Fantastic Fangirls: Comics and Culture

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What current ongoing comics storyline are you really enjoying?

Anika

Anika is on vacation this week.

Caroline

Bring on the dark!

That’s the last thing I thought I’d be saying last fall, when the previews for Marvel’s Dark Reign era started cropping up. As the seemingly endless Secret Invasion plot worked toward its climax, there was a lot of speculation that the aftermath would have Earth under alien domination. I’d seen enough Skrulls by then, and I might have been heard to swear that when this event happened, I was dropping all my Avengers books and getting into Green Lantern or Superman or something.

I was genuinely surprised when Dark Reign turned out to be something else entirely: the ascension of former Green Goblin Norman Osborn to be, essentially, the big boss of all the superheroes. A lot of readers felt this came out of nowhere, but I wasn’t one of them. I’d been following the Norman-centric Thunderbolts series, written by Warren Ellis, and later Christos Gage, and found it to be one of the most consistently fascinating stories to come out of Civil War. Ellis took the old idea of the Thunderbolts team — former villains trying to prove themselves as heroes — and put a cynical spin on it by having the insane but fascinating Osborn as the leader of the team.

When Brian Bendis’s Dark Avengers launched, it turned out to be the core of Norman’s Thunderbolts team — Venom, Bullseye, and Moonstone — with other characters variously conned or persuaded into joining up. Then they (essentially) kicked the real Avengers out and put on their costumes. I know that a lot of longtime Marvel fans find this concept appalling, and I can certainly roll my eyes at the trend of slapping “Dark!” on every title and trying to sell a miniseries. Yet the story that has emerged, in DA and linked books, is curiously compelling, as Norman’s story gets more complex. It’s been surprisingly energizing for the heroes, too. For the first time in a while, Iron Man is up against a foe who could really take him down, the Avengers have a clear human antagonist to rally against, and Spider-Man. . .well, the poor guy’s still fighting the Green Goblin. Some things never change.

Jennifer

Has anyone been reading X-Factor lately? (If you’re reading in trade, you might want to skip this to avoid spoilers.)

Peter David’s noir take on an X-Men splinter group/detective agency has been one of my favorite ongoing comics since issue one, but ever since PAD made a public effort to give the series a renewed burst of creative energy, it’s been better than ever. The characterizations have been strong, the plots consistently intriguing, and the twists and turns gasp-inducing. Every issue leaves me desperate for the next, and that’s the highest praise a comic can receive.

Right now, the series is embroiled in two interconnected plots, joined together by a mysterious villain named “Cortex.” In one plot, Jamie Madrox and a grown-up Layla Miller have found themselves in a dystopian future, interacting with the newest awesome addition to the Summers bloodline: Scott and Emma’s future daughter, Ruby Summers. And in the present, the rest of the team (which now includes Longshot and Darwin, in possibly their most interesting appearances to date) continues to execute their jobs as private detectives, investigating “Cortex” and interacting with each other in consistently interesting and character-illuminating ways.

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my favorite recent part of this comic: the kiss shared between long-suspected lovers Rictor and Shatterstar. To my knowledge, this is the first romantic male/male kiss to be featured on-panel in a mainstream, in-continuity Marvel comic, and I applaud Peter David’s decision to include it. Despite the progress that’s been made in recent months (Batwoman is, after all, the star of Detective Comics!), there are still far too few non-heterosexual characters in mainstream comic books, and even fewer who are allowed to physically express their feelings on the page. Rictor and Shatterstar’s potential relationship may only be the cherry on top of my love for X-Factor, but it’s a very satisfying cherry indeed.

Sigrid

Well, that’s pretty easy. Uncanny X-Men. Whether Greg Land, Terry Dodson, or anybody else is doing the art, I am loving Matt Fraction’s X-Men.

But I would, wouldn’t I? Yeah, I would — not just because I love the X-Men, though. But because, from every interview I’ve heard with Mr. Fraction, he and I love the exact same years and issues of X-Men and for many of the same reasons. He quit when I quit, and for many of the same reasons. And he started again when I did, ditto. For pete’s sake, I heard the man say in a recent interview that the run he most strongly imprinted on was New Mutants 1-50! I love that stuff. It makes sense that, given the ability to make X-title stories, Mr. Fraction writes exactly the stories I want to see. The Red Queen, Magneto, Empath, the Hellfire Cult — all of those are great. But it’s not just the plots, it’s the characters and characterizations that I love. The moments of sitting around drinking coffee, of watching the news on tv together, of waking up with Scott and Emma, of going clubbing with Pixie, of rolling my eyes in sympathetic exasperation at Sam. The sense that this is a world, not just a team, and that the mutants exist down the street and around the corner from the universe I inhabit.

Everybody who sticks with these flagship serial titles for years and years develops a sense of ownership, of these are my whoevers. That’s my Dick Grayson. That’s my Logan. When a writer or creative team comes along who takes a different look at a character than the view you like, it’s hard to stick with a title and wait it out. (That’s fandom’s dark cousin of entitlement, “that’s not my Jean Grey, you SUCK.”) But the constant truth of reading mainstream long-running comics is that things go around. New talent comes in with a blaze of new ideas, some of which you love and some you hate. And, eventually, the new creative team will love the stuff you love and will pay homage to those moments in comics that first took your breath away.

That moment, for me, is right now. And it’s in Matt Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men.

So what about you? What current ongoing comics storyline are you really enjoying?

