Dear Comic Fans: It’s been a year since my first post & y’all are still racist as heck when it comes to racebending

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Back in August 2015 I wrote “Dear Comic Fans: We Get it. You’re racist and racebending scares you,” as a direct response to the racist backlash towards Keiynan Lonsdale being cast as Wally West on the Flash television show.

Well, it’s been a little bit over a year and I honestly can tell you that yes, fandom is still filled to the brim with racists who think that if they scream about red hair and “blackwashing” loud enough, that no one will notice that the only time they know or care about changes to characters’ races when it concerns white characters being cast with actors of color.

Look, if the only thing you care about when it comes to casting is an authentic hair color, then I have to introduce you to the wonders of hair-dye and wigs. And then I get to beat you with a bag full of them for complaining endlessly when these (usually female) characters are racebent since you stay silent when a white male character isn’t done to style.

photogrid_1474736950131Neither of the two actors playing Barry Allen look like him.

Neither of them have his canon personality.

But where’s the press reporting about how terrible both of them are for the job because they don’t have blond hair and because it’s so strange to imagine this iconic blond character being played by men who have dark hair?

Suddenly, authentic appearances don’t matter and there’s no fuss about “iconic” anything.Read More »

Stop Using the Harry Potter series’ Original Publication Dates as an Excuse for Rowling’s Diversity Fails

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Every time I talk about J. K. Rowling’s current and continuing diversity fails, someone always has to show up to remind me how she “couldn’t write diversely because it was 1997”.

Without fail, people are more invested in protecting Rowling from criticism she will never see or care about than in acknowledging the way that her writing has continued to erase marginalized people while allegorizing their struggles in order to pad her plot and make her characters more interesting.

Even if I knew (or cared) more about the realities of publishing when I was seven years old, the fact of the matter is that JKR managed to put a ton of atypical things in her “kids’ series”. She wrote about the violent effects of racism and blood supremacy as well as child abuse and children coming of age in a war torn world.

And yet, she “couldn’t” include more than eight characters of color or any queer characters who made It to the end of the series alive or who were queer onscreen?

The “it was 1997” excuse for Rowling’s diversity fails only holds a scant bit of water when it comes to looking at the body of her work. Other writers wrote queer characters into their works, other authors managed to have diverse children’s books during the same period that Rowling was publishing her books.Read More »

Radioplay Day – Blue Beetle – Episode 1 “Drug Ring”

Stitch

blue-beetle-coverDownload Link: HERE

Airdate: May 15, 1940

Main Characters/Actors: Dan Garrett (Frank Lovejoy)

Is Dan Garrett anyone’s favorite Blue Beetle?

Granted, that’s a little bit unfair seeing as he was the only Blue Beetle for several decades, but you’ve got to wonder… Are there people (who weren’t you know… alive during the 40s) who hold Dan Garrett up as their favorite Blue Beetle when Jaime Reyes and Ted Kord exist?

That being said, Dan Garrett was popular enough to get his own radio series between May and September of 1940.  For an anti-drug, anti-gang morality tale that seriously misrepresents the effects of smoking marijuana (or “dope”) on human behavior, well… It was a thing.

(Look, all of these old-timey radioshows can’t be The Shadow or the KKK-busting Adventures of Superman. Some of them had to be the superhero version of public service announcements and in many ways, that’s what Blue Beetle was.)Read More »

Suicide Squad: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

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If I had to put it to numbers, I’d say that Suicide Squad is approximately 70% “my thing”.

The 30% that isn’t is largely comprised of the following: violence against women being brushed off or used as humor, most of the male/female relationships (and the fact that there are no positive female friendships or relationships in the squad), Katana basically not getting to do a lot beyond fight scenes and a few emotional moments, Slipknot being killed off within minutes of his introduction to prove a point, how David Ayer reframes Harley and the Joker’s relationship (and her characterization), and the Joker himself.

Had Suicide Squad come out in 2007 when I was a fresh-faced high school senior, I would have loved it entirely from the start. Of course, 2007!Stitch wasn’t as focused on picking out the problematic elements in the media they consumed as 2016!Stitch is.

As it stands, I actually enjoyed Suicide Squad almost as much as 2007!me would have. I went into the film kind of hopeful, having read several reviews that were really critical of the film but trying to will DC into having better luck with this film than with Batman Vs Superman (which I saw in theaters and hated but then, when I got the Ultimate Edition, came to understand it a bit more).

And you know what? It was entertaining as hell to watch.Read More »

It’s A DCEU Giveaway, Folks!

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So I’m doing another giveaway, this time for fans of Batman vs Superman. One person (in the US) will win big with:

  • A code for the digital HD version of the film
  • A digital copy of the soundtrack (on Amazon or iTunes)
  • A Funko POP figure related to the DCEU (value up to $11)

International bloggers, have no fear because I’m not leaving y’all out either.

One international winner will have a chance to win a digital copy of the Batman vs Superman soundtrack and a digital copy of my favorite comic in the multiverse: Superman: Secret Identity.

The giveaway will last untli the 21st  and the winners will be announced on this post within 48 hours of the end of the giveaway.

Now if you’re entering the giveaway, the following question is for you!  When you comment, use the same email or WordPress username that you do to sign up for the giveaway please and thanks!

If you could be in charge of any film in the DCEU and had all the different characters in the DC multiverse, what film would you make?

