YNOT – When DC Comics — publishers of the continuing adventures of iconic superheroes including Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman —announced an impending rebirth of its most popular characters, the company explained the heroes and their worlds needed re-imagining in more contemporary terms. Fans worried changes to their beloved idols would emphasize marketing over tradition.

The fears turned out to be justified — particularly for female readers, who have taken offense at the new tone of franchises like Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws
At Comics Alliance, influential blogger Laura Hudson penned a long — and passionate — piece decrying the shameless and tacky (at best) and crude and insulting (at worst) depiction of female characters post-re-launch. About the newly re-envisioned Catwoman, Hudson noted the character seems to be little more than a collection of erogenous body parts.

“The writer and artist have decided that out of all possible introductions to the character of Selina Kyle, the moment we’re going to meet her is going to be the one where she happens to be half-dressed and sporting bright red lingerie,” Hudson wrote. “That is in fact all we see of her for two pages: shots of her breasts. Most problematically, we are shown her breasts and her body over and over for two pages, but NOT her face. No joke, we get a very clear and detailed shot of her butt in black latex before we ever see [what] her face looks like. Can’t you show us the playful or confident look in her eye as she puts on her sexy costume? Because without that it’s impossible to connect with the character on any other level than a boner, and I’m afraid I don’t have one of those.”

Hudson likewise vents frustration and disappointment about the ending of the first issue, written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Guillem March.

“‘What’s wrong with Batman having sex?’ you might ask,” she wrote. “There’s nothing wrong with Batman having sex. Or Catwoman, or Starfire, or any other hero. The problem isn’t the plot point. If you’re an adult, you’ve probably seen dozens, if not hundreds, of movies that included sex scenes. The mere fact that a piece of media depicts a sexual act doesn’t tell you very much about how that scene is going to make you feel.”

According to Hudson, in Catwoman #1 the payoff is anything but powerful — or even erotic. She feels the scene is disingenuous, written as pure exploitation.

“And that is the whole problem with this false notion of ‘sexually liberated’ female characters: These [depictions] aren’t those women,” she wrote. “They’re how dudes want to imagine those women would be — what Wire creator David Simon called writing ‘chicks with d*cks.’ They read like men’s voices coming out of women’s faces. Or worse, they read like the straight girls who make out with each other [in] clubs, not because they enjoy making out with women but because they desperately want guys to pay attention to them.”

Hudson is not alone in criticism of DC’s “new look.” Previously in the DC comics world, the character of Amanda Waller — head of the legendary Suicide Squad and a thorn in the side of many DC superheroes — was depicted as a powerful, but still human, black woman with … shall we say “added dimensions.” In other words, she was drawn as a big, bold, beautiful woman.
But not anymore.

“So it appears that the reboot of virtually the entire line of a comic book company has one other unexpected effect. Dramatic weight loss,” Neo-Prodigy wrote at Ars Marginal, which bills itself as “a progressive view of arts and entertainment from marginalized perspectives.” “Amanda Waller, one of the few full-figured women in comics, the badass who even Lex Luthor and Batman tread carefully around and [are] hesitant to fuck with, has now been reduced to a size zero. The Wall has become the Rail.”

While the hue and cry continues over the changes to DC’s stable — especially since so many of the changes are seen by fans as purely exploitive and cheap — how much of an enduring impact the reboot will have remains to be seen. Whatever ultimately happens, one thing seems clear: Sometimes sex doesn’t sell.

Image: Panel featuring Starfire from Red Hood and the Outlaws #1, 2011. © DC Comics