Wonder Women! The Movie!

 Ok, so the Wonder Woman film based on the DC comics character is still nowhere to be found. However, I did get to see a little film yesterday called "Wonder Women! the Untold Story of American Superheroines." It's a documentary by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, and I found it delightful in many ways.

It covers the history of Wonder Woman, from her creation, through some of the changes she's undergone over the years. This info is fairly basic, and doesn't include anything people mildly familiar with the DC character wouldn't already know. But, the film also brings up what Wonder Woman, as the sometimes ONLY female superhero people can think of, means to different people. Children, the elderly, artists, writers, women, gay men, straight dudes (in Stormtrooper costumes, perhaps), people from various cultures and backgrounds all had something interesting to say about the symbol of Wonder Woman and other strong female characters that can inspire women.

The film also managed to bring up, albeit in limited form, other issues in comics today, such as the oversexualization in depiction of female characters that many men in comics today still won't admit is different from the overmasculinization of male characters. The specter of "women in refrigerators" appeared too. 

I was especially delighted to see Gail Simone, one of my favorite comics writers, was interviewed in the film. I was reminded that I've never gotten around to reading her treatment of Wonder Woman from 2007-2010. What's my problem? I need to get on it.

There is a pretty funny part (to me) where people are talking about the dearth of "good" female heroes in the '80s. She-Ra and Jem get dissed TO THE MAX.  There were definitely some Jem and She-Ra fans with squiggly anger lines coming off of their heads after the movie. I didn't watch those shows as a kid - I don't think we had those channels or something. Anyway, I had a super hard time relating to what few female characters existed in cartoons because they were generally dumb and/or overly interested in boys. There were no (uh, and there still aren't?) butch girls for me to relate to, big surprise. Maybe Wonder Woman, who in the Justice League cartoon, at least, is a total ice queen, comes closest.

Anyway, great film, I recommend it. Here's the film's homepage.

Secret Six:Unhinged by Gail Simone

Hello, friends. I'm back, after two years of silence on the queer comics front. I had some troubles and fell out of the comics-reading game for a time. Turns out, they don't let you buy comic books with food stamps! Who knew? I learned the hard way. Plus, for some reason it's hard to find new comics with queer characters at the library. I mean, sure, there's always the teen manga section with its odd selection of yaoi. I've been wondering about that, actually. Do the local conservative parents just look at the entire wall of manga and lose hope in ever sifting through the millions of stories about dopey romance and "chosen one" teenage boys and robots and vampires, and robot vampires in love with teenage boys, and just go, "Eh. I'm sure there are no graphic depictions of depraved homosexual relations between young men, written for the reading pleasure of young women, in this library. I'm going home to sort my Bible recipes" ?

Anywhos, I've managed to only dabble in reading a few new comics over the last few, moneyless years, but am starting to get back on track now. It's kind of hard to break back in, though, and I only remembered that Gail Simone is an awesome comics writer who has written lots of stuff I haven't gotten to read yet because of a "Shortpacked" strip about Catman being bisexual. Basically, the next day, I rushed downtown to the comics store and purchased a collection (Secret Six: Unhinged) and some random direct issues. Then I spent my entire day off reading up on this team of complicated pseudo-villains that includes a lesbian leader, a bisexual, sort-of defender of animal rights, a contortionist eunuch, and so much more.

There are reasons why I don't read DC and Marvel comics very often, some of them being that even with a great writer like Gail Simone, the stories are often short on character development and chaotically packed with battle-to-end-all-battle scenes, difficult-to-explain plot twists, and mish-mashes of hastily shoe-horned-in-back stories. This was all great when I was nine years old (although I must admit that the storyline where Kraven commits suicide kind of messed me up back then) but now I end up with a feeling of frustration.

However, I found reading this collection of Secret 6 really entertaining. I love the way Simone packs in as much humanization of her characters as possible within the limits of the medium. It's also nice that she is an intelligent person who is socially aware, and can write about lesbians, bisexual men, survivors of sexual abuse, and people without genitals and not make them hollow, two-dimensional caricatures of freaks, completely sexually objectified, that no one can possibly understand or relate to (except for Ragdoll, who I feel is supposed to be a little like that). I read the Unhinged collection (DC Secret Six direct issues 1-7) with little to no knowledge of the character backstories, powers, affiliations, or recent activities, but it was still a good read. Nicola Scott's tight, believable art helps make it such an enjoyable experience.

As my new "thing," here is an excerpt of (surprisingly, the only) slash fiction involving Catman and Deadshot I could find in a five-minute search. It was written by stormtroopersaresexy on FanFiction.net. Just ignore use of the word "stucked."

"You know Thomas I'm glad you didn't cry, Thomas, Tomcat. You know in that case I wouldn't have any other choice..."

Thomas Blake felt Floyd's knee pushing on his thigh and when he raised his arm he realized he had stucked his nails in Floyd's neck and now they were all covered in blood. He didn't care, but the mustache. The mustache.

A mumble was the only answer Thomas gave Floyd.

"Exactly my friend. Instantly. I would've shot you instantly. Like real friends do."

It was not the nitrogen oxide.

It was not the radon.

It was not the neon.

It was the subatomic, ancestral explosion of tongue against tongue and bloodless lips against somebody else's teeth and they didn't even understand the purpose of this violence, but it was the sweetest thing they'd ever felt.