Con Report: North Texas Comic Book Show - July 19, 2014 - Part One

North Texas Comic Book Show is a relatively new convention in Dallas.  The best way to describe it is intimate.  It's not the biggest convention and it doesn't have a lot of celebrity guests.  What it does have is what conventions are really all about - fans, love and a chance to meet the other glorious weirdos who share your interests.  I spent more of the day talking with friends than I did taking pictures.  But I still found time to snap a few choice cosplay pictures before the cosplay contest.


Wonder Woman

Archers Unite!  Yours truly with Katniss Everdeen.


Marvel Comics' Morgan LeFay 


Doctor Strange?  Where's the All-Seeing Eye Of Agamotto?

Kitana from Mortal Kombat and Codex from The Guild.
(Both these ladies run a cool site called Gone Catawampus you should check out.)

Conventions like this attract all manner of Rogues.

Ness from Earthbound.

Quicksilver and Polaris.  No sibling rivalry here.

Spider-Man and his two most famous lady-friends - Mary Jane Watson & Gwen Stacy.

Fear And Loathing Of Love And Marriage In Superhero Comics

Who said that comic fans don't want to see people getting married?

What prompted this question is today's news that J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman are leaving Batwoman as of Issue #26, citing editorial interference in their plans to have Kathy Kane and Maggie Sawyer get married.  Williams was quick to note that DC Comics' objection was to marriage in general - not a marriage between two lesbians.  The evidence does bear him out, given that nearly every major married couple in DC Comics pantheon of superheroes has either been broken up since the New 52 revamp or not appeared at all. 

Clark Kent and Lois Lane?  Not an item.  Barry Allen and Iris West?  Flirting but he has a new girlfriend.  Wally West and Linda Park?  Don't even exist!  Ditto Ralph and Sue Dibny.  Heck, the only married couple I think is still around is Aquaman and Mera and they've interacted so little in his book you'd hardly know they were married!

Of course DC Comics is far from alone in being guilty of this sort of thing.  Do the words One More Day ring a bell?  Does everyone remember how that whole mess started because Joe Quesada thought the reason Spider-Man's sales were dropping were because the fans couldn't relate to a happily married Peter Parker?  Do anyone but me and the guys writing Spider-Fan.org remember that they tried killing Mary Jane off because of that theory and all it did was upset the fans?

"But Starman," I hear you metaphorical masses say.  "Superheroes get married and divorced all the time!  It's a common element in drama in many genres!" 

That is true, dear masses.  Yet there is a world of difference between simple drama preventing marriage from occurring and a refusal to consider a plot element completely. 

It seems that the very idea of marriage itself is under attack in our comics due to some mistaken belief that young readers do not want to read about married couples.  This seems odd given the belief some publishers have that their key demographic is 45-year old males, but that's a whole other argument.  So we still have the question - where did this idea come from?

Any ideas?  I'd love to hear about them.

Looking To The Stars: One More Column On One More Day

In all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, I somehow neglected to pick up any of the issues containing J. Michael Straczynski’s final story arc for One More Day.

Why bother? I stopped reading Spider-Man comics on a regular basis about the time Peter was recruited into The New Avengers and the book pretty much became a second Avengers title. I flipped through a few of the Back in Black issues simply because I heard Kingpin was in it and I’m a sucker for a good Wilson Fisk story. And the premise of One More Day left me cold.

There’s also the little matter of a promise I made a few months ago to see this thing through to the bloody end.

What can I say? I slow down to look at traffic accidents just to see how bad it is, too.


*****


Now, for those of you wiser than me who have had the good sense not to keep up on the last few years of Amazing Spider-Man, let me give you the quick run-down.

After impressing Tony Stark with some major techno-wizardry under duress, Peter, Mary Jane and Aunt May are allowed to move into Stark Towers following the destruction of the Parker Home by a super-villain. At the same time, Peter is recruited to join the New Avengers.

Following an incident that increases public anger at superheroes in general, Tony Stark begins working with the United States Government on a program that sanctions vigilantes. In a misguided effort to help win support for the program among the heroes reluctant to sign on, Peter outs his secret identity at a press conference.

Shortly thereafter, Peter finds out about some of the more extreme measures Tony Stark has taken to deal with the heroes who won’t sign on (i.e. a secret prison in the Negative Zone) and that super-villains are being given amnesty for past misdeeds if they agree to join a government-sponsored super-team. Unable to talk reason into Tony, Peter joins the resistance against Tony Stark and his associates being organized by Captain America.

Still in hiding with his family after Captain America is arrested, Peter’s whereabouts are tracked by an imprisoned Wilson Fisk –a.k.a. The Kingpin. Kingpin orders that the entire Parker family be wiped out, but only Aunt May is wounded.

Peter and MJ grab what savings they can and get May into a hospital. In the course of covering their tracks, Peter commits numerous felonies - breaking in and entering, impersonating an EMT and forging medical documents among them. Peter goes to Tony asking for help to save his aunt; help which Tony initially refuses, but then provides indirectly.

This brings us to the start of One More Day where we find that even the best medical care money can buy is not enough to save May. The doctor’s prognosis is that she is destabilizing steadily and that nothing short of a miracle will save her.

Peter goes off looking for a miracle, first going to Doctor Strange. The good doctor says there is nothing he can do but he does agree to help Peter question others who might help. Traveling through time and space, consulting with both friends and enemies, Peter receives the same answer – there is nothing you can do to save her. Even Peter’s attempts to try and stop the shooting while traveling astrally come to naught.

As Peter leaves, he is confronted by a various people – an older businessman, an overweight geek and a little girl - all of whom tell Peter the story of their lives. It is then that everyone’s favorite devil Mephisto shows up. He tells Peter that the people he just saw were versions of him who might have come to be had it not been for a key event in his life and that he can arrange for reality to be rewritten so that Aunt May will survive.

Peter is naturally reluctant to sell his soul, even for Aunt May but Mephisto scoffs at this offer, saying that Peter will likely wind up in Hell on his current path anyway and that there are few things less amusing to him than a noble soul, trapped in Hell for a higher purpose. But to destroy something noble and pure – that is a deal that interests him.

