Wow.

Cheryl Lynn found a fashion line that must be using the same ad agency as Sony.

Oh, and for those of you who missed 52...

Here is the new image of the Justice League's very first adventure:


I'm sure its no surprise by Saturday, but I've only see it mentioned on 52 Pick-Up so far. That's weird. I figured I'd see more rejoicing at this. I mean, it fixes Diana's spot in the universe without robbing Dinah of hers. We still have the JSA generational connection in the JLA founders. And best of all the two characters are no longer treated as interchangeable based on gender.

Of course, this means its just a matter of time before we see another JLA: Year One story, probably in JLA: Classified. That could be a blessing or a curse based on who they hire to do it.

They may be in need of a comics article.

Found through Feminist Writers:

Deadline: June 15, 2007

About off our backs: Off our backs is a newsjournal by, for, and about women. It has been published continuously since 1970, making it the longest surviving feminist newspaper in the United States. It is run by a collective where all decisions are made by consensus. The mission of off our backs is:

* to provide news and information about women's lives and feminist activism
* to educate the public about the status of women around the world
* to serve as a forum for feminist ideas and theory
* to be an information resource on feminist, women's, and lesbian culture; and
* to seek social justice and equality for women worldwide.

About the special theme issue: Feminisms and Cultures Culture is what we do and the importance of what we do. Feminist culture has always been important to the feminist movement. Cultural Feminism seeks to both re-discover women’s cultural contributions from earlier eras and to build a contemporary women’s culture. In the current millennium, womyn’s culture and cultural feminism continue to change and evolve providing new and important insights for feminist struggles and feminist liberations. This special issue of off our backs will explore the contemporary connections between feminisms and cultures considering the broadest possible definitions and intersections of those two words. Some of the questions we wish to consider include:

* What are feminist(s) culture(s) today?
* Where are cultural expressions of feminism found today?
* What is the role of music, art, film, literature, and poetry in feminism today?
* How does feminist cultural production confront patriarchy and other systems of oppression?
* How do feminist cultures support and sustain our political and economic work for liberation from patriarchy?

We are interested in articles that explore and engage feminist cultural production from the past and in our contemporary world. We are interested in personal accounts of artists, writers, and feminist cultural workers about the meaning and significance of their work currently. We are interested in analysis of feminisms and cultures. We are interested in reports of feminist cultural work in the United States and around the world. For our special issue on Feminisms and Cultures, we are looking for manuscripts of 500 to 2,000 words. If you are interested in writing a longer piece, please query first.

Deadline: June 15, 2007.

For manuscript submission guidelines, please visit the off our backs website here: http://www.offourbacks.org/Write.htm

Submit manuscripts to offourbacks@cs.com AND to JREnszer@aol.com Questions, queries, comments?

Please email the special editor of this themed issue, Julie R. Enszer at JREnszer@aol.com

Please distribute this call for manuscripts widely.
off our backs
2337B 18th Street
NW Washington, DC 20009
voice: 202-234-8072
fax: 202-234-8092
email: offourbacks@cs.com
web: www.offourbacks.org

Friday Night Fights, Round 7!

As Bahlactus demands:

After a post in which really only the Anonymous commenters agree with me, and I don't feel inclined to change my opinion, I like to post something lazy, mindless and frivolous. So, fill in the blanks (original image courtesy of Sally):



If you must insist on substance, I have a pleasantly short post long essay up on censorship on Blog@Newsarama. There are no pictures with it.

A Wonderful Wednesday

Sometimes we forget what we're dealing with when we read about the Amazons. They're a family, right? Diana's island full of good-natured kick-ass Aunts? Sure, when we look at them through Diana's eyes.

Through a stranger's eyes, things look different.

These are not a peaceful people. The Themiscryans are a warrior race patroned by a war-goddess, a hunting-goddess, a love goddess who is not the nicest of love goddesses, and a mother goddess who didn't mind letting the entire world starve to death over her daughter. They're also the reincarnated souls of women who were violently killed by men, and who have characteristically distrusted the male gender since Perez was writing. They had peace because they were on an isolated island. The Bana-Migdall tribe, which is now intermingling with the Themiscyran tribe, was not nearly so peaceful when we met them. They are also, by tradition, a Monarchy.

