Kurt Busiek took to the comments thread of an article on The Beat yesterday to settle the score on the sexualization of women in the comics industry.
The Comments Thread: Busiek Tells It Like It Is
WTF? Wednesday: Girl Gone Wild
Kissing is the path to ruin.
WTF? Wednesday: ‘Full Hands, Empty Heart’
Happy endings? Sorry. Those are only for same-race couples.
WTF? Wednesday: Miss Peeping Tom
Insults. Shaming. Physical intimidation. Ah, love.
WTF? Wednesday: ‘That Strange Girl’
Climb into that heteronormative box, kids.
WTF? Wednesday: Cruel to Be Kind
All the sexist body-shaming one comic can possibly deliver.
WTF? Hall of Fame: Archie and Betty’s Motel Scandal
Remember that time Archie and Betty checked into a motel cabin far from Riverdale, shed their clothes and spent a memorable night together in front of a crackling fire? And then Betty’s dad showed up in a rage just as Archie was putting his clothes back on, subjecting them to a lengthy diatribe about values... Continue Reading →
BatWondy Nation Weeps
Erika's BatWondy dreams are smashed to blue and red bits.
WTF? Wednesday: Snow’s Ugly Lecture
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... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Punishing Diana
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... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Justice Served Cold – Or Toasted!
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... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Longsuffering Sue
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,... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Lois Goes Black, Manages to Go Back
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... Continue Reading →
Fast Times at Riverdale High
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... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Three’s Company
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.... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Bottoms Up!
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... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Neigh, I Say!
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. Everyone’s heard of Krypto,... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Silly Dames In Love
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'... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: You Better Work, Jimmy!
We knew Jimmy Olsen was handy with a camera, but who knew the Daily Planet photojournalist had such a tight drag game? Superman's loyal friend has quite the history of cross-dressing, and I gotta say, he's pretty damn good at it. Take this panel from Jimmy Olsen #95, in which he goes undercover in hopes... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Boys Will Be Boys
Making fun of vintage Batman and Robin scenarios is like shooting fish in a barrel. With an AK-47. It's just too easy, and I'm convinced that the writers and artists responsible for these gems knew exactly what they were doing. After all, these were young, creative guys hanging out in smoke-filled studios in New York... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Hal Saves the Day … and the Twinkies
It's all about his Glo-Balls now, but back in 1980, Hal Jordan was more of a Hostess Twinkies man. This classic ad, published in the year of the Winter Olympics, is chock full of wrongness and unintentional comedy gold. First of all, no one in the crowd notices Hal's transformation, mere feet away, into the... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: The Fantastic Four Movie You Didn’t See
At the risk of offending Jessica Alba fans the world over, I think most people will agree that the last two Fantastic Four films were pointlesss. Aside from Chris Evans’ fun performance as Johnny Storm, the movies didn’t exactly set the world on fire, pun intended. However, an earlier movie adaptation of the Fantastic Four... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Sin-Less
We all know women (or men) who, despite showing excellent judgment in every other aspect of their lives, continue putting up with a loser significant other. It doesn’t matter now many times the loser SO confirms that s/he is a horse’s ass. The longsuffering partner will continue to forgive the offending party and, worse, take... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Fab Foolishness
Separately, the Beatles and Batman are pop culture perfection. I love them both beyond reason. But in the year of my birth, they came together for one trippy comic book experience. In the late '60s, rumors swirled that Paul McCartney had died in a 1966 car accident, and that the Beatles went to great lengths... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: The Grown and Sexy Edition
Warning: The image below is probably NSFW or, at the very least, TSFW (Too Spicy for Work). To put it mildly, V. and I are not comics prudes, and we've probably had more R-rated conversations about Bigby Wolf and Mr. Terrific (not together, though that would be interesting) than most fangirls. But we also have... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Sweet Justice
Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was common to see comic-book advertisements that showed superheroes doing goofy things, like laughing uproariously while enjoying a fruit pie with a 25-year shelf life. Can you imagine being the poor schmuck in marketing who had to come up with a Batman plot that pimped sponge cake? The... Continue Reading →
WTF? Wednesday: Hush Your Mouth
E. has a bone to pick with Batman Beyond #4.
WTF? Wednesday: Fast Willie Jackson
A weekly examination of comics-related WTFery.
WTF? Wednesday: Trouble in Smallville
It had to be rough being Jonathan Kent. Think about it; nothing tests a dude’s manhood quite like knowing that his 5-year-old son can hand his ass to him if he really wants to. Of course, we know that Pa Kent was the ideal dad — an agrarian Jedi type who raised his adopted son... Continue Reading →
When Comics Make You Say, ‘WTF?’
A weekly examination of comics-related WTFery.
Terra-fying!
If nothing else, DC's Blackest Night series has hammered home the point that the undead are disgusting. In the hands of a skilled artist like Ivan Reis or Rodolfo Migliari, who did the variant cover for BN #4, the Black Lanterns are some nasty, grotesque customers — and by nasty and grotesque, I mean awesome.... Continue Reading →
