Batgirl 41 and Why The Variant is Not Offensive

If you’re not a comic book reader, this entire blog entry will probably mean absolutely nothing to you. But read anyway because I feel like there is a bigger issue here than just a bit of art. Recently DC Comics decided to pull a variant cover for its upcoming Batgirl #41 at the request of the artist. I can understand why the artist felt a little skittish about this work of art going out into the world. It basically shows Batgirl being held at gunpoint by The Joker, who smears a red smile across her clearly terrified face. The image is meant to pay homage to The Killing Joke, one of the greatest Batman stories ever printed.

My decision to write a blog about this particular issue is that it seems to have sparked a debate about sexism in comics. Now while I will agree that there is sexism in comics (in DC comics a lot specifically) I don’t feel like this cover is an indication of such. The cover is trying to capture a terrifying moment in Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl’s life. The moment she was paralyzed (and possibly molested) in the pages of The Killing Joke. This is further emphasized by the Joker wearing the same tourist outfit he wore in that comic. So it is understandable that any image referencing this comic would be a bit disturbing. This is the most horrible moment in Barbara Gordon’s life. She would be terrified by any interaction she’d have with the man who violated her in such a manner, The Joker.

Now to be fair, the ultimate decision to pull the issue came from the artist. As a creator myself I am always for control of media by those who produce it. IF the artist has a change of heart about his own artwork then he should be allowed to state his opinion. My main issue with this are the people who are trying to turn this cover into something it is not, and that is an exploitation of women. Or worse, making light of rape. Neither of those issues seem to be the case. This is solely an issue of a super villain being depicted as terrorizing a hero. This is what villains do.

The Joker has been presented in horrific fashion in many issues before. He has murdered and tortured Batman AND his allies. Why is this one depiction of him terrorizing Batgirl special? Batgirl is as much of a hero as Robin or Nightwing or Batman himself, yet only because this one issue depicts her being terrorized is their any sort of uproar. Why? Is it because she is a woman? Well then isn’t that more sexist than treating her like all the other heroes in which she shares a world with? Shouldn’t people who are advocates for equality want to see a female hero depicted just as her male counterparts? Batgirl is terrified, but so would anyone be if they were being held at gunpoint by the Joker.

 

I’m not saying I want to see an increase in female heroes being terrorized by villains, not at all. I am merely asking people to look at comic books as a whole. Women have made huge strides in comic books recently. Ms. Marvel, Storm, Silk, Spider-Gwen, these are some of the most popular comics on sale at the moment and they are all titles featuring female heroes. A Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers, not the Kree Mar-Vel) and a Wonder Woman film are both in production to be released in the next few years. Women are making big steps in the comic book world. But if writers and artists feel like they need to tiptoe with how they portray women in their comics, that advancement will come to a halt.

One of the major signs of equality are men no longer feeling like they need to treat women with kid gloves. For female heroes to be seen as just as strong as male heroes, they need to be also shown as just as vulnerable. And one sign of strength among super heroes is for them to go through tragedy and come out the other side. Barbara Gordon may have gone through horrors at the hands of the Joker, but she has still managed to be a hero. The variant cover of Batgirl #41 does not exploit that fact, it celebrates it.

Bad Science and uses of Science in Science Fiction Films

1.)           TimeCop

The scientific premise in TimeCop is that the same matter cannot occupy the same point in time. This is shown in the film when the villain is shoved into his younger self and becomes some sort of bizarre puddle of goo before fading out of existence. But, here’s the thing, you are not made up of the same matter as your younger self. The human body is constantly wrecking and rebuilding itself, sloughing off damaged and old cells and creating new ones. Roughly ever ten years you basically become a whole new person, with none of the same matter that made up your body previously. It’s a whole new you every ten years. So when old villain touched his younger self, nothing would have happened.

2.)           Lucy

The 10% of our brains myth has been out there for a long time. The idea that humans are only using a fraction of their brain’s full potential is a popular one in science fiction. We’d all like to think if we could just unlock 100% of our brain we’d get amazing powers. Hate to break it to everyone, but you’re using 100% right now just trying to read this sentence. The human brain is always working, using all the bits and pieces of its hemispheres to perform the many tasks needed for you to live. If you only used ten percent of your brain, you’d be some kind of drooling mess lying on the floor.

3.)           A.I.

