schmevil

I have 164 scans on imageshack tagged "caroldrink" and they're out of order. I'm trying to figure out what's more efficient: Going back to the original source and pulling pages, or reassembling the uploaded scans. Keeping in mind that those 164 pages were selected with ye olde Scans Daily's 1/2 rule in mind. The pages span Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man and... at least one other book that doesn't come immediately to mind. All which I have on hand, scanned. Going back to the originals would make summarizing easier but then, upload time. Tedious upload time.

To repost, or not to repost. Bleh.

So, this issue is awful. Like, really and truly godawful. A cluttered mishmash of poorly plotted action, awkward wrap up, and Carol doing a S7 Buffy speech while Spidey randomly sticks to things and is marginally (if blandly) cute. I hated every last thing about this issue, save that it was the last one, and I'll never again be subjected to Sana Takeda's blurry, sexed up rendition of Carol. I'll never again be subjected to Brian Reed's complete disinterest in, and slow train-wrecking of a character I love. God, this series started out so promising, and had some great moments: Arana, Machine Man, Sleepwalker, Chewie, the whole Wonder Man drama. What the hell happened? ( Read more... )

So this is the end. RIP Ms. Marvel. May your next shot at a solo title not suck quite so heinously. D:

Sana "Heroes for Hentai" Takeda will be handling art duties on Ms. Marvel from #39, until I don't know when. At least #44 according to the previews. Check out this preview for #39, and the two covers under the cut. ( Read more... )I've kept up with this book despite the myriad dropped characters and plots, and even through the 'death' of the title character, and its being handed over to Karla "Moonstone" Soffen, because Carol is one of my favourite characters. (For those of you out of the know, Karla is the one in the red and blue costume woman-handling Carol). But honestly guys? I don't know if I can stomach Takeda's art. I don't want to read a superhero comic about Evil Malibu Barbie enacting violent, hentai fantasies on Good Malibu Barbie.

Superhero comics have a long history of cheesecake and sexualized violence. This is not news. It's also not news that many creators have also worked on sexually explicit, and fetish comics. That's part and parcel of the whole 'power fantasy' thing, I suppose. But even with all the bondage that was going on in Marston's Wonder Woman, and all the ass shots in Benes' Birds of Prey, I still felt that the characters were heroes.

Sana Takeda's art does not sell me on the heroism (or villainy) of her characters. Instead, it leaves me feeling like someone's substituted a Marvel comic for a hentai doujinshi. "Let's see if she notices!"

And what did I notice? Let's break this down.

- Carol's impossibly arched spine
- the chain that drapes artistically across her throat
- Carol and Karla's salon-perfect, wind swept hair
- their soft, delicate seeming skin and lack of developed musculature
- the boobs: Karl's sporting boob socks; Carol has orange halves strapped to her chest
- the ridiculously high-cut, thongs - do neither have genitalia?
- their expressions: Karla all come hither; Carol bordering on O-face
- the Dark Avengers in the background of the first cover: their comparatively undetailed rendering; their bulging roidly muscles; the Sentry's almost Neanderthalic face; their positioning around Karla and Carol all but screams Rape Tiem!
- Carol's pose in the second cover: arms and legs splayed; her heavily made up eyes closed; her lips parted; Karla's foot pushing her head back. It's almost like a Land porn lift.

So to sum up: Sana Takeda should not be working on superhero comics. Rather than the suggestion of sex and sexiness that other artists impart, her work is all sex, all hentai. No power.

This is absolutely not what I'm looking for in a superhero comic. Hell, at the end of the day I don't think it's what most men are looking for in superhero comics. Most of the superhero titles I read center on female characters, and/or have strong female characters as part of the supporting cast. That kind of book was already harder to find than it should have been, but the raft of cancellations and implosions early this year, means that I'm reading even fewer. Even the books that by all rights should be happy-making suffer from marketing ineptitude. Porntastic covers. "Sudsy fun." The recently revealed character designs for Marvel Divas make it clear that this book is Not As Advertised. How did Marvel get from this adorable vespa-riding Firestar to this monstrosity. "Sudsy fun," guys? Really?

