A quick post to announce my essay ‘The Feminine Mystique: Feminism, Sexuality, Motherhood’ is now available in the latest issue of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2011) published by Taylor and Francis.
The issue is devoted to the topic of superheroes and gender.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Notice the Difference? Eliminating the Feminine in Superhero Comics - Image Appendix
On a number of the images I have marked lines defining the height of characters. These are of course approximate. They disregard hair height and go through the approximate area of the heel of the foot which negates high heels and standing on the balls of the feet. In these figures, the pubic area (on which I have marked an approximate line through the area) is quite obviously above the mid-point of the body. A standard female body will have the pubic area slightly below the midpoint of the body. Further explanation can be found in the three part 'Notice the Difference' essay.
Read Part 1
Read Part 2
Read Part 3
On a number of figures I have also marked lines of the shoulders down to the hips. The standard female body should have hips slightly wider than their shoulders but on these figures the shoulders are wider than the hips - a male body trait. Perhaps if the characters weren't so unconscionably thin their hips might be wider than their shoulders.
I have also provided a figure of standard male and female anatomy to compare the comic character bodies against. Obviously the images are not to scale, however they do provide a decent reference.
Below are the characters Sara Pezzini (Witchblade #1 November 1995), Aspen Mathews (Fathom #4 March 1999) and Synergy (Stormwatch Sourcebook, #1 January 1994).
Characters below are again Aspen Mathews (Fathom #1 August 1998) , and a character sketch of Fairchild (Gen 13, #1 February 1994).
Below is Void and Zealot (WildCATS, #1 August 1992).
Below is the character Flint from Stormwatch (#47 May 1997) and although her hips are offset, they are obviously smaller than the width of her shoulders. Similarly the Witchblade (Witchblade Infinity, #1 May 1999) character has the same features.
The images of Mystique are from her run in X-Factor (#130 1997 and #127 1996 respectively). In the first her elongated legs are evident which come from having the pubic above the mid-point of the body. The second her also exhibits shoulders wider than her hips.
The images of Wonder Woman and Supergirl from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001-02) show the characters with broad masculine shoulders.
The images below are from Matt Fraction and Fabio Moons Casanova: Gula (#3 March 2011). Both show the female character with pubic area above the mid-point of the body leaving the torso/upper body too short and elongating the legs.
Artist Adam Hughes also likes to see Wonder Woman with broad, masculine shoulders and slim hips. This is the cover image for Wonder Woman #178 (March 2002).
Below is Stuart Immonen's characters from the cover of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E #1 (March 2006). The female characters display the pubic area above the mid-point of the body leaving the torso/upper body too short and elongating the legs.
Below is a character sketch of the WildCATS character Zealot, by Travis Charest (Charest worked on WildCATS from 1994 to 1998), again with pubic area too high.
Below are images of figurines based on the Justice League Unlimited animated series (running from 2004-06) characters and we can see here that Wonder Woman also exhibits the male characteristics of shoulders wider than her hips. The male characters are rendered in a hypermasculine manner with incredibly broad shoulders.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Posthuman Superheroes Part 4: Coming Off the Page
This is the fourth part of a four part essay dealing with posthuman superheroes. The superhero universe is full of characters that exhibit a wide range of posthuman features. With their abilities of shapeshifting and embodiment they are forms without form; characters which exhibit endless possibility and multiplicity. Using the work of Ihab Hassan, and the idea of embodiment as defined by Robert Pepperell, and Katherine Hayles, part one provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.
Part one 'Posthuman Bodies and Genders' provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.
Part two ‘Performing Gender’ theorises Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs as a negative ideal of a posthuman subject and analyses Martian Manhunter performing gender in two issues of Justice League Task Force.
Part three ‘Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes’ theorises the superhero characters, Mystique, Jean Grey, Apollo, Midnighter, The Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor, as posthuman subjects.
Paula Rabinowitz asks the question ‘can the posthuman speak?’ (2000:42). In the space of one paragraph she cites the posthuman body as ‘living outside national, sexual, economic borders’, then exceeding and overriding borders, before finally speaking through a language that straddles the borders between ‘health/sickness, male/female, real/imaginary (2000:43). Rabinowitz’s point is made through oppositions and borders, and the idea of being “outside.” Using the work of Pepperell I would rather position the posthuman body as one reaching for a limit that can never be reached. There are no borders for the posthuman to straddle, no oppositions of which to be outside. As an embodied presence, they have no borders because they cannot live outside consciousness. Body and environment are continuous. They can only live within, embodied. She then decides that the posthuman, like the alien, the marginal, and the subaltern ‘probably cannot speak because it is always spoken through the stories that someone else has already told’ (2000:43). I would say that this is the point exactly. The posthuman, in true postmodern sense, only speaks through stories that have already been told. This is the whole point of what Klock calls the re-visionary comic narrative. Rabinowitz states further: ‘the posthuman body is still saturated with the stories of humanity’ (2000:43). Yes, and in being saturated with stories, actually take them to another level. The human is a genre, but the posthuman rewrites, is rewritten. In the realm of the superhero narrative posthuman superheroes characters speak through a troping of genre and character. The posthuman superhero body is saturated with narratives. Their stories, their origins, have already been told but in true posthuman/postmodern style these stories, characters, or tropes of characters will continue to be rewritten. They evolve. Batman is embodied in Watchmen’s Rorschach, Astro City’s The Confessor, and The Authority’s, Midnighter. Superman is embodied in Astro City’s the Samaritan, and Powers’ Supershock. Wonder Woman is embodied in Astro City’s Winged Victory. The list goes on.