(I’m nosy and want to know what heroes you’d choose to incorporate into your potential film and what kind of film you’d make.)

Giveaway for US Folks

Giveaway for International Folks

Clearly, don’t enter both giveaways. If you do, I’m going to disqualify you.

Supervillains (No-So) Anonymous – Comet City Stories

Stitch

Comet City Supervillains Not So Anonymous

Every single person in the room shifts their chairs to the side with a cacophony of screeching, squeaking, rubber and metal on linoleum when I walk in to this month’s Supervillains Anonymous meeting in the basement of one of Comet City’s many rec centers.

I don’t blame them. I know what I look like, who I am. Nearly six feet tall with dark brown skin and purple scales spattered like paint across it, I look just normal enough to pass as entirely human. At least until I open my mouth and people get a look at my fangs and forked tongue and remember that some snakes are poisonous.

But then, what else could anyone expect from someone that used to be Mama Mambo’s prized protégé, Viper?Read More »

Black Pain and Death in Captain America: Civil War

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A lot of people die in Captain America: Civil War.

Within the first twenty  minutes alone, a good dozen people (at least) die between the confrontation with Rumlow and his men, the chase through the marketplace in Lagos, and the bomb.

You come to expect a lot of death in superhero films. Either the villains are killing people, the heroes are killing villains (and the occasional civilian casualty), or debris from a major fight kills people. Even superheroes who previous took oaths not to kill (like Batman) now shoot AR-15’s and snap necks to save the world.

That being said though, most (but not all) of the many people that die within the first few minutes of Captain America: Civil War are Black. In fact, most of the major incidents that trigger action within the film involve (or follow) the death and/or pain of Black people and how it affects white characters.

The point of this post is to look critically at how Black pain and death are handled in this movie and how Black pain and death in Civil War tends to revolve around white characters. I also aim to look at what it says about a film franchise that took over a decade before it had a film headlined by a Black character (and no Black women as main characters).Read More »

[Book Review] Stitch! by Yumi Tsukirino

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Stitch LargeTitle: Stitch!
Author: Yumi Tsukirino
Rating: Recommended
Genre/Category: Disney, Aliens, Cute and Fluffy, Children’s Books
Release Date: August 30, 2016

Publisher: Tokyopop

Order Here: AMAZON | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE

Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in review are my own.

Back in 2008, Lilo and Stitch got an anime spinoff that was more like an Alternate Universe version of the film and original cartoon series. The series (Stitch!) finished its third series back in 2011 and since then, no one’s heard much about Stitch until comic publisher Tokyopop added the official manga to their Disney Manga line.Read More »

bib·li·o·file: Recent Work in Literary Studies

Stitch

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Here’s everything we’re reading in my Monday night class from now until the end of the semester. Sadly, none of these books are available for free so all I can offer are (affiliate) links to the kindle version on Amazon which is what I’m using for class.

Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting  by Sianne Ngai

Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Posthumanities) by Timothy Morton

Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network by Caroline Levine

Slavery and the Culture of Taste by Simon Gikandi

The Limits of Critique by Rita Felski

Loving Literature: A Cultural History by Deidre Shauna Lynch

A bonus is the book I’m using for my second assignment and one that I never pass up the chance to make obnoxious noises about: Glen Weldon’s The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture.

Once I get my syllabi and books for my other two classes, I’ll put up posts for them. Right now though, I’m just really pleased with the reading list for this class!

“Holy Homosexual Batman”: A Reference List

Stitch
Batman and Robin Boatride
Panel from Batman #13 (1942)

For my critical literary theory course during my first semester of grad school,  I did a final paper looking at applications of queer theory as it applies to textual and subtextual queer perceptions of Batman.

You know, because I just love a challenge and the fun of blending my fannish interests with my academic ones.

At the end of it all, I came up with “Holy Homosexual Batman”: Queering the Caped Crusader via Text and Subtext. It was almost thirty pages long and super in-depth to make up for the fact that my professor wasn’t a comic person and needed introduction to the genre’s history and culture.

It is, in a word, my baby.

I have so many plans for this paper that it’s ridiculous.

I mentioned from the start that I wanted to share my list of references for y’all to look at and purchase from if you’re interested in working out your own academic thoughts on queerness as related to Batman and Robin. So if you’re interested, continue on!

(Note that all of the links to Amazon are affiliate links so consider buying some books, y’all!)

Read More »

Lamplickers – Original Fiction

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Moth @ Night
Image from here on Flickr. 

Note: “Lamplickers” is a colloquial term for “moth” that I grew up hearing in the US. Virgin Islands. Additionally, this story was previously published on Patreon for my patrons.

Plink.

Plink.

The lamplickers down on the island always swarm around the house when it gets dark outside. At least, they’ve done this on some level on every night in the week since I moved into my late grandparents’ house overlooking heart-shaped Magen’s Bay.

Drawn by some unfathomable instinct, they fling themselves at the windows of my room as if their weight alone will shatter the shutters and let them in. Some of them don’t survive. They ram into the window with so much force that they leave streaks of dark fluid smeared across the glass as their tiny bodies drop to the ground.

Sometimes, early in the morning when the sun has barely peeked over the top of the walls, the neighborhood chickens and sparrows eat the half-squashed bugs before the stray cats try to rush them in turn. The gardener, when he comes by hours later, will clear up the rest.

For now though, at night, the lamplickers keep coming.Read More »