Ouch. Deep Breath. Expected Disappointment

"One of the primary things we've done with Static — just to show that we're positioning him a little differently — is to take him out of the Dakota setting and place him firmly in New York City. There's a chance you'll see other Milestone characters, but we really want to make Static a primary hero of the DC Universe."

Because you apparently CAN'T be a MILESTONE character and be a PRIMARY DC UNIVERSE character. Because apparently STATIC can get play as part of the DC Universe, but Milestone characters are NOT part of the DC universe.

Suddenly my want of Virgil in college, dealing with those issues - alongside Richie, and the responsibilities of superheroing seem very, very, small.

You Never See The Sucker Punch Coming

I stopped reading Marvel and DC a while ago.

Today while looking for something else, I noticed and clicked a link for BLOODSTONE. I thought I'd see something about the adventures of this Elsa Bloodstone; straight shooting, hard swearing monster hunter, handsome of face and loaded with guns and bullets out the yingyang.

Now, I can't be the only one first introduced to Elsa via Nextwave. So I can't be the only one to stumble across Elsa Wishbone Legs and Elsa Chesty McBoobies and go W.T.F at the, apparently, Official 'Mattel' version of the heroine; wherein all the fat, muscle, organs and bone mass of her body got squished up to her upper torso.

Disappointing enough this version of the character's gone blonde now; there was just something about the Nextwave versions' red hair that put me in mind of explosions and copious bad guy blood spray. But now there's little girl pigtails, country girl tied at the bosom shirt (with no bra) and leggings on the toothpick stumps she uses to be ambulatory.

No I'm not claiming the Nextwave version was perfect. But I do find it intellectually stimulating that most of the poses easily found for the Nextwave version, show her looking hard rock and badass, whereas Wishbone Legs and Chesty are all about the current impossible beauty standards; you'know, hair dye, spray on tan (on caucasian skin), lipo, breast enlargement, rib removal, lip plumping AND, sexually available/come hither.

And I absolutely need to mention the cover that kept popping up. . Marvel.com has this blonde version on their site as a member of their (main) universe. Whether she came first, switched for Nextwave and was switched back, or whatever, you don't meet the redheaded take charge monster hunting woman on Marvel's site.

You are presented with her, Blondy McHelium Chest.

Let me provide a close up of that cover, so you can really see the scared 'OMG I Might Become A Horror Victim' look on her face.

Unexpected booster shot of Do. Not. Want.

A few weeks ago I started and then didn't finish a post about my slight admiration for superhero comic book fans, particularly the female and non white fans. Because the level of self maintained hope for better and willingness to be enthused - I said the hell with this shite after what? Two and a half years? No, three. It just about stretches to three. There's an optimism, maybe even a kind of willful self delusion in order to grasp at something akin to hope (which to me, even when I was on the inside, just looked like compromise) that I just. do. not. have.

As much as Everyone Makes It To The 31st Century touches me, inspires me and gets me interested in the potential of the properties? All it takes is one image to remind me of the shit cascade.

*goes to reply to her commenters discussing manga now*

This Is What DC Refuses To Do

Back in August I mentioned a project being done, one named:

Everyone Survives To The 31st Century

I was hesitant then to promote it outside of emails and twitter dm's because it was so wonderful to me. I did not want to see some white jerkarse from DC slap a cease & desist on it and try and or succeed in getting it pulled down.

The Legion Of Superheroes as multiethnic and diverse. Truly reflecting the complexity that is human physical appearance on Earth with hints of sociological diversity as well.

But the project is over now. It is three issues and a coda showing what could have been had DC not been filled with individuals who put more stock in tokenism and propagating white supremacy and authority above even good storytelling.

Oh, they won't describe themselves as such, but a future where everyone from humans to very humanoid aliens are all white? And their general strain of only light skinned minorities have even bit parts to play? That colourism? The combination of the two? That's white supremacy plain and simple. That's the sociological disease that says only white people have been, are and will ever be important.

Odditycollector, in her social experiment (one of the few times the phrase means something positive on the internet) has thoroughly shamed DC.

And thoroughly delighted me.

Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue 3 & #Coda.

A space opera odyssey I could invest in, if DC had any interest in telling stories outside the echo chamber of white (& male) power.

xposted: PoC In SF Carnival Blog

Characters Of Colour? Where?

If I wrote an open letter right now I don't know who I'd address it to; The Creator(s) of The 99 wherein I beg them not to make deals with DC? Or would I, should I bother with an open letter to DC telling them to take their pudgy, imperialistic, white supremist hands off all properties involving non-white (and non America focused) characters?

The White Man Lies - But That Ain't New. Milestone Characters Dropped Like Rocks And Other Tales Of "But We Have No Current Plans For Anyone Who Ain't White".

Who knows, maybe they figured using Milestone characters would upset the Birthers who're a prominent subset in their demographic.

Hmm. I guess I'm leaning towards writing a letter to beg the creators of The 99 to run far, far away from DC. I still have issues to buy to catch up. Reading still makes me smile. Seeing heroes, brown heroes, from all over the globe still brings me to tears (of joy).

At least now I have it confirmed that my aversion to reading anything by authors I don't know is me not wanting to deal with anymore majority white worlds anywhere; where the author's skanky race issues can surprise and accost me, hanging there, all gross off their naked butts.

Manga, The 99 and a couple of web comics. Alright then.

And for an actual opinion rather than just my tired disgust, see 4th Letter.

Wow, Static in Teen Titans, and a manga based off the white washed characters in the live action movie version of The Last AirRacebender - all this attention to beloved non white mythic and heroic icons, it's enough to make me flush, flutter, faint and fall over. [/ sarcasm]

Everyone Survives To The 31st Century

There is an individual who has altered an issue of League of Superheroes to be more chromatic. Reading it, made me feel comfortable. It felt like I was reading The 99 and then I checked the comparison pages and the pure whiteness of the future....

Shameful Damn, People. WHITE FILLED SHAMEFUL DAMN.

I'd like to promote this project, but I don't actually want to see it taken down because DC posts a cease and desist showing our blatant racism.

So I'm willing to DM on Twitter or Email the link to those who contact me. Because it should be seen. (Maybe there's a way to zipfile it and upload it somewhere, though that is less demonstrative/fair use that way).

Meanwhile I'm going to keep contributing to manga annihilating Western American comics in bookstores and other places where good storytelling as well as sequential art are bought and I'm going to keep supporting The 99.

PROOF! We Are Not A Monolith (& stuff)

Digital Femme gets all excited about Blackest Night. Her descriptions turn me the eff off. I found myself going:

"Is this supposed to be happening in the same universe and time frame as Batwoman and New Krypton?" and rethinking my urge to buy those trades - cause I don't want to see any of Blackest Night splashed around, even if I buy those two second hand or something.

