The Manga Curmudgeon

Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them

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Harmonic convergence

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For a while now, people have been driecting a sometimes critical eye at the treatment of women characters in Marvel and DC comics, wondering if there might not be some unfortunate trends in evidence. (Latest example: half of one of a few happy super-hero couples was found dead in her kitchen, the venue of choice for such discoveries, by her husband, who’s really, really sad.)

Then, people were discussing the state of comics journalism and whether its practitioners might aim a little higher.

Then, prominent comics bloggers started to notice one of those cyclical mini-waves of people dropping Marvel and DC monthlies.

Now, Newsarama has posted an interview with Brian Bendis with the apparent purpose of congratulating him on avoiding that silly, knee-jerk feminist backlash that so often results from sequences like that found in New Avengers #35. After accepting the kudos of Matt Brady and bemoaning our excessively sensitive times, Bendis assures readers that he went out of his way to avoid the interpretation that…

“…something rapey was happening.”

Well, I’m convinced.

The feline mystique

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Because I’m a big nerd, the whole “Poor, Poor Tigra” thing has led me on a pointless journey down memory lane. And I don’t even like Tigra that much. I’ll spare you by putting it after the jump.

She has a certain amount of historical gravitas, surprising as that may be. Introduced as the star of Claws of the Cat in 1972, I believe Greer Nelson was the first post-Spider-Man Marvel super-heroine to have her own series. It only ran five issues, but it’s worth noting. She was also co-created by a woman writer, Linda Fite.

She was one of the few prominent (or intended-to-be-prominent) Marvel super-heroines who was not a reformed villainess (like the Scarlet Witch, the Black Widow or Medusa) or a girlfriend, sidekick or both (like the Wasp, Crystal and the Invisible Girl). especially And she wasn’t a spin-off of a male super-hero like many of the solo super-heroines who would follow her. (Perhaps the failure of the book led to that?)

The Cat wasn’t spectacularly original in terms of character conception. Three years prior, DC had re-introduced a Golden Age heroine with “Black” in her codename who, like Greer, was the widow of a cop. About five years prior, the Batman television series had introduced a female adventurer with a pointy-eared cowl to great success. And DC also had a high-profile, pointy-eared female with long black hair, though theirs was a villainess (for the most part).

After the failure of The Claws of the Cat, Greer got a second shot at fame in Marvel Chillers (fame is relative, obviously), being reintroduced as Tigra, taking the cat motif to its logical conclusion. The series was subtitled to reflect Tigra’s starring role, though I don’t think that lasted a whole lot longer than Claws of the Cat.

I think Tigra was just about as derivative as the Cat, though I can’t seem to find a reference as to precisely when the Cheetah went from being a crazy woman in a costume to an actual crazy were-cat, thanks to the same kind of mystical-scientific mumbo jumbo that transformed Greer. That might not have happened until after the first Crisis. Even without Cheetah comparisons, were-anything isn’t conceptually novel.

Greer did actually get a legacy hero of her own. Her old Cat costume was adopted by Patsy Walker, longtime star of Marvel’s defunct romance comics. Like Greer, Patsy’s marriage was over (she’d divorced her husband, though she probably wouldn’t have minded widowhood), and super-heroism came with her efforts to build a new life for herself.

While portrayals have been inconsistent since her introduction, her C-list status has become sort of her thing. Her initial stint as an Avenger (written by Jim Shooter) was characterized by insecurity and ineffectiveness. After joining the West Coast branch of the team, she encountered many of the same problems, compounded by conflict with the feline part of her persona. (She’d find herself becoming uncontrollably amorous and violent.) Writer Steve Englehart was actually playing up those insecurities in order to correct them, putting Greer at rock bottom before rebuilding her. Both Chris Claremont and Kurt Busiek did this to varying degrees with Carol Danvers with the intent of making the character more functional, and I’m never entirely convinced by this strategy. Why do a full tear-down instead of just starting with the status quo?

After Englehart’s fairly painstaking character rehab, John Byrne proceeded to have her revert to pure bad kitty when he took over the book and left before the situation could be resolved. High point: the guy who tried to commit suicide after Tigra dumped him shrinks her and puts her in a terrarium to keep her out of trouble. I’m sure he would have gotten around to helping her.

