On Marvel’s Mega Minds and Missing Women

Marvel’s 2010 crossover storyline Fall of the Hulks, which occurs sort of concurrently with the events of the Siege storyline, details among other things the plot of a cabal of evil, brainy superheroes to kidnap the world’s eight smartest people. The Intelligencia [sic], as they call themselves, arouse the ire of various Hulks in the process, leading to all sorts of hijinks and craziness, as well as the World War Hulk story and its two issue miniseries, Hulked Out Heroes.

Try not to imagine the kind of mindboggling destruction that an entity equal parts Hulk and Deadpool would wreak. Instead, let’s go back and talk about the fact that Marvel has offered up a list of its terrestrial supergeniuses. This is great! I really want to know who the smartest people on Earth-616 are, don’t you? Let’s take a look at who was worth capturing (in no particular order):

On Geek Gatekeeping and Inheriting The Earth

[This is chiptune rock, which might not be your thing. The lyrics sort of make the point, and you can just look them up.]

It’s always scary, seeing a ghost. Not a literal ghost, as I’ve never seen one, but something you thought was dead and gone away. You see, I thought we had put the “fake geek girl” problem to rest. I assumed that it was broken down, dismissed, and relegated to the darkest corners of the places for which I have no time. Even Cracked tore this one to shreds, and this was some six months ago. So I had assumed that we were collectively over it.

I am not, however, over the Too Late To RuPaulogize video. Look it up.

It turns out that this was nothing more than a egocentric dream, the folly of a mind that occasionally assumes that everyone is a feminist, or that everyone knows that President Bartlet would be the best president ever. Of all time.

Back in November 2012, comic book artist Tony Harris wrote a rant (read: vomit-inducing, misogynistic tripe) on Facebook. This seemed to be the culmination of a season where what even Forbes Magazine called “Geek Gatekeeping” was on everybody’s lips (including Lady Bacula‘s). Then, in an effort to spread his sexist, body-policing brain diarrhea, Harris asked his twitter followers to read and retweet it. We were talking about this fake geek girl bs all through the winter, according to my extremely scientific research method of checking Google Trends for “fake geek girl” and “fake nerd girl.” By March, It had sort of faded from my view. It had been discredited all over the internet, and I figured that was enough.

Adventures in Geekdom or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Comics

xkcd knows what’s up.

In my fifteen or so years of participation in geekdom, I’ve learned that there are two universal truths.

1. There are infinite shades of nerdity on the geek spectrum.
2. There are many people out there who still don’t get it.

Being a nerd was always part of my core identity, though I took pride in calling myself a “nerd” over “geek.” Geeks were socially awkward, not smart, like me (doesn’t that sentence just radiate hypocrisy?). I prided myself on being some kind of upper echelon of social outcast, defining myself through criticizing others. It didn’t matter that I never actually envisioned who that social outcast was who sat on the lower rung of the social ladder. I wasn’t like “those” weirdos, whoever they were.

So it really wasn’t a surprise when similar feelings resurfaced when I was invited to go check out Free Comic Book Day.

So You Want To Read Comic Books 2.0: Go To Free Comic Book Day!

Say you, perchance, want to read comic books. But maybe you don’t have the cash to spend on them. If only there were some sort of day where comic books were given away for free? Well, you are in luck, dear reader, because tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.

Let’s Compare the New Pope Francis and Batman!

So in honor of a new Pope being elected, I decided to compare Pope Francis and Batman… for science.

So You Want To Read Comic Books 2.0: Try 700 #1s For Free!

Want to try your hand at reading comics, but don’t know what characters to read about or what stories you’ll like? If you don’t want to spend money finding out, then you should check out digital comic book shop Comixology before Tuesday morning!

At their SXSW panel this weekend, Marvel and Comixology announced that they were joining forces to offer 700 different first issues and first appearances of different heroes for free. This includes some of LGG&F’s favorites like Captain Marvel and Hawkeye as well as other popular titles. They’re sorted into neat little sections, but there’s a nifty little “Add all to cart” button in the corner of each section. I’mma be honest: I just went through and clicked that over and over. I may never actually sit down and read all 700, but I’m not going to say no to free comics.

Comixology is, in general, an awesome site for first time comics readers—it often has sales or giveaways of certain books, it is a way to get a hold of single issues that may be out of print, and, once you have an account, you can take your whole collection with you wherever you go. This is a really great deal that they’re offering, and as long as you don’t mind e-comics instead of paper comics, you really can’t lose. Here’s that link again: go get free stuff!

ETA: The site’s been glitchy with traffic all day, but if you have the Comixology app on your phone, you can download them there with no problem!

Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon): 2013 Edition

Those of us here at LGG&F are back again and working tirelessly to compile and vote on this years top 10 canon and top 10 fanon pairings in Geekdom. Last year’s list can be found here.

Now onward to see who made to this year’s list!!

Saving the Environment and Geekdom

When it comes to geeks trying to save the planet, things can get complicated. It either tends to be really heavy-handed and naïve or to demonize anything involving saving the planet.

The big conflict is often between saving the environment and the march of progress, and many stories tend to proclaim one as good while demonizing the other, which is obviously problematic.

Web Crush Wednesdays: Escher Girls

With the arrival of the New Year we all try desperately to hold onto those resolutions we’ve made: to exercise more, to take more trips, which ever comforting desire for an improved well-being we thought of. I have a list of my own, of course, but I have one for the artists in charge of drawing for the major publications: draw females better!

If you’re under the misguided thought that female characters in big name comics (we’re talking about Marvel and DC here, mostly) are drawn with just as much respect as their male counterparts, then first and foremost you need to have a good, long look at your life, but after that check out Escher Girls on tumblr. Much like its sister site, The Hawkeye Initiative, Escher Girls points out the ridiculous poses that female characters are forced into as well as adding thoughtful commentary on important issues. However, where they differ is how they choose to go about this “pointing out”.

No, Seriously, What the Fuck is This Shit

As previously discussed, The Hawkeye Initiative takes the poses given to women and places the superhero Hawkeye in them, pointing out how jarring it is when superheroes are given such ridiculous poses, even if it has to be seen through the non-stereotypical gender—by which I mean, it would be atypical to have a male hero make those poses—to realize by which extent this is problematic. Escher Girls takes a different, more straightforward, two-fold approach. There is the expected commentary of “wow, what the fuck is this shit”, but in a manner that is more conductive to discussion, the followers often times offer well thought out re-draws of the panels in question. Sometimes it’s so simple to see where a comic artist goes wrong (crazy contortions, one inch waist, etc.), but other times it truly takes the input of another artist to see just how badly the female body is mangled in the name of “sex appeal” and “artistic interpretation”.

Outside of that, the site’s atmosphere is really friendly and it’s clear that while the main aim of the site is to hopefully bring much needed attention to this problem on a larger scale, they still want to have fun with it. In my experience, humor is the best teacher and Ms. Angelwings (the blog owner) along with her followers are great at providing that. So whether you’re just after a good laugh or a thought-provoking look into the position of women in comics, Escher Girls is a site that should definitely make its home on your bookmarks.

How It Should Have Happened, Part 34534

New ‘Shortpacked’ Arc Hits Close to Home

I’ve been noticing a trend not only on my Tumblr dash, but in the general consensus of the net and its denizens on what the hot topic issue to discuss this season is: sexism! But when is it not sexism, honestly? At least this time there’s a figurehead for our discussions: Tony Harris. Harris, a comic author that has worked for both Marvel and DC, recently has come out saying a whole slew of offensive things that boil down to “hey girls, you can’t actually like nerdy things because you’re a Fake-y McFakerson and I’m on to you and your tricky lying skank ways.”

Okay, it was better thought out than that (barely), but it brings up a point that we’ve already brought up here once, and will probably do so again: is it possible to be a fake nerd or geek?

I’m Pretty Sure We All Know That Feel

More importantly though, does it even matter?  Let’s, for the sake of argument, say that yes, there are fake nerds and geeks that want in this super special club of fandoms and feels and whatever else there is. Who’s going to care or notice? For one, if they’re attending cons, they’re essentially giving money to support other nerds and geeks. If they’re watching shows, they’re adding viewership ratings that may help keep the show on the air. Literally, the only problem I can see with this is that the lack of knowledge they may have on your fandom of choice may be slightly annoying. If that’s the case, either teach them and help them understand—who knows, you may make a nerd/geek of them yet!—or ignore them and go on your way. It’s. Not. That. Hard.

There Are Some Things You Just Can’t Ignore

But, I’ve completely veered from what I wanted to bring to light for today. This morning, I checked out the webcomic Shortpacked (which we’ve already praised for one of author David Willis’s previous strips) and was completely sick to my stomach, but in a good way, I’m hoping. It seems as though in his latest arc he’s going to tackle this new, unapologetically geeky girl generation through the eyes of Lucy, the newest addition to the Shortpacked line-up and also an unapologetically geeky chick, and her being harassed by someone that looks freakishly like Mr. Harris. Although it’s only on its first page, it’s already uncomfortably hitting close to home. I’m interested to see where he takes it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope it ended in a cosmic dick punch.