Panel at Gen Con Goes Awry, Backlash Begets Harassment

Comic conventions have a reputation for having reputations. Some of them are good: A convention is a place where thousands of people who have been picked on and bullied their whole lives for being nerds can come together to celebrate their fandoms openly. Some of them are bad: If you’re a woman or a minority, you’re probably still going to encounter at least some bullying or harassment. This is not to say that being a geek is still the same tired, old boys club it used to be, but women and minorities still often have to prove themselves before being taken seriously as a “real” geek, and representation is still something we have to fight for. This is why seeing panel discussions about diversity and representation in comics, movies, gaming, etc. at a convention has such a deep meaning. Recently, however, one such panel at the well-respected Gen Con in Indianapolis (you may remember earlier this year when the convention threatened to leave Indiana over their ‘Religious Freedom Bill’) has received quite a bit of controversy.

From the moment it was announced, the Writing Women Friendly Comics panel at Gen Con was getting press. While the panel sounded both interesting and compelling, it lacked a pretty essential component – women. The panel moderator, Bill Willingham, author of Fables comics (a series praised for its inclusiveness and popularity with female readers), and every other panelist were male. Thankfully, after The Mary Sue brought this issue to light, female writers Delilah Dawson and Alina Pete were added to the panel. It felt a lot like a win. Rejoicing occurred. At least, that is, until the panel actually happened.

Apparently, Willingham took issue with the panel being modified, and was not at all shy about voicing his contempt. From the moment he opened the panel, Willingham set the tone by making his feelings about The Mary Sue’s article crystal clear:

“This is NOT a women in comics panel…A certain rabble-rousing website with no journalistic integrity whatsoever tried to redefine this as a women in comics panel…”

From there, he moderated the panel with an iron fist: repeatedly interrupting any woman who spoke, refusing to call on women or people of color for audience questions, and defensively rebutted any mention of male, white privilege. Several first-hand accounts of the panel from shocked audience members immediately began popping up online. One in particular, a blog post by Candice Huber, has not only been shared repeatedly, but has caught the attention of journalists and internet trolls alike. In addition to being a woman and a geek, Huber also happens to be the owner of the popular, geek-centric bookstore, Tubby & Coo’s in New Orleans (you can read more about the bookstore in the article I wrote when they opened). She was so upset by Willingham’s behavior at the panel that she has made the decision as a small business owner to pull his books off her shelves. I spoke with Huber to get a bit of clarification on her decision and how it’s been received:

Pirates Plundering for the Greater Good??

Last Sunday I ventured about two hours outside of New Orleans for Comics for a Cause 2.0, the annual superhero themed fundraising event for the Crew of Ragtag Misfits. In its second year, the event featured performances by the Valkyrie Rouge Tribal Belly Dance troupe (dressed as their favorite heroes, of course), a silent auction & raffle, blood drive, and live music all benefiting the children at Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital as well as some local women's shelters.

Delivering toys, Christmas 2013 (Photo from Crew of Ragtag Misfits)

Since 2010, the Crew of Ragtag Misfits have been dressing up as pirates and bringing brightly wrapped toys, and big personalities, to children in hospitals and battered women's shelters in and around Baton Rouge. According to founder, Jennifer Haskell, the Crew provides gifts for sick children as well as their siblings:

"We give to everybody that's in the hospital room and we make sure that everyone's happy, to try and relieve the parents [of financial burden]."

Check out what you missed at this year's Comics for a Cause (and don't fret, you can still support their cause by donating at the Crew of Ragtag Misfits' new gofundme page):

Comic Shop Road Trip

I've been traveling, so this week's post is a bit late. I'm currently in my hometown of Atlanta surrounded by baseball, The Vortex, (slightly) less humidity, and OH MY GODS THE TRAFFIC!!! How the hell did it get worse?! I swear it is some ingenious plan by the likes of Crawly* to trick hundreds of thousands of people to very, very slowly draw unholy sigils across the city while their souls are rendered forfeit.

Spaghetti Junction is very real, and clearly unholy.

Seriously, I shouldn't have to sit in bumper to bumper traffic at 3am on a Thursday to go to the store for a Coke and a jar of vanilla frosting (don't judge me).

Everything about this is wrong. Everything.

Nevertheless, I decided to pull up my big girl panties, grab my pull list and my best friend, Jenn, and brave the soul-sucking traffic conditions to explore some of the comic shops Atlanta has to offer. My first stop was the Titan Comics I used to walk to every week as a kid. Much like love and sex, you never forget your first comic shop. Mine was a small shop in the middle of a street known for scores of lingerie stores advertising "live models", strip clubs, and street walkers. It should have come as no surprise then, when I pulled into the parking lot and felt the last, little bit of my childhood die:

Do We Really Need a Female Thor?

Autumn, it seems, is becoming the season of change for the Marvel Universe, and (as is geek nature) not everyone is happy about it. One of the most controversial changes is that Thor, The God of Thunder, will soon be a woman. 

Apparently, the current Thor will somehow be deemed unworthy to wield his famously picky hammer, Mjolnir, and a woman will be stepping in to take his place. This is not like any of the numerous alternate realities in which a woman ends up with Mjolnir (like the “What if” issue when Jane Smith kicked some ass as Thordis), or in the current reality when Storm was able to use the real Mjolnir to destroy the fake hammer that Loki gave her several decades before (because that wasn’t convoluted at all). No, we are being assured that this is the real deal; she will be Thor. According to writer, Jason Aaron,

“This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before.”

