Tag: Comic Books

Gail Simone’s new policy on writing comics

Comic book writer Gail Simone went to Twitter today to share her new policy about the comic books she will write in the future:


The abbreviation “LGBTQ” stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer. I believe only one of the terms must be met to qualify. For example, a person does not have to be both lesbian and gay to qualify. By person, I mean a fictional comic book character. The abbreviation “poc” stands for person of color. Since it isn’t a real person, but a fictional comic book character, the correct abbreviation would be “coc” for character of color.

That could be problematic. Coc sounds like cock. People might think Gail Simone will only write comics that include cock.

Gail Simone's new policy on writing comics - Bent Corner
A cock on a fence.

It’s always interesting when someone announces something virtuous before they do it. If one wants to write comics that include characters from groups not usually seen in comic books, a better way to go about it is just to do it. Allow the public to discover on their own how inclusive you are.

Announcing it beforehand on Twitter spoils the enjoyment a reader would feel when seeing organically that one of the characters is part of a minority group. Now, people will go into any Gail Simone comic looking for the character who satisfies her new self-imposed inclusively mandate. Some may even consider these characters as tokens. That would be unfortunate.

I’m not sure why bisexual gets lumped into the same group as gay, lesbian, and transgender. When a person who is bisexual enters into a committed relationship with someone, presumingly only having sexual relations with their committed partner, are they still bisexual?

Hopefully, that’s something Gail Simone can explore in a future comic book.

There is a new Superman and he is Chinese

I haven’t been following what’s going on in the world of comic books these days, especially superhero comic books. Movies have taken the place of actual comic books when it comes to superhero storytelling.

It would seem that I’ve been missing a lot. For instance, Superman is now Chinese.

There is a new Superman and he is Chinese - Bent Corner
DC ENTERTAINMENT

It appears from the cover art that not only is Superman now Chinese; he is Communist Chinese. His uniform is red and features the stars from the Communist China flag. Even when Superman was a Kryptonian- American, he didn’t go around wearing parts of the American flag as a uniform.

There is a new Superman and he is Chinese - Bent Corner
Buy “Red Son” on Amazon

This isn’t the first time Superman has been portrayed as a godless Communist. The 3-issue Elseworlds miniseries Red Son told the story of what would have happened if baby Superman’s spaceship had landed in the Ukraine instead of Kansas and he was raised in the Soviet Union. It came out over ten years ago, and I haven’t read it since. I remember enjoying it. I thought it was an interesting premise.

This new Chinese Superman doesn’t look quite so interesting. In fact, it looks quite bad. The artwork looks cheesy and just ugly. I wouldn’t pay three dollars to read it, although I would probably pay three dollars not to read it.

When it comes to reading comics, you’ll have a much more satisfying experience reading older stuff. Avoid any of the material produced in the last five years. DC Comics and Marvel have been putting out a lot of social justice warrior friendly junk lately. Marvel has been especially bad. Thor is now a woman. Ms. Marvel is now a Muslim. The good news is that they both publishers have such an extensive back catalog of work, it doesn’t really matter. You can just ignore the new stuff and go back and read the older material.

Or wait for the movie.

Mark Waid sounds absolutely insane

Comic book writer Mark Waid wrote a long post on Facebook sharing is his feelings on the 2016 presidential election. Spoiler alert, he’s not too happy about how it turned out.

Donald Trump won and Hillary lost. I’m not happy with Trump being our president either. I wouldn’t have been happy to have Clinton as president either. That’s one of the things that made this election such a giant bucket of suck. No matter who won, it was going to be awful.

Mark began his post by stating that his therapist told him that he’s in the grieving stage with the outcome of the election. The post pretty much goes downhill from there.

He then talked about appearing at comic book conventions in red states. Some comic book professionals have vowed not to attend comic book conventions in states that voted for Donald Trump. Mark will not do that. He will attend conventions in red states. He will use his straight white male privilege, some argue to be the most powerful kind of privilege, to create safe spaces at these conventions. He went even further.

From Mark Waid’s Facebook account:

I’m not hard to find at shows. If you’re a fan or creator and are ever, ever made to feel uncomfortable on a convention floor, come find me. If it’s a fleeting thing, just come hang out. If, on the other hand, you can point out the aggressors, I will rain HELLFIRE on your behalf, I PROMISE you. Ask anyone. They’ll tell you that I’ll flip tables on bullies and creeps, and I’ll have your back. And while I’ve never had to use it, I’ve got enough clout to have hatemongers flat-out thrown out of shows, and I am not above those sorts of nuclear options.

I’ve never seen Mark Waid in person. Judging by his photos, he doesn’t strike me as an intimidating person.

I haven’t felt the need to attend a comic book convention in quite some time. It just never seems worth it. Panels are now usually posted to YouTube. You can buy anything sold at a comic book convention online.

Now that Mark is offering to use his straight white male privilege for anyone who asks, it might be fun to go to a comic book convention again.

The next time Mark attends a convention in the neighboring red state of Pennsylvania, I may have to go. I want to see him rain hellfire and flip tables. I don’t even know what hellfire is. Something tells me it’s not nice. It sounds dangerous, especially if used indoors.

Now that I think of it, the last time I went to the Baltimore Comic Con, the fire alarm went off. Everyone had to exit the building. Could Mark Waid raining hellfire on someone have caused the fire alarm to go off?

If it takes too long to see Mark Wade do his thing, I could have my wife go to Mark’s table to have him autograph my copy of Kingdom Come #3. She could then just casually mention to Mark that I annoy her.

It wouldn’t even be a lie. I annoy her all the time. She’ll ask me to do something and I then forget to do it. That’s so annoying.

Once Mark hears that I’ve annoyed my wife, he’s duty bound to find me and rain forth his hellfire upon me. He’s also obligated to flip my table. Considering that I wouldn’t have a table, that might be hard. He promised to do these things on Facebook, so by law, he has to do it.

That sounds like a lot of fun.