Tag: representation matters

I thought Hawkeye was deaf, then became “undeaf” or something… he’s deaf again?? I don’t follow the Hawkeye 2012 comic so I’m quite confused! My apologies u_u

bobbimorses:

he became deaf in Hawkeye v1 #4

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which lasted around 15 years (in which there were only about 10 references to his hearing loss- i could post those panels if you want)

until, after some extreme 90s alt-universe event where all the heroes ended up dead,

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the “heroes reborn” universe, where the panel above is from

he was revived in 1998 with completely restored hearing

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it’s shown that he knows sign language when she-hulk attempts to unsubtly warn a revived hawkeye (after he died in avengers disassembled, not heroes reborn) of his impending doom

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but he was napping in the jury

now, clint’s been deafened again in #15 of the current run of hawkeye

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and it seems it’s being retconned that clint had actually been deaf for a time in childhood, before he sacrificed his hearing in hawkeye v1

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Great recap of the Hawkeye deafness (yay comics timeline!)

door:

I work in a comic book shop.  Today a black woman I’d never seen before came in (neither the fact that she was black nor female are unusual for my store—it’s got an awesomely diverse customer base).  She was looking for Afterlife With Archie, but stuck around to browse after I pointed it out.

Sometime later, she walked up with a small stack of issues, and while I was ringing her up, asked if I knew the name of a black superhero from way back.  I suggested Black Panther.  ”Yes!  Does he have a comic?”  I told her that although he was in a few titles, he didn’t have one of his own.  But, I asked her, had she heard of Miles Morales?

She hadn’t.  I grabbed the first issue I came to in the stack where his face was visible on the cover (#25, I think), and she positively lit up.  ”The comic is all about him?”

“Yup!” I said, “and it’s great.  One of my absolute favourites.  If you want to start at the beginning, the first five issues are in a book.”  I grabbed the first volume off the shelf, and she added it to her stack.  After a moment’s hesitation, she looked back at the wall of issues.

"Can I get the first one you showed me, too?”

“#25?  Sure, but…you might not really know what’s going on.”

“That doesn’t matter.  I just want my brother to see it.  He used to love comics, but he hasn’t read them since he was a kid.  I want him to see this boy’s face.”

Representation matters.  Diversity matters.

Ms. Marvel (2014-) Digital Comics – Comics by comiXology

The all-new MS. MARVEL, the ground breaking heroine that has become an international sensation! Kamala Khan is just an ordinary girl from Jersey City–until she is suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the all-new Ms. Marvel?

Part 2 in ‘put your money where your mouth is’ about comics. Ms. Marvel launched this year and as I write this has 5 issues out. Kamala Khan is a teenage Pakistani-American girl, Muslim, superhero and just trying to figure it all out. 

Writer’s website. (female creator books are a Good Thing).

And a drop quote: As much as Islam is a part of Kamala’s identity, this book isn’t preaching about religion or the Islamic faith in particular. It’s about what happens when you struggle with the labels imposed on you, and how that forms your sense of self. It’s a struggle we’ve all faced in one form or another, and isn’t just particular to Kamala because she’s Muslim. Her religion is just one aspect of the many ways she defines herself.

Ms. Marvel (2014-) Digital Comics – Comics by comiXology

Watson and Holmes Digital Comics – Comics by comiXology

WATSON & HOLMES is a modern urban take on the tales of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Re-envisioning Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson as African Americans and taking place in New York City’s famous Harlem district

Alright. So I’ve been ranting about the problems with comics and culture on and off for a week. Time to point out something that is GOOD in comics. I discovered Watson and Holmes on Comixology when they offered the first issue for free. The summary caught me, Dr Watson is an ER doctor in Harlem and Sherlock is a PI. The first issue is pretty self-contained and re-casts the whole comic with POCs that all. make. sense. 

Good stuff. 

Watson and Holmes Digital Comics – Comics by comiXology

tamorapierce:

taibhsearachd:

You know what, I changed my mind. Forget fire Remender. Fire everybody. The writers, the editors, just everybody. Replace them with people who can deal with criticism like fucking adults.

I’m all for that, but you’re going to have to re-staff at least half of comics.

If that’s what it takes I’m up for it. Being a shitty human being doesn’t entitle you to a job.

