From the Editor: Done for now, DC

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Sigrid

Dear DC Comics,

I love your characters. I love Barbara Gordon, I love Kate Kane, I love Diana Prince. I love Cassandra Cain, I love Stephanie Brown, I love Dinah Lance. I love Harley Quinn, I love Selina Kyle, I love Pamela Isley.

I really love your characters.

When I saw the College Humor ad, Greatest Villains of Nerd Culture, “The Imposter,” in your comics, I sighed. I sighed, but I let it go. I am used to knowing, from remarks at comic conventions, from interviews, and from the comics you make, that my readership is not your main concern. I am a queer woman, nearly forty years old. I am not your core demographic. I’ve continued to read DC comic books because I purely love these characters.

Yesterday I saw another of the Greatest Villains comics run as an ad. This one was “The Youth.”

Now, DC, I am giving you all the benefit of the doubt that I can. It’s possible that you intend these ads to be a wry commentary on yourself as the sort of fool who might actually hold the views espoused in the comics. Perhaps you are trying to say that you obviously think calling women and children the greatest threats to nerd culture is ridiculous. I really, really hope you are. Perhaps you are running all six of these comics, including The Alpha Nerd, and I haven’t seen them. Perhaps you intend to do so and haven’t yet.

I’m having some trouble with that interpretation. Without seeing you publish the Alpha Nerd companion to The Imposter and The Youth, what I’ve seen is that first you tell women they are a threat to everything you love, and then you say the same thing about children. DC, this makes me sad. You just called your future readers supervillains who ruin all you hold dear.

I can actually handle you telling me I am a supervillain destroying comics. I am used to that. But you just said that to my kids, DC. You just told my kids — my kids who purely love Justice League, who think Booster Gold is hilarious, who love The Flash, my daughter who is incredibly happy that The Question is a Latina just like her — that you hate and fear them.

Do you actually think that my kids love for The Flash ruins all of your things? Are my kids wrecking all of your most beloved nerd properties? Why are you afraid of them?

If you are truly not afraid of my kids, then you have allowed your advertising to gravely mis-step. The ads you have chosen to permit are profoundly misrepresenting your intentions. The humor you have chosen does not strike up the chain of power. Your College Humor ads are not sticking it to the man, not speaking loud against tyranny, not slyly deflating the rich and mighty. The ads you are running target the disenfranchised, the weak, the edges of your chosen geek sphere. You are targeting women and children, mocking and vilifying them. This is not humor, to strike at those with less power than you. This is bullying.

DC Comics, you’ve made me sad this week. But I don’t think I’ll be sad for long. This week, the Republican party in the United States reaped the rewards of vilifying special interest groups, marginal communities, people of color, not-heterosexuals, people who like science, women, immigrants, the margins and the marginal. The funny thing is, when you add all those marginal groups up, they end up the majority.

Ask the GOP how that’s working out for them.

DC, I won’t be buying your comics for a while. I won’t say I’m done, because I truly hope that you recover from this error in judgment. I want you to do better. I want you to learn and grow and change. I want you to stop thinking my kids are your death knell. I hope that you’ll reconsider your recent promotional materials and advertising, and come up with something based not on fear and anger, but joy and hope. I would love to see ads celebrating how diverse your readers are, how broad your reach is, how comics and nerdery are mainstream. How the culture wars have been won by Batman and video games. How this is a party to which you proudly invite everyone.

I look forward to seeing you again.

With respect and sincere hope for the future,

Sigrid Ellis

Q&A 177: Halloween!

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Sigrid

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

It’s Halloween! Which comics character do you want to celebrate with?

ANIKA

Snoopy.

CAROLINE

Ghost Rider. Any version.

It’s not that I’m a huge fan of any of the Ghost Rider franchises, but at the same time, I feel like anybody who can’t enjoy a blazing skull-headed figure on a giant flying motorcycle doesn’t really love comics.

JESSICA

Maybe this is a bit of cop out, but I would totally want to spend time with Doctor Who, especially the version from the comics, since he is more often free from really over-indulgent plot arcs. We could literally go anywhere in time or space, and the TARDIS is full of costumes from every planet and century. Plus, I can’t help but think that the Doctor has a penchant for candy….Yum!

