite! (Funny, this never happens to Superman who still has his Golden-Age Love Interest.) And since she has been decreed by DC to be an eternal virgin, none of these relationships ever deepen to the point that she would be especially attached to this person over anyone else. They tend to be flirtations and infatuations. So Aphrodite is shuffled to the background in favor of virgin goddesses Artemis and Athena (both greener than a pine tree in the middle of December) as her primary patroness.

So even though with the character's current chastity (brought specifically about by them aging her boyfriend and marrying him off to the comic relief in the CoIE reboot) Love no longer suits her nearly as well as Compassion (or Hope, or Willpower), they stuck her in the all-girl Corps (WHY THE FUCK IS IT ALL WOMEN IN SLUTTY OUTFITS YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES?! ARE MEN UNABLE TO FALL IN LOVE AND ACT IRRATIONAL OR WEAR SKIMPY CLOTHES?!!) because hey, that's just a bunch of Space-Amazons, right?

They see nothing wrong with tying Wonder Woman to some smartass writer's abysmal joke about how women go CRAZY in relationships.

They see nothing wrong with taking a character who's concept is the person girls should all aspire to be and placing her with the group of women who are DEFINED BY THEIR ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS!!!!!

!!

!!!!!

!!!

Motherfuckers.

You can't just ignore Aphrodite's influence since the 80s and then suddenly decide her realm is the primary motivator in the character's life just because the character is the girl. Not without laying years of groundwork suggesting she's been fighting her need for love, which just hasn't been laid. She's been fulfilled the whole time without a man.

And you know what? She should be, as she's WONDER WOMAN. I'm all for bringing Steve back in some form--retcon, reboot, long-lost nephew... Something to give her the equivalent of Lois Lane again. But there's a reason they don't and never should (even with Steve in the equation) portray her as feeling like only half a person and desiring a soulmate above all else. Because she's WONDER WOMAN and that would send a really fucking bad message.

And that fucking costume. That godawful costume. Like someone vomited pink all over one of Solomon's concubines. They took one of the aspects of the character that is CONSTANTLY picked on--her skimpy costume (which is considerably skimpier than the skirt she debuted in and the shorts she wore after or even the tasteful bathing suit of the Silver Age)--and went and made it even skimpier, and even MORE sexualized, and then SHOVED her into a group full of women who thus far have been characterized as ALL ABOUT SEX.

It's the Ultimate Reminder that Wonder Woman is no longer for girls. She's been re-purposed for the lowest common denominator or men who refuse to grow up and deal with women on equal terms. She's not going to be given back to us, even though she was conceived as a gift for us. Too many people have managed to convince themselves she was always for boys to begin with, and if they can just hit the right shade of sexualization and male fantasy--the magic balance that Marston had somehow--they can make her popular again.

And it never seems to occur to them that she is not and never was meant to be a male fantasy. She's meant to be everything a girl would fantasize about being. I know, you're saying she's beautiful and sexy but guess what? That's not the kind of beautiful and sexy meant for the boys. It's not the sort of sexy that's there to be desired by the reader, it's the sort of sexy that's there because the person reading her wants to be desirable and POWERFUL in that way, as well as strong and intelligent and POWERFUL in those ways too. The reader is supposed to want to BE her, not just want her.

Yes, More Twin Peaks

Don't bother with this one unless you've watched the whole series, because I spoil the shit out of the Martell-Packard storyline.

There's a point in the series where Deputy Hawk remarks that Josie Packard was "powerful woman" because of how she managed to affect the Sheriff. It was one of two points in this show--with all it's utterly horrifying gender dynamics--that I had to yell at the screen. Seductive ability isn't real power. It is the illusion of power, because the actual choice ultimately lies with the seduced who can throw you away at any time. Josie herself was all too aware of this.

Josie Packard begins the story as a woman with fair amount of power and influence from her inheritance. She's in a tenuous position, though, as her sister-in-law Catherine has a greater hold and she has a past that could tear all of it from her fingertips. She's in the middle of a subtle game of politics with Catherine Martell and Ben Horne, and she's the underdog here. So she plays at being too innocent to wield any of the influence she inherited, and defaults to the role of hapless damsel when in the presence of White Knights Pete Martell and Sheriff Harry (Yes, he's serious) Truman.

Now, I will say to Josie's credit that she is a really clever and willful woman. She know she doesn't really have any substantial power, and much of what she does is an attempt to get some substantial power from Catherine. She knows she's starting from the disadvantaged position. She's got age, gender, and racial expectations aligned against her. She's the outsider in the town. So she starts from there and lowers everyone's expectations so much that no one will believe she's actually playing this game. That's not to say there's no truth in her body language or her accent, but her behavior with Pete and Harry as well as her steeling herself against Hank shows that she's considerably stronger than she lets on. She knows she's the underdog, and she's seizing the advantage there. She's playing the Princess side of the chessboard to Catherine's Dragon Lady, and she's a formidable opponent. Ultimately, though, Catherine checkmates her and strips her of everything. She further humiliates Josie by making her become her maid. Still, it would be a disservice to the character not to acknowledge she played a good game.

But she is truly in over her head, and has way too much to lose, and Catherine is just older and better at this. Not to mention that her husband never actually died, so the small amount of power and money gained from her inheritance isn't really hers. That power's an illusion too.

So once she loses, she goes from simply being panicked from time to time to being panicked all the time. Her focus shifts from attempting to amass and solidify substantial power to trying to keep from losing every bit of personal power she possesses as Thomas Eckhardt, her old boss, comes to claim her as a wife or a mistress. No amount of manipulating Harry can seem to save her from this as Catherine and Andrew close in on her. She describes Eckhardt as seeing her as "property" and is terrified of returning to him. At least one of the four murder attempts in which she's implicated was so that she could escape him. It could be argued that all four are her attempting to wrest free of his control.

