Sleep-speaker

I know, I know, this doesn't look good for me. I'm turning into some terrible DC apologist.

But okay, let's unpack that statement for a minute, because there's a lot of stuff, in comics in general, and at DC in particular, I feel no need to defend, and quite often an overpowering need to scream about. Or just hide under a rock and ignore because it's too depressing. That said, my perception of a weird media bias against DC and in favour of Marvel bugs me to an increasing degree. Basically because I feel like it doesn't hold people accountable in the way they should be held to account, and I think it ends up ignoring success stories and examples of positive attempts at change. It's just...since I think this narrative is broken, I worry all we're doing is holding a biased conversation that won't get us any actual improvement.

So...I kind of didn't talk a lot about this for a long time because it's not a popular opinion, and because it's hard to defend a thing without it seeming like you're excusing everything it does, which isn't my intention.

But I was reading a recent article from ComicsAlliance on DC comics' New 52 and how many had been cancelled, and comparisons to Marvel's Marvel NOW initiative (which isn't a reboot but is a sort of...relaunch/rebranding initiative) all about how Marvel are doing it so much better. Based on...basically nothing I could understand and it mostly seemed to harp on about how DC can't possibly sustain publishing 52 titles a month and how it needs a new tactic to reach new readers, all the while ignoring the fact that DC no longer publishes 52 titles a month and they're trialing a new tactic of weekly comics. Which may be the world's stupidest idea. Who knows! But it is super weird this article didn't even talk about it!

And it struck me: here is a place where I think I can demonstrate my point and achieve some kind of catharsis. What the fuck is this article:

http://comicsalliance.com/dc-comics-new-52-47-cancelation/

I'm going to break it down point by point and hopefully illustrate why I think it's biased.

My goal is not to point out that therefore DC is all roses and happy shiny editors who never pointlessly intefere in otherwise successful books. My point is not to say that there are no problems with audience outreach. My point is that the underpinning logic of this article is broken. In some really weird ways. That seem predicated on a lot of generous assumptions about Marvel's business tactics based on three months of solicitations and wilfully ignoring everything earlier than December 2013. In ways that seem indicative of fandom and the comics press' general tendency to award Marvel for effort and punish DC for failure.

This is long. This is really fucking long. I tried to cut it down, I did. I couldn't. I was too filled with the need to destroy it.

The short version is: the article's assertion that Marvel is more patient when it comes to allowing its new titles to find a footing and flourish is divorced from any reality involving sales data, and while I'm very pleased they're making an effort to change their behaviour and actually publish titles featuring women and poc in the title roles, these books are younger than some of the food in my cupboards and not a numerical improvement on what DC tried to do with its reboot, so forgive me for wanting to see how many are still standing next year and whether they're replaced by similar titles, before I believe Marvel have cracked the secret code to making the comics industry less shitty. Plus, you know, that whole thing where the dude keeps commenting on DC's current sales tactics while never actually mentioning DC's newest sales tactic.

That really is the meat of it. But if you want to read that in vastly more detail (I don't really recommend it), then follow the cut.

( This article. This fucking article. )

SO! Okay, sorry guys - I've been totally awol. It's been a manic few weeks - increasingly untenable current employment situation, external audits, interviews, NEW JOB (start in a month), boy getting a job for the first time in a very long time (exciting but emotionally exhausting), Vidukon organising, Vidukon panel making things, Vidukon premiere making things, AND MOST INTERESTINGLY, the thing I'll talk about in a second.

The point being, I've been all over the place the last couple of weeks and fell really behind on my flist. Please let me know if there's anything important I've missed and sorry for being so awol.

BUT! The exciting news!

I was given the opportunity to create an official trailer for My So Called Secret Identity - the new web comic from pop culture academic and professional Batman fan, Will Brooker!

If you go to the main page, my trailer is RIGHT THERE in awesome glory. Hopefully it will do its job and make you want to check out the comic itself (first issue available now, free of charge!) which is a superhero comic about a woman with no super powers, you know, except that she's really, really smart. It's a look at the genre without women in fridges, bathing suit costumes, or damsels in distress.

Anyway, check it out! I'm pretty excited I got the chance to do it:

www.mysocalledsecretidentity.com

I think I probably am. Sorry.