I'm also (not just like DF) in that I'm not likely to read just for spectacle. New Krypton and Detective Comics (with Batwoman) are nibbling at me because they intrigue me about characters. I'm very much a character girl (what with being that crazy woman walking around thinking 'What Would Batman Do' and then doing it).

On the flip side, Marvelverse? I don't even care anymore. It's kind of scaring me. I imagine myself hearing that Monica or Allison has been killed off and my instant reaction is - well, guess I'll start writing fanfiction.

Oh the X-men went all evil and/or got blown up? - That's sad.

They castrated Beast? - Was he even using that body part? Eh. Whatever.

Scott Summers has become Emma Frost's boytoy sex slave and has been mind whammied? - Eh, hopefully they won't need to revive Jean from the dead so someone can slap Frost down for that.

Ok, maybe the last one has a little bit of caring from me. What with the whole 'slapping down' but I'm not inclined to want to see it, so I'm thinking it counts under the 'Meh'.

At This Point, Bitter Is A Specialty Flavour

I didn't do a damn thing for today being Free Comic Book Day. Actually, truth is I checked out the offerings online and there wasn't a damn thing I wanted to see. Not even a new comic story of Harry Dresden had enough pull to get me to go traipsing to a comic book store.

If someone would like to prove me wrong by pointing out where the diversity is in the Free Comic Book Day offerings, without making Love & Rockets multi-task for token status; for girls, for lesbians; for brown and black girls, possibly for brown and black boys; Then I'm all ears.

Meanwhile I saw books for white people who like horror, and books for white people who like superheroes and books for white people who like slice of life and books for white people who like comedy and books for white people who are kids, books for white people who like urban fantasy, books for white people who like space fantasy, and books for white people who like robots.

Oh wait, maybe I should go back and strike out all those 'for white people' and replace them with 'the assumed default'. Or maybe not.

So while various folk are crowing about what they scored for FCBD, I'm going to keep hunting down non-white webcomic artists on the web.

Hello Neo

This was originally posted in my personal journal, but some recent entries by various people on their blogs nudged my thinking that it should be reposted here. And I know I want at least one person in particular to see it.

Remember the Dove Evolution ad? Go on, youtube the words and you'll find it. Well I remember that it clued me in to the exact details of how models don't look anything like themselves in the final product. I had always had a general sense and then a bit more when it came time for me to do my own dabblings in photoshop, but this made it specific for me.

Then last night came PhotoshopDisasters. The next time I hear my sister mention working herself to the bone to exercise and stay fit and not be fat (she's taken after our mother in a serious way and is very petite but worries because Mom, is well, Mom) I'm going to point her to this site. Because it made me realize that as a whole, we the general public, myself included, no longer know what a real human body looks like. Specifically we don't know what a real female body looks like.

I caught some of the touchups after a few moments. But how often do people really stare at advertisements for several minutes? I tend to flick by them very quickly in magazines etc, unless something in particular has caught my eye. And I soon realized as I flipped through the site that if I wasn't already prepared, if I didn't already know things were screwy, I might have missed so many things. Which means in my head, I've begun to see the most distorted things as representative of the female form EVEN WHILE THINKING I WAS AWARE OF THE BIGGER DISTORTIONS.

It's been a revelation. Too skinny long arms, a little waist creation, body parts missing, everyone's wrinkles and sun lines and laugh lines (wrinkles of any sort) faded out, breasts the size of the model's head(Which came first? This feature in comics? Or comics copying photoreferences ? Who set the standard for this screw up?), plastic faces, something called 'monoass' where the asscrack has disappeared, bobble heads, impossible heights and more.

The link with the touched up faces but the untouched up reflections hit home to me just how much isn't done anymore with good lighting, good makeup and good angles. They don't seem to try and find people's good sides anymore, they instead create them. It blew my mind. A little created waist, change a face shape, remove shadows, remove life. One woman there had what I call in my head the 'hearty, healthy, slightly horsey British woman' look - that was completely morphed into smooth faced Hollywood leading lady, if not starlet. She looked like her own younger and less outdoor inclined younger sister (who happened to be born when their Mom & Dad could afford braces).

The whole thing, especially the stuff it took me a while to notice just started me thinking of when they do the photoshopping well and we, consumers, the audience, don't notice. And all of a sudden the phrase 'impossible standards of beauty' take on a whole new and deeper meaning. I remember growing up and realizing that it took hairstylists and professional make up artists, and someone picking out your clothes and good lighting and choosing the best angle to accent your best features, along with a photographer who knew what he or she was doing in order to look as perfectly laid out as possible. And even knowing all that, even being told that by women in my family, everyone still wanted to hope that they'd have a good day on that special occasion and get the perfect picture from the perfect angle and get to see themselves looking not just well, but radiant.

And even if they never reached their personal goal of dazzling, they still looked wonderful. I've had my moments where I thought I looked beautiful. Those were when I was younger. As I've gotten older, even though I'm comfortable with aging (it's a miracle to me I'm still alive and kicking), I feel beautiful less and less often. And I think that has to do with the fact that I'm not seeing people (particularly women - even more specific the few black women around) with character in their faces, caught in a way where you see their eyes glow and the soft curve of a lip and it all comes together to be attractive. That's more something I find myself doing as I walk along the street now, noting how someone's characteristics make them all of a piece. In the media there's just this soft focused perfection.

It's startling to realize that today they'd photoshop Nichelle Nichols. NICHELLE NICHOLS! Unhura the HOTTNESS herself. A woman who is still kicking ass in the beauty department today, would be fixed. You know how people talk about how Marilyn Monroe would be called a lard ass by today's standards? It goes deeper than that. Forget about mere photo 'retouching', Joan Crawford's nose and chin would get fixed today, virtual plastic surgery. Instead of being a commanding presence, who knows what role she'd get slotted into.

I can remember being disappointed when Isabella Rossilini was removed as the face of LANCOME. I'd grown up with her as such. I couldn't imagine any other spokesperson. And stubborn little me, never bought myself or my mother LANCOME again. Luckily, Mom felt the same way. Isabella Rossilini is a beautiful woman but of course she can't compete with younger models being molded like clay in post. They're even doing it with the men. No one's safe at all from this Barbie Plastic Perception of Perfection.

It occurs to me that my personal inability to see myself as a whole, may have been influenced by a culture that sees and promotes people as an assemblage of parts. If I'm unconsciously spending time trying to assemble the images I see into a whole person - it's no wonder I look at myself and try to assemble things in my head using the same process. And heaven help me because my limbs are never going to look that impossibly long, nor my waist or bust match the other impossible designations. Seriously if only people who have eating disorders are being made aware of just how BAD this crap has gotten - it's a damn shame. Because the rest of us are getting fucked over too.

