Tagged: Black Widow

MARC ALAN FISHMAN: “Super-heroines,” Get Back In The Kitchen!

So after a few weeks of daydreaming and being all cutesy-wootsie, I figure it’s about time I stir the pot a little. Let me get behind this wire mesh wall, force field, and don some protective gear. There. Safe and secure. Ahem…

Marvel’s female superheroes suck.

Don’t believe me? OK. Name the first few Marvel superheroes that come to mind. I’ll give you a minute. Who did you say…Spider-Man? Thor? Captain America? How about Iron Man? Hmm. No double X chromosomes there. The last big event to revolve around a woman? Oh yeah! House of M. The one where Marvel showed that a chick who ain’t barefoot and preggers goes crazy and resets the universe at will. Now there’s a feather in a feminists’ cap.

When I say “important women of Marvel,” aren’t they are always the yin to the yang of a more powerful man? Pepper Potts. Sorry Matt Fraction, you can put a repulsor in her chest, you can give her a code name, but she’s still just Tony’s secretary. Mary Jane Watson-Parker-Watson-by-way-of-a-retcon? Face it tiger, she’s just there to fall off buildings. Maria Hill? Nick Fury’s assprint hadn’t even cooled off before she was ousted back down to who-cares-ville. And when we open the discussion to those ladies who carry the hero badge? It doesn’t get any better.

Sue Storm, the matriarch of the Future Foundation. The soul of the Fantastic Four. Completely boring and useless without her husband. The best writers of Sue have always pegged her as a strong and independent woman. But take her away from Reed, Ben, or the children and the only bullet point left on her resume is part-time booty call for Namor.

Black Widow: slut with guns. How about Ms. Marvel? I’ll be completely honest. I don’t know a thing about her. Best I could tell? She was brought in because Marvel has no Wonder Woman, so they threw her on the Avengers. Beyond that I assume they keep her around because cute girls can show off their butts by cosplaying as her. What of the X-Men? Well, Jean Grey has died only 17 times, and has changed names to various permutations of “Phoenix,” all to what effect? She’s Cyclop’s gal. She maybe did Wolvie in a closet while Slim was waxing his car. And in the Ultimate Universe, maybe she did Charles too.

Let’s not forget Storm. She was married off to Black Panther so they could make super-black-babies that will invariably land on some future iteration of the X-Avengers. Not because they’ll be well written mind you… but they will add that “affirmative action” flavor John Stewart was used for back in the JLA.

I say this obviously not just to be cranky. I openly yell to the heavens for someone to come in and make the women matter again. Joss Whedon put Kitty Pride and the White Queen front and center in his amazing run on Astonishing X-Men. More than that, he made them more than worthless eye-candy in butt floss. He gave them dimension, and class. They weren’t in peril for perils’ sake.

Given Whedon’s pedigree for good female characterization, it didn’t come as a surprise. Whedon aside, other Marvel writers certainly have the know-how. Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathon Hickman are all amazing writers who know the ins and out of nuance. They’ve each made the females in their books (yes that includes Pepper in the aforementioned Iron Man series) very potent. But my gripe remains the same.

It’s not enough to write a woman as powerful, smart, and put-together. It’s the act of writing them as such that they are more than decoration. Throughout Marvel’s recent history, it’s been a literal boys-club. Civil War? Captain America and Iron Man fighting in the sandbox. Secret War? An excuse to make Norman Osbourn king of the playground – until sales dipped, and people stopped caring. And now we have Fear Itself, which as far as I can tell is only an excuse to half-kill Thor, and dress everyone up in Tron-stripes.

I yearn just once to have a female character in any of these situations stand up and set the world straight. Not to say it’s happened in the DC ever… but I actually believe Marvel has the smarts to actually do it. In this day and age where the DCnU turns Starfire and Catwoman into sultry sluts with no character trait beyond their cup size… I look to the House of Ideas to set the industry right.

