Possibly the most awesome thing I've read in awhile...

[kenn_el]

Brave and Bold 33:SPOILERS! If you do not wish too read SPOILERS, please don't click!
Zee and Diana invite Babs out for a night on the town. Babs sees some things that she might misinterpret.


We find out, however, that Diana and Zee had their reasons for their behavior, and we intercut their explanations with what we know is Babs' fate. I am not ashamed to admit I cried. I thought it was too anviliicious until I saw where they went. By J. Michael Straczynski and Cliff Chiang.

Comments

LET THE HOPE TAKE HOLD OF YOU, BLUE!

[bluejaybirdie]

Well, the important thing is that Babs is treated as totally awesome and powerful as Oracle and herself, instead of some victim to be pitied. It's not about Bruce and his angst, it's not about Joker and his evilness, it's about Barbara Gordon and her goddamn badassery.

Plus, there is no way in hell that page with Diana and Zee was unintentional. That plus the "someone's clothes" line earlier is enough to make me quite excited about JMS's run.

(And hey, at least he mentioned a minor deity. Points for trying?)

dude, I wear this color *ironically.*

[bluefall]

I'm... my thoughts on his portrayal of Diana in this ish are about as complicated as my thoughts on the TKJ stuff. I feel like maybe he's read too much WML, or something. I don't know. And the kiss in particular...

Well, it's definitely not accidental. Which doesn't automatically mean it's good. In this case, though, it's not exactly a tease, because Zee's wiping her eye when she comes out of the bathroom (and it's not really a very "kiss" pose to begin with), so the reader isn't actually fooled. Which means the scene can't really be "hee hee look girl-on-girl but not really," which, yay, because that's disgusting and unworthy of JMS or Diana. In fact, double yay, because if the reader isn't meant to be fooled or titillated there, the only narrative purpose of *Babs* being fooled is to show that she takes it in stride - which, combined with the "someone's clothes" line, adds up to a subtle normalizing of the idea of Diana as queer.

On the other hand... how much of that is in the script, and how much is Chiang? Because JMS might just be fucking with us all "hee hee look girl-on-girl but not really." I absolutely believe better of him, his record speaks for itself, but nonetheless I can't discount the possibility. He'd hardly be the first writer to fall short of his history.

you say this, but I know that secretly there is a spark of optimism within you

[bluejaybirdie]

Well, the fact that Babs is totally unfazed by that is good for the femslash as well, really. If it doesn't bother her, Babs/Dinah wouldn't either! ;)

I'm hoping it's both Chang and JMS being awesome. JMS, like you said, doesn't seem like the type to go for "tee hee, fake lesbians". I don't trust him as much as I would, say, Rucka with gay stuff, but he appears to be pretty cool as far as that goes. And I love to see non-heteronormality with my Wonder Woman, yep.