Hello fellow Geeky Femmes, it's Ari! It's been a while since I wrote anything here, but I've been saving up all my wrath for writing and working on something really needed to be reported on. Sure, over the last month we've had some pretty bad stuff from creator of Kickass, Mark Millar's egotistcal and self-entitled mouth, but it hasn't enraged the comics community as much as what DC have spent this last week doing.
While I don’t typically read many DC titles (and so my judgement
may be either biased or missing in vital information, two things I’ll admit)
what’s gone down this week has still majorly pissed me off. DC have truly been
rocking the boat with a variety of questionable decisions, all of which have
coalesced into one group of seriously annoyed fans. Earlier this week, J. H.
Williams III and W. Haden Blackman announce that they were leaving hit title
Batwoman due to ‘editorial interferences’ from the higher ups, the most
shocking of which stated that Williams and Blackman could not show the marriage
between Kate Kane and fiancé Maggie Sawyer. Effective as of #25, the duo will
no longer be on the title, much to many fan’s dismay. (Read more over on CBR,
including Williams and Blackman’s statement. iO9 also had an interesting take
on the news, and comicbook.com features a factual report) Secondly, DC have then gone on to announce a fun new art contest
for talented readers and fans, with the prize to have artwork included in
Harley Quinn #0, written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. Sounds all fun
and games, right? Not quite. The contest requires prospective artists to
illustrate four specific panels, as written by Conner and Palmiotti, with no
knowledge as to the rest of the content, but the content is rather…
Questionable. It follows Harley’s various suicide attempts, and climaxes with
Harley, naked in a bathtub about to drop a variety of electrical appliances
into the tub. Leaves rather a sour taste in your mouth, doesn’t it?
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| A match made in heaven... Art from DeviantArt. |
While the actions mentioned within the panels may be more
representative of Harley Quinn’s more frenetic characteristics (since the
contest has gone live, Jimmy Palmiotti has stepped in to give more context to
the panels- see here for more details) it has still sat wrong with a lot of
fans, myself included. While some internet speculators have suggested the
possibility that DC may be attempting to make Harley into their very own Merc
With A Mouth, it’s still an odd direction to take
Harley’s character. Many sites on the net have practically bent over backwards
offering their views on the subject (Tumblr and Twitter being such places, much to no-one's surprise) and
many news sites have jumped over each other to completely vilify DC, or in some
rarer cases, defend them. All things considered, DC are being portrayed as the
villains they have dedicated this month to.
First of all, we’ll discuss the news on Batwoman, and what this could
mean for DC. While it certainly isn’t
the latest DC cock-up, I feel it’s definitely up there as one of the more significant
ones. As mentioned, artist and writer J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman
have both walked off Batwoman, citing ‘editorial interference’ often at the last
minute, forcing the duo to drastically alter scripts and art. While this level
of editorial interference is nothing new with DC, it’s what’s being interfered
with which is raising tempers.
As a brief bit of backstory for those of you
unfamiliar with Kate Kane/Batwoman, here’s a cram
session. Batwoman is one of
DC’s few female superheroes leading a solo title, but in a move unseen from
either of the Big Two, she is also a lesbian, and her positive portrayal within
the series has garnered the creative team/s (including Greg Rucka and J. H.
Williams III’s storyline Elegy, which takes place shortly before the New 52
not-a-reboot-reboot offers a well written and insightful look into Kate as a
character) a series of awards from LGBT+ group GLAAD for positive
representations of LGBT+ characters and portrayals in comics. Recently in the
comics, Kate Kane proposed on-panel to her long-suffering girlfriend Maggie
Sawyer, in what was hailed as an exciting new turn in comics and equal LGBT+
representations.
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| Cover to Batwoman #17, art by J. H. Williams III. |
Before I continue, it’s extremely important
to clarify that at no point have DC said that they are against gay marriage, or
are anti-LGBT+. This is not a thing that they have explicitly said, nor is it an
attitude they’ve taken. Furthermore, from these actions you can’t necessarily
prove that DC are anti-LGBT+, in this case, they’re just being dickheads to a
good character. They (Dan Didio) has simply stated that DC are anti-marriage… 'Cuz y'know, God forbid a superhero be married and have a loving relationship.
