Pepper Potts, Iron Man's ever-loyal Girl Friday, has high-tech armor of her own these days. Her boss left a brand-new tin suit for her when he went on the run from Norman Osborn, in Matt Fraction's epic "World's Most Wanted" storyline. But she's no "Iron Woman." She's got no plasma discs or repulsor rays, she's not rocket-punching bad guys. And this is a beautiful thing.
When Tony Stark gave Pepper her first cybernetic implant, saving her life in "The Five Nightmares," Pepper insisted she'd be no man's weapon. Tony honored that request when he built her armor; there's not a single piece of armament in its array. In the latest issue ("World's Most Wanted" part 7 of 12), we learn that the armored Pepper has taken the name "Rescue," and that's just what her suit is built to do. She's search & rescue extraordinaire. A friend asks her what's she's been up to. "Held up a stilt mansion in an earthquake. Stopped a few rockslides. Caught an airplane," Pepper says. "Two airplanes, actually..." And the list goes on.
In a previous post I complained about Marvel's recent questionable practice of creating new female villains by reinventing old male ones. But Pepper Potts' Rescue identity is a counterpart heroine done right. Rather than being a pale shadow of her male predecessor, she has her own unique approach to super-heroism as well as an unique goal.
I shouldn't really be surprised. After all, Fraction began Pepper Potts' evolution into a superhero in The Order, and the Iron Man concept lends itself well to reinvention. Tony has space armor and undersea armor and Hulkbuster armor. Soldier Jim Rhodes is armed to his iron teeth and calls himself War Machine. Now there's Rescue, a great addition to the Iron family.
I can't wait to see where Pepper, Tony, and the clan go next. Well played, Fraction.
- JC
Showing posts with label star-spangled panties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star-spangled panties. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
speaking of gender
There are probably many reasons girls don't read comics. For one, the stories get kinda samey, and it's a lot of money to spend each week that could better be saved for, I dunno, rent or groceries or ice cream. Better persons than I have no doubt explored all of the possibilities. But the one thing that makes me yell at the page and vow to swear off the entire genre? Boobs drawn by women.
I was reading the latest Runaways, which includes two short stories written and drawn by different people. The scripts are good to great; as long as you know the characters, Runaways isn't hard to write. Chris Yost ("Mollifest Destiny") threw a dozen X-Men/Molly gags together and had me laughing at every panel. James Asmus ("Truth or Dare") showed how much more interesting sleepovers might be if real teens had super powers. But the art in both stories didn't thrill me, and at one point was both annoying and disgusting.
In "Mollifest Destiny," the artist did a fine job with the boys, Molly and Klara, and most of the X-Men. Emma Frost, who is always drawn like a slut*, has a pose so physically improbable that I stared at the page, wondering if she'd had a few vertebrae removed for some reason. But the panel that made me scream and curse was a shot of Nico and her massive breasts, helpfully displayed by a corset.
What massive breasts, you say? Nico is a teenager. She doesn't have massive breasts. And even if she did, she's usually covered from elbow to knee at least. She makes her own clothes, remember? Her outfits often feature long coats, skirts with pants underneath, and big boots. I SAID BIG BOOTS.
So imagine my total dismay when I learned that the artist of this short piece is named Sara Pichelli. A woman.
It's bad enough that most comic artists pander to their audience, drawing women with impossibly large and bouyant breasts, painfully small waists, and body fat ratios so small they would never menstruate. (Not that geek boys, or any boys for that matter, think much of menstruation.) But when women do it, it's somehow worse. Especially for a book about young people, I would think an artist could say, for once I don't have to sketch proportions that would make Da Vinci cringe! Hooray! But no, Pichelli seems to think that it ain't a comic book unless it has boobs, so let's make sure the geek boys have something to think about later, in bed, alone.**
I'm not saying that images of beautiful women are bad or wrong or don't belong in comics. I can appreciate a good female form (and did so plenty before I hooked up with JC***), and I understand that a little cheesecake is expected in comics, even more so than on TV and in movies. But when even women bow to the convention of drawing characters with exaggerated features, what makes us think men won't have unreasonable expectations for women in their lives? When Wonder Woman, who has been wearing a bustier for almost 70 years, can't get a decent script or an artist willing to draw her some pants, where can comic fans who are more interested in the story than the skin find a decent book?