And so the offer is made – Aunt May will be saved but at the cost of Peter’s love for Mary Jane. Reality will be rewritten so that the two never met, never fell in love and never married. Nobody will remember anything, save for a small part of the soul that remembers all and will weep at what has been lost.

Peter insists on discussing it with Mary Jane first. Mephisto readily agrees and Peter goes to her, only to find that Mephisto has been there the whole time, making Mary Jane the same offer. He warns them that the only have until the end of the day tomorrow to make their decision – and one more day together if they say yes.


*****


In the four months, since I first wrote about this story-line, the fan community has become even more outraged, if the message boards can be believed.

As I noted in that earlier article, a Newsarama poll showed that 2 out of 3 fans were opposed to ending the Spider-Marriage through any means. I suspect the percentage would be higher than 67% if one were to quantify the question; “Are you opposed to ending the Spider-Marriage through magic?” JMS’s run on Amazing Spider-Man has been controversial and the biggest reason for this was his including magic and spiritual concerns in a comic that has always been – for the most part- science based.

From his very first story, Coming Home, JMS was not shy about putting Peter in the unfamiliar territories offered by the magic realms. Coming Home put forth the idea that Peter’s powers, rather than being caused by a radioactive spider-bite, came instead from a totemistic bond to spiders and that a higher power had chosen Peter – one who knew what it was to be prey – to be a predator that would bring down other, more dangerous predators.

While this idea irked many long-time Spider-Fans, it is worth noting that at no time did JMS ever say that the idea was a definitive origin. Indeed, there was just as much evidence introduced to suggest that the theory was hokum (the methods Peter uses to fight totem-vampire Morlun in Coming Home, for instance) and that while totem-empowered characters existed, Peter was not one of them.

Many fans have put the blame for One More Day on JMS, saying this is just more of the same inappropriate magic mucking up the relatively simpler world of Peter Parker. Given the evidence it is not hard to fault their conclusions, save for one reason – JMS hates the idea of One Day More even more than the fans did.

This shouldn’t be any surprise, really. When JMS took over Amazing Spider-Man, Peter and Mary Jane were separated – the result, ironically enough, of the last failed attempt by Marvel Editorial to break-up the Spider-Marriage. JMS spent the first few years of his run trying to reestablish and strengthen the bond between MJ and Peter. For what one man’s opinion is worth, I think he succeeded and the issues leading up to their reunion in Amazing Spider-Man #50 were truly touching and among some of JMS’s best work in any medium. Given all the hard work he put into reinvigorating the character of Mary Jane and her relationship with Peter, I can’t imagine he would willingly scrap all of that now unless he were being forced to.

And sure enough, according to a recent web-posting by JMS, he pretty much was being forced to.


In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I
made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel,
especially Joe (Quesada). I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the
decision, and told Joe (Quesada), that I was going to take my name off the last
two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe(Quesada) talked me out of that
decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe
or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those.

As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist
that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often
loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right.
Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the
executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as
Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.


J. Michael Straczynski has found himself in the ultimate no-win situation. Refusing to write the story apparently wasn’t an option, since Joe Quesada was so insistent on ending JMS’s “legendary” run on Amazing Spider-Man with a big bang. Pulling an Alan Smithe and taking his name off of the book wasn’t an option since the Marvel Hype Machine has been plugging this issue as JMS’s final story for months and, as JMS noted, he respects Marvel Comics and the chain of command too much to risk hurting it over bad feelings. And raising a big stink about the whole thing would do little save hurt his career and give his critics more ammunition against him.

Not that it matters. The trolls will do what they will and not let the facts stand in the way and these people hound with a relentlessness that would make J. Jonah Jameson proud.

Some accused JMS of cowardice for deciding the company is more important than his own opinions. Others have accused him of greed, wanting nothing more than to take the money and run. Still others have taken his comments as signs of insubordination and have demanded he be fired from Marvel Comics.

I don’t think that any of this is likely. Because whatever your opinions of the man and his talent as a writer, J. Michael Straczynski has been a professional writer for nearly three decades. He created, executive-produced and wrote most of the scripts for one of the most ground-breaking science-fiction shows of all time. He has written scripts for numerous animated series and television shows and continued to find work.

As such, I trust that he knows the business and the rules of decorum better than nearly anyone I am likely to meet on a comic book forum. And even though I’m an amateur writer, I know that the first rule of working anywhere is that you don’t bad-mouth your boss no matter how much of an idiot they are. I know that the pay for comic book writing compared to Hollywood writing is chicken-feed, so any idea that JMS is trying to milk the Mighty Marvel Money Machine when he could probably make more money doing more direct-to-video Babylon 5 movies is laughable.

And as for JMS’s comments being disrespectful for Joe Quesada…

Well, personally I didn’t see anything disrespectful in JMS’s comments. He didn’t even bad-mouth Marvel Comics or say anything other than that he has disagreed with many of Joe Quesada’s decisions but that he wants to be a good soldier, whatever his disagreements with The Powers That Be.

That, to my mind, is not disrespectful.

Saying that Joe Quesada is an idiot with a god-complex, so blinded by his own gargantuan ego that he’ll ignore the instincts of one of his best employees and the will of the people is disrespectful. It is also, from where this fanboy sits, a lot more accurate than a tenth-part of what others have said of JMS.

There is only one thing I’m sure of in all of this – I won’t be reading Part Four of this story. Even though I thought the first three books were written well, I don’t think I can bare to see just how well JMS can write something he really didn’t want to. I’ll give him full credit for bravery under fire and honoring his commitments but just because he doesn’t want to see Marvel’s sales hurt by his opinions doesn’t mean I have to further encourage a company that is apparently run exclusively by editorial-mandate.

Why Defend DC?

Just got done reading an entry over at Pretty Fizzy Paradise.

The short version is that some bloke named Dick has asked, in his blog, why it seems the greater number of people pleading for more racial/sexual sensitivity in comics seem to be die-hard DC fans and further asking (erroneously in my opinion) why it seems we come down so hard on Marvel when DC has had a greater number of scandals involving its' portrayal of female characters.