However, DC have gone on the record as saying
that they don’t want to show the marriage between Kate and Maggie, if it
happens at all, horrifying people everywhere. This goes in flagrant opposition
to Marvel’s X-Men 2012 summer event, wherein Alpha Flight superhero Northstar (alias:
Jean-Paul Beaubier) married his partner Kyle Jinadu in Astonishing X-Men #51, which had many fans
celebrating the pairing, event and progressiveness that Marvel seemed to be
showing. However, some have criticised the event as Marvel treating it as a ‘novelty’,
due to the limited references to it. While it is mostly unfair to compare the
two companies, it’s certainly not unfair to compare the two companies’ stances
on marriage and gay marriage.
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| Surprise! It's weakly written character motivation. |
We can now go onto look more into DC’s
position on marriage and relationships, and what this means to readers. It’s no
big secret that very few folk in the DC universe seem to be able to keep and
maintain a healthy relationship without incurring murder or worse. Just look at
the latest issue of Batgirl, wherein her boyfriend gets shot. Heck, the trope ‘girlfriend-in-a-refrigerator’
as a ‘motivation’ for male characters came from DC, where Green Lantern Kyle
Rayner’s girlfriend was murdered by supervillain Major Force and left to rot in
the refrigerator. Charming. However, in
a curious turn from that also embodies a false sense of
we-know-lady-comic-readers-yo, DC announced a comic based entirely around the
romantic relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman (‘cuz all lady comic
readers are super-interested in romance. By geez, I know it’s all I want from
my comics, as it might just melt my cold, cold heart) and how they work as a
couple and as crime-fighters. To many female comic readers, this series came
off as more as an insult to many fans. That said, I’m not holding out much hope
for it, but we’ll have to wait for its release before we judge… At least before
we judge too harshly, anyway. Returning the topic of marriage and
relationships, it’s safe for us to establish the DC has a horrible tendency to
mistreat romantic partners and spouses as a poor excuse for character
motivation.
The fact that DC is so against romantic
relationships and marriage is not just inherently sad, but
it’s also incredibly
damaging. While I as a person may not have a positive view towards marriage, I’m
not going to insist that my media follows my worldviews. I think that marriage,
for the right people and right reasons is a wonderful thing, bringing together
two people who are very much in love. In the case of Kate Kane and Maggie
Sawyer, it would be an absolutely earth-shattering, jubilant thing. It would
potentially change the shape of comics to come, and would prove a talking point
for years. As I already mentioned, I’m not a fan of marriage, but I would read
and celebrate the hell out of a Batwoman marriage comic! I think it would be a
good thing for DC, and a great thing for Kate herself. However, If DC aren’t
willing to portray positive relationships or marriages, then what does it mean
for future characters? What does it mean for people read the comics? It is
perpetuating that superheroes can’t have romantic interests. They can’t be
happy in a relationship, which is an extremely negative message to send. To all
those people who look up to superheroes (myself included) it’s saying to them,
you’re either a superhero, or you can have a romantic interest, and to this, I
say no. I refuse to accept this. You can be a superhero with a husband, or
wife, or girlfriend or boyfriend (or a mix of all four!) if you want to be.
Superheroics don’t end on the streets. You can have both. The fact that these
relationships are being portrayed in such a negative way is hurtful to those
who consume the media.
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| Kate proposing to Maggie, art by J. H. Williams III. |
Next up, we’ll discuss the art competition
based around Harley Quinn. At it’s very, very base, it’s a fairly good idea. A
contest to scout out new talent, (God knows DC are doing a damn good job
scaring away their own talent!) using the premise of one of DC’s most popular
characters outside of the Holy Trinity, of course, and launching a new title.
On paper, it’s a great idea, gives a lot of amazing unknowns the opportunity to share
their work with a big company, something they wouldn’t have been able to do
otherwise. The contest is being judged by artist Jim Lee (Superman/Batman, Dark X-Men who also wrote a series of interesting tweets about the controversy, collected here) and DC
head honcho Dan Didio, so artists really are getting their work looked over by
professionals.
However, the thing that has sat wrong with
just about everyone is what the script requests:
PAGE 154 panelsPANEL 1
Harley is on top of a building, holding a large DETACHED cellphone tower in her hands as lightning is striking just about everywhere except her tower. She is looking at us like she cannot believe what she is doing. Beside herself. Not happy.PANEL 2
Harley is sitting in an alligator pond, on a little island with a suit of raw chicken on, rolling her eyes like once again, she cannot believe where she has found herself. We see the alligators ignoring her.PANEL 3
Harley is sitting in an open whale mouth, tickling the inside of the whale’s mouth with a feather. She is ecstatic and happy, like this is the most fun ever.PANEL 4
Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen.
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| Cover art for Harley Quinn #0. Art by Amanda Conner. |