The solicitation text for New Avengers #35 is really tacky.

I don’t ever remember anyone mentioning Tigra’s mother before.

It’s kind of hard to argue that a depiction of a woman getting pistol-whipped and kneecapped as her blouse tears open, with the event videotaped and broadcast for a group of cheering men, doesn’t have some kind of deeply ill-conceived intent to create uncomfortable titillation.

The arguments that this could have happened to any C-list Avenger as a counterpoint to any inherent sexism is actually a reasonably sound one. Of course, arguing that the choice of victim was completely interchangeable doesn’t exactly speak to the quality of the writing.

It’s entirely possible that this could all be leading to another big Tigra empowerment arc.

It’s equally possible that this could all be leading up to a big “You touched my stuff, and now you must pay” arc for Tigra’s A-list associates.

However will she be able to protect her sainted mother from the insidious schemes of a C-list thug? If only she worked for one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the United States who has a lockstep army of super-heroes at his disposal.

Upcoming 7/11

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It’s that time of the week for another tour through the ComicList. I’d try to come up with some thematic introduction, but it’s just too hot.

On the debut front, CMX rolls out Samurai Commando Mission 1549 (original concept by Ryo Hanmura; written by Harutoshi Fukui; illustrated by Ark Performance). I’ve seen a short preview of the series, and it looks insane (in a good way).

From Minx comes Andi Watson’s Clubbing. While my first choice for “next Andi Watson project” would be more of Princess at Midnight, this looks like a fun read. Murder in the English countryside should more than make up for the painfully hip fashions of the protagonist.

I don’t see it listed on the ComicList, or in the local shop’s “what’s on tap” e-mail, but Katherine Dacey-Tsuei heralds its arrival of Byun Byung-Jun’s Run, Bong-Gu, Run! (NBM) in the latest Weekly Recon. I know I pre-ordered this, so I just have to be patient. It looks wonderful, as most books from NBM are.

On the continuing series front, it’s hard to decide which is more enticing: a second installment of that priests-versus-zombies extravaganza, Black Sun Silver Moon (Go! Comi) or the ninth chapter of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster. I can’t choose, so I won’t, and I’ll just get them both.

I’ll probably wait for the paperback, but I’m happy to see the second volume of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.: I Kick Your Face (Marvel), moving through the production pipeline. I thought the first collection was hilarious.

Minxed messages

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Blog@Newsarama’s Kevin Melrose links to an interesting, awkwardly titled piece in The Wall Street Journal about comics publishers’ attempts to attract female readers. Using manga as a starting point, writer Matt Phillips looks at DC’s Minx line and makes a conscientious effort to try and winnow out evidence of the trend at Marvel:

“Last year, Marvel launched its ‘Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter’ series of comic books, based on the swift-selling novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. The title character in the series tracks criminals through the sometimes-seedy vampire underground of St. Louis. The series has proven popular with women and brought a range of new shoppers into Carol & John’s Comic Book Shop in Cleveland, says co-owner John Dudas. ‘They came out of nowhere,’ Mr. Dudas says.”

I probably shouldn’t put too much weight on a sound byte, but “They came out of nowhere” strikes me as extremely telling. I’m guessing that the average comic shop was probably viewed by these customers as “nowhere” too, though, until they had a specific reason to brave its interior.

Speaking of potentially unhelpful sound bytes, take it away, Karen Berger:

“DC Comics has an existing manga imprint, called CMX, which is translated from Japanese. The new Minx series will mimic the general look and price-point of manga. But Ms. Berger stresses that the books are designed with American readers in mind. They read in the standard, left-to-right, manner. And they’re written in English, not translated.”

Maybe it’s just a clumsy paraphrasing of what Berger actually said, but plenty of American readers don’t really seem to demand that level of consideration. (Unless they bought those 9.2 million units of manga just to be polite.) And what was DC going to do? Make its creators work right to left? (Bonus points to Phillips for mentioning that DC already has a manga line, though.) It sometimes seems like Berger is trying to lure readers of manga by assuring them that the Minx books are nothing like manga. I could be misinterpreting her intention, though.