Kalinara - who being an editor on When Fangirls Attack is in a better position to judge than I- notes that it was Marvel which had one long string of offenses after another with the Mary Jane Statue and then the scandal over the Heroes for Hire Hentai cover whereas DC has never really had anything of that magnitude.

I have to agree. Yes, DC has rised some ire among some of it's female fans but the key word here is some. Off the top of my head, here's a few things I remember reading more than one complaint about this year.

* the comments by one editor that every woman should be reading Supergirl

* the Power Girl cover of JLA

* Black Canary becoming chairperson of the JLA and then taking a backseat to Batman in nearly every JLA appearance anywhere

* Vixen being made to look panicky in JLA to the point that Roy Harper had to save her

* Black Canary being married off to Green Arrow and the circumstances around how she accepted his proposal

*Jodi Picoult's brief run on Wonder Woman, in which Diana could not pump gas without the help of a man

* pretty much the whole of Amazons Attack, for reasons ranging from Black Canary and Power Girl being background players despite being the JLA and JSA leaders to the entire Amazon race being made to look like blood-thirsty femi-nazi stereotypes.

I've seen spirited rants about all of these things by comics bloggers of both genders over the past year. But nothing - save perhaps Amazons Attack and Picoult's writing - has attracted the kind of overwhelming consensus needed to be a proper scandal.

So why the disparity?

I think why Marvel may have attracted more anger than DC may come down to how they react to scandals. DC, and the people working for them, listen better than their counterparts at Marvel. For the most part, they seem like they truly want their fan's input on their work. At the very least, they put up a better show of pretending they care.

For instance - Tony Bedard and Will Pfiffer (the writers on Black Canary and Amazons Attack respectively) have been quite open in talking with fans who didn't like their stories in a reasonable and respectful fashion on their own blogs and boards. The Power Girl JLA cover too was handled in a reasonable fashion, with the artwork being changed before publication.

Compare this to Marvel's approach - where comments demanding answers about the MJ statue were deleted off of Joe Quesada's blog, Joe Quesada failed to see any problem with the Heroes for Hire cover and then - presumably after it was explained to him - said that it couldn't be sexist or degrading to women because it was done by a female artist.

I don't know if that's the answer... but it could be a piece of the puzzle, at least.

Looking To The Stars - Spider-Married-Man, No More?

We’ve known for quite some time now that Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada is not a big fan of the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson marriage. How? Well, the man is nothing else if not outspoken.

From a statement at the San Diego ComicCon 2006: “I've got nothing against marriage in comics, with the exception of the Spider-Man marriage - which I have been very public about.”

From a Wizard Magazine Interview: When asked about his hatred of the marriage of Mary Jane and Peter Parker, Quesada said 90 percent of writers and editors at Marvel think the marriage was a mistake; it’s a ball and chain around the character. The problem is figuring out how to undo it without retconning the character. Quesada will not divorce Peter Parker.

It is this outspokenness that had Spider-Fans everywhere worried earlier this year, after it was announced that one of Peter’s loved ones would pay the price for his outing himself as a superhero during Civil War. Of course we know now that it was Aunt May, not Mary Jane, who would be shot by a sniper as part of The Kingpin’s revenge against Spider-Man. But at the time, fans were so overjoyed at the fact that Mary Jane wasn’t dead that few were shocked by Aunt May’s near-death.

And now, to add further gas to the fire, this preview image of the cover of what will be the final issue of J. Michael Straczynski‘s Amazing Spider-Man run. It is labeled simply, “The End of An Era”

Naturally, speculation has run wild over the past week with the smart money being on some form of cosmic reboot. The reasoning behind this train of thought is that this issue will follow One More Day - a three-part storyline that promises to take Peter to his darkest hour yet and will feature, among others, Doctor Strange. Since Peter is owed a favor by the good doctor as a result of Peter’s stepping in where Strange could not and reliving all the worst moments of his life up until that point to save the universe, the speculation is that Peter will ask for Mary Jane to be given a nice, safe life without him.

The supposed end result will be a Peter Parker free of marital bondage and (depending on which blogs you read) a more fun, happy book with lots of sexy love triangles, the resurrection of Gwen Stacy, another raise of the minimum wage, the banishment of the organic web-shooters, free beer, Eddie Brock as Venom again, all our soldiers home from overseas, Peter having a secret identity again and one free model dressed as the superheroine of your choice for every fanboy with the Marvel logo tattooed on their pale pimply behind.

See, I’d like to believe that this is all a scam. I’d like to believe that despite his own opinions, Joe Quesada recognizes that the wishes of the majority of fans outweigh his own opinions as an editor and that the problems caused by magically nullifying Peter Parker’s marriage will far outweigh the benefits. I’d like to believe that all this worry and all this hype is just an attempt to get people to buy the comic regardless of what actually happens by playing off his image as the heartless editor.

I’d LIKE to believe that.

Regardless, here’s my five reasons why attempting to end the Spider-Marriage by ANY means (cosmic reboot, divorce, sudden death, Mary Jane suddenly being revealed as a clone after all these years) would be the biggest possible mistake Marvel Comics could make.

1. It Didn’t Work The First Time.

The Spider-Clone Saga originally came about because way back in the 90’s, The Powers That Be at Marvel felt that sagging Spider-Man sales had to be because of the Spider-Marriage. As opposed to, oh say… the fact that artwork had become more important than story and that they basically retold the same Venom story once a year. The problem is that even then, they knew that divorcing Peter or killing Mary Jane were right out. If marriage made Peter “old” to their readers, than making him a divorcee or a widower would do nothing to solve the problem. The fact that Mary Jane had a fanbase of her own wasn’t even a consideration in those days.

Instead, they spun the idea that the Peter Parker we’d been reading about since the early 70’s was actually a clone of the original, who had been in hiding all this time. The clone and MJ were shunted off-stage to begin a life of their own elsewhere as Peter – “the real Peter” - came back, assumed the name of Ben Reilly, and took his place as the one-true swinging-single Spider-Man.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. The sales proved that the fans – that is, the people who were actually reading the books as opposed to double-bagging them before sealing them in a vault somewhere - HATED the “real” Spider-Man and even more of them missed Mary Jane. A contrived solution was hatched, revealing the “clone” Peter to be the “real” Peter and the whole thing to have been the first of many machinations plotted by a resurrected Norman Osborn.


