DC at SDCC: Provocative (Grant Morrison in a Dress) is Good? (Final Part, Saturday)

[turtlefu]

This is it! The final part of this massive clusterfuck! But first, legality!
 

Maybe they'll get around to the black guy... eventually

 

DC’s New 52 Panel (Saturday Morning)

Winick says that with Batwing, he’s trying to mix superheroes with real-world issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He called Africa “a very politicized and ravaged country”.

“Now THERE’s that white privilege I was talking about! Good job we have mighty whitey to tell us how horrible of a “COUNTRY” Africa is! I get a huge feeling Winick is going to use this book as his mouthpiece for his opinions on the politics and culture of Africa, which he will grossly misunderstand and possibly turn into a "look at those SAVAGES" situation.”

DiDio made a list of heroines in starring roles. He says DC has the best percentage of females in starring roles.

“DC, DIVERSITY IS NOT ABOUT NUMBERS. Why don’t you guys GET THAT!? Also, I call bullshit on that anyway. Besides, Marvel is employing far more female creators (Deconnick, Immomen, Rios, Liu, etc.)”

Morrison says that Cass still exists in the DCU.

“Yay Cass!”          

The same Batgirl fan from the panel who asked about heroines on covers asked this panel why there weren’t more female creators in DC. DiDio says, GET THIS, they hire the best writers and artists they can! And the audience applauds! Morrison mocks her by saying he looks great in a dress, then turns around and encourages the female fans to submit work to DC.

“So, DiDio implies that the female talent out they isn’t good enough for DC, and then Morrison mocks a justifiably upset fan. Then he turns around and saves face by encouraging the female fans to submit their work. Presumably to be told that they aren’t good enough for the wealth of talent that DC only employs, like the kind that puts out Cry for Justice or the Rise of Arsenal.”

DC’s The Dark and The Edge Panel (Saturday Afternoon)

Lemire says Animal Man’s main character is actually Maxine, Buddy’s daughter. She gets her own powers.

“Which is interesting, but I can’t help but feel it takes away from the “everyman” qualities Buddy was supposed to have”

Cornell SPECIFICALLY calls Horsewoman a “diversity character, to state it crudely”, and compares her to the Man with No Name [Clint Eastwood’s Western Character]

“Good Job Cornell, you just took away the good feelings I had for you. Turns out his wheelchair user was just there for diversity cred!”

Cornell says Apollo and Midnighter are still gay, but they meet for the first time in the first issue, and their romance is slow. He also says that if he changes anything he won’t expect to come out of the “Gays in Comics” Panel alive.

“Okay, I do like the idea that they don’t immediately jump down each other’s pants, like they did originally. But apparently Cornell feels like the only thing wrong with changing their sexualities would be the negative fan reaction? Uh, you shouldn’t change their sexualities because that would homophobic, not because you fear how the fans would react.”

This one is the worst. DC replies to the negative fan reaction towards Harley’s new costume by saying “Provocative is good”, but says that Harley still has the same personality.

“REALLY DC, why is PROVOCATIVE only good for your FEMALE heroes, so you can dress them is as objectifying clothes as possible, but your male heroes wearing briefs on the outside is SO BAD it needed to be changed IMMEDIATELY.”

“Oh and just to add, included were some pages from an unknown book showing a gratuitous scene with strippers. I think it was either from Blackhawks, Suicide Squad, or Sgt. Rock.”

Comments

[feyandstrange]

Here's an idea or three: start with making him not "Batman of an ENTIRE FUCKING CONTINENT", and then send him to Addis Ababa and Casablanca and Capetown and Mombasa and other major centers of civilization and crime, instead of the second poorest country in the world still reeling from war and tribal conflict? And maybe have some Batpersons in those other cities? The African Council of Batman Inc would be awesome. Instead we have cliche and ignorance.

[darkknightjrk]

Well, you're assuming that he's not going to explore the other countries in Africa and that there aren't any other superheroes in Africa. Hell, in those first appearences of Batwing in Batman Inc. had him teaming up with two superheroes in Africa.

[feyandstrange]

I am assuming that if there is a Batman of Paris or of all of France, and a Batman of Gotham, that a solitary Bat can usefully cover about one major metropolitan area plus its suburbs, with occasional visits outside their own turf to track things that occurred in their turf. Since Kinshasa has a population greater than that of London and IIRC more geographic area, and that's not counting Brazzaville across the river in Rep Congo, I would assume that the DR Congo alone (or the two Congos) is plenty for one Batman, especially considering that one can't as speedily move around on Africa's roads and runways as one can in the USA or even Southeast Asia.

I'm glad to hear that other African-continent heroes exist and get mentioned, but that doesn't really cut it. The USA has tons of superheroes and Batman still mostly handles the Gotham area.

[marco]

This. I think this is what most people are missing and what would fix things (to a point, anyway).
(Some people are making it sound like there's only places in Africa that are ravaged or something or, ironically enough, like there's a lack of countries to use from the continent.)