JD Has Issues..
Comic book issues, that is.
To those that know me, it is no surprise that I am a major reader of all things comics. Whether that's single issues, trade paperbacks, original graphic novels, motion comics, web comics. Hell if you show me some cavemen drawings in on a wall somewhere that tries to tell a story I'll give it a look.
And I love them. Oh sure, not all of them are for me, personally, but broadly speaking I love comics. I tend to endulge with the superhero but there are so many different types of comics, from silly, daffy things like Incredible Hercules to dark stories like The Walking Dead.
You know what I don't like? The fans.
I don't trust these fans either, but that's not what I'm referring to.
Ok that's an awfully wide brush there, and for the most part, it's not true. Most comic fans are great, rational people and great many of whom you can have some wonderfully insightful conversations with. I'm not talking about them.
I'm talking about that vocal minority. I'm sure you are familar with them, you can't be on the internet for long before seeing some variant of this species. They bitch and they moan and whatever is happening is not good enough. The stories are too kiddy, they're too adult, they're complex, they're not complex enough, it features too many superheroes, it doesn't have any superheroes, this character wouldn't do this he would do that, etc, etc. Basically whatever it is that they want, it's not in the books they are reading and if they were writing everything title X then everything would be awesome.
This isn't to say they aren't entitled to their opinions, but I find it odd that comic fanboys and fangirls tend to stick around and continue to read a book that they're not happy about. Or worse, they don't read it, and instead read a quick summary and try to act like they read it, pointing out flaws that if they had read the book would have been explained away.
But sometimes, what's worse... is when they are right.
First let me establish some backstory for my non-comic reading friends. Ten years ago a woman named Gail Simone started a website called Women in Refrigerators. Simone had noticed a trend in comics at the time, of male heroes whose supporting cast would be killed off (or maimed or have their powers stripped away, etc) in order to provide motivation to seek out a villian, and squeeze out some pathos. And that it tended to happen to women, and often in horrible ways. The titular example comes from an issue of Green Lantern, in which rookie hero Kyle Rayner opens his refrigerator only to find his girlfriend stuffed into it.
"Crap, dead girlfriend and I'm out of milk"
Simone, who later went from internet commentator to professional comic scribe including both the feminist icon Wonder Woman the rather bloody Secret Six, wasn't trying to condemn that story nor say that kind of story should never happen, but she was finding it a slightly disturbing trend that had increased dramatically at the time. She didn't write it to condemn the writers, but to encourage discussion amongst fans and perhaps some self-analysis from creators. Unfortunetly there is a tendancy from some netizens to parrot back what they read and not understand it. It didn't help that the WiR site featured a list of characters who served as examples and unfortunetly not all of them are good examples (like the Peter David Supergirl, who lost some of her powers but got new ones to compensate at the same time, or listing a heroine whose husband died? Isn't that the reverse of the intent of the site?). So what ended up happening, and this was especially prevelent about 5 years or so ago on comic message boards, is that you'd get a lot of people who would talk about how anything or everything slightly misfortunate that happened in the general vicinity of a woman is a sign that all comic book writers hate women and just want to see them suffer.
This is an absurd conclusion and while certain writers do have some... habits that rub me the wrong way, when you're dealing with stories of a dramatic nature sometimes people will get hurt. If I had to condemn anyone I'd say the fault lies more with fans who don't support books that star female characters. More often then not the sterotypical Woman in Refrigerator moment happens to a supporting character, to the girlfriends, wives, sisters or mothers of a character. Why? Because you can't kill off the lead character, and to ratchet up tension you can't just kill off random victims with no connection to the hero. And unfortunetly right now, female heroines don't attract as much attention as their male counterparts. There's probably a whole slew of reasons as to why that is, but it comes down to the fact that readers just don't buy She-Hulk as much as Hulk or Ms. Marvel as much as Captain America.
Actually I think this one speaks for itself
So when I say that the phrase "Women in Refrigerators" annoys me more often then not, it's not because of the intent of the site, which raises a good point that merits discussion, but rather then sickening parroting of fanboys who don't want to look at the whole picture and instead just want another reason to bash on something.