Born of Metamorpho’s body, Shift is literally Metamorpho embodied. In a storyline where Shift reincorporates himself into his ‘father’ Metamorpho, he literally becomes embodied in Metamorpho. As Metamorpho explains: ‘I feel him in here. I have all his memories. His anger. His guilt. His love. I swear to you… it’s like I lived it’ (Winnick, McDaniel, and Owens, 2007:157, emphasis in original). Metamorpho has been rewritten by Shift’s reincorporation.
As comics companies have come to realise, the idea of continuity is one which cannot be rectified simply by killing characters and making multiple Earths. No sooner has continuity been fixed, new continuities arise which conflict with the old. With countless writers and artists working across titles over decades, discontinuities and the multiplicity of mistakes that disrupt continuity are the only certainties of the superhero narrative. In a sense superhero narratives simply rewrite themselves. Multiple writers and artists, with their varied interpretations, refocusing, re-producing, re-writing characters and origins, have produced almost unknowingly, posthuman characters. In their natural evolution, their reflexivity, their reinvention of narrative and character, and indeed genre, superhero narratives have, and could only have, produced the posthuman characters for our time. Truly these characters represent Halberstam’s idea of someness. How many posthuman superheroes are there? Some. How many super powers can there be? Some. What does this mean? The continual reinvention of the superhero narrative and thus superhero characters, has produced the posthuman superhero. They are self-reflexive characters imbued with the weight of comic history who interrogate the limits (if any) of their powers and abilities. These characters are above the human, embedded in their environment, and have consciousnesses that extend beyond their physical bodies.
Read Part one 'Posthuman Bodies and Genders'
Read Part two ‘Performing Gender’
Read Part three ‘Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes
Part one 'Posthuman Bodies and Genders' provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.
Part two ‘Performing Gender’ theorises Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs as a negative ideal of a posthuman subject and analyses Martian Manhunter performing gender in two issues of Justice League Task Force.
Part three ‘Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes’ theorises the superhero characters, Mystique, Jean Grey, Apollo, Midnighter, The Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor, as posthuman subjects.
Paula Rabinowitz asks the question ‘can the posthuman speak?’ (2000:42). In the space of one paragraph she cites the posthuman body as ‘living outside national, sexual, economic borders’, then exceeding and overriding borders, before finally speaking through a language that straddles the borders between ‘health/sickness, male/female, real/imaginary (2000:43). Rabinowitz’s point is made through oppositions and borders, and the idea of being “outside.” Using the work of Pepperell I would rather position the posthuman body as one reaching for a limit that can never be reached. There are no borders for the posthuman to straddle, no oppositions of which to be outside. As an embodied presence, they have no borders because they cannot live outside consciousness. Body and environment are continuous. They can only live within, embodied. She then decides that the posthuman, like the alien, the marginal, and the subaltern ‘probably cannot speak because it is always spoken through the stories that someone else has already told’ (2000:43). I would say that this is the point exactly. The posthuman, in true postmodern sense, only speaks through stories that have already been told. This is the whole point of what Klock calls the re-visionary comic narrative. Rabinowitz states further: ‘the posthuman body is still saturated with the stories of humanity’ (2000:43). Yes, and in being saturated with stories, actually take them to another level. The human is a genre, but the posthuman rewrites, is rewritten. In the realm of the superhero narrative posthuman superheroes characters speak through a troping of genre and character. The posthuman superhero body is saturated with narratives. Their stories, their origins, have already been told but in true posthuman/postmodern style these stories, characters, or tropes of characters will continue to be rewritten. They evolve. Batman is embodied in Watchmen’s Rorschach, Astro City’s The Confessor, and The Authority’s, Midnighter. Superman is embodied in Astro City’s the Samaritan, and Powers’ Supershock. Wonder Woman is embodied in Astro City’s Winged Victory. The list goes on.
Born of Metamorpho’s body, Shift is literally Metamorpho embodied. In a storyline where Shift reincorporates himself into his ‘father’ Metamorpho, he literally becomes embodied in Metamorpho. As Metamorpho explains: ‘I feel him in here. I have all his memories. His anger. His guilt. His love. I swear to you… it’s like I lived it’ (Winnick, McDaniel, and Owens, 2007:157, emphasis in original). Metamorpho has been rewritten by Shift’s reincorporation.
As comics companies have come to realise, the idea of continuity is one which cannot be rectified simply by killing characters and making multiple Earths. No sooner has continuity been fixed, new continuities arise which conflict with the old. With countless writers and artists working across titles over decades, discontinuities and the multiplicity of mistakes that disrupt continuity are the only certainties of the superhero narrative. In a sense superhero narratives simply rewrite themselves. Multiple writers and artists, with their varied interpretations, refocusing, re-producing, re-writing characters and origins, have produced almost unknowingly, posthuman characters. In their natural evolution, their reflexivity, their reinvention of narrative and character, and indeed genre, superhero narratives have, and could only have, produced the posthuman characters for our time. Truly these characters represent Halberstam’s idea of someness. How many posthuman superheroes are there? Some. How many super powers can there be? Some. What does this mean? The continual reinvention of the superhero narrative and thus superhero characters, has produced the posthuman superhero. They are self-reflexive characters imbued with the weight of comic history who interrogate the limits (if any) of their powers and abilities. These characters are above the human, embedded in their environment, and have consciousnesses that extend beyond their physical bodies.
