Artist Alex Law draws female superheroes. The kicker is that he bases his designs on real little girls dressed up in their own idea of what sort of superhero they’d like to be. So instead of this sort of sexist crap (not by Law):
we get this (by Law… and an unnamed three-year-old):
which is awesome and all about imbuing a gal with strength and power she can enjoy for herself and not turning her into eye candy for someone else to enjoy.
We need to be waaaay better about not letting this attitude get beaten out of little girls as they grow up, the same way that it does not get beaten out of little boys. (See here for one example of how that happens to girls.)
Via Tor.com.
One would think, with all the fuss superhero comics companies have made about falling sales, that they might try to appeal to a wider market than adolescent boys. Apparently that would be too hard…
It’s mostly just talk with regard to making comics more accessible to more demographics, at least at the big two companies that dominate.
Dan Didio of DC will sometimes half-heartedly gab the “yeah, yeah; we’re a big tent, whatever” company line when he knows he’s being watched by the media, but has been unable to contain himself on other, more casual occasions. He’s made it perfectly clear how much he hates women, and in a very off-putting manner, on more than one panel at a convention, plus we’ve seen it in the work. We won’t see a change at DC until he’s gone, and he’s in there pretty tight.
Quesada is not as hateful in his opinions, but he’s pathetically clueless when it comes to women and reigns over a boys’ club that reinforces his sad world view at Marvel. Again, it shows in the work.
I can see the downside of being a bit less sexist: they reckong that without the cheesecake, the boys who have kept the companies afloat through all these years might finally get a clue and go elsewhere. (Except that they are already…)
Adolescent boys are an easy and reliable market. You don’t have to think too hard to come up with ideas that appeal to them. And unfortunately, female superheroes are often little more than fantasy love objects for boys, not really considered as equal partners.
I would watch the everloving hell out of that Green Lantern Girl TV series starring her blue-flower-print plush dog sidekick.
Ballerina Hulk is also awesome on awesome smothered in awesome sauce.