The Official Comic Book Discussion Thread

[lazorbeak]

Ok, thanks. If I find it lying around, I might check it out, though the art doesn't seem all that great.

 

Heard that Marvel's going for a female Thor. What's up with that? I get that they want to keep things fresh, but why do you need to change things so much? There's got to be one constant. Let that be characters, please. I get gender equity and gender-bending and all, but comics seem to have a good ratio of male/female characters, including women in leadership roles. So why change? Thor's got some female characters too, so are they going to change those to male roles? I always thought the female Thor was Valkyrie (at least in appearance, never read her stuff). In the end, we get the same story but with different characters.

 

I almost spit out my drink reading the underlined bit. Anyway, it's something new to do with a character that quite frankly is the most boring character in his own story (see also: Steve Rogers Captain America in any book he appears in), so it should make things interesting for a couple of years before he becomes dull again. I like Jason Aaron, so I'm sure he'll do something fun with it.

 

Also, I enjoyed the Wolf Among Us on Steam and went back and re-read the first two trades of Fables. Man, that is some tough sledding. The murder "mystery" is awful, and the exposition is never-ending and incredibly clumsy (Bigby asks at one point how Bluebeard can afford a magic apartment). I guess the target demo was teens that don't read comics (except for a couple issues of the Sandman), but the nudity and lazy jokes come off as so adolescent and lame. It does get a bit better, but the game really shows how much more can be done with the premise than the comic does.

[Blackman]

Care to explain why you spit out your drink? Was it crap or did you happen to be baffled by my statement/perception? Imho and based on my limited knowledge of comics, it seems they do treat women equally. I mean: Wonder Woman is part of the trinity, and Batgirl has a valued spot among the Batpeople. Add several who have leading roles in some of the mainstay comics, and I fail to see how the statement is inaccurate at all. I'm not talking about their roles being sexualised. Mainly the ratio.

[lazorbeak]

Care to explain why you spit out your drink? Was it crap or did you happen to be baffled by my statement/perception? Imho and based on my limited knowledge of comics, it seems they do treat women equally. I mean: Wonder Woman is part of the trinity, and Batgirl has a valued spot among the Batpeople. Add several who have leading roles in some of the mainstay comics, and I fail to see how the statement is inaccurate at all. I'm not talking about their roles being sexualised. Mainly the ratio.

 

I guess it depends on whether you think a 90/10 or 80/20 ratio is "equal." With the exception of the X-franchise, which is still putting out about half a dozen series spotlighting its male heroes (Wolverine, Cyclops, Magneto, Nightcrawler, etc., and that's just this month), both of the big two have a ratio of 80/20 or worse when it comes to titles with female leads. DC has about 5-6 books with female leads out of 50+, and Marvel barely does better, and that's after Marvel made a recent commitment to focus on building female readership. And of those that do support their own title, the majority of them are knock-offs of more popular male heroes (Batgirl, She-Hulk). And this with Marvel finding that almost 40% of its reading audience is female, and almost 45% of the total comics reading audience. And there was what, two women in the Avengers movie, one of whom was Nick Fury's sidekick and one who was maybe the least helpful member of the team? So, yeah, I just about spit-taked at the idea that comics have a "good ratio" of male to female characters, because as far as I can tell, they have a pretty terrible ratio.

[Blackman]

Well, I based myself largely on the X-man crew, which seems about 50%, and the Justice League, who does have a fair number of women in its numbers. And like I said, I'm not really knowledgeable on comics, so you're probably right. I guess I was a tad bit optimistic.

[Clarity]

Love to see how they will bring this into the MCU

 

'Sorry girls, I know you enjoyed staring lustily at Chris Hemsworth as Thor, but we've decided to change Thor to female and will now be played by Kaley Cucuo.. but we're doing this for you women.. right?'

 

I can't see this working.. Unless they nail the transformation (Not sure how she can be Thor Odinson now anyway. He's Odin's Son. Its in the freaking name), all its going to do it send people fleeing from the magazine and possibly pick up a few women readers.

 

What they haven't said is what universe they will make the change in. If its 616, then its going to be a temporary change until Avengers 2 comes out. If its Ultimate Verse, then it will probably stick.

 

However, its a pretty moot point as Thor has been a dull read for ages and will probably continue to be dull as a women.

