[...] for the site, KC wrote 27 review pieces, including coverage of animation, books about comics, and all 52 DC comic relaunches. I’m hoping for more next year, but regardless, I appreciate his support. I couldn’t do [...]

This question is along the lines of “You must choose between sunny side up or hard boiled eggs for breakfast. What? You don’t like eggs? Toast? GTFO!”

Ok. So how would you draw the stripper Johanna? And please be specific. Nothing subjective like “just don’t draw them sexualized, draw them as empowered” because that’s kind of a non answer. Are we talking something more along the lines of the cover of Wonder Woman: Hiketeia? Does the stripper have to have her foot on a mans head? Would that make it more palatable? Just asking.

“It would also be easier to take a stripper woman if there were more well-known, diverse portrayals of female characters to balance it. When she’s one of, what, five? six? women with their own superhero comic (and several of them are in the same vein, visually), it’s a little more disconcerting than if she were one of 12 or 20.”

So there can be no strippers at DC until your own (or anyone else’s) subjective and arbitrary quotas for an industry that you personally have identified as gender specific are filled? Isn’t that a bit contradictory? And please don’t say it’s not quotas because that is the textbook definition that you just gave. Why not ban the strippers until there is 40 or 50 or 400 comics with female characters portrayed as you want them to be portrayed? Why stop at 12 or 20? You see the problem here? I suspect that any number is never going to be enough and I suspect that DC knows this.

Also, can we clear up the continued misinformation here? Voodoo strips for 10 pages. Exactly 10 pages. Not 11, not 15, not 20. So can we at least be honest enough to admit that much? Come on, do something original that no one else blogging about the 52 is doing and lets actually be honest about the content here.

Consequently, the DeMille comparison is incorrect because there are other story elements running through Voodoo that draw attention away from the stripping, making it not even secondary to the plot but merely a backdrop. It’s even incorrect to say that the DeMille biblical epics wallow in the sin. He usually puts in one grand scene of debauchery to shock the audience (such as the dancing scene in the DeMille/Colbert “Cleopatra“ ). This is why people often make the mistake of saying things like “this movie is full of sex”. It’s a clever trick that directors use. Have one big shocking scene bookended by the tame stuff. The most stark element of Voodoo is that first page which I agree is (for better or worse) an attention getter. That first page is so in your face that readers such as you are sort of tricked into making hyperbolic and inaccurate statements like “Voodoo strips for 20 pages!” You’ve been fooled by the illusion. But that’s really no excuse for not doing a simple page count (which took me all of 30 seconds) of what is going on in the comic. That is your job when critiquing or analyzing a comic, right?

This makes my comparison about complaining about a movie with a 5 minute stripping scene the correct one. I don’t care who likes Voodoo or Catwoman or Batgirl or any of the 52. But it’s annoying to see so many bloggers claiming to be “journalists” engaging in blatant misrepresentation. Just stick with the first page as blatant objectification and leave it at that. That would still be subjective but at least a tad more genuine.

Didn’t like Aquaman at all. Apparently I’m alone, but didn’t like “surly Aquaman” (again?) much, or incorporating the real-world-style Aquaman haters into the DCU. Also didn’t think the seafood restaurant scene was funny (think Aquaman eating fish comes off as odd to me… though might also be since *I* don’t eat seafood, though I’m not a vegetarian). On top of that, upcoming issues promise the Trench is “not for the squeamish”, which = “more shock-value violence” to me, so I won’t be back for issue #2…

I wouldn’t call Voodoo being a stripper necessarily sexist; I would call the full-page opening where we’re staring down her tits as she’s on her hands and knees objectifying, though.

It would also be easier to take a stripper woman if there were more well-known, diverse portrayals of female characters to balance it. When she’s one of, what, five? six? women with their own superhero comic (and several of them are in the same vein, visually), it’s a little more disconcerting than if she were one of 12 or 20.

I actually wonder if Voodoo will be or is at least right away intended to be the lead. Jessica the IO agent looks to be given a bigger spotlight as we follow her to figure out who or what Voodoo is. Sort of like how Priest wrote the Black Panther series perhaps?