And I haven't even begun to mention the erasures. One shot in particular, this one, for GAP I believe, caught my attention. The young black model? She was originally in the midst of the group, now she's solo, singular, out in the cold. This one is blatant. Other erasures are subtle in that one's eyes are likely to more easily believe a limb connects to the closest body even if that body already has all relevant parts. Some badly done erasures are freaky. But again, I'm thinking about the ones not on the site. The ones done well where we'll never know if the old man with the flowers had a WoC Wife, or a male partner for that matter. Where we never realize important officials really WERE at certain meetings and photographs were taken - they were just edited out for whatever reasons...

It kind of hit me the whole:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

We create our own reality

Just who is we? And what is it that 'we' is creating?

I don't think these are idle questions. They relate to so much, as much about fashion and self esteem and body image as politics and gender equality and gender and sexuality rights. What else beside real bodies do you and I no longer know how to recognize? If the game of the day is 'We Create Our Own Reality' - then doesn't it add a sinister shade to the original push against Prop 8? And doesn't it make the Yes on 8 folk seem that much smarter? They created a reality for others to vote against, and a reality under attack - even though neither one was the actual reality.

Who is We? And just what reality have they created? Just how different is it from what many of us experience every single day in our lives? Who's been getting airbrushed out? Who's been getting slipped in? Once upon a time wasn't it the accepted practice of a fascist regime, a fascist reality, to create reality? To dictate that things didn't happen the way the public remembered them happening? To decide that someone's name would be crossed out and their picture erased and the public was never to mention it or discuss it again? Isn't that going on now?

And please, don't go 'OBAMA'. This is the machinery he's been left to work with, with little rats burrowing in the corners holding tools, specifically wrenches, to gum up the works.

There's a man in Iowa, currently on trial for having manga the government deems objectionable. Some if it may be lolicon. Some of it may be yaoi. What's known for sure is that out of everything seized in a raid - a raid created because a postal worker decided that the markings on Christopher Hadley's mail were objectionable to his reality - Hadley now faces up to 20 yrs in prison for only a few images.

over 1,200 manga books or publications; and hundreds of DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks; seven computers, and other documents.

Hundreds upon hundreds of images - but he could face prison time as a private collector for just a few. And his case has to fight not just the unjustness of everything that happened, but the reality being presented that there's no way police and law enforcement officials would arrest someone over comics, so there must have been something icky like child porn or worse.

He could go to jail because someone (not just the prosecutor) is creating an image of a reality, one that threatens the ideal vision of the community he, and Hadley and the jury are part of and he's pointing Hadley out as the threat to that ideal, as the weed to be plucked out to make everything better again. It's all smoke and illusions and bullshit, but a finger's pointing. A scapegoat has been chosen. Why think?

To add a touch more relevance to this because this is my sequential art blog, I've a thought on NuMarvel and Joe-Q and The New Marvel Reality sparked by this entry on PostModernBarney.

The contention arising among comics fans, and the discomfort people are feeling because of Quesada and NuMarvel (and possibly NuDC) is it because they're changing the reality of what Superhero Comics ARE. So on the surface it seems like old timers complaining who should just STFU and women whining, and OMG do black people ever shut up about racism. But it's all more than that. It's more than a partiality to stories of old or heroes of old. It's more than wanting comics to be BETTER. It's perhaps not wanting them to de-evolve. It's being able to remember, to recognize what superhero comics used to be and what they are now; what they're becoming.

Continuity is more than just keeping a record of the stories in some order. It's remembering and recognizing the REALITY of said stories; how the universe works.

But reality is being dictated and we are to accept the status quo, because we've been told that this IS the status quo - don't question it. So Norman Osborn in a group that includes Doom, Namor and Loki, is in charge because it has been commanded that this reality is the status quo. Love is war. Marriage is worth less than a Deal With The Devil. Badass is a man who seduced a teenage girl and impregnated her. Tigra is weak. The Hood is a good A-list villain.

Because they have Weapons of Mass Destruction.

It's not art, it's porn. It's icky porn with ties to no community standards.

Missing limbs and photshopped bizzarro anatomy in fashion and consumer ads is beauty.

Holy crap. Wasn't the Matrix supposed to come with a messiah and cool powers?

While I Was Watching Vixen

Uhm, so I asked people before I made this post. And they told me that Connor Hawke is still supposed to be multiracial. Superboy Prime did not punch the non-white out of him.

And yet....This doesn't look even biracial to me. This doesn't look like the artist had one idea and the colourist had no idea how to blend things. That looks like a tanned surfer dude.

In all honesty I cannot remember which races make up Connor's biracial identity. My memory of seeing him for the first time involved blonde hair which suggests Caucasian (White) and dark skin which suggests, being Black or South Asian. And I'm fairly certain his eyes used to be drawn without a fold. So at the very least, my first impression was he was multiracial with traits from his parents and his grandparents.

But what part of the previous image or this image brings that multiracial identity to mind? Hell in this pic he looks more like Ollie's son than anything else. Which leaves what? A heavily tanned surfer dude who also slings arrows but is into Zen. A Californian, maybe even San Francican. [Writing Edit: Just been told he doesn't do archery anymore - so just a surfer then?]

I'm asking honestly now - When Superboy Prime punched the black off of Vixen, and the pants off Wonder Woman and we were watching in horrified shock, did he knock Connor Hawke into Aryan purity?

It's a question that's got to be asked, don't you think?

DC lost me a while ago. Everytime I check back, however, I find less and less reason to regret walking away. Sort of like Marvel (with Dazzler and my newest love, Shulkie) but that's a rant for another day - or maybe not. I've already stated Marvel doesn't care about people like me. And I bet pretty soon Mr. Terrific will drop from Third to Seventh most intelligent man in DCverse and DC will be more obviously forcing & shoving people like me away.

Yeah, good thing for webcomics and indies and the occasional manga. But I'm still rapidly becoming A GIRL WHO DOESN'T READ SUPERHERO COMICS.

It's sad.

*attempts not to feel beat down, rib kicked and depressed aka Tigra Bendisized*

More Than Skin Colour (A Vixen & Others Redux)

There's a conversation happening over on livejournal about the difference between light skinned privilege (and problems) and white privilege and most important of all, the fact that white people Do. Not. Get. To. Decide. Who is POC enough. White people do not get to police the POC community for authenticity. See the links for more. Note - those posters will ban AND mock idiots, read all first before commenting.

The conversation sparked something in my own head which I feel the need to make clear. The problem with Vixen was never that she was being made into a light skinned character of colour. The problem was never that darker skinned fans of the character and fans of DC in general had a problem with (as was said several times by some ignorant and unknowledgeable people) the artist being Brazilian and putting up his interpretation of a Woman of Colour. The problem was that Vixen was created a dark skinned sister and suddenly she was no longer. And in the real world, when a dark skinned woman suddenly turns lighter skinned, it's usually because she's using toxic products to BLEACH HER OWN BODY. And the reason she's using said products has to do with racism and colonialism and the idea that the ideal beauty is white or as close to white as possible. THAT is the problem behind Vixen's lighter skin tones, and Misty Knight's.