In 1971 a now famous experiment led by Philip Zimbardo, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, was conducted to ‘study the psychology of imprisonment – to see what happens when you put good people in a dehumanizing place’ (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:30). Scheduled for a period of two weeks, the experiment had to be stopped after six days when the participants conducting the role of guards began using increasingly degrading forms of punishment. The findings of this experiment were replicated in real life thirty-five years later in the actions of the guards at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
a connection with the hero in ourselves. It is this vital internal conduit between the modern work-a-day ethic and the mythic world that can prepare an ordinary person to be an everyday hero (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:35).
Where do we find such examples of heroes now? Franco and Zimbardo cite heroism portrayed in such films as The Lord of the Rings trilogy which are based on the epic tradition, or even certain video games, as examples which could help children develop an internal compass in morally ambiguous situations or help them think about their ability to act heroically (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:35). I would argue that superheroes occupy this position par excellénce providing concrete examples of, as Robert Reynolds calls it, a modern mythology.
When writing New X-Men, Grant Morrison wrote the characters as if they were role models:
And when supermen do come along, what are they gonna want to find? A role model. Like everyone else on the planet. We all want to find people who’ve trod our path before, who can suggest some ways to help us feel significant. So the idea behind a lot of what I was doing in X-Men and really all of my comics is to give these future supermen a template, to say “Okay you’re a superhuman, and maybe it feels a little like this” (Babcock, 2007).
While superhero comics as a form of heroic etiquette manual may at first seem absurd, consider that in 2004 The New England Journal of Medicine reported the first documented human case of a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth (Schuelke et al, 2004). The study focused on an abnormally strong four-year old German boy whose DNA was found to block production of the protein, myostatin, which limits muscle growth.[i] Thus he had the potential for unlimited muscle growth. In 2007 nineteen-month old, Liam Hoekstra, was found to have a similar condition, though a blood test determined that, unlike the German infant, he did not have the genetic mutation that blocks all production of myostatin. Rather, he has a myostatin blockade which leaves him with forty percent more muscle mass than normal, a speedy metabolism, and almost no body fat. The article reports that his mother has taken to calling him ‘The Hulk, Hercules, the Terminator’ (‘Rare condition gives toddler super strength’, 2007). He is one of roughly one hundred known cases in the world.
With the internet’s ability to connect special interest groups, could the internet be a facilitator of this expanding posthuman consciousness and condition? Individuals with similar experiences and conditions such as those exhibited by Liam Hoekstra, now have the possibility of meeting each other beyond the possibilities of chance. There is nothing to say that two of these abnormally strong individuals may produce offspring that are “super-powered.” The posthumans of the future may need to be schooled in the etiquette of heroism, especially if they have abilities above that of the common human and society expects them to be heroic. Why couldn’t comic book superheroes be inspirational for the coming posthuman era? Morrison’s characters then begin escaping from their flat two dimensional existence, as he iterates:
I said, way back, almost jokingly, that I thought super-people were really trying very hard to make their way off the skin of the second dimension to get in here. They want to get in here with us… the next stage is to clamber off the screen into the street. I think what you’re seeing with things like… the cyborg experiments and genetic manipulation that is now possible, is that pretty soon there’s gonna be super-people. You’ll be able to select for super-people: “I want my kid to have electric powers.” That kind of thing (in Babcock, 2007).
The idea that superhero comics could become text books or etiquette manuals for future posthumans is far-fetched, perhaps slightly absurd, but not entirely unrealistic. People of mutation could think differently about their body, their existence, and their consciousness, in an outward spiralling net that builds upon each new discovery and revelation. Indeed it may be the natural mutation of the human body that furthers the human race and our way of life. The posthuman populated world of tomorrow will be unrecognisable compared to ours. I feel it is only fitting to finish with the last words spoken by Batman, from Justice #12 (Aug. 2007):
Imagine if you will, Alfred, a world to come, a world transformed, a humanity beyond even our wildest imaginations. If our lives and the struggles we face were able to purchase that future, how could we not be grateful for the opportunity to fight for that possibility? That tomorrow? Perhaps, Alfred, one day, humanity… or what humanity will become… will look back at this time, and see the beginning of change. Of transforming into something greater
(Krueger & Ross et al, 2007:43-4, emphasis in original).
Read Part one 'Posthuman Bodies and Genders'
Read Part two ‘Performing Gender’
Read Part three ‘Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes
Reference
Babcock, J. (02/01/2007 ) ‘An Interview with Grant Morrison, from the pages of Arthur Magazine’, www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=1644 (Accessed 11 Oct 2007).
Franco, Z. and Zimbardo, P. (2006-07) ‘The Banality of Heroism’ in Greater Good Vol. 3, 2, Berkeley: University of California
Krueger, J. & Ross, A. (story), Krueger, J. (script), and Braithwaite, D. & Ross, A. (art) (2007) Justice, v1 #12 [of 12] (Aug 2007), New York: DC Comics.
Rabinowitz, P. ‘Soft Fictions and Intimate Documents: Can Feminism Be Posthuman?’ in Badmington, N. (2000) (ed.) Posthumanism, Palgrave, pp. 42-55.
‘Rare condition gives toddler super strength’ (30 May 2007) http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070530/strong_toddler_070530/20070530 (Accessed 16 Oct 2007).
Schuelke, M., Wagner, K. R., Stolz, L. E., Hubner, C. et al (2004) ‘The Myostatin Mutation Associated with Gross Muscle Hypertrophy in a Child’, New England Journal of Medicine 350, 26, pp. 2682-9.