Voodoo herself came off as distant and alien to me, no I don’t care about her at least at this point of the story. But I am curious to why she’s doing what she’s doing.

As for the argument that spending 20 pages on showing her stripping doesn’t matter because she’s going to stop — that reminds me of Cecil B. DeMille getting around movie censorship in the 30s. You create a “Biblical” epic, wallow in the sinning for 80 minutes, but it’s ok, because the message is that everyone repents in the last 5. Didn’t fool people then, doesn’t justify it now.

On the other hand, I liked New Guardians a lot more than I expected to. I hadn’t realized I’d missed Kyle, but I did.

ASW – I’ve never really cared for either westerns or Hex, but wanted to at least try it because I like the writers. I can see the appeal for those that like both, but there wasn’t anything that grabbed me.

Batman LODK was okay, but it seemed like material already covered in the other Batman titles with a jail break at Arkham. The Bunny character is apparently a new villain, as she’s on the cover to one of the upcoming issues.

I thought Teen Titans was okay, I liked this Wonder Girl especially if she’s going to be a fireball since Power Girl is apparently not around anymore.

They really weren’t kidding when they talked about wanting Blackhawks to be like G.I. Joe comics. I just don’t know why I shouldn’t read Joe instead.

I guess I’ve had enough of a break from vampires that I thought I, Vampire was quaint. I just don’t seem how it really fits into the DCU though as it seems like something the superheroes would notice and take care of quickly.

Flash was my biggest surprise of the 52 to me, as I thought it was a really nifty little superhero story involving a character I don’t know a lot about.

JLD – I’m uncertain of as I don’t have a connection with these characters. Are they all going to be this brooding the entire series?

Superman just seemed very slowly paced, I found myself wanting to skip ahead on the opening pages as the text just went on and on. Its such a different writing style than most comics use these days.

I liked GL a lot, but then Kyle’s long been my favorite GL and I liked seeing him back on Earth for the first time in forever. I’m not sure what to make of the tweaks to his origin though. Does this mean that he now has 3 ex-girlfriends that never existed? (Donna, Jen and Alex)

Bedard says he wants to show why Kyle is cool, which I guess is why the rings from other corps abandoned their owners to seek him out. I’m curious to see why.

Firestorm doesn’t have very likable leads so far. Rusch seemed like a jerk with an axe to grind for some unknown reason towards Raymond. If he doesn’t like sports than couldn’t he have declined the assignment? Also if his editor didn’t like the way he wrote the story, wouldn’t a better time to talk to him about it be BEFORE the story was run?

Raymond just seems a little too whiny and a bit too self absorbed at times. Plus I thought it odd that he let someone else try to define how or who he should be friends with.

Plus really, Sweetcheeks? Was Fury raised on Laverne & Shirley reruns? Based on talent involved I’ll give it another issue, but man I hope it improves and gives me a reason to care about these jerks.

Aquaman was fun! When even DC’s own advertising in their books (the Subway one where Aquaman said he shouldn’t go swimming alone) makes him lame you have to address it.

I’ve found it interesting to read the very different takes on Voodoo. Some loving it and others like yours slamming it. It just really goes to show you that people take away different things when they read something I guess.

I can understand not liking it, but some of the stuff has me scratching my head though. Not to open too big a can of worms here. Yet there almost seems to be a growing trend of nothing negative can come from or happen to a female character or its instantly met with criticism and claims of the creator being misogynistic or the like.

I do think female characters need to be treated better overall, but if a female character can never be or have something negative happen to her. Then its gonna be a boring story after a while.

Does that movie’s stripper scene exist to set the premise and tone of the movie in the first five minutes?

Aquaman, I agree. Good stuff.

Batman The Dark Knight, meh. I didn’t care for Batman before the 52 and don’t care now. Love the movies though.

Blackhawks. I liked this but not enough to buy it on a regular basis. I’ll probably get the second issue to see if they’re able to iron out the bugs.

