Belief in our Guardian Devil
I recently spent some time following questions (and sending one) to Vincent D’Onofrio on Twitter as he responded to Kingpin questions; another reminder that the countdown to Netflix’s April 10 Daredevil release is getting closer and closer. Daredevil has been my favorite superhero since junior high, so as more and more is revealed on a weekly basis, the anxiety is gradually chipping away at my sanity. From the dark and gritty tone in the teaser and then reinforced in the trailer, to the TV-MA rating, all things point to Mr. Murdock finally getting his cinematic justice. See what I did there?
Someone recently asked me: “I’ve never read a comic, but I want a primer before the show. What should I pick up?”
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Beyond the Cape: Batgirl and the State of Women in Comics
by CG | Originally posted at Black Girl in Media
[Trigger warning in these posts for mention & discussion of: sexual violence, molestation, rape, and violence against women]
Fiction always reflects the cultural temperature of the times. This could be a good thing, and sometimes be a great thing. But most of the time, it leads to us uncovering not so pleasant parts of our society. Comics have always been an accessible part of that cultural narrative, as their mix of visual and written storytelling have led to them being embraced by fans for decades. Comics and superhero culture are very much at the center of dictating societal norms.
So when we have instances of dictating women’s dress, allowing for female oppression and violence against women for book sales, the issue goes beyond just the individual books or characters in question. It’s about questioning the system that we’ve allowed for this behavior and thinking to flourish enough to reach the success that it has with the comics industry.
This is the state of women in comics.
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NOC Recaps Arrow: Choose Your Path Oliver
After a brief hiatus from our T.V. screens — and a teaser about how the rest of the season may play out — we find Ollie at the hands of Ra’s, perhaps ready to taste metal again until Ra’s, in all evil dude monologues, explains to him that he is not going to kill him. He divulges the secret that there have been other Ra’s Al Ghuls — and as he explain his eternal life source, aka the Lazarus pits, he makes an offer that Ollie will need to consider.
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Could a Cape Be in Iris West’s Future?
The Flash has delivered so many thrills and twists, it’s hard to imagine what the showrunners have in store for the season finale. With so many surprises, it’s understandable that even the most astute viewer may have missed the hints of another superhero on the rise; a super heroine rather.
Barry and Joe aren’t the only crime-fighters in the West household. To date Iris West has played a key role in the defeat of Girder, the Clock King, and Peekaboo. Three prominent super villains in the DC Universe. Not to mention besting both Doctor Light and Killer Frost.
With Great Power Comes Great Cynicism
I take super heroes and the media surrounding them entirely too seriously. This is why I get so worked up over comics and movies. It doesn’t take much for me to launch into an hours-long tirade over the finer points of caped continuity. However, there is some method to my fanboy madness.
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People on the Internet Get Things Wrong: Comic Book Cover Edition
by William Evans | Originally posted on Black Nerd Problems
Trigger Warning: Some of the images pulled from comic books depict assault and violence towards women.
DC is celebrating the Joker next month with a plethora of variant covers devoted to him. The Joker, who by definition is a deranged, sinister and disturbed individual is shown on most of these covers the way he’s always been: scaring the shit out of somebody. One specifically that sparked a lot of outrage was where the Joker is cozied up to a frightened Batgirl for her cover. After a lot of people voiced their displeasure with the cover AND RECEIVED THREATS OF VIOLENCE FOR IT, the artist Rafael Albuquerque asked DC to pull the cover. Now of course, there’s the backlash to the backlash as many fans and creators are crying foul and constructing this as an evil feminist argument that ruins everything. Sigh.
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NOC Recaps The Flash: The Wizard Returns
This recap of The Flash is going to be a little different because 1.) too many things happened that I’m not sure actually happened because I may have been buzzed from green St. Patrick’s Day beer and 2.) I’m much more interested in the events that reference the established history within the show and how those things might be undone in the future. You know, because — SPOILER ALERT — Barry Allen freaking ran into the past. He ran right through time, y’all. Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: The Wizard Returns”
Much Ado About Batgirl
Originally posted at WilliamBruceWest.com
So, usually I’d just let this kind of thing go, or just drop a casual mention of it in West Week Ever, but I was inspired to say more about this particular thing. Last week, DC Comics revealed a variant cover for the upcoming Batgirl #41, which can be seen here:
Luther Remake Stalls: What Happened to Colorblind Casting?
by Marc Bernardin | Originally posted at Playboy.com
Fox wants to bring the BBC’s award-winning, frankly awesome detective thriller Luther to the U.S., but they’ve got a problem: Finding an American Idris Elba — who brought a ruthless intelligence and rugged sexuality to the role of haunted detective chief inspector John Luther — has proved too daunting a task. So, according to The Hollywood Reporter, they’ve put their remake on hold — after, apparently, entertaining the thought of Marlon Wayans as the lead.