Winick, J. (w), McDaniel, S. (p) and Owens, A. (i) ‘Pay As You Go, Part Four: The Wrong to do the Right’ Outsiders #46, in Winick, J. (w), Mhan, P. et al (p), and Thibert, A., Bird, S. & Owens, A. (i) (2007) Outsiders: Pay As You Go, [Collecting 2007 Outsiders #42-6, Outsiders Annua’ #1], New York: DC Comics pp. 120-59.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Review - Batman Incorporated #1-4 by Grant Morrison (writer), Yanick Paquette, and Chris Burnham (pencils/art)
Morrison's run on Batman is now moving into epic proportions. He started on Batman #655 back in September 2006. The continuing story takes the following path -
In Batman Inc. Bruce Wayne is back and spreading his Batman "brand" to other countries.Following on from events in Batman: The Return, issues one and two of Batman Inc. is Morrison slowly getting into the story idea. The story opens with Batman enlisting Catwoman's help to steal a superweapon from Dr Sivana's stronghold for safekeeping. With that all done, before you know it they're off to Japan. Batman is looking to enlist Tokyo's great crimefighter, Mr. Unknown, into the Batman Inc. strategy. Mr. Unknown however has been killed by Lord Death Man. Who will take his place? That role looks likely to be taken up by Jiro. But Lord Death Man wants all Japanese crimefighters dead! Batman has other ideas. The story is a wonderful two issues of high-stakes action, multiple henchmen, and subtle characterisation. It doesn't appear to have any connection to, or influence on, the rest of Morrison's overarching Batman storyline, but who knows? In another year it may be pivotal.
Interestingly, I'd never known (like many people no doubt) that Batman had been licensed to Japan in the 1960s until I came across Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan which reproduces a few Batman comics that feature Lord Death Man. Then I see Lord Death Man on Bat-Mite's episode of the animated Batman: The Brave and the Bold - 'Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases'. Then he turns up in Batman Inc.! It just shows further Morrison's in-depth knowledge and use of Batman's long and complicated history.
Issues three sees Batman travel to Argentina to meet with the hero El Gaucho, one of the Club of Heroes whom he wants to recruit into his Batman Inc. project, but foes from the Club of Villains, El Sombrero and Scorpiana have plans of their own for them. El Sombrero?! But wasn't he killed by The Joker? Apparently not...
But something else is also happening. Issue three opens with a group of heroes taking on someone known as Dedalus and while they emerge victorious, it's not without loss. They have some connection with Spyral, a secret spy organisation.
Issue four also sees Batwoman make an appearance which recaps how the first Batwoman, (Kathy Kane) came to become Batwoman; her romantic involvement with Batman and eventual break-up; and her recruitment by Spyral by none other than El Gaucho. Kane was apparently murdered and the current Batwoman is about to re-open the case, and looks like she'll be hooking up with Batman in Argentina. And then there's an old fellow who looks to be the former head of Spyral - Agent Zero - who ominously keeps popping up. Plus there's an ultimate weapon and an international incident that could start a war brewing. It's all a bit complex (and difficult to review) but completely intriguing nevertheless. It may not make sense now, but I'm sure it will.
Wait a minute... ultimate weapon... anything to do with the superweapon from issue one? Morrison, you could be a beautiful maniac.
Morrison produces so many ideas and lays so many seeds of storylines that it's a joy to re-read issues. He makes great use of symbolism and turns situations into lyrical metaphors .Another thing I love about Morrison writing Batman is that Bruce Wayne plays just as an important role as Batman making him so much more rounded and personable as a character.
Going back to the events in 'The Black Glove' we can see that what Morrison is doing in Batman Inc. is what he had in mind all along - a continuing of the story of 'The Bat-Men of All Nations' first seen in Batman comics of the 1950s. Morrison doesn't so much just write characters, but renews them. His is a unique take on superheroes.
I can't say I'm a fan of Paquette's pencils (issues 1-3), but that may have something to do with the inking, which is particularly thick, so it may be covering Paquette's finer work. It's only personal preference but I found Chris Burnham's work in issue four more pleasing, his finer work at times reminding me of Frank Quitely.
Morrison is doing something completely different with Batman. I suppose only someone with Morrison's credibility would be allowed to undertake such a task.
I'll be following Batman Inc. right to the end (of Morrison's run on it at least).
This (all four): Somehow just seems like a taste of what's to come.
Forthcoming: Serve it up. I'm hungry.
- Batman and Son (Batman #655-658 and 663-666)
- The Black Glove (Batman #667-669 and 672-675
- Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul (Batman Annual #26, Batman #670-671, Robin #168-169, Robin Annual #7, Nightwing #138-139, and Detective Comics #838-839, note: Morrison only wrote Batman)
- Batman R.I.P. (Batman #676-683)
- Final Crisis (Final Crisis #1-7)
- Batman and Robin (#1-16)
- Batman: Time and the Batman (Batman #700-702)
- Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne (#1-6)
- Batman: The Return (One-shot)
- Batman, Inc. (#1-4 ongoing)
In Batman Inc. Bruce Wayne is back and spreading his Batman "brand" to other countries.Following on from events in Batman: The Return, issues one and two of Batman Inc. is Morrison slowly getting into the story idea. The story opens with Batman enlisting Catwoman's help to steal a superweapon from Dr Sivana's stronghold for safekeeping. With that all done, before you know it they're off to Japan. Batman is looking to enlist Tokyo's great crimefighter, Mr. Unknown, into the Batman Inc. strategy. Mr. Unknown however has been killed by Lord Death Man. Who will take his place? That role looks likely to be taken up by Jiro. But Lord Death Man wants all Japanese crimefighters dead! Batman has other ideas. The story is a wonderful two issues of high-stakes action, multiple henchmen, and subtle characterisation. It doesn't appear to have any connection to, or influence on, the rest of Morrison's overarching Batman storyline, but who knows? In another year it may be pivotal.