It looks like I'll have to raise my kids on old Power Packs and Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Even Archie screwed up by picking the wrong girl. And I trust that their father will stand as proof that not all men want the supermodel body type. Which is lucky for me, and JC seems to be happy as well. ****
- RD
*And that's a valid lifestyle choice, but f#ck Emma Frost. It's not necessarily about zomg she's taking Jean's place, it's just that I've never seen anything to make me think she doesn't suck as a leader.
**Which is also a valid lifestyle choice. And if they keep looking for women who look like the ones in comics, they'll stay that way for a very long time.
***A very valid lifestyle choice. Ask any of my ex-girlfriends.
****To be fair, I do have big boobs.
I was reading the latest Runaways, which includes two short stories written and drawn by different people. The scripts are good to great; as long as you know the characters, Runaways isn't hard to write. Chris Yost ("Mollifest Destiny") threw a dozen X-Men/Molly gags together and had me laughing at every panel. James Asmus ("Truth or Dare") showed how much more interesting sleepovers might be if real teens had super powers. But the art in both stories didn't thrill me, and at one point was both annoying and disgusting.
In "Mollifest Destiny," the artist did a fine job with the boys, Molly and Klara, and most of the X-Men. Emma Frost, who is always drawn like a slut*, has a pose so physically improbable that I stared at the page, wondering if she'd had a few vertebrae removed for some reason. But the panel that made me scream and curse was a shot of Nico and her massive breasts, helpfully displayed by a corset.
What massive breasts, you say? Nico is a teenager. She doesn't have massive breasts. And even if she did, she's usually covered from elbow to knee at least. She makes her own clothes, remember? Her outfits often feature long coats, skirts with pants underneath, and big boots. I SAID BIG BOOTS.
So imagine my total dismay when I learned that the artist of this short piece is named Sara Pichelli. A woman.
It's bad enough that most comic artists pander to their audience, drawing women with impossibly large and bouyant breasts, painfully small waists, and body fat ratios so small they would never menstruate. (Not that geek boys, or any boys for that matter, think much of menstruation.) But when women do it, it's somehow worse. Especially for a book about young people, I would think an artist could say, for once I don't have to sketch proportions that would make Da Vinci cringe! Hooray! But no, Pichelli seems to think that it ain't a comic book unless it has boobs, so let's make sure the geek boys have something to think about later, in bed, alone.**
I'm not saying that images of beautiful women are bad or wrong or don't belong in comics. I can appreciate a good female form (and did so plenty before I hooked up with JC***), and I understand that a little cheesecake is expected in comics, even more so than on TV and in movies. But when even women bow to the convention of drawing characters with exaggerated features, what makes us think men won't have unreasonable expectations for women in their lives? When Wonder Woman, who has been wearing a bustier for almost 70 years, can't get a decent script or an artist willing to draw her some pants, where can comic fans who are more interested in the story than the skin find a decent book?
It looks like I'll have to raise my kids on old Power Packs and Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Even Archie screwed up by picking the wrong girl. And I trust that their father will stand as proof that not all men want the supermodel body type. Which is lucky for me, and JC seems to be happy as well. ****
- RD
*And that's a valid lifestyle choice, but f#ck Emma Frost. It's not necessarily about zomg she's taking Jean's place, it's just that I've never seen anything to make me think she doesn't suck as a leader.
**Which is also a valid lifestyle choice. And if they keep looking for women who look like the ones in comics, they'll stay that way for a very long time.
***A very valid lifestyle choice. Ask any of my ex-girlfriends.
****To be fair, I do have big boobs.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
I'm sorry, Greg Rucka
I tried to like Wonder Woman (#195-199), I really did. But honestly, she's kind of an annoying character, her staff isn't much better, and all that stuff with the gods was more interesting on Xena. Sure, the gag about the mock book cover made by her publisher was vaguely funny, if you're into blatant T&A, and her personal chef is an interesting guy to have around, but. I dunno. It's still boring.
