Sexism In Comics

Why do you think he has those headpieces?

Something something unstable molecules.

Nanomachines, son.

He has nanomachines in his hair?

That would actually explain a lot. Like how the fuck does he have that hairstyle. Seriously, what is up with Wolverine's hair?

Maybe, due to a chance gust of wind, his hair was in that formation when his healing factor first activated, and now any attempt to change his hairstyle is considered "damage", causing it to regenerate back into its "proper" state.

He takes his hair and stuffs it into his ears when in uniform in order to protect his superior hearing from the loud chaos of battle. This leads to it's distinctive shape.

One other thing to consider is that a character's costume is usually designed to accommodate their powers better than street clothing could. In Wolverine's case, that's his Healing Factor. Maybe his costume is designed so that it's tear-resistant, bits don't get stuck in wounds, and so on? Not like the X-Men don't have the budget for some heavy-duty Applied Phlebotinum, after all.

edited 11th Sep '13 2:18:00 AM by Iaculus

Where do they get their budget from? The Fantastic Four are celebrities and can afford their stuffs through merchandising. Tony Stark is independently wealthy. I know the X-Men used to be funded by Charles Xavier way back in the day, but who's providing the money for all their crap now?

Well, at this point, they have connections all around the world, the universe, and the multiverse, and tons of members and former members that are independently wealthy. And that's not counting the stuff they can scavenge from random villain A's fortress of doom.

As the team with, IIRC, the single largest reserve roster in comics, they have more than enough ways to get whatever they need without requiring any in-depth explanation whatsoever.

edited 11th Sep '13 6:40:11 AM by KingZeal

Random Wolverine speculation:

Maybe he shows up in costume based on this thought process:

• Show up without costume- people think they are fighting some random guy with weird hair and don't realize they are fighting Wolverine until he starts slicing them up.
• Show up in costume- people know they are fighting Wolverine and at least some of them are smart enough to surrender/run away.

The second one decreases the number of casualties.

Maybe Wolverine is independently wealthy. Dude has been alive since the 1800s.

Or maybe his drinking buddy chips in.

Holy shit. Bendis destroyed some sexist dick on Tumblr.

A guy on Tumblr asked Bendis about his focus on Jean and Kitty in ANXM, calling them secondary characters and saying the story should be about Scott. He asks if focusing on women will lose the core readers of men, and ends with, "You guys listen too much to women bitching. They cause so much freakin drama in comicdom."

Bendis' response starts off with, "Wow. you are the first person who I am kind of glad asked your question anonymously because I don’t want to know you." He ends with, "and as a reader of the X-Men whose entire philosophy is about tolerance and understanding… you are missing the point."

The question was unbelievably stupid and misogynistic, and Bendis' response treated it as such. It's pretty good.

Well done Brian Michael Bendis. Well done sir.

+1000 respect points to Mr. Bendis!

edited 18th Sep '13 1:22:57 PM by KingZeal

Yeah. That is such a thorough smackdown that you can't help but be impressed.

Did anyone hear about the Harley Quinn controversy? The gist of it is that there was an artist contest where the winner would get to work for DC, with one of the drawings they entered having to be of Harley Quinn committing suicide while naked in a bath tub. It rubbed quite a few people the wrong way, for many reasons.

I think it's summed up pretty well in this video (starting at 4:00).

Yeah, it was a while ago. Odd how the thread didn't budge while it was happening.

It was probably just such a weird thing for DC to do that it was hard to figure out what to say about it. They wanted people drawing a naked dead girl in a bathtub? How do you even explain why that's horrible? It's one of those things that should be obvious as soon as you say the words.

When you're looking for potential artists, your requirements for their portfolio shouldn't require nudity or death, especially not of female characters. And even more especially when the female character you choose is well-known for being a fun, cute, upbeat character.

That's not something that should actually need to be said. That's something that I'm pretty sure everyone should be able to agree on. So the fact that DC went ahead and stipulated a dead and naked Harley is just such a bizarrely stupid thing to do that everyone just sorta looked at it with disbelief.

It is hard to have a discussion when everyone just agree. Is there someone here who thought that contest was absurd?

Anyway, I am kinda curious. What did come from this contest, after all? Did DC gave up on it? Did they awarded someone?

Also, kinda off topic but does anyone knows a similar comic book vlog (a good one, preferably). Watching this video made me look for more about it.

I don't get what the hooplah is all about. Lots of suicide scenes are set in bathtubs (whether it's so blood from slit wrists can pool in the water, or because they've decided to drop an electrical appliance in the bath with them). And if someone's in the bathtub, odds are they're going to be naked. What's the big deal?

edited 29th Oct '13 9:21:26 PM by RavenWilder

You're joking, right? Poe's Law can be pretty insidious at times, so I just want to make sure that you do understand why DC commissioning people to draw a naked dead woman in a tub is awful.

Yeah, because, y'know, if I was gonna kill myself in a bathtub, I'd be totally concerned with whether my clothes got wet or whether I'd be able to wash underneath them.

edited 29th Oct '13 9:35:52 PM by Wackd

Not that there isn't a problem with the whole thing, but if you did commit suicide that way you probably would be naked.

I think I can see the rational for what DC did here, although I don't know the full facts and don't care to check, so I won't post it. It's still in very poor taste.

I can't see the rationale. At all. I honestly cannot understand why DC did it. Especially at a time when they were already taking some heat over sexism.

Not going to lie, the first thing I though of was Sanity's Requiem. But I was cringing at the first sight of Harley Quin before I even knew the contest details. It kind of bugs me when a figure has an iconic look that gets stripped away for cheap fan service. I mean, if they had cut off her sleeves to show her rippling biceps, that would be the kind of thing I would not mind them showing off, her midriff for some cabbage shredding abs but they just put her in a not even corset exposing a petite frame that can only have cringing back problems for the rack it supports.

Part of her appeal with me, as a not really batman fan, was how different she looked out of costume, no hat, face paint, ect. That appeal left when every other picture I see of Harley Quinn only has the jester thing half on.