Holy sexuality, Batman! Two months after his untimely death, the creators of Gotham City's crime-fighting superhero, Bruce Wayne, have finally unveiled his politically-correct replacement: a ginger-haired, lesbian socialite called Batwoman.The character has apparently had sporadic appearances in the comic series in the past, particularly since she came out, but will now be the main stay for at least 12 issues. I'm not sure why The Independent labels Batwoman/Kathy Kane as a "politically-correct replacement." It's not as if there aren't ginger-haired, lesbian socialites in the world. Although probably not that many who regularly dress up as bats to fight crime. But I digress.
Writer Greg Rucka comments:
"We have been waiting to unlock her. It's long overdue," he said in an interview with the Comic Book Resources website. "Yes, she's a lesbian. She's also a redhead. It is an element of her character. It is not her character. If people are going to have problems with it, that's their issue. That's certainly not mine."
..."I think there is going to be some media," he said. "I can't control it. You've got to remember, Wonder Woman got a haircut and that became news. So it will be what it is."
"My job is to write the best book I can, about a character that I think is exceptionally cool, that J.H. Williams [his co-writer and artist] thinks is exceptionally cool, that DC Comics thinks is exceptionally cool and worthy of being the lead player in Detective Comics," he added. "Frankly, she should be judged on her merits."
And what does she look like?
Bat ears tipped to Mr Litterick (off blog).
5 comments:
I don't know much about comic book culture/aesthetics, but as far as I can tell, they're pretty subversive. I'd think that having a ginga lesbian socialite superhero was more subversive than PC?
Batman isn't dead. It's all part of Grant Morrison's attempt to head-fuck his readers.
There was a lot of discussion about this on the feminist comic forums when the news first broke that they were bringing Batwoman back (a couple of years ago now, I think.) Reactions were mixed; most people were cautiously pleased, but some of DC's handling hasn't been awesome so far (e.g. they did a promo pic of all the major female heroes, and she was the only one in trousers, even though others who normally wear trousers had been chucked into evening dress. Because lesbians wear trousers, evidently.)
I agree about the subversion, too - it boggles my mind how showing characters who aren't straight white middle/upper-class men (or women) can be labelled "PC", rather than, say, "attempting some minor degree of reality."
Thanks Lucy, I admit to knowing not very much about comic stuff.
I always find it funny how people notice when women wear trousers and men wears skirts, as if it really really matters. Like Helen Clark wearing trousers to meet the Queen that time. I had a workmate say to me a while back that it was nice to see me in a skirt for once. Yet since going back to work I've worn skirts most of the time because only one pair of work trousers fit, whereas I can use a safety pin to make the skirts wearable if they aren't. Ok, that was a really off topic rant. Sorry, I am having a strange Saturday.
In fact so strange that I forgot to actually comment on the thing I came here to mention, which is Luddite Journo's post about the newish batwoman.
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