2. It Didn’t Work The Second Time.

Less well remembered, but no less important is the occasion when Marvel Editorial actually DID try killing Mary Jane. It was the Winter of 1999. Marvel Comics had just rebooted what few series they hadn’t restarted with new #1 issues. This included both Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spider-Man. And yet, despite this - with Howard Mackie (one of the brains behind The Spider-Clone Saga) writing both of Spider-Man’s regular monthly books and a new origin series by John Byrne - the sales on Marvel’s flagship hero refused to rise.

Clearly this was all the fault of Mary Jane and her forcing Peter into marriage!

To make a long story short, over 18 months it was revealed that Mary Jane had not, in fact, died in a plane bombing on the way to a model shoot. She had, in fact, been kidnapped by a nameless telepath who, unable to control his powers, became locked in on Peter’s mind. Said telepath, who was never given a name, concluded that Peter was wasting his life helping an ungrateful populace and then contrived to try and take Peter’s life and powers by mentally absorbing him.

The plan backfired when the telepath absorbed enough of Peter’s personality to realize that Peter would not ever kill someone to prolong his own life. He committed suicide, exploding (somehow) and once Mary Jane thought of a plausible excuse to explain away where she had been for the last few months of comic time, she told Peter that she needed some time apart.

Why? Because she felt like she had gone from being a real person with her own interests and life and been stuck being “Mrs. Parker” – a major complaint that many fans had about Mary Jane’s characterization throughout most of the 90s. Peter agreed they needed some time apart and this set the stage for the beginning of J. Michael Straczynski‘s run one issue later.


3. If I Could Turn Back Time…

Presuming that Peter would be given a chance, by Doctor Strange, to magically alter his past… would breaking up his marriage really be the first thing Peter would do?

You don’t think that maybe he might want to save a currently critically wounded Aunt May’s life?

Save Gwen Stacy?

Save Uncle Ben?

Wish he’d never been Spider-Man in the first place, so they could all be saved?

I doubt Peter would ever wish for that last one – he knows he’s done too much good as Spider-Man to risk having it all undone for a selfish wish of his own. I’m just saying that there are a lot of options Peter would consider before taking a course of action he couldn’t guarantee would work.


4. Hypocrisy

Joe Quesada has been nearly as vocal about how DC Comics solves many of their story problems with magic and mind-wipes as he is not a fan of the Spider-Marriage. Numerous Marvel fans on the web are equally outspoken, saying that when DC has problems with their history, they just reboot the universe and create a new set of problems.

Regardless of the validity of this point of view, Joe Quesada would be a hypocrite to push a storyline in which, somehow, history is changed to something more agreeable to the editorial demands of the time. And I doubt the Marvel Fanboys would be very forgiving – I know several who stopped collecting after House of M.


5. Marriage Is A Partnership

The very idea that Peter would, behind Mary Jane’s back, make a decision to get her out of his life forever flies in the face of too much characterization. This is not to say that Peter is not that selfless or noble – he is. But his marriage means too much for him to make that kind of decision without consulting Mary Jane first with everything that she knows now.

To cross media for a moment, consider the second Spider-Man movie. At the end of that film, Mary Jane knew everything about Peter’s secret identity. He told her that was the only reason he’d been so standoffish to her before – because he already had the blood of one loved one on his hands and that he loved her too much to risk her dying because she was Spider-Man’s girlfriend.

Thankfully, she didn’t let him get away with it.

I’m pretty sure the comics Mary Jane would have told Peter off a lot sooner and wouldn’t have been quite so nice after she abandons her wedding to go tell Peter her decision is that she isn’t letting go of him. But the end result is the same and the spirit and speech are true to any incarnation of the character of Mary Jane Watson.

“I know you think we can't be together, but can't you respect me enough to let me make my own decision? I know there'll be risks but I want to face them with you. It's wrong that we should be only half alive... half of ourselves. I love you. So here I am - standing in your doorway. I have always been standing in your doorway. Isn't it about time somebody saved your life?”

Mary Jane is wise enough to know what Peter needs better than Peter himself. She knows that the last thing he needs is to sequester himself alone, living a monk’s existence and living only for a greater good until what Peter sees as an inevitable violent end. And in a symbolic way, in that scene, she is marrying Peter.

There are many different marriage vows, but most do include some variant of the phrase “for better or worse” and speak of a joining of two lives as one. Mary Jane’s speech is very much in keeping with this spirit as well as a declaration that she knows the risks a relationship with Peter entails and why she is willing to brave anything for him just as much as he is for her.


***


Thankfully, it seems that the fans’ memories are much longer than that of the Marvel Comics editorial team. As of this writing (Thursday morning, August 9th), a poll at Newsarama shows that the fans overwhelmingly support the marriage over Peter becoming single again, by a near 5:1 margin. 67% vs.14%

Well, rest easy, gentle readers and refuse to give in to the hype. Don’t waste your money – let me waste mine for you!

Yes, you heard me. I will, this once, end my ban on reading any Marvel Comics not by Dwayne McDuffie, Dan Slott or Ed Brubaker so that I can make sure – one way or another – that the sanctity of marriage is upheld!

And if it is not, we shall cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war! We will fight them on the message boards! We will fight them on the blogs! We will flood their mailboxes with letters of protest and likely cause many messages to be bounced!

That’s my promise. See you all next time.

Looking To The Stars - The Stature-tory Rape of Mary Jane Watson

I suspect I may well be the last comics blogger on the Internet to comment upon this scandal involving the Mary Jane statue.

This is not, it should be noted, due to any lack of timeliness on my part but rather a desire to avoid redundancy in the face of the writings of so many other bloggers more qualified than me to talk about how this scandal is affecting the female comic fans of the world.

I’m a white guy from Texas and while I like to consider myself more sensitive and socially aware than most men who meet that description, that still doesn’t qualify me to speak for the women around me - much less the feminine gender as a whole. And yet, my thoughts have been requested enough that I have decided to risk redundancy for the sake of popular demand.

