A lot of random updates
When the Savage Damsel finally discovered the spirit of Christmas, in April
After many years thinking I would never find it or watch it ever again, one day I was having a lazy day out doing nothing in particular I discovered the DVD of my favourite ever Christmas movie in a shop, with dusty and neglected packaging that boasted a very low price of $14 AUD.
I first saw Mrs Santa Claus when I was 11 years old and it has stayed in my mind ever since. After all, how often do you find an Angela Lansbury Christmas musical tv movie that had a very strong feminist and unionist message? (The TV Trope term "Soapbox Sadie" came from this movie, in the adorable form of young suffragette Sadie Lowenstein). The movie is absolute total fluff and the closest thing we have to an antagonist has the most hilarious villainous character motivation that must be seen to be believed. Years later after watching it for the second time and I am still utterly charmed by it. Anything that might be considered a flaw just adds to the goofy, fluffy charm of it all. I am so watching this every Christmas from now on. It shall be my new tradition.
Supanova Pop Culture Expo
Unfortunately, with my new and slightly extreme saving goals (I want to save up enough to get my own place within the year) I have to really slow and cut down on buying comics, with me most likely only buying TBPs from Marvel and DC every now and then and only buying some of the DC titles I like that aren't guaranteed to go in trades. Since I had been saving up so I could go to Supanova (George Perez was there but I didn't meet him) without leaving me destitute, I managed to shop pretty efficiently and have finally completed my Cable and Deadpool and Captain America trades collection. (Well, except for CA:The Chosen and CA:Heroes Reborn but I didn't want those in the first place. The Golden Age stuff can wait until next year). I'm thinking that it will tide me over for quite a long time, especially with the Cap Marvel Essentials.
One ridiculously awesome find I made was the DVD animated movie Justice League: New Frontier, since it's not technically available in Australia. I didn't love it as much as the book but I felt that even with it's rather truncated feel it still managed to capture the things I loved best about the book, from the tone, the art, the story and the characterisation. I was especially happy they kept the story of Martian Manhunter fairly intact, since his story was my absolute favourite part of the book. I also loved how in the special features it was mentioned that the book was very specifically about heroic characters. My favourite line in the story was most definitely the description someone gave Hal (can't quite remember the name although it was probably Flagg) of being a little bit pink, mainly because the dated insult "pinko" makes me laugh.
One bummer note, though. I once made a post about this absolutely awful and misogynistic indie comic I came across and could you believe it, I saw the guy who "wrote" and "drew" this piece of shit. A knee-jerk part of me desperately wanted to go up to him and give him a piece of my mind (Hey buster, just because you label your comics table with a sign that your books aren't for kids doesn't mean you can be an offensive dickhead; dickshit) but I wimped out with fears of con harrassment claims and decided instead to go to the comics artist next to him who had artwork I adored and praise him and his work instead, also offering to buy a print of his gorgeous Monkey art whenever he plans to sell his prints. I did notice however that dickshit indie comics guy had a book called "Gay! Gay! Kill! Kill!". Bloody typical.
Kick-Ass and Iron Man 2
So basically months of being a tightarse actually meant that I had some spare cash rattling around and could go see some movies and have a day out, which also ended up with me dealing with financial matters that will be great in the future. I decided to see Kick-Ass out of curiosity and while the movie was amusing enough for me not to feel cheated, I was definitely really creeped out by Millar yet again. Millar really has a serious problem with black men that I find really disturbing and he definitely has a problem with gay men and women too. (I found out that apparently Millar was responsible for the whole Wolverine-killing-Northstar story and dude, be annoyed by Northstar's characterisation if you want to but killing him off like that was disgusting). I note with not much amusement the whole "mothers can only be dead" syndrome and with such blatantness too. (Yes, I know it's a comics convention but here they don't even try to mention about maternal love, which is something that does get touched on in the comics). I could understand it with Hit Girl's story even if it sucks but for Dave there was no excuse, since his father wasn't even important to the story in any way.
One thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the characterisation of Katie and how she basically took up reading comic books and an interest in Dave because she thought he was gay and has apparently wanted a gay pet/handbag/SteppinFetchit/Mammy friend ever since she was little. (Is that offensive? Yes it is, precious). Honey, the fact that you had to take up some new interests (Oh, and Millar? GIRLS DO READ COMICS AND NOT JUST TO IMPRESS SOME GUY) just so you could find something to approach Dave with means that not all gay men are the same and not all can be your freaking hip accessory/cheerleader/liberal-cred-best-friend for the same reason why no one on this planet is friends with every person and their granny. In pop media it always runs along this stereotypical line and it bloody annoys me. Couldn't you be friends-without-qualfiers regardless of sexual orientation/gender (So having something like "I'm Dina and this is my friend Bobby" instead of "I'm Dina and this is my fabulous gay gal pal Bobby") and for the various general mutual reasons of friendship and not as some weird hip accessory with a severe power imbalance and rampantly thoughtless stereotyping? I know that there are great and interesting friendships between people of different orientations and genders, but we hardly ever see them, we just get stupid gay minstrelsy.
You could make the argument that she is just a naturally caring person who wanted to make sure that Dave is okay (that is definitely what the movie is trying to aim for with the whole story about her job and stalker - which also gives us Millar's issues with black men) but I personally thought it was very clear she had no interest in him before the rumour and definitely wanted a gay friend for a very specific reason. It gets even more ridiculous when we get the nonsense about Katie wishing that Dave was straight because she liked him when she was still under the assumption that he was gay.
Of course, the fault doesn't really lie with Katie. The truth is that Katie is a fictional character created by a man who has absolutely no clue about women or gay men and is blatantly projecting his white-boy fears about people he doesn't understand. WAAHHH black men are taking MY wimminz and teh gheys are hanging out with MY wimminz and doing sexy shit I'm not allowed to do (Hey Millar, if I had gay male friends I would NOT have sleepovers and do nearly-naked tanning sessions with when I am still living in my parent's house, nor would I expect them to do so, dickhead). Do you know what's really hilarious? Movie!Katie is actually meant to be far more sympathetic than the original book. (And apparently Millar considers the movie to be the "chick flick" version because Katie was made a bit more sympathetic and the movie dealt with character emotions). Yikes, Millar, yikes. The movie was so uncomfortably shitty with homosexuality that I feel really dirty for seeing Kick-Ass/Red Mist slash potential. I also feel dirty for wanting to explore more of Millar's oeuvre, just to make sure that he is really is as disturbing as I think he is from what I've encountered. I might have to find a way that doesn't include contributing to his royalty checks though. I can definitely borrow my brother's copy of Red Son for instance. (My brother doesn't generally read comics but he was too amused by the idea of a Commie Superman).
So after Kick-Ass it was off to Iron Man 2. Better movie of course. I may have my issues with some current Iron Man sentiment held by the Powers that Be but I still love old-school Tony and Robert Downey Jnr's portrayal. This movie is so totally about Tony/Rhodey slash, even if I don't usually ship it. I have always had some mixed feelings about Tony/Pepper and this movie continued that feeling with it actually being sealed with a kiss. I don't mind it (I liked Tony's goofy attempts with offering Pepper food) but I didn't root for it to happen like I did with Peter/MJ, Lois/Clark or even Waid-era Sharon/Steve. I liked Scarlett as Natasha even though I wished for more of her. I found myself disappointed by Christine Everhart's appearance though. I may not have been superinvested in her but I liked how in the last movie she provided some snap and bite while in this one since the writers couldn't find a plot purpose for her she was very much a tempered and muted version who seemed almost meek and mild. It's rather too bad. My favourite part is the old reel of young Tony messing with his dad's model. Although you guessed it, it's about the dads yet again. I swear, if the Cap movie they have Steve wanting to join the army because of his dad like in Mythos I will be so pissed.
Oh crap, it's either today or next Sunday that's Mother's Day isn't it? (I've already given my mother a gift in advance since I'm crap with dates and she gets totally narky). Oh well, the next post will have some "canon" facts about Sarah Rogers like I said I would do some time ago.