The Flash. The layouts alone make this comic worth buying. It looked terrific. Yeah, a little slow. But I’m looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

Firestorm. I wanted to like this and kind of did for the most part. If they had dialed down the violence just a tad and had the throat slitting scene off panel then it would have been a good book for the younger crowd. But the art didn’t really wow me. Looked too much like Birds of Prey which also sub par.

Green Lantern New Guardians. Not a GL fan and haven’t read any GL titles.

I, Vampire. Boring. Plus, not a fan of the whole over done vampire thing.

Justice League Dark. I liked this very much. But why was Shade The Changing Man dressed like he went to the BBC and found Colin Bakers old Dr. Who outfit? Go back to the old Ditko era look.

Hawkman. See, now I have to disagree here. This surprised the heck out of me. I’ve always wanted to like Hawkman but he was so boring. The last time the character was remotely interesting was the Kubert days and then it was mostly because of the Kubert art. But this is an interesting return to the Golden Age days of Hawkman. I like that he’s not an alien (or at least doesn’t seem to be…yet). It started out iffy but I thought it got really exciting as it went along. And whose to say Hawkgirl won’t be introduced later? Not as fun as the Wednesday Comics version of the character but it worked for me.

Superman. Really boring. What a let down. Like the art. Like the whole thing with new owners for the Planet. Like that Clark is angry that Lois is a sellout. Like all that. So why was it so boring? Issue 2 is going to have to be really good for me to keep going on this one.

Teen Titans. Your review for this isn’t really a review. You’re saying “I like the old stuff even though I haven’t like the old stuff for a while and now there is this new thing that I don’t like cause it’s not like the old stuff I didn’t like“. Huh? Why is every critic coming at this like the characters are going to be exactly the same as they were pre reboot? It’s kind of like a movie critic reviewing a remake, saying they didn’t like the original then saying they don’t like the remake because it wasn’t like the original. The characters have changed. It’s starting over. What’s so hard to understand? Review it on it’s own terms.

Voodoo. Sigh. Okay. I just have to ask here. Are people like you and CBR and Comics Alliance having secret meetings to discuss how you’re all going to misrepresent this book? Go to all of those sites and you will see a string of comments from people who actually read the book going “Huh?”. Yes, she strips in the first issue. They are giving a nod to her wildstorm/moore roots. But guess what? She quits at the end of the book! Guess you didn’t read that part eh? Are you just going out of your way to ignore what actually happens in the book? You don’t like the art and the writing, fine, say so. But the character is not going to continue to be a stripper. This was the set up, the whole time she’s stripping we’re getting exposition explaining who and what she is. Also, she’s stripping for a reason. To gain information from soldiers from the nearby military base who go to the strip bar. You know, cause she’s an alien getting information for a future invasion?

This comic was very much like the 1987 cult favorite film “The Hidden” with Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri about a shape shifting alien. There was a scene where the alien takes the form of a stripper for all of 5 minutes. This is the same thing. Would you criticize that movie because the alien was a stripper for one scene before she switched bodies to a male cop (which Voodoo does at the end of the comic)? No, you wouldn’t. But you have too good a seat on that bandwagon you’re riding, on your way to finish beating the dead horse. If you’re going to be a critic, then be a critic. If you’re going to be a parrot, then be a parrot. You can’t be both and be taken seriously.

As for Flash, it was one of my favorite books of the relaunch. I’ve never collected the title aside from the very brief Waid/Acuna relaunch of a few years’ ago, so I’m not worried about Manapul and Buccellato needing to top what’s gone before. What is definitely bringing me back though is the best art of the entire relaunch (maybe Paquette on Swamp Thing or Chiang on WW as the only real competition). I think we might be getting the start of a Simonson-on-Thor run here (Walt was certainly not a guaranteed name where writers were concerned back in 1983); the art is that good. And I am always willing to prioritize art over writing in a comic book; I have novels if I want the best in writing.

[...] of DC’s New 52 #1′s over at Comics Worth Reading. His reviews for Week 5 can be found here and include looks at Justice League Dark, Aquaman, and Batman: The Dark [...]