I just... Marvel are in the unprecedented position of having succeeded in creating a shared superhero universe for a mainstream audience, of proving that it works, of establishing it well enough that now, in the wake of the insane success of the Avengers, they can actually start broadening it, building it, really showing what such a fictional construct can do.

And what do they do? Oh, right. More hetero white dudes. Of course.

Seriously, where is the Black Widow film? Why isn't it Ant-Man & Wasp? When do we get to meet Black Panther or Luke Cage or a freaking kick ass team-up with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing? Can we all be really surprised when it's Peggy, not Bucky, who turns out to be the Winter Soldier?

When you're making a movie about Ant-Man, who has basically no name recognition with the general public, and a powerset that inspires Aquaman level jokes, in addition to the fact that the two things he is best known for in popcultural terms are (a) beating his wife that one time and (b) spying on chicks in the shower without their consent that one time - so whether or not that's a fair reflection on the way his character is normally written I don't know but it doesn't change the fact he's got an image problem - the fact that he's historically associated with the Avengers in ways the other characters may not be (since Luke Cage is sometimes their freaking LEADER), and when you're already deviating from the classic Marvel Universe in your Movie Universe...that is a weak ass excuse for picking him instead of anyone else.

Look, I've read a few Marvel comics in my time but I make no secret of the fact I'm a DC fangirl first and foremost. A lot of my Marvel knowledge is from fandom osmosis, borrowed trades and the movies. But I like these movies. They don't rule my universe, but I go see them, I like them, I look forward to them. Like most of the world, this is the face of the Marvel Universe that I see most, this is their chance to impress me, to say to me, come read more of my stuff.

And this is what they show me.

I don't get all the squee.

No, wait, I do get all the squee and I do not begrudge it. I get psyched about a lot of things that probably could have been made with better representation, or fairer choices. It's entirely possible to be excited about something and acknowledge the parts of it that aren't ideal. Probably that's what a lot of people are doing. I don't want to be the asshole who draws lines and insists no one can have a complex response to a situation.

What I don't get is that I just...don't see anyone talking about this.

Probably I just don't know where to look, but pretty much the comics-related response to SDCC news seems to be that DC is the devil incarnate for having replaced a minor (hate to say it but it's true) cult female character who's taking on the role of a previously male character in a piece of minor (hate to say it but it's true) spinoff media, with another, slightly better known, female character still taking on the role of a previously male character, while Marvel shits kittens because they...are making some more films about straight white dudes?

And like, the Stephanie Brown switcheroo was capricious and honestly, because it's not even a mainstream product, pretty fucking fruitless and probably achieved nothing but upsetting loyal fans. It was dumb and disappointing, don't get me wrong, but given that Steph's ongoing situation is almost always linked to discussions about representation and gender in comics, I just can't help but feel there's a weird double standard going on here.

Then again, and without suggesting DC is some sort of bastion of feminism, because it's really not, I think in general DC gets given a much harder time about the way it treats its female characters than Marvel. Possibly because it actually has some. OOOH BURN. Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, and as someone who's going to go out and buy the new Captain Marvel title, I should shut up and stop being unfair, Marvel have a lot of great women in their line-up, but I do think that DC has more women visibly soloing books and that means there's more opportunity to be critical.

Or something. Whatever. It's...petty of me but I'm sort of pissed about the whole thing.

Also I'm sick. So.

Hey guys - just checking in and letting you all know that I'm still alive, and REALLY SORRY it's been so long since I've posted. I've only been quiet because really nothing's going on much in my life right now and I'm WAY behind on almost all telly so I don't have much to say right now. Mostly my life has been consumed with what began as a casual project whereby I was going to actually clip stuff before vidding a vid I wasn't even sure I could/wanted to make and somehow spiralled into a weird completionist cataloguing project. I'M NEVER DOING IT AGAIN.

ANYWAY, I finally have something worth posting about!

( Batgirl #8 - or WOW, before I thought this comic was doing some unexpected, interesting stuff but *THIS* is what I came for. )

In addition, Batwoman is just kicking ass. It's so...rich and just all about these women with these really complicated, challenging, distinct relationships with each other. It's about power, competence, loss, betrayal, romance, ass-kicking, and supernatural noir detective work. One of my favourite things about it is that nearly everything passes the Bechdel test, and the cast is almost entirely gender reversed from the male/female split you'd expect (it's what, four or five women vs two guys in the regular/recurring roles?), but it never feels like that's what it's doing. It just feels completely natural to the point I don't even want to be mentioning it here because the comic just is. But obviously I AM going to mention it because then more of you might start reading it! :D?

