As you probably know, I’m not really a fan of DC Women Kicking Ass. I think Sue cherry picks issues in comics to pander to her fans and to get people riled up and hating comics for nothing. In my opinion, it’s a site that is no different than any other fan site that complains about comics, but it just so happens that because its focus is on women in comics, that somehow the complaining on that site is somehow more just and noble than others. It is worth noting, however, that the site has lately been comprised largely of fan polls about women. Whether this is indicative of the industry getting better (HA! I know, I thought that was funny too), or whether these polls are simply to generate more users to stroke Sue’s ego for site visits is up for debate (it’s the second one, I’m sure of it). Whatever the reason, it’s become a slightly more positive atmosphere which is always great, in my opinion. Furthermore, she has that is comprised of nothing but positive moments of women in comics and I absolutely love it.
Now, normally, I don’t agree with DCWKA on much of anything, but she recently posted the solicitation for Superman #9 and it made my skin crawl.
SUPERMAN #9
Written by KEITH GIFFEN and DAN JURGENS
Art by DAN JURGENS and JESUS MERINO
Cover by IVAN REIS and OCLAIR ALBERT
1:25 B&W Variant cover by IVAN REIS
On sale MAY23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• SUPERMAN faces new supervillainess MASOCHIST!
• How can Superman fight an opponent he can’t touch?
• LOIS LANE faces a turning point in her career as a journalist.
Superman is squaring off against a female villain who likes to be hurt.
I don’t even know where to begin with this one, but I guess the best place to start is to change the gender. If it were a man that wanted to be hurt, then the comic would be going into some BDSM territory which isn’t really appropriate for an all-ages comic. One can almost picture how off-putting it would be to see another man enjoy being hit by Superman. But you know what? Hitting a woman and having her enjoy it is worse.
Worse yet is the t-shirt reading “Hurt Me.” I get that this is part of her costume, but it just invites an unhealthy image of a woman begging to be harmed. I keep typing a follow-up sentence trying to explain why this is wrong, but I keep backspacing because it seems evident to me.
Gender aside, while the idea of a villain who likes to be hurt is a seemingly interesting one (but one can’t help but hear “Watchmen did it!” in a South Park voice), it just can’t work in a Superman comic. It just sort of seems beneath him. Actually, all of the villains in the relaunch of Superman seem kind of beneath him.
Yeah, that's what I want to read - Superman fighting fire, wind, and rock monsters. What is this? Power Rangers?
The first six issues feature Superman fighting Kryptonian elementals or something and then issues 7 and 8 have him battling a WildCATS villain, and then he has to fight a woman who wants to be fought?
THIS is what Superman is doing in the New 52?
Fortunately, Morrison’s Action Comics has been doing everything it can to elevate DC’s most recognizable hero to a higher status, but when Superman is so lackluster, then what’s the point?
If All-Star Superman has taught us anything, it’s that Superman works best when he is battling beings that are impossible to comprehend. His stories only really work when they are modern mythology. It’s when he is elevated to the role of savior that he works best and that simply doesn’t work when he is hitting a woman with “Hurt Me” on her shirt.
Comparing Superman’s villains to the other parts of the DCU and it’s clear that Perez has been outclassed so far:
The Court of Owls will be a dominant force across the Bat-titles in May.
Nobody has been frightening in Batman and Robin.
The Rot has been horrific in Swamp Thing and Animal Man.
Stormwatch is facing villains as a team that Superman should be facing alone.
Aquaman has these really creepy creatures from the Trench that gave me chills.
I mean, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE is a comic that packs in more wild ideas in a single issues than Superman has in six.
And Superman battles the elements . . . and a WildCATS villain . . . and then the poster child for why we need feminist voices talking about comics.
If this Masochist comic were in any other book, it could be simply written off as an offensive, bad idea, but one that was due to poor experimentation on the part of a writer.
But, this is SUPERMAN. This should be the comic by which all other comics are measured by. There should be a clear focus for the title and objectives to be reached to get to that focus. It shouldn’t feel like Superman is battling whatever stupid idea they’ve come up with next.
Ugh, I’m rambling now. I wish I could find my footing again to get back to writing witty things. Give me some time, dear readers.
In terms of who should or shouldn’t be hit, I don’t really split things along the lines of gender, because I’ve never really bought into the whole premise of women being inherently weak. I think of it like this: if you’re a legitimate threat, you can get hit. If not, no. This Masochist chick is a supervillain, so I wouldn’t say she’s off limits… at least not to, say, Batman or Aquaman. But yeah… this is Superman. That’s a little different. It’s hard to be a legitimate threat to Superman. From the picture, it does just look like the Man of Steel is about to pulverize some punk goth chick. Uncool, Superman… uncool. From the comic’s description, I get the feeling that she’s supposed to be a threat, and that perhaps she wants to be hurt because she’s actually in some way invulnerable. And I’ve gotta admit… that sounds pretty cool. The problem is, it would have to be done really well in order to be cool like that, and I don’t have a lot of faith that it will be. In the end, you’re probably right about just how uncomfortable this is going to be.
I wonder who at DC thought this was a good idea for a supervillain?
“Here is a great idea. Lets make a female villain who likes to have men hit her. Then next issue we can introduce a woman who likes to be raped. Or what about a black man who enjoys being submissive to white people.”