-
Currently Reading: Best of August 2015
This “Best of” post is coming to you on September 3rd instead of August 31st because of a massively chaotic last couple weeks, primarily because of moving. However, it is also a little late because, especially compared to last month (overflowing with good books) this was a disappointing book month. Nevertheless, here are five things…
-
Look Who’s Back: Naziism and Parody
So, there’s this book that came out recently called Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes. It makes me profoundly uncomfortable. The premise of the book is as follows: Hitler wakes up in modern-day Berlin, and hilarity (and political satire) ensues. Quotes on the book call it “a hilarious, yet poignant look at today’s world” and “thrillingly…
-
Framing the Conversation Around Women Heroes
It’s been a while, but I’m still kind of angry about this post. It isn’t the premise of the post that upsets me. Absolutely, Furiosa is a unique breed of action heroine who manages to do a lot of new and really exciting things, just as Mad Max: Fury Road is an action movie that managed to prove that the…
-
Currently Reading: Best of July 2015
Recently I graduated college – even more recently, I made the cross-country move to New York City, and suddenly found myself with an abundance of reading time. Time on the subway to and from destinations, time during lunch at work, time in the evenings or the mornings. My reading list never seems to shorten, but…
-
From X-23 to Wolverine: All-New All-Different Laura Kinney
Last week, a number of previews were leaked to Bleeding Cool showing the post-Secret Wars Marvel Universe – a soft-reboot of the comics which restarts all series with #1 and advertises itself as a brand-new status quo. Just how much things will change remains to be seen – but there are some exciting changes coming in…
-
Women in Mythological Retellings: Different Song, Same Verse
This post could also be titled “Why I haven’t read Song of Achilles.” Recently I picked up The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, because I love a) mythology b) mythological retellings (especially from a feminist perspective) and c) Margaret Atwood. It was a short and overall enjoyable read – but I found myself troubled by one aspect of…
-
When Transformative Media Isn’t So Transformative
Recently, fanfiction and fandom have started to get more mainstream attention, with pieces on NPR and The New York Times Magazine. The increased awareness of what has historically been a somewhat shameful internet subculture has been kind of a mixed blessing, resulting, for example, in embarrassing interviews where celebrities are confronted with explicit fanfiction about…
-
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Response to Jill Lepore
A few days ago, Jill Lepore, a staff writer on the New Yorker and professor at Harvard University, wrote an editorial entitled “Why Marvel’s Female Superheroes Look Like Porn Stars” talking about the forthcoming series A-Force, the first all female Avengers team in Marvel’s more than fifty year history. The writer of the series, G. Willow Wilson…
-
Sympathy for the Supervillain: How Far Is Too Far?
As part of the massive, soon-to-launch Secret Wars event, Marvel announced a tie in comic called Secret Wars Correspondence: Hank Johnson. The writer, David Mandel, describes the comic as following the daily life of Hank Johnson: “He’s an everyman. …That’s the beauty of Hank Johnson—he’s you, he’s me, he’s your best friend. He just happens to…
-
Comics Recaps #1: Captain America #179, “Slings and Arrows”
Every so often you run into an issue of a comic that is so beautiful it boggles the mind. This issue of Captain America, published in 1968, is one of those issues. (This recap was previously posted on my inactive comics tumblr, lisereadscomics. Previously in volume 1 of Captain America (#176, to be precise), Steve…