Posted by Caroline

Now that I’ve gotten through it okay, I feel like I can admit this: I’ve spent the last few months in a state of serious fannish malaise. I was as psyched as I’ve ever been to talk about comics when Watchmen came out in March — it may not have been a great movie but it was an awesome conversation piece — but since then my interest has been in the doldrums.

It’s not comics’ fault; there’s been plenty to talk about, including some amazing discussions about gender and fandom that are just the kind of thing we started this blog to address. I’ve started a lot of articles recently (I even made a delicious.com page for the labels “comics” “feminism” and “fail”, which was depressingly easy to fill up), but I’ve hardly followed through on any. I couldn’t figure out why; there was obviously plenty of fodder for criticism, so why wasn’t I critiquing? Deep down, though, I probably knew the answer. You need to really love something to go to the trouble of taking it to task (well, maybe everybody doesn’t, but I’m fairly certain that I do), and after half a year of blogging about comics, I just wasn’t sure I cared. Before I could release my inner critic, I had to get back in touch with my inner fangirl.

Then, out of nowhere, Heroes Con 2009 swooped in to save the day. Well, all right, it wasn’t out of nowhere — I’d been planning it for almost a year — and the regional comic convention didn’t fly in to pick me up in its arms — I had to drive to Charlotte, North Carolina, on a really hot day. Other than the lack of a teleportation option, though (and I hear the brain trust at Marvel Comics is working on one of those), Heroes was pretty much the perfect shot in the arm.

Gabriel Hardman drew this gorgeous Question -- hat first!

My first twenty minutes on the con floor were a good indication of how it was going to go. Within that time, I bought a Young Avengers sketch from Dean Trippe of Project: Rooftop, then chatted with Heathentown creators Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Sara Bechko. I bought a Renee Montoya/Question sketch from Hardman — whose work on Agents of Atlas has been one of my favorite things even when I have the fannish blahs.

While Hardman was drawing the Question for me, I struck up a conversation with his tablemate Ken Marcus. It turns out Ken buys his weekly comics in the same place I do, and I ended up buying all the issues of Super Human Resources. This is basically what an Avengers book would be like if it was told from a Stark Industries peon’s point of view, and every time Iron Man traveled to the future, he came back to yell at HR because his 401(k) was underperforming. Exactly the kind of thing that makes me laugh, in other words. Good sell!

My whole weekend was full of moments like that. I got to talk with Kelly Sue DeConnick, who I first met at New York Comic-Con earlier this year, about her work on the amazing Comic Book Tattoo anthology. We also talked about imaginary friends, netbooks, rambunctious toddlers, and thrift-store shopping. At this point I’m confident in Kelly Sue’s ability to start a conversation about anything, sometimes while holding a rambunctious toddler.

Con weekends often end up developing an accidental theme, and this one’s might have been fashion. Along with my Project Rooftop sketch, and the Kelly Sue thrift-store chat, I also ended up talking about the challenges of drawing women’s fashions with Thom Zahler (the uber-talented, and recently Harvey-nominated, writer/cartoonist behind Love and Capes) and with Buffy Season 8 artist Georges Jeanty. (Fun fact: Buffy shops at Anthropologie.) Also, I kept asking people for Question and Rorschach sketches, and it’s true: everybody draws the hat first.

The reason that I started collecting Question sketches was because I wanted to get one from Cully Hamner, the artist on the new Greg Rucka-written Question co-feature in Detective Comics. I sort of forgot to do that, though I did end up fangirling Cully in a conversation with Jen Van Meter, which led to my fangirling Jen’s writing on the Black Lightning: Year One series she did with him, which led to both of us fangirling Greg Rucka (who was present only in spirit). Now, I’ve loved Jen’s work since I first heard the concept of Hopeless Savages, so I didn’t want to spend the whole time talking about her husband’s comics. But then — everybody’s talking about Greg Rucka these days — including this faceless (and poorly-scanned) elephant Matt Fraction drew for me*:

Matt Fraction does these to raise money for the Hero Initiative. He is a scholar and a gentleman and one of my favorite writers and the scanning is totally my fault.

My Question enthusiasm also led me to some of the weekend’s more educational programming — and, by educational, I mean “comics history”, and by “comics history,” I mean “I love this stuff.” First there was a panel on the history of Charlton Comics, a topic I was already pretty nerdy about before I saw this panel. Since the con, I have to restrain myself from dropping anecdotes about Steve Ditko’s political arguments with Denny O’Neil into conversation with people who don’t know who either of those guys is. The stories came courtesy of Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano; Denny, sadly, was not present. Neither, needless to say, was Ditko. If the famously reclusive (sorry, Stan, I’m just gonna say it) co-creator of Spider-Man had showed up at Heroes Con, it would have been on the news. I did get to see a screening of the impressive Jonathan Ross documentary In Search of Steve Ditko. This is an excellent documentary and it really needs to be released on DVD in the States so I can stop reciting bits of it to people who have never heard of Steve Ditko.

As much as I love panel discussions about the history of comics, there are always panel discussions about the future of comics, and I ought to say a few words about the Marvel panels. There were DC panels that I didn’t go to. There was also an apparently awesome announcement about the Longbox Project for digital comics that I totally failed to notice until I got home and read about it on the Internet. But I was a Marvel girl looking for my joy, so I went to the Marvel panels.

Let me tell you — I found some joy. I saw Brian Bendis last fall at Baltimore Comic-Con, where he had to field a million questions about the Secret Invasion crossover with “I can’t tell you that.” I saw Matt Fraction at Heroes last year where he had to spend a lot of time talking about an Uncanny X-Men book that hadn’t come out yet. This summer, right now, Bendis is in the full swing of Dark Reign — for my money, easily his best Marvel work in years — while Fraction has gone through the first year of setup on the X-books and is launching a major crossover of his own.

