Women in Wheelchairs: A Case Study in Inequality

Comic books are largely a static medium. Captain America will always be the straight-laced, optimistic, idealistic soldier. Superman will always be the incredibly powerful yet distant hero. The X-men will always be the oppressed minority. No matter how many new twists comic book writers throw in there (I'm looking at you, Electric Superman), the characters by and large come back to home base. 

So what has baffled me for a long time is that in a fantastical world with insane technological advances, magicians who can rewrite reality, and people who can reform matter by thinking too hard at it... Barbara Gordon can't get her spine fixed. While I'm of the opinion that Babs is more interesting as Oracle, the info-hacker extraordinaire, on top of the fact that she can absolutely hold her own despite being wheelchair bound... it doesn't really follow internal DC logic that someone wouldn't have figured out a way to make our favorite red-headed crusader of the night (sorry Kate) all walkable.

Comic artist and illustrator Erica Henderson has wondered the exact same thing and produced a light-hearted and fab comic piece addressing this exact issue [source]:

SuperQueeros! for September 1st, 2010

Queers in comics for the first day of September, go!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #38

Buffy is back!!!!!!! Yup, BTVS returns from its summer hiatus for it's five-issue final arc of Season 8! And now that Dark Horse owns the characters of Angel, get ready for a vampyr-bf-filled rock-em-sock-em finale that will kick butt and set us up for Season 9! Joss is penning this story, so watch out for the shrapnel from the inevitable explosion of AWESOME!

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #2

The most anticipated comic book event of my entire life continues this week with the Young Avengers, the nebulously-cannon New Avengers, and Magneto mixing it up on the streets of New York! And then it's off to find the Scarlet Witch! With Billy and Teddy! HEART!!!!!!

Torchwood #2

More Ianto-inclusive adventures with Cap'n Jack as the sweet new Torchwood comic continues! In addition to getting part 2 of the "Broken" story from last issue, there's also a zombie vs. Torchwood prison rumble in "Fated to Pretend" (like that MGMT song!)! With all that coolness stuffed into one story, how can you not buy this issue??? #youcan't

The Authority #26

I don't know how many issues it will be before the Authority returns to Earth (or if it will take as long to get back as it did to reach their destination...) but they've arrived at where the Carrier was taking them! Find out if they'll get the thingy that can save the world as the Authority wrap up their 'verse-spanning journey! #Rainmaker!

Secret Six #25

It's the Secret Six vs.... THE SECRET SIX! Now that two teams of Secret Six have been formed it's time for them to beat each other up until only six villains remain standing!!!! Find out if Scandal makes the cut, and who she's got to cut to do it!

House of Mystery #29

TURSIG TELLS US A BEDTIME STORY!!!! Also, Witches + Goblins vs. Robots!!!! This issue is just going to rock. And Tursig is going to be awesome. Which is awesome. #awesome

Racebending - 0, Marvel - 1

We posted earlier about how the casting call for the Runaways movie neglected to mention Nico's ethnicity, a move that struck fear into the hearts of Runaways fans everywhere. Would Marvel, so soon after M. Night's The Last Airbender debacle, be so callous as to whitewash away Nico's Japanese-American ethnicity?

Well, racebending.com is reporting that Marvel issued a press release in response to their concerns, stating:

"To address your concern over casting for the role of Nico, as we do with all of our films, we intend to stay true to the legacy and story of the comic when casting these parts. Thus, our goal is to cast an Asian American actress as depicted in the comic series and the casting notice will be adjusted accordingly."

Well, I think Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Michael Clarke Duncan's Kingpin would argue that racebending is, in fact, something that Marvel does, but clearly the comic book giant has done the right thing today by opting to spotlight the diverse nature of America and its superheroes. Keep it up, Marvel!