I’ve collected comics for twenty years. I’m past tired of watching an industry I love think that because I’m female my opinion is not only worth less than a male’s, it is actively hindering to their view of what they think it should be. It has become oh so very easy to spend my money elsewhere in the last decade. The comic book industry wonders why when a movie like Avengers makes over a billion dollars (and yes Avengers is a sausage fest of largely white men) that a best selling comic book is under 50,000 copies. Yes, some of it is the format. People don’t read the way they used to.  LCS being your main point of distribution is a problem.  Digital distribution is helping a lot but it isn’t solving the bigger issue. The issue where if you aren’t a straight white male you’re treated as something to advance the straight white male’s storyline. That’s disgusting.

When a human on any disadvantaged axis starts yelling about how they’re being mistreated by the media/the world I listen.  I listen because 999.99 times out of 1000 in my past experience they’ve been right. What the fuck does that say about our culture? About how we treat our fellow humans?

Comics is a symptom of a bigger problem in our culture. Comics and art reflect the larger culture they are in and what is allowed to be said. The Big Two have a platform and a voice and that voice says terrible things.

It needs to stop.

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

carolyn-claire:

frecklestherobot:

purplexeyed:

Fuck the word “Mary Sue”. It is literally shorthand 90% of the time for “your character is female and doesn’t act how I want a female to act so I don’t like her.” Or “your character is female and a self-insert/wish fulfillment and that makes her bad.” As if a large chunk of male characters AREN’T self-inserts or wish fulfillment characters.

You know what I’ve noticed? That the qualifications of realistic or relatable are only applied to female characters in these genres. No one questions that Steve Rogers apparently learned French, computer and technology skills, an advanced fighting technique, and had the free time to catch up on history and pop culture between The Avengers and The Winter Soldier. But Skye is good at computers and can learn how to be an agent rather quickly? MARY SUE WHO DESERVES TO DIE.

SO many male characters are Marty Stu self-inserts, like, pretty much ALL of them. Men don’t care; hell, they’re into it. Women don’t care if male characters are “too good to be true” either. Why is that? Why are we so ready to buy into those ridiculous male characters but balk at the female ones?

It’s called misogyny, and it needs to fucking stop.

When I first started writing actual fanfic (as opposed to RPG fun) I was pretty much nerve-wracked any time I needed to write from a female character’s POV, because EVERYONE at the time was screaming MARY SUE any time you did so.  I spent literal years waiting to be attacked for daring to have a female voice in a fanfic.

YEARS.

How fucked up is that?

Our western media culture is so messed up around storytelling. There are problems around Skye, no question but wow are there problems around Ward and Coulson too and I don’t see that called out anywhere.

I don’t read them but I smile every time I see character/reader stories and other self inserts. You go, writerpeeps. Go write yourself into the hero stories and the having a life stories and the I just want to hold his hand stories. 

Write. Write the effing things. Be all the things. Dream all the things and fuck ‘em otherwise. How else are we going to be in stories but to push and shove our way in.

And the people writing those stories? They’ll remember those stories later in their twenties and thirties and they’ll vote with their dollars and their attention.

And finally, goddamnit, why not have a female hacker? It could so easily have been a male role and they didn’t do that. There are a whole set of women on that show that are competent around their jobs and chosen careers and that is something to celebrate.

saladinahmed:

“Ahmed’s characters…are a terrific blend of the realistic and the awesomely magical.” — io9

“[Ahmed is] revitalizing the fantasy genre with fresh perspectives and original stories.” — Library Journal

ENGRAVED ON THE EYE, a free ebook of short stories by Hugo and Nebula nominated, Locus Award winning author Saladin Ahmed.

A medieval physician is asked to do the impossible. A Muslim wizard wanders the old West in search of redemption. A disgruntled supervillain plots prison reform. A cybernetic soldier might or might not be receiving messages from God.

The short stories in this collection have been nominated for the Nebula and Campbell awards, reprinted in THE YEAR’S BEST FANTASY and other anthologies, recorded for numerous podcasts, and translated into several foreign languages. Now they are collected in one place for the first time, free and DRM-free. Experience for yourself the original voice of one of fantasy’s rising stars!

Download ENGRAVED ON THE EYE for free (and DRM-free) at Smashwords. Also available on Amazon and AmazonUK.