…You know, I don’t know, when it comes to films. I tend to go for TV shows, and in that case it’s pretty much Doctor Who and The West Wing. Hrm. For movies…? Maybe Scott Pilgrim? Perhaps Head?
Do you still have dogs?
By creating quality comics of powerful female superheroes, the comic book world is opening up to a new audience of women and girls as well as giving already hooked fans more of the powerful women they’ve come to know and love.
DC Comics, another major player in comics, has also joined the trend of bringing female characters to the forefront. It has “Wonder Woman” flying solo in a self-titled series, as well as “Supergirl” and even Batman characters like “Batgirl,” “Catwoman” and “Harley Quinn.”
The above (from the Huffington Post) is a sign of why good PR is important, and why DC really, really needs to step up on the issue of diversity in superhero comics.
In a story using the new Thor as a hook, DC merits a “has also joined the trend of bringing female characters to the forefront,” instead of the more accurate “DC led the trend, with seven ongoing titles out of its 2011 relaunch featuring female solo leads at a time when Marvel only had two ongoing female solo leads,” with DC’s number not dropping below seven since then while Marvel managed to reach a point later that year where it has zero ongoing series featuring female leads.
The HuffPo piece (and this Daily Beast piece from the weekend) point out not just how well the Marvel Hype Machine works these days in framing the narrative but almost more importantly just how badly DC does the same thing (It also points out how eagerly journalists for major news outlets eat up talking points instead of going out and researching things sometimes, but that’s neither here nor there).
In all of the news about the replacement Captain America, it’s surprising that no-one – myself included – brought up that DC has had a black Superman for the last few months in Earth-2 (or longer, if you want to look at Grant Morrison’s continued use of the Superman from Earth-23). With all the push about diversity in Marvel, no-one pointed out that the publisher doesn’t have a solo gay lead, whereas DC’s been putting Batwoman out there for the last three years (Not to mention Green Lantern in Earth-2 or Constantine, who’s bi, I think? He was in Hellblazer, but who can tell in the New 52?).
These are all alternate talking points that DC could (should?) be pushing out there in order to point out that, really, it’s not got a “crisis” or playing catch-up; it’s been there for some time, but not making the same kind of look at us look at us we have friends who aren’t white straight males noises as Marvel whenever it makes these decisions. But, instead, they just sit back and… I don’t know. Hope that someone notices?
(All of which shouldn’t be taken as a “Marvel, you are terrible,” or whatever – it’s not, and its PR machine is very good at what it does – but as a “DC, at this point, you’re practically causing your own bad press.”)
Ramble, ramble…
Superhero Movies, Diversity, etc.
If rumors are true – and we’ll know in few days if they are – then Warner Bros will announce a Shazam! movie starring Dwayne Johnson for July 2016 and a Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot for July 2017. If that happens, and given what we know about Marvel Studios’ upcoming slate*, then that means DC/Warners will get the jump on Marvel/Disney in terms of both the first solo female superhero movie and first solo superhero of color movie in more than a decade**.
A cynic might wonder if such an event would be behind a publishing arm of a company suddenly making a lot of noise about its commitment to diversity, while a student of the Internet might wonder if the oft-quoted “DC say that Wonder Woman is too difficult while Marvel is all ‘Here’s a raccoon with a machine gun!’” will get flipped to “DC gives us female and black superheroes in their own movies while Marvel is all ‘Here’s a raccoon with a machine gun!’”
(Of course, a true cynic doesn’t believe that Warners will let Dwayne Johnson be Shazam, but will push him into the anti-hero role of Black Adam, but that’s neither here nor there.)
* – This is presuming, of course, that Marvel doesn’t pull a welcome surprise and gender- or racebend Doctor Strange. Given that they haven’t done that with any character yet, I’d be (happily) surprised if that was the case. Alternatively, suddenly announce that it’s been quietly staffing up a Black Widow or Falcon movie without telling anyone, and set them for 2016.
** – There have been both solo female superhero and solo superhero of color movies before, of course; Blade, Supergirl, Hancock and even Catwoman (A black female superhero movie!) spring to mind. Marvel Studios as we understand it today hasn’t been behind any of them, and the current Warners/DC pairing – which we can trace back to… Batman Begins, I guess? – can claim no credit either.
Tony Stark discovers a secret truth that will upend not only his life, but also the lives of everyone he cares for.
This is from the solicitation for Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 and… I find it disheartening. I wasn’t planning to get Axis, because I’m not big on Rick Remender’s writing, but this isn’t really about this comic in particular (and that ‘secret’ may not actually apply to what follows, on second thought, depending on how it’s handled). Original Sin is based around retcon secrets. Infinity was based around retcon secrets. Fear Itself was based around retcon secrets. Secret Invasion was based around (quasi-) retcon secrets. Plus, all of the other stories out there that seem to gain all of their power from revealing retconned secrets. It’s not that these are bad things, it just seems tiresome after a while. Not every event does it — or does it all of the time (Infinity was only partially a retcon, really), but it does happen enough there and in non-event stories that it seems… lazy? Is that the right word? Creatively lazy? Like the only way to gain excitement and interest is to go back and add something to the past rather than something new to the present/future. Like anything else, the retcon is a storytelling tool — it’s one that’s possibly being used too much lately? So, nothing really to do with Axis or… actually, any strong point to be made. Just something I’ve been thinking about for a long while. Something to consider.
Semi-related… Original Sin is a really weird event book. I haven’t read too many tie-ins yet, because the tie-ins haven’t begun in the books I’m already reading to a large extent. But… has anyone been blown away by the retcon reveals yet? Has anything really shocked people and made them take notice? Nothing has hit me too hard yet. And the series itself has been something different altogether… I may wind up writing about it once it’s finished, because it’s just so fucking weird.
(via chadnevett)
White Feminist Science Fiction as Cinéma Verité, or what else is fuckin’ new: vulnerable white girl aesthetically brutalized at the hands of stock character Asian crime mobsters (apparently in Taipei, but the boss seems to be played by Choi Min-sik,…
This is amazing. Must-read.
A black female writer experiments with online life disguised as a white guy. What it’s like to one day go online and find an internet that no longer has death threats.
Whether you think the internet is a great or terrible place is partly a reflection of which parts of the internet you choose to visit. It’s also a reflection of who you are, and how people online react to you. Mikki Kendall is a writer who deals with an extraordinary amount of trolling and vitriol online. Mikki is a black woman in real life, and she created an experiment to see how her online life would change if she were a white man.
The legendary Australian soap opera, Neighbours, made its debut on Hulu and Hulu Plus Monday!
The US premiere week features a story arc that includes a guest appearance by actress and singer Paula Abdul. In today’s episode, Abdul visits Ramsay Street to drop in on Doctor Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher), who admits to a crush on the former American Idol judge – much to the surprise of his wife, Susan (Jackie Woodburne).
She is not the first known guest star on “Neighbours”. Throughout the years other celebrities such as Russell Crowe, Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia and Guy Pearce have visted Ramsay Street.
Neighbours has reached the U.S. Nothing will be the same again.
(Also: Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia and Guy Pearce were cast members, not guest stars, Hulu! Come on! This is my youth you’re talking about here!)