Batman
This title set the internet on fire when it was released this week, if by “internet” I am referring to “comic book websites”. A lot of people were claiming that this was the best title of not just the week, but of the entire DC relaunch. With that sort of expectation, it was kind of hard to judge this book on its own merits. I read it, I liked it. Do I need to say more? This story didn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, but it was definitely quite enjoyable. I feel like with all of these new DC books, I am just rating them based on “like” or “didn’t like” and haven’t been able to say which one I enjoyed the most. I liked seeing the detective aspect of Batman, and it made me feel like I was back playing Arkham Asylum, with all these gadgets the Batman has and almost a tutorial of how he could use them. I think this title will be going in a good direction, but then again, I also liked Batman & Robin, as well as Detective Comics, so it might be too early to pick my favorite Batman title.
Birds of Prey
This is another book that I couldn’t judge quite accurately because of the internet, even though the attention didn’t really fall on this title. The internet lost its mind, and rightfully so, over the way women were portrayed in two specific titles that came out this week. One of these titles was Catwoman, who is a character who has no problem using her womanly powers to make men weak in the knees. Here is the opening page from the Catwoman series:
Before we even see Catwoman’s face, we see her tits. Okay, most comic book women are drawn with the same endowments, so it’s not that she has giant knockers, I think people were just upset at how blatantly they were trying to exploit her “sexiness”. Okay okay, maybe this image isn’t that bad, but here are some pages from the end of the issue:
NOPE, THIS ISN’T EROTIC FANFICTION, THIS IS SOMETHING PRINTED BY DC. IN A COMIC BOOK. FOR PEOPLE TO LOOK AT. IT’S BATMAN FUCKING CATWOMAN. I mean, for fuck’s sake, tone it dont a little, will you? I’m no prude or anything, but it’s one thing to imply this behavior, but it’s another to put it out there, right in the opening, for what appears to be the sole purpose of getting pervert weirdos to buy this instead of paying someone for a commission sketch. And this is only ONE of the two titles. The other title was Red Hood and the Outlaws, which I wasn’t too familiar with. I knew that Jason Todd was the Red Hood, and then there was the knockoff Green Arrow character, but there’s also some weird lady. I guess her name is Starfire and she is an alien or something, and, well, just take a look at this scene…
WHAT THE FUCK. Talk about trying to be as slutty as you can be in five seconds. Kind of reminds me of someone from a movie I recently reviewed. All this character wants to do is fuck, and doesn’t even give a shit that she is married because she “can’t remember”, which seems convenient. Also, I like how the guy is so shocked that he spits out his soda, and five seconds later is all “Oh, okay! Tell me more about this ‘sex’ thing you speak of!” This scene was after we were introduced to Starfire, which of course was an introduction involving a bikini. I’ve included what the original illustration was that was supposed to be printed, which comes from the artist’s website. WARNING: image is mildly NWS, because it’s a cartoon lady drawn “sexy”. You might not get fired if someone sees you looking, but they’ll definitely think you’re a weirdo creep.
SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, THOUGHT IT WAS APPROPRIATE TO HAVE THIS ALIEN WEAR SARAN WRAP AS A BATHING SUIT. They did “tone it down” for the actual printing of the issue by coloring the bikini a solid color, but still, what the fuck guys. Is this what it’s come to? Saving people the time it takes them to draw their favorite characters in erotic situations by doing it for them? Ugh. All of this almost made me embarrassed to buy Birds of Prey, considering I was only trying it because I liked Black Canary from her time with Green Arrow, and considering I am not going to read that, wanted to see what she was up to. Luckily, the females in this book are far more approrpiately well-dressed and I don’t fear that their tits will bounce up and cave in their skulls. I think I’ll keep reading. I’d also like to send you in the direction of this article onNewsarama by Jill Pantozzi on the difference between what can be considered “sexy” art vs. “sexual” art.