I’m sure I covered this well in a previous entry (read here) but it is worth repeating. A robotic boy is just a dumb invention. The joy of children is to watch them grow and mature. You are helping your offspring (or your adopted children) become the best person they can be. To watch them have accomplishments and triumphs of their own and perhaps even one day watching them have children of their own. A child that is incapable of growing or maturing, mentally or physically is completely pointless. David in A.I. is a child and even after spending a thousand years (seriously, a THOUSAND YEARS) of life is still a child.

4.)           Armageddon

This is not so much a defense of science but of scientists. When a giant asteroid is about to hit the earth NASA is tasked with coming up with a plan to deal with it. And they got nothing. We see a fun little montage of NASA employees trying to come up with a plan to deal with this world threatening disaster. And all their ideas are shit. We see one bad idea after the next, each being shot down by Billy Bob Thorton’s character, the head of NASA. Finally they need to get a bunch of rough and tough oil drillers to blow up the asteroid. Now my problem is that this is NASA. These are the smartest people in the country. They should have had a dozen GOOD plans to deal with this kind of threat just lying around already. It’s not like this is a threat no one could possibly conceive of. The dinosaurs would tell us that is not the case. So for a plan to be just thrown together at the last minute seems kind of insulting to brilliant men and women of our nation’s space agency.

5.)           The Stepford Wives

I’ll be honest, I never saw the original. I only ever saw the remake starring Matthew Broderick and Nicole Kidman. And it is this version of the film that causes me to have many questions about the central premise of this film. If you’re not familiar, Matthew Broderick and Nicole Kidman move to the town of Stepford where all the wives act like perfect June Cleaver drones that do whatever their husbands want. Now at first it seems like the wives are completely robotic (there is a scene where one wife spits out a roll of dollar bills like an ATM so I kind of hope they are robotic). But the end of the movie (SPOILERS) involves Matthew Broderick shutting down the central mainframe and all the wives reverting to the annoying nagging individuals that inspire their husbands to turn them into robots in the first place. But here’s the thing, why would you even keep that part of the personality if you’re turning your wife into a robot? The only explanation is that they are not robots and are instead under robotic control. But again, why did the one wife dispense money? This seems like a case of bad science rising out of bad writing.

6.)           Johnny Mnemonic

Before he was Neo in The Matrix, Keanu Reeves was the titular Jonny Mnemonic. Living in a dystopian future, Jonny is a courier who transports highly classified computer information. How does he do this? He copies the information to his brain. Like a section of his memory is dedicated to storing computer information. Apparently he gave up the memories of his childhood in order to do this. The problem in this movie is that he downloads more information than his brain can handle and he needs to upload it soon or he will die. First of all, why would anyone use their brain as a hard drive. The brain is a soft fleshy thing that is easily damaged if you are stuck hard with a blunt object. Second, why would you download MORE info than your brain can handle? And THIRD, HOW do you download more information than brain can handle? The human brain can hold a shitload of information. Just think of all the movies, music, TV, experiences, sensory info that you have experienced in your life. Unless you are downloading the complete library of congress and still have room left over.

7.)           Gamer

What purpose is there to have real people in a video game? Honestly, to me most of the appeal of video games is that they are complete fantasy. They show me worlds that cannot exist and allow me as the player to perform deeds that are impossible based on the reality we live in. Why would I want to control someone who is for all intents and purposes human? Sure there is a heightened level of difficulty. I can’t just reset and start over. But that seems like a sad waste of life. Also, as shown in the movie, there are times when the control of the player can be interrupted and the character can take over. I would hate if in the middle of a game of Super Mario Bros. if Mario decided he didn’t want to jump any more.

8.)           Demolition Man

Why would you want to let criminals live to see the future? The whole point of prisons is to remove the negative members of our society from the rest of us. I think I covered this subject in a previous blog entry (see here) but it bares repeating. Why keep criminals in suspended animation only to release them on a future society? There are people who are actually spending large sums of money in the vain hope they can stave off death and awake in a glorious future. And these criminals are being given that opportunity for free. As shown in the movie Demolition Man, the future is pretty much a crime free zone (ruled by a totalitarian government, but still). Ideally we all hope that the problems of the present will somehow be solved in some theoretical future (I’m hoping for Star Trek). The one thing that could probably ruin this scenario are people from the past, a less civilized society, being unleashed on this perfect utopia and ruining it. Which is exactly what would happen. Regardless of how much mental programming was performed (just because you can knit does not mean you will behave).