MARIE

Halloween night (or any night for that matter) would never be boring with Harley Quinn. Something tells me that she A) really knows how to party and B) always parties in style.

So what about you? It’s Halloween! Which comics character do you want to celebrate with?

Skipping to Conclusions: Young Avengers in the 212

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Sigrid

Marvel recently released a Point One issue of their forthcoming Marvel Now project. In that issue was a short piece featuring the Young Avengers. Or, at least, featuring a Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie story with America Chavez and Loki in a cafe.

There was punching. As you might expect.

Here’s the thing —

Jamie McKelvie posted this to his Tumblr. And that post changes my understanding of America Chavez in all sorts of good ways.

The post contains an image from the comic, of Chavez diving off of a building with the caption “I was on Earth-212.” When I read this in the comic, I dismissed it. Marvel has all sorts of numbered earths, and aside from my knowing that the mainline Marvel U is Earth-616, I don’t pay attention to any of it. But the other piece of McKelvie’s post is a link to the Azealia Banks’ video “212″. This is a deeply obscene song, not at all safe for work. But it is also a song of delightful bravado, of angry swagger and front.

In my estimation there is a difference between insecure swagger and angry swagger. Insecure swagger says “This is who I am; collaborate with my identity and fit into my world where I demand you do.” Angry swagger says “This is who I am; leave me alone to be myself or I will fuck you up.” Both sorts are aggressive, both sorts are arrogant, both sorts are in some ways afraid. But one won’t be satisfied until everyone else validates them. The other wants to be left alone to thrive. I read Banks’ “212″ as the angry sort, the sort that insists on being who and what she is, and fuck you if you think otherwise.

For McKelvie to tell us that the Chavez line is a deliberate Banks reference changes my view of Chavez. Deepens it. I now associate Chavez, a character I know not a thing about, with that kind of swaggering bravado and anger, with self-assurance and self-determination and a little bit of punch-you-in-the-face.

Well, okay, the punching is actually text. Chavez punches Loki in the comic. But comic characters punch each other all the time. With this song running through the back of my head I feel that I better understand why the punching in this case.

America Chavez, with this Tumblr post, went from Another Marvel Hero I Know Nothing About, Probably She’ll Be Fine, to an interesting, angry young woman with a chip on her shoulder and a lot to prove. I pre-ordered the comic already, on faith in the creative team and an interest in the previous Young Avengers. Now I’ll be buying it because I’m interested in America Chavez and her swagger.

Thank you, Jaime. I appreciate your post.

The CW’s Beauty and the Beast

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Sigrid

This post contains spoilers.

by Marie

Fairy tales have been a hot button in prime time television for the last couple of years. Although the roots of fairy tales have been harvested for entertainment since time immemorial, re-imaginings of those stories we’ve heard as kids have pervaded the networks with shows like NBC’s Grimm and ABC’s Once Upon a Time. These shows are often pitched as “fairy tales with a twist” or the “untold story behind the fairy tales you know and love.”

promotional image for CW's Beauty and the Beast

Guess which one’s which?

Or you know, the ones you were emotionally scarred by. Bluebeard, anyone?

an image of a young girl with keys and an older man with a blue beard

Why hasn’t anyone made a show about me?

For the most part, these re-imaginings work because viewers tune in to see how much they deviate from the original—and seeing that creative difference is what makes these shows compelling. So when a show like the CW’s Beauty and the Beast breaks onto the scene, certain expectations were already in place before it even joined the fold.

Like most of my peers, I grew up watching the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. I also subjected my parents to the torture of rewinding the original VHS release so many times that they can recite the entire script verbatim. I can too—and let me tell you, it can either be the best or worst party trick ever. So when I saw teasers and drove by billboards featuring the CW’s Beauty and the Beast, one of the first things that popped into my mind was how not like the Disney version this show was going to be.

a still from Disney's Beauty and the Beast; Belle and the Beast gazing lovingly at each other

Nope. There will be none of this.

And that’s great. Obviously, the show is targeted towards a much older audience and will thus disavow things like kitschy show tunes and talking furniture. Although after seeing the pilot, who knows? Maybe it would have benefited from adding the latter.

a still from Disney's Beauty and the Beast; Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Cogsworth

We’ve been out of work since 1992.

