Geek Girls Rule! #102 – Really, Marvel?

Oh for the love of little green apples… 

I first heard about this from Hoyden about Town.  Essentially, villian Chameleon impersonates Peter Parker and sleeps with Peter’s room-mate.  When people start to point out to the writer that this constitutes rape, his response is:

“My understanding of the definition of rape is that it requires force or the threat of force, so no. Using deception to trick someone into granting consent isn’t quite the same thing.
“Which is not to say it isn’t a horrible, evil, reprehensible thing that Chameleon did. He is a bad man.
“He insults parapelegics[sic] and dips people in acid too.”

Faith in humanity sinking… 

So, according to Fred Van Lente, someone being blackmailed into sex, isn’t rape.  Someone having the choice of losing their job or putting out, isn’t rape.  Someone drugged unconscious or passed out being penetrated (you need violence for rape, remember?), isn’t rape.  Someone thinking they’re with one person when it’s really another isn’t rape.

Actually, according to  courts in the US (you’ll want to check your specific state laws) and Canada, if you impersonate someone else  to gain sexual access to someone, it is indeed sexual assault.  If someone has not consented to sex with YOU, it is rape.  Period.  It doesn’t mean you can’t pretend to be a fighter pilot to impress a chick at a bar, although trust me, we aren’t ever fooled.  It does mean you can’t bang your twin brother’s girlfriend without her knowing which twin you are.

Fortunately, several folks over at i09 have been calling this guy on his bullshit.  Not all of them.  There are still a fair number of idiots who don’t get it, but at least some people are speaking out on this. 

The second offensive part of this is the fact that after sleeping with “Peter” once, the character in question immediately turns into the controlling girlfriend from Hell.  Really?  You think women do that?  Seriously?  Have you met one? 

Honestly, the most likely result of a tumble on the kitchen floor with a previously platonic room-mate would be some awkward silence, a lot of “um”-ing and “So, uh, where do we stand after this afternoon?”*  Shit, I can draw the panel in my head.  But I guess a hot Latina in Spiderman’s t-shirt is way more interesting than showing her fully clothed, rubbing the back of her neck and awkwardly not meeting Peter’s eyes. 

So, to paraphrase Keith Olbermann, “Mr. Fred Van Lente, today’s Worst Person in the World!!!”  Ok, not the world.  Just my small part of it.

*Yes, I speak from experience here.  Sigh.  My libido has ever been my Achilles’ heel, and hot geeky boys my kryptonite.

Geek Girls Rule! #90 – Review of Marvel Divas

I freely admit I’m cheating here, because there are enough horrible things in my life right now, so I’m just going to forward you on to Irena Dubrovna’s Review of Marvel Divas and post a few of the more quotable bits here. 

First, I’d like to thank her for taking one for the team by reading and reviewing Divas, especially considering her view that it is, indeed, “worse than even I could have imagined, and no, I’m not exaggerating.”  I thank her from the bottom of my coal black little heart for providing me with an excuse not to read this tripe. 

This quote in particular made my laugh in all my bitter and jaded cynicism:
“I would like to express my condolences to whoever the poor shmuck is currently being forced to watch the entire first season of Sex and the City on DVD. No, really, let’s cover every minute plot intricacy that was borrowed from everyone’s favourite TV show (and by “everyone” I mean everyone with a vagina and/or Ryan Seacrest).”

You know, when the powers that be at Marvel called it like Sex and the City, I don’t think anyone expected such a blatant ripping off.  Irena goes through and lists all the similarities, and they are many and disappointing.  And Superheroine Speed-Dating?   Really?  Really?

And, as we saw with the demise of DC’s Minx line, when women don’t clamour for more of this re-hashed pap gussied up as “Girl Power” the leadership at Marvel is going to crow all about how they gave us what we wanted, and we didn’t buy it so phooey on us.  You know they will.  And when we say, “Yes, but that isn’t what we asked you for,” they will stick their fingers in their ears and sing “La la la la la la can’t hear you!” while they go racing off for the cootie-spray, lest they be polluted by our overwhelming and irrational estrogen. 

