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.

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’s electricity grid to defeat Superman.

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 Press.

Braidotti, R. (2002) Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming, Malden Blackwell Publishers: MA.

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.

Millar, M. (w), Kubert, Adam & Kubert, Andy, (p), and Thibert, A. with Miki, D. (i) ‘The Tomorrow People’ Ultimate X-Men #1, 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.

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 #17-20, 2000 The Authority Annual, and 2001 Wildstorm Summer Special], California: Wildstorm Productions.

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.

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 Annual #1], New York: DC Comics pp. 120-59.

Winick, J. (w), Raney, T., Chriscross, & Reis, I. (p), and Hanna, S., Parsons, S. & Campos, M. (i) (2004b) Outsiders: Sum of All Evil, [Collecting 2004 Outsiders #8-15] New York: DC Comics.

Review - The Infinite Vacation #1 by Nick Spencer (writer) and Christian Ward (art)

So I've come to realise that writing a review of the first issue of a comic is a bit like writing a review of a movie after only viewing the first twenty minutes. You really aren't going to be providing much more than initial thoughts and hoping that the comic hooks you by giving you the hint of where it's going. I'm happy to say that Nick Spencer and Christian Ward's The Infinite Vacation does indeed have major hooks.

The Infinite Vacation provides several hooks to pull us into the story. First is the idea of being able to exchange life experiences for something better, even down to turning up somewhere earlier to avoid standing in a queue. If you don't like how something is panning out, just pay for a vacation where (or when) it does.

This leads our flame-haired main character Mark, to vacation on average 9.7 times per day. It's just easier for him to pay for a different reality than deal with life's little inconsistencies. Unfortunately for Mark, this strategy also doesn't seem to be working as his life just ends up the same - boring and unfulfilled. Then there's the problem that alternate versions of himself are turning up dead. That's the second hook.

And then there's the final hook in the issue: the girl. She's basically Mark's opposite- a Deadender who refuses to 'make life changes even if it means a worse existence for them'. She challenges his continual vacationing attitude. Life is all about taking your chances when they're presented.

This is a radical and original use of the multiverse/multiple universe concept and there's a lot of parallel universe jumping going on in comics right now. In fact I'd argue it's become a staple part of storytelling, for the superhero universes anyway. But in The Infinite Vacation there's no superpower needed or massive changes to the reality. It's easy - accessible through a free phone app. You can just change whatever you about your life if you've got the cash. This would seem to imply that you're able to buy your way out of, if not your whole crappy life, at least crappy parts of it. However the availability of infinite vacations - realities - doesn't change the fact that a vacationer may still engage with each reality in exactly the same way.

We are witnessing a story involving the commodification of reality. A nifty idea indeed. So the question posed is: Does this make the buyer happier or not? The answer I assume will be played out in the relationship between the Mark and the Deadender girl.

Spencer is on the rise as a writer and it's easy to see why - crisp ideas, sharp writing, and great hooks. First issues are hard to pull of but Spencer has done it. He's given a concept background on what's happening, introduced intriguing storylines, and interesting believable characters with dilemmas. For someone who was unknown two years ago, Spencer has certainly made his mark with his creator owned books (Morning Glories, Shuddertown), and looks to have nice career ahead.

A word too here about Christian Ward's art. Ward's pastel and autumnal tones, give the comic a washed out watercolour style look which reminds of David Mack's artwork, if a little less realistic in this context. The panel and page layout are excellent using standard paneling (with and without borders) and complex double page spreads evoking a wonderful sense of distortion, and confusion that is Mark's life. The range of facial expressions - for me, always the mark of really good artist - are great and convey each character's emotions brilliantly.


This: has got it's hooks into me. Excellent.
Forthcoming: Will provide me with a holiday from reality.