In actuality, the show is a remake of the 1987 Beauty and the Beast series that originally aired on CBS. It had a cult following and rightly so because it was pretty awesome. It also makes me regret being a wee toddler at the time because hey, Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman were in it. And on top of playing really great characters they were also pretty great at being badasses.

a promotional picture of the first Beauty and the Beast series

Left: Linda Hamilton, Pre-Judgment Day; Right: Ron Perlman Pre-Hellboy
Not Pictured: A Badass Reunion

So remember when I mentioned how one of my first thoughts was how little this show resembled the Disney version? Well it apparently resembles very little of its television predecessor too, and that’s where I think the disappointment lies in the pilot. Warning: spoilers ahoy.

The pilot begins by introducing Catherine “Cat” Chandler, an Ivy League law student tending a small town bar in order to stave off that Ivy League tuition. Shortly after leaving work, her car breaks down so she calls her mother to help jumpstart it. About five minutes later, men in black coats arrive on the scene. Is it Triple A finally coming to the rescue? No, it is actually two unidentified agents who inexplicably and brutally gun down Cat’s mother. Our heroine flees to the nearby woods in terror where she is saved at the last minute from some snarling dark-clad stranger.

a still from the CW's Beauty and the Beast; Vincent on a rooftop, not beastly

Who could it be?!

Flash forward to almost a decade later where Cat is now a NYPD homicide detective and has somehow managed to not age a day despite the difficulties of her job and her jaded love life. While investigating the murder of a fashion editor, she comes across the prints of a purportedly dead soldier-slash-former doctor that went by the name of Vincent Keller. Her search eventually leads her to a totally not suspicious looking warehouse that is inhabited by a totally not suspicious chemistry student named JT Forbes, who is totally not harboring a handsome yet emotionally tortured vigilante in his upstairs loft.

Halfway through the episode, all of the story’s cards are laid out on the table: Cat discovers that Vincent was the stranger who saved her nine years ago and Vincent reveals that he was part of a secret government program intent on building super soldiers. Because programs like these usually turn out so well, his military superiors were completely baffled when their obedient test subjects suddenly turned into rampaging man-beasts prone to violence. Apparently, it’s the rush of adrenaline that does them in. So instead of firing the scientists who somehow thought it would be a good idea to expose these guys to the constant stress of combat, the government decided to do the merciful thing and eradicate every living trace of their experiments.

Except you know, they missed one.

a promotional picture from the CW's Beauty and the Beast; Vincent, scarred, so... beastly. I guess.

Whoops!

And that’s how New York City came to have Vincent Keller: a part-time superhero who toils away in his laboratory-slash-bachelor pad, complete with amenities like a flat screen TV and an XBOX.

a still from The Dark Knight; Bruce Wayne, in the Bat Cave, which in this movie is a really big and mostly empty mostly white room.

I hear that Bruce Wayne’s got five of those in his Bat Cave. You know, for when all his friends come over.

In a nutshell, our Beast character is actually a much prettier version of the Hulk rather than a cursed and otherwordly creature of mysterious origin.

And that’s what really gets me.

What makes the Beast such a memorable character is his transformation: both inward and outward. That’s why hundreds of years and many generations later, we’re still telling stories about him. But Vincent Keller does not look like monster. Aside from the occasional growl, he doesn’t act like a monster either. And yea sure, he can get aggressive sometimes. But he usually manages that well and saves it all for the bad guys. But overall, it doesn’t feel like he truly has a curse. The show doesn’t really try to gain our sympathy for his character so much as it tries to ram that sympathy down our throats.

a black and white headshot of Jay Ryan, who portrays Vincent in the CW's Beauty and the Beast

Do you feel sorry for him yet?

Therefore, the stakes feel utterly contrived. What will Vincent benefit from his relationship with Cat? Does he become a better person? Does he become more “human”? Well considering that he’s saved six people (that we know of) during the nine-year gap, I think it’s safe to say that he hasn’t lost either his goodness or humanity. Unless there’s a future storyline somewhere where Vincent confesses that he once fed on the blood of orphans, it’s not like we’re dealing with a character like Angel who spent his days trying to repent for his past.