After Josie's end, Harry is so distraught at losing her that Deputy Hawk makes the remark about her being powerful. Josie's character arc only proves him wrong. Power attained through seduction is only an illusion, and she knew this. The second the seduced loses interest or feels wronged, they can yank any influence back because the power had always been theirs alone. This happens to Josie with three men. Andrew tosses her aside after discovering her complicity in the murder attempt. When Harry discovers too much evidence of her criminal acts, he joins Cooper to confront her. Most severely of all, Thomas Eckhardt's physical attraction to Josie leads him to put her under his power, making her charms more of a liability than a tool and fueling the greatest fear of her life.

In the end, Josie's spirit merges with the nightstand in Eckhardt's room in the Great Northern Hotel, literally turning her into a piece of furniture that belongs to a powerful man (Ben Horne). Given that so much of her character arc is dedicated to avoiding that, this seems an especially horrible fate.

The woman with the real power in the storyline was and always had been Catherine. Catherine had seniority, Catherine had experience, Catherine didn't need to gather protectors to consolidate power. She could be the biggest bitch in town and not lose for it. (Even Josie's sweet-natured ally Pete would never turn against Catherine for her, he loved Catherine because she was an exciting woman.) She had her wits and wealth to support her. Like Josie, there's a point where Catherine gets wind of the gathering clouds and forces (Ben and Josie) aligned against her, but she recoups to take a terrible revenge. This is the character who had all the cards all along, which is probably why I felt terrible for Josie even knowing she was the one who shot Cooper. She was severely outmatched and facing some terrible options.

There's an extra shade of troubling in that Josie--who never gets any real power and ends up with the worst punishment for crimes no worse than much of the rest of the cast--is the only woman of color in an almost-entirely white cast. She's the demure Asian woman sought after by colonizing white men. She gets objectified and ultimately crushed in the power games between rich white people. I'll note for fairness that the character was originally intended to be Italian, but the final result is pretty unsettling.

He wears a smile.

Among the many fine offerings of the base library are boxed sets of the Twin Peaks television series. I remembered the series from when it first aired but as I was only nine years old at the time and had no control over the television (though I managed to see a few episodes because I remembered the premise, the Nadine amnesia storyline, and Agent Cooper) this was my first chance to see the actual resolution.

I understood that it would be strange. I remember that the main character was basically a clairvoyant FBI agent, that there was at least one character with unexplained superstrength, and the Red Room dream is infamous. I was prepared for a mystery/horror series, but I expected it to be more surreal than petrifying. But I had missed one thing in my sporadic childhood viewing.

BOB.



Bob is, without a doubt, the most terrifying character ever to cross the screen. Mike Myers, Freddy Kreuger, It? They don't hold a candle to Bob. Jigsaw? Don't make me laugh. Bob is the scariest thing ever put on film, and they didn't even need to give him makeup.

It's amazing. It's just this guy. This guy in denim with scraggly long hair. In normal life he'd just look like someone's scraggly uncle, but introduced in the context of the Twin Peaks series, he is nightmare fuel of the highest order. And the freakiest thing of all? He was an accident. Frank Silva was a stagehand who trapped himself on a set, and then got accidentally caught in the mirror in one of the scenes.



From there he became the star of sudden cuts, dream sequences, and of course, my nightmares. Normally I despise the quick cut to a gruesome scene or image in horror movies. It seems like such a cheap way to build tension. But modern movies tend to add particularly shocking images. These aren't particularly shocking images when taken out of context. The quick cuts tend to occur only when someone has a vision, or when the audience needs to know he's behind something. They build on the character's concept as a supernatural entity. Bob's appearances aren't a clumsy insertion into an otherwise dull scene, they're artful reveals.

The character never really gets any dialogue, but he doesn't need it. He just has to look menacing and slink around. Lynch used him only in shadowy visions and--most creepily of all--mirrors. By using him so sparingly and only in specifically unearthly scenes, he turns this ordinary guy into something completely unnerving. There's no makeup, CGI or gore needed. It's just lighting and emotion. It's bare bones horror.

That's fucking genius. That's how a horror story should be made. People and things that would be otherwise unremarkable are cast in a strange light and turned into something sinister.

Recommendation Request

Since there's only one book coming out this week (and I order from a retailer that keeps to his agreements), I'm looking at the possibilities of waiting an extra week or paying more for postage than for my order. I like to avoid either if at all possible, so I'm thinking about filling out the order a bit with things I've been meaning to try out but haven't gotten around to buying.

Now, I already have a list of interesting things and I don't plan to go overboard here, but I'm open for recommendations right now.  So I ask you--the three or four people who haven't cleared this blog from your feedreaders--what single issue, story-arc, or miniseries should I order this Wednesday?

Girl Comics

Jeanine Schaefer in the interview:

It’s actually comics BY women—and I mean, top to bottom: written, penciled, inked, colored, lettered. The logo is by a woman, all the interior design, production, proof-reading and editing is all by women.

Although some creators have gravitated towards their favorite female super hero, it’s not specifically focused on our female characters, and I’m not trying to generate content that I think will appeal to more women. I don’t want to give away all the stories, but we’re really running the gamut of Marvel characters, from Punisher to the FF to Mary Jane. We’re making great comics by great women, period—when given the opportunity to create a story about whatever they wanted, the pitches I got back from everyone have been hugely diverse in tone and characters.