9.)           Repo Men

Why would you get an artificial organ if you could be killed any second for it? In the movie Repo Men, people lease an artificial organ to replace the failing one they lost to disease/drinking/whatever. But the catch is that they have to continue to pay for the privilege of having this artificial organ. Otherwise someone will come to your house and cut that organ out of you, essentially murdering you. And the Repo Men (hence the title of the movie) are not dainty with how they take those organs back. One scene has a guy cutting another guy open with a carving knife in the back of a cab. And they will stab, shock and beat you to get those organs back. Personally I would rather die in a hospital than be gutted by some psychopath.  

5 Morality and Life Lessons That Are Better Than What Is In The Bible

As an Atheist I see this dumb argument all the time. “How can you have morals without the bible?” And when people say this I have to be completely honest. I can’t think of a single moral lesson that guides me in life that I got from a religious text. I went to Sunday School my whole young life, but when I think about the concept of Right and Wrong it is not God I turn to. Usually it’s comic book super heroes. I never thought “What Would Jesus Do?” I thought “What Would Superman Do?” “What Would Batman Do?” Neither of these individuals led a life due to a fear of eternal punishment in some afterlife but because they had a inner sense of what is right. And so I decided to look at several lessons I have learned that are more important and/or better told than what is in the Bible.

1.)  “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility.” Spider-Man

The legendary words that appear at the end of Amazing Fantasy #15 have become synonymous with the idea of being a super hero. Although they are specifically attributed to Spider-Man, they have been referenced by many a super hero. Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker, learned this harsh lesson when he refused to stop a petty criminal who would later go on to murder his beloved Uncle. It would have been easy enough for him to do so with his amazing abilities but he felt such action was beneath him. And he paid a price for that arrogance. But it shouldn’t take a horrific death to motivate one to do the right thing when they can. When we see something we disagree with we should speak up. When we see someone who needs help, we should help them. We all have great power, and therefore we all have great responsibility.

2.)  “Do or Do Not. There is No Try.”  Star Wars

Those words are spoken by Yoda when Luke Skywalker says he will try to lift his X-Wing out of the swamp with the Force. Luke gives up thinking the task is too hard and the X-Wing sinks further into the swamp. Moments later Yoda successfully lifts the X-Wing out of the swamp. Where Luke quit, Yoda did not and thus was able to succeed at his task. Perseverance is the key to success. You can’t just “try” to do something. You need to do it. Put all your effort into a goal until it is complete. All that matters is whether or not you accomplish your goal.

3.)  “I think I can.” The Little Engine that Could

Another good bit of motivational advice. The Little Engine that Could was always underestimated for his size. He even underestimated himself. But a little confidence and commitment and that train was able to get the job done. Always believe in yourself. It seems like an obvious life lesson but too often in life we can forget to believe in our own skills. The world tells us we can’t accomplish something and we believe it. But the truth is you need to think you can. No matter what. Even after that

4.)   “Don’t lie.” The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Forget being threatened with entire hellfire if you lie, how about just being mauled to death by a giant wolf. That was the fate for the boy in the story. He cried wolf once and all the villagers came running. Cried it twice and all the villagers came running. But when a wolf finally came and the boy cried no one came and he was eaten. That seems like a pretty simple lesson to me. Don’t lie. Because when you lie you damage your own credibility and no one will believe you when you finally tell the truth. Now it may not be a wolf coming to eat you that you are trying to tell the truth about. But still, why take the chance. Your ability to tell the truth could be the only thing that saves your life some day. Just don’t lie. Once your credibility is tarnished it is tarnished for good.

5.)     “Try New Things.” Green Eggs and Ham

Sometimes people can be stubborn. We get stuck in routines, we get burned by new experiences, all sorts of things keep us from reaching out and trying something new. Regardless of the circumstances in which we are exposed to them. Not in a box, not with a fox (though to be fair, trying to enjoy a meal with a live fox is something one should probably avoid. They can be dangerous). In all truth, there are a lot of good moral lessons in the works of Dr. Seuss but the lesson of Green Eggs and Ham seems the most important. We live in a big wide world and need to appreciate it. But we can’t if we simply refuse to ever expose ourselves to anything new.