Here is where my first issue with this announcement crops up (which my friend, Dave, of The Week in Geek, will probably be surprised to hear): What Aaron has essentially implied is that ‘Thor’ is not a name, but a title. Thing is, much like Superman, Thor was born Thor. He is the son of Odin. He is the God of Thunder. He is Thor. It’s going to take some damn fine writing to make this fundamental concept change work, in my opinion.

Now, we don’t yet know the identity of this woman. In fact, the whole of what we do know can be summed up in this snippet from the announcement:

“The story behind her is that she created herself. She was saved by Thor, and she came down from Earth – followed him – and made herself look like Thor. And now she’s taking over.”

What is even more confusing than the sentence structure of that announcement, is that it was delivered by Jenny McCarthy (yes, that Jenny McCarthy) on ‘The View’. No, that’s not a typo. Marvel decided to make the announcement that Thor will now be a woman, on ‘The View’. The only way they could have made this a more obvious marketing stunt is if they paired the announcement with the arrival of new ‘Thor’ brand tampons. I would be genuinely shocked if there has ever been another segment on ‘The View’ about a comic book. Ever. Their choice to announce that one of the oldest Marvel superheroes is suddenly going to be a woman, on a daytime talk show aimed at housewives and stay at home moms, screams pandering to me. This doesn’t seem like a groundbreaking, well thought out decision. No, this seems more like a cheap, easy way for Marvel to throw a pair of tits on an established character that is already earning them tons of money (thanks to the popular movies which will likely not follow suit with the gender swap), and point to it as proof of their progressive thinking and general support of women everywhere. The most disturbing reaction I’m hearing from a lot of women is that we should be thanking Marvel for taking such a daring step towards gender equality. I think that’s crap. If Marvel is truly interested in equally representing women in comics, they can either start seriously promoting any of the female superheroes they’ve already got, or they can work to create a new dynamic female superhero that is representative of women without being a flying sex symbol (pants, people, women can wear pants). Sorry, guys, but I don’t feel the need to thank Marvel simply for throwing womankind a bone.

All that being said, I am willing to give Aaron and the rest of the creative team the chance to come up with some sort of epic storyline in which this all makes sense. I really would like to believe that perhaps they are trying to do this for all the right reasons. At the end of the day, though, I worry that this is going to alienate more readers than it draws in.

For Better or Worse, Batgirl's Gettin' a Revamp.

Batgirl is getting a new look, and apparently a new personality to match. It was reported last week that Gail Simone has stepped down as the writer of Batgirl (#34 will be her last issue). Taking her place will be Cameron Stewart and Brendon Fletcher (along with new artist Babs Tarr). Simone is probably one of the most well known and beloved names when it comes to female comic book writers, and deservedly so. Her departure from the comic was bound to result in some pretty significant story changes as the new (male) writers attempt to establish their own voices and direction, but this overhaul is as drastic as it is unnecessary and out of touch. According to an MTV interview with the new creative team, an apartment fire will prompt Babs to leave literally everything behind, move out of Gotham proper, and into a “hipster” neighborhood to pursue a more fun, free, and flirty lifestyle (complete with superhero selfies). Stewart explains, “She wants the opportunity to have some fun and live the life of a young, single girl in the city, so she packs up and moves to Burnside, the cool, trendy borough of Gotham, to focus on grad school.” In the same interview, Fletcher refers to TV shows ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Girls’ as their inspiration, “with a dash of ‘Sherlock’ thrown in for good measure” (I’m really not sure why they feel the need to throw in that dash of ‘Sherlock’ since Veronica Mars was a damn fine detective all on her own, but I’ll let that go for now).

I’m not going to tear apart the logistical nightmare they’re creating for themselves (exactly how old do they think Barbara Gordon is, and how much free time do they think one gets while in grad school??), because we are talking about a fantasy setting where superpowers are the accepted norm so I suppose logistics can be an after thought. I’m not even going to go into the fact that Cameron and Fletcher, for all their claims of Babs being a fun, flirty single gal in the city, have essentially described a traumatized young woman attempting to navigate a serious psychological break with little to no outside help, because if I thought for a moment that was intentional I would find it intriguing. I don’t think it was intentional. I think what they’re trying to do is appeal to a demographic that has not traditionally embraced comic books en masse: the 20-something party girl hipsters. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not disparaging a decision to court a virtually untapped demographic (especially one consisting of women). What bothers me so much about this is that they’re using an established character with an established fan base that does not (by and large) include 20-something party girl hipsters. This move could very well alienate the comic’s current fan base, which already had a rocky start during the 2011 New 52 re-launch when Babs ditched the wheelchair and suited up as Batgirl once again.

Despite regaining the ability to walk, the New 52 Batgirl has been dark. Super dark. So dark, in fact, that Gail Simone herself made mention of the need for a change of tone in a tweet after her exit was announced: “…I am sad to leave, but glad they are finally allowing Batgirl to not be so grim every issue.” Now, I am not arguing against the new creative team’s decision to lighten the mood of the book, and I’m even a fan of Babs’ new costume. (Screaming yellow Dr. Martins and a leather jacket? Yes, please!) What I am saying, however, is that this jarring change in direction is not a welcome reprieve from the unyielding shit-storm poor Babs has been caught up in. Rather, it is an abrupt, nausea inducing, 90 mph, 180-degree turn. It feels forced. It feels fake. It feels wrong. The Batgirl that Stewart and Fletcher have described sounds more like a stereotype than a character with any depth. To me, this change feels very out of touch with reality, and I don’t anticipate that it will be received well by the fans. I really do hope that come October, when Batgirl #35 is released, this (otherwise impressive) creative team can prove me wrong.