Demon Knights also continues to be a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking tale of...something or other; I'm really enjoying it. It's not Secret Six, nothing else ever will be, I don't think, but I do wonder if this book might fill part of that void. And on top of that it's got beautiful art.

Finally, two comments:

Wonder Woman: oh god, I think it broke my heart. I don't even have the desire to go into detail about why. I don't even have the energy to be angry, I'm too sad. If it were ugly or poorly written that would be easier. As it is, it's a beautifully written, visually gorgeous story that wounded me in my soul, and not in a good way. I just...I don't know dudes. I guess we'll see where it goes.

Saga: this, on the other hand, was interesting weirdness. I've read the first two now, and what I wish I could do most is sum up the type of WORLD it is, because I think if I could, I could explain what's so compelling about it. I suppose it's like...a space fairytale with a dirty mouth and a rocketship forest full of nightmares? Anyway, I'm hooked is what I'm saying.

So today I was playing the Arkham Horror board game (as in Arkham the fictional city Lovecraft invented for the Cthulu mythos stories), with K & E, when we managed to, completely through a series of random choices, end up playing characters that were OBVIOUSLY the Birds of Prey (as in, the all-female superhero team from Gotham, home of the fictional Arkham Asylum).

Seriously, I was playing a red-headed, bespectacled librarian who got an ally named Oliver GRAYSON, K was playing a character who was riding around on a motorcycle using a demonic flute to attack monsters (CLEARLY a metaphor for a Canary Cry!), and E was playing a brunette heiress with angst about a dead family member who (a) kept having encounters with the mob (well, the Sheldon Gang), and (b) kept finding all the guns and weapons and wandering around visiting bloody vengeance on people.

Had I post-it notes I would have insisted we all rename our character cards "Babs," "Dinah," and "Helena".

Also we sealed enough gates to prevent the world from being eaten by Yog-Sothoth; you're all welcome.

ALSO on the bus over to E's house, the dude in front of me on the bus was totally reading Batwoman #1! It was a very comics day.

OMGS IT'S OVER.

Okay. Week 4. Alphabetical. Spoilers. Slightly less about boobs.

( All-Star Western )

( Aquaman )

( Batman: the Dark Knight )

( Blackhawks )

( The Flash )

( The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men )

( Green Lantern: New Guardians )

( I, Vampire )

( Justice League Dark )

( The Savage Hawkman )

( Superman )

( Teen Titans )

( Voodoo )

DC RELAUNCH REVIEWS COMPLETE.

*crosses fingers this will post*

I had a couple of noncomics related things I was gonna post, but then LJ was broken and then I forgot them, and then suddenly it was the end of July and I was like, crap! I wanted to post something else! And then last night I couldn't connect to the internet at ALL because I thought my wifi card in my laptop was broken. Except now it's working again, so who knows. But I have a USB wifi adapter in case it's on the fritz so whatever, I CLAIM THAT THIS WAS POSTED AT THE END OF JULY BECAUSE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

I also genuinely apologise to those of you who don't read comics or don't want to know what I think about them, but I fail at fighting it, so, you know, as always, please feel free to scroll on past and wait for the next vid/restart of the television season! I get that I'm posting stuff most of you are not interested in! :)

But! I have genuinely enjoyed Post Awesome Things Month as it's inspired me to use my LJ when otherwise I wouldn't have and I've enjoyed the other posts from other people doing it too, and yay for fighting summer LJ depression. So, since I enjoyed writing up my thoughts on Supergirl and Infinite Crisis the other week, so I figured I'd do it again for the comics I've been reading recently. (The astute among you may have noticed I haven't written anything up about Secret Six yes - that's because the final issue is coming out in a few days and I want to write something up about it when I have the whole series to consider).

Without futher ado: ILLUSTRATED REVIEWS!

( Batgirl [Volume 3; Stephanie Brown as Batgirl] )

( Batwoman [Detective Comics] )

( Batgirl: Year One )

( Power Girl )

( Detective Comics - James Gordon Jr Storyline )

REVIEWS CONCLUDED!