The heavy exposition was also a bump in the road for me because it whittled down any opportunity for chemistry or tension. We know that Beauty will eventually fall in love with Beast. But Cat and Vincent already seem to be on the fast track since Cat all but openly declared her trust for him at the very end of the episode. It really didn’t take much for her to get over the whole “super-strength” plus “super-anger-management” thing. Really. It didn’t.

As far as premiers go, this one’s pretty lackluster. Although I will say that it has the potential to become something noteworthy if more time is spent developing the nuances of the characters and their relationships. You know, instead of the cookie-cutter storylines we’ve seen dozens of times elsewhere.

Q&A #175: What comic book character would you take out on a date, and why?

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Sigrid

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 comic book character would you take out on a date, and why?

ALI

This is what a date with Thor looks like…

a panel from Thor: The Mighty Avenger; Thor and Jane on a date in the mountains

…so you really can’t blame me for wanting to take the Mighty Avenger out on a day. While I may not have Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder readily at my disposal, I think Thor would equally love something more low-key (no pun intended) as long as it was something new or different for him. For example, I don’t think Thor has ever had spaghetti and meatballs. I mean, it’s not like you can get good Italian in the halls of Asgard. Also, I make a pretty mean homemade spaghetti and meatballs. I’m thinking that and a nice bottle of red wine, some music, and candles could make for a nice evening.

Also also, he’s the freaking GOD OF THUNDER!!

GABBY
My ideal fictional date would be walking around the Harvard campus with Dr. Spencer Reid.

Just thought I should get that out there.

This question gave me a lot of pause. I haven’t fallen in love with any male comic book character, really. The closest I can think of is Luke Cage.

However the Cage-Jones family is my favorite thing in comics right now so I don’t particularly like the idea of being a homewrecker. I don’t like the billionaire playboy type, Superman is out of my league and boy-heroes are not my thing.

After some reflexion, I would ask Daimon Hellstrom, based on his appearance in the New Avengers.

a panel from New Avengers; Daimon Hellstrom, on fire and threatening

I never went on a date with an actual bad boy. Think about it: going on a date with the son of SATAN. Talk about the *ultimate* bad boy. Also, he doesn’t have a criminal record and he’s fighting for the good guys, so, you know. Best of both worlds, really.

I don’t know what we would do, exactly. Probably go to a rave and dance all night or something equally mind-boggling to me. Livin’ on the edge, man.

MARIE

I’ve always had a thing for bad girls, and that’s probably because I’m as sheltered and cookie-cutter as they come. No really, I swear. That’s why if Faith Lehane happened to be unavailable, I’d love to take out Brian Michael Bendis’s Scarlet.

Scarlet, with two guns pointed at the viewer

She aims for the heart.

Scarlet’s a rebel with a cause. She throws herself at the helm of a full-scale revolution that is hell-bent on eradicating a monstrously unjust system. In short, she’s a lady who likes to take the lead and doesn’t take jack from anyone. Relationship-wise, I could probably learn a lot from her.

Scarlet, making a face, with two bags over her hands, one with a smiley drawn making the same face, one with a smiley that is "dead"

Like the proper etiquette for being arrested by some corrupt policeman.

Were she and I able to go on a date, I would probably not be able to remember most of it. But when I wake up the next morning, there will probably be a tattoo in a place that I never expected.

So what about you? What comic book character would you take out on a date, and why?

Fantastic Fangirls Call for Staff Writers

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Sigrid

Changes are afoot here at Fantastic Fangirls, changes of an exciting nature!

We recently marked the departure of Jennifer Margret Smith to her new job at Marvel Comics. Congratulations, again, Jennifer! This shift in staffing has provided an opportunity for us to examine our organization and its goals. The time has come to expand Fantastic Fangirls.

