For a couple of years, I was a contributor and editor for the "Comics" section of PopMatters.com, a smart, popular, and diverse site about pop culture. Going through their archives, I've uncovered my Old Reviews, posted here for your pleasure.
23 December 2002
Y: The Last Man
The Pro
8 January 2003
Cla$$War #3
6 February 2003
Elektra Lives Again
Fantastic Four #60-64
26 February 2003
My Uncle Jeff
19 March 2003
Rawhide Kid #1
Mek
31 March 2003
Parliament of Justice
16 April 2003
Cheat
30 April 2003
Makin' Toons
21 May 2003
Superman: Red Son #1
9 July 2003
Event: The 2nd Annual Free Comic Book Day
5 August 2003
Nepotism
H.E.R.O. #1-4
20 August 2003
Portraits of Israelis & Palestinians
15 September 2003
Supreme Power #1
A Sort of Homecoming #1
3 December 2003
Tiny Giants
14 January 2004
21 Down: The Conduit
Wanted #1
3 March 2004
Red #1-3
7 April 2004
Monolith #1
12 May 2004
My Flesh is Cool #1-3
23 June 2004
Exit 13, Volume 1
1 September 2004
White Elephant
14 October 2004
Harry Johnson #1-2
30 December 2004
Temporary #1
27 January 2005
It Disappears
Baraka and Black Magic in Morocco
10 February 2005
Burn, Christmas, Burn!
23 February 2005
Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days
6 April 2005
Amazing Rain
29 April 2005
Evenfall #7
17 May 2005
Daredevil Vol. 11: The Golden Age
12 July 2005
Dracula vs. King Arthur #1
10 August 2005
Nat Turner #1
16 August 2005
Sticky #1-3
20 September 2005
Drawn Out
4 October 2005
Tricked
7 November 2005
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Joseph Campbell
21 November 2005
Advent Rising: Rock the Planet #1-2
31 January 2006
7 Days to Fame #1
12 January 2007
Joony Tuff #1
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
A Simple-Minded Stream of Consciousness Reading of The Avengers (w/ spoilers)
Looking at the film through the lens of sexuality reveals what appears at first to be a fundamental binary of the movie: Hetero-Heros vs. Homo-Villains.
Let's start with the negative, the Other who negatively defines the Self of the Heroes & Audience. This reading notes the particular ways in which Loki is sexualized, often minor or tangential but still grossly stereotypical.
His posh English Accent -- with something of a lilt on the high tenor end -- often sounds effete to American ears (and probably many British ears too). He has long dark hair -- stylized hair. He wears elaborate, fashionable outfits. Hates and envies his Jock Older Brother: Thor, (Heterosexual) God of Thunder. He has unresolved Oedipal issues with his one-eyed adoptive father: Odin, King of the Gods and All-Father. Loki's not really one of the Asgardians (would Ass-Guardian be TOO obvious?), but a Frost Giant -- are there Frost Giant women? -- so he seems to be the product of a mono-sexual masculinity. His chief weapon is a (phallic) spear given to him by a mysterious alien power which he uses to figuratively steal the hearts of men -- at least, his army of mind-slaves appears to be exclusively male (correct me if there were females in Loki's human army, certainly the main 2 were male: Hawkeye/Barton & Selvig). But, the transmission of his power is through contact, and seems to be a sort of infection of the mind, as well as a rape of it (cf. Hawkeye's description upon recovery). He wants to invade and enslave all of humankind, whom he commands to get "on [their] knees!" before him.
Loki is backed by an army of unisex lizard aliens. Led by a mysterious "Him," who is revealed post-credits (to those in the know) to be Thanos, the Marvel cosmic supervillain personification of Death (from Thanatos, the Greek daemon of death and Freud's term for the "death drive," associated by Lee Edelman with homosexuality, blah blah blah). Loki wants to open a secret dark hole to let in the invading aliens and their giant evil flying sperm whales.
On the other side, the heterosexual powerhouse of the Avengers Men (and super-hot Chick). I think that it is fairly obvious that in comparison to Loki the Avengers are explicitly heterosexual -- or rather, their sexuality is mostly invisible, normal, normative, only a small part of their character when visible. It is presumed and not referenced in the same way that Loki's sexuality is somewhat more explicitly displayed.
But, in case it is not obvious, here's a very brief summary of the markers of heterosexuality of Our Heroes:
Tony Stark/Iron Man: Notable Playboy, now with Sexy Serious Girlfriend. Tony Stark's girlfriend appears more than any other non-hero female in the film. Scantily clad, also his personal assistant/mother/ego massager. And he says to Captain America that he's a billionaire playboy. So, he's super-hetero.
Thor: Super macho dude, in love with Natalie Portman (seen on a computer screen to remind us), plus that Sif warrior-woman clearly has the hots for him too.
Bruce Banner/Hulk: Betty Ross (Liv Tyler/Jennifer Connolly) is his tragic lost love from previous films. Mostly de-sexed here as Mark Ruffalo plays the Woody Allen version of Bruce Banner.
Steve Rogers/Captain America: A man out of time, we are briefly reminded in a flashback of his lost love from WW2, who aged and died while he was frozen. Also mostly de-sexed except for two exceptions: one VERY notable, discussed later; the other the star-struck Waitress in an Old-Timey Diner outfit whom he saves, and who later talks about him on the news.
Natasha Romanov/Black Widow: Super-sexy Super Spy, damaged but deadly, with some sort of bond to Hawkeye, whom she fights with while fighting to win him back from the All-Male Loki Army.
Nick Fury: The father figure. Like Odin, missing an eye. Old enough, gruff enough that his patriarchal authority need not prove its sexuality. It is assumed. Still, while he isn't sexualized, he does have a super hot female assistant, loyal to the death.
