The Four Color Media Monitor

We've just been given telling signs that even smaller companies can succumb to the blatherings of SJWs, as Dynamite has announced they're going to change the costume designs for Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris from John Carter of Mars fame, and most tellingly, Vampirella. Not that all the designs they've conceived Red Sonja are literally practical ones, and for Dejah Thoris, less so. But it's the design they're now giving to Vampirella that, while not completely modest, is still a strong sign of political correctness seeping in, and includes the ponytailed look on the design sheet. Even if it wasn't intended to be PC, it's still very dull.

What's funny about this is that, when Vampirella was originally introduced in 1969, one of her co-creators was a woman, artist Trina Robbins. Which should make perfectly clear there's women out there who have no issue with skimpy outfits of the kind the vampirical heroine is famous for.

Curiously enough, Gail Simone was involved in these fishy alterations. And I find the premise for an upcoming story in Red Sonja very unpleasant:

...As envisioned by Gail Simone, the new series sends Sonja on a mission of infiltration, sabotage, and assassination when she discovers that her native people have been conscripted into the service of a Nazi-like regime.

On the surface, that might not sound like a bad premise, because conscripted means forced in against one's will. But then, this says:

Regarding the direction of Red Sonja, the first issue will show that Red Sonja's return home is necessitated when her king hovers at death's door, while a dread new power rises from within Hyrkania's own borders. The new authority is bent on defending its homeland - no matter the cost, no matter what its people become. Billed as a defining chapter in the Red Sonja saga, the opening "Falcon Throne" storyline is dark, clever, vicious, and at times even mirthful, as the She-Devil with a Sword must topple the brutal regime, her own people.

Bennett says, "This current arc allows me to explore elements of my favorite stories, which have always been those that are enormously morally gray. In this case, we're nearly to 'Red Sonja vs. The Iron Age Nazis', as she watches her own people united and then profaned by a charismatic leader with intimate connections to Sonja's own long-buried past. She is placed in an impossible crisis, on the run from the very people she has saved, torn between saving her homeland... or destroying it. I hope readers will enjoy something dark but fun, vicious but witty, balanced between battle, romance, intrigue, and good old-fashioned monster-slaying. I'm so grateful to have a chance to lead Sonja into this brave new world."

What they say here is confusing. It sounds more like they're saying the Hyrkanians were corrupted and turned into monsters than a situation where they were forcibly enslaved. And that's honestly an embarrassing premise, since it makes Sonja's community out to look revolting. What's so mirthful about that? I can't see myself supporting this.

Some of the comments I've seen on these articles are negative, including the reception of Vampirella's new outfit. I just hope they realize that, if they want to make their dissent count, they have to vote with their wallets, and not support the "bold" directions, which reek of the stunts Marvel/DC are already notorious for. It's all just the product of absurd reactions to "moral panics", and pandering to the wills of SJWs and modern Werthams does them no favors.

Update: here's another website where they think Dynamite's turned themselves into a joke by going with these otherwise unimpressive designs.

Labels: censorship issues, indie publishers, msm propaganda, politics