DC - Please Continue Publishing Secret Six In Some Format

Hello, everyone. Yes, I know it's been quite some time since I blogged about Comics but life's been a bit crazy, to put it mildly. In any case, I hope you can all forgive me and go take a look at this petition I just created:

http://www.petitiononline.com/47748668/petition.html

I outline just how and why I think Secret Six has been an important, wonderful read - one of DC's best books on the stands. Please sign this petition and keep a great book alive.

Thanks in advance to those who sign!

Helping women with Wonder Woman

Some of you may not know this but October 25th is Wonder Woman Day. CBR has an impressive rundown of the event by one of the founders here. This is a day to celebrate Wonder Woman, duh, but it's also for a great cause. Even if you're not going to be anywhere near Portland or New Jersey to meet famous comic book writers & artists, you can bid on awesome pieces of art done for the day online. Every piece of art bought goes to a very important charity - helping Shelters for Victims of Domestic Violence. I'm not terribly rich but I'm happy to donate time and attention to this wonderful day and wonderful cause. If you want to just stop reading here and click on over to thumb through the amazing gallery of Wonder Woman sketches for sale, I completely understand. Please donate even a little something, if you can.

Still here? Okay, time to get personal.

I know some people don't really "get" Wonder Woman and that's fine. Some people like chocolate, some people like rum raisin. What this day is, however, is a pure celebration of the spirit of the character as she's come to be known - the premier superheroine of the modern age. The character who little girls pretend to be when they play superhero, embracing the idea of the strong woman for the first time. Paradise Island, the Invisible Jet and the Golden Lariat are as part of the cultural landscape as Kryptonite and Alfred the Butler.

I know she's got her detractors but I love her. Yes, she's a deliriously complex character with so many facets that even great writers get a little lost getting a handle on her and too few even try. Still, that's part of why she's so fascinating. Batman, Superman, they can be summed up in a simple phrase or two. Wonder Woman - Diana of Themyscria - is a warrior and an ambassador of peace. Both an outsider and also the most trustworthy person in the DC Universe (even Superman doesn't have a rope brushing against his hip that renders him incapable of lying all the time). Complexity in comic book characters should always be celebrated and I love Wonder Woman as a character even when I don't care for her book.

To be honest, the last time I really enjoyed reading Wonder Woman was under Greg Rucka's pen (no slight to the fantastic Gail Simone but all the continual doses of tragedy and seriousness in her run leave me a bit cold). Greg Rucka wrote Wonder Woman as the one person in the DCU to have the strength to do what Batman and Superman could never, ever do (possibly should never, ever do, given their characters) and the heart to know what exactly what it would cost her. I know it put some people off but that? That's a hero I can both admire and understand. That's a soldier saving lives. That's a cop making a hard decision. That's a woman who makes hard choices. That's somebody I'd want a daughter to look up to as an example. Hell, I could make a long post about Rucka's Wonder Woman of it's very own but I won't, as it's already getting late.

In the end, I'm just thrilled Wonder Woman finally has a day to call her own. The fantastic cause it's supporting makes it even better.

For Crying Out Loud

Maybe some of you already know that comic book writer Gail Simone has a forum where she and her fans chat about things. She's a very funny, forthright author who loves to interact with her fans online. So, when somebody posted this page from the new, poorly-received Cry For Justice mini-series from James Robinson, she naturally had something to say about it.



"I could see Lady Blackhawk, actually. Two pilots having some sexy fun, okay, I get that.

But I hate to see Huntress get branded as a slut again. The whole point of the Josh story was for her to realize she deserved better.

And I can't see them doing a threesome, that affects their friendship, and the Birds were ALREADY one of the very few books about female friendship which is so fucking rare in comics it might as well be moonbeans captured in mason jars. Not that friends can't have sex, but once again, this is all about the man, and "Well played, sir" is just, ugh.

I love James Robinson. But I really feel like most writers of mainstream comics get the sex thing all wrong over and over. It's all wink wink nudge nudge and women as trophies and thumbs up and it seems so weird and off-character to me.

But I haven't read it in context and I'm just the dumb girl anyway.