It's Elemental: Portrayals of Metamorpho and Element Girl

As Julie D. O’Reilly succinctly points out in her article ‘The Wonder Woman Precedent: Female (Super)Heroism on Trial’, most superheroines, especially true of Golden and Silver Age characters are mere extensions of their male counterparts (273). Apart from Wonder Woman, many of the female characters’ monikers are suffixed with the adolescent title of girl – Supergirl, Batgirl, Element Girl, for example – as opposed to the male characters’ man. While the male hero graduates from boy to man, the female hero remains stuck in a kind of permanent adolescence. For example, while Peter Parker is still a teenager his rise to the level of superhero sees him becoming Spiderman. In contrast Jean Grey of the X-Men was still only Marvel Girl when Professor Xavier deemed the X-Men worthy of hero status. For the male readership (of all ages), the male superhero is to be idealised and aspired to, while the female superheroine, the girl, is to be gazed at, dominated, and acquired. If the superheroine is merely an extension of the superhero, then becoming a superhero also means “getting the girl” – the male superhero naturally attracts his female counterpart, and in doing so reinforces his own status as the primary hero. As Elizabeth Grosz states:

male self-definitions require and produce definitions of the female as their inverted or complementary counterparts. This implies… an analysis of the ways in which masculine or phallocentric discourses and knowledges rely on images, metaphors and figures of woman and femininity to support and justify their definitions. It also… implies an exploration of the disavowed corporeal and psychic dependence of the masculine, with its necessary foundation in women’s bodies, on the female corporeality it cannot claim as its own territory (the maternal body) (74).

Element Girl is one of these female others to the male hero’s one. Element Girl, a.k.a. Urania Blackwell, first appeared as a counterpart to Metamorpho in Metamorpho #10 (1967). Treasure hunter Rex Mason became Metamorpho, the Element Man, after exposure to the Orb of Ra in an Egyptian pyramid. He gained the ability to change into any element or compound contained in the human body allowing him to turn parts or the whole of his body into a variety of gases or objects such as blades, springs, or hammers. Rex’s dashing good looks were ruined during the transformation as were his intentions of marrying his beautiful girlfriend, Sapphire. However Rex takes to using rubber masks to cover his face. Element Girl volunteered to be exposed to the Orb of Ra and received a coloured body, disfigured face, and abilities, similar to Metamorpho. After a number of adventures together, Element Girl fell in love with Metamorpho, pursuing him vigorously, becoming a rival to Sapphire. While the last issue of Metamorpho (#17 March/April 1968) has Rex and Element Girl together, the storyline is clearly not complete. Element Girl was not seen again until an appearance in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (‘Facade’ #20 October 1990). By this time she has become unable to leave her apartment because of her hideous appearance. Like Rex once did, Urania now uses masks to cover her face, which is in contrast to her initial portrayal where she appeared quite proud to accept her freakish appearance. But it seems that without Metamorpho around, everything is different. Urania produces silicate masks using her elemental ability, but they fall off after a short period and flesh masks composed of her own elemental makeup quickly rot. Terribly depressed without virtually any human contact, she had failed to commit suicide on several occasions due to her body’s natural defences (Wallace 104). 

A minor comic character at best, Element Girl’s story in the Metamorpho and Sandman titles provides contrasting portrayals of men and women’s personal appearance. In the original Metamorpho series Element Girl is a headstrong, confident, intelligent, and resourceful woman. As rival to Sapphire for Rex’s affections (citing their similarities as freaks would make them a perfect couple) she provides a stark contrast to the spoiled, rich, and passive, Sapphire. In her coloured and changing body Element Girl is definitely presented as other, and in her desire for Rex’s affection she can also be seen as an interloper who tries to break up the potential family unit. Rex had always planned to marry Sapphire before becoming the disfigured Metamorpho and it is Sapphire who continually re-emerges as Rex’s true love, even though she remains a continually passive character. Interestingly Metamorpho’s appearance becomes more comely over the years meaning the rubber masks he uses are eventually discarded. He is never hideous enough to shut himself away like Element Girl eventually does. Rex is concerned with his looks but this is not the sum total of his identity. This wouldn’t be the actions of a hero. Nor does he lose Sapphire’s love after his transformation. Indeed Rex ends up with two women fighting over his disfigured form and affections, a situation which would rarely occur if the genders were reversed.