As for Captain America writer Ed Brubaker — I’ve never met the guy before, so I can’t compare, but he was unmistakably gleeful when discussing the news of Steve Rogers’ impending resurrection. He claims he had Steve’s return planned all along, and it strikes me that it must have been nice not to have to pretend that he didn’t. I’m just speculating, of course, but it feels like this year’s Heroes fell in a sweet spot when all these guys are having a great time with the stories they’re telling. By the end of the first Marvel panel, we were hearing questions like, “How are you all so funny?” and “Is it cool working with other people you like so much?” Out of context, that might sound like sucking up, but I can tell you it felt like an honest reaction to the energy in those rooms.

Xylon Otterburn is like, I dunno, fifteen? He drew this for me. Remember the name!

Ultimately, of course, the medium isn’t just about creators having fun and telling jokes with fans. The work ought to stand on its own. Luckily, when I got home from Heroes Con, I had a big new comics Wednesday waiting, and the books were really damn good. Detective Comics 854 was the Batwoman and Question book I’d been waiting for, and it was every bit as wonderful as I wanted it to be. Matt Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia really does feel the beginning of the complex, ambitious, politically-charged storyline I’ve wanted to read since I got into the X-Men. I’m not just saying that because I flipped through it for the first time at Heroes, while I was talking to Fraction about our favorite Michael Chabon novels, and a teenage artist named who calls himself Xylon Otterburn was drawing a picture of Deadpool in my sketchbook.

I won’t lie, though. It didn’t hurt. Part of my enthusiasm for comics has always been a reflected enthusiasm from the people who make them, inhabiting this weird, wonderful corner of popular entertainment that occasionally flirts with art. Reminding myself why I love comics reminds me they’re worth thinking about, worth caring about, and worth writing about. And that’s the kind of thinking that saves the day, every time.

By Caroline
E-mail: Caroline@fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: madmarvelgirl

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What comics story do you want reimagined or covered, and by whom?

Anika

I am the only person I know, or know of, who likes Here Comes Tomorrow (the end of Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men). But I really like it. I like the apocalyptic future, I like Jean and Logan’s interaction, I like the Creepy Cuckoos acting as Cerebro. I really like the wacky cast of characters. I love the re-emergence of the White Phoenix, and her “crowning”. And I absolutely adore Tom Skylark and his pet sentinel (not to mention his sentinel girlfriend!). On the negative side we have Dark Beast and his overly cerebral nattering, the overwrought drug plot that is a negative of Morrison’s whole run, and of course the whole “Jean OKs the Scott and Emma” controversy. But I can put up with that stuff for the sake of Princess Jean and my robots.

I would love, love, love to see another take on this story line. I’ve said forever: Tom and Rover deserve their own series. And of course it should be written by Sean McKeever, who I recently discovered is one of my most favorite authors when I purchased X-Men Origin: Jean Grey, Teen Titans and Spiderman Loves Mary Jane at once and they were all written by him. He also wrote Sentinel so he understands the bond between man and machine.

Caroline

Watchmen 2 is one of those running jokes, almost on the level of Hamlet 2, a story that nobody would really want to see because — clearly — the story itself is complete and trying to continue it would be fruitless. It’s equally obvious that any attempt to rewrite Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original story — Ultimate Watchmen! — would be a pointless exercise. That said — I’ve always been fascinated by the Minutemen, the first generation superheroes who appear briefly in the series, whose more complete lives are hinted at in the prose sections of the novel, or the credit sequence in Zack Snyder’s film. I’d be completely in favor of a ‘Minutemen’ anthology in which various writers and artists gave their interpretation of Hooded Justice or Captain Metropolis, Silhouette or the first Silk Spectre.

Jennifer

One of the first X-Men stories I read was Chris Claremont’s 1980s Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, in which Kitty Pryde is trained (by force and mind-control) to be a ninja by Logan’s vaguely demonic mentor, Ogun.

One of my most recent favorite series was Fred Van Lente’s run on Wolverine: First Class, which looked at Kitty and Logan’s friendship with new eyes and filled in their between-the-issues adventures from the 1980s era.

I think you see where I’m going with this.

It’s not that I don’t love Claremont’s old writing. But the original Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries is very much a product of its time, and I’d love to see it redone with a modern comics sensibility, clearing up (or at least more explicitly condemning) the creepy consent issues, shining a brighter spotlight on characterization, and streamlining the pieces of the story. And Van Lente, who, in Wolverine: First Class, wrote easily the best Wolverine I’ve read in years, and the best teenage Kitty, would be the perfect candidate.

Sigrid

I have such a love, such a deep and passionate love for the Bill Sienkiewicz era of New Mutants. Demon bears. Legion. Gladiators. Drugs. I seriously love these books, and have likely re-read these single issues more than any other single issues I own. (Okay, with the exception of Uncanny #173, #188-193, #196, #200-203, and #206. /massive geek outburst.)

Anyway. What I loved about these New Mutants storylines is the incredibly good characterization and character moments in the midst of this dark, dark art. It made the Marvel U seem like a real and tangible threat to the kids in Xavier’s school. I worried about them, felt for them, fretted over their health and safety. I talked to the kids about their bad choices. Yes, often aloud and while waiting at bus stops. Seriously, Rahne, stop listening to your guardian and start listening to Dani! Dani, don’t worry so much, you’re doing fine! Sam, RELAX.

