The comic blogosphere seems to grow larger every day and just like comics, sometimes it’s pretty easy to get a little lost. “Meanwhile …” will act as your map, pointing out what interesting discussions are happening out there while you’re reading Blog@Newsarama.

Hi guys! This is Kalinara here, as usual! Do I have some interesting stuff for you today. Some of it’s fun, some of it’s very serious, but all of it is definitely worth a look!

Room For Improvement

At her livejournal, Te posts about race with regards to recent events in the DCU:

There was just no room in there for people who looked like me, unless we were the mysterious ‘Other’ thrown in as a dash of — heh — color in the creators’ world-building schemes. The people who lived on that other continent/on the other side of that big desert/whatever who would never actually be seen. In fact, that was — with all too rare exceptions — probably the best I could hope for, as the alternative was to have the people who looked anything like me be — just as an example — minions to the inevitable fucking Dark Lord.

While at Seven Hells, Devon reacts to events in Civil War #4:

A friend of mine asked me what I thought about Black Goliath’s (A Black doctor) death at the hands of Thor (A blonde, blue-eyed Norse god).

My first thought was that old awful joke, “What do you call a Black doctor?”

The answer’s not that simple and I don’t think, the case.

Second thought, I tried to believe that it what was best for this particular story. Then, I realized I was trying to justify gross ignorance.

Up Up and Away With the Proletariat

Over at the Legion Abstract, Matthew successfully courts my favor with this great post on classism from the perspective of Superhero Comics:

There are no shortage of bloggers who routinely write about issues of race and sex when it comes to comic books, but less often do I see discussions of class. Maybe class issues are subtler, harder to discuss, less likely to be taken personally. (Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places.) I don’t know. Certainly I’m no kind of expert on the subject. In fact, I’m not really comfortable talking about class at all, which I suppose is quite North American of me. But I’m starting to suspect that superheroes are an elitist, upper-class kind of idea, and I hope I don’t embarrass myself too much in explaining why.

Steven at the Roar of Comics disagrees on the assessment of Superman and explains why:

His claim, and it’s one I generally agree with, is that superheroes as a genre tends to be “classist.” Heroes tend to be either actual nobility, such as Wonder Woman or Aquaman, or very rich, like Batman and Green Arrow, and they fight to save the masses from themselves rather than fighting to change the social structure that keeps the poor in poverty. There are obvious exceptions, but that seems to be true, going back to the proto-typical stages of Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Oldies But Goodies

Jon Cormier gives his impressions of Ultimate Spider-Man in trade.

Marionette muses about the change in direction of Batman comics in the 1960s.

And Brainfreeze remembers the Cat.

Good Characterization…If You Squint

In the midst of near-universal condemnation of certain characterizations in Marvel’s Civil War, our own Carla Hewitt manages to find one kernel in the mess that ALMOST makes sense:

Hank Pym is a self-styled king of bonehead moves, starting with this first appearance in Tales to Astonish when he shrunk himself down to the size of an ant, freaked out, then locked away his Pym Particles, swearing to never use them again only to become a costumed hero with an encylopedia of problems.

And that’s why I like him so much. It’s sounds horrible, but Hank Pym is the kind of hero not many aspire to be, but would turn out that way. Someone brilliant, someone who really wants to belong but just doesn’t have that ‘IT’ that makes a superhero. Ego and self-doubt and a lack of self-esteem always get in the way and make him either a wife beating villain or a people pleasing clone artist.

Challenge Time!

Brown Betty is offering to host any art in which male characters are posed as women.

While, our own Ragnell’s challenging everyone to give Arisia a new costume.

First Contact:

Blogger Ragnell and Livejournalist Te discuss comic fandom on the Internet and how it manifests differently on livejournals versus blogs.

Quick Hits:

Both Kelvingreen and joncormier have suggestions for how to end Civil War.

Designated Sidekick has been playing with Poser to prove a point. (He also does a genderswap example for Brown Betty’s challenge.)

Melchior is puzzled regarding this month’s Catwoman.

Bully’s supporting a nifty comic book idea.

Vincent gives reasons why Starfire should be saved.

Mike Sterling shares the Worst Comic Story he’s ever read.

Lyle’s noticed something interesting about Black Condor.

Jeremy discusses parenthood in comics.

Brainfreeze still loves Superhero Comics.

Illustrator’s Site of the Week

Green Lantern Corps artist Patrick Gleason has a website!. He’s got some covers, sketches and comic art displayed and even some for sale!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 4:14 am and is filed under Internet, Meanwhile.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.