But I'm losing my point, which is basically this: Sana Takeda - out of my fandom! And take the Divas cover with you.

Preemptive war paper all but done. All I need to do is walk away from the computer for a bit, write a conclusion, and do one last edit. ALL GLORY TO THE GREAT GAZOO!

***

In my latest noscans_daily/Scans Daily 2.0 update, I included some policy changes.

Creator Rights

Scans Daily and No Scans Daily welcome the participation of comics creators. Creator participation is subject to the same basic rules that govern the behaviour of fans in the community. However, SD and NSD recognize creators prerogative to control the republication of their work.

1. Copyrighted material will be immediately removed at the request of creators and copyright owners.

Requests for removal of copyrighted material should be directed to the moderation team

2. Spoilers will be removed at the discretion of individual posters. It is not our policy to suppress discussion of comics.

Requests for removal of spoilers should be directed to the original poster.

Our stance on creator rights, combined with some forthcoming changes to scan posting rules, will I hope make it clear that we have no intent to harm creators, or the industry as a whole.

Psuedonymity and Internet Identity

Given the recent creator-fan conflicts over the 'realness' of internet identity, in both in our community and science fiction fandom, I thought it would be a good idea to clarify our position. SD and NSD respect our members' rights to privacy and control over their online identities. As far as we're concerned you are your pseud.

Trolling and attempts to dismiss other posters on the basis of their 'hiding behind a fake name' will not be tolerated.

Unauthorized public release of a fellow member's contact information will result in immediate banning.

All of a sudden this has become a hot issue again. It blows my mind how uphill a battle this has been for everyone trying to assert a right to privacy on the internet.

Other things I'm working on for the comms:
- finding us a permanent home
- modifying the posting rules to be as TOS proof and fair use friendly as possible
- writing up our rationale for moderating the comms as as woman-friendly, LGBT-friendly, anti-ableist, anti-racist and so forth, and what that means for members

***

I've decided that when school and the comms are settled, I'm going to work on revamping and expanding Essential Ms. Marvel, with a lot more reviews and essays. Probably many of them mine. *g* I'm still torn between a closed membership comm, or a blog. Another advantage of a comm that just occurred to me, is that I can invite 'guest' posters, to add Carol content with their existing accounts.

And speaking of Ms. Marvel, I've been meaning to talk about how utterly creepy I find Osborn's gift of Carol's identity to Moonstone. And how he calls Moonstone my Ms. Marvel. Emphasis in the book. Implying that she exists only to fill a role, the same one that Carol filled for Tony: attack bitch and field leader, when Tony/Norman have more important things to do. Expect much rambling on this subject.

The Watchmen trailer? Mostly awesome. I say mostly because that was one horrifyingly bad choice of music. Billy Corrigan's wailing gives entirely the wrong impression to the uninitiated. My brother's girlfriend immediately dismissed the movie as being, quote 'emo'. You heard it here first - The Watchmen is emo.

In other Watchmen news, /film has some interior shots of Dan Dreiberg's Owlship up, which is currently on show at Comic Con. Love the detail.

I'm excited for this movie, but the excitement is consistently mixed with dread. After all, it is coming from the 'visionary' director of 300, a movie I hated with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. Seriously. I know 300 is a sacred fan object but dear freaking god did I hate every last excruciating second of that dreck. Especially the visuals. Sloppy fight choreography, lazy over-reliance on slo-mo, bullet time and of-the-now oversaturation, there was nothing about that I hadn't seen before, and done better at that.

Basically 300 is the movie version of a Limp Bizkit song - hillbilly stupid but pop enough to go down easy. You know you should hate it, for reasons of gross historical inaccuracy, racism, sexism, fascism and other assorted nasty isms, but it's so darn catchy and au courant that you find yourself singing along. Of course, a few years later you wake up and WTF at yourself - Delphic Oracle titty shot? Seriously? Of course, a few years after that it becomes a 'classic'.