So where do I stand on this alleged abomination?

Well, I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone that I believe that this statue is sexist, degrading and an insult not just to women but to thinking people of either gender.

My colleague Paul Sebert did an excellent job listing some of the more alarming elements of the statue in his own humorous yet detailed fashion. And a number of other blogs have charted the rather troubling news that Sideshow Collectibles and Marvel Comics have been deleting respectful, non-threatening letters of complaint regarding the statue from their blogs in order to keep the Feminist Uprising repressed. But what truly disturbs me is the on-line reaction of some of the male comic-reading populace to the scandal.

Go to the blogs of Devil Doll, Ragnell and just about any page linked off of When Fangirls Attack! and you will find a metric ton of insulting, derogatory and just plain hateful posts by men who are attacking these women for daring to express their opinions. Thankfully, most of these opinions are poorly thought out and are as capable of holding water as the Holey Pail. Still, here are some of my favorite common complaints along with a rebuttal.


Q: Why are you complaining about some statue when there are real serious issues you should be worrying about, like sex-slavery in Russia or forced female circumcision?

A: Would you go up to Mother Teresa and say “Why are you feeding the hungry when there is a rain-forest to be saved?” Of course not. Is fighting world hunger less noble than saving the rain-forest? No. So why would you argue that one form of protest is more important than another? You wouldn’t – unless you were against feeding the poor for some reason and were trying to stop people from doing it. The fact of the matter is that the portrayal of women in the media IS part of a larger number of serious issues (abusive relationships, teen suicide, drug use, eating disorders) and that changing how the media depicts women is a noble pursuit. Besides, by this logic all the male comic bloggers should quit writing about why Wolverine could easily beat Batman in a fight and start writing about boys being forced to become camel-racing jockeys in Saudi Arabia.


Q: It isn’t like that many women are into superheroes anyway, so why bother listening to these women who are clearly just a vocal minority?

A: Tell that to the large group of teenage girls I saw by themselves, no dates or boyfriends, seeing Spider-Man 3 as a group at the opening midnight show. Tell that to the large number of women who watch Heroes every week. You take a look at the Nielsen ratings, they’ll tell you that Heroes routinely tests well among PEOPLE 18-34. Not just men. Women too. Women are interested in superheroes although it seems that certain comic companies are less than interested in catering to them. Regardless, the audience is there.


Q: What’s the big deal? She’s wearing more than most female superheroes do in their costumes and women in comics are supposed to look sexy.

A: As far as sexual objects go, what we oppose is the objectification – not the sex. The issue with the statue is not that MJ is depicted sexually. The issue is that she is depicted in a sexist fashion. And as anyone who has experience dealing with the female gender personally can tell you (forgive my assuming that you haven’t known the pleasures of the flesh with a lady) there is a world of difference between sexy and sexist. Lynda Carter, as Wonder Woman, is sexy. Power Girl, flexing her muscles, is sexy. Mary Jane, bending over to show off her thong and breasts while doing her man’s laundry… barefoot and in pearls… is sexist.


Q: What’s wrong with wanting to look at a hot chick with boobs?

A: Nothing. Although I would dare say that spending $125 on a statue of an unrealistically proportioned fictional woman purely for the purposes of satisfying one’s masturbatory fantasies indicates a high level of social dysfunction, a lack of imagination and an overabundance of free money that would be better spent on pornography featuring real women, psychiatric help or perhaps etiquette lessons so one might have a chance of learning how to treat a real woman in a socially acceptable manner.

So listen up Spanky and all the rest of you would-be He-Man Woman-Haters Club members – Darla and the rest of the girls are in the clubhouse. They like it inside the clubhouse. And they aren’t going anywhere.

And you boys can cry to your mommies about how mean those girls are being to you, making you listen to their point of view. You can whine to your friends, assuming you have any, about how your dad says there’s nothing wrong with treating women like objects. And you can bitch to anyone who will listen that the girls need to learn how to take a joke. You can protest and posture all you want boys – that doesn’t make you men.

Real men respect strength in others. They don’t fear it. And the fact of the matter is that every single one of you are boys are heart and the time is long past for you to grow up. So quit your whining, get back in the garage and fix my damn car!

Tune in next week! Same Matt Time! Same Matt Website!

Looking To The Stars - On Weddings and Webbing

Long have I said that there is little at Marvel worth reading. This week, I figured out the overlying problem.

There’s no sense of hope, anymore.

Let me be clear upon this point; I believe that the reason most of us read superhero comic books is because of the sense of hope they embody. Because no matter how gaudy the costume or fantastic the powers, the great abiding common ground between all superheroes is that they exist to inspire us. To see ourselves as we wish we were, not with super powers but as truly good people.

It may be a little corny to say so but I know plenty of people who live by the examples they were given in comics. I know soldiers who learned their love of country and bravery from Captain America. I know a cop who honed his detective skills reading Batman. Heck, I even once went to school with a girl whose library career was indirectly inspired by Batgirl.

With this premise in mind, let us consider a recent interview by Marvel Editor In-Chief Joe Quesada. In said interview, Joe talked about “the problem with Mary Jane Watson” and how it is his opinion (and, for that matter, the opinion of Marvel editorial for most of the last 20 years) that the Peter Parker/Mary Jane wedding was a mistake.

Most of the history is recanted in the above article, but in short the only reason the wedding ever took place was allegedly because Stan Lee was going to marry the two lovebirds off in the daily Spider-Man newspaper comic, which he still wrote at that time. Not wanting the comic books of the day to clash with the stories of the comic strip, Marvel editorial kicked into overdrive to get the two love-birds together in the comics. This was something of a challenge as not only were the two not dating in the comics at that time – MJ wasn’t even living in New York!

There is a general consensus among some Spider-Fans and most of the people running Marvel since about 1990 that the wedding was something of a mistake. They believe that since Spider-Man was created as a teen character and continues to be a “hook” for that audience. They argue that the marriage instantly aged Peter, making his character inaccessible to younger readers. They also argue that the soap opera dynamic, which depended on Peter trying (and failing) to win the attention of some girl or another, would be completely lost with a married hero.