[Hive]

Why does it have to be a problem that there are more male than female superheroes, anyway? Superheroes are, essentially, warriors - and through history, warriors have been predominantly male.

 

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be strong female superheroines as well, and I enjoy that X-Men has a fair share. But I don't see a need to push for 50/50.

 

Thor suddenly becoming female is nothing more than a short gimmick to boost sales and get attention, just like Dr. Octopus becoming Spider-Man, Captain America dying, Wolverine dying, etc... things will get to normal soon enough.

[Blackman]

Isn't the whole point that 'superheroes' have their bodies infused with stuff that makes them 'super'natural, essentially removing the physical discrepancies between men and women? That said, I do frown every damn time when Batgirl - one of the few I still read, but it's getting worse again - beats up a squad of goons while talking about her social problems or whatever. I respect women, but no girl without 'superpowers' can beat up 6 men. But let's not go there as the discussions are pointless.

[Hive]

About 65 % of Marvel readers are men, and men probably find other men easier to identify with than women. Would less males read the comics if Captain America, Spider-Man and Iron Man were suddenly female? Or more importantly: would it help bring in more female readers? Are there more male heroes to cater for the many male readers, or are there more male than female readers due to the lack of female protagonists? Hard to say.

 

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if Marvel can take off with their two upcoming tv shows with female leads. I would personally have picked more interested female characters than those two, but it shall be interesting to follow nonetheless.

[lazorbeak]

Love to see how they will bring this into the MCU

 

'Sorry girls, I know you enjoyed staring lustily at Chris Hemsworth as Thor, but we've decided to change Thor to female and will now be played by Kaley Cucuo.. but we're doing this for you women.. right?'

 

I can't see this working.. Unless they nail the transformation (Not sure how she can be Thor Odinson now anyway. He's Odin's Son. Its in the freaking name), all its going to do it send people fleeing from the magazine and possibly pick up a few women readers.

 

What they haven't said is what universe they will make the change in. If its 616, then its going to be a temporary change until Avengers 2 comes out. If its Ultimate Verse, then it will probably stick.

 

However, its a pretty moot point as Thor has been a dull read for ages and will probably continue to be dull as a women.

 

You at least touch on the actual issue in this post, which is that Thor doesn't have a lot of readers or interest as a comic anyway. I'm not sure how what's very clearly a short-term gimmick is going to send people "fleeing" from the magazine. I don't think comic readers are that incredibly stupid, but I have been wrong before.

 

Why does it have to be a problem that there are more male than female superheroes, anyway? Superheroes are, essentially, warriors - and through history, warriors have been predominantly male.

 

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be strong female superheroines as well, and I enjoy that X-Men has a fair share. But I don't see a need to push for 50/50.

 

Thor suddenly becoming female is nothing more than a short gimmick to boost sales and get attention, just like Dr. Octopus becoming Spider-Man, Captain America dying, Wolverine dying, etc... things will get to normal soon enough.

 

Who said it was a problem? I just almost-laughed at the idea that 85/15 is a ratio that's so good there's no need to do anything, the problem's solved! One Avenger with no powers. Clearly ideal status is achieved!

 

Edit: also the reaction to people calling this a "publicity stunt" is pretty funny. Yes, I accuse this corporation of making this change for MONETARY interests, not in the pursuit of art! That's why they appeared on a television show and promoted it!

[hellboy2]

i have found working with other writers, but this is more for British Comics, that when writing a male, a male can do whatever he wants and look manly, he can sleep with whoever he wants and have "real" problems, while if a female, tries to look tough it means they are trying to be one of the boys, if they sleep around they are slutty and problems make them seem whiny

 

its sad, i have a comic called Machine Girl, where we decided she is what she is, and never once focused on her being female being a problem

 

Love and Rockets is a comic to check out, all the main characters are female and its truly one of the best series i ever read, its not superheroes though

 

also this whole post may not apply to superheroes, another good female lead is The Ballad of Halo Jones, its sci-fi/space drama and she is pretty good, its Aalan Moore who is so hit and miss but gets this right

[Stennick]

I agree with Lazorbeak its certainly not "equal" status and nowhere near 50/50 and I'm not really saying it should or shouldn't be. I know I've recently wanted to get my daughter into comic books and I've focused on female characters. Birds of Prey, Batgirl, Catwoman, Wonder Woman (ugh), Hawk Girl and some others.

