Ultra-Womanite

[stubbleupdate]

This month, I have been mostly reading The Luna Brother's Ultra. It's a title that picked up a sample for through Comixology's Android app (there's SO MUCH good free stuff out there). The book has recently been released as a hardcover, and has a live action trailer to advertise it. (the trailer isn't that great, actually).

The story is about a professional superheroine, Ultra aka Pearl Penalosa. She's nominally Hispanic, or at least from an Hispanic family. The story is more about her life after hours than any sort of crime-fighting escapades. The book has been described as like a superhero Sex and the City, with Pearl's love life being one of the main threads that carries through the 8 issues of the book, along with her relationships with her fellow heroines.

It's not a book without problems. There's a lot of bitches, skanks and sluts being bandied around. Sometimes they're coming from asshole characters to insult our heroines. Sometimes they're being used by our heroines as terms of affection for each other. Sometimes they're just used as synonyms for woman. That's one massive thing that I had a problem with.

The sexual politics of Ultra are clearly going to be one of its main topics and I'll write about that in a few days. Just now, I only want to contribute the covers for the single issues, all of which are modelled after established magazines.




Issue 1 - Time Magazine


Issue 2 - Maxim


Issue 3 - Wired


Issue 4 - Rolling Stone


Issue 5 -National Enquirer


Issue 6 - Cosmo?


Issue 7 - ?


Issue 8 - A Silver Age comic book

Comments

[marco]

Huh, that's an interesting sounding title. I'm very curious and quite disappointed that I'd never heard of it before. And I suppose those problematics elements aren't so bad compared to most other things in handling w/lady characters in (esp. superhero) comics.

I do love those covers though~.

[biod]

Keith Jagger plays the drumms with two flaming guitars.

[stubbleupdate]

[biod]

That is mesmerizing.

[thatnickguy]

I had the pleasure of reading this a few years ago. It's sort of like a superhero Sex in the City. And to be perfectly honest, I liked it a lot. Definitely a recommend for anyone wanting to read something different.

[fleur_de_liz]

Issue 7 looks like it's People Magazine.

[mercia]

Yeah, #7 is People. #6 is Cosmo.

[shanejayell]

It wasn't bad. I would have liked more character development and less 'sex and the city' more or less.

[lissa_quon]

I remember reading this one. It was alright, nothing grand. I recall having some issues with it, but I can't remember exactly what the issues were. I think it was lack of depth in the characters.

I also can not see the appeal of the Luna brothers artwork. It always looks half done or flat.

[stubbleupdate]

I can see the issues with the art. It isn't very dynamic.

[gamerguy]

It's a very good series. There was talk banted back and forth of a TV mini-series around the time of the release, but I don't think anything ever came of it.

[aaron_bourque]

It's not a book without problems. There's a lot of bitches, skanks and sluts being bandied around. Sometimes they're coming from asshole characters to insult our heroines. Sometimes they're being used by our heroines as terms of affection for each other. Sometimes they're just used as synonyms for woman. That's one massive thing that I had a problem with.

I guess there's "n-word" privileges.

Which I would buy if it were the Luna sisters instead of the Nuna brothers.

[hivemindcomics]

It was a few years ago I read Ultra, but I really enjoyed it.
Like Girls it was suprisingly funny in parts and unlike Girls (though that was intentional), I liked the characters quite a bit.

There art at worst can be stilted and shallow, but at best it can look gorgeous and with subtly good "acting".

[blackruzsa]

I've seen the costume, and this around in general, but I don't remember from when, nor have I gotten around to reading it.

[richardak]

I liked this one a lot too, and I'm a big fan of the Luna brothers' work in general. I keep hoping to see news of their next project, but I haven't heard of anything from them since they finished The Sword.

I also happen to like their art style. I can understand that it's not to everyone's taste; I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it has grown on me. I think it's a unique style, one quite different from anything else I've seen in comics.

[thanekos]

The ending and the bit with her apparent true love were nicely done.

Oh, and what "the Arsonist" smelled like when not flamed on. That was amusing.

[big_daddy_d]

Ultra was a good read. Wished there was more.

[stubbleupdate]

The creators have said that they might return to it at some point.

I'd be interested, if they sort out a few of their problems.

[thehefner]

I always avoided the Luna Bros. because I was annoyed at how everyone always had the same. Fucking. Facial. Expression. And then I read "The Sword," which was fucking amazing (up until the last issue, WTF), so I'm very ready to give "Ultra" a chance.

[stubbleupdate]

I tried to get into their Spiderwoman series years ago and couldn't get past the non-descript art. It's a bit like one of the guys who drew Queen and Country, whose name I forget (and the books are across the room from me, so I won't check), but with less expressiveness in the faces.

[skalja]

The covers were very cool, but even sexual politics aside I found Ultra ... decent enough, but forgettable? The sexual politics definitely made me uncomfortable, though I could never quite decide whether that was a deliberate choice on the Luna Bros' part until I tried reading some of Girls, another one of their work. At which point I decided that if they didn't actually endorse the creepy, misogynistic Nice Guy tropes that permeated their work, they were doing such a terrible job of exploring those tropes critically that their letters pages were filled with Nice Guys thanking them for telling things the way they are, and fuck that noise. I am extremely unlikely to pick up anything they've written ever again.

[stubbleupdate]

I'm not entirely sure, after just one read through, what it was that bugged me so.

Probably the fact that Ultra is either a good girl or she's a whore and it's not always clear whether the "whore" camp are played straight or are meant to be actual negative characters for the audience to disagree with.

There's a scene at the end where one one Pearl's friends says "I like sex and I like fucking. Nothing wrong with that" which comes of as positive. Then we get Pearl's embarrassment with her own dildo, which turns her sexuality into a joke (and I'm not sure if the bruises that she left on her date in issue 4 were meant to be funny or serious)

[ian_karkull]

I actually kind of like the Luna Brothers art, but then I've read Girls, which is about identically looking naked Killer Ladies murdering every man in a small town and feeding them to a giant Spermatozoon from outer space, so saying they have some "issues" is probably putting it mildly.

[proteus_lives]

The Lunas are not fond of drawing different faces.

[halloweenjack]

Quite honestly, if you've already read Astro City or Powers (at least the early arcs) to any degree, you've probably covered a lot of the same superhero-as-celebrity ground.

[eyz]

At least they're having fun with the covers..