You see it hit me that the comicverse/comic blogsphere is an interesting and perhaps perfect place to see how much outsiders think they know about the POC community. And how often they get things wrong or they get wrapped up in old arguments that were created in the first place to cause strife and separation and a denial of foundation and a solid base.

It is more than a rant or an academic treatise on the fundamentals of beauty when POC bloggers talk about hair texture and style and the color of the skin of a character. It's about a history that we as POC can never, ever, forget; it's in our bones and our blood and our grandmother's tears over our skin when we stood in the sun too long playing like innocent children. It's in the fears of our mothers that our fair cheeks would attract some wayward lecherous man who would never be held accountable because as pale skinned as we, the innocent child might be, we were still OTHER enough to be a mere animal and the victims of a predator. It's in the sighs over a baby boy being beautiful but dark which makes it, to this day, unlikely he could live to see twenty one, or forty.

When is hair more than hair? Skin more than skin? When it's dark skin and dark hair, sometimes kinked and sometimes not. When are eyes more than eyes? When they're slanted, with different folds. When eyes and hair and skin are all a line that represents inclusion or exclusion. When there's intergenerational trauma. When what you look like involves history as recent as your grandparents that no one wants to talk about because of the bad things that happened that can never. ever. be rectified.

Each bit of melanin in our skin is a word in a history that often only other POC hear screaming. That is what is up on the page with POC characters. To deny Vixen her dark skin and her flatter and larger nose; to deny a character his locced hair, or natural fro, is to try and erase an ocean of history... because those who made the decisions and sign off on the prints are still cocooned in the sense of power their ancestors had when they raped a land; India, Africa, Australia, Vietnam, Laos, Japan and more. It's a violation of the memory of the past, the weight of the present and the promise of the future.

Watching The Story In Your Head / BYOS

I've recently been engaged in conversation about Watching The Story In Your Head and When You Can't Watch Your Story Anymore. A recent comment by Heavy Armour made me realize that while I'd engaged in wrestling with and discussing television and movies, I hadn't applied any of that careful pinpointing to comics; that is I hadn't broken down why I continue to read some things and why I ran fleeing from others and I haven't put the question to anyone reading me here.

The whole conversation started around the realization for me that I could not deny the accusations of poor story telling, reliance on stereotypes and tropes and possibly cheap methods of getting viewers to connect with the protagonist in Memoirs of a Geisha. I struggled for a while trying to define the difference between "Watching The Story In Your Head" and privilege. Both involve not seeing what's happening to some extent.

What I realized as it was pointed out to me is that "Watching The Story In Your Head", even though it can happen simultaneously to viewing is often a response to things gone wrong and if someone points out the things that went wrong, I will have my alternate version but I won't deny they saw what they saw or that I see it too when they point the finger.

It took a while though, because it seemed so dangerous to be creating an alternate story on the fly - that is until I realized that such a creation/viewing/interpretation in itself was efense mechanism against the wrong. I'd have stopped enjoying what I was viewing if I couldn't change it. In some cases I'd even have walked away in disgust, story unfinished.

The flipside, "When You Can't Watch Your Story Anymore" was revealed as I thought about it and wrote about it, to be almost a two stage process. First there's the story, then there's the story I'm watching, this usually kicks in as things happen on screen/in the plotline that I disagree with, don't like or am offended by. Then there's the point in which I can no longer make a mental shift in order to enjoy what I'm viewing - there's just too much to change. I might as well make a clean break of it and find something fresh and original to wrap my mind around or write something my own damn self.

When I put these thoughts to comics now, it seems clear to me that comic readers do this ALL THE TIME. Readers follow their version of the canon; their version of a character's history; their version of a character's backstory. They make up reasons for certain actions by characters they love. They try to work around varied writers and artists who have different interpretations of said characters than what they themselves particularly love. Comic book readers are SKILLED at following 'their story'.

It makes me wonder if comic book executives don't take advantage of that fact to some extent. They're aware, especially in these days where they were fans themselves. The figure they may lose some, but eventually they'll get them back because something will hook into the story those fans like to see. But that immediately makes me think of Joe Quesada and BND. Hear me out, take a deep breath and hear me out *smile*, I know some of you are tired of this particular topic.

Joey Q has his story, the one he likes the best for Spiderman. And he's gained a position in order to make his story THE TRUE STORY. Except that in doing so, many many fans believe he's forgotten an intrinsict part of comic book reading which essentially is BRING YOUR OWN STORY. The readers who're upset with him? The fans darting his face in bars and basements? He just invalidated their stories in a media that's generally all about BRING YOUR OWN STORY. It's made the arguments "But there's nothing in the stories of BND that needed MJ gone" take on a new meaning for me. MJ could just as easily not be in panel for those who don't like her there, but be a presence that's on tour with a musical, or doing an indie movie shooting on location somewhere and contacting Peter primarily through email and phone. New incarnations of old enemies could still have happened etc...

In the end, Joey Q's personal need to have Aunt May around forever, because she's apprently such an intrinsict part of his Spiderman story, meant that everyone who isn't him (and isn't reliant on him for a paycheck) is now going "But what the fuck??!"

Which is kind of where I am when it comes to Characters of Colour now and the Big Two. It's been one thing to bring my own story when it comes to said characters, it's another to try to do so when the characters no longer look like they belong in my story. And comics being a visual art media, makes it impossible for me move on from that. It's one thing to view a show or a comic or a movie that has no characters of colour in it. That's a different gripe about say, The Devil Wears Prada existing in an NYC with no black people, no non American cab drivers, no Asian folk, no models of color, etc. But all comic artists have to do is draw the already existing characters - the battle for more is on another front.

Women who read comics? They can't bring their own story to the panels if they're forced to include moments for the heroines to pick their thongs out of their asses, or add more doublesided tape to their corset/bathing suits. And if they never get to see the characters being forces to be recconed with, then they can't Bring Their Own Super Hero Fantasy.

I realize I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before. But it is new for me to realize that while I stumbled in understanding this when it came to live-action; it was all unconscious and absorbed and understood when it came to comics. How many times have I heard. "That's not my superheroX" followed by. "So I guess I have to wait for a better writer before I pick it up again.". How many times had I said it? Done it? And all the while I was fully aware of why.

I'm going to end with random (created) examples of such while my brain 'reintegrates'.

- That's not my Supergirl.

- He'd better be writing my Hal Jordon.

- Please, like that's Gotham?

- For the love of Peter, Paul, Mary & Joseph why can't anyone ever write an X-men book without writing a love story/triangle? I want action not a soap opera!!

- I don't know what's so hard about writing Wonder Woman. I've got her story clear in my head.

- Ex Machina, now there's a superhero story.

- Cosmic Marvel. I'm telling you! Lose Yourself In The Space Opera!!!

- If I wrote Civil War...

- If I were writing Final Crisis...

- The only person I'm following is X, his is the only story making any damn sense!

