Dr. Lepore, Meet Prof. Blanch

You've seen it, right? That ridiculous article Dr. Jill Lepore (author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman) wrote in the New Yorker, titled "Looking at Female Superheroes with Ten-Year-Old Boys" is devoid of context. She admitted that she was an academic, not a pop culture nerd, when she wrote her Wonder Woman book, and researching a single character from that angle is an interesting idea -- a fresh perspective, even. For this, she relies on a ten year old boy (and her own biases) for her information about the characters, because everyone knows young boys are right about everything.

Here's where I might have a few strong opinions*. To suggest that "they all look like porn stars" on the cover of A-Force #1 is completely ignorant, literally ignorant. One only had to survive comics in the 90s, in those dark "bad girls" days, to know what "porn stars" look like in a comics context. (See Lady Death, Witchblade, Avengelyne et al. if you want porn stars.)

"Their power is their allure, which, looked at another way, is the absence of power. Even their bodies are not their own. They are without force." There's another utterly stupid thing to say. First of all, technically, none of their bodies are their own, because all of the characters are subject to the whims of the artists and writers currently on the books; that is true of male and female characters. Secondly, she knows nothing about these characters, what their stories are, to be able to say something like that with conviction. She-Hulk, for example, has a helluva lot of agency. She's a character who's had love affairs (often disastrous ones), plus a career, plus be a hero... Jen Walters rocks! She's big and green and has mighty cleavage, but is having boobs a sin now? I have a pretty substantial rack, too. Perhaps I should start binding my chest, since that seems to be a bad thing.

It's true that a lot of the female characters were created as female mirrors to the male, often to lock down the trademarks so no one else could. It's also true that for a lot of their histories, these female characters have been portrayed in a very male-gazey sort of way. But to suggest they have no power, no force, is bullshit. Plus, things are changing. To take these characters and "reclaim" them for a new generation of comics readers is a good thing. If she can't see that, then she's also not paying attention to what the industry is trying to do, even though she admits that's what Marvel is trying to do.

The snide attitude throughout the whole article prompted me to remove the Wonder Woman book from my Amazon wish list. I don't like the stuck-up tone that vibrates off the screen, and if that's how she wrote The Secret History, I'll pass. (And frankly, the clumsy way she stuck that barely-contextual Marston research in the middle of the Marvel/A-Force article, doesn't give me much faith in her abilities, either.)

I suggest that Jill Lepore needs to take a class or three from Christy Blanch at the first opportunity, if (soon to be Dr.) Blanch gets another Super MOOC going. Lepore could learn an awful lot in a Gender and/or Social Issue Through Comic Books class. Assuming her Ivy League tower would let her lower herself that far...

You can be an academic without being a jerk about it. You can be nerdy and geeky and talk about Batman's PTSD and whether or not race-changing affects characters for good or ill. My fellow Super MOOC "graduates" do it every day, in a very civilized and academic way, discussing everything from video game portrayals to gendered toy aisles to mental health in comics. And not one of us has that snarky, superior tone that Lepore does, because she clearly thinks comics are not really worth discussing seriously, and it shows.

I hope she reads the open letter Leia Calderon wrote her. I hope she reads G. Willow Wilson's piece, too. Frankly, I don't care if she reads this or not. She won't like what she reads here, and she wouldn't take me seriously anyway; I'm only a B.S.†, not a Ph.D.

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*I always have strong opinions. Ask anyone.
†Bachelor of Science, Psychology, with minors in Philosophy & Sociology

SuperMOOC2, New Comics, Old Comics, and Action Figures

This month, I started SuperMOOC2 -- Social Issues Through Comic Books, taught by the impossibly awesome Christy Blanch. This class, still through Canvas, is not through Ball State as the Gender class was. (Those crazy fools weren't interested in doing another one. Idiots...) I got introduced to Buzzkill, which was an interesting and somewhat depressing look at substance use and abuse, and am looking forward to the interview with Donny Cates (who co-wrote the series) next week. We have already had an interview with the very cool and very forthright Denny O'Neil, who wrote the Legends of the Dark Knight: Venom and the Green Lantern/Green Arrow arcs we read. Modules for this class are addiction, the environment, social inequality, immigration and "media, government intervention, and information privacy." (See the full reading list here; unfortunately, I think it's too late to join the class.)

In other comics news, Ms. Marvel (written by G. Willow Wilson) is awesome and the new She-Hulk book is fun so far, but I am not loving Javier Pulido's interior art (I kind of hate it, actually). On the advice of a friend, I also picked up New Warriors and X-Force. Those may help fill in the gap that The Movement creates. [Pause for a moment of silence at the conclusion of that singular book, with issue #12.] I'm getting the Captain Marvel floppies (I had been reading the trades), and picked up Rat Queens (which is hilarious). Pretty Deadly, Secret Avengers, Red Sonja, Rod Espinosa's Steampunk one-shots (really loving those), Trinity of Sin: Pandora, Batman '66 and Brian Wood's X-Men -- I think that rounds out all my current reads.* It's gotten to the point that when we go to Dreamland, I'm getting more books than my husband is. (Which reminds me, I haven't been this week...)

I've been slowly acquiring all of the Promethea comics from Half-Price Books, and am missing only ten issues. I haven't read them, because I don't have the full run. I've read the first one, because it was 99¢ on Comixology and I thought I'd give it a shot, which is what prompted me to start getting the others. I got the action figure off ebay.

Someone mentioned the Batman "Orca" arc in a discussion thread, and I was intrigued enough to snag those on ebay, too. If Christy ever wanted to do a class "Ethics Through Comic Books," those three issues would be a great addition. It's a very "ends justify the means" Robin Hood sort of story, where Orca (our new villainess) steals from a wealthy slumlord to help save a neighborhood. I totally sympathize with Orca's mission; this is a story railing against the 1%. It's also interesting to see Batman cast in the light of bad guy for being associated with the real villain of the story (the slumlord). Sadly, I don't have an Orca action figure (pretty sure there never was one).

Also found in HPB excursions, Ace and three Austin Powers figures. I initially had my husband put those three back because Austin Powers is asinine and stupid... then second-guessed myself and went back and got them later that evening. Soooo now I have Felicity Shagwell, Fembot and Vanessa Kensington -- hey, they were only $5 apiece. (Ace was not so cheap.)

Bad photos are bad, but I'm feeling too lazy to get out a real camera.

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* Oops! Forgot Godzilla and Hactivist (just back from the LCS). WOO! Legends of Red Sonja! And Aw... it's the last one. :(