Anyway. Ahem.

What I would love to see — please please please — is the New Mutants & Cloak and Dagger crossover drug story reworked and reimagined by Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber. Rahne possessed by Dagger’s power, Bobby falling into Cloak’s hell, Dani and Sam and Illyana having to figure out how to save them would all be great. But Rahne’s fairy tale interpretations of events would be amazing as retold by this creative team.

So what about you? What comics story do you want reimagined or covered, and by whom?

In lieu of my regular column I’d like to share a correspondence between two friends of mine.

I’m a Marvel
Hi there! I am a Marvel girl. I’m not a Marvel Girl the way Jean or Rachel are. I mean I am Marvel, not DC or one of the smaller comic book companies. This is significant only because of a battle I was involved in - though no one ever asked if I wanted to be - with Power Girl of DC.

See, in the nineties, comic books became wildly popular and they attracted the attention of those parental watch dog groups that spend all their time, energy and money trying to blame all of society’s problems on anything other than society. In this case, the over-sexualization of women in comic books. Now, I’m not going to say comics don’t over-sexualize women ’cause they do. But they also present strong female role models if you can look beyond the surface images. However, this is all beside the point. It’s what Marvel and DC decided to do that I want to address.

Marvel and DC are the two most popular and prolific comic book companies and their characters and plot lines often mirror each other, fighting to be the most admired version. Sometimes their rivalry is taken to a new level, as in the case of Power Girl versus Polaris (that’s me, of course). The watch dog groups I mentioned earlier? They called for strict guidelines about just what comics could present and one of these was the scantily-cladness and size differentiation of female characters’ breasts. In other words, they wanted to censor comic book heroine’s boob size. Well, Marvel and DC decided to try and make a point by being as ridiculous as possible while still maintaining their ‘integrity’ to the character. The characters chosen - likely because they weren’t part of the main titles, but were recognizable - were Power Girl and Polaris. And the ensuing contest went on for some time. Each new issue would feature the girls in increasingly ridiculous poses created solely to win “Biggest Boobs Snuck Past the Censors” for that month.

I’m sure some of my fanboys remember this time period fondly. Luckily for me, the censorship fervor died down and when I reappeared I was returned to my standard comic book heroine measurements (which is to say, absurd, but not overtly absurd). However, I think it is clear, looking back on that time and all my subsequent appearances, that I won. Despite never having been drawn by the likes of Greg Horn or Greg Land, my breast size continues to trump all the other Marvel girls. As for Power Girl, I think my case could be made there, too. So, here I am to accept my award for Biggest - and Best - Boobs on a Comic Book Heroine.

Thanks very much, I feel special.

—

I’m a DC! (RE: I’m a Marvel)

Oh, isn’t she cute? Little Miss Magnetism. Emphasis on Little. There is no contest, not then, not now. Oh, I don’t mean that there wasn’t a contest. That’s totally one hundred percent truth. Got it from the Powers That Be (I AM Power Girl. TPTB got me on speed dial — who else is gonna take out the guy dressed up in the ape suit? JSA represent.) Yes, I’m Power Girl. Pleased to meet you! But there is no contest between ME and Little Miss Magnetism for boob size. No contest meaning I win hands down. I was practically created to win!

I mean Biggest and Best? Hello! Nobody’s bust size outshines mine and have you ever even SEEN my under-bust? You may have magnetic posture but I have an innate Kryptonian anti-gravity-ness. I win.

Also, little Miss Marvel Girl, DC’s got more than just me:

and

and

and

What about you? Can’t rest the busty laurels of the whole company on the breasts of Emma Frost and She-Hulk.

–
Bring it! (RE: I’m a DC)
Oh please. Yes, we have Emma:

and Jen:

But what about:

or:

and nobody’s got nothing on:

–
Consider it brung. (RE: Bring it)

–
RE: (RE: Consider it brung.)

–
RE: RE: (RE: Consider it brung.)

–
RE: RE: RE: (RE: Consider it brung.)

–
I had a thought.
…I feel really objectified.

–

Point. (RE: I had a thought.)
I feel hypersexualized.

–
We shouldn’t be fighting. (RE: Point.)
Truce?
–
Be my BFF? (RE: We shouldn’t be fighting.)
Totally. We gotta team up and demand respect.
–
GIRL POWER. (RE: Be my BFF?)
Deal.
–
I don’t know why someone would complain about that. I think all women in Hollywood are known as sex symbols. That’s what our purpose is in this business. You’re merchandised, you’re a product. You’re sold and it’s based on sex. But that’s okay. I think women should be empowered by that, not degraded. - Megan Fox (Entertainment Weekly)

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What geekery are you looking forward to?

Anika

I have to veer outside the comic book realm. My answer is something I have been looking forward to for a long time, longer than was originally intended: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In the world of Harry Potter fandom I love both the books and movies. I consider them to be separate universes so I might appreciate each without comparison issues. Half-Blood Prince is possibly my favorite book (the other possibility being Prisoner of Azkaban) so there is a good deal of apprehension mixed in with my anticipation but I am certainly looking forward to it.

And in a related shout out, though this is a longer ways off, I cannot WAIT to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! If I lived in Orlando…I’d probably work for Disney….but I would absolutely be auditioning to be a part of the Wizarding World. Geekery it may be, but I just KNOW I am not really a Muggle

Caroline

I admit it. I’m the kind of fan who lives from anticipation to anticipation. At any given moment I’ll be counting down to some movie release or TV premiere or concert or big game. In fact, everything my fellow fangirls have listed is a thing I’m looking forward to.