When DC was making up Kryptonite and the color yellow the ultimate weapons against its heroes, Marvel figured out that debt, responsibility, and a guilty conscience was far better. Let us hope that in the coming times, they take the next step and realize that women are more than tits and tiny costumes. They are the fairer sex, the stronger characters, and perhaps the last untouched resource for superior fiction.

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

Avengers, Assembled: First Looks of Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill

Marvel Comics released a wide variety of posters at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend with Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johannson as the Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, all in advance of the May 2012 release of the Avengers movie directed by Joss Whedon, and all making a giant poster after it’s all, ahem, assembled.

The images were created by Marvel Studios Co-Visual Development Supervisor Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen. Check ’em out.

Women Is NOT Losers

Women Is NOT Losers

 

 

Marvel Comics is a couple months into their “Women of Marvel” promotion, and that raises an issue or two. The whole idea is fine – honor… well… promote the several hundred female characters that toil in the Marvel Universe. Remind the readers
that many are among Marvel’s best. After all, women-starring superhero comics generally don’t sell very well and women-starring superhero movies are, without fail, failures.

I realize there’s a reason why the movies flop. Most of them really suck. Supergirl, Elektra, and Catwoman deserved better. But they stunk up the box office so badly I doubt they’d make a Black Widow solo movie
right now even if Scarlett Johansson had a half-dozen nude scenes.

Well… I could be wrong about that last point.

But the fact is, these are just made-up characters. It is
not intrinsically harder to write, draw, direct and/or act as a woman superhero as it is a man. I understand avoiding crappy movies, but a lot of the women superhero comics are as good as anything on the racks. Given the growing percentage of women readers, you’d think there would be a chance here.

So kudos to Marvel for their promotion. And go to your friendly neighborhood comic book shop and take a super-heroine out to lunch.

ComicMix
editor-in-Chief
Mike
Gold performs a weekly two-hour Weird
Sounds Inside The Gold Mind
ass-kicking music and blather radio show on The Point
every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern,
replayed three times during the week (check the website for times). Likewise,
his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind political
and cultural rants pop up each and
every day at the
same
venue. Thanks to Janis Joplin for the headline.

 

#SDCC: Mondo Marvel

#SDCC: Mondo Marvel

If it’s a major convention, it must be Mondo Marvel. Panelists included Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, Jason Aaron (Wolverine: Weapon X), Dennis Calero (X-Men Noir), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man), Paul Tobin (Models, Inc.), Frank Tieri (Dark Reign: Lethal Legion), Steve Wacker (Spider-Man editor), Jim McCann (New Avengers: The Reunion), and C.B. Cebulski (Marvel talent liaison) gathered to discuss Dark Reign, Marvel Adventures, and pretty much everything else the House of Ideas has on its plate. Newsarama’s got the liveblog, but here are some highlights:

  • Black Widow: Deadly Origin by Paul Cornell and Rom Raney is four issues, starting in October. “Some deep, dark secrets from her past,” said Quesada.
  • X-Men Noir: Mark of Cain is out in November, featuring the same team of Fred Van Lente and Dennis Calero.
  • Captain America/Black Panther is a 4-issue series by Reggie Hudlin and Denys Cowan, involving Black Panther’s father.
  • Paul Tobin talked about the “bold new direction” for the Marvel Adventures line, with Quesada saying that they’re bringing “cohesion” to those books.
  • Andy Diggle and Roberto de la Torre on Daredevil, starting in September.
  • Matt Fraction got a compliment for “giving Colossus his balls back.” Yep.
  • Quesada said that Allan Heinberg is in the midst of writing a “massive” story involving the Young Avengers.

More One More Day discussion, the return of Fantomex, and true tales of cosplay gone wrong at the full Newsarama liveblog as well as Marvel’s own recap.

Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hollywood pushes south for San Diego

Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hollywood pushes south for San Diego

A semi-deep thought re: San Diego: I can’t be the first person to make this observation, but if they keep spending more and more time promoting movies and TV shows, regardless of whether they have anything to do with comics or not, we’re going to have to start calling it the San Diego Comic Cannes.