And check out the list:

Contributors include Kathryn Immonen, Marjorie Liu, Devin Grayson, Ann Nocenti, Trina Robbins, G. Willow Wilson, Stephanie Buscema, Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson, Louise Simonson, Valerie D’Orazio, Colleen Coover, Molly Crabapple, Nikki Cook, Ming Doyle, Abby Denson, and Carla Speed McNeil.

Louise Simonson? Ann Nocenti? Ming Doyle? Jill Thompson? AMANDA CONNER?!

She-Hulk on the cover. Bucky-Cap and Black Widow in the background. (Are we going to get a story with those two? Please!)

All female creators, writing about superheroes. There's no pushing towards female characters or girly stories, just the stories female creators wanted to make. With a stupid name, yes, but someone's even found a historical reference there.

This... might actually be a good idea... come up with by Marvel.

Marvel Catchup Reactions

Not all the Marvel I read lately, but the stuff that stuck out at me from the last two shipments:

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1 -- I knew we were off to a good start when she went into the casino, because I've always argued Tasha was the James Bond of the superhero genre. Also, the artist does not spend the first scene lovingly rendering Natasha's breasts and butt. That may signal low expectations, but this IS the book about the redhead who runs around in the vinyl catsuit, and this IS a Marvel comic. We were at least as likely as not to start out on the wrong foot.

The story tells Tasha's background in flashbacks, with really stylized Russian art. As of this, her most recent origin story she is a lost Romanoff, a baby in 1928. She was active in World War II as a teenager partnered with an older soldier, and it seems like she was a pretty successful agent before being juiced with the Widowserum. All things I like.

I love how Raney draws Tasha's face (his waspwaists could use a little work, so could his Bucky). She's incredibly expressive, and she has a girlishness that pulls the rug out from under the ultra-sexy spy-girl concept. She doesn't have that predatory look that goes with the female Russian secret agent archetype. She looks innocent and fresh. There's a set of expressions when Ivan calls her that just seemed so human to me, even in Raney's cartoonish style. Raney captures the same quality that we see in the Captain America series. We see the softer side of Natasha. She's a warm person that you empathize with, not a slick, sexy construct.

I really freaking like that face for the same reason I like Ross and Epting's Black Widow. They draw expressions and posture that imply an open, caring person. She has a face that people trust, which when you think about it would make her a hundred times more effective than if she looked like she walked out of a 60s spy flick. Someone with that kind of icy, dignified, seductive demeanor--someone like Emma Frost--would be suspect immediately. But a woman like this? She has a variety of social tools at her disposal, a far better operative than someone who only has the option to intimidate or have sex.

Dark Avengers #11 -- Oh my god! They killed Kenny Sentry!

In all seriousness, this issue surprised the hell out of me with two things. First, it features a scene with a lesbian couple that just seemed to me like a couple rather than a porn scene, only they were drawn by Mike Deodato (which is why the girlfriend had such huge breasts, I imagine) and written by Brian Michael Bendis. Of course, I might be overlooking incredibly exploitative parts of the scenes simply because I would expect any flashback to a lesbian love affair done by the aforementioned creative team to be utterly shameless, but this could be any relationship except both characters were female and drawn with large, perky breasts instead of just one character being drawn with large perky breasts.

But I think it had the same sexualization that we would get from any two female characters boxing and drawn by Mike Deodato, and I'm not sure if that expectation says something about me, Mike Deodato, or genre.

Second, it made me empathize with Victoria Hand. This is the first time we go beyond her normal role as Normie's punk-streaked personal assistant, and her situation is surprisingly understandable. I wouldn't call her a "good guy" based on the decisions she's been making, but she displays some admirable qualities. She's certainly got guts.

Also every story arc of this series has involved the gratuitously violent death of a character I hate. Hell, if they were to simply put out a Sentry comic that was nothing but Bob being killed in horribly painful ways and returning the next scene with no explanation so he could die again, I would be on that thing no matter WHO wrote it. (But especially if they gave it to someone like Garth Ennis, because he could get creative.)

Invincible Iron-Man #20 -- That was perfect. Each of those characters reacted in exactly the right way. Bucky and Don just got involved, they're motivated by their own personal moral codes to even listen to the message in the first place. They're certainly not going to leave a man in Tony's situation when they can save him, even if he is a prick. Bucky won't because he's too much the hero, and Don won't because he's too much the healer. Maria and Natasha got through the last storyline by focusing on a mission, and they want to complete the damned thing. Neither woman is the sort to leave anything unfinished, they get too much satisfaction from a victory. None of these four characters should have a second thought.

Pepper, though. Being the only doubter in the room is supposed to surprise us, I think, but it makes so much sense storywise. Pepper just had her superhero origin finish up last storyarc. She's the closest in the room to Tony personally, and she's the only one of the group who spent any time with him after he lost his memory. She watched him deteriorate, she dealt with the fact that the man she cared about was fading away and there was nothing she could do about it. And now she finds out he manipulated an escape? And put her through all that shit without telling her? And her husband is dead and never (welll, as she knows) coming back but this guy who FORGOT her husband existed got out of it? Suddenly that tender time in the bunker is made meaningless because he wasn't really going to disappear, and only she will ever know it happened? She has to be pissed off, but how can you be pissed off at someone you just saw brought so low who now lies in a sickbed? So she's just plain upset.

She understands better than the rest of them that Tony's a good man, but also an amazingly selfish bastard. She'll say yes, but needs some time to be pissed off and upset.