But James Robinson is a great writer, he's never written anything I didn't enjoy in comics and I still think Silver Age is an underrated classic. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. But it does feel weird that people can read bop and still come away with the impression that THAT Huntress and THAT Lady Blackhawk would get drunk and be someone's sad Penthouse fantasy.

It just shows again that Bop was an important book for a lot of reasons and its absence is keenly felt in the portrayal of female characters in the DCU. Not my bop specifically, just the book overall."

She comments further on why this page is more than a little sexist and disappointing in the link, if you dig through the comments. I could say a few choice things myself but I'm trying to keep my blood pressure down lately.

. . . oh, what the hell. I'll say them anyways.

First off, I decided against collecting this series since I read the agonizingly boring and annoyingly self-righteous 5-page preview shoehorned into the back of my fun, entertaining issue of Power Girl. Yes, Hal, let's do lecture Wonder Woman about justice. You know, the woman who unflinchingly killed Max Lord and got whined at for two years about it? And hey, while, we're on the subject of smacking down villains, remember Parallax? I sure wish somebody had taken that power-hungry murdering maniac down permanently right about now.

You know, I really wish I could like Green Arrow and Hal Jordan. I like Black Canary, I like Guy Gardner, I like Kyle Rayner, hell, I like Arsenal and Kilowog. I know a lot of great fans that I respect who love Hal Jordan to death, so I keep trying to see what's so awesome about him and, to a lesser degree, Green Arrow. Still, I just can't get into these two characters because half the time I read about them, they're being portrayed as, well . . . how to put this politely? Asshats.

When Hal Jordan's quoting John McCain about bravery and Green Arrow's electrocuting his wife to end an argument, I just can't find much to like about either one of them. And "hey, ain't we studly manly men?" banter like this isn't helping my general disdain for their characters much.

Anyways, I know I'm probably being unfair to both characters by judging them only by the recent stuff I've read but, hey, you know what? Fuck it. If the Powers That Be at DC want to portray two of their most iconic heroes as self-righteous frat boys, then that's clearly how I'm supposed to approach the characters. And I really, really don't like frat boys.

Ahem. Anyways, since I try to be more of a "light a candle" than "curse the darkness" kind of guy, let me recommend some good comics with female protagonists in lieu of Snivel For Peace, Whine for Justice.*



Echo is about a woman on the run with powers given to her by accident via the death of another woman, a fighter pilot in an experimental flight bodysuit. Julie, the protagonist, is being tracked by another woman who is more than just a femme fatale. Julie has to try and reconcile the memories of the fighter pilot whose dangerous experimental flight suit has now become partially bonded to her, all the while avoiding the government, a deadly lunatic and more. Echo is one helluva read, a complex, interesting and smart sci-fi thriller.



The Sword is, to quote the creators website, "a modern-day fantasy series that follows Dara Brighton, a young woman whose life is destroyed by three powerful strangers. Her journey begins when she discovers a unique sword." I've been tradewaiting on this one due to poor finances and haven't yet gotten the new trade but this series has been consistently interesting, suspenseful and surprising. If you don't mind gore (the titular sword sure ain't used for slicing yams), it's a really great read.



And speaking of female sexuality in comics, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the smart, funny and frankly adult Empowered. While James Robinson turns two established heroines into a tasteless threesome punchline, Adam Warren writes about mature, adult superheroines whose sex lives are yes, funny, but also hot, heartfelt and occasionally awkward - i.e., "real". Hell, there's more honest, heartbreaking interaction between lesbian superheroes in volume five of Empowered than in all of Greg Rucka's Detective Comics thus far - and that's saying something, given how much I'm loving Rucka's run on Detective Comics**. It's both funny and kind of sad that Empowered, the series that is supposedly "exploitative" enough to get slapped in shrink wrap and labeled with a "Mature Readers" sticker, treats it's female characters with more respect than a book that says "Justice League" on the cover.

Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts on the above page and Simone's response, 'natch but . . . you know what? I'd like this to be a positive post. Feel free to kvetch with me but I'd rather you go ahead and tell me what comic books you're really enjoying lately in the comments. I'm always looking for comic books that make me happy rather than make that tiny vein in my neck twitch.