Fantastic Fangirls is soliciting applications for both new Staff Writers and Guest Bloggers. Both Staff Writers and Guest Bloggers must be women — cis, trans, or something more complicated — who are enthusiastic about some aspect of comics. In addition, the duties of each are as follows:

Staff Writer duties:

+ contribute one essay per month
+ contribute at least twice a month to weekly Q&A
+ be available for 4-6 Skype calls a year for podcasts
+ contribute to 4-6 book clubs, round-robins, or other group posts per year
+ edit and proofread all of one’s own work
+ read and respond to comments on one’s posts

Guest Writer duties:

+ mail pitch to Editor with concept, 2-3 sample paragraphs, and intentions
+ write essay
+ edit and proofread essay
+ be available to read and respond to comments on the day of posting
+ may be asked to participate in podcasts, book clubs, or round robins

If you are interested, please send your application to sigrid@fantasticfangirls.org with the following information:

Legal Name: Your actual legal name, please.
Demographic Information: We’d like to know any demographic information that you feel is important, such as:
ethnicity, race, gender, orientation, ability, etc.
Work Sample: This can be attached essays, links to your blogs, or other ways you can share your writing.
Relevant Work Experience: Have you done podcasting? Do you manage a group Tumblr? Have you written book reviews? Are you a veteran cosplayer? Do you run conventions? Tell us about your experience working in or discussing geek culture.
Sample Q&A Questions:
Favorite Star Trek captain?
What was your first fandom?
What dream comic do you pine to read someday?

***

Please feel free to link this, tweet it, or send it to people you feel would be a good fit for Fantastic Fangirls. If you have any questions, email Sigrid at sigrid@fantasticfangirls.org.

GUEST POST: Rebecca Gadling, Michelle Rodriguez, and Why I’m Buying Fame & Misfortune, by Rachel Edidin

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Sigrid

Hello from Fantastic Fangirls! We are pleased this week to bring to you a post from Friend of the Blog Rachel Edidin. Rachel would like a word in your ear about Strong Female Protagonists. Without further ado, Ms Edidin —

—

So. My friend Kel McDonald is currently running a kickstarter for a comic called Fame and Misfortune. You should, of course, go fund it, because it’s gonna be awesome*, but that’s not why I’m telling you about it.

What I want to talk about is the main character of Fame and Misfortune, Rebecca Gadling. See, Kel posted a preview of the first ten pages of F&M, and it got people talking. And an awful lot of them are saying things like this:

“…rebecca kinda looked like a man which made it realy confusing when they pronounced her name…”

“Really nice! I’m intrigued already and wanting to know what happens next and what all is going on… however I will say that it’d be nice if Rebecca looked a bit less like a man. It’d be less confusing”

“It does look promising and it’s nice to see the interaction between Rebecca and Connor, and witness Rebecca’s abilities. But I also agree that she looks like a man and that’s quite confusing.”

“Wow, the plot is good, and the art is interesting and attractive.. but Rebecca looks like a MAN. And it’s, well, really distracting. Really manly. So, were you going for the butch look?”

Here are a few more that didn’t make it past moderation:

“I’m sad that Rebecca looks like a man when she grows up.”

“why does that man have boobs? and why does he have Danny’s broken nose? wait a minute… why are they calling him Rebecca?”

“That, my friends IS a man. Rebecca deserves a redesign.”

And here’s the character they’re talking about:

Rebecca Gadling

Rebecca Gadling in action.

Rebecca’s design is my single favorite thing about Fame & Misfortune.

This is the kind of character I will buy a book for. Look at her: She’s tall, muscular, and generally physically imposing–and she knows it, and plays it up. I totally buy this woman as a bodyguard. She’s not afraid to take up space. She’s got practical, shortish hair that’s just shaggy enough to perpetually look in need of a trim. She dresses practically, almost androgynously–except, there’s that halter top, and the overshirt that’s clearly designed to accentuate both her breasts and her ripped-as-hell shoulders, which means that either she doesn’t give a fuck about cohesive gender presentation, or she’s playing it deliberately, and either way, I’m sold.

Here’s the clincher: She’s not pretty.

That Rebecca is big, and strong, and most of all that she’s not pretty says, clearly and loudly, that this isn’t a character whose purpose is to titillate or please the viewer. If I pick up this comic, I know Rebecca’s function in the story isn’t going to be limited to eye candy. She’s a Michelle Rodriguez⁺ in a world full of Summer Glaus.

