SIDE-TRIP TO MT. WUNDAGORE WITH JESSICA DREW

Chapter Two

 As a kid, "Spider-Woman" the chic red number from Hawkeye was my Marvel jam. West European, cursed with bad-assed Petey Parker-esque powers and a bizarre bonus: pheromones that unnerved folks, teasing a tag "To know her is to FEAR her". Like an arachnid, she gave (most) peeps da creeps! Some had reverse reaction: a compulsive attraction, giving a seductively tragic twist, plus she palled around with an ancient wizard who kinda had an unsettling uncle effect. As a brat I was rapt, me a DC kid. Stan Lee's Land was weird creepy country. Holly-weird habitant Jess seduced me from panel one.

Over the years what was got nullified. Jessica vanished a decade, resurrected in early 2Ks by Brian Bendis who modified Marvels post-bankruptcy Disneyland move. Unlike his other upgrades and amplifications, she got gutted. All left was secret agent stuff, connections to Hydra and SHIELD, then revealed as an impostor alien. Next Bendis did an ongoing for her with Jessica Jones co-creator Michael Gaydos, cancelled quickly as the artist quit. BB couldn't imagine anyone else doing the job. Odd because I could name 10 without strain, David Aja who did the pic in that beast miniskirt for one. Ironically, Drew bemoans being the "most screwed over person on Earth in her 12 issues. Read ya loud and clear, Sister.

Hang with me: 20-teens, fantasy illustrator Milo Manara did a variant variety for Marvel popularly, including sans hubbub "Fearless Defenders", closest anybody could come to a Marvel Womens Studies Book on LGBTQ Valkyries and Amazons. His last was a Spider-Woman joint, her roof-crawling a'la Spider-Man. One random blogger on a dead Tuesday declared it the apex of pornographic objectivity. Flame-wars, many calling bullshit on the outrage engine brought mondo shots of Petes sexy hiney (I was reared a Barry Allen guy myself). Then rants slid to bad anatomy, a mega-ton of which cropped from the decades. Raging megaphones kept drowning logic. Despite his success and oceans of women speaking support for the artist, his cover was cut, him too. Next, her skin-tight super-suit got banished for a jacket resembling Batgirl of (Politically Correct Always) Burnside and motorcycle despite her being a flying femme. Mirroring DC catering to aggrieved audiences, replacing curvy Kryptonian Honky Karen Starr for Black boy-built Power Girl Tanya Spears, unsurprisingly temporary as a 10-year-olds tattoo, cancelled by disinterest. Behold a pattern, and not for a nifty maxi-skirt. Marvel should never have catered like they did, as the changes they made clearly the audience begging for didn't stay and support. They wanted to kill somebody else's pleasure. Marvel announced at that time initiatives for female inclusion and there's a MISTAKE. Make quality books for anybody capable of comic joy and you needn't do that. FOR THE RECORD: because it might as well have been 100 years back and I'm about that old I forgot Milo's name. Vox.com provided it along with a slanted account of something I LIVED through.

Last year I picked up and sold a SW book a month later featuring a typical jeans and t-shirt-sporting cynical Spider-Man clone. Nothing about this brought cheers nor emotion at all. "Adequate" - blasphemous in an age of brilliant books like our article began with. Too, that history lesson was needed for showing why? for this. Women finally got green-lit, but thanks to tiny groups claiming ownership of them, creators and companies are nervous about development, leading to clumsy usage. We have boomeranged to the 1970s via "helpful" fan types.

Back where we were, "Lonely City" honed in on Catwoman's career through multiple costumes and how we perceive its wearer. We get lauded for loving her early 2000's look that replaced a dark period of Selina sexy-style, literally modeled on the Playboy Bunny. Darwyn Cooke's practical goggle-gear hit the mark fashionably with its playful pull-hoop, whip-smart belt, and bitchen buckles atop its sleek shiny leather fetishism. The Doc Marten-y boots shout "business" without being blah.Those of quality gender-regardless would dig it as it wasn't a cheap tramp-trash insult like the purple pointlessness preceding it. What I didn't like about that one was its lack of register with the character of one-second-sooner's intent. Shooting it to Hell were porn positions and buoyant bouncing boobs. Let me insert when that abortion bit the basket DC and Marvel weren't on activism's loud radar yet. Myriad imprint fans voted the successful Brubaker/Cooke improved interpretation in. That was after Animated's arrival. Selina's violet vulgarity came off Batman Returns. Quality won. It does when we get it.

Comics are highly visual media. Variety is needed. We thirst for artfulness, seeking it from a medium built around it. Being clear, I'm not wanting all women in graphic novels sporting mod fashion or retro though I love the looks. Women dress for other women, said to pieces and true. Those feeling left out of that conversation have their place. However, that shouldnt be the ONLY look and vibe. Multitudes of females are being kept from this establishment that could want in, not to mention men that love those lost voices too. Myself it's about waiting decades to see the opposite sex hit the stands. Now some coolest aspects were taken by people who wanted to change a medium, not buy it. That is controlling behavior, like bullying, Should you ask me.

End of Chapter Two