*Bonus Points to all of you who know what I'm referencing with that joke.

**Oh, and Detective Comics is kicking all sorts of ass and looking amazing, but I'm sure you knew that already.

Flown The Coop

So, I usually like to keep things light and fluffy here at The LookOut and only talk about things that make me happy. That said, I just gotta let out a rant.

I hated the ending to Birds of Prey. Whether or not it was editorially mandated or not, it blew. I've always been of the school of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" but some things just irk me until I can't keep quiet.

You see, I have this bad habit. I tend to analyze stories on their own merit. As a strict literary critic, it is a fine habit. As a bad deconstructionist and someone who doesn't always agree to the social contract that a comic book in a superhero universe is never, ever entirely it's own series - well, it drives me batshit nuts. Let's say I wrote a novel about two women who each have problems. One has a bad habit of dating cocky, blonde jerks (I'm not deliberately trashing Green Arrow here - that is one of the problems Dinah herself states at the beginning of the series). The other has issues stemming from an attack on her life that left her physically handicapped. One reaches out to the other to regain her feeling of power and ability to restore justice to the world. The other accepts her friendship and learns more about herself as a result. They both improve as people along the way and their circle of friends grow. Now, I would think the natural ending for such a story would be to have the outgoing character lead her introverted friend into a more comfortable space, filling her with confidence. The other half of that story would naturally dovetail into the more outgoing character becoming aware of her flaws and finding the confidence to live her life alone and only choosing to take a life partner if she feels that person is worthy.

That is not even remotely how this story ended.

Birds of Prey was a story, at it's core, about women making names for themselves and owning their own power. They acted with agency, competency and drive. They did so with joy in their hearts. And now, the series has just ended with Barbara Gordon dissolving her own team and leaving the care of a minor to someone else - all via a Dear John Letter. 127 issues and we get to see the main female lead end things, not in triumph, but awash in self-doubt, self-pity and just before running away.

To have a series devoted to such capable heroines - one that has lasted over 100 issues in a market that has not always been favorable to superheroines and even spawned a (mostly terrible) live action series - dissolved in a way that has Oracle berating herself and throwing in the towel, well, it's more than insulting. It's bad storytelling.

So why do I have such a bug up my nose, you might ask? Some back story for the uninitiated, first. Birds of Prey started with two characters - Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance a.k.a. Oracle and Black Canary. Both were female characters who had supporting roles in the books of male superheroes. Black Canary was Green Arrow's girlfriend and Oracle was the Batfamily and the Justice League's hub of information. In BoP, each of these characters was given a place to shine and to grow. While Chuck Dixon was more than a bit guilty of making Black Canary a trifle flghty, he created a space where Barbara and Dinah could be the stars instead of the sidekicks.



In fairness, I didn't start reading Birds of Prey under Dixon. I read the trades, enjoyed them but felt like it was missing something. Cue Gail Simone. Her run, possibly because it was finally two female characters actually being written by a woman, felt alive, interesting and authentic in ways Dixon's did not. There's a quote I quite like from Gail Simone, the writer whom I took to following the book for because I love her work -

"Birds of Prey got a reputation for scraping the barnacles off of a lot of characters, which I find very flattering. [...] One amusing thing is, we managed to do fifty issues without a single serious romantic plot of any seriousness. I'm actually pretty tickled about that, as that seems to be the first thing writers think of when writing women - "Who is she in love with?" The Birds can stand on their own in that regard."

Simone wrote Dinah as fighting her way into being the equal of Lady Shiva - one of the DCU's greatest martial artists, on par with Batman. She wrote her as having enough control over her sonic abilities to shatter a billiard ball in a person's fist without breaking their fingers. She wrote Barbara as a woman who could always fend for herself but surrounded herself with friends who mattered. Who, in taking in Lady Blackhawk, Huntress and Misfit, made a team a family. More than anything, this became a book where women supported each other and superheroines had a place to shine. Just check out this exchange between Canary and Huntress to see how tender Simone's run could get.



