If you're interested and not already tired of hearing about the new Thor, I wrote an article about why some of the outrage is....well, stupid. It hasn't even been a week since the news got out and I've already talked about Thor enough to last a lifetime. I honestly believe the trolls were only rubbed the wrong way because Marvel made a big deal in the press about it. If this had just been a par-for-the-course part of Jason Aaron's story arc, I'm pretty sure it would have gone unmarked or at least been a lot more low key in making its rounds in the press. But if you really want to talk about Marvel and making statements about gender or, according to some, "forcing them down our throats"....I think this would be a good way to go about it. If you really want to appear open minded about women in superhero comics, sure, you could make "that" statement quietly and create an alternative "that" audience can pick up over here in "that" little subsection where it won't bother your primary demographic. OR you can take a character who (let's face it), despite his corresponding movies basically being romcoms, is the quintessential avatar of all things stereotypically "manly", move him to the side and (this part is pure conjecture because we haven't read it yet) give all of those qualities to a woman. Why? Because making sociopolitical statements are only truly effective when you've shoved it in someone's face and made them uncomfortable. Otherwise, why even open your mouth? But I could be wrong.
I also wrote an op-ed on the treatment of women in Nerd Culture. By the way, let me just thank the trolls for giving me a break on that one. As I'm writing this, the Thor article has been out for barely 24 hours now and you're already going to work. I can't combat the ignorance on two fronts.
In addition, my reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure as well as your scorn and derision. Whatever comes first. This week, I took a look at....
Ms. Marvel: I genuinely don't understand the whole "Instead of changing a popular characters' gender, just make better female centric books" complaint when you have a book like this on the shelves (or Black Widow or the all female X-Men book or the Mighty Avengers book where women on the team outnumber men, etc.). This is easily one of the BEST books in comics this year without question. Teaming the perpetually hopeful Kamala Khan up with curmudgeonly ass Wolverine was a brilliant move on G. Willow Wilson's part. I'm more excited to see if Wilson facilitates the inevitable team up with Captain Marvel, her favorite her.Batman Eternal: Not much to say outside of the review this week, but this was mainly a fantastic way to start a new volume of the series. And bringing in Dustin Nguyen is always a plus. I'd pretty much call him one of the quintessential Batman artists of the 2000s. His use of shadow and anime-esque art deco type lines have always stuck out to me and made for a dynamic read.
Uncanny X-Men: Now, THIS is how you bounce back after a lackluster issue. Brian Bendis and Kris Anka make such a good creative team, I hardly recognized this book from the previous run. I was really impressed with the clean, drastically different style employed here. As much as I love Chris Bachalo, the "Vs. SHIELD" story had a lot of chaotic moments that made it easy to get lost in the action. Anka's clean, straightforward panels are reminiscent of Chris Samnee's work on Daredevil....which is always a compliment.
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