Tag Archives: flash

When the Mind Wanders…It Wonders

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I’m in my room. I can’t sleep, so I’m just looking around the room. I have three five-level bookshelves and on four-level bookshelf in my room. Two are filled with comic book trade paperback divided by the publication, then divided even more so by their titles, then divided more so by their part in the comic canon. On the bottom of the shelves are my issues that I’ve collected from flea markets and comic shops wrapped in protective plastic. On top of the shelves are my toys  action figures collectibles divided by character and publication and so on. My other bookshelves are just books put in alphabetical order and separated into two groups: fiction and nonfiction.

I’m not sure what makes me feel more embarrassed and ashamed: the fact that I in less than six months, I will be twenty five years old and a high school teacher responsible for the academic livelihood of minors and I have more comics than classics, or the fact that collection of comics and toys  action figures collectibles isn’t nearly as massive as I thought it would be by age 24. Somewhere in the past, there is 14 year old me shaking his head in disappointment.

Anyway, I’m looking around my room, and I notice a Mr. Terrific collectible my friend gave me for Christmas. I start to think. In most comics that focus on superhero teams, there is an initial page that shows the reader the roster of the team. There’s often a picture with a quick bit on information about the character. Batman: The World’s Greatest Detective. Green Lantern: Wielder of the Most Power Weapon in the Universe. Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

You know what Mr. Terrific’s slogan is? Mr. Terrific: The Third Smartest Man in the World. Third! I’ve done my research, and I can’t find any hero in the DC universe who definitively has the epithet of The Second Smartest Man in the World, not to mention the smartest. What message do I hear when I think about Mr. Terrific’s byname? “We have no idea who the smartest man in the world is—Hell, we don’t even know who is in second place; what we do know is that whoever these two brilliant people are, Mr. Terrific is by no means smarter than them.” Wow. Looks like Wonder Woman’s jet isn’t the only thing that’s invisible….get it? Invisible? Can’t see it? Glass ceiling? Unnecessary limitations placed on people of color? All that from starting at a bookshelf.

Pants are Overrated

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Have you ever seen something and started laughing and shaking your head at the same time? You don’t know whether it’s the humor or the shame that’s more prominent, so all you can manage to do without bursting with inappropriate laughter is to let out a “that’s not right” or “that’s just wrong”. After watching this video, the only thing I could say is:

Female Armor Sucks

Did I oversell the clip? As a gamer and a nerd, it took all of my will power to remain in my chair instead of rolling around on the floor. If you have played a video game, looked at any video game art, or read a comic in the last few decades, you’ve probably seen this scenario play out. If the game or the comic is coerced, trying to appeal to its hormonal male fanbase, progressive enough to include a female character, she is automatically turned into a sex object. But this isn’t a new phenomenon; objectification is an ancient pastime. What makes the sexualizing of female characters more horrendous is the weak justifications the creators concoct to explain the need for every heroine to wear a thong or a push-up bra.

The clip from College Humor presents the first, and most commonly used, excuse: the fewer articles of clothing, the quicker the hero. The argument, it would seem, is that any more armor or clothing would restrict the female character’s speed and flexibility; this is why most female video game characters are bikini clad warriors with +1 SPD and AGL, and half-naked comic book heroines have their agility and speed included prominently in their attributes. This rule would make sense (in a “this is a comic book, so suspend your disbelief” kind of way), it was used consistently. So Power Girl wears a leotard to make her aerodynamic, and Tirga wears a bikini to enhance her agility, but The Flash and Spider-Man, arguably the fastest and most agile characters in comics respectively, don full-body suits?

So what is the solution? Well, let me rephrase…what is a solution that creators could consider? Because if the suggestion is to simply reduce the hyper-sexualized depictions of female characters, or increase the frequency at which male characters are overtly sexualized, you can forget about it, as those ideas get in the way of accommodating our straight male readership. At the very least be honest with the readers. We know it’s about sex appeal. We know you know it’s about sex appeal. Don’t lie, and if you do lie, try harder than this: