About Sexing Up Mary Marvel
Okay, so apparently Mary Marvel is getting a Sexy Evil Makeover Seduction Whatever. The feminist-comics blogosphere is abuzz about it, or at least it was sometime last week - I don't read comics blogs as regularly as some, so I'm only now catching up. Anyway, I've got something to say here. Maybe a little too much to say.
I've read the porn where Mary Marvel gets transformed by sexy evil. Heck, I've occasionally written the porn where Mary Marvel gets transformed by sexy evil. Yes, I have fantasies that objectify women, and really I'm not particularly ashamed about it; I know women whose fantasies objectify men in the same basic ways, and we're all comfortable with it. What I am not comfortable with is this actually showing up in the comics.
This isn't a "comics should be desexualized" rant; if Marvel wanted to put out thirty-two lushly-illustrated pages of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones getting freaky, more power to them. This isn't a "superheroines should be on a pedestal of purity" rant or anything like that. What this is about is consequences. If I write a story where Mary Marvel is tied up, corrupted, and learns to love it - fine, whatever. The consequences for the character last about as long as any readers' erections. If DC publishes the same story, however, every future Mary Marvel story has to deal with that as part of the canon - or else they have to awkwardly lop off a chunk of continuity, and if you know you're going to do that, why bother writing it in the first place?
I love Mary Marvel as she's portrayed in DC comics. She was my favorite part of Peter David's Supergirl run, I loved her in Formerly Known As The Justice League, and in general she's one of my favorite parts of the Captain Marvel mythos. What I like in my serial fiction entertainment and what I like in my depraved sex fantasies is actually, shockingly enough, largely different. I can only imagine that DC is trying to pander to the perverts like me with moves like this, and I have to say that as the target audience I don't like it. If I want to see Mary pulled to the SEXY DARK SIDE, I can write that on my own time and my own dime. What I rely on DC comics to deliver is interesting superhero stories about my favorite characters. If this turns out to be a complex evaluation of Mary's inner life and moral trials, that'll be fine and great, but just leave the character-destroying porno to us fans, okay?
I've read the porn where Mary Marvel gets transformed by sexy evil. Heck, I've occasionally written the porn where Mary Marvel gets transformed by sexy evil. Yes, I have fantasies that objectify women, and really I'm not particularly ashamed about it; I know women whose fantasies objectify men in the same basic ways, and we're all comfortable with it. What I am not comfortable with is this actually showing up in the comics.
This isn't a "comics should be desexualized" rant; if Marvel wanted to put out thirty-two lushly-illustrated pages of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones getting freaky, more power to them. This isn't a "superheroines should be on a pedestal of purity" rant or anything like that. What this is about is consequences. If I write a story where Mary Marvel is tied up, corrupted, and learns to love it - fine, whatever. The consequences for the character last about as long as any readers' erections. If DC publishes the same story, however, every future Mary Marvel story has to deal with that as part of the canon - or else they have to awkwardly lop off a chunk of continuity, and if you know you're going to do that, why bother writing it in the first place?
I love Mary Marvel as she's portrayed in DC comics. She was my favorite part of Peter David's Supergirl run, I loved her in Formerly Known As The Justice League, and in general she's one of my favorite parts of the Captain Marvel mythos. What I like in my serial fiction entertainment and what I like in my depraved sex fantasies is actually, shockingly enough, largely different. I can only imagine that DC is trying to pander to the perverts like me with moves like this, and I have to say that as the target audience I don't like it. If I want to see Mary pulled to the SEXY DARK SIDE, I can write that on my own time and my own dime. What I rely on DC comics to deliver is interesting superhero stories about my favorite characters. If this turns out to be a complex evaluation of Mary's inner life and moral trials, that'll be fine and great, but just leave the character-destroying porno to us fans, okay?