DC Comics, What am I Going to Do with You?

As the seasons begin to change, so too does it seem that a change is sweeping over the comics industry. Of course most of these changes have to do with the reboot of several series in the DC universe and, perhaps going against my last post, not all of them are bad. I do not claim to know everything that is changing but these are a few things that caught my attention whilst I perused the internet.

First off, we have the…interesting change of the Suicide Squad’s leader, Amanda Waller. By interesting I mean “not at all surprising” as the change slims her down by a good hundred pounds. The reason behind this change seems to be that they wanted the character to match the actress that will be playing her in the proposed film but that leads me to ask why couldn’t they just get a less Halle Berry type actress to play the role. Despite the repeating rosters of actors, I highly doubt that there are a shortage of women that would have filled the role in a canon manner. I was also surprised to see that there were a bunch of people frustrated at the fact that in the reboot, as the Comics Alliance puts it, “there are no fat chicks allowed.” Perhaps body acceptance is closer than I thought, but Hollywood-catering moves like this only serve to make money and will harm whatever good the original character did. I also hope that the new Ms. Waller decides to wear some work appropriate attire—or at least a bra—the next time she appears.

On a more positive note, DC is also planning add another superhero to the Teen Titans roster and this superhero is completely gay. No, seriously. Miguel Jose Barragan will join the team under the name, “Bunker” and apparently he has wall powers. I’m not sure how useful that will be but hey, I still don’t know what Blue Beetle did and he seemed to survive. What I like most about this character is that he doesn’t come from a tragic background of people hating him. His family and community accepts him and he just seems happy about life overall. I think it will be a refreshing contrast to some of the other heroes and Miguel might serve as a good role-model to kids struggling with their own identity.

Lastly, there is a brilliant opinion piece on the problem of the male gaze and so-called “liberated female sexuality” in the DC reboots from Laura Hudson here. Give it a read and think about the modern woman’s place in the story of comics:  how is this problematic and what needs to be changed?