Comic books

I must admit that before this class I never really read any comic books. I became familiar with general superheroes through movies and the Universal Studios theme park. The Dark Knight and The Fantastic Four movies are some of my favorites. This class sounded interesting because I had watched Buffy in the past, but I did not realize that I would experience so much enjoyment by reading comic books. Comic books are so much more than entertainment though. Almost everything has some sort of political or racial meaning. Looking through all of the advertisements really tells a deeper story about the time period in which the comics were written and maybe even a reason as to why the comics were written.

Also before this class, I never realized how many comic books featured superheroines. I only really knew about Wonder Woman, but there are so many more that we have read about in class and even more that we have not read about. This class is really letting me see that comic books are definitely not just for guys. If more people took a class like this or just researched more about comics then I feel like these comic books would become even more popular, with both males and females buying and reading them. I can't wait to read more!

Since most everyone else who has posted before me seemed to focus on sexuality, I decided to stick with that theme but focus it more. I thought of the least sexual super heroine we've discussed, Mary Marvel. The first issue about her that I read during class was from 1945. My goal was to see if she has become more sexualized in the following issues. Between 1945 and 1948, there were only 28 issues about her. Though I couldn't read through every issue, from looking at the covers (which you can see at this website: http://www.comicvine.com/mary-marvel/49-25309/?) it seemed liked the writers kept her character basically the same for those three years. Her outfit remained as conservative, her poses very nonsexual. I began to wonder if when they redid her, how much she changed then. I learned that she reappeared in The Power of Shazam! series from 1994 to 1999. There were a few changes made to her. First, her outfit changed from red to white (new outfit seen here: http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/5/5b/Mary_Marvel.jpg), but other than the color change, the outfit remained fairly conservative and she still remained very nonsexualize. Second, instead of transforming basically from a 12 year old to a 14 year old, she now transforms into a full-grown woman. But even with these changes, Mary Marvel still remains one of the least sexualized female superheroes. Is that why she isn't as famous as Wonder Woman? Or why her comics only last for a few years at a time? Is sexuality that important in selling comics about female superheroes?

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I wasn't entirely sure what to write about, especially for my first post, so I went on google and typed in superheroines to see what came up. I found an article called "Top Ten Skimpiest Superheroine Costumes" at this link: http://www.bamkapow.com/top-ten-skimpiest-superheroine-costumes-602-p.html. When I thought of superheroines while I was growing up, I thought of someone who was supposed to be a role model; someone strong, intelligent, and clever. I never knew much about them, but I thought they would be someone I could look up to. After starting this class, and reading this article, I see that superheriones were more used as just more pleasure for men. They wear hardly any clothing, or in some cases simply no clothes at all. The Savage She-Hulk's outfit, number ten on the list, covers a lot compared to the other nine heroines on the list. Supergirl's outfit isn't horrible either, but her skirt is a little short. Fire and The Engineer are both naked. Tigra, Shanna the She-Devil, and Red Sonja are all wearing what look like really skimpy bathing suits. The top three skimpiest outfits on the list, Witchblade, Vampirella, and War Woman, can hardly be considered outfits at all. It is disgusting how superheroine outfits are designed so they can be "sold".

After reading the blog guidelines, I thought it would be a good idea to make my first blog about something general. So, I went to youtube and searched "super heroine comics.” I found it very interesting that most of the results that popped up referred to "sexy" or "hot" super heroines, even though I did not search with those words. I watched the video titled "Marvel and DC Comics Superhero Girls by DSNG Artist," and found the images truly offensive and crude (here's the website; proceed with caution!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBnRaQ1m_E) After this video, I watched a clip about the first team of super heroines: Femforce. It gave a brief description of each member of the team. I found it interesting to see how these characters were described: Ms. Victory is a "tall blonde" who took vitamins which transformed her "into a beautiful juggernaut..a powerful force for freedom," She-Cat is "feisty, spirited [and] sexy," and Nightveil is a "dark, brooding beauty.” All of these bios reinforce our class’s opinion that superheroes/super heroines must have physical beauty. Did anyone else search super heroines on youtube and find something interesting?

IN a world of damsels in distress and scantily clad super heroines, there exists one girl above the rest. One girl with a big. freaking. scythe. Maka Albarn, of the series Soul Eater is a typical school girl, whose teachers instruct her not in the subjects of algebra and English, but in how to fight evil and defeat madness personified. In essence it is a school for super heroes, but what I found most interesting was the fact that there are two categories of student. Those that are masters and those that are weapons. Maka Albarn is the wielder of her best friend named Soul, who has the ability to transform himself into a scythe. As you may or may not know, scythes are notoriously hard to wield, and even worse for defending oneself. Yet Maka shows a proficiency beyond her years and she, along with Soul, are star students of their year. To me, Maka and Soul's relationship is the epitome of equal partners. A sword cannot wield itself, and a master cannot fight without his/her weapon. But even though Maka is a strong, confident, and somewhat conservative girl, her friend/weapon Soul often teases her about her lack of sexuality, and constantly compares her to their mutual friend Blair, the witch cat, who, while sexy, ends up being one of the weaker characters in the series. Does a high sexuality equal less power and vice versa and are Soul's teasings the manifestations of sexism or simply a schoolboy crush?

Episode 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzgClzK-7w

Notable Moments:

00:00-2:53 the opening

04:25-05:46 the fight

06:50-7:37 the flat chested joke

09:10-09:30 the witch cat Blair (NSFW)

16:06-19:40 the resolution/anti-climax

P.S. feel free to watch the whole episode. Its a great way to procrastinate :3

Transitions

First off, I'd like to thank Zach for his summer post, sharing his awesome music and saying some truths about the way the class was supposed to function--as a dialogue between students on a certain subject, in our case, media representations of violence, that fosters more than just writing good thesis sentences, that can foster relationships built around ideas and art. I also miss our class and the writings it produced, especially an excellent piece of fanfic and some killer final essays...

The semester starts anew next week, and this blog will once again be in service, perhaps as a foil to the testosterone-heavy Violence course last Spring. The course is called One Girl in All the World: Superheroines and Gendered Violence, and in addition to "gossiping" about Buffy, we will be reading lots of comics featuring women kicking ass. The students of ENGL1105.106 will be using this blog for weekly postings and extra-curricular dialogue.

I welcome the participants of this blog from the spring semester to join the discussions for this coming semester as much as you like. There's a chance another class will join in as well, which could be a really good chance to share ideas, critique each other, and really get the Cornell knowledge machine started on the subjects of pop culture, violence, and gender.