So imagine my surprise when I picked up the third issue of DC Comics latest company crossover title "Blackest Night" by Geoff Johns when I muttered to myself "Oh dear god, this is a total Women in Refrigerators moment." The story is difficult to sum up but essentially Firestorm, a kid named Jason Rusch, is forced to passively watch from inside the zombie body of Ronnie Raymond, the original Firstorm, as he turns Jason's girlfriend Gen into salt... save for her heart that he rips out to help power his fellow Black Lantern's power battery.
"Oh come on, have heart. Eh? Eh?"
It's brutal and pretty much a textbook example of what Gail was talking about. Now, like I said, the story by itself isn't a sign of mysogny on behalf of the writer, but the story pretty much rubbed me the wrong way. Why? Because this story took place in issue #3 of Blackest Night and yet other then a brief one page appearance at the beginning of the first issue neither character has played a role in the story until this issue. It's primarily a Green Lantern story with some strong ties to the rest of DC Universe. It felt like Jason and Gen were thrown in because we get to have (twisted evil) old Firestorm fight the new one and throw in some extra emotion into the story. It felt hollow. This wasn't a tragic Firestorm story, it was an extra victim to show you how serious the Black Lanterns are. It doesn't come off as horrific as much as it just does tacky and cheap.
Now to be fair, the story is not even half over so it's possible Jason (and in a story involving zombies as well as superheroes, possibly Gen) will have a larger role in the story or maybe somethings might be undone. And I like Geoff Johns, and I don't mind blood and guts really, even in my superhero stories sometimes it is appropriate. But I was expecting a more cosmic story of the Black Lanterns versus the various Lantern Corps (it's a long story but the Green Lanterns are no longer the only game in town anymore), not a "Let's kill off a c-list heroes and supporting characters."
Please Mr. Johns. You have five more issues to break this trend. I'm not saying you have to make everything be all puppy dogs and ponys, just... maybe put some baking soda into the fridge to give a fresher aroma.
Zombie ponys would be a nice middle ground
To those that know me, it is no surprise that I am a major reader of all things comics. Whether that's single issues, trade paperbacks, original graphic novels, motion comics, web comics. Hell if you show me some cavemen drawings in on a wall somewhere that tries to tell a story I'll give it a look.
And I love them. Oh sure, not all of them are for me, personally, but broadly speaking I love comics. I tend to endulge with the superhero but there are so many different types of comics, from silly, daffy things like Incredible Hercules to dark stories like The Walking Dead.
You know what I don't like? The fans.
I don't trust these fans either, but that's not what I'm referring to.
Ok that's an awfully wide brush there, and for the most part, it's not true. Most comic fans are great, rational people and great many of whom you can have some wonderfully insightful conversations with. I'm not talking about them.
I'm talking about that vocal minority. I'm sure you are familar with them, you can't be on the internet for long before seeing some variant of this species. They bitch and they moan and whatever is happening is not good enough. The stories are too kiddy, they're too adult, they're complex, they're not complex enough, it features too many superheroes, it doesn't have any superheroes, this character wouldn't do this he would do that, etc, etc. Basically whatever it is that they want, it's not in the books they are reading and if they were writing everything title X then everything would be awesome.
This isn't to say they aren't entitled to their opinions, but I find it odd that comic fanboys and fangirls tend to stick around and continue to read a book that they're not happy about. Or worse, they don't read it, and instead read a quick summary and try to act like they read it, pointing out flaws that if they had read the book would have been explained away.
But sometimes, what's worse... is when they are right.
First let me establish some backstory for my non-comic reading friends. Ten years ago a woman named Gail Simone started a website called Women in Refrigerators. Simone had noticed a trend in comics at the time, of male heroes whose supporting cast would be killed off (or maimed or have their powers stripped away, etc) in order to provide motivation to seek out a villian, and squeeze out some pathos. And that it tended to happen to women, and often in horrible ways. The titular example comes from an issue of Green Lantern, in which rookie hero Kyle Rayner opens his refrigerator only to find his girlfriend stuffed into it.