Element Girl has a confident nature in her superhero role, though when fighting alongside Rex she constantly tries to convince him of her worth. By the time the Metamorpho series was cancelled, Metamorpho and Element Girl’s relationship seemed to be in the ascendency. In Sandman #20 her circumstances are quite different. Unwanted as an operative at her former government agency, unable to procure other ongoing work due to her disfigured appearance, and with Rex nowhere to be seen, she has essentially become a shut-in. Element Girl’s appearance has become the be all and end all of her life. With her self-esteem seriously low, she is certainly no hero, and the story shows the reality/absurdity of a “pensioned-off” hero. When she finds that her own body prevents her from committing suicide, Gaiman introduces the character, Death, to help dispatch her. Gaiman is determined to get rid of Element Girl one way or another. Death simply tells Urania to ask Ra to help take her life, which he does.

While Gaiman’s story comments on the abundance of pneumatically enhanced female characters that populated (and to an extent still continue to populate) contemporary superhero comics, there is a more disturbing subtext playing out. Gaiman’s depiction of Element Girl reads that once a woman’s youthful looks, and therefore her usefulness, are gone, she will effectively be abandoned by society. However Gaiman doesn’t address how this problem can be overcome. His solution to her predicament is to make her suicidal. This other female presence must be dispatched. Without looks, a job, or a male superheroic counterpart, it seems there is little else left except suicide for Element Girl.

Reference

Gaiman, N. (w), Doran, C. (p), and Jones III, M. (i). 'Facade' Sandman. v1 #20 (Oct. 1990). New York: DC Comics,1990.

Grosz, E. Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction. London and New York: Routledge,1990.

O’Reilly, J.D. ‘The Wonder Woman Precedent: Female (Super)Heroism on Trial’ in The Journal of American Culture. 28, 3, 2005.

Wallace, D. ‘Element Girl’ in Dougall, A. (ed.) The DC Comics Encyclopedia. New York: DC Comics, Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2004.

Review: Fist Full of Comics #1, 2 and 3 - Various artists and writers, (FFO Comics)

This latest incarnation (Volume 3) of the Australian comic anthology Fist Full of Comics promises a 'long run of issues devoted to the tireless efforts of comic creators'. It's always encouraging, and surprising (considering the work involved), but plain pleasing to see someone devoted to Australian comics enough to want to publish other people's work. So first off it's a big hurrah! and kudos sent out to FFoC editor HEADFIST  for being committed to such a commendable task.

The great thing about Oz Comics is the diversity and breadth of ideas. No two stories in these three issues are the same.

The standout story in Issue #1 (June 2010) is David Follet's 'Dream #1'. Packed with movement and an ecelctic bunch of characters this silent comic (with a coathanger as a transport device!) is simply charming and very accomplished in execution. Brendan Boyd's 'God Bless America' is also a well-executed and distinctively styled tale of a traveller returning to a war-ravaged earth.

Starting in this issue are the ongoing stories 'Penny Lane: Anti-hero' (Bridget Hodder), 'If Ya Need!' (Kurt Murray), and 'The Adventures of White Wolf' (Frank Candiloro). All three offer wildly different art styles.

Candiloro's cartoon-like tale of a werewolf who has devoted his life to fighting crime, suffers from the single page devoted in each of the three issues making the story slow and difficult to get into.

'If Ya Need! sees a mixed gender netball team of misfits trying to get it together to compete in the amateur leagues. Initially I found Murray's cartoony, almost juvenile, styled art a little simple for my liking but on reviewing I was struck by the clean lines and how well-proportioned the characters are. Similarly each character is individually recognisable. 'If Ya Need''s art is deceptively good.

'Penny Lane', a story of a girl trying to catch a killer of her friends, I'm sorry to say, hasn't grabbed me. I've found the art a bit too scratchy and (perhaps) rushed. The bodies of characters appear 'static' and stiff, and the absence of pupils in characters' eyes leaves them staring blankly into space.  The story's 'cut up' style merging art and text in #3 is interesting though in design. Hodder certainly has talent but perhaps a bit more time in production may be in order.

