First, go read this comic: http://somethingpositive.net/sp12272007.shtml
I’ll wait.
Ok, does that not just fill your heart with glee? Is this not the sort of superhero wife/girlfriend response to villains your black little hearts have been longing for? I laughed out loud when I read it. Finally, someone who understands that yes, women CAN defend themselves.
I’ve been reading Something Positive for years, and I adore it. Plus, Mr. Milholland actually showed up at a nightclub in Seattle where I was working (I wasn’t there that night) and immortalized one of our DJs and bouncers in his comic, which further endeared him to me. I like the sharp, snarky, take no prisoners attitude of PeeGee and Aubrey. I like the smutty jokes, the gamer cracks, the theater jokes. I just like it, largely because it reminds me of me and my friends, a bunch of bitter, jaded thirty-somethings with tattoos, piercings, funny hair and bad attitudes.
But, back to the comic. There’s no cowering, no whimpering in fear and no nudity. She’s wearing a bath robe and cracks him in the head with a coffee cup. I LOVE THAT!!!! She makes him pay for daring to try to hurt her. This makes me happy. I also like the superhero at the end trying to reassure the hospitalized villian that “she really is a sweetheart.”
Seriously, I think we should start an email campaign and flood the mailboxes at DC and Marvel with this comic. Perhaps with the subject line, “See! It can be done!!” Because, you know it’s bad enough when the girlfriends and wives are simpering victims. But when they extend that victimhood to actual fucking superheros (cough, Tygra, cough), it has just gone too god damned far, well past the level of absurdity.
And I mean, Randy’s a guy. He’s supposed to be, like, OMG, all about TEH BEWBIES!! And guys won’t read comics if women aren’t victims and there aren’t boobs everywhere, and guys are just like that and we need to get over it and be good little girls and stick to manga and Strangers in Paradise where we belong.
Yeah, Randy’s a guy and this comic demonstrates pretty handily how sick of that shit he is, too. Funny, but just about every male comic fan I know is really sick of that crap, and this comic demonstrates that it just isn’t my tiny corner of the universe.
ETA: Why yes, I have already mailed it to Marvel, and I’m currently looking for a good address for DC. I am serious. I think we should pester them with this.
Marvel’s Feedback Page: http://www.marvel.com/company/index.htm?sub=feedback_current.php
The most appropriate email anyone’s been able to come up with so far is DC’s Publicity Dept.: publicity@dccomics.com
ETA: The Something Positive Livejournal: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/someposifeed/342068.html
A lot of the folks who are rooting for this strip are guys. Seriously.
Geek Girls Rule!!! 
I think the major problem in the comic industry is that the majority of the writers are men, and then majority of them do not have any idea how to write women. They deal with this by falling back on the stereotype of the damsel-in-distress.
Randy clearly is the exception. Maybe he should be writing for Marvel.
Which DJ appeared in the comic?
DJ Eternal Darkness. I can probably find it for you. He has a suicide chain, and in one panel one of the girls is tugging on it.
As soon as you post the mail for Marvel & DC when you get it, I certainly will send out my request to these barabarians.
I’m cross posting your suggestion to the Girl-Wonder.org forums.
I think this is a brilliant idea, maybe the Friend’s of Lulu folks might follow-up on this too.
There’s a feedback page on the Marvel site. http://www.marvel.com/company/index.htm?sub=feedback_current.php
I’m still looking for DC. The closest I’ve come up with is an email for subscriptions, or the forums. I’m hoping one of my super secret ninja friends can help me out with that.
And thank you!
Depending no where you sent it to marvel, a company in Utah, called Data Services Direct — who I used to work for — will get it, open it, be amused and put it on their cork board.
They get to sort ‘miscellaneous’ mail. Most likely, no one at Marvel will even see it if someone routes it there… which is all likelyhood, they will. (Marvel is above reading their own mail.)
Do you, perchance, have a better address?
Also, if we can get enough folks doing it, it’s bound to get someone’s attention. I refuse to just not do anything because “it’s too hard, and no one will listen anyway.”
Besides, spreading the cult of Randy is always a good thing.
Yay! That was quite fun to read, but then again, I’m a “femi-nazi”. (haha)
I was noticing the same thing about the comics the other day when I was visiting my four year old cousin. I was thinking why are all the women depicted like this?
Nicole from makeitbetter.wordpress.com
I think earthy “geek” girls need to shave and douche more often. But that’s my two cents.
Awww, the first troll of the thread. How cute! Oooo, snooky, ooky, oogums!!!!!!
PS. We don’t shave, we wax.
Love it! Thanks for pointing out this comic. I will definitely send out some support for him.
That comic is awesome. I’ve only read S*P every once in a blue moon – I might have to add it to my daily webcomic reading list
Have you ever read Girls Read Comics and They’re Pissed? Great read from a comics fan who is tired of the same old tripe, too. I love this article, where she dissects some of the more ridiclous pieces of artwork.
I Love Girls Read Comics and They’re Pissed! I read it pretty regularly.
I Know you’re not supposed to feed trolls… but I gotta say- more current research shows that using a douche is actually bad because it gets rid of good bacteria as much if not more than bad…
Anyway- it’s specifically parodying the sequence in DC where Sue (I forget the last name) is attacked by Dr. Light and later The Atom’s ex-wife stages an attack on herself and accidently kills Sue in a staged attack on her in order to use the drama to rekindle her relationship with The Atom.
And women power aside- non-super power spouses, regardless of gender- can be a weak point to a hero- look at Robin’s father in that same story arc… (well- the 3rd or 4th robin? I forget which).
While I admit, especially in older comics, they play a lot into the stereotypes of bimbos and damsels in distress, overall I feel they’ve been doing pretty well to avoid that. If not going too far in some case, stretching believably by taking a character known to be emotionally weak and giving them an arc to be the emotionally strong. Now done right, this can be very encouraging- even the weak can have their moments of strength and such, but more often it’s unexplained and quickly forgotten in an episodic fashion.