 

I do think that there should be stronger female leads in comics. I think that super heros and comics are fantastic things but girls don't exactly have a ton of books to choose from. Oddly enough though I do find a lot of the women in the DC Universe very interesting.

[Hashasheen]

Get her Ms. Marvel. It's a pretty great read.

[masterded]

Captain Marvel isn't too bad. X-Men now follows a group made up of only girl members. Sure it is probably book E of the X-Men focus right now (if we are not counting solo X-Men titles than maybe gook J), but it is still good and unless a cross over is going on you don't need to know what is going on in the others.

[Guest codey]

So I'm currently using the Marvel Unlimited app on my phone/iPad to run through all of the Ultimate Marvel comics in order. There's a lot of fun stuff here, especially Spider-Man and the Daredevil/Elektra stuff. That said, a lot of The Ultimates stuff is just flat out bad. Captain is a huge jerk, everyone's a jerk to Banner himself, Pym's bad traits are amplified, and the big villain of the first series was just lacklustre. That said, I do like Stark and Thor here, and Wasp isn't too bad.

[Hive]

Anyone bought the Transformers Comics Bundle from Humble Bundle? Being a longtime TF G1 fan and loving the old Marvel as well as the Dreamwave comics, I went ahead and bought the full package. I hope IDW does the series justice.

[lazorbeak]

So I'm currently using the Marvel Unlimited app on my phone/iPad to run through all of the Ultimate Marvel comics in order. There's a lot of fun stuff here, especially Spider-Man and the Daredevil/Elektra stuff. That said, a lot of The Ultimates stuff is just flat out bad. Captain is a huge jerk, everyone's a jerk to Banner himself, Pym's bad traits are amplified, and the big villain of the first series was just lacklustre. That said, I do like Stark and Thor here, and Wasp isn't too bad.

 

Yeah 12 years ago everybody loved the Ultimates. Before Millar made his "cynical jerk heroes" part of the Marvel Universe with Civil War and everyone got tired of it. I think they hold up decently, but mostly because of the art.

[Guest codey]

Yeah, it's a little jarring going from Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men to Ultimates. X-Men has it's little "mature" for the sake of being mature moments, but that was mostly in the beginning, and it's honestly phased out, and Spider-Man is pretty light for the most part.

[Clarity]

Anyone use the Marvel Unlimited Sub and having any issues.. I paid for this month and the apps all show me now as having no membership

[Clarity]

Been doing some comic book inking recently. What do you guys think?

 

[Hive]

You did that from scratch, Clarity? Dang, that's some good work! I could definetely see it on the cover of a comic book. Amazing.

[Guest codey]

Anyone use the Marvel Unlimited Sub and having any issues.. I paid for this month and the apps all show me now as having no membership

 

I'm not having any issues with mine. Maybe it's the device you're using it on?

[Clarity]

You did that from scratch, Clarity? Dang, that's some good work! I could definetely see it on the cover of a comic book. Amazing.

Its just inking. Going over the artists original pencil sketch to make it stand out on the page and have depth

 

I'm not having any issues with mine. Maybe it's the device you're using it on?

Turns out it was an issue on Marvels side.. They found my payment and set me back up.. Even got half my monthly sub back

[fullMETAL]

Jeez, can't Tony Stark keep it in his pants with even ONE female coworker?

Seriously, Carol's been through the absolute *wringer* when it comes to relationships!

 

But seriously though, great inkwork.

[Clarity]

Jeez, can't Tony Stark keep it in his pants with even ONE female coworker?

Seriously, Carol's been through the absolute *wringer* when it comes to relationships!

 

But seriously though, great inkwork.

 

Thanks.. One of the perks of only working term time is that I get these times when I can just sit and work on something.

 

Heres another;

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/222/e/8/sean_cassiday_aka__banshee_by_adambn-d7uj1lj.png

100% mine.. Sketched it years ago, but put it through a scanner and inked it

[Jaysin]

Finally started reading Superior Spider-Man from Issue #1. With such a ridiculous concept(Doc Ock's mind in Peter's body), it's actually really entertaining. Peter's spirit complaining in the background is just awesome. I had been buying the issues when they first started getting released but for some reason just never read them. Glad I finally started.