Issues three sees Batman travel to Argentina to meet with the hero El Gaucho, one of the Club of Heroes whom he wants to recruit into his Batman Inc. project, but foes from the Club of Villains, El Sombrero and Scorpiana have plans of their own for them. El Sombrero?! But wasn't he killed by The Joker? Apparently not...
But something else is also happening. Issue three opens with a group of heroes taking on someone known as Dedalus and while they emerge victorious, it's not without loss. They have some connection with Spyral, a secret spy organisation.
Issue four also sees Batwoman make an appearance which recaps how the first Batwoman, (Kathy Kane) came to become Batwoman; her romantic involvement with Batman and eventual break-up; and her recruitment by Spyral by none other than El Gaucho. Kane was apparently murdered and the current Batwoman is about to re-open the case, and looks like she'll be hooking up with Batman in Argentina. And then there's an old fellow who looks to be the former head of Spyral - Agent Zero - who ominously keeps popping up. Plus there's an ultimate weapon and an international incident that could start a war brewing. It's all a bit complex (and difficult to review) but completely intriguing nevertheless. It may not make sense now, but I'm sure it will.
Wait a minute... ultimate weapon... anything to do with the superweapon from issue one? Morrison, you could be a beautiful maniac.
Morrison produces so many ideas and lays so many seeds of storylines that it's a joy to re-read issues. He makes great use of symbolism and turns situations into lyrical metaphors .Another thing I love about Morrison writing Batman is that Bruce Wayne plays just as an important role as Batman making him so much more rounded and personable as a character.
Going back to the events in 'The Black Glove' we can see that what Morrison is doing in Batman Inc. is what he had in mind all along - a continuing of the story of 'The Bat-Men of All Nations' first seen in Batman comics of the 1950s. Morrison doesn't so much just write characters, but renews them. His is a unique take on superheroes.
I can't say I'm a fan of Paquette's pencils (issues 1-3), but that may have something to do with the inking, which is particularly thick, so it may be covering Paquette's finer work. It's only personal preference but I found Chris Burnham's work in issue four more pleasing, his finer work at times reminding me of Frank Quitely.Morrison is doing something completely different with Batman. I suppose only someone with Morrison's credibility would be allowed to undertake such a task.
I'll be following Batman Inc. right to the end (of Morrison's run on it at least).
This (all four): Somehow just seems like a taste of what's to come.
Forthcoming: Serve it up. I'm hungry.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Review - Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #3 by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu
The comic fan that is. The comic fan gets hit with a big bunch of silliness.
Nick Fury was pinpointed as a traitor in issue one and Carol Danvers was shown to be employing Tyrone Cash, the first Hulk, also making her a traitor. Good guys as traitors? Ee-gad!
Now we have the fallout, but first...
Now recovered enough to drink martinis, Tony Stark decides the best and easiest way to discharge himself from hospital is to buy the hospital itself which you can apparently do at 2am in the morning. So, I'm assuming it's a private hospital, because of course you couldn't buy a public hospital. And let's just push aside the fact (as Millar has done) that this sort of transaction isn't like buying a car. But of course he has to get out of hospital because...
Nick Fury has turned up at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters. Seemingly able to infiltrate (with the rest of the Avengers, mind you) the heavily secured facility without being detected even when everyone is looking for him. Why? So Carol Danvers can immediately start shooting and there can be a massive punch-up between the Ultimates and the Avengers of course! Lucky that Iron Man instinctively knew what was happening, other wise he might've missed the punch up!
With Captain America kicking the bejesus out of Fury it's up to the Punisher to save him.
In the tradition of the previous two covers of the series, this issue doesn't cover the 'Death of Spiderman' proper as proclaimed, although he does make an appearance right at the end to cop a bullet. I'm not spoiling anything here, I mean, the whole thing has been billed as the Death of Spiderman, so I suppose that means he is going to die... sometime.
Spiderman apparently can swing faster than a speeding Punisher's bullet. Instead of just grabbing Captain America with his webslinger thingies and pulling him out of the way of said bullet, it's more advisable (heroic even) for Spidey to put himself in harm's way by knocking Cap out of the bullet's path with his body. Both Fury and Cap are shocked! Nearly as much as readers, no doubt.
Oh and there's a bunch of gratuitous boob shots.
This: Silliness factor ramped up to grimace level.
Forthcoming: The quality has been fluctuating. The next could be better, and... well, I'm here now. Let's see if Spiderman actually dies.. not that I actually care too much.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Review - Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker by Joe Casey (writer) and Mike Huddleston (artist)
Yes! I am just loving the amount of new stuff that is coming out.