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Bernard Chang is Giving Away Original Green Lantern Corps Art
We are a couple months out from DC Comics’ soft reboot of their entire line up. One of the changes that will be coming this summer is that long time DC artist — and friend of the NOC — Bernard Chang will be shifting from Green Lantern Corps to art duties on Batman Beyond!
To celebrate the Green Lantern Corps fans and reward them for their loyalty for the last two years, Bernard will be giving away original interior art from his run on the book on Instagram!
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Nothing’s Wrong with Pink and Purple Bricks: A Defense of LEGO Friends
A few months back, an imgur post about a girl who turned her LEGO Friends juice bar Christmas present into a giant mecha went viral. And the internet cheered. Stupid gendered-girl LEGOs get turned into awesome robot, was the typical response I saw tossed around.
And while the robot was indeed awesome, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about all of the ridicule that was being hurled at the original LEGO set. You see, my own daughter also received a similar playset for Christmas. Should she be ashamed that she wanted (and actually liked) to build the “boring” girly thing instead of the “awesome” robot thing?
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Kickstart This: The Princess Who Saved Herself
Two years ago, comics writer and filmmaker (and familiar name to NOC readers) Greg Pak, known for his work on several Hulk and X-Men titles, including the current Storm book, and his current runs on Action Comics, Batman/Superman, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, among others (like Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology), was raising funds on Kickstarter for a graphic novel based on beloved geek culture singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton‘s Code Monkey character. As a reward for meeting a stretch goal, Pak and his collaborators promised an original children’s book based on Coulton’s popular twist on children’s fairytales, “The Princess Who Saved Herself.”
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Why ‘Elementary’ is Far Superior to ‘Sherlock’
[Ed. note: In most geek circles, the BBC’s modern interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories — starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman — gets most of the praise and attention from fans. In 2012, CBS put its own Sherlock Holmes adaptation on the air in the form of Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as the iconic Holmes and Watson. Needless to say, we at the NOC prefer the latter. Here are ten reasons why. — KC]
Oh yes, I go there.
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Origins: Anime is Life
I am one of those nerds that came out later in life. Growing up, I was not hip to nerd culture, but I thought the things I was into at the time were the norm. Being an anime fan growing up in the Bronx, I was somewhat of an outlier. This made me feel like I belonged to an exclusive group of individuals. I was the only one I knew at my school, and the only one on my block, that was into Japanese animation. However, that exclusivity didn’t last long. I had to share anime with all of my friends, and soon everyone else got hooked as well.
My first introduction to anime was Akira. But my reaction to it might not be what you’d expect.
Rewriting the Future: Using Science Fiction to Re-envision Justice
Originally posted at Bitch Media1
When I tell people I am a prison abolitionist and that I believe in ending all prisons, they often look at me like I rode in on a unicorn sliding down a rainbow. Even people engaged in social movements, people who concede that the current prison system is flawed, voice their critiques but always seem to add, “But it’s all we have.”
For all of our ability to analyze and critique, the left has become rooted in what is. We often forget to envision what could be. We forget to mine the past for solutions that show us how we can exist in other forms in the future.
That is why I believe our justice movements desperately need science fiction. Stay with me on this one. I am the co-editor, along with visionary movement strategist adrienne maree brown, of the anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, which comes out this spring from AK Press. Octavia’s Brood, named in honor of Black feminist sci-fi writer and MacArthur “Genius” grant winner Octavia Butler, is a collection of radical science fiction written by organizers, change makers, and visionaries.
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White People’s Superheroes
Hard NOC Life emerges from its winter hibernation, and you can thank Michelle Rodriguez for that. After telling TMZ POCs need to “stop stealing white people’s superheroes,” the actress took to Facebook to say she meant POCs need to focus on creating their own stories.
Naturally, Keith had to discuss this with William Evans (@willevanswrites) of Black Nerd Problems and newest NOC contributor Valerie Complex (@ValerieComplex).
The Pristine Balance: The Role of Wonder Woman in the DC Trinity
In honor of Women’s History Month…
Musician Janelle Monae has an empowering motto that she shares with other women: “Come in peace, but mean business.”