Rucka had the perfect opportunity to grab newbies to the book with the introduction of Jonah, a new staff member. We saw him jump into the life of a human in the ambassador's orbit, with only glimpses of the Woman herself, but aside from a single panel of competence, Jonah is a bumbling nerd, struck dumb at the sight of her star-spangled panties. (I can't be the first person ever to type that sentence.) I hoped he'd get better, but in his next appearance, Jonah is late for work because his alarm didn't go off. He wasn't feeding the kids, helping an old lady cross the street, holding up a liquor store or anything else that would require, y'know, personality. He didn't even get a thought bubble to explain that he hit snooze because he was up all night working on his Wonder Woman fanpage. ("here are sum hot new pics & a sotry i wrote about me & her getting MARRIED!!! plz R&R or i wont post chapter 2.")
The other humans aren't much better; the book protest guy isn't so much evil as vaguely irritating (and honestly, I'm not actually sure what it is about Diana's book that he's protesting. Paganism? Lesbianism? Not even Harry Potter protesters were invited to appear on Crossfire, so I don't know why the head of the Campaign to Keep Children Ignorant or whatever it's called is taken so seriously). The doctor lady who threatened the midget (yes, EXACTLY) is clearly Up To No Good, but she doesn't seem to have a motive or an actual plan, so I can't bring myself to care. Diana's staff are overwhelmingly competent and sensible and everyone else they run into is a parody of humanity.
Don't even get me started on Olympus.
The worst part is that I don't have a sense of Diana's actual personality. I'm five issues into Rucka's run and all I know is that she's sweet and genuine and works too hard. She's a paragon, clearly a good, smart lady, and everyone around her loves her or hates her. I was hoping for a little more character (and not so much cleavage, after JC's claim that Drew Johnson was trying to create a WW with reasonable proportions. The most I'll give him is "less outlandish," but that's about it). This is precisely why DC bores me - the heroes are perfect and the humans are predictable.
- RD
Rucka had the perfect opportunity to grab newbies to the book with the introduction of Jonah, a new staff member. We saw him jump into the life of a human in the ambassador's orbit, with only glimpses of the Woman herself, but aside from a single panel of competence, Jonah is a bumbling nerd, struck dumb at the sight of her star-spangled panties. (I can't be the first person ever to type that sentence.) I hoped he'd get better, but in his next appearance, Jonah is late for work because his alarm didn't go off. He wasn't feeding the kids, helping an old lady cross the street, holding up a liquor store or anything else that would require, y'know, personality. He didn't even get a thought bubble to explain that he hit snooze because he was up all night working on his Wonder Woman fanpage. ("here are sum hot new pics & a sotry i wrote about me & her getting MARRIED!!! plz R&R or i wont post chapter 2.")
The other humans aren't much better; the book protest guy isn't so much evil as vaguely irritating (and honestly, I'm not actually sure what it is about Diana's book that he's protesting. Paganism? Lesbianism? Not even Harry Potter protesters were invited to appear on Crossfire, so I don't know why the head of the Campaign to Keep Children Ignorant or whatever it's called is taken so seriously). The doctor lady who threatened the midget (yes, EXACTLY) is clearly Up To No Good, but she doesn't seem to have a motive or an actual plan, so I can't bring myself to care. Diana's staff are overwhelmingly competent and sensible and everyone else they run into is a parody of humanity.
Don't even get me started on Olympus.
The worst part is that I don't have a sense of Diana's actual personality. I'm five issues into Rucka's run and all I know is that she's sweet and genuine and works too hard. She's a paragon, clearly a good, smart lady, and everyone around her loves her or hates her. I was hoping for a little more character (and not so much cleavage, after JC's claim that Drew Johnson was trying to create a WW with reasonable proportions. The most I'll give him is "less outlandish," but that's about it). This is precisely why DC bores me - the heroes are perfect and the humans are predictable.
- RD
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