Gail Simone is Back on Batgirl

Gail Simone is back, baby!

Gail Simone was recently and rudely dismissed from the Batgirl comic via email, leaving her without a title to work on and reducing DC Comics’ female artists and writers to only about four. Furthermore, Gail Simone is one of the most promoted female writer at DC comics and is known for her support of women, minorities, and LGBTQ people.

The reasons for Gail Simone’s dismissal from Batgirl was never fully explained and I doubt the reasons why they are asking her to now return will be explained either, but perhaps it was the the mass amount of not only fan protest but protest from fellow comic book creators. Whatever the case, Gail Simone recently posted on her Tumblr how excited and pleased she is to be returning to Batgirl.

I KNOW WHO THE NEXT WRITER ON BATGIRL IS…

…and her name is ME!

I am typing this on a snowy road, cell service is about to disappear, I know everyone has a million questions, but…
BATGIRL, baby!

Thank you to DC for this privilege, and a million thank yous to everyone who wanted to see this happen.

I am ECSTATIC.

I’m extremely excited for Gail Simone to return to Batgirl, especially to read her stories about how Barbara was able to rehabilitate after the Joker shot her. I’m further excited to potentially see a transgender person potentially in the Batgirl comics! Gail Simone has revealed that more exciting things will be happening that she can’t reveal yet.

I promise. DC did a nice thing here. A happy thing, and there’s more news coming I can’t tell yet, but soon. ALL good news.

Some opportunities have opened up all over the place and soon I will be writing some of my very very favorite characters that I have never written before, AND I will be writing a bunch of new things I created, as well. Some things I have been waiting for for years will be coming.
There will be news from possibly unexpected corners very soon.

And man, I cannot WAIT.

So be pleased, comic book fans. We won one!

Feminism and the Apocalypse

Happy Apocalypse everyone!

So apparently we are all going to die today. Or maybe we were supposed to die earlier? I’m not sure how this whole Mayan prophecy thing is supposed to work. Should we have died at midnight on the 20th, or am I still waiting for midnight tonight on the 21st? Or is it going to happen randomly today?

Whatever the case I don’t think the world will actually come to end. There have been doomsday predictions since almost the dawn of humankind. We seem to really want to die. Morbid, huh?

Well, just in case the world does end, I want to say it has been an honor blogging with you.

And to my fellow women: out of everyone, we should be the most scared of an apocalypse, because things don’t tend to go well for women in post-apocalyptic societies.

If you have been scaring yourself watching those stupid History Channel shows about the apocalypse, you’ll know there are many ways for the world to end. But some of the more interesting shows are the ones that describe how to survive after the apocalypse.

Yes, dear reader, you may survive the apocalypse, but you will then be stuck in a post-apocalyptic world that is far scarier than death, especially, I would argue, for women and other minorities.

[trigger warning for discussion of rape]

Gail Simone Booted from Batgirl!

Recently, Gail Simone announced via twitter that she had been removed by editor Brian Cunningham, via email, from the Batgirl title. Here’s what she has had to say:

(via comicbookmovie)

Simone eventually released a statement on her tumblr saying how grateful she was to work on Batgirl and thanked DC for the opportunity. You can read her statement here.

The dismissal of Gail Simone from Batgirl is confusing, infuriating, and altogether disheartening, especially when it affects a beloved character and reveals how DC seems to show so little regard for their female employees.

DC has not stated why Simone was removed from the Batgirl title, nor has it been mentioned who would be replacing Simone, or if she would be writing on any other titles.

It’s very strange indeed that Simone is being removed, especially from this book. Simone, herself pointed out how her run on the current Batgirl was praised twice in the New York Times and had many sell-out issues. Furthermore, Gail Simone and Batgirl go together like peanut butter and jelly. There is no one better than an author who has been writing Barbara Gordon’s character since long before the reboot. Her writing on Birds of Prey and her interpretation of Barbara as Oracle moved many people, and has made Simone, in my opinion, one of the greatest and most well-known comic book writers in the industry.

Sexualized Saturdays: Male Pregnancy in Fanfiction

Okay, so for the most part Sexualized Saturdays has been pretty tame. We have mostly talked about sexuality and the portrayal of relationships, with a couple notable exceptions, but now I am about to take you deep into the world of fanfiction and fetishes. Be warned, if you see Irene Adler in any future Sexualized Saturdays posts it means adult content ahead.

“I know fanfic authors, well, I know what they like.”

Let’s talk about one theme that shows up a lot in fanfiction: male pregnancy.