Speaking of Minx, the second part of Mariah Huehner’s look at the Minx line is up at Sequential Tart, which is interesting reading:

“What I care about are the creators who have worked damn hard to make these books and who have, to some extent, gotten a raw deal when it comes to the critiques. More people are focusing on who’s publishing this line than who is directly involved in making the actual books. To me, that’s more important.”

I don’t think that’s entirely true. Don’t get me wrong – I think there’s considerable talent involved in the Minx line and I’m interested in all of the books in the initial launch. I’ll probably read all of them, because I generally admire the creators involved and the books’ premises intrigue me.

That doesn’t prevent me from considering the marketing messages and strategies and considering Minx in context of DC’s core product line. There’s some genuine clumsiness in the way DC has discussed and positioned this initiative, and it’s fair to point that out, partially because it does a disservice to the creators involved and their work.

Brick walls

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Okay, Heidi MacDonald has excerpted Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada’s responses to Newsarama about the recent unpleasantness(es) so you don’t have to wade through the rest of the column, which certainly constitutes a public service. It’s all kind of flabbergasting, but this bit from Quesada really made me laugh through the tears:

“Also, [Heroes for Hire] is a book that features two strong, lead female protagonist who kick major ass; somehow folks have forgotten to focus on that.”

Um… I kind of think that’s one of the things that bothers people… that the hyper-sexualized victims on the cover are, in fact, strong, kick-ass women who have been repurposed.

And seriously, if this is the kind of insight that having an exclusive arrangement with Marvel will get you (“…the Brood have tentacles, sorry about that.”), then the up side completely escapes me.

Three go in…

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This week’s edition of ComicList is like the poster for some ultimate fighter title bout. With the exception of a certain bewhiskered trainee ninja, all of the heavy hitters will be arriving simultaneously, sizing each other up for a sales cage match.

In this corner, plucky orphan Tohru Honda! She’s taking on an ancient family curse, but can heartfelt pluck stand up to the one-two punch of…

The Elric Brothers? They’re looking for the secret to eternal life, but will it be enough to fend off the deadly, note-taking onslaught of…

Light Yagami? The sleuthing sociopath is taking names in this battle of the commercial juggernauts! Who will win?!

Well, comics retailers with even a rudimentary manga selection, for one. (To be fair, none of the above will probably come within spitting distance of this release from Marvel in terms of sales in the Direct Market.)

If none of the above interest you in the slightest, not to worry, because both Tokyopop and Viz are unleashing an absolutely insane number of titles. Tokyopop is rolling out 18, and Viz is offering 37. Thirty-seven.

One of those 55 titles is the sixth volume of Minetaro Mochizuki’s Dragon Head (Tokyopop), much loved by bloggers like me, but disappointingly ignored by the average bookstore browser. Seriously, there aren’t that many volumes out, and new ones don’t come out that often. You have plenty of time to catch up with this tense, apocalyptic suspense story.

Sick of hearing about comics from Japan? No problem. There are also comics from France, most notably a prestige edition of Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert’s The Professor’s Daughter from First Second. I’m going to hold out for the $16.95 paperback instead of the $29.95 collector’s edition that’s coming out tomorrow, but I strongly suspect it will be lovely and delightful either way.

And wow, how long as it been since a new issue of Jimmy Gownley’s wonderful Amelia Rules! (Renaissance Press) came out? Too long, almost certainly, but these fun stories are always worth the wait.

From the stack: Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Vol. 1

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I’m not quite sure how to go about reviewing Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Vol. 1 – This Is What They Want. I liked it a lot, but I’m not sure if I liked it for reasons that are entirely useful.

It could be viewed as a super-hero satire. A motley group of C-and-lower-list Marvel characters have been duped into the service of a terrorist organization named H.A.T.E., and now they’re using the group’s marketing plan to foil H.A.T.E.’s charmingly absurd attempts at wholesale destruction. Nextwave’s fight-fire-with-fire approach is endearingly blithe, though it is informed by personal grudges and insecurities.

The book could also be viewed as straightforward spandex comedy. I don’t think you need to known anything about the protagonists that isn’t provided on these pages to enjoy their exploits and find them grudgingly sympathetic, but I can’t be sure. The American Library Association placed it in the top ten on its Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, so that’s a reassuring indication of its accessibility to people who aren’t steeped in Marvel lore.