As far as they know, they have just been grievously wronged as a people again, through the treatment of a member of their Royal Family.

There've been complaints about Amazons Attack. On this one point, I must respectfully disagree (and insist those complaining learn continuity and context). The Amazons are not a sweet, peaceful people. They like quiet afternoons and intellectual pursuits, but they will not hesitate to kick ass when wronged.

After Wonder Woman #8, it makes perfect sense and is in character. Granted, that first scene made me cringe, but I'm suspecting another divine enemy's hand in all of this, someone last seen very close to the primary villain here. Beyond that, it is perfectly logical they'd attack the USA, given the events in Infinite Crisis and the end of Wonder Woman #7, and especially given the development in Wonder Woman #8.

Remember, an ongoing theme in Wonder Woman since the 80s has been that Diana carries the olive branch to both groups. She preaches peace at home and abroad. Without her, the island would not be open to talking to the other countries.

There's also a really obvious and traditional resolution ahead of us. I hope Pfeiffer plans on it, because it takes this mess and ends it with something other than "Feminism is a bad thing." I can see why so many people are annoyed, because the implication is there, but as long as I can see a few options past that I'm with Pfeifer.

If the moral does end up being "Feminism is a bad thing" I very much doubt I'll be persuaded to read anything by that writer again.

There's really nothing that can prevent mass Amazon casualties, though. Unnamed Amazons are the Red Shirts of the DC Universe, even more so than non-human Green Lanterns.

That is the problem I see developing.

Pfeifer treating the Amazons as an allegory of All Feminism? Not such a workable analysis at this point. We have to see how Diana factors into this first, and how her viewpoint is treated. She's clearly marked as a peacemaker, but how's she going to approach it? Is Diana going to be allowed to represent Feminism here, rather than the Amazons? Too many options yet, and I figure the writer deserves the benefit of the doubt on this one. He hasn't actually made a mistake so far, its the First Act, and this day's reading started with a wonderful revelation.

Too bad about the fourth page, though. I do hope there's an external influence to explain that. But we are dealing with a raid from a three-thousand year-old warrior civilization here. They didn't have the Geneva Conventions three thousand years ago. Its nasty as hell and Diana certainly won't approve, but its still in character.

Open Letter to DC Comics

Dear DC,

If what I saw is true, I love you and I forgive Jodi Piccoult's stupid meta-jokes and will assume Diana was hit on the head right before Wonder Woman #6, because this development must never be edited out of continuity.

Sincerely,
Ragnell the Foul.

PS. This had better not be a trick.

Sour Realization

I was devouring Patrick Gleason's art in Green Lantern Corps #11 (for only the third time this week) when I reached this panel and realized something awful.

Those two faces? Both belong to female characters.

Gleason draws them differently, and I was gushing over his ability to give female characters different noses, eyes, and chins.

I love this guy's artwork, but really this should be the standard, not exceptional. Its the same with body types. We should not be gushing over an artist just because they draw a women with differing bra sizes.

They should all be drawing women as individual characters. And we should be able to dismiss anyone who can't differentiate Black Canary and the Invisible Woman outside of costume as a lazy bastard or a talentless hack (or both) without running into legions of rabid fans who swear that they draw the best women in the business and should be given Wonder Woman or Birds of Prey in recognition of that.

Yeesh, that annoys me.

Love Gleason's art, though. Just found his blog today.

Odds and Ends/Requests and Demands

I saw Hot Fuzz. Everyone with similar tastes to mine should see this movie. Especially my father. If you're reading, Dad, go see that movie. Funny cops in rural England. I think you'll like it.

Also saw and enjoyed Meet the Robinsons. Mom, if you're reading, I suggest you see this movie while Dad sees Hot Fuzz, since there's a fair amount of gore in Dad's movie, and this one is a cute time travel movie.

Okay, I need participants for a little sociological experiment. Mario Wytch wants people to read his and Mykal Adams' webcomics, and email him (his address is by the little picture of him on the contact page) with what comic they laughed at, and their gender (If that makes you uncomfortable, comment here and I'll send him this link). There's only four comics up so far, so it shouldn't take long.

