Thursday, August 18, 2011

Women, Comics, and the DC Reboot

Is it just me, or is DC hella confused over what to do with their resident chicks?

DC isn't new to destroying its continuity and starting over (I'm a Legion fan, yeah? Rebooting LSH is essentially their hobby). Restarting doesn't hurt my feelings as long as they don't try to make Superman Red and Blue (anyone remember that? Anyone? Bueller?). I'm especially immune to the reboot in that the recently UNbooted LSH will be remaining in its current form, with Paul Levitz at the helm (and no, I'm not totally happy with what he's been doing, but at least we won't have to survive another threeboot).

(I seem to be abusing parenthesis in this post.)

DC has been giving out a lot of information about the reboot, and there's been interest in what female characters will make the cut. Female leads sell less comics, so it's understandable that some will be lost in the shuffle.

The list has been out for a while now, and while some small titles didn't make it (such as Zantanna), many of the big names have. Of most interest is probably Wonder Woman, who recently underwent an image upgrade which included *LE GASP* a pair of pants! OHMIGOSH!


I am totally a horrible human being and hotlinking this at the moment, but I'll fix it later. Promise.


Diana's bound to be saving a bundle on Monistat Chafing Powder Gel, amiright?


She will use the money she saved to buy pants for super powered adolescents everywhere!

The reaction has been, predictably, mixed. However, the positive feedback was so overwhelming that DC announced they would be changing other costumes in the upcoming reboot to be more respectful of women.

Sooo this is Jim Lee's idea of more respectful?



Booob escaaaape! He dropped the cap sleeves and jacket in favor of some incredible supercleavage. And that's not even considering that he's messed with her base colors, which is a whole 'nother rant.

But really, that's relatively minor, as is Supergirl's (ugh...Supergirl. She WOULD survive a reboot after Crisis couldn't keep her down. Sigh.) change from a skirt to panties, clearly...uh...covering more and...yeah.


She has...an Achilles' groin, which must be protected with armor!

So I thought, in their defense, here's an example that actually follows their new rule: Dawnstar of the LSH in her current costume and her New 52 get-up for Legion Lost.


Note the Giant Boob Cut-Out. I'm interested to see what they'll do with the currently-covered lady Legionnaires, like Saturn Girl and Chameleon Girl (who shouldn't even BE a Legionnaire...and again I digress. Again.).

But the point at which DC just took everything they've said about "more realistic" portrayals of women and threw it out the window is when they took woman with one of the least sexualized costumes:


Yes, it's skin-tight, but outside some of the new unboot Legion outfits, it COVERS the most skin.

And they've turned it into THIS:


Harley Quinn's New Costume. Yeah. Um. I'm...seeing how this is more respectful of the gender, aren't you?

Frankly, if DC wants to continue the historical precedent of women with all their personal private parts flapping in the breeze, more power to 'em. But they should NOT make a big deal about changing their image to be more respectful, and wanting to reach out to women readers while firing the majority of their female staff and putting Harley in an outfit that would make a professional companion blush.


Heck no, dude. I don't think so. You just take that g-string and be gone.

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