Butcher Baker the hero himself is what Watchmen's The Comedian would've become if he didn't go all soft. He even sports the star on the shoulder-pads like The Comedian. Starting out as a very Captain America-type figure Butcher Baker has done his duty and now is relaxing in jaded retirement which means getting all screwed up on drugs whilst screwing a bevy of beauties. But the US government want him for that usually disastrous 'one last mission'. They send Jay Leno and Dick Cheney to persuade him to come on-board. Why those two? I suspect Casey just thinks it's kinda funny.. and it is. Very cool is that when these two bland men are in the presence of Butcher Baker they're relegated to black and white rendering while Butcher is rendered in lurid coloured glory. Butcher is tasked with blowing up 'The Crazy Keep', a prison filled with all the villains and low-lifes he put in there because 'taxpayers are fed up subsidizing three squares a day for these goddamn deviants'. Well, reminiscing about the past gets Butcher all hot and bothered, so why not? He takes on the job. Hey, it's what superheroes like himself were really created for anyway. Yet, Butcher is looking for something more - the meaning of it all. Does he find it? Not telling. Read it. I said read it!
Huddleston's art slides effortlessly between cartoon, caricature, and comic art styles. The comic art is very similar to Gabriel Ra and Fabio Moon (Cassanova), and that is in no way bad. I could look at this stuff all day. I have looked at this stuff all day. The cartoon style has the influence of classic1940s and 50s cartoon with a helping of Ralph Bakshi on the side. A lot of effort and thought has gone into the colouring and look of each scene and panel. Flashbacks are seen through a "fuzzy lens" for example. Some art is sketchy while others such as the rendition of Butcher's Liberty Belle big rig is so line perfect it's simply awesome. This truck dominates the page. It could've turned out a mess but everything blends into a magnificent whole.
And Stippling! When was the last time I (or anyone) saw stippling in a comic?
Make no mistake, there's some explicit nudity and sex in here, so if that's not your thing then Butcher Baker isn't your thing. For everyone else, get both your buttocks to a comic shop now and demand a copy. This is goddamn fantastic.
This: Oh, yeah!
Forthcoming: Oh, oh, yeah!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Posthuman Superheroes Part 3: Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes
This is the third part of a four part essay dealing with posthuman superheroes. The superhero universe is full of characters that exhibit a wide range of posthuman features. With their abilities of shapeshifting and embodiment they are forms without form; characters which exhibit endless possibility and multiplicity. Using the work of Ihab Hassan, and the idea of embodiment as defined by Robert Pepperell, and Katherine Hayles, part one provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.
Part One: Posthuman Bodies and Genders provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders
Part two ‘Performing Gender’ theorises Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs as a negative ideal of a posthuman subject and analyses Martian Manhunter performing gender in two issues of Justice League Task Force.
Part four ‘Coming Off The Page’ investigates the growing real world emergence of the posthuman and the possibility of fostering a real world 'heroic imagination'.
Comic writers Mark Millar, Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis have explored the concept of the Posthuman in the titles The Authority, Ultimate X-Men, The Invisibles, New X-Men, The Ultimates, and Stormwatch. Geoff Klock in his article ‘X-Men, Emerson, Gnosticism’ characterises Millar’s run on The Ultimates as exhibiting a ‘pessimistic post-humanism’ (2004). As a term in superhero narratives, posthuman is used in a straight forward evolutionary sense. The villain, Sabretooth, sums this up:
We’re monsters… I don’t dress it up with fancy names like mutant or post-human. Man was born crueller than apes and we we’re born crueller than men. It’s just the natural order of things (Millar, Kubert, Raney & Derenick, and Thibert et al, 2006:305, emphasis in original).
The X-Men villain, Magneto, pushes the point further in his rant against humans:
Man is a parasite upon mutant resources. He eats our food, breathes our air and occupies land which evolution intended Homo Superior to inherit. Naturally, our attacks upon your power bases will continue until you deliver this world to its rightful owners. But your replacements grow impatient (Millar, Adam Kubert & Andy Kubert, and Thibert with Miki, 2006:10, emphasis in original).
In Ultimate X-Men naming is a factor in becoming, or being represented as, posthuman, providing a new way of differentiating the posthuman from the human. As Professor Xavier explains to Storm of their monikers: ‘You’ve just been rebaptized as a post-human being… a name which describes your own skill and personality as opposed to those of a long dead ancestor’ (Millar, Adam Kubert & Andy Kubert, and Thibert with Miki, 2006:24, emphasis in original).
The DC Comics shapeshifter, Shift, also exhibits posthuman qualities. Shift is, for want of a better word, the son of the DC hero Metamorpho. Shift is a more evolved version of Metamorpho because he has the ability to absorb elements from outside himself, bypassing Metamorpho’s restrictions of only being able to use the elements contained in the human body. Naming himself “Shift” mirrors the naming of the X-Men in that, as Shift’s love interest Indigo says: ‘it complements your new persona as a shape-shifter’ (Winick et al, 2004b:108). Shift also uses his shape to express mood, feelings, and opinions, ostensibly exhibiting a body language.
Mystique: Shapeshifting Mutant
‘She, in fact, may no longer be a she, but the subject of quite another story: a subject in process, a mutant, the other of the Other, a post-Woman embodied subject cast in female morphology who has already undergone an essential metamorphosis’ (Braidotti, 2002:11).
The posthuman is enmeshed in notions of the body and the shapeshifter is defined by notions of what the body can do. Yet in the same instance the shapeshifter’s body subverts its own definition by continually doing what a common body cannot. The shapeshifter necessarily exhibits, represents, and makes clear, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performance. The shapeshifter as representative of posthuman gender also plays into Halberstam and Livingstone’s idea of someness, with some number of genders being available to assume. This virtually, though not necessarily dictates, that performance accompany the shapeshifting.
