I have one major issue with this initiative, which is the same issue I have with any kid-focused initiative Marvel or DC have tried before: what happens when the kids you're selling to want to read the comics that
aren't kid-focused? And they will, because someone will tell them they're not reading/watching the "real" Wonder Woman or the "real" Batgirl. Which is bullshit, and we know it's bullshit, but all a kid wants is to prove they're not a kid anymore to all the adults around them.
So what happens when they read the main books and find that they're full of amputations and cheesecake and rape and all the other "edgy" teenage-boy-targeted crap we take for granted? Are they supposed to go back to the "kiddie" books they now know are "kiddie?" Will they just learn to like the "real" books? No, the most likely scenario is that they'll move away from comics entirely, and I won't blame them if they do.
Because these are characters created to entertain and inspire children who have been hijacked by a certain generation of fans who wish comics could be like they were when they were children themselves, but have proved over and over again that they don't
actually want that, because comics are Serious Business and how dare you imply that these characters I grew up with are a bit silly. When they try something new, these "fans" throw a shitfit because change is scary. When they reverse the changes due to "fan" demand, the "fans" mock them for being unable to come up with anything new. It's this endless recursive loop neither Marvel nor DC feel they can afford to break out of.
How the fuck is a kid, especially a girl, supposed to feel comfortable participating in a community like that? More importantly, why the fuck would she
want to? I'm as big a believer in the power of comics as anyone alive, I love superhero comics, and I preemptively cringe whenever I look at a comics blog. I do that as a defense mechanism, you see, because I fully expect to have that cringe validated by the time I'm done looking at said blog. And ninety percent of the time, I'm right. And I am an adult who has watched this shit go on for twenty-plus years. I've built up a tolerance. I can't imagine what it would be like for a kid who wants to get into comics these days.
Eoraptor said:
sadly, that's the only thing that got through... the message that "gee those disney princesses sell shit real well, what if we did that, but with comics instead of fantasy?"
a highly merchandisable product for which virtually no actual content has to be produced, just like the princesses, a license to print money on parents who only care that it shuts their kids up for five minutes.
I'm not sure I understand your disdain. What you just described is precisely what Disney and everybody else in the business of entertaining kids does too. Nobody's doing this because it's the right thing to do. Some folks involved might
believe it's the right thing to do, but you know as well as I do they wouldn't do it if they didn't believe it might be profitable for the company.
EDIT: Also, the fact that two of the "strong female characters" they chose to highlight in their initial image are, in canon, a sexy temptress whose power is to essentially "pussy-whip" men and a homicidal maniac in an abusive relationship with the defining homicidal maniac of the DCU only underscores how jarring it will be for girls to get into the "real" comics.