But happily, there is an event I’ve been waiting on a long time which is happening next week. That is, Greg Rucka’s return to writing Detective Comics. Specifically, he’s going to be writing the comic with Batwoman as a lead character, and there will be a backup feature starring Renee Montoya as the Question. As DC has been unrolling their new line of Bat-titles, I’ve tried to politely respect other people’s enthusiasm for books like Batman & Robin because that’s their thing. But this one’s gonna be mine.

.

Jennifer

I’m going to give you three seconds to guess what I’m excited about. No, seriously. Three seconds. If you know my tastes at all, it should be obvious. And if you desperately need a hint, well, just open up Monday’s comics news articles. Ready? Three… two… one…

Yep, Steve Rogers, Captain America, is coming back from the dead.

And you could say I’m a little bit excited about that fact.

I know there’s been a bit of kerfuffle concerning the Monday release and its impact on fans, retailers, Marvel, the media, and the population at large. I understand that some bloggers have been busy analyzing those factors, and it’s spawned a fascinating discussion about comic book economics and marketing. But for me, the only fact of interest is that Steve Rogers, my favorite Marvel character — and possibly, at this point, my favorite fictional character of all time — will soon be appearing once again in current Marvel continuity.

I acknowledge there’s a chance that Reborn could turn out to be the worst miniseries ever written. (Though it’s doubtful, given the creative team.) But whatever the quality, I know I’ll be first in line to snatch it up and clutch it happily to my chest.

Sigrid

This year will mark my first time attending a major comics convention. I’ve been going to science-fiction and fantasy cons since 1992, but I’ve never made it to a big-name comics con. MicroCon and Fallcon are my two local comics conventions, both of which attract great talent. But I’m excited to be attending Baltimore Comic-Con this fall.

This will be (if all goes according to plan) the first time the Fantastic Fangirls all meet. \o/

.
So what about you? What geekery are you looking forward to?

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What’s your favorite comics re-read?

Anika

The story arc of Avengers Disassembled is entitled “Chaos”. I was certain, before it began, Wanda was the hidden antagonist. Everything that happened merely made it more clear. By the time I’d read the penultimate issue I was more frightened of than excited about the reveal and wrap up. I remember telling my husband I wanted three things out of the final issue:

1. A good motivation for Wanda’s actions
2. Magneto to show up and take Wanda away
3. Wanda to fall out of the sky and Captain America to catch her

Well, my own chaos powers must have kicked in because I got exactly that. And so that’s my answer: Avengers Disassembled (Avengers 500-503; there are also a number of tie-ins, but the one that I count is Captain America and the Falcon 5 and 6 aka “Steve and Wanda hook up“, a two-issue interlude which is, to me, absolutely beautiful on every level). I don’t really re-read all the issues. I re-read the last issue. I thrill over the two panel spread of many, many Wandas. Some of them I recognize because I read the comics, others I only recognize from scans I’ve seen, but playing “Name that Wanda” really never gets old. As for my three stipulations:

1. Plenty of people scoff at Wanda’s maternal motivation but I am a mother and I promise you, it is valid.
2. Magneto not only showed up — he showed up and demanded to be given his child.
And 3.? I could stare at this panel alone for an hour at the least. It is EXACTLY as I requested and imagined.

So much has happened since the Avengers were disassembled. Wanda’s shown up a number of times but at the same time, she’s never quite returned. I think that’s why I keep going back. When I finished reading Avengers Finale (”Issue 504″ as it were) the first time I really believed Wanda could be both complicated and good. I’m still waiting.

Caroline

The first time I read Gotham Central, I didn’t know anything about comics. I don’t just mean that I was new to the complex DC Universe or the ins and outs of life in Gotham City. I’d never heard of artist Michael Lark or co-author Ed Brubaker, and I only knew the other half of the writing team — Greg Rucka — because some of my friends liked his novels. Beyond that, I didn’t really understand how comics worked. I was still at the phase of trying to figure out whether to read the words or look at the pictures at any given moment.

I read the 40-issue series for the first time because I wanted a good story. One friend recommended it because it was a police procedural (and one with an obvious debt to my all-time favorite TV-show, Homicide: Life on the Street, at that); another recommended it because I was interested in stories about non-superheroes living in a superhero world. GC turned out to be a great backdoor entry to the world of DC Comics. I encountered characters from the Mad Hatter to Harvey Bullock to Captain Cold for the first time in its pages.

Of course, I didn’t realize I was doing it at the time. It took a lot more reading in DC before I realized, “Oh, that minor character in that issue of GC? He was somebody!” The beauty of the series is that I didn’t need to know all that stuff to read it in the first place. On a basic level, Gotham Central is just a story about cops doing their jobs in an especially weird urban environment. But all of the inside references to DC provided great “Easter Eggs” when I went to read the books again later. The reread also let me pay attention to particular characters, including Renee Montoya who had gone on to be a principal character in my one of my other favorite series, 52.

Since then, every GC reread has been a measure of exactly how deeply ingrained in the DCU I am. I catch new things every time, and with such an intricate book — and such a deep and complex fictional universe — I’ll probably never stop seeing new things. As I reread the stories, I also re-look at the pages. When I first encountered this book, I didn’t know enough about comics to have a bloody idea how well done it was. As I learned more, I could see the book again with a new eye for the art. And very recently, I’ve started paying attention to the way comics are scripted, and trying to create some of my own. This leads to new appreciation for the craft that these excellent writers bring to the story. (For instance, Brubaker and Rucka really understand where to break a page. Who knew?)