The shapeshifting mutant, Mystique, can also be described as being of posthuman gender. Her shape shifting ability raises questions about her original gender which has never been positively established. Whether Mystique only outwardly appears as the gender she exhibits or actually changes her body completely, i.e.: also her internal organs, is not known although she is able to move organs around her body. Her most common form with which she is associated is female, and she exhibits more female capabilities than male, not the least being childbirth, although in X-Men: True Friends #3 (Nov. 1999) she appears as a man named Mr Raven, raising the idea that perhaps at the onset of her mutation she was male.
When a shapeshifter changes bodies do they change gender? Do they change sex? Do their sexual organs only change on the surface of the body? The answer I would posit to all the questions above is, yes. How many sexes, genders, and therefore roles, can a shapeshifter occupy? Some. The potentiality of their form gives them the ability to be any gender/sex. They are engaged in a discourse with limits that can never be reached.
Rosi Braidotti writes that the body ‘is an interface, a threshold, a field of intersecting material and symbolic forces… a surface where multiple codes (race, sex, class, age) are inscribed’ (2002:25). Braidotti’s quote describes Mystique’s body as it represents a perfect interface; a surface of codes; a unique character able to assume a multiplicity – some number – of intersecting forms, roles, genders, sexes, races, classes, and ultimately identities. The role of the shapeshifter is dangerous to occupy as they disturb the familiar and the known. Barkan writes that ‘a subject whose essence is instability and mysterious change does not lend itself to classical orderliness’ (1986: xiii).
Mystique is one character, if not the only character, whose origin story while being hinted at, has not been fully revealed. In an industry where origin stories are continually revealed and rewritten Mystique's missing origin story is an anomaly. A character’s origin is seen and read at the same time, thus becoming known to the reader/viewer. Without a known origin Mystique has no fixed point of reference. She is a character built upon a non-existent place and story. The comfort of knowing how she “came to be” is removed. She simply independently exists. With an identity built on instability, a missing origin, Mystique is able to become other yet remains Mystique
Ontologically the shapeshifter promotes the idea of an unstable definition of the self, the idea of multiple selves, and thus the endless possibility of other ways of being. The shapeshifter’s performance of multiple roles, and as a metaphor, spreads further than just form. Mystique’s shapeshifting ability facilitates her to occupy a range of subject positions in her thirty plus years of comic existence. She is, and has been at one time or another, a mother, a lover, a wife, a stepmother, a step-grandmother, a detective, a model, a widow, a spy, a government operative, and an outlaw. Her allegiances are never completely known or stable, aligning herself with ‘good’ or ‘evil’ as it suits her or as circumstances dictate. She has been punished for not declaring her allegiance to patriarchy, or a defining sexuality, which also makes her posthuman. Mystique will never become a hero in the traditional sense until she renounces her queerness. Defying traditional hero and villain stereotypes, neither heterosexual nor good mother, she spurns hetero-normative relationships, adopts children, and is a leader. In contrast, the subject positions the classic heroes such as Superman, Batman, or indeed the Martian Manhunter, occupy are narrow to say the least. Mystique is:
capable of defeating the notion of fixed bodily form, of visible, recognizable, clear, and distinct shapes as that which marks the contour of the body. She is morphologically dubious (Braidotti, 2002:80).
Mystique’s unlimited potentiality threatens everything that is controlled, stable, and individual; the idea of the human itself.
Not an industry to rest on its laurels, the figure of the shapeshifter has itself evolved in superhero comics to become, what I believe, is the ideal posthuman subject: the shapeshifting cyborg – embodied by The Authority’s, The Engineer.
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The Engineer (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000a:28) |
The Engineer: Shapeshifting Cyborg
The most visible and recognisable figure of posthumanism in the superhero narrative is the cyborg. Their numbers are vast in the superhero narrative and include, but are not limited to, Cyborg (Teen Titans), Midnighter (The Authority), Robotman (Doom Patrol), Wolverine (with his adamantium skeleton), Fuji (Stormwatch), Iron Man (with his artificial heart attachment), Forge, and the X-Men villains, The Marauders. At base level, with his numerous bat-gadgets, Batman can be said to be the first superhero cyborg. Frank Miller took this to extremes in The Dark Knight Returns where he depicted Batman using an armoured suit powered by Gotham City
The Engineer, a.k.a. Angela Spica, is perhaps the most telling, and even primary example of the posthuman in the superhero narrative. A former physicist and technologist, The Engineer, is a shapeshifting cyborg. Instead of prosthetics being grafted or attached to her body she has ‘nine pints of liquid machinery’ for blood (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000a:84). This liquid machinery is full of intelligent microscopic nanotech devices and by no means confined to her arteries. The liquid exists both as a part of her internal and external anatomy. Through her thoughts Angie uses this liquid to create anything she can think of including full body armour and jet engines. She is able to do this, because, as she says: ‘You can fit every book on earth into a drop of my blood’ (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000b:50). She is even able to spread and transform this liquid nanotech machinery into eighty-two fully workable bodies. This however is about as much as she can manage before her ‘personality starts to disassociate’ (Millar, Weston & Quitely, and Leach & Scott, 2002:31). Capable of multiple selves who operate independently and are themselves capable of multiple shapes, she actually shifts her shape to (an)other that is still her(self). She is not only posthuman in her representation of a cyborg, she is also connected to the environment, her body (anatomy) extending further than her identifiable body. This is embodied in her ability to create multiple selves, integrate with other machines, and to perceive environmental changes around her and around the world:
The longer I wear the liquid machinery, the longer I develop an invisible web of atom-sized machine sensors around me. A sort of security perfume… I get very sensitive to environmental changes (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000b:14).
