I'm Invisible

I need to clear my head about Wonder Woman #7. I'm going to divide this up into "facts," "analysis/opinions" and "what I'm gonna do." Because this is an issue that ought to be dealt with as precisely as possible.

A bit of a thing, I'm trying to draw a distinction between the characters owned by DC Comics and what our collective imagination of a race of warrior women is. Amazons (TM) is the trademarked, Amazons is the cultural imaginary.

Okay. Go.


Facts:

The most current issue of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chang's Wonder Woman Hephaestus tells Diana that the Amazons (TM) have produced children by seducing sailors and then murdering those sailors after the lustful men had fertilized the women. After they were pregnant, the Amazons (TM) sold the male children to Hephaestus to make weapons.

Whatever the imaginary was for Amazons, it was based in a culture that hated and feared them and so their stories about them would necessarily be bigoted and prejudiced against them.

The Amazons (TM) (as in the trademarked intellectual property of DC Comics, "created" by Marston) are meant to be something empowering for women, according to their creator.

*exhale.*

This issue is the first in a multi-issue arc.

Diana is the only female character descending into Hell.

In issue #4, the implication was that the entire population of Paradise Island was turned into goddamned snakes and Wonder Woman's mother was turned into a statue, begging for mercy from Athena.

This issue is the first in a multi-issue arc.


Analysis/Opinions:

I'd quote Too Busy Thinking About Comics writing about this, but it should be read in its whole. Smart and well thought out. Also, probably right. What he's saying specifically is that Azzarello turned the Amazons (TM) into two of the most pernicious lies about women, not just that they'll seduce good honest men, but also kill them afterwards. Basically: The Amazons (TM) as honey-traps! That's the DCU in 2012! Women as psycho killers!

Worth mentioning, quickly, that men are also psycho killers in Wonder Woman. They're enabling child soldiers in Africa, murdering three women in the first issue and cheating on their wife. If Azzarello's point is also everybody sucks, it's unclear, so far, that he needs to go to the extent of murder rape to make his point.

Though, given that the difference in truths learned between issues 2-4 piled uncomfortable revelation on top of uncomfortable revelation, there is value in saying "let's wait till the arc is over."

I hope this is a fake out.

Maybe, by having the Amazons (TM) doing the things that men are known to do throughout history, Azzarello is saying, not subtly, that this happens in the real world, to women and not by them? Hopefully? Probably as unlikely as two waltzing mice, but hope springs eternal.

This topic sucks the air out of my love for comics. I'll passionately talk about them with my friends, I'm a fucking evangelical for the medium, but, just thinking about this storyline too long leaves me angry and exhausted. At bottom, I'm disappointed and I didn't think Azzarello would be the one to disappoint me.


What I'm Gonna Do:

Azzarello has enough good faith stored up with me that I'll finish the arc. 100 Bullets earned him at least that much. When you add Joker and Luthor to that mix, I'll give him another half of a Wonder Woman arc. That good faith is being spent.

To try to wring some good out of this, when I go next week to pick up my comic books, I'll pre-order Kelly Sue DeConnick's Ms. Marvel relaunch. That seems like one of the better ways to signal my support for female heroes that are written by good writers. Yes. And, with next week, hopefully comes the long delayed next issue of Casanova.

This feels apropos, of course, because Casanova's writer, Mr. Matt Fraction, is married to Kelly Sue DeConnick.






The origin of the title is hard to pin down but in my mind it comes from the Rocket From The Crypt song "I'm Not Invisible." I don't even know right now. But, man, after looking at Wonder Woman #7, in the DCU, women are being made invisible real quick.

America. (Positive Post. Promise.)

I've written for the most part, about what I hate about America. It's not anything special, just a restatement of the principles that perhaps cutting people's feet out from under them and then asking them to jump is not entirely fair. You can come up with an example where America has loudly squawked about human rights or "justice" on an international stage while undermining them just behind the curtain. It's not hard.

But this post isn't about that. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are holding a rally in DC and it would be the kind of thing I would drop everything to be at, were I in America, and of course: I'm not. My instinct is to dismiss it as something that's bound to fail. It's not affiliated with a political party, though the projected crowd probably skews left, it's on a Saturday afternoon, and they're doing all the things that aren't supposed to be done if you want people to show up.

It's a rally about being reasonable and rejecting the hyper-toxic media landscape. That said, one encouraging sign is Fox News. They're terrified of this thing, which means at least they believe it's something that's gonna have an impact that will be felt. That's a good tea leaf to read.

Yes, the Huffington Post will be there, which is not encouraging. They're the leftist Drudge Report, which is…no good, and they've pledged to have "as many buses for as many people want to go." Hoo boy. But whatever. In honor of the hope of the Rally To Restore Sanity working out, I'm going to talk about an American thing I'm proud of. For me, America's the ability to make yourself in an image you choose and the terrifying freedom of possibilities that comes with it. That, and as a beacon of hope and charity. Thus, I'm going to be talking about a German born mutant with a tail and pointy ears.

Nightcrawler, (left) is a teleporting, blue-skinned X-Man with horns and tail. He died recently in current continuity. (Explaining how will take us off track.) He was born in Germany and worked as acrobat, until his mutation and then he became a freak show. A Catholic, the X-Men picked him up after his mutation and he subsequently saved people literally and figuratively as a matter of course. It was in America that he was begrudgingly accepted and joined a group with a mission where he turned the negatives of his life into positives. America, took him in and set him among like minded people so he could do good.

I mean, yes, the outreach and the kindness based in solidarity is...what I want from America. Not in front of you, or behind you, but next to you. And Nightcrawler is the best example of that. He's not the incredible, Kryptonian strength of America, but the kindness and the terrifying freedom that comes with being able to rewrite your life. He's an immigrant (obviously) that's accepted by America and does amazing things in it. That's why he can stand as an X-Man next to scared mutants who have been shunned and attacked and shot at and say it's going to be okay. He's been through it himself.

That's what I want America to be, for God's sake. I want America to be a terrifying blue monster that can appear anywhere with the smell of brimstone and the sound of BAMF. I think you know what I mean, though. I want America to be that outstretched hand, reassuring the terrified and paranoid that it's going to be okay, a voice that knows this not from believing it hard enough but instead from having lived through it first.

That's what Nightcrawler is, though. He's a guy that's lived through persecution and now helps other people escape it, reassuring them, as kindly as he can and absolutely sincerely, that it's going to be okay. That's an America I can believe in.

Today's song is Rocket From the Crypt's My Arrow's Aim. RFTC is a band that plays traditional rock and roll like it was always meant to be sleazy and toxic. Think an evil Screaming Jay Hawkins, backed by a band of enablers, having just hotwired the vehicle of their careers. Got that image in your head? Throw it away. Here's all the words you need to know: "My arrow is shot. My aim is you."

This is a live version of the love song, meant to played full blast from whatever speakers you've got. Go.