GWOG

Let’s face it: How many times can Batman take on a case that forces him to grapple with the death of his parents all over again? How many long-removed-from-continuity pieces of Superman mythology can be slyly re-introduced? How many beloved supporting cast members can be killed off and revived? How many unnecessarily “plausible” explanations for superpowers can embarrassed-by-the-premise writers concoct?

They also discuss what they want in Superhero comics, and I find myself agreeing:

You know what I think the secret source of a lot of the better superhero comics these days is? Alan Moore’s America’s Best line. Launched in the late-’90s, the line included titles like Tom Strong, Promethea, and Top 10 that, initially at least, brought a knowing, grown-up sensibility to superhero archetypes while presenting them without any irony. Moore has said that it was his attempt to bring what he felt superhero comics needed at the time and maybe, though he didn’t say this, repair some of the damage done by all the grim and gritty comics trying to emulate certain elements of Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

Worth reading. These folks like comics and want to see them done well. Thanks to Holli for bringing it to my attention.

(P.S. Dear The AV Club, did you realize you named 12 writers to watch and they were all men? What do you suppose that means?)

Stereotypes are part of the system of oppression. The historically oppressed groups are (by definition) more hurt by the system than the historically privileged; the stereotypes are more limiting and vicious for the oppressed groups. Invoking stereotypes for the oppressed and not the privileged obviously reinforces the system, but so does invoking stereotypes for *both* privileged and oppressed. (In fact, invoking stereotypes *only* for the privileged can in some contexts *also* reinforce the system, because those stereotypes are often the foreground that defines the background role of the oppressed group. [...] The problem is not how the oppressed group is portrayed versus the privileged group, but how the oppressed group is portrayed versus the history of how they have been portrayed.

To put it another way– stereotypes are dehumanizing, and are so in a particularly humiliating and/or violent way toward nonprivileged groups. In order to rehumanize the portrayal of that group, you have to… you know… rehumanize the portrayal of that group, not dehumanize some other group.

I don’t know how many times I or other POC have said that we hate having what feels like purely academic theoretical discussion with white people about race, because for us we are talking about our real experiences, feelings, and lives. Our humanity is under the microscope and being ignored or dismissed or denigrated about it doesn’t feel too good to us.