There couldn’t possibly be a better motto that sums up Wonder Woman, more specifically her role in the DC Trinity. Too often Wonder Woman is conflated for Super Woman, i.e., a female version of Superman and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Themysciran Princess has her own agency and a most vital purpose. She’s the pristine balance.
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Everyone is Losing Their Minds Over The Avengers
You wouldn’t know it by all the snow and freezing temperatures outside, but summer is just around the corner. And everyone knows summer starts in May nowadays because that’s when the comic book blockbusters start bringing in the butts to fill up the stadium seating at your local multiplex. And it’s safe to say that there is no movie more hotly anticipated than Avengers: Age of Ultron. So the studio obliged by dropping this beast of a trailer on the internet today and all productivity around the country came to a screeching halt for two minutes and eighteen seconds.
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How the Diversity Argument in the Nerd Community Chases its Own Tail
by William Evans | Originally posted at Black Nerd Problems
I don’t usually, and don’t plan to be the guy that writes reactions to other columns. It’s kind of circular and masturbatory and rarely does the work of informing an audience, as opposed to finger pointing across the table at someone else doing the same thing you do. The issue of the diversity in comics seems to be taking on a larger life beyond simple media commentary, however. And we are always 72 hours away from the next event that brings this conversation into focus. For days (and continuing now) it was the topic of what Marvel and Sony should do with their respective versions of Spider-Man. Debates involving Peter Parker’s race, the likability of Miles Morales (or some saying he’s a C-level character), and just how white the MCU films still are currently, have hit the internet at breakneck speed. I contributed to that malaise as well.
The latest such “where we are in 2015 with race and pop culture” test came with the Michelle Rodriguez story over the weekend. Responding to TMZ about the rumors of her being cast for Green Lantern, she responded with the now infamous “stop stealing white people’s superheroes.” Well, as you can imagine, that led to someone Michelle Rodriguez pays, probably telling her how her message was going viral in the way you don’t want things to go viral, which led to her issuing an apology via her Facebook page. It was your garden variety “I’m sorry you’re offended, not sorry for saying something offensive” type of apology that gets passed out in Hollywood as frequently as gift bags at award shows.
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Seeing San Fransokyo: Thoughts on Big Hero 6
by Sean Miura | Originally posted at Down Like JTown
Last week was a big week for Big Hero 6. Not only did the film take home an Oscar, but its DVD and Blu-ray releases hit stores Tuesday and owned the Best Sellers list on Amazon.
I’d been anticipating Big Hero 6 since the first teaser slowly revealed a jaw-dropping rendering of San Fransokyo, the Tokyo/San Francisco hybrid that sets the stage. Though I am wary of any films that feature Asian… anything, there was a certain nostalgic familiarity in the Kingdom Hearts-style pan over the city.
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Different But Not Broken: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Disability
by Jihan Abbas | Originally posted at the Disability Visibility Project
Within the superhero genre, comic books have always strongly connected notions of difference with unique abilities. Villains and heroes alike often find their motivation and power through origin stories that speak to difference or a process of change. Alice Wong wrote a great piece exploring how the mythology behind superheroes is relatable to many disabled people and those who grew up on the outside looking in.
It was our shared interest in disability representation in comic books and the recent expansion of Marvel into television that prompted a back and forth between Alice and I around disability and difference in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While the show first framed itself as an opportunity to view the inner workings of S.H.I.E.L.D. — the so-called “normal” folks who work behind the scenes in this superhero filled world — it was clear from the beginning that the show was pulling on powerful threads about change, difference, and otherness. While this is not unusual where superheroes are concerned, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. applied these same dynamics to the bureaucracy behind the Avengers. In the first season Phil Coulson’s return from the dead — and the differences in him that resulted from this process, as well as Skye’s mysterious origins — were front and center.
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NOC Recaps Arrow: The Frustration of Justice
Well. That happened. This week’s Arrow threatens to turn the show in a whole new direction. I can’t even begin to guess where they take things next.
Getting to the episode itself, after watching it, I (and trusty Flarrow sidekick Christelle) went back to see a Facebook post Stephen Amell put up earlier in the week to describe the episode.
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Cat’s Out the Bag: Calista Flockhart is in Supergirl
Calista Flockhart is the latest name officially attached to the CBS Supergirl. The Golden Globe-winning actress has been cast as Cat Grant!
Flockhart, most well known from Ally McBeal, Brothers & Sisters, and being the lucky woman who captivated Harrison Ford, will portray Cat Grant as a “self-made media magnate and founder of CatCo” where Kara/Supergirl is her assistant. My first thought: Ohmygod, it’s going to be a superhero Devil Wears Prada, isn’t it?
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