Is This Progress?
This caused me to raise an eyebrow. Not that I read Marvel. Or even care what they're doing. But it seems to be part of a minor trend. Not only are they switching up for a female Black Panther but I see to recall there being a "Lady Bullseye" recently.
It's not just Marvel, either. Lord knows that DC's been guilty of this before. I seem to recall Wildcat II and Doctor Mid-Nite II both being female versions of the original characters. And not long ago we had a Lady Chronos.
Now don't get me wrong; I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I'm all for diversity in comics. But sometimes I wonder if this sort of thing is being done for the right reason. Are female versions of established male characters appearing because it's an organic story? Or are they appearing because the almost exclusively male editorial staffs at the companies want excuses to put -- if I may be so blunt -- hot chicks the costumes?
Is it really about telling good stories? Or is it just a way to to appeal to the lowest common denominator: the "typical" comic fan who reads comics to ogle at attractive women that he can't get in real life?
Now I know as well as the rest of you that that is not really what the typical comic fan is like. There isn't any typical comic fan. We're as varied as comics are. But Marvel (and surely DC to an extent) still seems to think that most of their fans are that media-borne stereotype. And surely some of them are. Is that why they're giving us "Black Pantheress" and "Lady Chronos"?
And if that's the reason, is that really a good reason. Like I said, I want more female characters in comics. And I want more female headliners. But is a stunt like this (and forgive me if I assume something Joe Quesada calls "a very cool idea" a stunt) really the way we want to bring more women into headliner status as comics? Maybe so. Maybe it's the only way you can get a still overwhelming male comic audience to accept it.
Or maybe not. And maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe Hudlin and Marvel have crafted a brilliant, clever story about why an established male hero is replaced with a female version wearing a skintight black outfit. But then, I don't hold much hope. Because, after all, It's Marvel.
Labels: Marvel
posted by Diamondrock @ 9:26 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Well, less "its Marvel" and more "its Hudlin". Even divorcing his writing on Black Panther from any real ties to regular continuity (which it pretty much has) its still a terrible, terrible book...
But Hudlin won't be on it forever and maybe someone will eventually take the new character and do something cool with her. Hell, Deadpool is massively popular with fans now and he's a freaking Rob Liefeld creation...
Y'know, that's a good point. I'd forgotten that Deadpool was a Liefeld creation (or rather, I'd blocked it out). And *I* like Deadpool. So that's saying something...
Well, speaking as a lifelong female comic book reader, I've never been all that interested in reading picking up a comic book simply because a character happened to be the same sex as me. I mean, sure, I've always liked Wonder Woman well enough, and I've always been very fond of Black Canary, and I was a HUGE X-men fan back during the Claremont era, when Storm, Phoenix, Moira MacTaggert, and later Kitty Pryde were such prominent, strong female characters. But my favorite characters have always been male. Perhaps it's an indication that male characters are usually written better than female characters, but I doubt it. In keeping with the "ogling" tradition, I just prefer looking at the guys -- oh, and making fun of them. ;-)
Well, that's kind of my point. They certainly aren't making a female Black Panther to appeal to the ladies. It's for the guys that want to ogle. I know I find this new BP easy on the eyes.
But as much fun as it is to have pretty women to look at (and it *is* fun) I don't want that to be the reason...
i'm no authority, but my opinion is that these characters are not created with the intention of letting male comic fans ogle. while i think the notion of launching female carbon copies of previously established male characters may be a dubious practice on the whole (not always, but for the most part...), i don't think that they're intentionally laid out like sexy little superhero landmines across the Big Two. i honestly think that the people behind these character gender shifts genuinely feel they are diversifying their comic universes. the problem is that it gets hyped like they should be giving themselves a huge pat on the shoulder. "Black Panther is going to be a woman! Aren't you proud of us?!" notice how this is time to come out in February as well so it can coincide with black history month. i think Marvel is just trying to milk the concept as much as possible for "good PR." they could have launched it immediately after SI, especially seeing as how there is no Black Panther title coming out until this new book hits in 3 months.
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