- In my story, Tigra cuts a bitch! WTH? What's wrong with Bendis???!

- TDK movie, finally someone told an actual BATMAN story on film.



PS: It might go without saying, but I'm not going to risk it, that I've realized my favourite stories in sequential art are the ones where the writer and artist are the ones doing all the work. I don't have to bring anything (not even store bought potato salad or humus). All I have to do is read, enjoy and be curious as to what happens next. So it leads me back to Shadowgirls and Claymore and HACK/SLASH etc...

Tokyo Pop Says - Blow Me. Who'll Sign Up?

I seriously, SERIOUSLY, hope that minority creators are too well versed in the history of cultural appropriation, theft, sacred space violations, actual rape, land stealing, slavery, indentured servitude and more - than to sign a contract that cheerfully states they'll be giving up their rights to their creative product.

Why signing a Tokyo Pop Manga Pilot Pact (and/or other of their contracts) IS FOR SUCKERS!

Why a folksy contract is like a folksy President, Prime Minsiiter or Premier and IS FOR SUCKERS!

I'm shouting about minority creators but if anyone, white, black, brown, gold, red, bronze, green, purple signs up for this in a flurried rush of "But I'll MAKE IT BIG AND RENEGOTIATE" I will feel incredible sad for you. Sad and helpless, because you'll have created this mess yourself.

The US dealt with a writer's strike in Hollywood over late last year and early this year. What was it about? RIGHTS! Rights and rights to proper compensation.

Why do unions go on strike? Rights! {yeah yeah, there are those idiots who mess it up for everyone - but I'm talking in general here}

This should get talked about. There are too many young people who tremble and get stupid at the thought of making a career out of something they love to do. HELL, I get all a trembling and dreamy eyes at the thought of bylines and book credits. I'm also cynical and believe in the concept of healthy selfishness.

Many people point out that this 'Pact' smells like a clone from the recording industry - y'know those people who sue their customers. I know nothing about how it works in present day or what the twists are for rap vs R&B vs NeoSoul (and yes rap gets a small r. Sometimes it's all cause I say so). I do know that I've read enough books and articles and have enough friends who were thoroughly and disgustingly all things boyband to know that crap and shit contracts have happened and do happen in pop and rock. I know N*SYNC (is the star fucking right?) was one.

All I have left to say right now is:

MOTOWN.

JERRY SIEGEL & JOE SHUSTER

BILL (bless him) FINGER

Heard of them?

Heard of Prince? Ever wonder why he changed his name? (The Artist Formerly Known As)

Haven't? Then Wikipedia is your friend.

Go forth, learn, educate. Don't be a sucker.

Goodbye Cruel - Nah, Just Taking A Break

I started this post two days ago, before real offline life interrupted. I was typing out a post to request that people no longer deliberately send me images of Marvel and DC cocking up horrendously on issues of race - if I stumble over it, that's on me. But I don't need my pressure skyrocketing up like someone's trying to win a Carnival prize, no matter what their original intent was in showing me the image.

I never finished the post.

I was suddenly hit with this mental whirlpool.

There I was, comparing mainstream comics to the mainstream public feminisphere and there was this correlation of becoming what you hate the moment you have even a little bit of power - and my brain just spasmed.

The word cockslapped came to mind. As in, have I been raising my voice and fist for the dubious honor of being cockslapped? Considering how gross I find penises, the mental image was quite disruptive.

From the original non-published post:

Mainstream comics and mainstream (or at least prominent) feminism (oh so white) have a serious amount in common. Comics won't listen to the women won't listen to the minorities.

On and on the message goes "This is not for you. This is for everyone (male/the sisterhood). Why are you making so much noise? Can't you see what we're doing? Why don't you just have your own?

"Put aside your blackness for this cause, put aside your womanness for that step up. Are you more interested in having JL covers with frequent women on the cover? Or frequent minorities. Pick a side. We hold the power and we'll dribble and dole it out."

The honor of being cockslapped...

When mainstream comics decides to promote a character of colour; but said character is bleached, or made more 'palatable' with more and more white features; lighter skin, different nose, straighter hair. (Don't get me started about Misty and the blue eyes)...

When comics decide to promote a female character but she's busting out of her top, or waving her shiny latex ass to the viewer (Catwoman covers)...

When a prominient self-named feminist notices a problem that affects WoC and PoC and thinks the gratitude for her bringing it forward to attention should negate her lack of pointing out the work that came before - by women of colour...

The link on my blog under the graphic title: PoC MEANIE, leads to a comment thread on livejournal where appeasing white folk, or 'You always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.'is described as:

Also known as "Listen n*****, watch your manners now boy. You be nice to me, and I won't put you in your darkie place like you should be. Why do you presume to attack me. If I want to call your worthless sp** or P*** ass a sp** or p*** I can. It's been used before and it'll be used again. If you want me to change, get down on your knees and suck my big white cock and make me feel good about adjusting my attitude. After all, everyone agrees with me and you're the minority after all.

Yes, that's it... more tongue... now SUCK MY BALLS BITCH, that's putting honey on it. That's sucking away the liberal guilt... now stay still while I come down your throat..

Yes... yes...

There, last drops in your eyes.

Now kiss it and zip me up."

Cocksucking, cocksucker, a term that's flung around as an insult that's used to describe an action with a focus on it being done only by women, or gay men.

Though at the time I was thinking of it more as oral rape. "Please me via the orifice you use to nurture yourself. My cock is out, your mouth should be on it. Pleasure me and receive whatever I give out, be my receptical and then maybe, MAYBE, I'll listen to you"

And please, no one come into my journal to discuss cooercion and rape and what is rape and what isn't. You won't get published for one thing. And I will do something horrible to you, for another.

The sum of it all is power-tripping. Power is a heady thing, especially when you've never had it, and you've been scratching and climbing to get it. The people in charge of mainstream comics right now? They used to be powerless fans, reading week to week and wishing they had the power to change things. Now they do. And they have.

Goodbye MaryJane.

Goodbye Crisis, hello Crisis. And Crisis. And...Crisis.

The femiblogsphere exists and now there are women, white women, who are getting heard and noticed etc, etc, etc,. Who are getting book deals - which I bring up because Marcotte did say that people were only criticizing her because they were jealous and wanted to ruin her career. She got a sniff of power and it was 'SCREW Y'ALL DARK BITCHES'. Though truthfully, given her attitude, she'd probably had that mentality for a very long time before.

In the two days since I started writing the original and likely now forever unpublished post, there have been several incidents like in this ongoing conversation, where I just ended up shaking my head.

If the sex of those self labeled feminists was changed to male and we put them on Newsarama...

Y'know it's ok to love an ideal. I love America the ideal. But at the same time I am not burying my head in the sand, ass up, ignoring the things America, the country, government, citizenry is doing and have done in the past that go against the ideal of what this country could be.