(Of course, that carries its own cost. Ask Michelle Rodriguez: “Saying no to the girlfriend, saying no to the girl that gets captured, no to this, no to that. and eventually I just got left with the strong chick that’s always being killed and there’s nothing wrong with that.”)

It wouldn’t be a big deal if she were pretty, really. It’s comics–everyone is supposed to be pretty, right? Superhero books are full of Hollywood-style fake-ugly girls, models with the cursory coding of a pair of glasses or heavy bangs, bombshells but for the grace of plot demands. There are tropes built around this, and those tropes fly fast and fierce around action-hero ladies in particular: They can fight, but they have to do it while being waifish and nonthreatening and very very femme; and, above all, they have to be traditionally attractive. That an action lady can kick any given straight male fan’s ass six ways from Sunday just makes her a better status symbol in his wish-fulfillment fantasy. These are the River Tams, and the Natasha Romanovs, and the Alices, and the Buffys; and yes, they’re all strong and interesting and complex, but first and foremost, they are all pretty. That’s the price of a female action hero: our mainstream visual media flat-out doesn’t have a place for female protagonists who you can’t fantasize about taking home to make the football team jealous, so we get compromises, where the girl can be strong and fierce, but only as long as she’s also a perfect size two with long hair that falls just so. There are very occasional exceptions–Brienne of Tarth is a notable and recently visible one–but never protagonists, and more often than not, their formidability is played as freakishness, muffling the vulnerable waif within. There is no female analogue to Ron Perlman or Bruce Willis.

And that’s precisely what makes Rebecca so transgressive, and so very, very important. It’s not just that she gets to be big, and tough, and strong, and a little genderfucky, without being punished for it. It’s that she gets to be all those things, and she’s a protagonist. Rebecca’s the goddamn hero. Spoiler: She’s not going to die in act two. She’s not going to get the makeover that’s the only thing holding her back from running through a field laughing with newly shiny hair and a sundress and a boy large enough to make her look delicate. Rebecca doesn’t give a fuck about looking delicate. She speaks loudly and clearly to a different kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy–one I’m far hungrier for.

*It really is. I’ve seen the script. Plus, If it gets to $10k, there’s gonna be a limited-edition hardcover, and I really, really want one; and at just $5k, there’ll be a sketchbook with character design process stuff. And hell, all that aside, imagine how cool it would be to have a market where comics like this not only exist but are financially rewarding for their creators, and then go do your part to make that happen.

⁺Look, we all know Michelle Rodriguez is hot as all fuck. But actual hotness and Hollywood’s impossibly narrow window of acceptably homogenous hotness are two very different animals.

Chicks Dig Comics Release Day!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Sigrid

Chicks Dig Comics cover art

Today the essay collection Chicks Dig Comics is available for sale! And your Fangirls are represented within!

Here’s the full Table of Contents:

Introduction by Mark Waid
Editors’ Foreword, by Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis
Mary Batson and the Chimera Society, by Gail Simone
Summers and Winters, Frost and Fire, by Seanan McGuire
Cosplay, Creation, and Community, by Erica McGillivray
An Interview with Amanda Conner
A Matter of When, by Carla Speed McNeil
The Other Side of the Desk, by Rachel Edidin
An Interview with Terry Moore
Nineteen Panels about Me and Comics, by Sara Ryan
I’m Batman, by Tammy Garrison
An Interview with Alisa Bendis
My Secret Identity, by Caroline Pruett
The Green Lantern Mythos: A Metaphor for My (Comic Book) Life, by Jill Pantozzi
Vampirella, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Page Turn, by Jen Van Meter
Confessions of a (Former) Unicorn, by Tara O’Shea
The Evolution of a Tart, by Sheena McNeil
Kitty Queer, by Sigrid Ellis
The Captain in the Capitol: Invoking the Superhero in Daily Life by, Jennifer Margret Smith
Burn, Baby Burn, by Lloyd Rose
Tune in Tomorrow, by Sue D
An Interview with Greg Rucka
Comic Book Junkie, by Jill Thompson
From Pogo to Girl Genius, by Delia Sherman
I am Sisyphus, and I am Happy, by Kelly Thompson
Captain America’s Next Top Model, by Anika Dane Milik
An Interview with Louise Simonson
Me Vs. Me, by Sarah Kuhn
A Road That has No Ending: Revenge in Sandman, by Sarah Monette
Mutants, by Marjorie Liu
You’re on the Global Frequency, by Elizabeth Bear
Crush on a Superhero, by Colleen Doran

Thank you, readers, for supporting Fantastic Fangirls. I hope you enjoy the book!