Mighty Avengers #31 -- I've never been one for fridging, but they did something interesting here by stepping him into her shoes. As Kalinara is fond of pointing out, male characters almost NEVER take on the mantles of female characters even though the reverse is common. This in itself is transgressive, and it puts Jan at a higher respect level than the usual dead girlfriend. She's not a tragically lost innocent, she's a role model. She's his hero. She's important for her life, not her death. Other fridgings? They're the mistake, the tragic loss, the event the hero wants to prevent from ever happening to anyone. Hank lost Janet a long time ago. As he remembered it, she went on to be the hero and he became a failure. Now he's invested in living up to the standards she set. He know that even if she returned or hadn't died, he'd never have a happy life with her but he wants to follow her as an example anyway. He wants to make up for her loss to the world not just to him.

And I'd say the message board fanboy discomfort at it, the calling it creepy that he patterned his costume after his ex-wife supports the idea that this is a gusty move and the right move for working on Hank's particular insecurities.

Slott's taken this move and used it to start work on Hank's serious issues. (Eternity was not a bad move either, though the Scientist Supreme title sounds silly to me, having Eternity beat the shit out of Hank and tell him he's not only a valuable and unique individual, but vital to the continuation of existence was entertaining.) For the first time it seems like Hank Pym has some genuine self-respect. The Wasp identity is good for him. It's like he's shed all of his unnecessary ego and posturing in order to don those wings. Because he can take that step and let go of some of that petty ego shit, he's been able to uncover some of his real strength, the purpose he was too busy being insecure to realize he had. He IS a supergenius, and there's no reason he should feel inferior to Tony or Reed because there's plenty of fucking work out there to do and they have their own focuses.

I love Janet, and want her back, but I think when she does come back she should get to be Giant-Woman for a little bit and Hank can hold onto the wings a few more years. It works for him right now, to have an identity that's small but packs a decent sting and can still soar to great heights. Plus, this is the first time he's had a halfway decent costume, and he looks pretty handsome with those goggles.

I liked the little Bucky pat on the back moment he had. He gave his approval to Bucky without being written as an arrogant ass. Bucky managed in a few words to let him know that he always had that founder status and that much of his poor reputation is in his head.

Now, the reason I started picking up this series was for Quicksilver. I think he came off pretty well in this story, it seems like he's accepted the rest of the team. I like that it restored him socially with the Inhumans, but still kept him isolated. That moment between him and Luna? Heartbreaking. Pietro is one of those characters who is never allowed to be really happy at the end, though. His own past behavior keeps haunting him. He can't outrun the consequences of the poor decisions he's made, so he's always a little angsty and arrogant. He's resilient so he keeps coming back to the good side and trying to build a strong home and social circle for himself, but he can never quite get there. He's capable of doing this, but he cuts a corner or loses his patience/temper or panics over something and screws himself up most times.

I like how Pietro contrasts Hank here. Hank is his own worse enemy, and this storyline was him trying to move past that. He gets kicked around a bit and comes out in the end. It doesn't seem like a superficial change, it seems like actual character growth. At the same time, Pietro tries to move past the incredible fuckup of the Silent War storyarc, but it's all superficial. He gets his name cleared, but loses respect where it counts. Two characters with the same problem, themselves, moving in the opposite direction. Hank has some problems ahead, but he's strong enough here after this to move through them. Pietro ends this story shaken to the core, and he has at least one heartbreak ahead and probably more beyond it that will just batter him until he has another breakdown.

Current Events

Let me level with you guys who bother to look beyond the other post, I came out on the offense with a certain Hyenaboy because I have honestly watched him in flamewars before and I've seen how he argues. Dishonestly and weaselly. He runs you around in circles and splits hairs until you're too exhausted to do anything but say "You were right, my King" or just give up dealing with him. He gets a little self-satisfaction and you get a little headache.

He does this by deflection (turning your attacks towards targets you didn't aim for or even think of; seizing on an insignificant weak spot and trying to destroy you through it) and deception (implying something completely wrong, then blaming you for the misinterpretation; outright misrepresentation of your original argument). He employs these tactics mercilessly, and does so under a thin veneer of civility. This way, when you get sick of the dishonestly and lose your temper, you look bad.

I don't have the time or energy for it, myself. So I threw insults out specifically to avoid an argument with him. I preemptively spewed fire at the first sight of him, and decided against going into anything specific because I refuse to spend hours of my life reading someone's smarmy defense of how he spends his. (My predictions were validated here, by the way.)

He did surprise me during this by IMing me personally and obsessing over me a bit. I mean, seriously, the guy has enough fame he should be secure enough to ignore someone who won't deal with him right? He'll go away after a few days, right? Wrong. Seems that when the King finds himself unable to faze his opponent by lobbing bullshit he whines to his vassals about the big meanie in his weekly roundup.

And he has a decent sized holding.

Now I was--in the beginning--willing to discuss it with anyone except Rich but since we've reached the point where the King sends his knights to fight the big bad dragon I'm just going to go into burn mode.

Because the goal of the vast majority of traffic here is to shame me for daring to insult the sovereign of bleeding cool, not to have an honest discussion. So I might as well have as much fun as possible with the sudden attention.

If you're a regular reader and disappointed, my apologies. I'm not swayed by your pleas, though, so don't bother. I'm in a pointless brutal fight where civility would be a waste of effort. Serious blogging might resume when one side or the other gets bored, or I finally get the latest installment of Blackest Night in the post.

My apologies also for cluttering your feeds with this idiocy, but it is the holiday mailing season and I'm avoiding spoilers during the delay so I'm even more behind on community events than usual.

