From the same period that gave us the Hulk with a big gun and from writer who had the FF packing heatÂ…..

Â…it’s Thor with a gun!

Remember kids, it doesn’t matter how mind-bogglingly powerful you areÂ… guns make everything better!

Since I’ve spent much of May complaining about sexism in recent comics, I thought I’d take a second and point out a portrayal of a female in comics I look forward to.

Tony Bedard is taking over on Supergirl
in August.

Some of his comments from the interview made me all but want to have his puppies:

“I’m just sticking to the basics: Kara is from Krypton, she’s insanely powerful, but she wants to be good. I also happen to think she needs to eat a sandwich and cover up a bit, but then I’m a father.”

“I have basic expectations about what’s appropriate for a character with the “S” on her chest. I don’t think that’s a limitation — it points the way toward the proper area in which to search for fresh material. She’s not a dark avenger or Goth punk. She’s a strange visitor from another planet who should embody all that’s best in humanity and in America. That’s right, America. The land of immigrants who make good.”

Then there’s the ART!

Wow. The costume is still ugly (bare midriffs do nothing for me), but she actually looks like she has internal organs. Her breast/head ratio is actually not out of wack. In fact, one of the images go so far as to show she has shorts under her skirt (which is now long enough to be considered a mini skirt, whereas before it was more of a frilly belt of some kind).

Remember how I said that those offended by the Heroes for Hire cover should speak with their wallets? I’m going to be speaking with my wallet on this comic. I’m a trade-waiter (yes, I know, I’m killing comics), but I intend on opening a pull account just for this one comic. It looks to be a step in a very right direction.

When it does come out (#20, in the current PREVIEWS), I may post a review.

(link should be fixed)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled WWTT, posted below this one.

The below panel, featuring the Eric Masterson Thor, made me laugh.

Then I thought about it. You know, I bet if someone grows a beard in comics, he really is unrecognizable. I mean, this is the same genre where a pair of glasses makes Superman blend into the crowd and the same universe where Alicia Masters in a blond wig can pass for Sue Storm (Johnny’s such a freak).

Man, wouldn’t it just rock being an Asgardian?

Thor finally kills Loki, in full view of the NYPD, and what happens?

He just flies awayÂ… and the cops let him.

It’s good to be the god of thunder.

“The concept for that cover, soup to nuts came from a female artist…While I appreciate the sentiment and the feelings that some may have about this, I honestly feel that there is way too much being read into this cover.”

How could I be so foolish? Of course that cover isn’t mysogonist. The artist was a woman.

Women cannot be sexist. Wonder Woman said so.

I just flipped through some of the search terms that bring people to the site. Boy, some of y’all must be really disappointed:

Here’s what another tracker has for us:

I don’t care if I get a rep as a “Feminized Male” for this post, I need to get something off of my chest.

First, go here. I won’t have the image display here because, frankly, I believe it to be offensive (some may consider Not Safe for Work).

I may have found the MJ statue a trifle “off”, but this isn’t a trifle “off”… this is full-on offensive. This can’t be fobbed off as “playful” or “silly” – this is a cover glorifying the victimization of woman. Even if one does not know that this is in a style reminiscent of “tentacle rape” pornography (why-oh-why did I know that?), the image is far, far from innocent.

Examine it for a moment with me, will you?

First ignore the ridiculously cartoonish body-types (an issue I have with this series to begin with – if the Heroes for Hire are not aliens, then there should be several exposes nipples).

Heck, let’s ignore the long phallus dripping clear liquid onto the Black Cat’s chest.

Discount that this book is rated “ages nine and up”.

Forget the fact that the three women on the cover (Black Cat, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing), are supposed to be tough-as-nails-don’t-need-no-man-to-rescue-me women and instead of being shown as such are shown as whimpering damsels in distress. Leave alone the leering, glowing-eyed spectators.

You know what my biggest problem with this cover is?

