Eliyes

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Thor: The Dark World
Iron Man 3
Guardians of the Galaxy
Ant-Man
Item 47

Meanwhile, DC is pissing me off my replacing Stephanie Brown!Nightwing in the Smallvill book with Barbara Gordon. It's like they want me to give all my money to Marvel. (And IDW. Because Transformers isn't a Marvel property any more.)

And now I will leave you all with the mental image of Toro dancing to For Your Entertainment. ;3

Guy Gardner by ~felipemassafera on deviantART

Lately I've been seeing a lot of chatter about "persons of colour" in the media -- not that this is anything new, but I've encountered a fresh wave. I.e. there's not enough of them, they're handled mostly badly, and people seem to fuck up who's what on a regular basis. Now, this leads to AUs where entire shows are recast (but seriously, fandom, why take out the recurring awesome Asian scientist but keep the one-appearance blonde chick?), ruminations on characters being introduced as non-white versions of white characters (Jaime Reyes is a sweetie, but he's also a recent example -- at least he's not a douche like the new Firestorm!), and of course massive fail in portraying/colouring/casting these characters. In the comics world there are such classic examples as Jubilee (who is Chinese*) being portrayed as white (frequent) or black (occasional), and Monet (who is black) being coloured with the same skin tone as her midwest farmboy teammate, Jamie Maddrox.

But the example I present to you now is from DC.

( Does anyone working on -- or reading! -- the books even REMEMBER that this character is half-Cambodian? Judging by the art, obviously NOT. )

*Yes, yes, Chinese-American. My point is her ethnicity, not her citizenship.

You know, it's kind of hilarious (in a not-very-funny way) that so many people who draw Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn together make Ivy taller. Because she's not. Yes, Harley is a short, peppy blonde as compared to Batman, but Dr. Pamela Isley started out as a tiny angry genius of a woman. Alas, she has gotten taller in the comics over time -- blame whoever cast Uma Thurman, I guess.

With Pied Piper and Trickster, it's the opposite -- everyone makes Tricks taller and Piper kinda girly, when actually Piper is taller and has a heavier build. This would be because Trickster is an acrobat, and therefore needs to be strong but light. (See Nightwing.) In fact, when they were admitting to Piper's age and had him retired from crime, they at first had him put on a bit of weight, which didn't look too bad. He's broader than Wally, in the shoulders and face, etc.

I so need sleep. X_X

Saw an issue of The New Mutants #1 (the new one, obviously) at the FLCS today. Picked it up and after four pages put it down again with a firm decision that Marvel can go fuck itself. Sam and Roberto were bullying the students.

SAM AND ROBERTO. BULLYING.

I THINK FUCKING NOT.

Roberto can be an ass sometimes, but he has major issues with bullying, and Sam -- is Sam. Come on now, people! Cheese and crust, what an appalling mass of OOC writing. *angry facepalm*

Precipitated by this unpleasantness, therefore, walking home saw Tai and myself talking about a happier version of the DCU we started poking at a handful of years ago, and really developed after Graduation Day ticked us off. Anyway, we decided that Spoiler in that 'verse is alive and is the guardian of Blüdhaven.

I feel good about that decision.