WTF? Wednesday: Snow’s Ugly Lecture

Posted on 02/01/2012 by Erika Peterman

Fables character Mrs. Spratt (as in wife of Jack) is easy to hate. She’s spiteful and seems to delight in saying awful things to vulnerable people, which sucks considering that she’s a nurse. Those deplorable characteristics were evident in issue #100 during the birth of Beauty and Sheriff Beast’s child. She coldly dismissed Beast’s concerns after Beauty went into a difficult labor, and she then pelted him with insults when he suggested that the Fabletown physician, Dr. Swineheart, was not on point. Since Beast goes into furry and fanged mode when he’s mad, old girl is very lucky that she wasn’t mauled. Continue reading →

WTF? Wednesday: Punishing Diana

Posted on 10/05/2011 by Erika Peterman

In the world of many superheroes, killing a villain is verboten. Theoretically, doing so would undermine their moral authority and blur the line between angels and demons — even if the target is a cold-blooded murderer with no remorse and a high recidivism rate. Better to break a few of the bad guy’s bones and ship him or her off to the nearest prison or high-security facility for sociopaths. Right? Not always. Sometimes a character does something so heinous and/or is such a threat to society that a hero is justified in choosing the nuclear option. Continue reading →

WTF? Wednesday: Justice Served Cold – Or Toasted!

Posted on 06/15/2011 by Erika Peterman

Borrowed from the Aquaman Shrine

For many a geek, food ads featuring superheroes were integral to the childhood comic-reading experience. In between scenes of Wonder Woman whupping Nazis, you’d see spots for Hostess fruit pies — usually illustrated as nicely as the main story itself — starring Justice League members. Those ads are considered retro comedy gold now, but my 8-year-old self rather enjoyed them. Continue reading →

WTF? Wednesday: Longsuffering Sue

Posted on 04/13/2011 by Erika Peterman

Saying that Sue Storm has come a long way since the pre-feminist era is like saying Joan Rivers has had a little work done. While the portrayal of female characters was sketchy across the board in decades past, Sue was practically her own category. We know her today as an incredibly powerful heroine, a leader, and the most impressive working mom in comics, but the road to respect was paved with a whole lot of insults and condescension. The source was usually her husband, Reed Richards. Continue reading →

WTF? Wednesday: Lois Goes Black, Manages to Go Back

Posted on 03/02/2011 by Erika Peterman

Before I start making fun of Lois Lane’s attempts to understand the plight of my people in the early 1970s, I’ll say this much: A silly as Lois Lane #106 looks now, it was probably quite a powerful comic book when it first published, and I say it’s better to address racism awkwardly than not at all. Continue reading →

Fast Times at Riverdale High

Posted on 02/26/2011 by Erika Peterman

I hadn’t intended to write about anything Archie-related again so soon, but when my friend Craig sent me this link, well, it had to happen. Canadian sketch comedy group The Cross Eyed Bear, with the help of donors from the Vancouver film industry, put together a brilliant, live-action movie trailer that imagines the Archie gang as live fast, die young types. Imagine Less than Zero plus Skins plus Archie’s Digest, and you’ve got the R-rated parody gem simply titled Riverdale. Reggie does coke, Jughead reveals his crush on Archie with disastrous results, and Moose is in a murderous rage over a Midge-Chuck hookup. It’s as genius as it is disturbing. You’ll never look at Dilton quite the same way again. I would totally pay money to see this fully-realized movie.

WTF? Wednesday: Three’s Company

Posted on 02/16/2011 by Erika Peterman

If a picture says a thousand words, the World’s Finest covers of yore are entire novels. Faulkner novels. As in, engrossing and deeply troubling. While this storied title was innocent, action-packed fun for generations of comic book-loving kids, things look very different when viewed from an adult perspective. It’s like when you look at H.R. Pufnstuf clips on YouTube and realize that it’s one big LSD endorsement. Continue reading →

WTF? Wednesday: Bottoms Up!

Posted on 02/09/2011 by Erika Peterman

Corporeal punishment was once considered an acceptable form of discipline, and apparently, it wasn’t just for naughty young’uns. During the golden, silver, and even bronze ages, everyone from Superman to uppity dames were getting their bottoms smacked — and some of ‘em liked it. Look, what grown folks do is their business. But the flagrantly sexist images, combined with the shock of seeing Superman bent over Dwight Eisenhower’s lap, is enough to make a person seek therapy. Check out our ass-centric gallery, and keep your shrink’s number handy.

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WTF? Wednesday: Neigh, I Say!

Posted on 02/02/2011 by Erika Peterman

Like the song says: Don't ride the white horse.

DC fans like to joke about how Grant Morrison’s mind-bending stories often seem influenced by, shall we say, exotic substances. But Morrison’s got nothing on the Silver Age scribes who were responsible for some of the nuttiest comic book stories ever printed. One of the best examples? Comet the freakin’ Super-Horse. Continue reading →

WTF? Wednesday: Silly Dames In Love

Posted on 01/26/2011 by Erika Peterman

Really?

There’s a whole other commenatary — a book, really — to be written about the phenomenon of romance comics that were published from the 1940s through the ’70s. It’s a bizarre, fascinating, sexist genre that is ripe for examination and analysis. But for now, let’s take a look at one of the grooviest: Marvel Comics’ My Love #14: “It happened at Woodstock!” Continue reading →

Girls Gone Geek

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