"Crap, dead girlfriend and I'm out of milk"
Simone, who later went from internet commentator to professional comic scribe including both the feminist icon Wonder Woman the rather bloody Secret Six, wasn't trying to condemn that story nor say that kind of story should never happen, but she was finding it a slightly disturbing trend that had increased dramatically at the time. She didn't write it to condemn the writers, but to encourage discussion amongst fans and perhaps some self-analysis from creators. Unfortunetly there is a tendancy from some netizens to parrot back what they read and not understand it. It didn't help that the WiR site featured a list of characters who served as examples and unfortunetly not all of them are good examples (like the Peter David Supergirl, who lost some of her powers but got new ones to compensate at the same time, or listing a heroine whose husband died? Isn't that the reverse of the intent of the site?). So what ended up happening, and this was especially prevelent about 5 years or so ago on comic message boards, is that you'd get a lot of people who would talk about how anything or everything slightly misfortunate that happened in the general vicinity of a woman is a sign that all comic book writers hate women and just want to see them suffer.
This is an absurd conclusion and while certain writers do have some... habits that rub me the wrong way, when you're dealing with stories of a dramatic nature sometimes people will get hurt. If I had to condemn anyone I'd say the fault lies more with fans who don't support books that star female characters. More often then not the sterotypical Woman in Refrigerator moment happens to a supporting character, to the girlfriends, wives, sisters or mothers of a character. Why? Because you can't kill off the lead character, and to ratchet up tension you can't just kill off random victims with no connection to the hero. And unfortunetly right now, female heroines don't attract as much attention as their male counterparts. There's probably a whole slew of reasons as to why that is, but it comes down to the fact that readers just don't buy She-Hulk as much as Hulk or Ms. Marvel as much as Captain America.
Actually I think this one speaks for itself
So when I say that the phrase "Women in Refrigerators" annoys me more often then not, it's not because of the intent of the site, which raises a good point that merits discussion, but rather then sickening parroting of fanboys who don't want to look at the whole picture and instead just want another reason to bash on something.
So imagine my surprise when I picked up the third issue of DC Comics latest company crossover title "Blackest Night" by Geoff Johns when I muttered to myself "Oh dear god, this is a total Women in Refrigerators moment." The story is difficult to sum up but essentially Firestorm, a kid named Jason Rusch, is forced to passively watch from inside the zombie body of Ronnie Raymond, the original Firstorm, as he turns Jason's girlfriend Gen into salt... save for her heart that he rips out to help power his fellow Black Lantern's power battery.
"Oh come on, have heart. Eh? Eh?"
It's brutal and pretty much a textbook example of what Gail was talking about. Now, like I said, the story by itself isn't a sign of mysogny on behalf of the writer, but the story pretty much rubbed me the wrong way. Why? Because this story took place in issue #3 of Blackest Night and yet other then a brief one page appearance at the beginning of the first issue neither character has played a role in the story until this issue. It's primarily a Green Lantern story with some strong ties to the rest of DC Universe. It felt like Jason and Gen were thrown in because we get to have (twisted evil) old Firestorm fight the new one and throw in some extra emotion into the story. It felt hollow. This wasn't a tragic Firestorm story, it was an extra victim to show you how serious the Black Lanterns are. It doesn't come off as horrific as much as it just does tacky and cheap.
Now to be fair, the story is not even half over so it's possible Jason (and in a story involving zombies as well as superheroes, possibly Gen) will have a larger role in the story or maybe somethings might be undone. And I like Geoff Johns, and I don't mind blood and guts really, even in my superhero stories sometimes it is appropriate. But I was expecting a more cosmic story of the Black Lanterns versus the various Lantern Corps (it's a long story but the Green Lanterns are no longer the only game in town anymore), not a "Let's kill off a c-list heroes and supporting characters."
Please Mr. Johns. You have five more issues to break this trend. I'm not saying you have to make everything be all puppy dogs and ponys, just... maybe put some baking soda into the fridge to give a fresher aroma.
Zombie ponys would be a nice middle ground