I could say that rereading Gotham Central is like seeing the stories again for the first time. But the truth is, it’s better.

Jennifer

I’m not much of a rereader in general, but whenever I do reread large chunks of some of my favorite series, it always fills me with glee and reminds me of just how much I love those stories, and comics in general. I’ve done this with Ed Brubaker’s Captain America, I’ve done this with the current run of X-Factor, and I’m considering doing it with Runaways sometime soon. Plus, I anticipate a Watchmen reread on the horizon, just to catch things I didn’t catch the first time in Alan Moore’s complicated text.

But the comic I’ve reread the most, and the one that doesn’t seem likely to lose that title any time soon, is Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. It’s the book that got me into comics, and it remains my favorite to this day. It’s my ideal comic, with close to my ideal cast of characters (if we could just swap out Emma for Jean…), perfectly blending humor and continuity and sharp emotional arcs with a backdrop of gorgeous John Cassaday art. I’ve probably read issue #1 alone at least 15 times, and it’s easily the book I most frequently recommend to comics newbies. I even made my local library buy all the trades when I was working there. I’m an Astonishing devotee, and I can’t imagine the book ever losing its rereadability.

Sigrid

What I re-read changes over time. I mean, there’s a reason I can name what happened in every issue of Uncanny X-Men from #173-#215. But I don’t re-read those much, anymore. I think I’ve re-read Astonishing X-Men a bunch. But. But. But the comics I re-read the most, the one I got back to a couple times a year, is Brian Bendis’s Alias. As I type this, I’m watching the Sandra Bullock movie, 28 Days. (Not to be confused with any zombie movies.) And it’s obvious, given my love of this film, why I like Alias. It’s because I love Jessica Jones.

Jessica Jones is one of the greatest new characters in the Marvel Universe of the decade. In this defensive, surly, addictive-personality-type, poor-judgement-having, act-before-thinking ex-costumed-vigilante, Bendis gave the Marvel Universe another needed center. Jessica moves between the worlds of the different hero and vigilante groups, she talks to both Avengers and street thugs, and while she judges everyone she meets it doesn’t keep her from seeing people for who they are.

It’s that, that quality of empathy (which Jessica hides with incredible bitchiness and an aggressive desire to not pay attention) which makes her a good private investigator and a lousy vigilante hero. But the Marvel U doesn’t particularly need another spandex-wrapped chick wandering around Manhattan. What it can use is someone who speaks hero but understands what it is to be a victim. Someone who remembers powerlessness and who thinks that not everyone can find a way out of fear and loss. But Jessica believes anyone who is fighting to be stronger is someone worth respect, whether or not that other person succeeds.

Of course, she’d deny all this if you said it to her. And if you pushed the point hard enough she might lose her temper and sock you one. But that’s Jessica Jones — she’d rather hit you than hug you. Just so long as you never notice how much she cares.

So what about you? What’s your favorite comics re-read?

by Sigrid

I’m reading Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook 2009. I love reading Ebert reviews. I own his Great Movie collections as well as his collections of the worst reviews given. I rent movies from Netflix out of both books. I read movie reviews, Ebert and Kael mostly, because there is an art to assessing what the movie is supposed to do. Because once you think you know what the movie was supposed to do, the question is then twofold: did the movie accomplish its goals, and are those goals worth attempting in the first place?

I used to read the Movie Yearbook and then rent all the high-rated films. This method of media selection proved to be sub-optimal for me, because a thing that is good at what it does may not be doing anything I like. I watched There Will Be Blood the other day, which I recognize is a great, amazing film. But it’s a great, amazing film for someone who is not me.

The question of right audience is one I think of a lot when I read fan reactions to comics and media. When I read someone decrying a comic issue as the worst thing ever I largely dismiss the remarks. It’s unlikely, really, that any single comic issue is the worst ever. (I mean, one, somewhere, at some time, has to be, I suppose. But this one right now? Hmm.) What I take the person to mean is that they did not like the issue of the comic. And that is their right. But not liking a thing is not the same as the thing being bad at what it does. One must allow for the possibility that it is merely not doing what you want. Or that the story is not doing something you understand.

Which brings me to Sam Kieth.

Kieth’s work (and it is “Kieth,” not “Keith,”) is unmistakable. His portrayals of the human body veer into caricature in the name of emotional realism. His characters are slump-shouldered with rounded thighs and pot bellies. They are soft, their hair is a bit lank, their glasses are dirty and they slump. Kieth’s protagonists are often beaten down by life, are often adrift in circumstances beyond their control. Yet the internal narration places us firmly inside their minds. Kieth uses this slouching depression to reveal the inner dignity and humanity of his protagonists regardless of the events that surround them.

I’m going to touch on those events briefly. In Zero Girl, a girl is assaulted by squares and can protect herself with circles. In Four Women — okay, I can’t describe that one at all without giving the whole thing away. In My Inner Bimbo a man builds a Magic Box because a Trout told him to, and gets a Bimbo who comes to narrate his life. The Maxx features a social worker and a homeless guy who lead double lives in a world which may or may not be hallucinatory.

If you have the sense at this point that Kieth’s work operates under its own unapologetic rules, you would be right.

