Friday, April 11, 2008

RAW

I'm through wasting my torturous self-editing on YOU[1].

Presenting my unfiltered response to the New Avengers #35 "Bendis hates women/Bendis hates people/Bendis hates Tigra/I love Tigra/Bendis has the job I want/Fuck Bendis/Praise be to Bendis" hullabaloo.

It's dated, yeah. It's unreadable, also yeah.


Let's see who actually reads this crap. carry on...


misogyny... when you're a comic nerd, it's a nifty word to toss around if you have a girlfriend who thinks your fandom is geeky or juvenile or a gateway drug to weeklong cyberporn binges. Or if you're sitting at a cafe with a girl you wish was your girlfriend defending the "serious" comics that you read. When you're not a comic nerd, or even a comics reader in general, it's a nifty word to cast aspersions on those things that you don't consider "serious art", like SNOOTY AUTHOR, SNOOTY FILMMAKER, or Dane Cook.

Bendis doesn't have a misogynistic bone in his body, and I think his work to this point speaks to that (Alias, Spider-Woman, New Avengers to this point, and so on). Those panels were supposed to be unsettling. It was supposed to be a harrowing illustration of just how far apart the good guys and the bad guys still are, even in the post-Punisher/Wolverine/hardass anti-hero geekscape. Was he trying to express some sort of fetishist leanings or some psycho ill will towards the double-x chromosomed? Absolutely not, Jigsaw's camera work notwithstanding. Bendis is pushing some of fandom's buttons to be sure, just not the baser ones so many have cried out about. He's classically building his villains up for some ultra-satisfying retribution in the third act, that's all. Any third-rate Marvel baddie can try and rob a bank or kidnap a Senator or even make an idle threat against a hero and/or someone they care about, but the Hood's mission statement is putting him on a path that leads directly to some righteous, furious, and heroic smiting. And based on Bendis' demonstrated love for a heroine's vengeance, don't be surprised if it's Jessica Drew, Jessica Jones or even Echo delivering some hellacious payback in the months ahead.

Bendis interview w/ Newsarama re: NA #35 and its accompanying discussion.

Bendis' original script as submitted to artist Leinil Yu.

Millarworld forums' New Avengers thread at which point the discussion of the issue in question begins.


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[1]Not YOU, A.

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