Women and Comics According to Middle Aged White Men.....

The Television Critic's Association press tour wrapped with a panel discussion featuring Todd McFarlane, Gerry Conway, Len Wein and Michael Kantor, who directed the upcoming documentary, Superheroes: The Never Ending Battle. Eventually, the roundtable turned into a criticism among the creators as to why mainstream superheroes are (and continue to be), on a majority, white men. Alyssa Rosenberg wrote an excellent, more detailed report for ThinkProgress on the points made by the panel, but NPR's Linda Holmes summarized them best via Twitter.

1). "Hey, nobody is in your way saying you can't."

-Here, we have a double edged sword. On one side, yes, the burden of leading the charge for progress IS on the undervalued demographic. After all, a lot of history's great achievements are the result of mainstream doors being shut in the faces of ambitious upstarts. Independent comics as well as web comics are feasible avenues that make user created material more feasible all the time. "Be the change you want to see in the world" and all that.

However, on the other hand, this is ultimately a lazy school of thought on the panel's part and a dismissive way of presenting it to consumers of a medium that, having it's own growing film/television genre to think about, should be a little more concerned about opening its doors to potential readers. That should really sound more like "Nobody is saying you can't. In fact, you should. I'd love to see that shit." This really came across of the comic industry's equivalent of  "Send us your demo tape, kid. I'm sure my agent will get to it or something."


2). "You can't because it would be like a medieval comic about female knights."

-Oh, please. First of all, I'm pretty sure Paul Cornell's Demon Knights series featured a transgender incarnation of Shining Knight.

Second, I'm pretty sure this is a female knight handing a male knight his ass on one of the most popular shows on television. Still an implausible sell?


Third, it's FICTION. That's the entire point of fiction. You can make the world whatever you want it to be. There is a comic book about a second civil war turning New York City into a nigh-uninhabitable No Man's Land and the thought of a female knight (aside from Joan of Arc) in medieval times in unfeasible to you? Again, I say: Oh, please.

3). "Readers wouldn't read it so don't blame creators."

-Despite what people may think of them now, these are artists. Furthermore, they are, almost by definition, nerds. Ideally, one of the great ideas about nerd culture is the thought of fellow nerds making good. Someone else who loves this comics as much as you do is out there living the dream. I've always assumed this is a big part of what people like about Kevin Smith. Now, imagine a nerd, someone you perceive to be like you in a fashion, making good and then telling you that the medium you love isn't representing you in its art because people don't give a shit about you or telling your story. We expect that from "suits"....not creators.

4). "You can't make the point of a superhero some kind of political message."

-I repeat: Oh, please.

Finally, to top off the tomfuckery, the panel went on to make a point of emphasizing that comics don't lead in society, that they follow and reflect it. Rosenberg flatly stated "That seems like an unambitious position," and ended it there which, by the way, is probably (ironically) the most heroic thing that happened here in this room of superhero creators. This is probably the most indefensible, disappointing thing to happen all year in comics thus far and that's saying a lot considering 2013 has given us Justice League of America, Age of Ultron and The Following. The middle aged white men on this panel would have you believe that comics have evolved to cater to an older, more testorerone filled audience because they're consumers, first and foremost and it's true that a lot of them have. From this rather outdated notion of what comics "have to be" comes the idea that women in comics are just some kind of novelty to serve as pleasing the old male eye. Even if the market for comics were populated solely by old men sitting at home, still clamoring for cartoon boobs like they were when they were twelve years old (which it isn't...not exclusively, anyway), that doesn't mean this is the only way it has to be. And it shouldn't be the writer/artist/creator's primary goal to enforce that. The marketing execs determine that which, in turn, trickles down to the editor-in-chief and then, eventually, to the talent. The job of artists in any art form is to say something and even with capitalism's tyrannical head looming over mainstream media, respect and admiration will come to any artist who even tries to represent the people, man or woman, who are willing to listen.