But apparently when it comes to feminism, when it comes to comics, specifically the big two superhero universe comics, that's exactly what their proponents are doing. To point out what is wrong, is to attack, is to not really care about it in the first place, is to have no love for it at all. To point out what is wrong and to get fed up with explaining over and over again and with spoon feeding over and over again is to be an irrational and angry NOT TRUE FAN.

And damn, if using that term doesn't make me think of Laurell K Hamilton Troobies who will defend to the end an adventure series turned plotless and extremely bad written porno. Now I realized that that the Troobies identify with the books so much and that the books may have helped them explore areas wherein they felt shy and lost and had no where to start looking, that criticism of the books feels like an attack on them personally. But I don't believe every comics fan is some basement dwelling mouth breather who has no self identity other than through comics. And it's a ridiculous image to have about white women (and others) and feminism - no matter what their actions say.

It's just plain. Power. Tripping.

And I'm fed up with it.

My calling out the big two specifically has always been about equality. I want to see everyone get a power fantasy, hopefully at least three. I want said power fantasies to have flush support casts and interesting backgrounds. I want those universes to reflect the diversity of the world. I want equality.

And I'm calling out comics because popular culture reaches a large group of people. Popular culture can TEACH and expand minds. It's why I think movies and tv should be held accountable for misrepresenting cultures and peoples. Without preaching, popular culture can show you a different world, tilt your mind about a concept.

Popular culture IS the real world. It's the slang you speak, the clothes you wear, the products you buy, the concepts you integrate into your sense of self and your place in and around the world!

But don't talk to me about the big two unless it has something to do with DAZZLER. I'm going to take a break and explore other universes, other characters. It hurts, because these two universes were what I cut my teeth on, what I learned to read on, how I associated the concept of a punch with Batman sending a villain back three steps to smack up against a brick wall.

It hurts.

But there are other universes, other characters I could be pointing out. There are other modern myths I can embrace. So I'm going to do that for a while. It's time to regroup and praise while I figure out what my next step forward will be. Because seeing comics and the feminisphere as equal in their power tripping and ignoring is a big deal for me. I mean feminisarchy is a damn stupid made up word and doesn't even say what I want it to mean. WWS says that (White Woman Syndrome). Seeing a ladder and comics and the feminisphere as one tugging on the leg of the other to be noticed while mashing the hands and heads of anyone trying to climb up alongside is just...

Mind. Blown.

It's like this XKCD Comic except there should be a third panel where the girl stick figure tells a darker male or female stick figure "Wow, PoC suck at Math."

Becoming. What. You. Say. You. Hate.

Note: To anyone who'd been paying attention I'm going to switch FACES OF COLOUR, from the PoC Carnival Blog, to here.

Extra Note: I'll be moderating comments as usual but I don't know if I'll be replying.

In which I rant about Bendis

So apparently Brian effing Michael Bendis is the seedpod and Frank Miller is the grown ass oak.

I'm reading Powers and I have no idea wtf to say other than Bendis has issues. Serious, serious, issues. Reading futher may spoil you and I never learned how to do Blogger's complicated as shite cut. [ the odd ways in which you miss livejournal / or lj clones ]

Anyway...

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Did Bendis have any idea what he was playing into by making the Superheroes as Celebrity Team, Black folk who'd been experimented on by the government and who were considered expendable? Does he know what he did there? Is it supposed to be a commentary on everything from the Tuskegee Airmen to the sterilization of Latinas in the 50's? And more?

And then the Black folk get NO justice? We're supposed to be upset about the white police officer losing his job and getting his life messed up etc, and think he's all noble and shit. But when all is said and done, he gets his job back, and the Black folk are still dead, dead, dead.

Then the little brunette child gets powers that make her BLONDE?? WTF? She grows up blonde?  In order to be this epic legendary hero - there's blondness?

And speaking of legendary heroes What the Unholy FUCK was up with the apes? I flipped through that getting more and more pissed off. I mean, Proto-man discovers his great powers and destiny because he's fighting for some TAIL??? It's all about the fucking poontang who then dies? Talk about a fucking refrigerator.

I had to flip through the rest of that backstory shite where an evolved from an ape Whiteman (and yet it's funny how they don't get called porchmonkeys) goes somewhere in Asia to learn mystifcal fucking secrets cause y'know,that's what Asians are for; throw up the yellow poontang and teach you fu.  Though there's a convinient white girl there.

And Deena. I liked the whole 'touched by powers, will eventually get powers' angle. Except the guy she kills, it turns out NOT to be the jackhole who kidnapped her (yet another African Descended Villian btw) but some loser, stalker boyfriend who can't let her go and thus tries to kill her ass???!

Her big ass secret comes about because a moron stabs her in the back. A MORON. STABS HIS EX GIRLFRIEND, the COP, in the effing back.

I am not even getting into the fact that she doesn't arrest his ass the first time and write him up and have it on record. Because I will just spew cuss words for several paragraphs about that piece of shitty writing.

But now our heroine/protagonist has crossed a line, because a loser, fucking, coward stabs her in the back. And I think he called her a cunt while he did it.

Yeah, I think I should really believe that Bendis doesn't know wtf went wrong with Tigra, when this is the kind of shit he does on his fucking own.

Let There Be LIGHT!

I can't quite remember when I found FLARE online. But she reminded me so much of Dazzler, that I loved her instantly thinking of her as a combination of Dazzler & Wonder Woman. Recently with Wowio.com I've had a chance to peruse issues and back issues. I've made another go at the Herioc Publishing website.

I ended up sending this letter in their feedback form:

Is there any particular reason you have an all white universe?

Will you ever have characters of colour and specifically black characters among your heroes?

I think I saw one mention after much searching of your site of a possible heroine but I could not figure out what super powers the afro-ed, short shorts wearing, wiggling her backside to the camera, individual was supposed to have. And I certainly couldn't find any book layouts or panels of her interacting with others.

Is Heroic Publishing, pro Apartheid, pro Segregation?

Do you simply not want blacks and other minorities to buy your products?

As a little girl, Alison Blair and Tandy Bowen were my heroes, they could light up the dark. They made nightime not scary. I adored them, totally adored them. I still adore them. Except I'm old enough now to realize I've never seen a brown or black person with those kinds of powers. They tend to get shadow powers.

Terri Feran could join the first two in a heroic triad of characters that make my inner little girl get up and sock'em rock'em punch'em.

But it's incredibly demoralizing to me, to look at the comics produced and see no people of colour at all. Maybe here or there in the backgrounds, especially when one of the reformed Nazi characters is having a moment 'These people, these savages, these non pure bloods' but not heroes.

One would think that in a universe where there are heroes who were raised secretly in Brazil by Nazis to be the ubermen who'd rule the world, who then turned against their masters, there'd be some importance in showing a black or brown or red or golden face among the heroes and their new allies.

Heroic's website is partially confusing however, so maybe there are wonderful characters of colour in their universe that I just can't find with a site map.