Finally, tomorrow (Monday the 23rd) is my birthday, and would be an appropriate day to post a rear-view image of your favorite Green Lantern, if you are so inclined. (Hey, its worth a shot!)

Edit (25 April 2007) -- Thanks, everyone who wished me Happy Birthday! (And this one was a sharp eye, took me a second look to see it!)

Who Does Mary Love?

Yeah, this one is Sleestak's fault.

Well, someone was going to do that one. It was just a matter of who got it first. And its not like anyone remembers what his mask looks like now.

I Thought I Knew Her

From Wonder Woman #7:Does anyone seriously think Wonder Woman, as characterized up to now, would do that? He made a joke. A stupid, sexist joke, but that doesn't deserve that kind of treatment.

I admit, Wonder Woman is a very strange character. Nearly every writer makes a point of talking about how hard she is to define, and a common complaint on message boards is that she's a cipher. She's been said to be the hardest character at DC to write.

Personally, I just see Diana as a complex and multifaceted individual, much like the ones you meet every day. Not entirely predictable, and you see different sides of her personality in different situations. Most writers have had a slightly different take on her, to the point that I've seen it described as "schizophrenic," but I always looked at her as a person made up of the gifts of seven very different deities (her six patrons, plus Ares who as her enemy seems as much a part of her as the others). With that in mind, the different portrayals fit together nicely, and there's even a single underlying personality trait.

You see, the secret is that, even though none of us can say we know who Wonder Woman is, its always been very clear that she knows who she is. There's trouble connecting with other people, and the gods, and her purpose, but Diana has always been centered in herself. Confident. She knew exactly what she was inside.

Its a great departure from a lot of the other characters in comics, always soul-searching. Diana had her soul, her problem was where it fit with everyone else's. The world would fall apart, and Diana always knew who she was and what she was doing. to the end of Rucka's run, she knew. It was comforting.

Even in Heinberg's story, where she professes she needs to find herself and get to know herself, that confidence and comfort is there. She has herself, she knows herself in her heart, she just can't define herself and how she relates to others anymore, so she intellectually wonders. But she knows.

It was the one consistency in Wonder Woman's characterization, and now its gone. All of that wistful mirror-gazing and angsting and confusion and loss of real-life skill has knocked that confidence away from Wonder Woman.

All of the other writers may have been confused as to exactly who Wonder Woman was, but hey, even Mark Waid who wrote her in a dystopian future where she'd lost her way and professed that he didn't understand the character seemed to understand that Diana knew who she was and was comfortable in her own skin.

Its how we, as fans, can disagree on a description of her personality but look at a scene like the one above and immediately know that that's not right That's not Diana.

Who is Diana? Who is Wonder Woman?

Hell if I know who she is, but I know who she isn't and I know she knows who she is.

Its not the usual characterization for a woman. According to what I've seen of women in fiction, we're unsure of ourselves. We're uncomfortable with ourselves. We're uncomfortable with our bodies. We're uncomfortable with our sexuality. We don't know what we're capable of. We second-guess ourselves. We surprise ourselves. We hate ourselves. We hurt ourselves and the people around us. Society seems designed to make us that way and that's what I see in most female characters. Every woman's story in fiction seems to be a coming into herself. Learning those traits.

Wonder Woman is not supposed to be like that. Wonder Woman is supposed to already be the woman other women in fiction learn to be. She's at the point where you are done working on your inside and ready to work on the outside world.

Wonder Woman is not for a deep, thoughful, soul-searching journey where, through the character, you learn your own self-worth despite the crap thrown on you by society. Wonder Woman is for when you want to sit down and vicariously kick misogyny's ass, because it seems like the world is working against you're fed up with not being able to make a change for the better externally.

That may be hard to plot, but really, how hard is it to understand?

Poor Zauriel

Admittedly, the classroom scene was worth the price of the issue.

Well, that was MY reaction when I actually read it.

(Blame Mark)

For those of you interested...

My sister, suffering from the usual delusions of bilingualism, attempts to translate the last DC Nation column from Italian to English.

And Wonder Woman fans collectively breathe a sigh of relief

It's official, Gail's in:

Newsarama: First off Gail, how long has this been in the works? Has this been something that was out there along with the relaunch, or was this all kind of sudden?