Sexualized Saturdays: Deadpool and Cable

With the new Deadpool game inching closer and closer to my video game drive every day, I figured it was time to look deeper into the Merc with a Mouth.

If you don’t know Deadpool’s back story, here is a brief synopsis: Deadpool was part of the Weapon X project. He was considered a failure, and sent to The Hospice, a government facility designed to house failed project subjects. While there, he was tortured and nearly killed before Weapon X’s regenerative and healing properties kicked in. After killing the evil doctor, he renamed himself Deadpool and became a mercenary.

Deadpool is well-known for knowing he’s in a comic book. He constantly breaks the fourth wall and, because of that, he is my favorite Marvel character. Also, because he knows he’s in a comic book, he can be a bit of an ass. It adds some funny interlude to his story arcs.

One of Deadpool’s best friends in any universe is Cable. The son of Cyborg and Jean Grey clone, Madelyne Pryor, Cable is known for traveling along both time and space to try to bring a better world to the present.

So, when Deadpool and Cable became friends, complete with their own comic series, there was some buzz about the homosexual tendencies that come with having two friends that close. The homosexual tendencies came to a head when a panel had Deadpool fantasize about putting suntan lotion on Cable. That panel also led to come great Youtube videos, for sure.

So when rumors began swelling (no pun intended) that Deadpool and Cable were gay, it made me laugh. Like Joker, I don’t think Deadpool can be defined as gay or straight.

Does Deadpool have sexual feelings for Cable? Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know. Who cares?

Seriously, who cares? Deadpool is one of those characters that is defined sexually by the fact that he’s so frat-boy sexually driven. It’s hilarious. He acts like the lacrosse bros I went to school with. He also acts like the complete jerk that I can be. That’s why he’s such an underutilized character in the Marvel Universe.

Results are in, and I’m going to be reviewing Spike from Cowboy Bebop for In Brightest Day. Look for it next week.

Is Supernatural: Sexist, Racist, Homophobic?

Hey there, Team Free Will. It’s that time again! Yep, we are just weeks away from the Season Eight premiere of Supernatural (which airs on my birthday)!

So naturally, before I start reviewing the season itself I’m going to take some time to look at past episodes of Supernatural and to analyze some debates that fans have been having for a while now.

Supernatural is not a show known for its diversity. That lack of diversity has some fans questioning whether the show is sexist, racist, or homophobic.

Let me clear up a couple things first.

Supernaturalis a show primarily about two brothers. Two white, straight, male (obviously) brothers and there is nothing wrong with the focus of the story being on Sam and Dean. In fact, if the focus wasn’t on Sam and Dean I would be pissed—since they are the main characters. The show should primarily be about Sam and Dean. That, however, does not mean that other supporting characters cannot be diverse and portrayed authentically.

Furthermore, these posts are in no way meant to suggest that the writers, cast, producers, or anyone else involved in Supernatural are racist, sexist, or homophobic. We live in a society that is racist, sexist, and homophobic; to say that certain offensive themes show up in writing or art of any kind is not to say that the creators are themselves being purposefully sexist, racist, or homophobic.

Next time we will address probably the most discussed question about Supernatural: “Is Supernatural Sexist?”

A lot of women have met their maker on Supernatural, but does that alone make the show sexist?

See you next time!

So You Want to Read Comic Books: Video Games and The Fandom

Welcome back, fanboys and geek girls: this is the series where I instruct new readers on how to get into comic books. Hopefully, you have been reading my past couple of posts and are now diving into the world of comic books with gusto and hopefully a little more confidence than you had before.

Today we are going to talk about video games and the fandom as they relate to comic books.

The reason I paired these two together is that for me they are both sort of wild cards when understanding comics, especially for new comic book fans.

Sexualized Saturdays: Men and Women Can Never Be Friends—And Neither Can Anyone Else

What I’m saying is—and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form—is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.  - Harry (When Harry Met Sally)

These iconic words from the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally seem to be something that both the media and the fandom have taken to heart—and not just with heterosexual relationships.

There is no way these two are just friends! They are both heterosexual and the opposite gender. They must hook up!

It is a sad fact that in the media men and women are rarely just friends. There is usually some sort of attraction, sexual tension, or sexual relationship. This happens all the time: when two characters in a TV show meet for the first time, and one’s male and one’s female, it doesn’t take much to figure out that they will most likely end up in a relationship at some point in the show.

