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Friday, December 28, 2018 

Harley Quinn features a metaphorical attack on Comicsgate

And the writers at Geek Dad are perfectly okay with this. The writer of Harley Quinn issue 56, titled "Pettergate", where this takes place, is none other than Mark Russell, same one who wrote their propaganda adaptions of Hanna-Barbera cartoons:
Ray: Sam Humphries takes a one-issue break from Harley Quinn to allow Mark Russell to tell a story that has a lot of relevance to today’s issues in the comic book industry. It’s been impossible to avoid the presence of Gamergate and Comicgate in the comic news media over the last year, due to just how loud they are, although the good news is that the vast majority of the industry has stood with the people they’re targeting. They’re often cartoonishly evil with their antics, which makes them ripe for targeting for someone like Russell, who is one of the most prominent satirists in comics at the moment. The problem is, the real thing can be so cartoonish that it’s hard to imagine how to make the comic version more so – and that’s a problem Harley Quinn #56 never really gets over. The story, slight as it is, starts with Harley dealing with severe allergies due to a tenant who has dozens of trained cats that he used in his burglaries. He’s over the legal cat limit, so she offers to find his other cats good homes.

That’s where the trouble begins. She gives one to her favorite hot dog guy, and comes back to find him being beaten by a group of alpha bros. It turns out that the pet shop industry in Coney Island is run by “traditionalists” who have cornered the market and won’t let anyone else sell pets. They also insist that the pet industry was much better when only men were allowed to sell pets, and they have Very Strong Opinions about which pets are acceptable for men to own. Harley picks a big fight with them, and soon they’re brawling through the streets of Coney Island. By the end of the issue, this devolves into a bunch of zombie-like trolls yelling slogans from the Comicgate playbook. There’s some fun visual gags, and I liked how the book makes clear that a lot of these goons are dudes trying to overcompensate for their own insecurities. They’re pitiable cartoons, not the warriors they see themselves as. But while this issue definitely means well, it still lacks the style and depth of Humphries’ run. Can you really parody something that’s already a sad joke?
Maybe if the perpetrators of the sad joke - that being the reviewers themselves - would just admit that's what they've turned out, then the parody could work. But alas, it doesn't. I do know, however, that for people who advocate for depicting homosexuality positively, what's bizarre about their attacks on consumer revolutions like these is that when they depict men demanding these be "men's only domains", or whatever balderdash they're concocting, they make it sound like Gamergate/Comicsgate supporters are all homosexual themselves! Which kind of contradicts their crude positions almost to the point of parody, again. There's a second reviewer here, who says:
Corrina: Comicsgate and Gamergate are not sad jokes to the people who’ve received death threats, been doxxed, and driven off social media due to excessive harassment. Ask Chuck Wendig, who lost a gig writing Marvel Comics because of them.
Well, I guess it's clear somebody doesn't give a damn about the Breitweisers or managers of Alterna, after all the terrible experiences they've gone through. And sees nothing wrong with Wendig's repellent vulgarities, judging from her lack of courage in citing any of them. It's everyone else's fault but that of these leftists, huh? Got it. Wendig's whole miniseries has practically been shelved, and since Marvel still has Quesada to contend with, that's one more reason why I'd rather not waste money on their products.

That DC would greenlight such a story, even in a 3rd-tier book, proves where their top brass really stand, and what they think of their own consumers, whom they've worked tirelessly to drive out of the hobby and market for over a quarter century, along with the casual readers who've largely abandoned their products as well. All that aside, I've long found it troubling a character like Harley Quinn, who was created as a villainess, would be turned into somebody we're meant to root for. That's another serious fault with today's comics and their writers: villain worship.

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Harley is not a third-tier character; she is one of the most popular DC characters around. If you exclude characters created before 1960 - heck, if you exclude concepts created before 1950 - she is the most popular character they have.

popular with whom?

Popular with people who saw the Suicide Movie and liked it?


Popular with sjws on Twitter?



Popular with the tiny number of people who buy comics with her in it?



This isn't the 1960s. Superheroes don't hold a special place in the public's heart. If Hollywood stopped making movies about them, the public would quickly forget about them. It's hard to say that superheroes are popular if they are the only thing Hollywood seems interested in spending any money promoting.

So you're saying that anything that came before Harley's new costume doesn't count?


According to Diamond sales records, Harley Quinn's sales are higher than any DC titles other than those of the long-established DC characters who made their debuts before 1960. And she stars in three comic books a month, which would dilute sales. The Suicide Squad movie had a story that made no sense, but Margot Robbie was the best part of it.

Quinn is the most popular superhero created at DC in more than fifty years. Doesn't mean the ones before the don't count, but it is remarkable.

"This isn't the 1960s. Superheroes don't hold a special place in the public's heart. If Hollywood stopped making movies about them, the public would quickly forget"

In the 60s, superheros were popular because Hollywood put them in the Batman tv show. As soon as Adam West went off the air, the public lost interest in superheros. Green Lantern and Teen Titans and X-Men were cancelled, and Archie was the top-selling title in the market. The networks stopped making tv shows about them, and the public quickly forgot. No difference from now, except there are more superhero tv shows now.

I think what that last guy meant about "anything that came before Harley's new costume" was anything that involved her prior to her wearing that reject from a refuse dump.


She's not a superhero, she is an anti-hero at best.
A comic starring Quinn receiving orders for 60k copies in 2016
and then receiving orders for 30k copies two years later is not a sign of a new CHARACTER's growing popularity in a shrinking market. (lcs) unless you think x-23 and Doctor Strange are also popular.

Harley Quinn is most likely like the Inhumans and the Marvel Legacy/diverse characters. She is something that is being promoted from the top-down. Any following that she has is a small following. The LCS market is oversaturated with multiple comics with her in it because of orders from corporate leadership.

You are a compulsive liar.

And what are your feelings towards Harley in her old life?

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