And Oracle, quite simply, kicked ass. This was an Oracle who'd carved out a niche in the DCU and shined as one of it's stars. The Birds of Prey became a team as important in their own right as the Justice League or Teen Titans. When Simone had a villainess appear to forcibly take over Oracle's team - to remove her agency - Oracle called in everyone who owed her a favor and it looked a little like this:



Gives me shivers every time I see it.

And now? Now, Dinah is the "co-star" of Green Arrow/Black Canary. She's married to Green Arrow, the man who got her hand in marriage by faking her adopted daughter's death and lying to her about it. The man who, in a recent issue of Green Arrow/Black Canary, demonstrated his respect for her by shocking her unconscious before going to do things himself.



Not to mention the fun plot wherein Dinah was so sloppy that she needed help defeating someone hand to hand, then stopped him with a sonic cry that deafened an innocent bystander. Yeah, that's just terrific respect for the character and her abilities.

On the Oracle side of things, we now get an Oracle mini-series to follow up the underwhelming ending to Birds of Prey. I won't even start on how obnoxious it is for Oracle to have abandoned Misfit, a girl clearly in need of supervision and care, because that would lead me down Cassandra Cain Drive to Rantypants Road. Let's just say that the former team leader and heart of the Birds of Prey now toils alone in a crappy apartment with the promise of a cure for her paralysis dangled in front of her (scroll down here for several far more salient reviews of Oracle: The Cure).



A lot of people have been saying that this story will lead to Barbara Gordon becoming Batgirl again, which I'm sorry, does not strike me as a step up. As Oracle, she was a team leader, a woman who called the shots. I don't think this character needs to reclaim anything by becoming a girl again.

Here's a fun question - exactly how many appearances did Green Arrow have in Birds of Prey? Ever? And how many times did Batman ever appear? I ask because, after reading 50-plus issues of Simone's run, I don't remember Green Arrow doing much of fuck-all. And I remember the one time Batman appeared, he got told off by everyone for being a prick and then subsequently thanked for not being a prick once he stopped trying to run the Birds of Prey himself.



Please understand that, for somebody who read Birds of Prey - and only Birds of Prey - having Black Canary shipped off to be married to Green Arrow felt like a crazy random plot twist. It was like reading fifty issues of Batman only to have Alfred say "Hey, I'm in love with Martha Kent and we're moving to space now, KTHNXBYE." Yes, I get it. I'm being unfair by, heaven forfend, judging the series on it's own merits. There's history. There's continuity! They wanted to respect the longterm, hardcore DC fans who've followed the Black Canary/Green Arrow relationship for decades. The problem is not that they wanted to do that. It's how they did it and how they're continuing to do it. If they did it in a way that was organic and spun out the story in Birds of Prey naturally, I'd be all for it. If they were writing Black Canary at the same level Simone did, I'd be happy as a clam. They didn't and they aren't. If they're going to write a book about Black Canary and Green Arrow as a married couple, it should be a book that treats them as equal partners, not one constantly having to be incompetent to make the other look good. Hell, I still think that if they wanted Green Arrow to win Black Canary back, they should have had him do it in her title as well as his. That's called a partnership and I think it was something that the character of Black Canary, strengthened by Simone as she was, had earned.

Hey, I know I'm talking like a crazy entitled fan here and I apologize. These are not my characters and I have no real right to demand they be written any which way. The thing is, I give out my Simone trades of BoP to non-comic book readers to encourage them to enjoy comic books. I see BoP trades in the teen sections of my local library, where young girls are reading them. It's a story of how Oracle took back her power and showed Canary just how much she could take back hers and seriously? That's awesome. So when I see this story ending with one of them being married off to a guy who's acting like a jerk and the other one left full of self-doubt and confusion, it feels like a betrayal. Not just a betrayal of the characters' own arcs but moreover of the principles on which the book itself was formed. And that makes me angry and more than a little sad.



Anyways, I think I've ranted enough for one night. Here's hoping that both characters end up more awesome than they are currently being portrayed. And failing that, let's hope that Lady Blackhawk, Huntress and all the good work previous writers have done on the title doesn't get forgotten, ignored or, heaven help us, fridged away*.