I think my favorite Sam Kieth book is Zero Girl. Amy Smooster is a high-school-girl-protagonist, but in a way I’ve never seen anywhere else. Circular objects help her out while squares assault her in a world that is inexplicably animate. The recent Joe Kelly comic, I Kill Giants, contains a narrator that appears superficially similar — both girls exist in “real” worlds that are chaotic and hostile, both have secondary experiences of reality that are atypical. But that’s the end of the similarity. Kelly’s fantastic book gives us answers. Kieth’s Zero Girl gives us events that pose as answers while they sidle away, shifty-eyed.

The comics review and discussion site, iFanboy, recently interviewed Kieth in a podcast. I highly recommend it. Kieth talks about his impression of how he is viewed by the industry and by fans. He talks about his own ambivalence about his art style. He goes into his feelings on superhero comics and why he doesn’t gravitate towards them.

The strongest reason, though, that I feel everyone should listen to Kieth’s interview is this — I can’t recommend his work to you. I like it, I buy it, I read it and re-read it. But I don’t think I understand what Sam Kieth is doing. And this means I don’t understand who may enjoy it.

To use the metric Roger Ebert uses in his reviews — does the movie accomplish what it set out to do, and are those goals worth pursuing? — I can’t answer the first question for Sam Kieth’s work. But I think I can answer the second. Yes. Kieth’s goals are worth pursuing. His art addresses questions about external and internal reality. He wonders, publicly and in front of all of us, what vile things ordinary people can justifiably do. Kieth asks whether redemption is possible for the ordinary sins. He asks — never declares, but endlessly asks — whether people can connect. Whether we can ever meet another person and know them.

No answers are on offer here. If you want your story simple and comforting, look elsewhere. But for readers who want to puzzle over the art, who want to challenge themselves as readers, who are happiest in those three a.m. conversations about whether we all see the same color “blue” — you know who you all are. If this description makes you smile and nod in recognition, why don’t you pick up some of Sam Kieth’s work? Read it. Puzzle over it. Review it. And let me know what you think.

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What storyline do you never want to see used again?

Anika

I love the X-Men. The concept of “mutation” opens up so many interesting questions and their ongoing struggles for acceptance, understanding, and equality can be strong metaphors for minority groups in the “real world” (as Ian McKellen said in an interview, “the demographic of the readers of the X-Men is young blacks, young Jews and young gays - those made to feel that society is against them, that they’re a little bit like the mutants of the comic books.”). That’s a gold mine for storytelling.

So, why, Marvel, WHY, do you insist on shuttling them off into space? I like things to be realistically fantastic (fantastically realistic?) . The X-Men already fall under the genre of “Science Fiction” without adding aliens and space pirates and star wars and, while we’re at it, the Savage Land (dinosaurs? Really?). I love space opera, I’m a huge Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and Macross fan. But in my X-Men stories it just makes me sigh.

There are a lot of popular and acclaimed X-Men storylines that take place in space. Many of them I can even enjoy on an impersonal level. I just don’t like them.

Caroline

And I say there shall be no more Phoenix fakeouts! As I type this I laugh, knowing the futility of my plea, since Uncanny X-Men 511 is coming out next week with this Greg Land-tastic cover:

Jean Grey has been dead for what, five years? And Marvel keeps using her picture to sell comics she’s not in.* Seriously, Marvel. Stop.

This isn’t me bitching about the current Uncanny storyline, since (a) it’s written by Matt Fraction; (b) it revolves in part around Wolverine keeping a lock of Jeannie’s hair. It is mathematically impossible for me not to love these things. But — big picture time. The first arc of Astonishing X-Men, which came out shortly after Jean’s death in Morrison’s Planet X, pulled an ingenious switcheroo, leaving Jean dead but bringing back the long-dead Colossus. Phoenix: Endsong, the Greg Pak/Greg Land mini in which Jean’s body is possessed by the Phoenix force and Wolverine stabs her like 80 times on the same page, and then Scott and Emma have sex in an egg and at the end Jean’s spirit flies off and everybody stands around and cries a single perfect tear? Significantly less awesome.

This isn’t just a Jean Grey thing, of course. It’s threatening to become a Steve Rogers thing, it will inevitably become a Bruce Wayne thing before he comes back for good. Marvel and DC both have franchise characters who have shuffled off the mortal coil. At this point, nobody expects comic book death to last forever, but fake the audience out enough and we’ll stop caring. (Yes, Mark Waid’s Return of Barry Allen story that turned out to be nothing of the kind was awesome. Because Waid genuinely didn’t believe Barry would or should ever come back. Also, that’s the kind of thing a company should only try to pull off once).

*Take note that I am refusing to entertain the idea that the Uncanny 511 cover is NOT a fakeout.

Jennifer

Two words: Snap. Wilson.

Way back in the 1970s, Steve Englehart thought it was a good idea to reveal that the Falcon, Sam Wilson — the first African-American superhero in comics, and Captain America’s partner — had a secret past as a criminal (and gang member, and possibly pimp) named “Snap” Wilson. His heretofore acknowledged history, as a hard-working Harlem social worker, had actually been false memories implanted by the Red Skull when he used the Cosmic Cube to manipulate him into becoming Cap’s partner.

This was, frankly, a horrible idea. Turning the first African-American hero into every awful stereotype of inner city African-Americans is completely unjustifiable. And since that storyline, writers have continually attempted to change, mitigate, or revive the Snap plot, to mixed effect. Some writers claimed that the “Snap” persona had never actually existed — that it, rather than the social worker past, was what the Red Skull had implanted. Others treated “Snap” as more of a split personality, totally outside of Sam’s control. But it never quite went away, and as recently as the Avengers Disassembled-era Captain America and the Falcon series, Sam was still periodically reverting to his “Snap” persona.