Of course the people who believe this have an interesting Catch-22 now. They can’t have the marriage end in divorce. Having either character have an affair would be unthinkable. Even if it were a no-fault situation, a divorce would still make Peter seem “old” to the young readers. And Peter can’t be a widower. They tried that right before JMS took over Amazing Spider-Man and the fan outcry then proved that the majority actually like having MJ around, whether Joey Q likes it or not.

And that brings us back to my point and my response to Mr. Joe Quesada. You say that Mary Jane is an albatross. That Peter became Billy Joel; the backstreets guy who married an uptown girl. That Peter has lost his everyman edge and is no longer a relatable character.

I say bollocks to that!

For most of my childhood, Peter was my favorite character. This was back in the days when my librarian mother kept me away from comic books and other “low” literature. All I knew of Peter was from those comic strips Stan Lee wrote and the Spiderfriends cartoon. And you know what? I didn’t have any trouble relating to a married superhero in what we will charitably call my innocent years.

You see Mary Jane as an anchor dragging Peter down. I see her as a beacon of hope to Everymen everywhere.

There are a lot of us out there who relate to Peter. We are the every-day, ordinary people who don’t get the hot dates or the good jobs or the big breaks. But that doesn’t get them down. They are still good persons who try and make the world a better place in whatever small way they can because it is the right thing to do. They don’t expect any reward save whatever karma may grant them.

Mary Jane is Peter’s good karma reward.

Yes, his aunt is always sick. Yes, he has a crummy job. Yes, he is pushed around by arrogant professors. Yes, he can’t quite get his thesis finished. And yes, until recently, he was a wanted outlaw who had about as much respect in the professional superhero community as Long John Silver’s parrot did from the crew of the Hispaniola. He’s not that good looking. He’s not all that charming. About the only thing he has going for him is his brains and his sweet nature.

And yet, despite all of this... in spite of every single bad hand that life has dealt him... he wins the heart of this woman. This smart, funny and drop dead GORGEOUS woman. Not because he is popular. Not because he is a superhero. But simply because she sees the good man underneath all the flaws and she loves him for that.

I don’t mean to objectify Mary Jane or any woman with this observation. I just want to make the point that in a way, Peter’s marriage gives hope to the rest of us ordinary guys. The guys who don’t want a supermodel but are hoping for a woman who will love them for who they are, minus any flashy clothes, fat wallet or fast cars.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Sign the "Remove Judd Winick From Green Arrow Right Now!" petition.

Looking To The Stars: Spider-Man 2 - A Review

I started writing these words at 2:42 AM, CST on June the 30^th. I’ve just arrived home from a midnight showing of Spider-Man 2. I need to be at work before 9 AM tomorrow and part of me thinks it wise to go to bed now, be refreshed for work and worry about writing down my thoughts on this movie later. The other part of me can’t sleep. And it thinks that I should get these thoughts down while they are fresh on my mind, and while I am too excited by the amazing, spectacular and astonishing sights that have filled my eyes for the past two hours to contemplate sleep or indeed, anything else but writing.

So please forgive me, Gentle Reader, if my description of the movie should miss certain details that you wish to see discussed. I have seen this film but once so far and plan to see it many, many more times so that I can see everything that I missed the first time. Maybe then I’ll write more. But for now, here are my thoughts, such as they are, upon my first viewing of Spider-Man 2.

I enjoyed this film as both a comic geek and a film geek. Sam Raimi’s direction has never been better and the script was everything you could hope for, offering a fine balance of action, drama, romance and comedy. Raimi’s love of the characters is obvious and every frame of this film screams of his desire to take his favorite comic book as a kid and translate it to the silver screen.

A dedicated fan of the original Stan Lee books could have a field day picking apart the various references hidden in this film. Among the ones I can remember spotting with little trouble are…

1. Harry’s alcoholism in the wake of his father’s death (although he was something of a drinker and druggie beforehand in the comics)

2. Numerous references to Amazing Spider-Man #50 (aka “Spider-Man, No More!), up to and including the infamous scene in the alley with the trashcan and J. Jonah Jameson being given the Spider-Man costume later.

3. Peter trapped under a collapsing wall, struggling to move it to save a loved one resembles Amazing Spider-Man #31.

4. Peter loosing his powers temporarily in the wake of some illness or crisis of faith refers to numerous stories, including one of his earliest battles with Doctor Octopus. (Amazing Spider-Man #12)

Raimi also sneaks in some literary allusions amidst all the comic references, using “The Importance of Being Earnest” as a counterpoint to Peter’s situation with Mary Jane. To quote the play, and the lines of MJ’s character, “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time.”

The first Spider-Man movie housed a number of cinematic references to the first film adaptation of DC Comics’s greatest hero; Superman. Spider-Man 2 continues that trend and is full of echoes to another famous superhero sequel: Superman 2.

1. Both sequels opened with a credits sequence that showed the events of the first movie. This time, rather than seeing selected scenes from the movie played to the music of John Williams, we get to see painter Alex Ross’ renditions of selected scenes from the first movie to the music of Danny Elfman.

2. Both movies also centered around the plot of a hero giving up his identity and loosing his powers in the wake of trying to win the love of his life and having to reclaim his identity in the wake of a new super-powered threat to the world.

3. Both movies feature the hero having a conversation with a dead parent in arguing with themselves over whether or not they should quite their life as a hero.

The performances are top-notch, all-around. Tobey Maguire continues to be the perfect Peter Parker and is now a Spider-Man worthy of the name. I heard some complaints about the first movie and how clumsy Maguire seemed when doing the scenes as Spider-Man. This was, I believed, an intentional choice, showing him slowly easing into the role of a hero. It is also worth noting that Peter didn’t crack wise much in his first year as Spider-Man in the original books, you know? But crack wise he does here. And he does well, proving a worthy Parker and Spider-Man.