But then I realize, the heterosexuality of the heroes is actually far more explicit than the homosexuality of the villain. That is to say, the homosexuality of Loki is secondary, it is implied by tired stereotypes, never explicitly stated. The sexuality of the other characters, in so far as they are sexual at all, is heterosexual and at least a bit explicit. This assertion of heroic heterosexuality against vaguely effete unreproductive anality seems a bit anxious -- the lady doth protest too much, methinks syndrome.
Next time: A few notes on the finer points of the characters and their relationships.
Let's start with the negative, the Other who negatively defines the Self of the Heroes & Audience. This reading notes the particular ways in which Loki is sexualized, often minor or tangential but still grossly stereotypical.
His posh English Accent -- with something of a lilt on the high tenor end -- often sounds effete to American ears (and probably many British ears too). He has long dark hair -- stylized hair. He wears elaborate, fashionable outfits. Hates and envies his Jock Older Brother: Thor, (Heterosexual) God of Thunder. He has unresolved Oedipal issues with his one-eyed adoptive father: Odin, King of the Gods and All-Father. Loki's not really one of the Asgardians (would Ass-Guardian be TOO obvious?), but a Frost Giant -- are there Frost Giant women? -- so he seems to be the product of a mono-sexual masculinity. His chief weapon is a (phallic) spear given to him by a mysterious alien power which he uses to figuratively steal the hearts of men -- at least, his army of mind-slaves appears to be exclusively male (correct me if there were females in Loki's human army, certainly the main 2 were male: Hawkeye/Barton & Selvig). But, the transmission of his power is through contact, and seems to be a sort of infection of the mind, as well as a rape of it (cf. Hawkeye's description upon recovery). He wants to invade and enslave all of humankind, whom he commands to get "on [their] knees!" before him.
Loki is backed by an army of unisex lizard aliens. Led by a mysterious "Him," who is revealed post-credits (to those in the know) to be Thanos, the Marvel cosmic supervillain personification of Death (from Thanatos, the Greek daemon of death and Freud's term for the "death drive," associated by Lee Edelman with homosexuality, blah blah blah). Loki wants to open a secret dark hole to let in the invading aliens and their giant evil flying sperm whales.
On the other side, the heterosexual powerhouse of the Avengers Men (and super-hot Chick). I think that it is fairly obvious that in comparison to Loki the Avengers are explicitly heterosexual -- or rather, their sexuality is mostly invisible, normal, normative, only a small part of their character when visible. It is presumed and not referenced in the same way that Loki's sexuality is somewhat more explicitly displayed.
But, in case it is not obvious, here's a very brief summary of the markers of heterosexuality of Our Heroes:
Tony Stark/Iron Man: Notable Playboy, now with Sexy Serious Girlfriend. Tony Stark's girlfriend appears more than any other non-hero female in the film. Scantily clad, also his personal assistant/mother/ego massager. And he says to Captain America that he's a billionaire playboy. So, he's super-hetero.
Thor: Super macho dude, in love with Natalie Portman (seen on a computer screen to remind us), plus that Sif warrior-woman clearly has the hots for him too.
Bruce Banner/Hulk: Betty Ross (Liv Tyler/Jennifer Connolly) is his tragic lost love from previous films. Mostly de-sexed here as Mark Ruffalo plays the Woody Allen version of Bruce Banner.
Steve Rogers/Captain America: A man out of time, we are briefly reminded in a flashback of his lost love from WW2, who aged and died while he was frozen. Also mostly de-sexed except for two exceptions: one VERY notable, discussed later; the other the star-struck Waitress in an Old-Timey Diner outfit whom he saves, and who later talks about him on the news.
Natasha Romanov/Black Widow: Super-sexy Super Spy, damaged but deadly, with some sort of bond to Hawkeye, whom she fights with while fighting to win him back from the All-Male Loki Army.
Nick Fury: The father figure. Like Odin, missing an eye. Old enough, gruff enough that his patriarchal authority need not prove its sexuality. It is assumed. Still, while he isn't sexualized, he does have a super hot female assistant, loyal to the death.
But then I realize, the heterosexuality of the heroes is actually far more explicit than the homosexuality of the villain. That is to say, the homosexuality of Loki is secondary, it is implied by tired stereotypes, never explicitly stated. The sexuality of the other characters, in so far as they are sexual at all, is heterosexual and at least a bit explicit. This assertion of heroic heterosexuality against vaguely effete unreproductive anality seems a bit anxious -- the lady doth protest too much, methinks syndrome.
Next time: A few notes on the finer points of the characters and their relationships.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
While stuck in an unexpected layover, picked up the Book that Everyone's Talking 'Bout (applause). Here's the good and the bad.
Bad: Katniss is a bit of a Mary Sue -- everyone loves her, she's good at everything. The science fiction elements are too soft and plot devicey: I get that Katniss is a kid and to her the tech will seem amazing and beyond her comprehension, but still. As an example of something that I found particularly lazy: the little parachuting gifts that her trainer would send while she was competing in the games. This allowed Collins to artificially do a few things: move along the so obviously telegraphed love triangle between Peeta, Katniss, and Gale by having K&P make out; introduce challenges to keep the story going and not have Katniss overwhelm the game competitors, then easily resolve the challenges that so that Katniss never suffers TOO much.
Neutral: Basically a reworking of "Battle Royale"
Good: Doesn't shy away from serious emotions and serious violence, which I think is good; don't sugar coat or dumb things down for kids. Always nice to see a powerful young girl protagonist who doesn't wilt in favor of her boyfriend. Lots of action, good pacing, quick read. Solid, enjoyable writing.
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