Sexualized Saturdays: Strong Women are Lesbians

Long ago, all the way back to last January, Lady Saika wrote a post about Homophobia and Slash Fanfiction. At one point she discussed why people have a difficulty imagining some of their favorite characters as a sexuality other than straight. She wrote:

Part of this is rooted in persistent and terrible stereotypes.  If, when you think ‘gay’, you think ‘faaaabulous’, you’d never imagine Dean Winchester getting into a relationship with a guy.  If when you think bi, you think ‘slut’, you never would imagine someone like Durarara‘s Mikado as bi.  If you think ‘butch’ when you hear ‘lesbian’, you’d never in a million years think of, say, Luna Lovegood as a lesbian.

The same is true in the reverse. If a woman doesn’t want to get married, is into sports, is a warrior, is basically not stereotypically feminine, then automatically people assume that woman is a lesbian. Now don’t get me wrong, these characters could very well be lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, asexuals, straight, or whatever; my problem is assuming someone is homosexual based on gender stereotypes.

Manga Mondays: Why Junjou Romantica makes this fujoushi uncomfortable.

Warning: This post will discuss rape and is also probably be NSFW due to a discussion of the sexual content in the manga at hand.

So last summer I watched all of the adorable BL anime Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi (The Best First Love in the World). It wasn’t anything new or special when it comes to boys’ love titles, but it got a second season this last fall, and in between waiting for episodes to come out I discovered that SekaHatsu‘s manga-ka Shunjiku Nakamura had also written Junjou Romantica (Pure-Hearted Romance). Now, I had never read it, but from what I can tell (based on availability of merchandise at cons) Junjou Romantica is a relatively popular title within the BL genre. So to pass the time I figured I’d check it out.

Oh teddy bear, only you can understand my drama-llama pain.

Now I certainly don’t expect every gay romance story to deal with gay issues, or for its characters to be paragons fighting for queer rights and whatnot. Sometimes a problematic romance story is just a problematic romance story, regardless of the orientations of the two involved. But, after reading all the chapters I could access on my questionably-legal manga-reading iPhone app, I was left with only two feels: that Junjou Romantica was boring, and that it was rapey. I’d explain the plot of the series, but… it’s mostly relationship drama—there’s not much of one.

Let’s deal with the latter first. A continuing story trend I’ve noticed in boys’ love titles is this: There is an older guy who is the seme (he tops), and a younger guy who is the uke (he bottoms). This can be as close as a freshman-senior in high school gap to a full generational gap. The younger guy is crushing on the older guy, but is super tsundere and won’t admit it. So the older guy just pushes and pushes and smooches and gropes and the younger guy (from whose perspective we view the series) doth protest too much and if there’s not an eventual happy ending, it’s only because the series is ongoing and they can’t yet. In each of these series it’s portrayed as obvious that the younger kid wants it, he just refuses to say so. So each of these sexual encounters is begun despite the vocal refusal of the uke character, which is generally just rapey to me. BL has a really unfortunate tendency to create rape apologists out of its fans.

There is nothing relevant that would ever be appropriate as a picture for this point of the discussion, so have some kittens instead.

But Junjou Romantica takes it a step further for me. For whatever reason, whether because Japan still has a somewhat repressive culture when it comes to homosexuality and so Japanese people can’t just realize they’re gay, or for some other stupid reason, the manga-ka couldn’t just have had Misaki, the main character, meet his love interest Akihiko and realize he might be interested in him and have the relationship progress from there. No, Akihiko pushes himself on Misaki on basically their first meeting and rapes him. Misaki then has a sexual crisis, deciding he must be gay because he sure enjoyed that older man forcing him. Not a omg-I-was-just-raped crisis—a wow-good-thing-that-guy-showed-me-I-like-being-fucked-up-the-ass-I-better-stick-with-him-forever crisis. And that’s the basis for their whole relationship. From that scene onward it’s just pretty bog-standard Shunjiku Nakamura hijinks, but I could never move past the fact that their relationship was jump-started by a rape scene.

I didn’t think Lady Geek Girl would take kindly to me posting porn.

Moving past that, the rest of it is just boring. I’m not invested in their relationship whatsoever, because their characters don’t have any depth. Even the sex is boring—there is no mixing up of the seme/uke dynamic, like, ever, and each time they get it on Akihiko gives Misaki a blowjob and then fucks him. That’s it.

So, besides the gratuitous-but-boring sexing, I still can’t for the life of me figure out why people read this series. There are two other relationship subplots that are far less rapey and gross, but they’re not exactly compelling either. If you’re looking for some hardcore BL, pick up a doujinshi or something; if you’re looking for adorable gay romance, go… somewhere else. This series isn’t worth your time.