I doubt anything I can stay about Kirsten Dunst will change the minds of those hell-bent on deriding her casting as Mary Jane. In my opinion, she did the part total justice in the first film and does so again here, making MJ out for the spitfire she is in the comics. This was limited to one scene in the original movie, where she fought off the mob trying to pin her before being overpowered. This was still proof of her fiery spirit. It is less subtle this time around, with MJ making it clear that she is not going to sit around and wait for Peter to figure out what he wants. She also, in true Spider-Man fashion, struggles, insults the bad guy and tries actually fighting back when she is taken hostage.

The rest of the supporting cast succeeds in maintaining the high level of quality. James Franco brilliantly portrays Harry Osborn’s descent into an alcohol-fueled downward spiral. Rosemary Harris is given a chance to give much more depth to Aunt May than in the first film and conveys the kindly wisdom of Peter’s foster mother perfectly. And J.K. Simmons plays the boss we all love to hate, once again offering the biggest laughs in the whole movie as Jolly J. Jonah Jameson.

This brings us to my favorite bad guy, and doubtlessly the character that has everyone the most worried: Doctor Octopus. Without giving too much away, I will say that any worries I had going in about too much being changed and the arms looking cheesy were groundless.

Yes, the origin of Octavius here does play fast and loose with the original Stan Lee one. Yes, he is a married man and his “evil” is caused by the independent AI controlling the arms and not a brain injury or any predisposition towards being an evil guy. Various elements from the Ultimate Universe version of Octavius seem to have been used here and I can already hear the Spider-Man purists… the same ones who held the idea of organic webbing as proof of the absence of a just and loving god-like being watching over us… whining about how Sam Raimi just doesn’t get it.

Bullocks! Doc Ock is here in all his glory and the origin isn’t important. The character is there and once more, his purpose as a dark mirror to Peter is made all the stronger in this incarnation (See last week’s Looking To The Stars for the full Dark Mirror theory). Whereas Peter gives up what he wants in order to save the woman he loves, Octavius is so blinded by his goals that he does not even notice his wife is in danger because of him until it is too late. Alfred Molina does the part perfectly and things are left open enough that Doc Ock returning is unlikely, but not impossible. (C’mon Sinister Six Movie!)

Speaking of Doc Ock, I should mention that the arms look amazing. The special effects are greatly improved since the first film; no surprise considering the leaps and bounds that have been made in computer animation even in just two years. Whereas the last time the CGI was obvious at times, it flows much more smoothly here so that while there are still scenes that are obviously computer-made, it is only because of the sheer physics involved that you know this. There are just as many which could have been done as stunts but it is hard to say one way or the other.

Overall, this is not only one of the rare sequels that is better the original. This is quite easily the greatest comic book adaptation ever, in any medium, and the new standard for any comic book movie after to follow. 10 Out Of 10, Five Stars Out Of Five.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars: One Paragraph Wonders

Since I have a lot of ground to cover this week and since I am trying to cure myself of being one of the wordiest writers this side of Brian Michael Bendis, I’m going to challenge myself. That’s why for this entire column, there will be no more than one paragraph with no more than four sentences each used to review any book or discuss any bit of news.

There. That wasn’t so hard.

Now, on to the news!

1. I’d like to give a shout out and congratulations to my former writing-group member Randy Millholland. Randy writes the hilarious web-comic Something Positive, which I’ve mentioned here before even though he hardly needs my help to promote the site. Last week, he received enough donations from readers to match his salary and quit his job in order to focus on his comics for one year. Congratulations again, Randy, for succeeding where so many artists cannot.

2. On a similar note, another one of my favorite artists is also seeking financial assistance. Aeire of Queen of Wands is asking for donations to buy a new computer, with which she will work on the comic. On the odd chance you’re reading this and still have yet to experience the sublime drama and amazing humor of QoW after all the times I mentioned it before, go check it out now. And if you like what you see, give a little something.

3. Tony DiGerolamo of “Everknights” sent me an e-mail thanking me for my recent review. He wondered if I could start linking to the Kenzer & Company website in my reviews and mention that they have a large number of web comics available on the website in addition to their printed works. Well, I have no control over how the reviews are programmed into the website but I can plug away as I whim here in “Looking to the Stars”. So there you go, Tony.

4. As long as I’m shameless shilling for my fellow comic creators, I may as well do one plug for myself. As of this week, 144 Anima will begin publishing bi-weekly. Updates will take place on Sunday night and Wednesday night, granting you twice as much Overlordy and Monkey goodness.

So far, so good. Now, it is time for some reviews. I bought nearly fifty dollars worth of comics this week. You can bet I’m going to write about them.

Alternation #3 & #4

I picked up the end of this series more to see it out than out of any great fondness for it. Don’t get me wrong: it is a great idea comic, but in the end that’s all this book has besides good artwork. Edgar Allan Poe as a steam-punk Darth Vader, Annie Oakley as a battle-mech pilot and Mark Twain leading a new American Revolution against the armies of Mad King Ludwig and Rasputin while riding a dinosaur are all cool ideas but they aren’t really used much beyond throwing the idea into the story. Still, at no point did I ever groan at any of the ideas thrown out here… even Thomas Edision’s secret laboratory being called Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Amazing Spider-Man #508

A fitting conclusion to “The Book of Ezekiel” and a good ending issue for John Romita Jr., who exits the title as of this issue. The last few pages, in which the “mystic” angle of the entire JMS run is explained away destroyed any reservations I ever had about introducing a little bit of magic into the science-based world of Peter Parker. Issue 509 comes out this week and marks the premier of new artist Mike Deodato Jr. If you can’t wait, the whole thing is available to read at Mile High Comics.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Batman: Gotham Knights #54

A character issue devoted to a character who works best as a force of nature. It’s different, but it kind of works even though it refers to a past story (The Killing Joke) while simultaneously blowing apart the timing of that story, like a bad comedian. Still, we only have The Joker’s word for his own past and as he once said, if he has to have a history it may as well be multiple choice. The art team is top notch, though.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Birds of Prey #68

Still easily one of the best books published today and a personal favorite. Simone takes a whole issue to develop the characters and their relationships and manages the nigh-impossible feat of explaining away the inconsistent portrayal of Huntress as a cheap slut and a cold bitch by other writers by… GASP!, writing Helena Bertinelli as a believable character and not a broad stereotype. My one complaint is that this issue drops a major revelation regarding Green Arrow that Judd Winnick has not seen fit to getting around to discussing in his book yet after half a year of demon-fighting stories. Still, that is hardly Simone’s fault.

