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 everyone! Got a particularly neat batch for you today! A lot, though not all, is Civil War/Marvel related, but I think (hope) there’s still enough variety to keep you interested!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

At Post Modern Barney, Dorian’s got a bone to pick about a certain scene in Marvel’s Young Avengers and Runaways comic:

Oh Marvel, Marvel, Marvel. You so badly want to pretend to be the “hip” and “edgy” comics publisher, but your politics are so deeply mired in craven and reactionary pandering to the knee-jerk bigotries of your audience that it’s almost comical. Even when you’re not deliberately setting out to offend, your subtext comes shining through.

Lyle of Crocodile Caucus adds his own misgivings:

There’s part of me that wants to be understanding and say that it’s all a matter of unfortunate timing and an inability to see the big picture of how Marvel’s history with LGBT characters looks to the outsider who isn’t part of the publisher’s day-to-day operations, mixed with culturally insensitive cluelessness, but, as Dorian notes, the list of recent offenses is long and it seems like every step forward (like the relationships between Hulkling and Wiccan or Carolina and Xavin) eventually gets countered by a moment like this.

A Glimpse of Light

After much misgivings regarding the fate of the female Doctor Light, Marionette has been given a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.

For the first time since Kimiyo Hoshi was depowered and left for dead in Green Arrow #55 we have a sighting of Dr Light II that cannot be put down to a flashback or awkward resheduling of timelines. Unless Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are all so out of touch with the current superhero situation that they are unaware of what happened to her, then it’s safe to say that Kimiyo is alive and well, and back in action.

Marvelous Civility

Chris at 2 Guys Buying Comics has a very funny page-by-page review of Civil War #4.

Meanwhile, Googum at Random Happenstance has an interesting perspective on the ideas behind mutant/hero registration:

So there’s two extremes: the hero has an obligation to help, and to help to the best of his ability all the time always. You used to see this all the time in Spider-Man: Spidey arrives too late to help, some traumatized/mean-spirited onlooker gives him the hassle, and Spidey swings away hating himself even more. On the one hand, it’s completely understandable: if the fire department arrived too late to save your home, you probably wouldn’t tell them, “Good try! Nice hustle!” On the other hand, hopefully you wouldn’t curse or blackball the fire department until they were run out of town, or put on a costume and start trying to kill them.

Arisia’s Secret?

At Zamaron, Soyoerika uses her knowledge of Intimate Apparel to critique a certain Green Lantern’s costume:

This summer, I worked in the Intimates section at my local Macy’s. By no means was it a glamorous job, but it did make me something of a Bra and Boob Physics Expert. Granted, having boobs myself, there are some things that were just intuitive to me to begin with. I did learn about previously unknown realms, however, such as strapless bras and the like.

And, of course, I can now go “buhwhaHUH?” at comics even more.

The Topic That Never Dies

We’ve all heard it before, from comic geeks and non-comic geeks alike. This time Ragnell’s weighing in on an age old debate, specifically focusing on the inherent sexism of one particular argument:

I can see where you’re coming from when arguing how either character interacts with women vs how he interacts with men to argue that they are homosexual, but honestly I’d need a long road paved specifically with Dick Grayson interaction to convince me of that particular pairing. (I also find that arguments about Bruce’s interaction with women indicating anything other than a repressed heterosexuality, sexuality which has been pushed aside for his War on Crime, are barking up the wrong tree — but if you think you have a good one, you’re welcome to try.)

Those, and others, are still reasonable points.

However, there is a sexist argument that I’ve seen drummed up in these discussions, and if I see someone use it, I’m calling them on it.

The comments at Furikku’s livejournal add to the discussion.

Cotton Candy Anyone?

One Hundred Little Dolls is (are?) hosting the Fifth Carnival for Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans. (Guess who was one of those lucky enough to get picked?)

Also, Avi Green is hosting his own comic themed carnival on The Four Color Media Monitor.

Quick Hits:

Lyle wonders if perhaps the new Legion of Superheroes cartoon isn’t lacking something.

Tom Foss weighs in on the Grant Morrison run of the X-Men.

Chris Sims uses his 600th blog post to celebrate Punisher and Batman: Deadly Knights.

Mallet really likes Namor. He also understands the insanity of Genis-Vell..

Harvey Jerkwater has some ideas about Nightwing.

Brainfreeze muses about the pitfalls of not having a local comic shop.

Kevin Church reviews Up, Up, and Away.

While Calvin Pitt notices the little things.

Comic Craft Site of the Week

I’m taking a break from Illustrators this week to bring you something neat: Kurt Busiek on Writing for Comics.

(Found via Neilalien. )

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 7:18 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.