pictures, politics & geekery

Ezra Klein, for the Washington Post:

Let’s be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is — or is not — facing at the moment, they’re not caused by labor unions. That’s also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. There was no sharp rise in collective bargaining in 2006 and 2007, no major reforms of the country’s labor laws, no dramatic change in how unions organize. And yet, state budgets collapsed. Revenues plummeted. Taxes had to go up, and spending had to go down, all across the country.

Blame the banks. Blame global capital flows. Blame lax regulation of Wall Street. Blame home buyers, or home sellers. But don’t blame the unions. Not for this recession.

Of course, the fact that public-employee pensions didn’t cause a meltdown at Lehman Brothers doesn’t mean they’re not stressing state budgets, and that the pensions they’ve been promised don’t exceed what state budgets seem able to bear. But the buildup of global capital that overheated the American housing sector and got packaged into seemingly riskless financial products that then brought down Wall Street, paralyzing the economy, throwing millions out of work, and destroying the revenues from state income and sales taxes even as state residents needed more social services? The answer to that is not to end collective bargaining for (some) public employees. A plus B plus C does not equal what Gov. Scott Walker is attempting in Wisconsin.

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…I would film myself doing a reverse strip tease (ie. getting dressed) to some thrashy Black Sabbath tune. idk I just think it would be ridiculously fun.

What are some historically popular/well regarded comics with female leads? There are so many that a complete list would be unwieldy. Let’s go with the first 35 that come to mind:

1. Supergirl 
2. Madame Xanadu
3. Wonder Woman
4. Ms. Marvel
5. She-Hulk
6. Buffy Season Eight
7. Black Panther
8. Batwoman/Detective Comics
9. Batgirl
10. Power Girl
11. Manhunter
12. Birds of Prey
13. Spider-Girl
14. Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
15. Love and Rockets
16. Promethea
17. Fun Home
18. Persepolis
19. Catwoman
20. Alias
21. Black Widow
22. Heroes for Hire (& Daughters of the Dragon, etc)
23. Gotham Central
24. Queen and Country
25. Betty and Veronica
26. The Authority
    
27. Little Lulu
28. Little Orphan Annie
29. Lois Lane: Superman’s Girlfriend
30. Romance Comics
31. Ghost World
32. Runaways
33. Y: the Last Man
34. Hellcat
35. Hack/Slash

It took me a couple of minutes to come up with this list. There’s no research or analysis here. No effort at all. I could go on, and I’m sure you could too. ‘Girl comics’ have always been here. They are integral to comics history and perhaps more importantly (to some) they sell.

If, that is, they aren’t relegated to a marketing black hole. If they aren’t sabotaged by ill-timed releases, bad press, and alienating, unrepresentative covers. If they aren’t saddled with unsupportive, disinterested, smugly sexist editors. If the people in charge finally gave up on hand-wringing and gender essentialism, and just focused on putting out good books.

‘Girl comics’ don’t need special attention or handling. They don’t require expensive market research or bold new directions. They are already here and they are fucking awesome.

Dear DC, Marvel and friends,

Stop selling short the great products you already have. Keep making Power Girl, and while you’re at it, a Terra ongoing would be nice too. How about a Storm ongoing, Marvel? She’s only one of your most recognizable characters. And please, stop screwing up *cough Batgirl cough* and then writing your failures onto the characters and the character’s fans. Take some responsibility for the gendered nature of the books you’ve published, and the shared universes you’ve created, and just… do better. The best part? You’ve got decades of great books to show the way. 

/flame off

(Why am I so grumpy today, idk)

Among other things, Bakunin called for:

Absolute rejection of the politics of aggrandizement, of the power and the glory of the State. For this is a form of politics which locks each country into a self-made fortress, shutting out the rest of humanity, organizing itself into a closed world, independent of all human solidarity, finding its glory and prosperity in the evil it can do to other countries. A country bent on conquest is necessarily a country internally enslaved.

* Bolding mine.

I’m really fond of this text, and too a number of other early anarchist works, though I wouldn’t call myself an anarchist.

So I’m working my way through a problem that might become a wee post about good and bad capitalists and the remnants of the feudal order in superhero comics… uh, yeah. Something to come back to when I’m bored at work.

Actually the first pilot (and not even a pilot, just 5 minutes of footage) never aired. It was made as presentation to ABC to try and cash in on Batgirl. Have you seen it?

Oh that’s right! Was it that it tested poorly?

I have seen it, although it was a while ago. It’s up on YouTube, last I saw.

Great post. But I would also say it shows that the there is a fan base for Wonder Woman that isn’t being tapped into. And DC blew it by not trying to convert them to comics. Of course.

Yeah, this is an important point. There’s a huge consumer base for Wonder Woman merchandise. This was definitely a missed opportunity. Maybe offer a free issue. Do a classic Wondy stories anthology for the occasion. Use the excitement to push merchandise that would tap into other markets… I wonder about the strategy behind the Kelley Wonder Woman—she has the name, but otherwise is just an aggregate of currently popular lady-tropes. An attempt to get people excited about Wonder Woman, without bothering to involve Wonder Woman? (Because of that same lack of faith in the character’s saleability).

Interesting factoid: Audiences rejected the first two attempts at a Wondy tv show. Those were the Bewitched inspired pilot, and the Charlie’s Angels inspired tv movie. The Wonder Woman they got excited about? Nazi-fighting superhero and adventurer.

This is Wonder Woman:

DC Comics and MAC Cosmetics have partnered to produce a line of Wonder Woman themed cosmetics. This is the true face of Wonder Woman in 2011.

Forget the comics. Her title has been twice rebooted in the last five years. Secret agent. Super-powered street fighter on a quest for vengeance. Warrior-turned hero—thanks to Superman’s ever-shining example. It’s clear that DC Comics has no idea what to do with the character.

Forget movies. We had the cartoon: an eclectic origin story that drew on Perez yes, but even more strongly on the shallowest of sexy battle of the sexes tropes. This was followed by the news that the direct-to-dvd movie sold too slowly and there would be no further Wonder Woman movies. Instead, Green Lantern, Green Lantern, Green Lantern, and a Supergirl origin story, absurdly shoehorned into the Superman/Batman banner. A live action movie is an impossibility. With Joss Whedon off the project—the only guy we can trust with a girl story—and studios less and less interested in making action movies with female leads, well. Of course not.

Forget tv. Kelley’s pilot—career girl and urban crime fighter—has nothing to do with Wonder Woman. It’s impossibly far from even the twirling Lynda Carter version of the character. It is not in fact a Wonder Woman story at all. It is plainly, a generic action soap with a female lead and a brand-conscious nod to superheroics.

Wonder Woman was born of the clay-heavy soil of Themyscira, a mother’s love, and the blessing of their gods. She fought to become the champion of her people, and their ambassador of the outside world. She took up the mantle of hero, because it was needed, and became a hero to all peoples, without discrimination. It seems this complicated character is best represented by… branded cosmetics.

The most positive Wonder Woman news we’ve seen so far this year is WonderMac. But even this development has a far from silver lining. Lipstick, mascara, cover up—products designed to appeal to a particular subset of a subset of Wonder Woman’s diverse fans. Femmes only. Fans with plenty of disposable income only. WonderFemmes of two shades only. We’re not on shaky ground with this Wonder Woman. DC and MAC know exactly who this Diana is, and who wants to buy her image. This Diana is marketable. This Diana can generate the uncomplicated kind of buzz that speaks to the dollars and cents logic of big business. WonderMac is ideal. Buy the makeup, the t-shirts, maybe some jewelry and a Halloween costume. Buy this most boiled down shell of the character, and buy too the various ways we choose to fill it: Kelley’s Wonder Woman, JMS’ Wonder Woman, some other dude’s exciting new way to make the character accessible.

No slight to the femme-identified, or anyone excited about the products. I love makeup and damn straight MAC makes the good stuff. This isn’t about shaming people who buy WonderMac, or people who have enjoyed the many and varied reboots of the character. This is about the branding of Wonder Woman and her fans. This is about the shambling, stumbling, too-often disastrous state of the character in every medium except makeup. But here, finally, is an uncontentious Wonder Woman.

(via Wonder Woman and MAC, together at last).

The thing is, for the most part I like the line. Slick packaging, bright colours. It’s great to see Wonder Woman getting more exposure. And yet:

No one has a clue who the character is, and hell, they aren’t even sure she’s an icon until they slap her image on a tube of lipstick and sell it for $15.50 US.

Slick packaging, bright colours. This instead of consistent storytelling. This instead of the character being treated as equal in fact, to those she is equal in name. This instead of good comics, good cartoons. This instead of all the things that got us interested in the character in the first place. WonderMac, junior player to the booming Superman/Batman franchise, which together make obvious the lie of DC’s Trinity. WonderMac, making clear that lady comics are best dealt with outside of comics proper, through lady things.

WonderMac is the only bit of news lately that hasn’t undercut her fanbase, that hasn’t told us we are wrong to like her as is—just a few adjustments, a nip here, a tuck here, maybe a new career and a little sexy girl power—and it is not good enough.

John Bussey for WSJ, via Green change:

As the world marveled this week at the remarkable story of Wael Ghonim, the Google manager who helped organize a popular rebellion in Egypt, a great sigh of relief could be heard rising from much of the rest of American business:

“I’m glad,” came the exhale, “the guy doesn’t work for us.”

Who wasn’t amazed at the power Mr. Ghonim wielded against the authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak? An Internet geek and Google’s Mideast regional marketing executive, Mr. Ghonim helped administer a group of Web pages that served as a rallying point for activists long before crowds gathered in Tahrir Square. He was detained by the police, made a martyr in the streets, and then released. A popular hero was born.

A lot of U.S. companies, which now manage millions of employees abroad, watched with trepidation. Many of them now earn more abroad than they do in America. And much of that income comes from the sale of big-ticket items—power systems, infrastructure equipment, aircraft, telecommunications—that only governments can afford to buy.

Companies may not want to be lapdogs to dictators. But they also don’t want to tick off their chief customer. It’s a balancing act, one that inevitably leads to a policy of corporate discretion: Best to stay off the radar screen.

Reflecting on Mr. Ghonim’s extracurricular activities, an executive at one big U.S. manufacturer operating abroad was adamant: “Anything that affects the brand – we hate that,” he said. “It wouldn’t be allowed.” Mr. Ghonim can be admired for his considerable contribution to civil liberties in Egypt, but also shunned as too great a liability to business.

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I am trying to convince my under caffeinated brain to do a short post about Wonder Woman in tv, comics, movies and makeup, but it is TOUGH GOING.

As a preview, suffice it say that I find it highly perturbing that perhaps the most positive bit of Wonder news in months is the launch of the MAC/DC partnership to produce Wonder Woman themed makeup. That’s right, the best thing going for Diana is fucking branded cosmetics.