Score: 10 out of 10.

Daredevil #61

If nothing else, this issue proves in a brief scene that Avengers will be in good hands with Bendis, when he takes over in a few months. And as the cover suggests, we get reintroduced to a character whom has been sorely missed in this title in the past few years. Hopefully this means that the “new, kewl and blonde!” Black Widow, which Greg Rucka and Devin Grayson tried and failed repeatedly to force onto us, is gone forever into comics limbo. Welcome back, Natasha.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink #1

Spinning out of a back-up feature in Dork Tower, this promises to be a cult classic comic. Reprinting the original back-up comics as well as an origin story for our title character and a character gallery, this book about a psychiatrist for the super-powered is a must-have for all superheroic humor fans. Highlights include the Riddler-esque Quizzler becoming an effective criminal after having his obsessive compulsive need to leave hints to his crime cured and a Wolverine-esque hero screaming in the waiting room about his problems with psychotic episodes and a history of violent behavior. All this, and a character called The Killer Pussy.

Score: 10 out of 10.

Ex Machina #1

Brian Vaughan (Y, The Last Man) wrote it. Tony Harris (Starman, JSA: The Liberty File) did the artwork. That’s all the reason I needed to get this book. It should be all the reason ANYONE needs to read it.

Score: 10 out of 10.

Fables #26

I’m officially hooked on this title now. Easily the best Vertigo series since Lucifer, this penultimate issue in the March of the Wooden Soldiers storyline is a real treat. If you’re a fan of mythology and fairy tales, you’re probably already reading this book. And if you aren’t, you should be.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Green Arrow #39

Sorry Ollie, but much more of this and I may have to drop the book of my favorite DC hero. Winnick ruins another writer’s character AGAIN in yet another month of drawn out, demon-fighting action. Hester and Parks make it all look pretty, but even they can’t save the shattered soul of this book.

Score: 3 out of 10, and that’s purely for the artwork.

Justice League: Another Nail #2

I can sum this book up in one sentence. A lot of stuff, seemingly unrelated, happens and by the end all Hell’s broken loose. That’s all. Davis’s art is good as ever, but his plot is much ado about nothing.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Hawkman #29

I’m still Jonesing for a Johns fix on this book. This issue was better than the first one, but I’m still not buying how quickly the St. Roch police department has turned from working alongside the Hawks to turning on them Spider-Man style, even in the wake of a line of murders with wings planted on the victims. Still, the artwork is good and the character scenes with Carter Hall and his new main squeeze are good. It’s still on the pull list for now.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

JSA #62

A good solid issue that, like most issues of this series, actually effects some major changes very quietly. If you’re a Green Lantern fan or have any interest in the upcoming “Reborn” series, it would be a good idea to pick up this book along with #60 and #61. Besides that though, we get some very nice character development to Mr. Terrific along with the apparent death of the zombie Ben Morse. Sorry, Ben.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Lucifer #51

God has quit his job and the universe as we know it is about to collapse. The only hope we have is the other universe that Lucifer created to prove that he could do a better job than dear old dad. Too bad he’s closed it off to everyone except mere mortals, so the immortal and magical beings are all S.O.O.L. All this and Destiny of The Endless does a cameo.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Mary Jane #1

I’m not the target audience for this book and probably the last man on the planet who should be writing about what pre-teen girls will like. Still, this book does fit the manga model well, centering around a teenage girl who has problems with her family, a crush on a wonder man with superpowers, a bland but nice guy her friends are trying to set her up with and that quiet guy in the glasses who is watching her from afar. I think it would work better in a digest-sized book form than in a monthly comic, as many of the manga readers I know refuse to read anything that even SMACKS of being a “regular comic”. Based on what I’ve seen so far, this is their loss.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man

A must have for any Spider-fan. Nuff said.

Score: 10 out of 10.

Phantom Jack #3

I love this book, though I’m somewhat concerned about the revelation in this issue that Jack is far from alone in his special powers. I’d hate to see Jack absorbed into this mysterious organization of other “spooks” where his uniqueness as a character would likely be diminished. Ironically, I do like the harbinger of this news as a character and wouldn’t mind seeing more of her in the series as it progresses. The artwork is great as well.

Score: 7 out of 10.

She-Hulk #4

I picked this issue up simply for the concept: Spider-Man sues J. Jonah Jameson for libel. It proves to be just as funny as I had hoped and a real treat for the die-hard Spidey fan who can actually name all the criminals Jameson has employed or sponsored since the Stan Lee days, who are brought up when discussing Jolly Jonah’s own criminal misdeeds. This was perhaps the funniest read I’ve had all year and I think this title might just make its’ way into my regular reading list.

Score: 10 out of 10.

Spectacular Spider-Man #15

You’d never know it from the story, but this is allegedly a tie-in to the upcoming “Avengers: Disassembled”. I usually love Jenkins work, but this issue seems a bit flat for some reason, with Captain American and Spidey seeming a little off their usual characters. Still, let’s wait for Part Two before judging it too harshly.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Tales of the Realm #5

This was a fitting closing issue for a series that turned fantasy comics and the actor’s society on its’ ear. Special mention needs to be made of the untypical virgin sacrifice scene as well as the method in which the being of ultimate evil is destroyed. If you missed the first few issues, don’t worry: a trade will be released this August!

Score: 8 out of 10.

Ultimate Spider-Man #61

For a story called “Carnage” that features a character named Ben Reilly, this book doesn’t make my Spider Sense for bad stories isn’t tingling nearly as bad as it should be. Indeed, it isn’t tingling at all. Bendis does a good job developing the relationship between Dr. Connors and Peter, giving them a student/mentor bond as well as a feeling of partnership as they discuss using Peter’s gifts as a boon to Dr. Connor’s research. There’s also a fair bit of action, as Peter is caught in the middle of a fight with The Punisher and Boomerang.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.