And yet, a lot of what I really like about the book is based on what I know about the characters. Having always thought Monica Rambeau was an intolerable Mary Sue in her Avengers appearances, I’m delighted to see writer Warren Ellis re-imagine her as surly and resentful under the goody-goody exterior. Never fully understanding why so many writers tried to take Machine Man seriously, his portrayal here as a quirky misanthrope plays right into my perceptions of the character. So I’m unable to entirely divorce my gratitude for little gifts of revisionist snark like those from my opinion of the work as something a reader can pick up and enjoy without any background.

I’m pretty sure casual readers can, though. It’s funny in ways that require only the most basic familiarity with super-hero tropes, like an episode of The Powerpuff Girls. (They fought broccoli monsters too, though those were from outer space.) You don’t need to have read any of the Essential Fantastic Four volumes to wonder why a giant dragon would bother to wear purple underwear.

While I generally prefer Stuart Immonen’s softer, rounder work, seen in books like Shockrockets or Superman: Secret Identity, Nextwave looks great. There isn’t a whole lot of demand for visual nuance, what with all the explosions and murderous koalas. Immonen and inker Wade Von Grawbadger keep the emphasis on action tinged with comedy, and the mix is very successful.

It’s surprisingly cheerful reading. Corporate terrorists are unquestionably bad, and their manufactured minions are basically cannon fodder, so any crises of conscience are neatly removed from the playing field. Nextwave can blow things up with abandon, and they can grind personal axes at the same time. They get to be proactive and cathartically violent; there’s no down side.

As Ellis describes it in his original pitch, Netxtwave is “Healing America by beating people up.” And you know… I do feel better.

Skating by

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Okay, the terror of freezing rain followed by sleet followed by snow has renewed my interest in this week’s comics, perhaps because weather might keep them from arriving. I’m fickle and, though it seems contradictory, a creature of habit. Sue me.

Praise from virtually all quarters has rendered the Nextwave: Agents of Hate trade paperback (Marvel) irresistible. I surrender.

The week basically belongs to Viz, though, with new volumes of The Drifting Classroom, Monster, Train Man: Densha Otoko, and the debut of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, for anyone who’s still riding a cute-dog buzz from Westminster. (I can’t believe there isn’t a show-dog name generator somewhere out there on the web.)

And while Del Rey doesn’t have any releases on the schedule, there’s a sprightly round of recommendations in comments on this MangaBlog entry. It was the final kick in the pants I needed to order a copy of Mushishi.

Shôjoverload

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I thought Dark Horse was supposed to be continuing its crusade to make me love them this week with new volumes of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Mail, but it doesn’t look like that’s meant to be. I can wait, because the rest of the manga publishing industry is wooing me with a vengeance this week.

I’ve already read a preview of the second volume of Penguin Revolution (CMX) and found it as solidly funny and adorable as the first, so that’s a lock.

Del Rey delivers the eighth volume of Nodame Cantabile, which always manages to charm me in spite of what I realize is very little in the way of overarching narrative movement. Kitchen Princess offers the twin inducements of cute shôjo and culinary content, and I have very little resistance to either.

Didn’t Go! Comi just release the fifth volumes of their first four series? It feels like they did, but new installments of Cantarella and Tenshi Ja Nai!! are always welcome.

There’s been considerable enthusiasm over at Tokyopop for Wild Adapter, and while you’d expect a publisher to be enthusiastic about its books, this endorsement comes from Lillian Diaz-Przybyl. Books that Diaz-Przybyl really, really likes (like 12 Days and Shout Out Loud) tend to be books I really, really like.

I’m not quite up to volume 17 of Bleach (Viz) yet, so I’ll have to content myself with the fifth volume of Nana, which is more than adequate compensation.

And it’s not manga, but I found Marvel’s Defenders mini-series (by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire) to be really entertaining. I can’t seem to find a page on Marvel’s site for the Indefensible trade paperback, but here’s one for the first issue of the floppy version.

(Quick housekeeping question: Is it useful to throw these posts into the various publisher categories, or is it just kind of irritating to have a laundry list of categories at the top of them? I can’t decide.)