Fair haired, fair browed yet dissimilar

Blondes:

I've been wanting to write this one for a couple of days. One of my favourite anime and manga storylines is CLAYMORE. The main characters in the story are all blonde. Every last one of them. It's part of a trait that makes them what they are.

And no, I'm not about to go off on a rant about blonde white girls taking over everything or blondeness as a special power.

I like CLAYMORE. It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Xena. I find it kickass. I'm more excited than I know what to do with to realize that the manga is still ongoing and that it differs from the anime. As I've no idea when/if series 2 of the anime is coming out. And the manga is currently giving me all new story!

But I repeat, it's a black and white world in the manga where all the major female characters are BLONDE.

And none of them look alike!

That, ladies and ladies and one or two gentlemen, is my point.

Insert the obligatory kick to Greg Land's worthless nutsack here. [ kick! ]

But I was absolutely enthralled when I realized how much the artist for Claymore was kicking the ass of Land and several of his contemporaries.

How often do I find myself trying to identify female characters by their costumes when I read super hero comics? All the fricking time, is how often. Ok, maybe 90% of the time. But here is a comic, sequential art, where all the main characters, and there are several, are blonde and wearing the same damn uniform! And yet the artist has them with different noses, lips, shape and size of mouth, eyes, hair styles, breast sizes, heights, reaches.

It made me think of the phrase I've seen a lot since I started blogging and reading blogs about comics; "What mysterious power does manga hold?"

And I think being able to tell characters apart is one of them. A big one.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that for me manga goes weird in the other direction. I can tell the girls apart, but the men? They often look the same - pretty, with either short or long hair; spiky short hair, long swishy long hair. And male body types seem to fall into; broad shouldered, long legged male, young lanky twinky male, muscular patow! bulging! male and the rounded face barely into their teens proto-child.

I'm going to wait and see if it's because I'm more aware of the female body and there are subtleties I've yet to read in the male form in manga. It's also possible that most of the manga that catches my eye has female protaganists (I leave you to wonder why - ahem - not so subtle) and so I just haven't been paying attention to the boys in the same way.

Because as I think about it now, I do note that male costuming is somewhat elaborate. In their street clothes/ school clothes I tell Ichigo and Ishida apart by their hair mostly. But not in street clothes, their costumes are distinct and elaborate, Ishi and Ichi both having the long, lanky, twinky body type. Naruto had the round face until Shippoden.

Hmm, more thinky thoughts for later. Still though, a manga of all blondes, each with different body types, hair, eyes, mouth, nose, sneers, smiles, and body language? Yeah, I can see why manga could be winning a younger generation. I'm not even in that generation and I'm all HELL YEAH!

Newsarama: Breeding Ground Of Stupid? You Decide.

Concerning VIXEN DRAWN & COLOURED AS WHITE yet again, I followed links and found someone's response on Newsarama to a post done that linked me.

That person's response?

Every Willow Lady post ever, Short Version:

Their original picture here

So let me get this straight. The good ole boys who haunt and post Newsarama have read me. They've read me and their conclusion is that I'm a child who's shouting and needs to be muted.

Frankly, I'm not surprised.

I'm saying loudly, over and over again that racism in mainstream American Comics isn't dead, because racism in America isn't dead.

This is not something a good healthy dose of white people want to hear. White people not just Americans. But I'll leave the PoC and NWP of the UK and Europe to deal with the those areas. That's their day to day, this is mine.

Is it better to be dismissed than to be ignored? That's a tricky question to answer. My first impulse is to say yes. Because there's the slim (.1%) chance that some day a few of those dismissing me, will have a clue by anchor dropped on them and they'll be able to think back and go 'Oh! That's what she was talking about then'. I think that's positive.

But the whole thing about if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear, does it make a sound? My answer has always been yes. Friction and action disturb molecules, which move and create waves, some of which reach into the audible range.

Me and this blog? There is movement and friction and action from me. I'm saying something. I'm noting something. I'm remaining aware. I'm making decisions as a conscientious consumer. I'm deciding who I am going to be as a human being.

I am going to be someone who doesn't let people in the world tell her to shut up and play nice.

I am going to be someone who doesn't swallow her pain.

I am going to be someone who says - "I. AM. BLACK. This is me. This is who I am. This is who I want to see reflected in the things I love."

That said?

Y'all WhFk need to get SCHOOLED on INSTITUTIONAL RACISM. I won't teach you. But I will keep bullhorn microphoning in your ear until you get some learning.

VIXEN IS NOT A WHITE HERO!

DC you are doing it wrong!!!

DC: In Your Justice League Makin' Your Heroes WHITE

Is this supposed to be an alternate universe? One of the 52? Because once again VIXEN IS NO LONGER A BLACK WOMAN.

Please note, those individuals still contacting me telling me I'm blowing stuff out of proportion and being racist for originally pointing this out? My reply to you will come during the bi-annual - Look At These Idiots.

This is just me pointing out, that the artist slowly shifted Vixen's features from African to Caucasian and now this is a second consistent showing of her AS WHITE.

Also if that tanned individual in the back with the domino mask is Black Lightening who is ALSO supposed to be African Descended, then how can this NOT be deliberate because he sure as hell doesn't look white. He might pass the paper bag test, but he's not white.

I read up Sinestro Corps this past weekend. But no way in HELL am I following or spending money on anything from DC anymore. Nope.

I'm so sorry Greg Rucka, because I adore your work. But I can't buy the new Question TPB from DC.

Does anyone know if Greg Rucka takes paypal? Can I just send -him- money and get the torrent?

CAUSE I AM NOT BUYING JACK SHIT FROM Detective 'Let Us White Wash African Descended Characters' Comics.

ETA: I noticed Vixen almost immediately. Trying to size the picture for my blogger, however, and WW suddenly began to stand out EXTRAORDINARILY. There are sure to be others, however, pointing out the T&A Yoga going on there. And BC and HG.

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NB:If you want to comment and tell me this is another mistake, please know you will not be published.

Instead I will save your comment for the bi-annual "What Fools There Be On This Here Internet" where the comment forwarded to my email will be published in full in a post mocking your stupidity, racism, ignorance, privilege and pointing you to BDSM sites for a Master or Mistress of Sadism, because obviously you are one masochistic child of a bitch.

Yo BNDcakes

Dear dude who did the latest Spiderman.

I've been told you're an ass munch.

I've been told you set up a scenario where despite CW, despite all that hot ass mess, despite having the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-men, X-Force*, Sentinel Squad, Spider Squad and S.H.E.I.L.D at the finger tips of law enforcement in NYC - hell roaming around looking for unregistereds....

The NYPD don't need no stinking super heroes, cause they've got experience dealing with weird shit.

Uhm? Kind of like maybe a group of superhero youngsters had experience dealing with bad guys - until one of them blew himself up. WITH A SCHOOL?!!