***

Have you seen the seen the October solicit for Ms. Marvel? OMG. I've been waiting for something like this. Actually I've been waiting for two somethings like this: 1) a cover that doesn't make me ashamed to bring it up to the counter; 2) a story about Carol's early years. Love the cover.

Brian Reed is doing an ok job with this book but it's past time for more of Carol's history to be incorporated into the new stories. A lot of the newer readers, coming in from House of M, Civil War or Secret Invasion, are completely unaware of her backstory, which sucks because despite the cracksanity of some of it (largely the superhero portion), the rest of it is great. Especially for a comic book heroine. Carol's early days aren't edgey - they're awesome in a more ordinary way and imho, in a way that continues to be highly relatable without being anst-ridden. (Unlike the later downward spiral into magical pregnancies and forced-mutation).

Carol may have gotten her superpowers from an accident with some weird, alien technology, but before all of that she was a Real American Hero. And not in the sickeningly blind way - Carol was a good soldier, but she was also a soldier who questioned the status quo. A decorated Air Force officer, both a talented pilot and highly trained field operative, Carol worked with Ben Grimm and Logan, went on secret missions for the CIA and after reaching her best before as a field agent, she became head of security for NASA. She's like a Stargate character who got powered up by the Ancients, but rather than lose her fantastic abilities by the end of the episode, she put on spandex and got more and more powerful. (Carol could so be John's sister).

Now, all of this sounds pretty fantastic in of itself, right? But the key for me, the thing that sells it for me, is that Carol got all of this through her own hard work. Nothing fated, no interventions from on high - she joined the Air Force to pay her way through college and worked her butt off until she was a damn good officer. She didn't start out great - she worked until she became great. She also faced significant obstacles along the way. Her sexist father refused to see why a girl would want to join the military, or even go to college, for that matter. A construction foreman, he could afford to send only one of his kids to college and he chose his eldest son. (It's nice to see a character who's not from the streets OR from the middle class - where have all the working class characters gone?) Like any woman in the military, she had to work twice as hard as her male colleagues, and even after becoming a decorated officer, her superiors doubted her abilities. By the time she's head of security at NASA (in Captain Marvel) she still hasn't convinced the brass that a woman can really handle that kind of authority without: a) going a little off; b) being less of a woman.

She ends up having to leave NASA because the situation is untenable (of course, the whole 'I met aliens' thing was also a factor) and what does she do in her civilian career? She starts writing about her experiences, and about those of other women in similarly high-stress occupations, and then later more broadly about Women's Issues. How do you not love it?

aulayan raised a red flag over bringing back more of Carol's history, on the grounds that it's just too confusing and inconsistent (ie that she's a soldier AND a writer). So I fanwanked it. Quoting myself:

The best thing to do at this point, is to have a story where child Carol wants to have adventures, but because her father (who is canonically sexist), says that adventures are for boys, she decides to write her own. Then, when an older Carol joins the Air Force to pay her way through college, it's to pursue an English/Journalism degree. Once in the Air Force though, she finds that she's actually a really, really good pilot and goes out and has real adventures of her own.

Needs to be canon - y/y?

Dear Joss Whedon,

Please stop doing this. (Spoilers for Buffy #14) Your blind spot regarding certain issues, you know them, we've had this talk, is really, REALLY SHOWING. Good god, man.

Also? Never, ever write X-Men again. Stay the hell away from the mutants from Westchester, because Astonishing was so painfully average I can't bring myself to write the review I hoped to do of your run. It was just that fucking boring. Your Emma was nigh unreadable. Your Kitty was nauseating. Your Colossus had no real reason for being. Boo. Just boo to your dreck-filled, stolen-from-Claremont, rehash of every X cliche in the X book. BOO.

However, I do stand by my comments regarding your being better for the X brand than Morrison. You brought in some new readers, and brought back some old ones.

