The New 52 is taking sexism in comics to a new level. And with how prevalent is, I don't think its accidental. WARNING THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE NEW 52 BOOKS I DISCUSS, IT WONT BE PLOT RELEVANT BUT COULD BE SO DEAL WITH IT.
Now to begin, I've mainly been focused on the Batman books. When I find an example of a well-written non-stereotype character, I'll be sure to post about it. But despite the greatness occurring with the crossover events in the Bat mythos as headed by Scott Snyder, not a one of them has written a decent female character, despite the high number of female focused books.
I am a straight male. I enjoy women. I enjoy tits and ass. I enjoy sexual women. I am not a prude in any way.
This is out of hand.
"Oz it's all men writing! That's why." Mostly, you're right. But one of the biggest offenders is Batgirl and it's written by a female. Also, pre-revamp DC had some extremely well written female characters, many of which were ancillary at the beginning who were interesting when they received spinoff books.
Let's start where I first noticed the problem. Batgirl.
For those that don't know the story (before new 52), Barbara Gordon (daughter of chief of police Commissioner Jim Gordon) is Batgirl. She started young, loved the adventure much like Dick-Robin (which is oddly prophetic since they hook up and then Grayson is kind of a prick about it a lot), and fought as a mostly feared member of the Batfamily. Then Alan Moore got ahold of the Bat universe and had Joker shoot her in the spine. Although this was supposed to be a one off out of continuity book, DC kept that element as part of the mythos. Barbara after recovery becomes Oracle. A computer whiz, Batman's information hub, and a pretty badass cripple. Criminals often try to take advantage of her "compromised" condition but through preparation, she often whups their ass. After her injury, her personality became hardened and she became more like Bruce than ever. Determined, smart as hell, always planning, and with a high moral code. She's one of the few Bruce trusts absolutely because he knows her "tragedy" has transformed her in a similar way to his.
Then we reset everything.
While the Joker shooting is still part of the mythos, she find a miraculous neural implant surgery that made her only spend 3 years in a wheelchair! But this isn't about that. It's about how she approaches crimefighting. In the very first issue, a crook points a gun at her and she immediately freezes thinking something along the lines of "Oh god no my spine!" While this is possibly understandable, what the fuck are you doing fighting crime if you're not ready for that yet? Why is your suit not just an armor for your spine? She's barely been out of the wheelchair long enough to get her strength back. She mentions this often as she's fighting or making jumps going "oh fuck, I wasn't ready for that." She then proceeds to collapse with overwhelming emotion in the middle of Gotham on several occasions rather than actually continuing the fight. When Nightwing and others approach her and say "Babs, what the fuck are you doing?" she says "FUCK OFF I'M ALONE." The biggest offense to me comes as she is thinking about her shit life. Crimefighter not as good as the heroes around her, Dad chief of police that can never know, Father figure in Bruce I can never please.. .AND I STILL CAN'T GET A DATE. The only thing they've done right is her tits are actually covered in battle.
What the hell happened? We have turned Barbara Gordon from a badass hero girls SHOULD look up to into an unstable 13 year old girl. This is not ok.
I hoped it was just Batgirl. I really did. I said OK DC, you picked a bad author but you can redeem yourselves. Catwoman has been quite badass for awhile aside from the Halle Berry movie, you can at least do that right!
Wrong.
Old Catwoman-Tough, knows what she wants in life, CHOOSES to hook up with Bruce on occasion, is mostly a good person despite her propensity to steal. Cunning, and with no powers, much like Batman, keeps up with a lot of Metahumans due to skill.
New 52 Catwoman-Tortured soul with abandonment issues, her past constantly haunts her causing her to be unsure how to act, out of "control" when she hooks up with Bats. Mentally unstable and her friends know it. Often makes mistakes and dwells on them rather than saying "9 lives bitches" and walking off with a whip on her hip. Latches onto Men for apparently no reason. Metahumans haven't destroyed her yet through sheer dumbass luck.
Ugh ok let's keep trying.
Red Hood and the Outlaws is a new 52 book featuring Red Hood (former Robin Jason Todd and a badass addition to the DC universe. One of my favorite modern additions. If you haven't watched the animated "Batman: Under the Red Hood" movie I highly suggest it), Arsenal (also known as Speedy, Green Arrow's former sidekick, just as skilled at shooting/making weaponized arrows.), and Starfire (alien space princess with the power to heat up like the stars of the universe and turn those into weaponized bolts of heat/energy). This should be so damned badass right? Actually, it is. Mostly.
This is our first "good" view of Starfire.
I can't speak much about Starfire in the original continuity, but I get the feeling she wasn't this big of a slut. Nothing wrong with sluts mind you, but it seems odd for a character who had an extremely long term committed relationship with Nightwing in the old universe. And from what I gathered, it was the type of relationship that resulted in character development from the damage it did to both parties when it ended. Another problem I had is they keep going out of their way to mention how Starfire can pretty much vaporize anyone and anything at any given time. Yet she damsel in distresses at least 3 times in the 9 issues I've read so far. *Headdesk*
Ok, one more shot DC before I write you off. Maybe its me. Maybe I'm creating this.
Birds of Prey is a team made up of Katana (badass japanese girl with a sword), Black Canary (martial arts expert and supersonic scream), Starling (badass spy chick), and Poison Ivy. I don't know much about these characters again, but I can suggest some things. Wouldn't a badass spy chick know to cover up her weak points? Ya know..her chest? Couldn't Poison Ivy do something to defeat a guy aside from "seduce" him? Couldn't Black Canary not be an outlaw for "murdering" her husband and being proud of it? Katana is the best character and she's so tied to a man that her husbands dead soul inhabits her sword. Hell, the first story arc is about all of their minds being controlled. Fetish fuel much? These are supposed to be the "girl power" badasses of Gotham.
Look I get there are character archetypes. Slutty, but powerful. Reckless, but effective. Dedicated/Loyal companion. But this is overboard. Every character is so unstable and mentally unbalanced that it takes away from every heroic thing they do. They bitch so much about the men in their lives, I'm honestly surprised they don't write a blog called "Sex and Gotham" posting about their exploits like Carrie Bradshaw.
Yes, flaws make interesting characters. Many people live their lives in the constant state of doubt and insecurity that these characters are showing. Women included. I get it. But when you make the doubt overpowering, these stop becoming heroic stories and become tragic portraits. While there's a place in the world for that, thats not what cape comics are about. I know comics have gone in the gritty realism direction, but if this is their attempt at making their females real, it has completely backfired. Their treatment of the characters and how they handle their flaw is constantly stating "Oh look, she has a vagina, she must be unstable."
I'm hoping I can find a well written female character in the New 52 before too long. Not because I'm particularly feminist or anything, but because this is atrocious. Dealing with problems that may appeal to the female fan base is fine, but why would any female read these? It portrays all women as broken creatures that even with superpowers and gadgets can barely function in society and when they do overcome their fear of social interactions, they constantly break down into fits about their problems. Not their problems aren't realistic or traumatic, they are. But they feel tacked on. The characters feel less real now than they ever did.
This is a hell of wall of text that isn't really a real review. To sum up: all of these books have potential, but out of all of them, I'd only recommend Red Hood. Maybe new authors are needed. Maybe just new ideas. Either way, if these books weren't tied into Batman storylines I'm being a completionist about, I wouldn't have gotten past about issue 4 of any of them. Mainly because the portrayal of the female central characters is so dick-strokingly bad that I can't believe it's happening on a regular basis.
-Oz
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