2011 Year in Comics

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Sigrid

The greatest difficulty I have with end-of-year lists is that I don’t remember what things came out in the past year. Without further caveat, then, here are a portion of the best comics of 2011. Please add the ones we’ve missed in the comments!

***

Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil.

Finder is one of the best science fiction comics around. It’s my favorite. McNeil’s storytelling is transcendent. You can read the story in one go, then spend hours going back over each panel, reading the footnotes, studying the interactions between text and art. This most recent volume not only gives depth and detail to the world of Anvard, not only does it refer to the other volumes, it also tells the story of a selfish young woman growing up. Unlike most coming-of-age tales, though, our protagonist doesn’t become a sweet, generous, well-behaved person. Nor does she become wiser. In Voice, growing up is a process of many steps. You can’t see where you’re going and you don’t know what you’re doing, and you have to make decisions anyway.

***

Osborn by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios

This limited series is not merely a meditation of the different types of power, a look at different types of evil, it is also vibrantly boundary pushing in its art. DeConnick’s story, set firmly within the mainstream Marvel Universe, raises the question, when is power evil simply because it is power? In a world of superheroes, this is the constant source of tension underneath the skin of the premise. Rios’s art is jagged and finely-tuned in turns. Her action sequences are unlike any I have seen — the closest comparison, in terms of audacity of layout and presentation, would be J.H. Williams III’s work on Batwoman: Elegy. Rios pushes the eye and mind in a way that recalls Cubism. Yet her scenes of dialog, or quiet reflection, are clear and evocative of human-scale emotion.

Osborn is a notice, that Rios and DeConnick are going to be names all over the comics world in the next few years. But it is also a notice that women do not feel constrained to stay in some sort of girl-ghetto, writing about women or nice things. This is a story about degrees of sociopathy, and the panels do not flinch away from blood.

***

X-23 by Marjorie Liu

I frequently have a great deal of pity for writers handed canon characters. Pity because the canonical backstories are frequently nonsensical. It’s the mark of a good writer to come on board, take what you’re given, and make it better than it was. This is what Liu has done. in her tenure on X-23 she has set the character of Laura Kinney for writers to come. She did this not by ignoring details but by exploring them. Liu added depth and richness to the Marvel U while writing stories of superheroic wacky hijinks. Vampires, pirates, genetically engineered immortal body jumpers, dimensional portals, and babysitting all feature in the title’s too-short run. At no point is the writing mawkish or self-indulgent. This is, flat-out, one of the best books of 2011. I’d be sorrier to see it go if it weren’t for the fact that Liu is moving on to write Astonishing X-Men.

***

Fear Itself by Matt Fraction
Fear Itself: Homefront by Christos Gage and others

This turned out to be one of the best crossover events I’ve read. Both cosmic and very, very human, Fear Itself did that thing that makes stories work — it showed how big and small people can be. How powerful and helpless. The story showed the nature of humanity at its best and worst. This is why we tell stories, this is what story is for — a guide and a warning for our own nature.

Christos Gage’s work in Fear Itself: Homefront deserves a particular mention. His story is one of forgiveness and redemption, and the difference between those two things. It also contains the moment guaranteed to make me cry, the moment where the ordinary people — bystanders in this stupid god-war — give each other the strength and bravery to carry on.

***

Batwoman by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman

Not only is this comic groundbreaking, it’s just damn good. The art is astonishing and the storytelling is superb. We have heroes making dumb, human-sized errors, we have villains being sneaky and powerful, we have supporting characters with their own plots and mysteries. Batwoman is crime fiction in a superhero world. It’s the story of One Good Woman trying to save everything while pretending her past doesn’t haunt her. It’s a truth of this type of story that things have to get very, very bad for our hero before they get better. I look forward to the ride.