HA HA HA HA HA HA - Oh MARVEL

*wipes tears of mirth*

It's like watching primates fling shit at the zoo. Except ya'll seem to enjoy having poo facials too.

So yeah, new guy? I still have a question for your royal ass munchedness.

Did you ever read a Spiderman comic ever? Watch an animated series? The movies?

Or is your plot an executive directive? (Cause it sure does stink like one)

ETA: Also a train and two buses? Have you been to NYC? Also? A directly from 'above' shot? Also Spiderman holding a camera? Forget my prior question. I don't think you partake of much super hero stuff.

ETA2: * So anyone think the next x-mansion will be wisely underground?

Legacies, Perspectives & Definitions

So I finally get around to reading this Websnark. And yes, I am back-logged. I found myself agreeing with a good part of it and not just the words of the original poster, but also some of the commenters.

I have grown accustomed to the Anime reboot per season / series of certain franchises. At the same time, however, I so fully endorse the legacy idea within this comment made by Lucastd in that post and agree with the remarks about confusion:

... Really, the best solution would be to do what John Allison has so seamlessly done over at ScaryGoRound.com. See, while exploring the stories of his older set of heroes, he is also raising a new, younger generation of heroes who, if the story were to keep going for infinity and drawn by other artists/writers the way that comic book hero stories do, the younger generation of heroes could replace the older generation of heroes and then the strip could carry on resting on the shoulders of the younger generation.

Batman, for example, could eventually hand the reigns over to Robin and new villians would emerge and it would be the adventures of Robin and his new sidekick. Except that Robin would be cool and not a total lame-o because he'd been developed enough over the years as a character for him to warrant carrying the load that Batman had.

And of course, rivalries between old Batman villains and the baggage that Batman carried around could be passed on to the new Robin hero and, as the reigns were turned over (slowly, over several years), dark secrets about Batman could be revealed that Robin would have to struggle to deal with.

Instead, we get these weird Retcons that try to make us forget that, having been invented in the 1930s, Superman in reality would now be over 70 years old. So, really, either Superman doesn't age or the story has got to reboot somewhere.

You'd think this would be an easy process -- especially when dealing with stories like the X-Men where there are several generations of stories to deal with and develop. Instead, writers seem to stick to their cashable characters and never develop another generation. So, instead of exploring some of the more minor younger characters, we get to see Wolverine kicking butt because, darn it, his claws are so amazingly awesome looking and we can sell more t-shirts that way.

Which I understand, because his claws are pretty awesome-looking...

See the thing is, The DC Animated Universe is directly responsible for my ability to let go when it comes to my favourite characters and let legacy.

Terry McGinnis IS Batman to me, as much as Bruce Wayne.

I loved the Jokerz as a legacy memory of the original Joker. I loved the possibility that perhaps someday, someone would join the gang and fit within it so well he could become that eras new Joker. (Return of the Joker not withstanding).

I loved the new villains.

I loved the fact that this Batman was dealing with some long cast shadows of complexities from the first Batman; Venom, but now as an abused drug for jocks; the Royal Flush Gang as legacy villains, Croc and The Man Bat in the form of spliced or cybernetically enhanced villains.

I loved that these enemies were all building blocks because this Batman was just starting out and he had a whole history ahead of him.

In truth, I was a little disappointed when I learnt of JLU: Epilogue and what that meant for Terry and Bruce and to a lesser extent possibly Matt. There was enough of a psychological bond between the two Batmans, without having to go further. And yes, the two Batmans - that's how I pluralize it. To me, Batmen implies something completely different.

Also Batman Beyond as part of DCAU gave me an older Superman. That was the first time I'd ever seen that, and it stayed that way until the last three years when I heard/learnt about Kingdom Come. And still I remain curious about a Superman who was so isolated no one realized something was majorly wrong with him. I remain curious about a Superman dealing with essentially being immortal on a planet where human lives are so brief. I remain curious about the relationship I didn't get to see enough of, between an old and wrinkled Bruce and a grey haired Kal-El. There are stories there that appeal to me and I think would appeal to others; all ages stories and also more mature / complex tales.

What am I missing that there can't be 'Classic Tales' with the originator of a particular Superhero Name, 'New Tales' with a successor, and 'Continued Stories' with the person now older, who'd once been behind the mask?

Before you explain, however, you need to understand something. I had also, before returning to comics as an adult, never given much thought to what Golden Age, Silver Age, Modern Age (is there a bronze age?) meant as industry terms. I always just thought that every twenty years or so, the industry declared a new age, and everything/everyone had the same origins, but were now drawn for, and included references to, things that were current.

My very simple comprehension of the terms, probably explains why retcons and things like DC's first Crisis made no sense to me, nor did their possible complications. I didn't already understand why it had happened beyond thinking that someone, somewhere, wanted to tell a really fucked up, all encompassing, makes no sense to me, story. And then I realized they'd used it to get rid of versions of characters I really enjoyed (Helena Wayne) and went WTF comic industry???

The Ages to me, were (and mentally still often are) filters. Golden Age meant - the filter on these tales told from the 30's -> 40's/50's. Silver Age meant yet another filter focusing on the 50's -60's / early 70's.

I read story titles as : This is how Superman met Batman told through the filter of < insert filter here >. If it was a filter I knew I liked, or I thought had possibilities, I read it / looked for more.

This probably explains why I was so confused that Golden Age never seemed to get any new stories. Or why I was so excited when I picked up The New Frontier TPB, cause yay! New Golden Age Story!

I really like being able to choose a filter for certain characters, situations and plots.

I also really like watching characters grow with me.

I do not see a conflict in that. Which probably explains why I don't understand WTF is up with BND, and why Marvel Editorial thought it needed to happen. To me it doesn't seem to be that big a deal to just have a new filter.

Or given that Marvel had Ultimates, to create a new reboot.

Yes, reboots too have a Willow definition. Or rather my mind has a definition for reboots that apparently is not in line with the industry. Ultimates is a reboot to me. It's a whole new universe retold from the beginning where everyone knows we're taking a different spin on things.

A filter = Same characters different time period / relevancy.

A reboot = Same character name/archetype, different progression, different stories. It's an AU.

The OMD/BND fan anger I read as people telling Marvel that in Ultimates there was already a reboot where Peter was young and single, there was no need to lose the current filter of Peter as 30something, married and a teacher. And it seemed even more like they were saying Marvel should just go ahead and do a non-teenage reboot and have yet another new line, where Peter was perhaps 20something, with completely new tales, where MJ would never be a factor and thus Joe Q could be as happy as a perv with an unlimited supply of porn.

Alright, those are my thoughts. Y'all can come school me now.

Oh! One more thing. Seeing things in terms of filters is probably also why I'm so hard on comics for being less racist in these modern times. Yes, I said less racist instead of 'more diverse'. The modern filter to me, should be one which can see and allow minorities to have more power / be more present because it's a filter with the history of the civil rights movement and the eyes of a new generation built right in.