The Four Color Media Monitor

At least a week ago, Janelle Asselin, a former editor at DC, took issue with the cover drawing of Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark on a new volume of Teen Titans that's soon to debut, because she doesn't think it looks appropriate for a girl who's potentially set at underage being depicted as a sexpot:

Let's start with the elephant in the room: Wonder Girl's rack. Perhaps I'm alone in having an issue with an underaged teen girl being drawn with breasts the size of her head (seriously, line that stuff up, each breast is the same size as her face) popping out of her top.

Well if Cassie's been reverted to more of a 13-year-old like she was at the time she originally debuted in 1996, then I'd say there's a valid argument here. After all, when Donna Troy first debuted in 1965, unlike Cassie in the new 2014 rendition, she didn't wear a topless outfit, not even when she became more of a fashion plate nearly 4 years afterwards at age 16, and Nick Cardy still pulled off a fantastic job making her gorgeous with a costume that was sleeveless but not superfluous. It was only several years later, when she became more of an 18-year-old, that she began to wear cleavage. Since the New52's depiction of Cassie is likely to depict her much younger, that's why it just doesn't work out. But then, I knew DC hadn't abandoned the otherwise negative approach they had to women that reached its zenith with Identity Crisis. Nice to see Valerie D'Orazio isn't the only former woman staffer at DC who came forward and admitted she wasn't happy with what she's had to deal with. I'm a bit surprised CBR ran this though, because they've been suckups to the big two for years on end. They do have objective contributors, but not enough of them.

But the subject didn't end here. Even though the cover for the new TT volume is drawn by Kenneth Rocafort, another DC artist named Brett Booth took offense, and attacked Asselin without even naming her. There's another list of the tweets at The Outhousers, and at least three I find laughable or just plain absurd. For example:

@DanielKalban It's backlash because DC wants to control the interviews more. Newsarama guy had a meltdown about it a fews ago.
— Brett Booth (@Demonpuppy) April 12, 2014

What a laugh. When has the media ever really been "biased" against DC? It's not like much of the press, comics or otherwise, ever condemned them for brewing up Identity Crisis, or even followups like Day of Vengeance, Countdown to Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis, which wasn't. Booth's claim the company he works for wants to "control" interviews is also worrisome, since he's suggesting it's a good thing, and not many people working for DC/Marvel proper are likely to be critical of them for doing it. Then, there's these 2-in-1 tweets:

@shurato2099 @DanielKalban I do think we need to be more accessible to female readers. We are making changes. But that doesn't mean
— Brett Booth (@Demonpuppy) April 12, 2014

@shurato2099 @DanielKalban we should make everyone character thats female completely covered up in burkas.
— Brett Booth (@Demonpuppy) April 12, 2014

Coming from a potential leftist who's probably never protested recent efforts to lionize Islam in mainstream, that's amusing in a way. I found Booth retweeted this item from Greg Pak, which is likely a swipe at the GOP, so I wonder if he's got the guts to say a]the same about Grant Morrison's creation seen in New X-Men called Dust, b]that it's regrettable Marvel would depict Islam positively with the Muslim Ms. Marvel, or even c]to call out Geoff Johns for doing the same in Green Lantern.

Booth's not the only one who goofed here. Let's also make space for a tweet by a writer who's already earned a bad reputation:

.@Comixace I'm amazed this needs to be said. But this is the freedom of anonymity on the internet. People have free reign to be deplorable.
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) April 14, 2014

Well well, am I reading this right, or is Slott trivializing the issues of sexual harrassment on the internet? Why should he be amazed or even surprised? This has been a problem for some time, and he didn't help one bit with his fanfictionish approach to Mary Jane Watson in the Inferior Dr. Octopus. It's also a shame he's defending deplorability rather than lamenting they'd do so at the expense of great mediums. Mainly because he's justifying his own deplorable attitude, like calling anyone he disagrees with "idiots".

Booth's accomplished nothing by attacking a woman for her opinions on artwork, and neither has Slott with his apologetics. This is just why not many women are into the superhero genre per se, because narrow male "fans" are being so callous and selfish.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful artists, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, violence