Random Notes As I Try to Wake Up

I've never really been a fan of comics featuring a female lead. Whoa! Whoa! Stop throwing stuff at me! Let me finish! The reason why I've never really been a fan of those kind of comics is that there are rarely (very, very rarely) GOOD comics that feature a female lead. Sure, a comic like "Persepolis" comes down the line every now and then, but in the more mainstream world of the superhero comic (and, sidenote, isn't it silly as hell that in comics, "superhero" is the mainstream?), typically, a book with a female lead is just an excuse to tart up some chick in a costume that barely covers her, give her a sword, and have her strut around acting like the Man with No Name. I mean, seriously, Catwoman? Witchblade (well, the early stuff. I've heard Ron Marz really made something out of that crap)? Dawn? I have DOZENS of small press comix stashed all over my collection that are the same old same old. Hot female lead, armed with a sword, standing around in impossible poses that someone manage to prominently display her perfect boobs and ass at the same time, killing things and acting like a tough guy. (Movies aren't much better at this while we're on the subject. For examples, check out the repugnant "Resident Evil" movies or "Sucker Punch") And I don't have a problem with portraying women as sexy or tough. Quite the opposite. I like sexy women, and I like strong women. I am a dude after all. My problem is the SIMPLICITY of this portrayal. Having a dude that's a simplistic, one dimensional tough guy makes sense. We're dudes. We're all pretty one dimensional when you get down to it. But there's something... I don't know... disgusting about turning a female character into a sexual blow up doll that's armed to the teeth. Maybe I don't like my sex with my violence.

It seems like female characters get a better shot at being more well rounded characters in a team book setting. Look at the list, shall we? Invisible Woman- Hot? Sure. But also a strong wife and mother who fiercely protects the ones she loves from danger. Storm- Honestly, she's hot, but they don't overdo it with the revealing costume nonsense. She's also the strongest and most prominent black female character ever created. She's been a Goddess, a Queen, the leader of the Morlocks, and the leader of the X-Men. Kitty Pride has always been portrayed as a complex female who has actually never been reduced to a sexual object, even when she's being sexually active. I recently read Joe Casey's "Vengeance" which features a couple of strong female characters, Miss America (who, admittedly, isn't wearing much of costume, cough-cough) a Latina (points for that alone) whose shear grit and determination add a new dimension to her borderline cookie-cutterness, and Angel, a character originally created by Grant Morrison, now depowered because of that stupid "House of M" garbage, but still fighting the good fight.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah.

So, imagine my surprise at how much I'm enjoying "Wonder Woman" and "Glory". In many ways, the strength of Wonder Woman is its sheer inventiveness. By re-imagining and modernizing Greek Mythology (seriously, Neptune alone is worth the price of admission), the book has given a new life and spark to my childhood obsession with Mythology. Wonder Woman herself walks the thin line of meandering into cookie-cutterdom. But, first off, Wonder Woman sells it well. This is a warrior woman, born and bred, a woman of action, not just someone strutting and posing for the camera. The internal conflict with her heritage gives her an extra dimension, and even her particular way of handling it comes off as natural. She doesn't just shut off her emotions, nor does she get all weepy. She's a woman of action, and that's how she handles her internal strife. Also, this rendition of Wonder Woman is clever. She thinks fast on her feet, but she's not infallible either. But when things go wrong, she's still in the mix, trying to make things work.

The strength of "Glory", at least based on the first issue, lies primarily in the art. Which is not to say that the writing is bad or weak. Quite the contrary, it's excellent. The new Glory takes elements of all the old versions and re-imagines the character in a way that seems fresh and new. Much like Wonder Woman, Glory is a war machine, but she's a war machine that spends too damn long waiting for her war. She's one part high minded idealist and one part petulant child. But, again, the strength of the book is the art, which portrays Glory not as an impossibly big breasted Barbie doll, but instead as a female war machine that legitimately looks like she could stop a tank (and does!). And yet, she still manages to be pretty and feminine. It's a feat that I would have considered impossible if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Long story short, much like the new "Prophet", "Glory" is off to an excellent start.

What else do we got, besides a long rant that may or may not be viewed as moderately sexist?

"Snarked" is cool. Good old fashioned cartooning using concepts from Lewis Carrol to build a fresh new world. Cool.

I'm just gonna say it, okay? Jeff Smith's "Rasl" is brilliant, but I can't follow it at all. There's too much of a gap between issues, and I keep losing the story threads. I really, really hate to say this, but I think I should have just waited to collect the whole series in a single volume. Considering how I consider myself a crusader for the continuation of the Traditional Comic, I really hate to admit that, but it's the truth. I just can't follow this series in its current format. Sigh.

I think it's time for us all to stand up and give a round of applause for Greg Capullo. While virtually every artist involved in the "New 52" has not managed to make it past issue 6 (some didn't even come close) (hell, even Kieth Giffen didn't make it to issue 6. That one surprised me) (and jumping back to our previous topic, the fill-in artist from the last two issues of Wonder Woman kind of sucks. I mean, he's better than I am, but who isn't?), Greg Capullo has delivered absolutely brilliant (and in some cases, quite experimental) artwork on "Batman" and he's done it consistently and on time. Despite being a prominent artist, I still feel that Capullo is perpetually underrated. I was skeptical when I heard he was taking over "Batman". Skepticism over.

Although it's got the dumbest and longest title ever, "Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense: Hell on Earth: The Long Death" #1, is killer. BPRD:HOE:LD continues the long and storied tradition of this series just absolutely ruling. Great art. Great story. Tons of blood. Me happy.

I should try to do something today.