Lord knows it’s how everybody else seems to be treating it, including this week’s Entertainment Weekly. The coverage is promoting it like the major film festival it is, only without all of those French people.

We’re even going to have our own geek version of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Sure, Angelina has Lara Croft and might be there pitching Salt, and Brad Pitt has Inglorious Basterds coming out next month, but they’re nothing compared to the new power couple of Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool and Green Lantern) and Scarlett Johansson (as the deadly Black Widow, which is a cue to run that picture.)

Scarlett Johansson gives ‘The Skinny’ on being the Black Widow for Iron Man 2

Scarlett Johansson gives ‘The Skinny’ on being the Black Widow for Iron Man 2

Scarlett Johansson writes in the Huffington Post about the work involved in preparing for Iron Man 2, but in a healthy way, because she "would be absolutely mortified to discover that some 15-year-old girl in Kansas City read one of these "articles" and decided she wasn’t going to eat for a couple of weeks so she too could "crash diet" and look like Scarlett Johansson."

Since dedicating myself to getting into "superhero shape," several articles regarding my weight have been brought to my attention. Claims have been made that I’ve been on a strict workout routine regulated by co-stars, whipped into shape by trainers I’ve never met, eating sprouted grains I can’t pronounce and ultimately losing 14 pounds off my 5’3" frame. Losing 14 pounds out of necessity in order to live a healthier life is a huge victory. I’m a petite person to begin with, so the idea of my losing this amount of weight is utter lunacy. If I were to lose 14 pounds, I’d have to part with both arms. And a foot. I’m frustrated with the irresponsibility of tabloid media who sell the public ideas about what we should look like and how we should get there.

I’m someone who has always publicly advocated for a healthy body image and the idea that the media would maintain that I have lost an impossible amount of weight by some sort of "crash diet" or miracle workout is ludicrous. I believe it’s reckless and dangerous for these publications to sell the story that these are acceptable ways to looking like a "movie star." It’s great to get tips on how to lead a healthier lifestyle, but I don’t want some imaginary account of "How She Did It!" I get into and stay in shape by eating a proper diet and maintaining a healthy amount of exercise. The press should be held accountable for the false ideals they sell to their readers regarding body image — that’s the real weight of the issue.

She also notes, "There is no magic wand to wave over oneself to look good in a latex catsuit." Unless, of course, you’re drawing it.

 

Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow for Iron Man 2?

Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow for Iron Man 2?

Man, this is getting vicious. First, Emily Blunt was announced as being cast as super-spy Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, in Iron Man 2. Then Eliza Dushku announced that she was interested in the part. Now we’re hearing rumors that Scarlett Johansson is in discussions for the role, according to Entertainment Weekly by way of Cynopsis, because Blunt has a commitment to Fox for its feature Gulliver’s Travels, which would conflict with shooting.

All this, after replacing Terence Howard from the first film with Don Cheadle. I mean, sheesh.

At least it’s nice to hear that husband Ryan Reynolds is letting her read his comic book collection. Reynolds will be playing Deadpool in this May’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

ComicMix Quick Picks – February 15, 2009

ComicMix Quick Picks – February 15, 2009

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

  • Don’t believe the lousy "ratings" on Dollhouse that some folks are touting. The only ratings that can conceivably be in are overnights from the largest markets. No Live+7 (in other words, people who have it in their DVR because they went to see Friday The 13th in theaters this weekend) and no smaller markets. Ask again next week.
  • On the other hand, Eliza Dushku is already looking for extra work as the Black Widow in Iron Man 2
  • Vinnie Bartilucci points us to a possible shooting location for M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.
  • Chris Sims is doing Valentine’s Day again in that special, special way of his.
  • And finally, The Simpsons premieres tonight in HD, and they actually change the credits for the occasion. The first permanent change in 19 years. Yikes. Take a look– can you spot Fat Tony? (You can cheat by looking here.)

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.