While each of these has some derivative elements they're at least engaging and I'm keen to see where they go.

Issue #2 (July 2010) introduces another ongoing story, 'Simian Soldiers' by Kurt Murray (writer) and Mathew Ryan Sweet (art) It's a tale of escaped homicidal Nazi-trained shock troop apes on the loose after the end of World War 2.  Murray's writing is a step up from his work on 'If Ya Need!' but it's Ryan's impressionistic artwork that steals the show, evoking the chaos of combat and primal, violent ape behavior.

On par with 'Simian Soldiers' for best in #2 is Peter Moerenhout (writer) and Pieter Rosseel's 'Cleansing by Fire'. This story of a man's life haunted by the threat of nuclear fire is sombre and filled with regret. Rosseel's  pencil art complements the 'widescreen' panels beautifully.

Kirk Kenny's two comic strip 'Shorts' provide some good giggles too. Kenny returns in #3 (August 2010) with a completely different art style for his 'Dethrok: Selling Out', which investigates the dilemma of the musicians going for cash or artistic integrity. Mawarini's 'Sushi Language' is a bizarre, but happy little story about speaking with your mouth full, while Chris McMurray's 'I am a Nightmare Walking' addresses being singled out in a crowd, although I would've liked a bit more to this to flesh it out.

On the down side the issues so far have needed closer editing for grammar and spelling. It's a shame that the quality of production is let down by these oversights which can be easily fixed by a solid proofread.

At AUS $5 a pop Fist Fill of Comics is cheaper than most US comics, is good value and a heap of fun. Plus each issue has a fantastic and striking cover from oneyeelephant (#1),  Sophie Louis-Ford (#2), and Mathew Ryan Sweet (#3).

At time of writing this latest this Volume of FFoC doesn't have a dedicated website. For contribution guidelines, subscription, and advertising information contact Fist Full of Comics via fistfullofcomics@gmail.com (or get yourself a copy).

These: Cool and very needed.        Forthcoming: Ready and waiting.

Review: Nemesis #3 by Mark Millar (writer) and Steve McNiven (artist)

Carnage. Nemesis #3 is pure carnage.

Millar and McNiven have produced a love letter to violence and shock tactics with Nemesis #3 going into gross-out territory in both physical and moral violence.

Having been captured by supercop Blake Morrow, Nemesis (aka Matthew Anderson) isn't too worried as it appears being incarcerated in a maximum security prison is all part of his master plan. Sure enough, with some help from his henchmen Nemesis escapes, in the process killing not one, not two, but ninety-seven fully-armed riot-cops! This takes up approximately five pages.

Nemesis though has much in store for Morrow and his family. Nemesis' actions against them are genuinely sickening.

As far as story goes, there's actually not a lot here. Nemesis escapes, makes Morrow reveal some secrets, and Morrow's resolve to capture Nemesis is reinforced - 'let's nail this bitch.'  Morrow's family secrets aren't really that shocking but they're supposed to show us that attaining 'supercop' status has had disadvantages and consequences which affect Morrow's family. It's supposed to make us sympathise (and empathise) with Morrow (i.e.: he's flawed) and show that Nemesis has no scruples (as if we didn't know that already) in trying to tear Morrow down.

Okay, so let's make it clear. Millar isn't drawing on subtlety, or indeed reality, with Nemesis. It's major over the top stuff in virtually every sense. He's going for big and extravagant and succeeding brilliantly. Nemesis is pure spectacle. Don't believe me? A supervillain walking around in a completely white suit and cape for starters...

The issue really belongs to Steve McNiven. His artwork, especially the violent and bloody sequences, is top quality. As shown by the sample script pages at the rear of the comic, Millar's directions are minimal allowing McNiven's talents to shine. If asked for one word to describe his art, I'd volunteer- precise. There's nothing extraneous or superfluous here. Everything is exact.

