So Michele Lee wrote about how she used her seven year-old to point out something so obvious as DC’s ploy to dumb down their female characters and turn them into purely sex appeal for the reboot. I think a lot of people missed the point – even the self-proclaimed “I’ve been reading comics with Starfire in them for years and …” critics to the article. I found the article to be entertaining and funny.
Hey, if a seven year-old can call you on your bullshit, then you are seriously not doing it right, DC.
Anyway, about DC’s “DON’T LET YOUR KIDS READ RATED T MATERIAL IF THEY AREN’T OLD ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE PORNSTAR STARFIRE,” comment. I’ve been reading a lot of inappropriate comic material since I was like 8 years-old. I read Jonah Hex. I read some comic that had people melting in bloody piles of goo like every other story. There was one where some dude who liked to bite the heads off chocolate bunnies was lured into a trap by a demonic looking Easter Bunny, dipped in liquid chocolate and that Easter Bunny bit his head off. Trust me – I found ways to read that stuff even when my mother was a eagle-eyed censor to everything I was doing at that age. You have to know who is going to read it, and why. And how you set yourself up to be the paragon for young readers.
Using the excuse of a rating system to keep kids from reading comics? Lame. This is a character you used in Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans. This is a character that – throughout REBELS and Titans – grew as a character. Starfire has always been – since I started reading Titans forever ago – an alien teenager who never quite understood Earth culture and modesty, but was still somewhat smart, funny and deep. Now she’s an air-headed bimbo that is used to draw in perverted, sexist comic fans who love their comic womenz to “shut up and get in the kitchen in that bikini an’ make me a sammich, bitch!” DC went backwards, not forwards. But money is money, I guess.
Now if Red Hood and the Outlaws was an alternative storyline like Marvel’s Ultimates … yeah, I’d buy that.
Furthermore, you’d think that they’d reboot Superman having him wear a mask or something. This is 2011, and we do have facial recognition software. If Lex Luthor doesn’t use that to identify Clark “GLASSES WILL SUFFICE” Kent as Superman, then this comic sucks and the writers need to go back to school and learn how to write. Seriously. Superman has potential to be a good character. But all DC sees in Superman is a teenaged reprobate who likes to punch stuff and cause massive destruction. Derp.
And don’t get me started on Barbara Gordon and Catwoman. Both characters were rebooted in the worst ways possible. Translation – DC has a horrible track record on promoting female heroes in the most sexist ways possible.
The Sound of EmCeeKhan 