Open Mike Night – Babes in Comicland!

By blackmore and Havok3595

What better topic for two guys to talk about then sexism in the comic industry? Too often, adult comic fans are portrayed as misogynistic, pimple-faced, 40 year olds who live in their parent’s basements. The sad part is that in a lot of ways, the comic companies and the fans seem to try to cultivate those stereotypes.



Last week, someone actually posted on Gamefaqs, “The only reason I haven't read BoP so far is because it features an all-girl line-up.” I was floored by this comment. I am sure that the poster is a perfectly decent person, but comments like this add fuel to the myths about comic fans, broad stereotypes about broads that just don’t always reflect reality. In fact, the two fine, upstanding columnists are both happily married (NO, NOT TO EACH OTHER!) and haven’t lived with their parents in at least a few days.

So, where exactly does this stereotype come from? Ever been to a comic shop, with a blatantly displayed adult section? Can’t imagine this would make most women feel too comfortable. And if you do find a woman comfortable in that environment, marry her on the spot! But, it’s not just the adult section. Look at the covers for Emma Frost’s series. Now, wrap your head around this: THIS BOOK IS GEARED FOR YOUNG FEMALE READERS! Yeah, I feel real comfortable giving a twelve year old girl this comic.

But wait, there’s more:

Holy incredibly large bosoms, Batman!

I asked my wife last night what she thought about sexism in comics, and abnormally large breasts was the number one thing she came up with. I can point out three or so Silver Age and earlier characters that are realistically proportioned, and the situation has gotten better (to some degree) over time, but just about every woman was a knockout with proportions that made Barbie cry with envy. In addition to this, these characters like to show us what they have to one degree or another. Bathing suits, mini skirts, Power Girl’s window on the world, and the most egregious offender, Witchblade. One of these days we’ll be treated to a character with two Band-Aids and a string of dental floss.

The rationale for this is obvious. Sexy female characters attract pubescent male readers. However, if you’re trying to sell a comic to women, the last thing you want is to make them feel like it’s demeaning, and when you’ve got full body suits on the men and Frederick’s of Hollywood on the women, it doesn’t exactly give you a sense of equality.

A frequent counter argument to the unrealistic proportions is “Yeah, well, all the men have muscles coming off of their muscles, and that’s not realistic either.” Incredibly large muscles are an unmistakable asset in fighting crime. You can argue the same for the bosoms, but that goes into territory I don’t want to explore.

Wonder Woman, jot this down!

When most people think of Wonder Woman, they think of pretty much the prototypical comic book woman. Despite this, when JLA first started, Wonder Woman was treated as the group’s secretary. Think about that. At the time, she could have ripped Aquaman in half with her bare hands, yet most of the time, she was shown jotting downs notes or trying to arrange to have Superman’s codpiece washed.

Also, Wonder Woman’s weakness used to be that if she got tied up by a male, she lost her powers and fell under their command. Talk about your ultimate S&M fantasy power trips!! Strongest woman in the world, but once a guy gets his grubby paws on her, she’s as weak as a kitten.

And then you have Wasp. Bad enough she was treated like Ant-Man’s sidekick most of the time, but in early issues of Avengers, she actually was treated as less of a member than RICK JONES!! Now, I know Iron Man has a drinking problem, but when he says, “Well, we allowed Wasp to join the team, so there is no reason the whiny kid with the ham radio should not be a full member,” it’s time to get him dried out. But, I guess I can understand his point. Most of the time, Wasp was more concerned with fashion and trying to go out on the town then fighting crime.

Thankfully, a lot of these traits have been taken out of comics and Wonder Woman and Wasp have both developed into strong and independent characters and strong leaders, for the most part, but the damage has already been done in a lot of people’s eyes.

Who’s your Mystery Date?

