Alex goes to the comic shop, pt 2

[terra]

So sometimes I post on those giant comics messageboards. It can be cool, I've had discussions with creators/had Ed Brubaker tell me to stop being so continuity-obsessive, but oftentimes it reminds me what a cesspit of racism and misogyny the comics fandom can be. Like, yesterday, when I stumbled upon this gem of a post:

Marvel is loaded with strong and aggressive SuperHeroines. The negative quality of the Sue Storm's leadership is that portraying her as aggressive and extremely powerful makes her just another Marvel SuperHeroine. Some of us old timer guys still think that Sue is most effective when she emphasizes her traditional feminine qualities that she excelled at during the Silver Age (or should I say "Golden Age" of Stan and Jack), such as crying, screaming, acting afraid, being a wonderful mother, looking gorgeous, having to be saved by the men a lot, etc.

Yeah, this guy is confirmed not a troll, and several people either flat-out agreed with him, or parrotted his general thesis in slightly less blatantly offensive terms. (It's not that Sue can't lead because of her gender, it's because she's too much like a overemotional adulterous single mom!!) A fair number of sane people pointed out...you know, that this stuff is crazy sexist. But it just reminded me that one of the (many) reasons women are underrepresented in comics is because quite a few comics fans are misogynist toolbags. And one thing I can personally do to help counter this phenomenon is to buy a ton of comics featuring the ladies.

tl;dr rec me some comics involving womenfolk

Comments

[bedeviledspider.livejournal.com]

That is perfectly understandable. I love seeing Steph alive and being out there awesomeing (what, it's totally a verb) again. I love seeing Babs mentoring young heroines and also being awesome. I adore seeing them working together. That's all great and it's why I keep reading, but... there is no reason Cass can't be a part of that. And as much as I dig the book, it's hard to reconcile my squee with my annoyance. If they wanted her to retire for a bit, okay, but why can't she also support Steph? Seriously. (Although if I had my way, it'd be the other way around with Cass still being Batgirl.)

[batghoul.livejournal.com]

In my mind, I just can't fathom a book where there is more room for Wendy, she-who-was-almost-eaten-by-Wonder-Dog, and not Cass.

[bedeviledspider.livejournal.com]

Because they need Krypto snacks? :D

Seriously, though, neither can I. Not that I dislike Wendy as a character, in fact I kinda like her, but uhhhh I can think of someone much more connected to the Batgirl label who could use the page time (hint, her initials are CC).

[batghoul.livejournal.com]

Ultimately, I've just had to come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to like that book as it is currently. And it's such a crushing disappointment, because for so long, I thought they were going to write an ensemble book with multiple Batgirls, thus making everyone happy. I don't even want Cass to appear in the book anymore, since the writer has made it pretty blatant that he doesn't want to use her, and her handful of appearances were out of character anyway.

[bedeviledspider.livejournal.com]

An ensemble book would have been so awesome. I guess it was just too much cool for the universe to handle. At this point, though... yeah. I feel the same way about Cass. I miss having her around but I guess disappearing into thin air is better than having her character mutilated again.