***

The Punisher by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto

This is a story about communities. About how people interact with each other whether they mean to or not. It’s a story about they way people’s lives break apart in a moment, inexplicably leaving a person alive to go on afterwards. This is one of the story types of my heart, it’s true. But Rucka does it so well, you have to read it to believe it. When we looks back on great comic runs, this is going to be one for posterity.

***

Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen

Kid Loki. This image is one of a cosplayer as Kid Loki, throttling the writer Kieron Gillen. Gillen is doing amazingly deft thing in Journey Into Mystery. He is taking chances, spanning mythology and legend while warping and personalizing it all. Kid Loki is a trickster, as we haven’t seen in a while. He is a step ahead of the game. But since this is from his point of view, we as readers are privy to how fragile that lead is. We root for Loki while waiting confidently to see him fall. The joy of trickster characters, though, is their irrepressibility. They always, always, come back, another scheme in mind.

***

Ultimate Comics: Spiderman by Brian Michael Bendis

I came to Ultimate Spider-Man very late in the game and only because Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are so darn pretty. I wanted to be “informed” when the film comes out next year; after all Spider-Man 2 remains my favorite comic book flick of all. Plus, they were threatening to kill off Peter which is this thing Marvel does (kill off my favorite characters as soon as it’s clear they are my favorite characters) so my (to be clear, entirely tongue in cheek) persecution complex drove me to read Ult Spidey starting with The Death of Spider-Man. And I read it on my iPhone, which is both super cool and somewhat absurd.

Then came Miles Morales for whom I signed up for an account at USA Today just to counter people’s ridiculously over the top and unbelievable prejudice (in every definition of the word). I wanted very much to love Miles because of that reaction and also because my Peter deserves a legacy worthy of my love. And finally because I want legacy to work. I want mantles passed, I want comics to change, I want characters to grow. I want Miles to work. I am happy to say Ultimate Spider-Man isn’t just important — it’s also really good.

***

Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover

This surreal, downright experimental little story raises more questions than it gives answers. It is a tale of relationships, personal identity, and either magic, mental illness, or both. It is transgressive, in the sense that the narrative of mental illness in America is frequently one of woe, contrition, and a search for health. If Annah is, in fact, mentally atypical in some pathological way, she’s not sorry, she’s not looking for “health,” and she’s not sorry for the things she’s done. If she’s not ill, then she’s still behaving rather badly. How refreshing is that! The supporting characters are surprising and well-conceived, even when the narrator is a pigeon. A huge amount of this is to Colleen Coover’s credit. Her art is a blast of clean, fresh air, truly some of the best art of 2011.

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis

Having Sex

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Sigrid

In Batwoman #4, by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer have sex. On-panel.

Very, very on-panel.

In Avengers Academy #23, by Christos Gage, Tom Raney, and Scott Hanna, two characters have a long conversation about sexual identity, sexual abuse, and coming out. It is a thoughtful conversation, age-appropriate for the characters, and does a lot for the plot and the book as a whole.

I loved both of these issues this month. I love both of these titles. I thank the creators for these scenes. I read these issues with a sense of triumph and glee, a sort-of fist-pump of joy.

Immediately followed by rage.

I spend a lot of time thinking about talking about the things I love in comics. And, I do love comics. Nothing I didn’t love could hurt quite the way comics hurts. I’ve been reading comics for twenty-five years. The character of Northstar came out around twenty years ago. And I cannot recall a scene in which two female characters have sex because they are gay and they want to in mainstream Marvel and DC titles.

Note that caveat. I’ve seen female characters make out because they were mind-controlled, I’ve seen them slink all over each other in fantasy scenes, I’ve seen heterosexual couples have sex this graphically on-panel, I’ve seen post-coital men in bed with each other, I’ve seen women as slaves and objects do all manner of sexualized things in the edges of the panels.

I am very glad to have these two issues of these books out this month. I think Gage’s Avengers Academy is one of the most thoughtfully-written titles out there. I think Batwoman is startling in its plots, its violence, and its themes and I am very glad of it. I am also resentful and angry to be so grateful.

Sometimes, getting what I want simply reminds me how long the wait has been. And how little I have.

Thank you, Marvel and DC, for … Batwoman. And Avengers Academy.

by Sigrid