At one point, women in comics existed solely because of their relationships with men. If you saw a woman in Spider-Man, you knew she was somehow going to date Peter within a couple years. People expect Wonder Woman to get together with Batman sometime, because a single woman in a group of men needs to partner up, damn it. Patsy Walker, who’s sold more solo comics than a lot of other heroes, was partnered up with the Son of Satan of all people. Enchantress spent years upon years pining after Thor.

If it’s not a date, it’s an even worse relationship as a protégé. Superman gets to have the sub-character of Supergirl. Superwoman, meanwhile, is evil. Because it’s evil to have an equal footing with a man.

In an early issue of Avengers, Wasp utters the immortal line, “Oh, if only a man was here, he’d know what to do.” Scarlet Witch, in the same era, is pretty much the most powerful Avenger, but chooses to spend her time sewing costumes “just in case Giant Man comes back” instead of honing her powers. Why? Because they only exist insomuch as they provide small bits of help for the men.

Even recently, this phenomenon raised its ugly head in Thunderbolts. I’m not going to spoil the issue for you, but let’s just say that the strong female leader who’s taken no nonsense for the last dozen or so issues has a mystery date of her own.

The Light At The End of the Tunnel

Thankfully, things have gotten somewhat better recently. My favorite comic for the last several years was Meridian, which featured a strong female character that didn’t have massive cleavage and didn’t act dim witted or need a man to help her get out of situations. Also, in Power Company, Skyrocket was the field leader. She was black and a female, but neither of those things was “THE MOST IMPORTANT THING” about her character, which was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, both of those comics were cancelled.

The Avengers Forever limited series featured a strong Wasp leading when Captain America, long synonymous with leadership in the comics world, could not. Wonder Woman was recently shown as more hardcore than Superman and Batman combined…so much so that they actually rebuked her for it. Birds of Prey is a pretty popular comic…even though it has that pesky ALL FEMALE CAST! I would suggest that the influx of strong female creators (Devin Grayson, Gail Simone, and Barbara Kesel come to mind) have definitely helped, but it is still an industry primarily created by males and marketed to prepubescent males of all ages.

But, there is still a long way to go. As we’ve said about a thousand times in the last few weeks, comics need a bigger audience, and the last thing the comic industry needs to do is cut themselves off from potential female readers. If you want spank material, turn to Playboy and leave the comics to the rest of us.

Okay, Mrs. Blackmore and Mrs. Havok3595, we wrote the column. Now can we have our stash of Vampirellas and Pantsless Wasp comics back?

Letter Page

From Chris,

What can I say, great work...again!

The commentary on fanboys raging about comics is perfect. I especially liked the AICN cracks. AICN takes itself way too seriously, plus their articles go on forever. Does anyone care what Harry or his staff eat for breakfast?

When Knowles said that watching the version of Night of the Living Dead with the new footage was worse than seeing his mother's charred body (not sure if you know but she died while smoking in bed), the man hurdled over 1,000,000 sharks. I could never take him seriously again.

Way to go on this and many other levels.

Yeah, that just doesn’t surprise me very much. I’ve never liked that site very much, as it just feeds into the whole “spoiler culture.” But, it’s popular with the geek crowd, so it will probably be around longer than the rest of us.

PRISON BREAK IS BACK!

This is blackmore just bubbling over with excitement! Prison Break is back, baby!!! By far the best show on TV! Lost, 24, Sopranos don’t even come close. This week’s episode kept me on the edge of my seat yelling at the TV. It is rare for any show to get that kind of reaction from me, and Prison Break manages to do it several times an episode.

When this comes out on DVD, you should really check it out. Lucky for you that you will be able to watch it without the incredibly stressful cliffhangers.

Some notes: sorry for the delay in this column. It’s been finished for days, but I never got around to posting it. Blackmore’s family rabbit died suddenly a few days ago. That is also why we have no art this week from my sister.

All right, this is about it on our end. Please e-mail me any questions, comments, or whatevers to jackknight@gmail.com. I do read all my e-mails, and I’ll post them with my column. Also, remember to swing by GameFAQs and check out Eisner Cup season 3!

Now, go out and read some comics, you slacker!