(At least until the day when people expect you to racebend out as many or more of the ethnic majority as you racebend in. Then please make your movie casts diverse and interesting! #reimagining #firstnationsironfist)

Blue Ranger Billy Finds New Calling as Lavender Ranger

I grew up during the 90s. And pretty much every kid in my generation grew up watching the Power Rangers. It was an unavoidable social phenomenon. The zany costumes, the dinosaur zords (even though two "dinozords" were actually prehistoric mammals), and that fabulous proto-drag queen Rita Repulsa... I couldn't resist. Although due to the unfortunate circumstance of sharing a name with the Red Ranger, I was forever type cast as the fearless leader, when deep inside I longed to be just like nerdy, acrobatic Billy the Blue Ranger.

I distinctly remember having a crush on Billy growing up. The nerdy outsider, failing to plug into the power of masculinity, not to mention Yost's impressive physique stirred my 7 year old self into quite a tizzy. I even remember being really upset when Billy left the team to pursue love with his aquatic lover (forget same sex taboo... we're getting to interspecies kink). 

Lo and behold, over a decade later, David Yost who played Billy in the original American Power Ranger series has confirmed that he is gay in a series of interviews with Nopinkspandex.com. Check them out after the jump!

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Angel Moving to Dark Horse

This news came out a few days ago, so apologies for the late pick up. Turns out our favorite brooding LA vampire, Angel, will be moving over from IDW to Dark Horse to join with sister title Buffy. The announcement came a bit unexpectedly as Dark Horse evidently pre-empted itself by including a mention of it in its "Horsepower" column. Newsarama writes:

IDW's Angel ongoing series starts its final arc with November's #39, which sees both new co-writers in David Tischman and Mariah Huehner, and the return of a familiar Angel enemy, interdimensional law firm Wolfram & Hart. The six-issue arc is meant to transition directly to where Dark Horse Comics will pick things up in late 2011.

According to Allie in Dark Horse's statement, the return of Angeland his supporting cast is "necessary" to Buffy< and Angel creator Joss Whedon's plans for the upcoming Buffy the Vampire SlayerSeason 9 series, not entirely surprising given the key role Angel has played in the currently unfolding Season 8 comics. No specific plans for a new Angel-starring series from Dark Horse were detailed at this time.

This is exciting news for Buffy and Angel fans who've been keeping up with the books. I've been a little disenchanted by Angel's season 6 comic run, but knowing that the title is now coming under supervision of Dark Horse, and will finally be united in ownership and continuity with Buffy... I envision a much more harmonious and frakly, better written, book. Now, the only question is when the frak is Season 8 going to finish?

Holy Retro-homophobes, Batman!: A trip down memory lane

The 1960s have clearly seen a renaissance of late. It seems everyone is going mad over Mad Men along with a whole cornucopia of 60's themed media (A Single Man, Pride, A Cloud Over England, Howl). And with this retrospection on the radical age with its sexual revolutions et al., it serves as a good reminder to remember the state of queer rights in the 60s. Mad Men's Sal got the boot last season after coming up against his homosexuality. While painful to watch as a fan of the character it is certainly a wake up call to consider just how closeted a society America was and in some ways continues to be.

Cartoonist and blogger Sam Henderson digs up this pretty in pink treasure titled "My Son, the Daughter." He writes:

This was a book published in 1966, back when the idea of someone being gay was funny in and of itself. I don't know for sure, but Mort Drucker's probably embarrassed by it now.The same publisher also did a couple books of “Fannie Hillman” illustrated by Sergio Aragones to cash in on the Jewish mother schtick of the time. It's weird how the people behind Jewish jokebooks were most likely Jewish while the gay jokebooks were written by people who probably never even met a homosexual.

On one hand My Son, the Daughter is steeped in the running homophobic joke of reviling the sissy. But at the same time, it is in some ways a relief to see the ways in which gay men's lives were open enough to receive this level of layered satire. I'm ambivalent as to hating on the author because in some strange way, I find the book liberating in a strange sense. Check out the full scans at Henderson's blog, The Magic Whistle.

Kele Okereke Likes Joe Madureira

Kele Okereke of Bloc Party (former band) and The Boxer (current solo album; lead single Tenderoni) just posted some favorite comic book covers on his blog by the awesome Joe Madureira (website)! That's friggin' sweet! An excellent musician/out gay man who reads comics enough to appreciate a particular artist? Look out NPH, you've got some competition for the title of Hottest Gay!