There was a talk of a Joss Whedon-directed solo Batgirl film a while back, but I don't know if that is still in the planning stages. Justice League's sub-par performance, Batman's rotating lead actors and Whedon's personal headlines may have all taken a toll, and I would not be surprised to see DC take a step back before moving ahead with their full slate of film projects. Time will tell if Batgirl survives.
So who's getting married?
ReplyDelete@Quistar They are rushing to attend the wedding of Batwoman Kate Kane and Captain Marvel Carol Danvers.
ReplyDeleteCarol Danvers I thought was straight
ReplyDelete@Harrybean Carol has always been gay despite how she has acted and thought. She didn't realize this until a young time displaced Jean Gray read her mind and told her. Now she is very gay.
DeleteI say they're rushing to witness the nuptials of Power Man and Power Girl.
ReplyDeleteMuch love for Kamala Khan! Would love to see her team up with Elastigirl from the Incredibles (or Violet who is closer to her age)
ReplyDeleteThe villain Power Man or Luke Cage? Thought Luke was already married.
ReplyDeletePlease do not alter sexual preferences of established characters in this blog as recommended by the wrong answer man. It is done enough in comics although no characters are ever "straightened out" with reverse.
ReplyDelete@ Gene.
ReplyDelete"done enough" Really? You consider a handful of times as done enough? Given the blatant homophobia of comics for the majority of their history I don't see a problem with a few, very few, characters being used to represent something other than straight white males.
And yes characters have been "straightened out" as you put it. The Rawhide Kid for one. And they've been taken care of by killing them off as well, such as with Freedom Ring.
I understand what previous commentators were trying to say.
ReplyDeleteTo be more current, instead of starting from scratch with a totally new character (like Archie did with Kevin Keller), DC and Marvel most of the time just decided to take existing characters and suddenly have them interested in their own gender.
Honestly think some of those choices (like Julie Power of Power Pack) were serious stretches of credibility, but that's just my humble opinion.
ReplyDeletehmmm...well of course you're mileage may vary as they say but in a world where Superboy can change reality by punching a wall, Captain America is a Nazi spy and Spiderman makes a literal deal with the devil I'm not sure how a previously unrecognized sexual orientation is a serious stretch of credibility. I mean it happens often enough in the real world. There are many people who get married and even have children before coming to terms with being gay.
And yes after going on a century of comic book history it's much easier to use a previously existing character than to create a completely original one.
But let's be honest these "repurposed" characters are generally C or D list characters such as the Pied Piper, Tasmanian Devil, Shatterstar, etc and yet still there are vociferus complaints. I remember some people being outraged over the new Batwoman being a lesbian even though the character had not even been part of continuity since the Crisis and to the best of my knowledge hadn't been used for 20 years before that point.
Anyhoo, opinions differ but it seems very miserly to me to begrudge the LGBTQI community the few crumbs that are thrown their way.
@Alena, if ti seems miserly to you, perhaps consider that any of these C and D list characters you mention [Iceman is certainly a B at least], any one of them may have a long and detailed history.
ReplyDeleteFans for these character can and should feel betrayed when that history is ignored or summarily cast aside as if it never were.
I honestly don't really care what any one is or does in their private lives in the real world, but that casting aside of history for the sake of current political correctness is what really gets under my skin.
If it were up to me, all of this type of stuff would be as unstated and subtle as the older silver and bronze age of comics.. when characters private lives were just in the background unless it was a major feature of the character, such as Spider-man.
I'm not entirely certain what the sexual orientation of a character has to do with heroism, or see much of a place for politically charged material in the context of action adventure comic books, anyway.
I wasn't really a fan of Civil War either, but then it was a glaring example of badly written trash that misused large segments of characters with complete disregard for those characters established personalities and past relationships.
@Answer man, I got the joke you were making.
Lee Houston, Junior said...
ReplyDelete"I understand what previous commentators were trying to say.
To be more current, instead of starting from scratch with a totally new character (like Archie did with Kevin Keller), DC and Marvel most of the time just decided to take existing characters and suddenly have them interested in their own gender.
Honestly think some of those choices (like Julie Power of Power Pack) were serious stretches of credibility, but that's just my humble opinion."
And with Julie Power there was also the plausibility problem about her updated age: If she'd aged by that many years since the origin of Power Pack then a lot of Marvel's OTHER characters should have been quite a bit older than was then being shown as the case, too...
One such change that did work, in my opinion, was the Shrinking Violet/Lightning Lass pairing... but that wasn't introduced "suddenly", it built on other changes in their lives during the previous few years as well...
@ Rilee Davis
ReplyDeleteYes it is miserly considering that 99.9% of all comic book characters are still straight, white males.
"should feel betrayed when that history is ignored or summarily cast aside as if it never were."
To paraphrase myself " I'm not sure how a previously unrecognized sexual orientation is summarily casting aside a characters history. As I said it happens often enough in the real world. There are many people who get married and even have children before coming to terms with being gay.
And let's be real here, characters have had their histories changed for over a generation now. It's called a retcon, you may have heard of it.
Political correctness is used as a slur when people have their privilege challenged.
And let's not be disingenuous about keeping things subtle and in the background. What you're really saying is that gay people should stay in the closet but heteronormative people can be out and proud.
Characters have had very public wives and girlfriends since the beginning of comics. Superman and Lois Lane, Barry Allen and Iris West Allen, Reed Richards and Susan Storm Richards, the list goes on and on and on. There has been nothing unstated or subtle about it.
You're not sure what "queer" sexual orientation of a character has to do with heroism. There I fixed that for you. Because as I've shown above you're quite comfortable with the straight orientation of a character.
I was really hoping that by the 21st century homophobia would be a thing of the past.
A few words that Neil Gaiman posted about political correctness a while back.
ReplyDeleteI was reading a book (about interjections, oddly enough) yesterday which included the phrase “In these days of political correctness…” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with ‘political correctness’. That’s just treating other people with respect.”
Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect”, and it made me smile.
You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening.
I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”
Happy Valentine’s Day.
—Neil Gaiman
@Killdumpster: the villain Power Man (with a little help from either Mandrill or the Controller).
ReplyDeleteBravo Alena!! Very thoughtful and much needed analysis and points of view to consider!!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd just make this story concurrent with the wedding of Captain America and Wonder Woman.
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Bob! Maybe with the latter couple reaffirming their vows.
ReplyDelete@Alena:
ReplyDelete"Political correctness is used as a slur when people have their privilege challenged."
Speaking as a gay geek in 2023, get right the heck outta here with that kinda talk! Sorry, but your argument has aged badly...I don't think it would be exaggerating much to say that "treating [certain] other people with respect" is ruining comics.