My only gripe is that it ripped along so fast. Pages where there's all action and little or no dialogue makes a very quick read. Considering I'm in Australia and it cost me $6, I was hoping for a longer experience. Again produced in the widescreen format with a maximum of five panels to a page (with the exception of one page with six) and four full page spreads I couldn't help but feel this was really only half a comic.

I'm hoping for a truly memorable ending next issue.

This: Worthwhile, but a little disappointing in content. Forthcoming: Bring it on!

Review: Scarlet #2 by Brian Michael Bendis (writer) and Alex Maleev (artist)

  
Bendis reveals more about his red-headed vigilante and her mission to purge Portland of crime in Scarlet #2.  

Physically, but not emotionally, recovered from her shooting in issue one, Scarlet determines to find out the circumstances which led to her boyfriend Gabriel's death and thus try and make some sense of what happened. Over ten weeks she follows Officer Dunes, the cop who was responsible, and finds out he's subsequently been promoted.

Scarlet then confronts Guzman, Dunes' former partner, questioning him about his involvement in the shooting. The answers aren't what she expected, finding that apart from saving his own skin, there was little he could've done. Corruption in the Portland police force is extensive.

Far from being intimidated by the magnitude of her task, Scarlet's decision to fight back is reinforced. And the first person on her list to feel her wrath is the smug and reprehensible Officer Dunes.

Bendis and Maleev are really pulling the emotional strings on this one, asking a fundamental question - how can justice be done when the good guys are all bad? Scarlet's answer is to administer justice herself. Brutal justice. Her question is - are we with her or against her?

Again Bendis makes us involved in the story by having Scarlett address us directly as readers, making us complicit in her actions. By simply being readers we push the story along.

Maleev's artwork is as good as ever and the fact that he's using a model for the Scarlet character makes her depiction very realistic. Indeed Maleev captures Scarlet's expressions and depth of emotion in each illustration brilliantly.

This comic is characterised by Scarlet looking at us. On almost every page Scarlet checks if we're still with her, making sure that were coming along, and virtually asking for our approval and consent. When she says 'See? I'm trying desperately to find someone who would miss him enough to make it worth me not killing him', she's really asking us if we're that someone. The only way to avert his death is to stop reading. But are we going to do that?

Bendis goes to great lengths in both issues to show that Scarlet is just an ordinary girl. In issue one Scarlet says 'I'm not Miss America super hottie' and all her actions before her vigilantism are characterised by normality - normal upbringing and life experiences. Does Bendis have a twist in store for us about Scarlet? She seems to handle weapons quite well... Or are we set to see a tragedy? The degeneration of a typical, ordinary, girl into the corruption of the soul that ultra-violence brings.

Everyone wants to see corruption and purveyors of injustice punished. Vigilantism is appealing because it asks few questions and offers quick results. Bad guys are immediately erased. But what punishment fits the crime? The broad strokes with which villains and heroes are painted in pop culture are rarely mirrored in reality. That's why we have a justice system. 

Scarlet's story is intriguing and the artwork lush. I flew through this really quickly. There's many a page with no writing at all leaving me thinking - where's the rest? But no matter. It's good enough for multiple readings.

This: More brilliance.  Forthcoming: Yes, please! We want more brilliance.

At What Cost? Part 2: The Price of Australian Comics in Australia

I recently posted on the price of comics and graphic novels in Australia and what it might mean for Australian comic retailers. But as I was in looking at Australian comics recently I was struck by the cost of Australian comics as compared now to American comics (we don't get particularly many European comics in Australia and if we do I don't know where they are).


With the Australian dollar pushing close to parity with the American greenback (as of 26 September 2010 it was hovering around US 96c) Australian comics are now cheaper to buy in hard copy than American comics, which makes them a bit more of an attractive purchase. Depending on the title Australian comics run from about $4-$8 with the average round about $5-$6. For example the anthology Fist Full of Comics #3 was five dollars,  and Andrei Buters' Dead by 30 was four dollars, whereas Mark Miller's Nemesis cost $6, and Brian Bendis' Scarlet set me back $8.