Seriously.  

Thank you, Irena, for reviewing this.  I’m just not brave enough to do myself.  Everyone go give her props for biting this particularly phallic bullet for us.

More Reviews:
http://1979semifinalist.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/review-marvel-divas-1/
http://genderacrossborders.com/2009/06/30/marvel-divas-making-breast-cancer-sexy/
And the one positive review:  http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=1168  By a guy, of course.

Geek Girls Rule#83 – Why does Joe Quesada hate my blood pressure?

This article was brought to my attention by blogger Catwoman over at Hardcore Nerdity.  It’s a brief interview with Joe Quesada about the new Marvel title, “Marvel Divas” which Mr. Quesada is touting as a title for women.

Does this…

Yeah, this is target marketed to women. Sure.

look like it’s the cover for a title aimed at women?  Seriously?

The Geek Husband What Rules’s response on seeing it was, “Wow, pornalicious.”

Ahem…

Dear Mr. Quesada,
Marketing to women, UR DOIN IT RONG!!!!!!!
Please to be stopping.
Sincerely,
Every Female Comic Fan in the Universe

He describes it as “Sex and the City in the Marvel Universe.”

Personally, I think Mr. Quesada never got past Samantha’s tits to understand exactly why women actually liked the show.  I admit to an unhealthy fascination with the first two seasons on HBO, only partially because Chris (OMG, DREAMY) Noth played Carrie’s boyfriend, Mr. Big.  These were four women who were strong, independent, had jobs I would KILL for, and owned their sexuality.  They didn’t sleep with men to please men, they slept with men to please themselves.  Even Charlotte, the most timid and puritanical of the four, realized that owning her own sexuality and pleasure was neccessary to her mental health and happiness.

So I look at that image above and compare it to this shot from the intro titles to “Sex and the City,”where the four women are engaged with each other, not posing pornaliciously, and I find Mr. Quesada’s vision sorely lacking, as well as his comprehension of what made women, even nerdy women like me, enjoy “Sex and the City.”  These women have agency and friendship.  They aren’t all posing sexily in their own little world, completely separate from one another.  Even in the promo shots for the movie that were more posed, they still look more powerful than those superheroines above.

After the “Sex and the City” comment, he adds:  “I also think the series is going to a deeper place, asking questions about what it means…truly means…to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.)”  You’ll forgive me a sardonic laugh at this point, because he immediately follows it up with this gem:  “But mostly it’s just a lot of hot fun.”

I think I’m about to give myself a concussion from all the “headdesking” about to occur.

Seriously, Joe, hire some women and let them write.  It’s the only way you can come out of this without looking like a complete sexist pig.  Ok, it’s too late for that.  But seriously, women like comics, women like superhero comics, women WANT to like superhero comics, and women want to not cringe every time they buy an X-title and think “Wow, I feel dirty that any of my money is going to support someone who doesn’t think I’m a real person.”

Geek Girls Rule! #33 – Comics I Truly, Truly Dig

Mr. Geek Girl What Rules actually suggested I do a column on what to buy Geeks for Christmas/Yule/Chanukah/Eid-ul-Adha, but I’m guessing most of you have that covered by now.  If not, well, it’ll be late, but there’s always ThinkGeek.com, an online store at which I spend FAR too much money.  Particularly when I worked just down the business park from the teeny storefront they used to have in Redmond.  Also, ChessEx has a website, for all your dorky dice needs.  You have no idea how tempted I am to make personalized “Geek Girls Rule!” dice to hand out to people in lieu of business cards. 

Anyway, instead of doing a big rundown on shopping that you should all have gotten done, oh, days ago, I thought I’d talk about comics I really, truly enjoy.  The ones I’ve been able to catch up on, anyway.  Most of my X-men comics are languishing in a stack right now because I haven’t had the time to sit down and catch up.  SOON!  I swear.  Some of these I may have talked about before. 