She’s so sensitive to environmental changes in fact that they cause her to feel ill, not surprising considering the sensors are a part of her physiology, while also existing apart from her. The Engineer’s abilities recall Pepperell’s second and third points of his Posthuman Concept of Consciousness, those being: ‘The human body is not separate from its environment’ and ‘Consciousness, body and environment are all continuous’. Thus The Engineer is the synthesis of several strands of posthuman theory. The Engineer is also becoming the more she finds out about her abilities, and it the more she finds out, the more she is able to become, in a continual evolution. As a cyborg shapeshifter, The Engineer allows linkages and identifications as woman/other/animal/hybrid, and presents a posthuman ideal where she has evolved enough to decide how to evolve. When reminiscing about her former life, how chaotic and banal, though attractive it was, she comes to the conclusion that: ‘I’m not Angie anymore. I’m The Engineer’ (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000a:104). In renaming herself in the same manner as the X-Men characters in New X-Men, she confirms her posthuman identity.
Embodied Superheroes: Jack Hawksmoor, Jean Grey, Shift
The characters Jack Hawksmoor, Shift, Jean Grey, and characters of The Invisibles, also exhibit posthuman qualities. Jack Hawksmoor from The Authority (and previously Stormwatch), has been surgically enhanced by aliens, becoming ‘homo urbanus, one of a kind: city human. Human designed specifically to live in cities’ (Ellis, Hamner, and Story, 2002:148). Hawksmoor can communicate with cities as sentient beings and get them to help him in his superheroic endeavours, while also providing him with superhuman strength. He can also disperse his body into the urban environs, effectively becoming continuous with his body, consciousness, and the environment. In this sense he is also a shape-shifter.
The telekinetic X-Men member, Jean Grey (a.k.a. Marvel Girl and Phoenix), is another posthuman subject. In New X-Men #128 (2005) Professor Xavier and Jean experiment with her growing telekinetic power. Jean explains that all her senses seem to be melting together:
Jean: It’s like I’m feeling more of everything… but it all melts together. It’s not just sight or sound… it’s all of my senses at once, sort of rippling out through my surroundings…
Professor Xavier: Your mind’s ability to precisely operate matter extends far beyond your physical body and deeply into your environment. But… I think there could be more to it…
(Morrison, and Kordey, 2005:39-40).
Indeed there is more to it. When Xavier touches a fork Jean is levitating with her mind in mid-air, Jean can feel Xavier’s pulse through the fork. Again in a posthuman idea, Jean’s consciousness extends beyond her body into the fork and surrounding environment, effectively exemplifying that she is embedded as part of that environment.
Read Part One: Posthuman Bodies and Genders
Read Part Two: Performing Gender
Read Part Four: Coming Off the Page
Reference
Babcock, J. (02/01/2007 ) ‘An Interview with Grant Morrison, from the pages of Arthur Magazine’, www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=1644 (Accessed 11 Oct 2007).
Barkan, L. (1986) The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism, New Haven Yale University
Braidotti, R. (2002) Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming, Malden
Ellis, W. (w), Hamner, C. (p) and Story, K. (i) ‘Orbital’ in Millar, M. (w), Weston, C. & Quitely, F. (p) and Leach, G. & Scott, T. (i) (2002) The Authority: Earth Inferno and Other Stories, [Collecting 2000, 2001 The Authority v1#17-20, 2000 The Authority Annual, and 2001 Wildstorm Summer Special] New York: Wildstorm Productions.
Ellis, W. (w), Hitch, B. (p) and Neary, P. (i) (2000a) The Authority: Relentless, [Collecting 1999 The Authority v1 #1-8] New York: Wildstorm Productions.
Ellis, W. (w), Hitch, B. (p) and Neary, P. (i) ‘Outer Dark’ in Ellis, W. & Millar, M (w), Hitch, B. & Quitely, F. (p) and Neary, P. & Scott, T. with Williams, S. et al (i) (2000b) The Authority: Under New Management, [Collecting 2000 The Authority v1 #9-16] New York: Wildstorm Productions.
Millar, M. (w), Kubert, A., with Raney, T. & Derenick, T. (p), and Thibert, A. et al (i) ‘Return to Weapon X, Part Six of Six’ Ultimate X-Men #12, in Millar, M (w), Kubert, A., et al (p), and Thibert, A. et al (2006) Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate Collection Vol. 1, [Collecting 2001, 2002, 2006 Ultimate X-Men #1-12, Ultimate X-Men #1/2], New York: Marvel Publishing.
Morrison, G. (w), Kordey, I. (art) ‘New Worlds’ New X-Men #128 in Morrison, G. (w), Kordey, I. et al (p), and Kordey, I. et al (i) (2005) New X-Men Vol. 3: New Worlds, [Collecting 2002 New X-Men #127-133] New York: Marvel Publishing pp. 27-50.
Morrison, G. (w), Quitely, F. with Grant, K. (p) and Avalon Studios (i) ‘Kid Ω’ New X-Men #134 in Morrison, G. (w), Quitely, F. with Grant, K. (p) and Avalon Studios (i) (2005) New X-Men Vol. 4: Riot at Xavier’s, [Collecting 2003 New X-Men #134-138] New York: Marvel Publishing.
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