Mind you not all Oz comics are as well produced as the American titles. In fact few are, and the overwhelming majority are black-and-white. Similarly not all or all are in the standard comic size. Many are in an A5 format i.e.:A4 paper folded in half. That's not a problem for me as long as I'm getting value for money which can come in a variety of guises.


So does this relative cheapness of product translate into more sales for producers of Australian comics? I doubt it.  As I speculated in my previous post on the price of comics in Australia, with the advent of digital comics less people may be coming into comic shops themselves and thus less people seeing Australian comics on the shelves.


For all intents and purposes Australia doesn't have a comics 'industry'. No one makes a living out of comics in Australia. Okay, there maybe a couple, and I mean only a couple, of exceptions to the rule such as Ben Templesmith. Therefore it's not likely that physical sales of Australian comics are going to take that much of a hit. I would argue that most sales for them would come at the annual conventions such as Supanova.


What does this mean for producers of Australian comics if Australian retailers no longer but find it viable to stock American (or any) comics? 


Embrace digital. I think there's no other way to go but for Australian comic producers to throw their hat into the ring. Eliminating printing and distribution costs brings the price down, allows the comics to go full colour and be produced in proper comic size(if desired), and get exposure to an international audience. And now's the time to do it.


If American digital comics are retailing at between $.99-$2.99 then Australian comics can do exactly the same with less overheads. Just imagine 1000 downloads per month at two dollars each. I'll do the sums for you. That's $2000 a month or $500 a week. It's not a fortune but it's certainly enough. Heck you could even live on that, frugally at any rate.


The great thing about Australian comics is they have a wide diversity of styles both in art and writing and there's no barriers to putting out a comic apart from the monetary side of things. This diversity should be on show to the rest of the world and with the advent of digital may well engender an actual Australian comics industry.


I'd certainly love to know if any Australian comic producer is considering or has already done this. Let me know in the comments.

The Dark Knight in Wonderland: Batman and... Rabbits?

The Dark Knight in Wonderland: Batman and... Rabbits?

"'what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'" Alice from Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland

I've been re-reading the Frank Miller Batman stories that have become known as 'The Dark Knight Universe' (Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, and All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder) in order to formulate an essay on the overall narrative cycle. In doing so I've noticed an animal that's popped up in the books and which seems somewhat out of place - the fluffy white rabbit. As a figure, the Rabbit in these Dark Knight stories isn't a strong motif, yet its appearance heralds an interesting portrayal of sexuality.

In The Dark Knight Returns (TDKR) Bruce Wayne dreams of an incident in his childhood where he chases a rabbit down a hole bringing to mind similarities with Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. When Alice chases the rabbit she finds -

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

Similarly Bruce's rabbit chase sees him fall into what will later become his Batcave and his first encounter with bats. In Batman Begins (Chris Nolan, dir.) young Bruce falls down an actual well which leads to the Batcave-to-be.

But the similarities between Alice and Bruce don't end in this superficiality. On his webpage The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares Terry Windling writes -

In many mythic traditions, these animals were archetypal symbols of femininity, associated with the lunar cycle, fertility, longevity, and rebirth. But if we dig a little deeper into their stories we find that they are also contradictory, paradoxical creatures: symbols of both cleverness and foolishness, of femininity and androgyny, of cowardice and courage, of rampant sexuality and virginal purity.

Both Bruce and Alice are children on the verge of breaking into adolescence and the accompanying emergence of sexuality. Both are virgins and thus branded 'pure'.

