GAH!

[lithera]

Girl Comics.

Yes, I know Women Comics would have sounded worse. And yes, I do understand that Marvel is putting out a title of comics by women, about women and supposely for women. There are a few problems with it - Girl Comics sounds either a) dated (GRRL Power), b) derisive or c) both. You'd think that with all of the creative power at Marvel you could have acheived something better than Girl Comics.

And the only thing worse is the solicitation I just saw for MARVEL HER-OES #1. The description for this reads like the worst Sweet Valley High book ever. I'll admit to having read some of those when I was the right age and they certainly have their place but reading the issue description, you an 'as-if' away from Clueless.

Look, the idea is a great one. I appreciate the effort being made here but it feels like tokenism and that's what gets me irked. You want more women reading comics, bring forward more of the female characters and write stories that develop characters more than who punches who this week. (With the nature of serialized story telling, I understand that everything built up for a character will eventually be broken down and built in a new direction but that can also work for giving a character some depth. And not just in 'OMG, you killed my lover!11!!!!' ways.) Giving Firestar and Black Widow their own monthly titles is a great step in that direction.

Meh.

I think I had my Grumpy Flakes this morning.

Comments

[ariadnequinn.livejournal.com]

Ugh...is this really necessary?

Can't comics just be comics...for both men and women?

I'm not saying that comics in general are perfect - they could stand a few changes in my opinion - but this doesn't look promising...

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My main gripe here is that Marvel doesn't seem to grasp the difference between "respecting the intelligence of women as readers and, by extension, a customer base" and "pandering to their more or less completely unfounded ideas about what the ladies want".

They seem to have this weird idea that comics have to be women-specific in order to be women-friendly. And their ideas about both are weird as fuck. How are they supposed to be able to pull off a whole LINE of books for women/girls when they can't even write relateable female characters in their REGULAR books without ruining it by killing them off?

Also, HER-OES is quite possibly the stupidest name for a comic I've ever heard. It sounds like a diet breakfast cereal for women. You know, the kind that is basically glorified granola, and costs like seven bucks because marketers think women will buy anything that has a pink ribbon on it.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm pretty much there on all of those points.

[littledrow.livejournal.com]

Being that this is the same company that was started by one of the greatest mysogenists that ever walked the earth, I am so not surprised. Allow me to remind you of overhearing Stan Lee talking to Joe Kubert at the Kubert School where he told Joe he didn't know why women even bothered trying to get into the comic book field when all they are good was emptying trash cans and fetching the coffee.

Try to remember that this is the same field that encouraged mysogenistic plots/themes/characters for a very long time and Marvel has always been the publication slowest to change with the times.

This just backs up my opinion that they couldn't pay me enough to work in the comic industry.

[sharkcowsheep.livejournal.com]

In order to appreciate the effort, I'd say you're entitled to expect effort. This isn't effort, this is just money! Effort involves research, and I don't see even the evidence of sending an intern over to the comic shop across town to hand out a photocopied questionnaire.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

On one hand, Marvel has done a great job of recuiting excellent women writers and artists. On the other hand, they don't seem to know what to do with them.