Gail Simone: To my knowledge, it was pretty sudden, for my part. Dan Didio called me into his office when I visited New York City (and the DC offices) for the first time during the New York Comic Con. So it was, stay in the beautiful Parker Meridien hotel overlooking Central Park, see three Broadway shows, attend a really fun convention, get VIP seats for David Letterman (thanks, Mike Carlin!) and get offered Wonder Woman all in the same week.

It’s gonna take a lot to top that week, for me, actually.

So to answer your question, it might’ve been in Dan’s head for some time, but it was pretty recent stuff on this end, which is great, because if I’d had to wait months before starting writing on it, I think I would have burst at the seams from excitement.

It’s just a book I want to write. I’m dying to do it. When I first started in comics, it was the one book I really made it clear I didn’t think I should take, partly because of fear of typecasting, but also because it’s just such a huge, important character. The superheroine, not just in comics, but in all media, period.

But I got over the stage fright, and got to write her a few times, in Birds of Prey and JLA: Classified, and I realized, DAMMIT, I love this character! I mean, it was just an amazing feeling. That feeling some writers get when they write Batman or whomever, that’s me with Diana, except times ten and covered with sprinkles.

She'll be in starting issue #13 and "for the foreseeable future."

Now, this is a huge relief after the last couple issues, but I've still got a lingering worry. That's because I'm a neurotic person. My naturally high-strung state was just amplified by my day at work. It started out very nice, I was thinking about an old boyfriend. Nice memories, actually. But then I walked into work today and got word that Alpha Boss wanted to hold a huge meeting a half-hour after my shift ended, very late at night. Because he was worried about how the night shift missed all the meetings. And that, since all the people who normally do such things work on days, they wanted me to do the presentation coordination of this last-minute meeting. Oh, and Mark wasn't there, and neither was Latasha, and Rebecca's fucking useless, so I had to run the shift even though I missed turnover while I was talking to the beta bosses about how to do the presentation the Alpha Boss wanted to do. And then, soon as I thought I was situated, every jet on the airfield (and a few in the air) seemed to simultaneously break. And not just with my system! With systems that needed my system running to fix them! Oh, and at lunch (which had to wait until after the LCS closed, because I needed to wait for Latasha to get to work) I had a traffic accident. And got a traffic ticket on the way home from the super-late meeting, the one after which all of middle management got yelled at by Ranking Beta Boss. I'm suspicious of anything right now, especially something that sounds so good.

Anyway, I like Simone, I like Simone's writing, I'm happy for her, but I can't shake the worry she's getting pegged as the "chick writer." It underscores that we really need more women to break into the business.

Okay, now that that's voiced...

YAY!!!

Finally, an action writer on Wonder Woman!!!

Anger, Angst and Anticipation

I didn't get my comics today, but just skimming the blogosphere I can tell that Wonder Woman would probably make me angry.

The question is, what kind of angry?

There are many kinds of anger. There's anger that floats on top of your heart and seeps into the front of your throat from there. There's anger that forms in the pit of your stomach and hovers stiffly around your collarbone. There's even that special kind of anger that in addition to the other effects also charges the bottom of your feet and settles below your intestines, that anger that gathers there until you get out of your seat and make some kind of movement. That's good anger. That's anger that energizes you. That's anger that makes you do something. It makes you write, it makes you rant, it makes you go to the gym and run or beat the stuffing out of the punching bag. Its anger you can taste, anger that you breathe. It ranges from mildly annoyed to fully outraged but no matter the severity its always a living anger, that can be channeled into incredibly productive actions if cultivated and handled properly.

Mixed with vicious dark humor, it can be very fun!

I like to think of it as Larsen Anger.

On the other hand, there's dead anger. This doesn't float on top of your heart. It lays on top of your heart like lead. Its solid in the pit of your stomach, but still manages to churn with the liquid there. It collects in every muscle of your body and when it seeps into your throat it forms a lump. Its heavy anger, that you can't do anything with. It'll turn to fear, disgust and depression almost immediately.

The sad thing is, that if you stop channeling your living anger into something productive, it tends to turn into dead anger and weigh on anything you do. After a while of holding back that rant (or working and getting no results!), you just get disgusted with the whole thing and can't muster the energy to react anymore.

