A few Christmases ago my mom got me a couple comic books she’d found in a bargain bin. Her thought was: “These are beyond mortal comprehension…better give them to Zoe.” I sat there with two issues of Gold Key’s Brothers of the Spear in my hands and thought, gosh, mom, I don’t know where to…
Gotham: The Batman Series We Wanted, or the One We Deserved?
Fox’s Gotham has come to an end after an abrupt cancellation in 2018 that was overturned. The popularity of Gotham granted it one final, albeit curtailed, season that turned out to be a fitting end to a show that didn’t always hit its mark, though not for lack of trying.
Twenty Years of Padme Deserving Better
It was 2003 and I sat in the backseat of my aunt and uncle’s minivan watching Attack of the Clones with my cousins. The movie played on the car’s DVD player, making the action smaller than normal. I’d seen the movie before and at this point in the story, Padme and Anakin are trying not…
Remembering St. Mark’s Comics: Transitioning In the Comic Shop
It’s early 2018. A middle-aged woman wanders into St Mark’s Comics looking to buy a book for her teenage son who likes Marvel movies. I pick out a couple trades featuring the Avengers and Spider-Man and tell her why I like them and she buys one and thanks me. She asks if I’ve ever worked…
Strategy vs. Spectacle: The Real Victims of Game of Thrones’ Battlefields
Game of Thrones has fielded many on screen battles since first airing in 2011. Whether by land, water, and now by air, every battle has been epic in their own unique ways. But since leaving behind George R. R. Martin’s books and introducing dragons and White Walkers to the battlefield, the show has increasingly failed…
Fat Thor is a Joke. That’s Why I Love Him.
Over the past week there’s been quite a few articles about the problems inherent to Thor’s new body shape in Avengers: Endgame, and before I get into my complicated feelings about what that means for me, as a fat person, I want to take a moment to affirm my agreement with the critics who have…
Sansa Dislikes Daenerys on Game of Thrones & That’s Fine
The final season of Game of Thrones is all about conflict, and the premiere episode gave fans a long awaited meeting between Sansa Stark and Daenerys Targaryen. The two share similar backstories, both having survived the abuse, trauma, and machinations of men in order to become respected leaders in their own right. Together they’d make…
“Don’t Get Eaten by a Tiger”: The Presentation and Safety of Othered Children in FF
Marvel Comics’ all-ages series FF (2012) is brought to us by team Matt Fraction and Mike, Lee, and Laura Allred and follows the adventures of the Future Foundation, a school for special youngsters, temporarily headed by Scott Lang, She-Hulk, Medusa, and pop singer Darla Deering a.k.a Miss Thing.
Seeing Surrealism in Comics
I started researching Surrealism, more specifically Women Surrealists, over ten years ago, writing both my M.A. dissertation and then my PhD thesis on the subject. I have a particular interest with Surrealism’s connections to the female body, fashion, and magic/alchemy/witchcraft, but the movement is wide and its influence felt in many places. As a result,…
Monstress and the Problem of Women in Pain
Please note this post contains discussion of violence against women. Also, spoiler alert for Monstress. Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress has—justifiably—been on fire lately. It won heaps of accolades at the 2018 Eisner Awards and major love and respect from readers. Liu was the first woman to win the Best Writer award (about time),…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 8: Twin Tales
Upon her reemergence as a Captain Britain supporting character, Betsy Braddock retained little of her previous page character. Her blonde though changeable bob was now chest-length purple, worn in a half-up style that resembled a large cottage loaf, or a Portuguese man o’ war. Career-wise she was “still” a model, but no longer a charter…
Plus-Sized Elf Makes A Joke of Women’s Bodies
As a fat person, I’m not sure what I dislike more: no fat representation in media, or fat representation in media. Because whenever it happens, it’s almost always as a comic relief, a glutton, a character who is defined by always eating. Their fatness is only the “acceptable” kind, a little chub around the midsection,…