Dudes, it has been nearly a month since I posted. Apologies, I'm not dead or anything. Honestly it's a combination of a fairly bullshit filled realworld existence right now - I've been pretty stressed out. Haven't even been vidding, though I have some collab work that'll hopefully ease me back into it. Plus there's just not been that much going on in the world of the livejournals; no telly to discuss during hiatus season, no one releasing any vids cus we're like a month out from VVC. It's summer, we're all too hot, too cranky and too sleepy, right? ;)

So, I did the obvious, and while everyone on my flist fell for My Little Pony as their happy animated stressfree escapism, I decided to get around to watching all those DC universe animated flicks they've been churning out for a few years now that I've been meaning to watch forever. Partly it was sparked by the DC reboot announcement, partly because - before the reboot was even announced, though it was nifty timing - we finally got back to our actual weekly Sunday DC-universe RPG game. We'd been playing with the Mutants & Masterminds rules way back, but now, with the actual licensed DC rulebook with all the licensed art, even with minimal rules changes, it feels all glossy and shiny, and it's kinda cool to actually get to look in the back of the book and see how you stack up against Superman. (Hint: poorly... :p)

So anyways, here's the lowdown on me and comics. DC comics specifically. ( Epic, indulgent talking about DC Comics being Like Modern Myths and how I Probably Don't Read 'Em Like I Oughta )

THAT SAID.

I'm...slowly being convinced that maybe I should engage with it a little bit more actively, the way it was originally intended. Maybe with this new DC reboot, I should dip my toe in the water and see and pick up some books on a monthly basis and see how it goes.

( DC Animated Movies and why I won't let myself talk that much about Wonder Woman...yet. )

And now I'm back to trying to find that Supergirl and the Legion novel I know I have lying around that I never got around to finishing (because let's face it, I love the Legion for their tacky 50s/80s mish-mash of weird Peter Pan hope and stupidity, but I wasn't enormously taken with the writing quality of Kara's first few adventures with them).

And I'm considering which comics to get come September. My husband is also interested in picking some up and there are quite a few we're both interested in, so we're agreed on seven right now. We don't wanna pick up too many - who knows if I'll even have a job by then, but ten doesn't seem excessive so there are about three open slots on the potential roster if anyone (okay, it ain't like I have a bunch of comic fans on my flist, but you never know!) has any suggestions:

In the order I randomly remember them:

( The 7 titles we plan to grab. )

You may notice that we're not picking up Superman (whom I love) or Batman (whom K loves). Can't really explain why other than to point back to that stuff about mythic figures, etc. Superman is probably my alltime favourite hero, but I often find it hard to connect to him in a monthly series; I think the thing is, he's really hard to write for because he's pretty perfect, and Batman kind of has the opposite problem, it's too easy to turn him into an angst-muffin or a psycho. Either way they aren't characters I guess we feel the need to read about monthly to excitedly find out more about them.

Aaaaaaand, that's my line-up. Any pitches for additions/subtractions?

(It does occur to me if I'd posted this in smaller chunks over the course of the months, it would be kinder to everyone. OH WELL. Don't worry flist, I really do know that 95% of you have no idea what I'm talking about and the other 5% are probably busy. But it was fun to actually write out the reasons I like DC cus I've never done that before, and I do so love to list stuff. Anyway, ♥ to you all!)

Eh, haven't posted in a while. This week has been kind of crappy, and I'm hating work. Compounding this is the fact that I'm convinced that I've lost a freakin' referral even though I can't find any evidence of it - no matter how hard I've looked. So, because of me, there's probably some poor, mad old woman, convinced she's a teapot, leaving her gas on and it's all my fault. God I feel terrible. I really hope I'm imagining it...

Moving on to brighter things, here's what I've been doing over the last week - this is long, meandering and largely pointless, so feel free to move right on :)

( Vidding! The Laura and Lee Monster Vid )

( Heroes! Heroes and GIRLS! )

( Star Wars: Legacy and Other Comics and Darth Vaders Pants )

( Curse of the Golden Flower - it's like MacBeth, but I didn't know how it was going to end already! )

( Wi$ards of the Cash Coast - Whores or Fucktards? YOU DECIDE )

( Life On Mars - Because Who Needs Mental Health? )

Hmm...and that's been about the size of my week so far. Hope y'alls has been interesting :)