*Seriously, guys, I will go all Chris Crocker if anything happens to Lady BlackHawk or Huntress. Of course, to be brutally honest, I wouldn't mind it too terribly if something bad happened to Misfit. Sorry.

Not Dead, Just Thinking

So, first off, a quick but sincere apology to you, all my long-suffering followers. After my tech disaster, I had a pretty life-changing week that really made me stop and think about my priorities. I saw Obama live in person and it was pretty damn amazing. Made me stop and reconsider what I wanted to do with my life. I'm probably going to start blogging less and writing more, if that makes sense.

. . . none of which excuses the fact that I've been a terrible host and haven't written what I said I would write days/months ago. So, please forgive me and bear with me as I get that finally taken care of for you all this week.

In the meantime, there's quite a few good links for you to check out.

The Nerdy Bird needs your help to fly high and raise money to fight Muscular Dystrophy. Go forth and donate what you can.

4thLetter! has put up a heartbreaking post connected to Empowered, showing yet again that the series has more heart and more brains than half the damn mainstream stuff getting put out on the stands. My thanks to Kalinara for pointing the way.

Speaking of awesome links, My Bottomless Cup was kind enough to expound on this excellent post on Secret Six, which discusses some of the many reasons why I love this series so damn much. If you aren't reading Secret Six, you are currently suffering from an awesome deficiency.

There's quite a bit else going on in the comics blogosphere right now, not least of which is a huge kerfuffle over the implosion of Scans Daily. I could discuss my interactions with the community at length but I try to save the drama for my mama, as a general rule. On the other hand, Kevin Church - that cool blogger with a heart of brass - has had the huevos to kick the hornet's nest on his blog. Peter David, the author who was rather rudely told to "die in a fire" on Scans Daily, is also predictably not shedding any tears about this turn of events. Favorite writer of mine Gail Simone has a radically different and more positive view, while mad genius Warren Ellis predictably uses his fine, analytical mind to apply stark realism and basic facts to the situation. Absolutely none of which changes the fact, love them or hate them, they're just going to get the community up and running again in five minutes somewhere else (psst, it's already happened).

ETA: The inimitable MightyGodKing is also doling out the harshness to all involved on his blog, if you're in the mood to read some serious snark.

And what do I think about all of this? I'd like to live by the immortal words of Mr. T - "I don't start no trouble. I mind my own business." I've got enough on my mind as it is. Still, I'll just say that, while my heart is certainly in one camp more than the other, there are a lot of valid points on the table from people I respect on both sides of the issue. So there you go.



Phew!

Drama aside, how are all of you doing today?

Lookin' Wonderful

So, if you're interested, you can see the trailer for the new animated Wonder Woman DVD here. I liked it but that last line caused a bit of a disconnect. WTF? I mean, on Paradise Island, I thought that "hitting a lady" - i.e. Amazonian combat training and friendly scrapping - would be #2 on the number things done daily.
With #1 being the daily worship of the Goddesses of the Greek Pantheon, of course. What were you thinking was #1? Perverts.

In any case, I'm sure it's just one line taken out of context and therefore no reason to freak out and slam the film. Unlike some fans out there, I am actually capable of not overreacting hysterically to something like one line of dialogue in a minute long preview. Plus, I hear that Gail Simone herself wrote the script and in Gail we trust. Anybody else giddy about the new Secret Six series coming out? I'm gonna miss Knockout and Scandal's relationship - I just got used to and liked the "Klingon-y" version of Knockout, instead of the double-entendre spewing version from early Superboy issues, when they went and killed her off for a crap crossover - but I'm very hopeful that the "A-list BatVillain" in the upcoming series will be Catwoman. A Simone-Catwoman with Catman would be pretty damn interesting, no?

But hey! Back to the subject at hand. Check out this awesome as all hell featurette featuring Keri Russel, Nathan Fillion and Rosario Dawson (aw, Waitress reunion!):



If that doesn't pacify any worries, I don't know what will. I think this looks excessively kick-ass and I LOVE that explanation of the star-spangled bustier.

Your thoughts, gang?

And That's What Everyone's Talking 'Bout!

Lately, there seems to be an odd trend of Comics Bloggers demonstrating their love/awareness of pop hits.

