I try not to let my nerdy fangirlishness cloud my judgement on the things that I read and see. It’s easy to get lost in entertainment, and it’s hard, sometimes to step back from the things that I love and criticize their problems.
This hasn’t been the case with most of DC’s new 52.
And it especially hasn’t been the case with yesterday’s release of Catwoman #1.
The lead-up reviews with writer Judd Winick mostly consisted of “She’s so sexy! This book! It’s so sexy! It’s naughty! And sexy! Did I mention sexy? Soooooo sexaaayyyy!”
I love Selina Kyle. I think she IS sexy. And I think she’s clever, and classy, and witty, and fierce, and funny. I love this character. Or…y’know, I did before the reboot.
The plot – the issue itself, is mostly alright. Cheesecake? Absolutely. Oh yeah. Lots of stuff about Russian mobsters and touching mostly on the fact that she is a thief with a past interspersed with a lot of boobs. Fine. I expected that. That’s whatever at this point. Eye roll worthy? Absolutely. But not shocking.
And then the last three pages hit, and I sort of forgot about the rest, because it’s kind of horrifying.
Essentially, Selina throws herself at Batman, and he’s not really in the mood, so he pushes her back and says “no.”
And then she does it again, and he apparently gives in.
The narration:
“Every time he protests, and every time he gives in. He seems angry.”
Uhh…
Could that be because you are kind of forcing yourself on him? One might argue that the God Damn Batman doesn’t do anything he doesn’t actually want to do; that he could stop her if he wanted, but I guess that depends on who is writing the story, and what you take away from it.
Judd Winick’s idea of “sexy” is apparently poorly drawn Catwoman and Batman rutting on a floor, in pretty much full costume, after he’s told her no, but she thrusts herself on him anyway.
Cause…er..yeah. That’s not sexy to me, it’s creepy or problematic.
I’ve read quite a few reactions to it, of people who don’t see any problem with it, so maybe it is just me, but the entire last few pages just make me want to vomit a little, and I can’t quite understand the people who say that it was better than they were expecting it to be.
DC Women Kicking Ass has the panels up for your viewing, but be warned. It ain’t pretty.
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Sylvia Sybil,
WIN. I LOVED the ‘Teen Titans’ animated series (Yes, I am an adult who loves cartoons.)
Also illustrates the point nicely (forgive the pun!) Starfire in the show was a cheerful, friendly, outgoing girl, though retained her warrior nature and spirit. She only let it loose when she needed it; the rest of the time, she was doing things like going to the mall (like most teens do), making weird Tamaranean food like pudding of sadness (which Beast Boy described as ‘cream of toenails’), and all in all, having a blast with her friends when she wasn’t out kicking bad guy butt. And when she did, watch out!
BTW; commenter ‘Kam Bates’ at the Comics Alliance article makes a great post. For your reading.
‘Boy there are a lot of crazy rants down there in these comments. Ok, if you think men and women in comics are written with the same set of stylizations and exaggerations, you are entitled to that opinion. If you think that Catwoman and Starfire are speaking with authentic female voices, you are entitled to that opinion. Hell, if you think Roy Harper’s board shorts are as equally sexual as Starfire’s bikini top, you are entitled to that opinion.
But here are a couple points where there is data to back it up:
- The comic book market is shrinking.
- The superhero movie market is at an all time high.
- DC has states that a big reason for DCnU is to get more readers.
- Women represent over 70% of the fiction reading market.
- Less women read comics, percentage wise, than consume superhero content in other mediums (Smallville, Teen Titans). Also less, percentage wise, than the number that consume other forms of word and picture media like Anime.
I know from experience that many women feel comics are not written for them. So when a woman who loves comics writes about what is making her feel alienated from the medium, MAYBE JUST LISTEN. It doesn’t matter if you agree, what matters is that a LOT of women feel the same way. The comic book industry would greatly benefit from their numbers.’
Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/#ixzz1Z7vypOCD
I also note that there are quite a few great comments from men agreeing with Laura; one of them pointing out that in a way it’s actually condescending to men as it expects them to be buying it just for the sake of all the cheesecake. Comments from posters Chris Long, Orklad, Grant Johnson, Daniel Landerman and Kyle Rybski are very heartening to read.
Red(Quote) (Reply)
Plus there’s the fact that their attempts to appeal to 18-34-year-old straight men have alienated plenty of people in that demographic, like myself. I’m going to go rewatch my DCAU DVDs.
Patrick McGraw(Quote) (Reply)
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