Thankfully, no one lately seems to be acknowledging that most recent series. In fact, since Sam “died” at the end of it, and then reappeared without explanation in Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run, it might be safe to say it never happened as far as continuity is concerned. And I’d like it to stay that way. Brubaker has made no reference to Snap in the 50 issues he’s written so far, and Sam has found a solid place in the comics as a hero, social worker, and the glue that holds together Cap’s supporting cast. I want to see this continue. Sam is an excellent character, and he deserves much better than he’s been given in the past. And since it’s become increasingly obvious that no retcon has managed to make the “Snap” backstory palatable, ignoring it entirely seems to me to be the best possible solution.

Sigrid

Um. I don’t know how to say this without haterin’, and I really try to avoid that. But. No aspersions on X-Men Legacy, or on Mike Carey, but I never want to see Rogue and Gambit in a romantic relationship ever again. Carey’s work on Legacy could be amazing, but I can’t get past my aversion to the story to see it. I talked about this in the Sacred Cow post a while back, but I think it’s one of the most dysfunctional relationships — written and presented as romantic — in comics.

So what about you? What storyline do you never want to see used again?

Posted by Jennifer

In May of 2006, I didn’t know that Wolverine had a healing factor.

There are a lot of things I didn’t know in May of 2006, actually. I didn’t know who the Avengers were. I’d never heard of She-Hulk. I couldn’t have picked Captain America out of a lineup of patriotic heroes. And if you’d put a comic book in front of me, I’m not entirely sure I could have followed the word balloons in the proper order.

Then, on that fateful last day of May, 2006, I went to see X-Men: The Last Stand in theaters. In the days that followed, I borrowed Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men from a friend. And now, three years later, my pull list is regularly 15 books strong, and I’m sitting here on my couch, writing my 12th full-length blog post for a web site about comic books.

What a difference three years makes.

So in honor of my three-year “fandomversary,” I thought I’d reflect a bit on how my life has changed since I became a comics fan, and what that fan identity means to me. In list form.

Things I Would Not Have In My Life If I Wasn’t Into Comics

- More friends than I can count, including all of my fellow Fantastic Fangirls
- Everything those friends have introduced me to, from the music of Bruce Springsteen and Vienna Teng to Six Feet Under and new theories of feminism
- A senior undergrad thesis I’m both proud of and greatly enjoyed writing
- The confidence to strike up conversations with like-minded people at comic shops and cons
- The confidence to approach the creators of the stories I love and express my appreciation for their talent and hard work
- Most of my interactions on Twitter, which largely consist of a combination of the above two items
- Knowledge of comic book minutiae that will probably never be necessary for anything of substance in my life but makes me the go-to girl when my local friends have questions about “that Iron Man movie”
- Pets with awesome names like “Captain Amerifish”
- Hours of entertainment during my boring data entry job from the podcasts at iFanboy.com
- The drive and passion to write on a regular basis about something I love, and even to try my hand at writing comics of my own
- New career goals as a potential comic book editor or academic
- A keener eye for visual detail, and a keener ear for dialogue, both of which will help me no matter what shape my future writing projects take
- An education in the history and craft of a century-old art form
- All of the joy and excitement that my weekly comics bring
- A feeling of belonging in a larger fan community that I’ve never felt with any previous fandom

To be fair, I should create a complimentary list:

Things I Would Still Have In My Life If I Wasn’t Into Comics

- Quite a bit of money in my wallet
- Quite a bit of time I could have devoted to other pursuits
- Occasional petty frustrations with ongoing storylines
- My normalcy (Nah, I never had that to begin with.)

I think it’s easy to see which list wins out.

The fact is, I’m happier than I ever could have predicted before I found the comics world. And it saddens me that so many people find this community and interest to be so impenetrable. I won’t lie — my initiation into comics was given a big assist by friends with basements full of back issues to lend and a willingness to answer questions like “What’s the deal with this Hawkman guy, anyway?” But libraries, Wikipedia, and the broad internet comics community that is more welcoming and accepting than I ever could have imagined could easily have done the job just as well. And I can tell any potential new fan from experience: once you’re in, you’re in. And you’ll never want to look back.

So now I know that Wolverine has a healing factor. I also know his convoluted backstory in its entirety, from his origins in late 1800s Canada through his years as a soldier and a samurai. I know who the Avengers are, and I adore them. I consider She-Hulk to be one of my role models. And I love Captain America more than almost any other fictional character.

Let’s see what the next three years will bring.

By Jennifer
E-mail: Jennifer@fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: throughthebrush

How long have you been a fan? How has your life changed because of it? And if you were to initiate a new fan into the comics world today, what comics, conventions, shops, or other resources would you recommend? I’ve shared my experiences — feel free to share yours in the comments!

Due to the busy Memorial Day weekend, there won’t be a Q & A today.

However, in the interest of still providing quality content for our readers, we instead present the following macro:

Feel free to discuss.

In other news, there are still a few days left to participate in the What are you waiting for? challenge. Pick up something well-regarded that you’ve always avoided before, blog about it, and we’ll add a link to the masterlist!

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that Jennifer and Sigrid both earned runner-up status in iFanboy.com’s Sequentially Ever After contest. The challenge was to create a short comic based on a fairy tale, fable, or nursery rhyme, and Jennifer and Sigrid produced two wildly different scripts, based on the French fairy tale “Donkeyskin” and the Spanish nursery rhyme “Los Pollitos Dicen,” respectively. Click the link to check out their work!

Your regularly scheduled Q & A will return next week.