When chasing the rabbit Bruce is warned, 'Don't go in that hole' (Miller 1996:17). Although the speaker of this warning is not in the panel we must assume it Bruce's father as the speech bubble points to him in the previous panel. Bruce of course ignores the warning and falls in. The warning is important coming from the father. Bruce is the Wayne's only child and is designated to take over the "masculine dealings" of the Wayne business estate. Symbolically Bruce is chasing his femininity which is being dominated by his father. Bruce's father, psychoanalytically speaking, sees the danger of a reconnection with the feminine which he as the father has worked hard to erase by asserting himself as 'the law'. This reconnection with the feminine will confuse Bruce dividing his allegiance due to the inability of the child to permanently go back to the womb, to be one again with the mother. As Barbara Creed writes in The Monstrous Feminine the inability for the mother and child, especially the female child, to fully separate through the Oedipal cycle produces monstrosity. In this case Batman has negotiated the Oedipal struggle yet his desire to return to the mother only to find he can't produces another kind of traumatic monster - the Bat-Man.

Not long after Bruce's parents are murdered in an alley after seeing the film The Mask of Zorro (again we could use cinema and film as representations of going into a dark cave to be find another world), and Bruce is forever divided thereafter.

Bruce awakes from the dream sequence of falling into the Batcave-to-be to find he has sleepwalked to the batcave, and is completely naked. Symbolically Bruce is reborn, returning to the place that Batman was 'created'; he has returned to the 'womb'. The feminine-associated figure of the rabbit in TDKR propels Bruce toward a fertile, feminine space/place: the Batcave.

The Batcave is where Batman keeps all his "toys"; his inventions, the feminine space underneath the masculine rigid structure of Wayne Manor, built by Bruce's father; a product of his massively successful business empire. The Batcave 'doesn't end... It just doesn't end... The cave goes on forever... And it's just getting started... It's building itself' (Miller xx) and is 'endless' (Miller 1996:199). It is here, to this maternal space that Bruce brings his SOBs (Sons of Batman) and Robin (Carrie Kelley) at the end of TDKR, a place where 'it begins' (Miller 1996: 199), to build an army, to proliferate. Interestingly, at this point Batman is supposed to be dead, but it is the Batcave Bruce Wayne returns to start a new 'good life' (Miller 1996:199), the third of Bruce Wayne's rebirths in TDKR.

But as Windling writes the rabbit also represents 'rampant sexuality and virginal purity'. An example of this can be seen in All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder (ASBRBW). In contrast to the clearly political themes in TDKR and The Dark Knight Strikes Again (TDKSA), ASBRBW seethes with sexual energy as a thirty-two year old Batman, now reveling in his 'terrorist' role, cuts a swathe through Gotham's body of crime.

Specifically in one scene, a rabbit, which seems completely out of place, bounds out of the way of a barreling Batmobile. If we wanted to push the point, then perhaps Batman is again chasing the Rabbit, leading him again to the Batcave. At this point in ASBRBW Dick Grayson (who will become Robin) is a passenger in the Batmobile. His parents murdered only hours before, Batman has 'drafted' twelve year old Dick 'into a war'(Miller 2008:xx), and Miller repeatedly lets us know that he is twelve, and yes, Dick Grayson is therefore a boy.

Essentially ASBRBW is the story of how Batman gets Robin as his sidekick. The rabbit? It represents two things - Batman's rampant sexuality and Dick Grayson's twelve year old virginal purity. But like the rabbit running for it's life Dick Grayson is also running for his. Lucky to be alive after his parents murder, Batman rescues him and transfers him to the Batcave, that place of feminine fertility where he will incubate and emerge reborn as Robin, the Boy Wonder. Batman tells him to choose a name and costume. Dick proclaims himself 'Hood' after the mythical Robin Hood. Batman disapproves, 'You're Robin.' (Miller 2008:xx) he says, and in naming him thus becomes his surrogate father in Robin's genesis.

Of course Batman stories themselves have bred like rabbits over the last seventy years and there looks like there's no stopping them any time soon.

Reference

Miller, F. (w). Lee, J.(p), and Williams, S.(i) (2008). All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, Volume 1. New York:DC Comics.[Collecting All-Star Batman and Robin #1-9, 2005-08].

Miller, F.(w,a) and Varley, L.(i) (1996). The Dark Knight Returns. 10th Anniversary Edition. New York:DC Comics.[Collecting The Dark Knight Returns #1-4, 1985]

Windling, T. (2005). The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares. at http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrRabbits.html