Gloomcookie.  Seriously, if you take out the supernatural stuff, this comic reads like hanging out in Goth clubs.  You always have the Queen of the Scene (Isabella).  The cute, younger girl who lusts after bad-for-her boys (Alex), the dork who doesn’t realize he’s a complete tool (Vermillion).  Add to this spot on skewering of Goth culture all the supernatural stuff (which I love) and it’s a win.  A big win.  Seriously, it hasn’t jumped the shark for me yet and I’ve been reading and collecting it since the beginning.  It’s a little bit “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and a little bit tragic love story, and a lot entertaining.

PS 238.  Put out by Nodwick Press, it is the story of a top secret school for superhero kids.  Some of them have normal parents who just don’t know what to do with them.  Some of them have superhero parents.  Some are supernatural in origin.  There’s at least one alien.  Most of the popular superheroes are satirized in this comic.  The writing is good.  I enjoy the meta-plot.  The female characters are clothed and have different body types.  I like the art.  I love this comic, AND I’d feel perfectly fine giving it to an 8 year old to read as well. 

Ultimate X-men.  I did not want to like Ultimate X-men.  I really didn’t.  I have a galloping allergy to anything with “ultimate” or “extreme” in the title, name, brand, whatever.   But they had the issue with Ultimate Nightcrawler on the cover, so I picked it up for that, and then I started reading it.  And then I was hooked.  I’m desperately behind on the story arcs right now, because this is one of the comics in the big pile of stuff I haven’t gotten to, but I’m really itching to get back into it.  I’ve liked the charaterizations so far as I’ve read, and didn’t even get annoyed at the “Nightcrawler as creepy stalker guy” storyline, because it fit with the rest of his character in that continuum.  I wasn’t thrilled with the art in the last few issues I did read, but the writing is worth putting up with it.

Dr. Blink:  Superhero Shrink.  This comic makes me laugh so much.  The premise is that Dr. Blink is the therapist for all of a city’s superheroes, and has to deal with rage issues, abuse issues, feelings of abandonment from former sidekicks.  There’s a support group for the former sidekicks of one of the superheroes, as he replaces them when they get too old.    There’s also some neat interpersonal stuff between Dr. Blink and his daughter.  For another take on the psychiatrist to superheroes thing, go to Escape Pod and search for the story ”The Death Trap of Dr. Nefario.”   

Questionable Content.  This, unlike the others, is a webcomic.  Now, I go through phases with webcomics.  I’ll read a lot of them, then I drift away and don’t read any for awhile, then the Mister will suggest one or more and I’m back.   I really, really like this one.  It’s about a bunch of Hipster music nerds, and follows their adventures in dating, friendship and dealing with anthropomorphic PC’s and Mac computers that can get up and walk around.  Unlike other webcomics I’ve read, I have found myself getting REALLY attached to a couple of the characters.  The Mister finds it highly entertaining that frequently after reading a strip I’ll sigh, and say, “Gee, I really want X and Y to hook up.”  Maybe because I worked in a music club for so long I know people just like them, but I really enjoy the depth of the characters. 

Runaways.  I love this comic.  Again, I’m desperately behind (damn you, summer of surgeries), but I have them and I’m just waiting for a spare hour or two to organize comics and sit down and read them all.  Maybe New Year’s Day.  The children of a group of supervillians decide to become heroes.  They run away and live as a team.  I really enjoy this comic for it’s dialogue.  The art’s good, and the storylines are engaging.  I really like the characters, a lot.   This comic is proof that you don’t need TEH BEWBIES to sell comics.  

I’m sure you’ve all noticed that my list is mostly Marvel and Indies.  Yup.  I’ve enjoyed a few DC things I’ve picked up.  I’m liking the Sandman graphic novels, and I really like Lobo and some of the Batman arcs, but I don’t collect DC on a regular basis.  Maybe I’ll give Birds of Prey a shot.  Any other DC recommendations?