If you're looking for an honest discussion on the subject, steer clear of that post, this one... and well, me for a few weeks because King Rich's latest tactic makes it impossible for me to take any arguments seriously at the moment. Try one of the other places or do your own blog post and hold a discussion there.

If you wanna be an ass in either direction, feel free to use this thread or the other.

If you came here from the man's website to call me a meanie, you're a poopyhead.

Bra Update

Those of you who remember my earliest request for assistance identifying this sports bra might be interested to know that I received an order in the mail today from X-Chrom, the company my father insists was the label.  Neither of the bras that seemed close to mine were the same bra.  (The Moving Comfort model does fit rather well, though.)

Nothing from X-Static yet.

I do ask that you please tell me if you have any new insights as to what that label actually says.  Thank you all for the help so far!

Clear Communication

UPDATE 10 Dec 09: For some reason most of those twitterlinks in the first update have been deleted, and since I wasn't screencapping apologies the best I got was my screengrab of Larry's entire twitter feed from when it was public. You can easily figure out what I meant to link there in the image.

UPDATE 9 Dec 09: For fairness, Larry himself has presented a counter to my opinion in the comments--Comment One and Comment Two--and an apology on Twitter. (After a few tries and before a few other statements) My own personal interaction with the man hasn't changed my opinion, but you may think twice about agreeing me after you've read his own words. Mr. Johnston is also in the comments contesting my personal opinion of him, most of the thread is directed towards that so I don't need to link any specific comment.

Original Entry:
The ever-tasteful Rich Johnston chose to begin his scumsheet (I wouldn't click that link at work) with an image of hands wearing all 8 of the Blackest Night promotional rings holding a set of bare breasts. The image was apparently sent out by known idiot (don't call him a Neanderthal, because that shames an innocent species) Larry of Larry's Comics.

On the message boards, someone expresses embarrassment, sparking this defense from Larry himself:

Interwebs are the best,
somebodys wrong on em, you can snipe away.

Ran a fun promo in the shop. Got some creative pics. Figured this one was Rich's speed.

I know its sophmoric, and the problem with the industry today.
I know its insulting to women in some way, and the reason they are not flocking to comic shops.
I know, I'm the shop owner that hurts the industry. Whatever..

Customers got a kick out of the promo, got creative and had fun. I sold a shitload of product. That's all I really give a rats ass about.

Always Classy...you anonymous fuck!

At least he's not wondering why there aren't any women in his sad little shop.

I just can't believe that a man like Larry only cares about making money, because if he truly believed that sexualized material was the easiest route to a quick buck he could just run a straight-up porn shop. But no, he clings to comics. Like most retailers, he wants to share his childhood joys with others. His approach and rejection of any thought towards women says that unlike most sensible retailers, he only wants to share his childhood joys with like-minded bottom feeders. He just wants to sell to boys, and maybe the sort of women who capitulate to the whims of little boys. Men like this are actively investing in making their own little "No Girls Allowed" spaces with their childhood toys. This isn't even just a guy who didn't stop to think before he crossed a line. This is a boy drawing a line in the sand and trying to disgust the girls.

The rest of the forumdwellers at the link can fawn over him all they like, and say that anyone offended is simply jealous or oversensitive or just an internet griper, but here's the thing: we have a retailer who knows that what he's communicating may turn off potential customers. There's no misunderstanding, he made a judgment about who he would rather take money from. This man has outright decided that he doesn't value any customer who might be interested in the material but could be offended by sexist antics that have nothing to do with it. He only wants to sell to his crowd. He's sending a very clear message, and being offended simply means it was received.

Fuck you too, Larry.

On the Power Girl Cut-Out Costume

Yeah, Esther's right on the money here. Quit with the stupid justifications. No one buys it.

That said? I like Power Girl's cut-out ("boob window") costume. It was stylish when she was introduced, and now it's retro. It's actually very classic looking and when originally designed it was actually pretty classy looking too. The design is just plain good. The design is actually great, I'd say. I'd wear it if I could pull off white myself.

That's why they keep going back to it, because it's a good basic costume and as it was originally just a small cut-out on an invulnerable character it's not inherently lewd/impractical. (Unlike the midriff-baring Huntress, or the monstrosity Carol Ferris is parading around in--though my hat's off to Mahnke for making it less eyesearing.) All the attempts to change it have had her going to worse costumes. (The one with the normal neckline actually tends to show even MORE boob than the cut-out.) And it doesn't need a reason any more than she liked the look better than any emblem she tried to put there, and now she's just used to it. Anything beyond that is downright insulting, like you're trying to fool us into thinking there's something inherently empowering about baring your breasts. There isn't.

(We all know good fashion isn't dependent on the amount of fabric. Different cuts do different things for different bodies. And that's not even getting into color. Aesthetics are complicated in this area.)

Now, if DC feels guilty enough that they feel a need to justify this costume, maybe rather than offer us some bullshit they can have the artists draw it tastefully. A cut-out is ideally supposed to offer just a hint of cleavage, not go down to or below one's nipples. Just a guess, but that and the annoying high-cut bikini bottoms might be where all that guilt and disgust originates.

Seriously Spoilery Green Lantern Corps #42 Reaction

I did get the comics shipment with Green Lantern Corps #42 today. And I actually got it in time to review with a spoiler warning.

Whoa.

My interest in this crossover is completely renewed, and all of my earlier worries about Kyle being sidelined for the Hal, Carol and Sinestro show have disappeared.

That's right. I am a Kyle-fan, and I say that this was AWESOME.

Seriously, if you're going to do that, THAT is how you do that.

