I haven't read any of DC's "New 52" and friend of mine shoots me this editorial. I have to warn you, after reading it I’m pretty much steamed for the rest of the day:
This writer of this gets a big “RIGHT ON, SISTER.” And that’s saying a lot coming from me. Because I LOVE boobs.
I know that only a little while ago I ran a little joke campaign to “Take off Wonder Woman’s Pants.” It was an aesthetic choice, but nonetheless this could make me look hypocritical. And you know what? You would be right. So I’m putting my foot promptly in my mouth and going 180 on the subject.
Laura Hudson has told you why all this is bad from a fangirl’s perspective, now I’m going to from a fanboy’s.
I think Catwoman is hot. I think Starfire is hot. Drawing them in revealing, skintight, and gravity-defying outfits only helps bolster that opinion. What I don’t need is shoving said tits in my face and having them say “I WANNA FUCK YOU RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I'M SO HORNY” in every panel possible to remind that they're hot. I have an active imagination and don’t need your help, thank you very much. And quite frankly, this overt shit is unneeded and it's waaaaayyyy past creepy. I’m all for busty female characters comfortable with their sexuality, but for the love of God does “sexually active” have to be synonymous with “slut?”
I swear, it’s like they hired a bunch of fanfic dudes to write this shit. Are you rebooting Starfire like a dumb, easy little tramp because you think it'll be good character development, or because you wanna hump an orange alien chick?
Let’s not kid ourselves. Comics have classically been a male-dominated medium and sex has always been a big part of that. But what happened to flirty dialog and cleverly-written “morning after” scenes? Black Cat and Spider-man banter? Classic. Now we have splash pages devoted to Catwoman and Batman fucking on rooftops and a solo comic devoted to stripper-turned-superhero-kinda-sort Voodoo?
Let me say that again: VOODOO.
I know finding decent characters (let
alone female ones)
from the Wildstorm universe is tough, but Voodoo?
“Hey,
let’s give the stripper chick her own
book. Guys love
strippers. And
girls…well…they should grow up to be
strippers.”
To be fair, the titles in question are only a very small portion of DC’s new 52 titles they’re rolling out and (though I honestly haven’t read many of them yet) hopefully these aren’t indicative of the rebooted universe as a whole. But as a comic reader who can count his monthly pull list on one hand and is very picky about what I plop down cash for nowadays, I’m probably going to stray away from a lot of the books I was interested in now unless something gives.
So yeah, I say put Wonder Woman’s pants back on. Because if this is what I have to put up with to have Diana in her skivvies, I don’t like the tradeoff.
I know most of this is just me yelling into the wind and for the most part the people who like my art are the same audience that these titles are written and drawn for. I get that. Yeah, I draw idealistic female figures from a male gaze. Just last week I drew the Black Cat flashing her boobs at me. Does that mean I believe that the real Felicia Hardy would and should be showing me her breasts at all times? As much as I would wish that to be so, no I do not. Comic books are fantasy, but it now seems that fantasy has run amuck. I understand that this shit is written with horny 12-year-old boys in mind, but if you’re so dead-set to see anything with boobs and an ass get busy with it, might I make a suggestion? Just stick with anime porn. I know you know where to find it.
Or DeviantArt.
OH SHIT I WENT THERE.