Still. The sheer suckitude of your run has put a stop to my playing catch up with X-Men - I really don't think I can go on, Joss. I mean, if Brubaker is even half as narcoleptic as you, my job could be on the line. Would you like to know why, Joss? Because just thinking about your damn book PUT ME TO FUCKING SLEEP. While counting money. Do you have any idea how hard it is to fall asleep with hundreds of thousands of dollars in front of you? Just the memory of Astonishing was enough to conquer my unconquerable insomnia. Insomnia so bad that I have been know to stay awake for two days straight, AFTER popping sleeping pills like they're pez.

THAT'S HOW MUCH YOU SUCK.

Thanks for listening,

schmevil

***

So I need to stop reading Ms. Marvel posts on scans_daily before I've read the issue myself. The latest MM finally arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and I have to say that the post was far from representative, and not at all what I took from the issue. Less weepy, more ass-kicky - which is of course all to the good.

My biggest complaint about Brian Reed's run on MM is that Carol hasn't been kicking nearly enough ass. She may not be an A list superhero, but the villains for damn sure should know that when Ms. Marvel finds you? Your shit is going to get fucked the hell up. Carol isn't a Punisher or a Wolverine. She's not going to stab you, shoot you, or leave you for dead. Probably. As long as your don't annoy her. In fact, most of the time she'll send you along to the Raft with a couple of broken limbs, tops. But your base? Your awesomely villainous equipment? Gone. Kaput. Because Carol is a living, breathing weapon of mass destruction, and she really, really likes her job. ( Read more... )

So this is shaping up to be a miserable non-holiday. But on the bright side, I only have one assignment left (the paper & film on emancipation), I finished my yuletide story and my Christmas shopping is done. On the not-so-bright side, I'm blotchy, cranky, under-caffeinated and heading off to work.

Rassa frassa.

Two images. This was my birthday present to myself - a stereotypist comic for my boobs!




... and Poor Dead Steve.



I love how he's still in handcuffs. So deliciously wrong.

I have my next few Carol Danvers posts for scans_daily planned and partially compiled for the new year, but I haven't made any progress on compiling a links list of Essential Ms. Marvel posts. Yeah, in the new year. I've found some really solid bios and resource sites.

Rassa freakin' frassa.

Ms. Marvel's sales have dropped below the point where Marvel can justify painted covers. This is bad and good. Bad, because less people are reading it and if the numbers drop more, they may cancel the book. Good because the Greg Horn covers have been alternately repulsive and repulsively degrading, and often at odds with the content of the book.

( covers 19-22 )

Anatomy issues aside, this is not how I want to imagine my heroes. The poses, the hair, the boob-socks, the faces - it all screams bad soft-core porn.

I don't have a problem with cheesecake per se. I really enjoy the way Frank Cho draws Carol, even with all the ass and tit shots, because she looks hard, strong and heroic. She doesn't look like she's trying to be sexy, or sexual while on the job. Cho's Carol fights evil in a bathing suit but doesn't seem to be seeking male sexual attention. Granted, she's receiving male sexual attention (from Cho, if no one else), but its implied presence in Cho's covers doesn't give me the same kind of icky feeling that I get from Horn's stuff. It doesn't seem as... posed specifically for titillation.

( Cho's covers )

Though I have to just point out - in that first cover, Carol's breasts are all kinds of freaky. O.o

Greg Horn's Carol, on the other hand, has a perpetually dazed, come-hither look in her eyes, even when she's about to be mind-controlled, throttled by a cat-woman or possibly molested.

Maybe it's just me, but it almost looks like she's inviting violence.

For contrast, let's look at four covers from Carol's original series.

( old school Carol )

Now granted, these are from the era where action-y covers, rather than pinups were popular, but just look at her face, her pose. This is a fighter, not a sex kitten. She's fighting evil in a bathing suit with a freaking cutout and she manages to look tougher than Horn's more covered up modern Carol.

In conclusion: see you in hell, Greg Horn.

***

In other news, I'm DONE HEGEL. Oh sweet victory.