It's really hard to kill off a character I adore and fill me with unbelievable joy as you do this, but they managed just that. I may just be unfazed because of the nature of the crossover, being that the dead are rising from the grave and there is almost certainly going to be resurrections at the end, or maybe because Kyle is on the cover of an upcoming issue (though that could be a red herring, or a figurative image). Plus I'm thrilled because they use this as the final page of an issue in the middle of a huge crossover, so anything can happen next issue be it horrific (Kyle as a Black Lantern, or something worse), miraculous (weird effect of that energy mix or stuffing one of the color critters inside him--Ion and Parallax are both accounted for, but I imagine the blue one would suit Kyle), or heroic (you can't tell me Soranik doesn't know something along the lines of CPR).

I might also be desensitized. They have been fucking with us since the RUMOR of Hal Jordan coming back came out, and they know just the threat of killing Kyle always sends the fanbase into a complete frenzy. It doesn't offer the mainstream press of killing off Captain America, but this is a good way to catch the community's attention. Still, this doesn't feel like a stunt. It was unexpected, but suitable. A stunt gets hyped to death beforehand, and ends up not being very emotionally effective after all the press. A stunt is something your roll your eyes at and yawn about. A stunt tends to be a disruption in the narrative. This? This was a surprise, because they hadn't breathed a word of it, but still a natural step in the story.

It suits the character. This is the way that Kyle Rayner is supposed to die. Trying to save the Central Power Battery and all the lanterns on Oa, in an explosion of green, destroying a large number of enemies, with a splash page of his fallen body lying in the snow (or ash?) at the end. To boot, his death itself is a refrigerator death and is going to throw the other two main characters into a cycle of angst.

It suits the franchise. This was thematically perfect. The Torchbearer, the guy who kept everything going after Emerald Twilight and relit the fucking battery and brought Hal back, dies in the middle of the Blackest Night--the prophesied end of the Green Lantern Corps? It had to occur during this. And like when he was the target at the start of the Sinestro Corps War, it underscores his in-story prominence. Hell, it cements his role in the whole mythos as the King piece on the Guardians' chessboard. This is twice now where Kyle getting checked (once again, death is not necessarily a checkmate when the name of the show is Zombies... in... SPAAAACE) marks going over the edge on Oa. This means morale is toast, and the hero you follow in the plot is the one who has to keep things together and get the King out of check.

(It occurs to me that this analogy puts Hal in the Queen position, because he can move as far as he likes in any direction without penalty. It also occurs to me that there's innuendo in there somewhere, but I'm too wired to pinpoint exactly where.)

And even though half of the teamup I've been wanting since the buildup to this crossover started is at the moment dead, I'm more convinced than ever I'm going to see it.

I had my doubts when I heard Tomasi was leaving editing to take over as a writer, but damned if he hasn't made this the best book of the franchise. This is seriously impressive, I would think I'd be turning red with rage but instead I'm rambling happily on my blog about how suitable it all is and how it relates to chess. And I'm dying for the next freaking installment because this Green Lantern Corps plotline is just kicking the asses of both the Green Lantern and Blackest Night mainbook plotlines.

Can you identify this piece of underwear?

Prior to moving to Germany, I bought the most wonderful sports bra that I have ever worn off the rack in a cheap chain megastore. After several months of picking through European sidestreet stores and AAFES stock I am unable to find anything that fits quite like it. I'm forced to search online stores and mail-order catalogs for the same model of bra.

Here I get into difficulty, because there is no little embroidered manufacturer's logo on the bra itself. To further complicate things, the label that tells you the model name, manufacturer, and size for the bra is faded beyond recognition. It (and I'm not sure if "It" is a manufacterer, model name, or size) begins with an "X". I know the care instructions, and the material, but I don't know who makes the bra or what it would be called. I also don't remember which cheap megastore stocked it on the rack. I have only two of these bras, and neither label is decipherable. They are beginning to show signs of wear, so in my hour of need I turn to the wilds of the internet.

With pictures.

Front:

Back:

Here is a close-up of the label:
Pardon the lens flare, but this was the best I could manage. I'm no catalog photographer. You can at least make out what I can: an X and space for maybe five letters after.

The material is 88% polyester and 12% spandex. The non-mesh parts are double-layered solid fabric, white on the exterior and black on the interior. The black exterior parts are mesh.

Please, if you recognize this bra, contact me in the comments. Any information that can lead to the purchase of another one of these sports bras would be greatly appreciated.

Nostalgiapost 2009: I hardly considered myself a troublemaker at that age...

What's Wrong With 'Meep'?

DANVERS — It's no surprise that using bad language in school can get you into hot water. But "meep"?

Danvers High parents recently got an automated call from the principal warning them that if students say or display the word "meep" at school, they could face suspension.

Apparently, there was some sort planned disruption using the word so the reaction was to ban the word itself. Fair enough, a study hall full of teenagers repeating "Meep" over an over again would be quite annoying. They could do the same this with 'Yip if they liked, or any word that sounded sufficiently stupid so I don't see how banning a specific word works any better than simply punishing people for the actual annoyance once they get their disruption over with--but hey, I'm not an educator.

What really got me thinking was the end of the article:

Murray said the matter should be a wake-up call to parents about how kids are using social networking sites.

"I'm not sure parents are aware of what students are getting into on the Facebook sites," Murray said.

In the near future, Murray is planning a student-and-parent forum on the pitfalls of Facebook.

