All my friends are magazines

[stubbleupdate]

I'm now three posts in to a short series on the Luna Bros book Ultra. The first one was all on the covers, the second was about Ultra's date with a lovely gentleman and this one is about the aftermath.

I think that I'm sticking to my idea that Ultra is a positive female character, stuck in a book that has no time for anything like that. My warning is that this post will contain examples of other characters "slut-shaming" and calling women "whores." Like I said at the start, it's a problematic book.


Before Ultra gets in to her office we see her agent. I originally wasn't going to post the first page, but it cranks up the tension for the coming swerve. It also shows Pearl's agent as somebody that actually seems to be interested in her own welfare, as well as the bottom line.



What did we tell you? That guy is a dick.
There's a tiny bit of expressive work on the Agent's eyes as he's showing Pearl the magazine.


Panel 1 - Nobody romps, except in tabloid news
Panel 2 - I hope that this guy's publicist is meant to look like Pagus, Jesus' brother, because he definitely does.
And yes, the agent is being a bit of a dick at the end, but he sorts himself out pretty quickly.
He offers PEarl the day off, but she turns it down and gets to work. In the locker room she lashes out at a green and blonde girl who says that now that Pearl's secret is out, she can stop being fake.

I'll post some more of the public's reaction to the scoop at some point later in the week.

That article in full...

Yes, a superhero analyst says that Pearl "Whored up" And this is Pearl's outfit that shows "coppious amounts of cleavage"



"I did what any other reasonable guy would do."

I realise that I'm complaining about a fictional account that is meant to come across as completely dickish and a distortion of the truth. However, I get hella pissed about the real newspapers that do nonsense like this, so this just pushed one of my angry buttons. If you read any of my stuff on LJ you'll see that I wrote on a hyperlinktastic post about one such example.

This is one of the more obvious times when the character (the magazine is a character too) is clearly portrayed as a baddie in their attitudes towards women. The issue with Ultra is that there's a lot of times when it's not-baddies that are using derogatory words to describe women.

I'd expand on my feelings about tabloids and their horrid attitudes towards women, but it's been a long day and I can't do any more brain... stuff...

Comments

[pyrotwilight]

Wow. Douche guy is douche. I'm only surprised he didn't bother taking pictures of her naked too.

Unless he did that as a bargaining chip for when she finds out he sold pics to the tabloids I guess.

Dude's an idiot. Most heroes wouldn't bother trying to take him out. But hell, all she needs to do is stage a superhero supervillain fight near him and have him be collateral damage if she wants to make him dissapear.

not picking on you at all...

[pervymax]

but is douchebag verboten here?

To my mind, it shouldn't be, any more then 'asshole' or 'dick', but it's possible I'm missing something. I've been surprised before.

Re: not picking on you at all...

[pyrotwilight]

Can't see any reason why it might be prohibited since it's used essentially the same as the other two you listed. I'm guessing it's fine. I'm pretty sure it's been used fairly regularly on the site too.

Re: not picking on you at all...

[stubbleupdate]

Douchebag is probably more appropriate, since it's not a natural part of anatomy

Re: not picking on you at all...

[nezchan]

Douches are also known to be not that good for women, so it works.