There are male members of Heroes for Hire, You see the arm of one (Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu) in this shot. Yet you don’t see him playing the victim. He’s in the back, where we can’t see him. The female team members are all twisted and contorted to present their tortured forms for the reader. There’s even a fourth female member whose breasts are showing (with a few wisps of hair, but hey, they managed to get her breasts in the shot! Good job!).

That’s what annoys me. The fact that you would never, ever see Marvel or DC make a cover like this with a male protagonist. Yes, a male hero may be shown in peril, but his face will be defiant. He won’t be shown as submissive. He won’t be shown as a victim. He’ll be shown as a Tough Guy who will Escape Any Minute.

They wouldn’t draw him on the cover as the impending victim of some unnamed torture, his secondary sexual characteristics on display, and covered in an unnamed translucent liquid, as people leer in the background. They just wouldn’t.

But hey, women? Fair game.

I’m reading some fairly weak defenses of this cover already. One person said “Well, mainstream magazines have fairly raunchy covers too.” Really? Find me one mainstream magazine – and no, if you hide it under your mattress it’s not mainstream – that would show an impending rape on their cover. Really. Because depending on how you look at this cover, the ladies are about to become victims or already have been. C’mon, show me. Show me a cover that features a cowering woman with her chest covered in an almost-clear fluid.

In fact, I challenge you to show me a mainstream magazine that shows women being victimized in any way on the cover. Lots of skin? Sure. Highly sexualized? Absolutely? Victimized? No. No magazine that isn’t kept in a black wrapper would have that. Even most “Gentleman’s Magazines” wouldn’t have such covers.

Comics have plenty of victimization of women going on, but this is just… blatant. It was bad enough when rape was being used as a throwaway-plot point in Identity Crises. It was worse when we got to hear the same character extolling the virtues of rape. Now we’re basically putting it right on the cover.

I’m not saying all comics have to be kid-friendly. I’m not even saying all super-hero comics do. I’m not saying we all need to bend over backwards so as to not offend someone. However, there’s such a thing as bending over backwards <b>to</b> offend people. There is simply no way that the cover is not offensive. None.

It’s time to say “enough”. Not just on blogs and forums. In the comic store. I ask any of you who would normally buy this comic to not buy this issue. Show Marvel that no, sex doesn’t always sell and yes, there is such a thing as bad publicity.

Marvel has a right to Free Speech, but so do we. Speak with your wallet, folks. Say no to this comic.

This entire page all but begs for Photoshopping.

In context – Susan Austin thinks Eric is a boozer, so she’s crying. She doesn’t realize the recent changes in his behavior are due to the big, strapping man who he is sharing his body with.

Oh, and he’s Thor, too.

Let me begin by stating that I love Fandral the Dashing. Really. However, I’ve often wondered if he might not be better named “Fandral the Swishy”. This is only under certain writers, and may just be my perception.

Or so I thought, until I read the backup story in Thor #416.

We open with Fandral getting in a bit of a dust-up at a tavern.

Fandral’s former foe (try saying that ten times fast) is so awed by the idea that Fandral would spurn these women that he becomes his follower, demanding to meet the alleged paragon of Goddesshood.

As they brave countless dangers to get there, Fandral talks up the objects of his affections.

At last, the payoff!

…

Wow.

Aside from the oedipalness of this story, I love how Fandral’s mother is wearing a typical Midgardian house-frau’s garb instead of the more Kirby-esque Asgardian togs everyone else wears. It sort of hammers home the craptasticness.

Y’know, there’s such a thing as taking attorney-client privilege too far.

How nice. She makes a racial crack and Eric Masterson responds my objectifying her.

It’s okay kids! Women like being talked to that way, really!

Incidentally, one of my favorite Eric Masteron factoids is that every woman he meets seems to fall in love with him. His lawyer, his assistant, his competitor, The Lady Sif, and a few others I’m forgetting.

Either that is one rocking mullet he’s got, or Mssr. DeFalco was indulging in a wee bit of Mary Sueing.