This whole thing made me think of an incident when I was in grade school. We had a kid in the class, Danny, who was there for gym/art/music and extracurricular events, but was homeschooled for all the academic subjects. He and I used to play after school, until roughly about the time I started teaching him joke songs. You remember the ones from elementary school? When little kids replaced the lyrics of traditional songs with silly, sometimes gross or even violent lyrics just to be bad. We'd sing them at recess and after school, whenever the adults were out of earshot, and giggle to each other about how bad we were. In many cases, I knew the bad lyrics before I ever learned the real lyrics or the name of the actual song.

I was humming the tune to one of them as Danny and I were playing one afternoon, and he starts to sing "Oh my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..." which took me by surprise. The song I'd been humming was about violently murdering your teacher in response to corporal punishment.

Danny, having been the homeschooled kid and not attending recess or summer camp (Indeed, his father was so strictly religious he didn't attend Vacation Bible Camp, which was the summer day camp in which I learned many sinful facts between scripture lessons. We didn't get up to anything naughty, but damned if we didn't talk about it when the teacher wasn't looking), was completely unaware of any other version of the song. I was one of few children who played with him, and I was also one of the last people I knew to find out the naughty version of anything so I was only too happy to enlighten him.

I'd learned the song myself on the sidelines of a dozen cub scout gatherings to which I'd been dragged because of my mother's commitment to an active role in raising her children. The loaded forty-four song, as I'd come to think of it, was just one of many nuggets of Dark Wisdom gleaned from my brother and his friends. I also learned that Little Girls are effectively invisible when they sit down and pretend to focus all of their attention on combing doll hair.

But I digress. As it happened, Danny was only too happy to sing the new song he learned near where his father could hear. The next thing I know Danny's father is talking to either me or my mother (it's not quite clear in my memory, though his face is) about the kind of violence his children can pick up from other children, and that that is why he homeschools.

I believe that was the last time I ever saw Danny outside of school until he went to college.

It was the first time I ever stopped to think about the other lyrics, and the first time I realized that what I'd been singing for a long time about a teacher beating one of her students, and the student plotting her murder as revenge. I was never a violent child (I just liked to sing and make the older children laugh) so this realization was like being splashed with cold water in the face. I don't think I sang it as much after thinking about it.

It would be years before I realized just how violent the actual Battle Hymn of the Republic lyrics were.

Just food for thought. Something I'd learned from eavesdropping on Boy Scouts, without touching the Internet, through channels monitored carefully by my puritanical mother, is still several hundred times more sinister than what is now cause for a forum on the dangers of Facebook. Maybe this is a sign kids really are getting less violent as we go on. Or adults are getting more skittish.

Marvel Reviews (Yes, Marvel Reviews)

Yesterday's mail held treasures beyond my expectations. Not just one, but two orders of comics awaited my perusal when the work day was over.

I devoured the Marvel books, particularly the Wolverine List special. I'll admit, I'm one of those people annoyed to see Marvel Boy disappear from Dark Avengers. I like the character, even as written by Bendis. He's clearly a hero, but his bitterness is directed externally. That's usually a villain thing (heroes with angst tend to hate themselves most of all, or be hated by everyone else), but in Noh-varr's case the misunderstanding is perfectly understandable. The way in which he approaches and discards revenge in favor for actually helping the planet he hates tells us he has an incredibly strong moral backbone. He knows the solution to his problems with Earth are to solve Earth's problems, but his youth, his poor intel, and his astronomically bad first impression of the planet make this a pretty tough prescription. So we get to see him get angry, attack, help, and slowly learn that humans don't necessarily match his assumptions. He's like a teenaged Namor, updated for the 21st Century. I like this, and I like that they're integrating him into the mainstream universe.

I was so happy someone used him that I was willing to overlook the art that made him seem way too old. (I hate to admit I prefer anything of Deodato's, but he can draw a teenager to look like a teenager.)

It was nice to see Fantomex too. I would never read Fantomex in a starring role (He is a show up and annoy the hero sort of guest star, really), but he's got this obnoxious blase` that's fun to play off someone uptight like Noh-varr. And I like characters like Fantomex and Wolverine trying to outjade each other.

I hope this is a sign that Marvels willing to play with all those wonderful presents that Morrison left in their toybox. I absolutely loved New X-Men (for the same reasons David Brothers outlines here I've had trouble getting back into the X-Men franchise since Morrison left) and it was disappointed when they tried to roll everything back right after he left. The only thing that survived was Scott and Emma, which was the only thing I was hoping they'd roll back (or at least just make it the counterpart to the Logan and Jean thing, where Scott comes back to Jean always but there's this mutual attraction between him and Emma that comes up from time to time.)

New Avengers finally had a really good Bucky moment. (I guarantee there are people online complaining about it, but with the element of surprise it makes sense.) Ares really can't seem to get Bucky, can he? He got floored here, and in Reborn he needed a distraction. I wonder if this means we'll see a third fight from them.

Dark Avengers has me seriously thinking of Kenny McCormick. I could swear that the Sentry has died at least once per storyline, and it looks like they're even past commenting on it by this point.

Ms. Marvel and Fantastic Four ended their storylines neatly. The take on Karla in the former was seriously unexpected, the take on Reed in the latter was not but I still liked it.

Iron Man #19 was impressive. I'd been reading the Twitter reaction, and while I really got a kick out of what they pulled during the fight with Osborn. The reveal of who had Tony's Power of Attorney was hilarious. Dark Reign is fun simply for Osborn's reactions sometimes.

I haven't read the DC stuff yet. Mainly because the top of my reading list there is Blackest Night and Green Lantern, and I have this weird impulse to save them. This is like when I'm reading a book I'm really absorbed in and have to put it down between chapters, just because I know the author is going to introduce a twist soon and I'm comfortable with the line of thought I have about the story. There's a chance that it will go the way I expect, a chance it'll disappoint me a little, a chance that it'll open new and beautiful paths for my mind to explore, and a chance it'll go somewhere I don't like at all. I can keep the line of thought that I'm enjoying only until I read the twist. So right now, Blackest Night is sitting on my read pile until I'm ready for a change.