Beaucoup Kevin has posted the new anime-style Britney Spears video.

Over at the Invincible Super-Blog, Chris Sims incites debate about exactly how much better the William Shatner cover of "Common People" is than the original, via the use of Archie Photoshop Excellence. Bonus points - I finally got to hear the original version of the song thanks to his linkage. Gotta say, I think I finally found something to put me to sleep in the wee hours. Thanks, Sims!

And not to be left out, Blog@Newsarama has revealed that the awesome and talented Gail Simone has created a 92-page, $12.99 comic that is entirely about . . . THIS:



What Blog@Newsarama fails to report is that other famous comics creators applied for the job and were turned down.

I hear Alan Moore was devastated that his take on the story was considered "too adult" by Miss Lavigne.

(See? Look how sad he is. Alan Moore is a Sad Panda)

Raina Telgemeier - who found out about the whole thing after Simone got the job - was quoted as saying the following:
"I'll [expletive deleted] gut you like a [expletive deleted] fish on Good Friday, Simone! Nobody works adorable pre-teens and teen American digest formats but ME, bitch! Stay off my [expletive deleted] turf or I'll [expletive deleted] you with a [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] until you bleed [expletive deleted]! [expletive deleted]!!!"

(I hear she's killed at least 20 men in cold blood. True story.)

Oh, and Grant Morrison's plot twist that Avril was both the Girlfriend who she stole from and the new Girlfriend herself was rejected as "too meta". Pity.

(They also hated the whole "The Boyfriend is Evil" twist. Philistines.)

ETA: If you dig around this carnival of fanpeople boggling and posting "WTF?!?", you can actually find Gail Simone's quotes on the "why" of this project. To sum up - "Outreach, outreach, outreach." Which is something I can totally get behind, 'natch.

14 Comic Book Couples I Love - Part 6

You guys remember the last relationship I talked about? How I went on and on about how much I loved complicated, messy love affairs in fiction? WHATEVER. C'mon, I never said I was consistent, people. So, with that in mind, I will now describe the adorable, often hilarious and altogether charming love affair of . . .

6. Ice & Guy Gardner



I'm not alone in my love of Guy Gardner and Tora Olafsdotter, by any means. These two crazy kids met back in one of my favorite series, Keith Giffen's comedic run on the Justice League. Guy was a grade-A jerk and Tora was hilariously naive. Still, rather than going the expected route and having a somewhat crass Guy take advantage of Tora's naivety, he fell in love with her so soundly that it changed his character forever. Ice saw a side of him nobody else did. She even turned out to be just about the only person who Guy would listen to whenever he was in a rage and, on rare occasions, vice versa.




(Okay, maybe not so rare occasions. This is what happens when you don't vent, Tora)

Guy's personality flipped-flopped from milquetoast to alpha male but Tora loved him all the same. Their relationship, more than any other, provided me with the most glee in the Giffen-era JLA. Only Tora and Guy could make a whole issue of going to the Ice Capades together compulsory reading. Hell, I even loved reading about them just talking about their feelings.



Now, Ralph and Sue Dibny very nearly made this list but I changed my mind at the last second. This was mostly due to the heinous, disgusting storyline called Identity Crisis and what they ended up doing to Sue. Even the awesome story of Ralph's journey in 52 couldn't redeem what they'd done unnecessarily to the Dibnys. Plus, unlike Sue, Tora has been subsequently raised back from the dead (thanks, Gail Simone!). Let's take a gander at what happens when two old lovers reunite after a small case of death, shall we?




Seems like Guy's getting the cold shoulder for now but I refuse to give up hope. This is the only loving relationship to survive from my favorite DC Comics run of the JLA and I'm darned protective of it. Let's hope that they find their way back from this Superman Returns moment -



all the way to this Say Anything moment -



In any case, thanks to Keith Giffen and everyone who made Tora and Guy happen. Some days I just want to read a sweet, simple romance tinged with comedy. Most days, however, I want explosions and kick-ass alien fights. Luckily, with Guy and Tora? I almost always get both.



Almost.

BONUS ICY CONTENT!

Love On Ice!



And much more disturbingly, Ice on Love!