Ever heard anyone say they were "all out of outrage"?

Yeah, that's the feeling.

I haven't named it yet, but I've been toying with "Reis Heartbreak" after the guy who designed Star Sapphire's current costume. I held back from ranting about the Arisia costume constantly for a week, but Star Sapphire just depressed me.

I'm worried Wonder Woman #7 will just depress me too.

I hate to skip it this week, partially out of curiosity, but mostly because I already trimmed my pull-list at the shop and Steve orders these books thinking he has a sure sale. Seems a waste to trim the list again when I'll just be adding this book again for the next writer.

Maybe this is one of those points where I expect something so bad I'm pleasantly surprised.

Maybe not.

Links

Pink Raygun's Guide to Recognizing Your Zombies:

Your complete zombie arsenal should include at least one basic garden tool, a Molotov cocktail kit, a lighter and some tampons. You laugh, but they’re very useful. They’re absorbent; soak one is gasoline and light it for an instant mini-fire bomb. They’re sterile; in a pinch you can tape one over a gaping wound to absorb the blood. So, next time your girlfriend or wife asks you to get her a box of Tampax on your beer run, don’t roll your eyes and conveniently “forget”. One of those tampons might just save your life.

This monologue by Sherin the Orange made me smile today as well.

A Sign This Blogging Thing is Not Working

Had a conversation at work today about gamers telling random strangers about details that happened in their games. I contributed a story about my encounter with a Werewolf: The Apocalypse player at a comic book store, which made another technician, McElroy, scratch his chin awkwardly.

"Uhh.. To be fair, whenever someone mentions superheroes or comics, they get a 20 minute rant from you."

The little rat had a point, but I wasn't about to let it stick.

"Well, here's the thing," I argued, "You all know me. You know mentioning Superman or Wonder Woman will get a three hour explanation of what's pissing me off this month in the world of comics. I'm actually surprised you haven't sent the unsuspecting new guys into that trap."

"Oh yeah," he answers, "that's why I brought up Captain America that one day. I've been trying to get the new guys to do it, but no one will take the bait."

It all reminded me of Spanish class, when we tried to get the teacher to talk about sociology to distract from the actual learning. (It was amazing how often her tangents tied back to Nazis.) We were remarkably successful, as evidenced by my utter lack of any Spanish language skills.

This blog, however, has been a failure. At least in one of its original objectives, which was to give me a place to rant and rave about comics without driving my co-workers completely insane. I now rant and rave here and at work (and on dates), and my coworkers are driven quite up the wall. (And if I'm not talking comics, I'm talking religion or politics and nobody wants to discuss those here, at work, or on a date.)

In my defense, there's really no time to blog at work and things can't always wait until I get home. Especially when the Wonder Woman writer pisses me off.

The Kincaid Effect in Comics

The Hathor Legacy has a post and comment thread about female characters on TV that start off absolutely wonderful, but change their personalities after a point as they get romantically involved with a male character they wouldn't normally be with and you end up with a character you despise. Betacandy calls it the Kincaid Effect, after the Law and Order character.

Its probably something to do with a changing writing team and cast, which of course makes me think of how comic book character personalities change as the creative team changes. Often with the female characters, you get the Kincaid Effect where a once-likable female character is suddenly the embodiment of every feminine stereotype you hate and coupled with a male character she shouldn't look twice at.

I've seen this happen in comics. It seems a common thing in team books, and outside of team books it can be very, very abrupt. I think the Kincaid Effect happened to both Jade and Donna Troy when they got paired off with Kyle Rayner.

Funny how the opposite effect happened with Guy Gardner when he got paired off with Ice in JLI. You'd think Ice would have to be changed to get with him, but really it was Guy's personality that was altered to fit her. Resulting in a much more likable Guy Gardner. (I'd call that skill on Keith Giffen's part. He could probably make me like Jade or Donna.)

This bears some thought.

Happy Easter

Its Easter Sunday and the blogiverse (all of the parts I frequent, at least) is filled with blasphemous Zombie Jesus jokes, and adorable Peeps links. So, here's a change of pace:



(My sister tells me that's actually a fun movie.)

Anyway, you'll get no Easter Zombie post from me until someone puts this song to footage from King of Kings.