It may seem weird, but that break is part of the appeal of serialized fiction for me.

Strange Mental Phenomenon

There's this Conservative Christian Dude at work. We're more apt to run into conservative Christian dudes where I work than if I worked in a comic book store in Boston, it's true, but this guy stands out a bit even in the military community. When he first got to the shop and we all went out to lunch together, he changed seats when I sat down. This preyed on my childhood lunchroom anxieties, so I tried to joke it off.

"What? Do I smell or something?"

"Oh, it's not you. I just don't sit next to women."

"What's wrong with women?"

"Nothing. It's just a thing to avoid temptation."

"You find ME a temptation?" This incredulity was not an indication of low self-esteem. I was wearing the baggy camouflage work uniform, not a touch of makeup, and my hair is a dull brown color with flyaway strands in every direction. I do not really present an attractive appearance at work, nor do I bother with it. I do confess enjoying how nervous the question made him.

"Well, it's not like a thing with you. Just all women who aren't my wife."

"Or your daughter."

"Yeah, I'll sit next to my daughter too. It's a perception thing. I don't sit next to women who aren't my wife, so that no one perceives wrongdoing."

The rest of the shop thought it was a strange habit, but we shrugged it off as Conservative Christian Dude's personal weirdness. We're a fairly tolerant and accepting shop, led by an ex-recruiter with impressive social skills. (Our boss has the playful humor of Guy Gardner, including the willingness and ability to escalate or defuse any conflict at will.) Fortunately, Conservative Christian Dude was not the sort to shake a Bible in your face and tell you you're going to Hell even if you have just told him you can't attend that Church potluck he invited you to because it's the night of the Full Moon Ritual and you promised to bring the cake. As he tolerated our strangeness, we got used to the occasional oddity like not saying cursewords and a shockingly puritan attitude towards sex.

Today was notable, though.

Two seconds after I walked in the door for my shift Conservative Christian Dude turns to me and asks if I see anything wrong with the image on his computer. He's been doing a computerized lesson and there's an image of a woman in a pink blouse leaning forward to point at her monitor. The two men on either side are in suits and ties. I examine the image for any indication she's using the computer wrong. I look at the expressions. I look for obvious photoshoppery.

After about 3 minutes of intense inspection while Conservative Christian Dude stood smugly behind me, I realize what he thought constituted a problem.

"Is this because you can see cleavage?"

The pink blouse is unbuttoned and the woman is wearing a tank top underneath. There is a sliver of view of her breast. (I wish I had a copy of the image to show you how innocuous it is.)

"Yeah? Do you think that's appropriate?"

The ensuing discussion in the office was about whether the tank top is a tank top, a bra, or a tank top with a piece of bra showing. I've considering buying these outfits, so I'm absolutely certain it was just a normal tank top or a low v-cut shirt. Nothing a woman wouldn't wear normally. And I have the entire history of this blog analyzing comic book artwork to support me when I say I don't believe for a second the photographer or the model intended anything sexual about the image.

"She probably didn't see it at all when she dressed, and they told her to act natural for the pictures so she leaned forward and her top slipped down and molded to her chest. It's barely noticeable. Hell, it took me three minutes LOOKING for something to see it so you'd have to be a pervert to notice in the first place."

The whole office burst out laughing. Conservative Christian Dude paled a bit.

What was most amusing is how many time he'll think I'll side with him on stuff like this, because I go after the rest of the office over casual sexism. Sometimes I get the impression he thinks that because he follows so many rules about how men should treat women that he actually treats women better than the rest of the office. He doesn't realize that those old-fashioned attitudes are in many ways worse than the usual macho maintenance mindset.

See, out of that entire office of juvenile military manly men that get into discussions about actresses and download dirty movies and curse and joke about cheating on their wives, only one person saw cleavage on that slide when they took that lesson.

It was the guy who refuses to sit next to a woman, use swear words, or even discuss dirty movies. The old-fashioned gentleman white knight.

Not only that, as the discussion about proper workplace attire went on (kept smooth and casual by Guy Gardner-Type Boss--who at one point rolled up his sleeve to expose the upper arm, took a handful of armflab and told Conservative Christian Dude "This is basically what you're offended by here"), there was only one person in the office who didn't understand the concept of being responsible for your own thoughts and eyes. Only one guy who had trouble understanding that women don't dress for the sole purpose of provocation, and that it is not their responsibility to dress like nuns in order to avoid causing impure thoughts in the guy.

He also didn't know the word "misogynist" (which surprises me, because I could swear I use it several times a week) and understand why it applied when he suggested that women in offices only wear long skirts and tights. We didn't so much get this point across as simply give up on Conservative Christian Dude and start listening to Guy Gardner-Type Boss's old recruiter stories.

Now Conservative Christian Dude has never given me any indication in how he treats me that he thinks women are inferior in any way. I've never felt the slightest bit threatened by him (but that may be because he is approximately half my size). I'd say I actually get along with him better than many of the men in office do. But there's the occasional weirdness like this. Weirdness that passes the point where with anyone else in the office, I know they're just messing with me. He's serious the whole way through, and caught off guard when successfully challenged on it. It strikes me more as naivete than malice. A bit like those people who mistake chivalry for respect. Just another person out there following his step-by-step directions to the letter without realizing that they lead him away from where everyone needs to be.