Honor Roll – Week of October 31, 2005 – Bulleteer Edition

I’ll admit it, I chickened out on reviewing the first issue of BULLETEER. I wasn’t so much afraid that I’d write something offensive (c’mon, it’s the Internet – that’s what we do), it was more about my inability to find a point of view and stick with it. There’s nothing I hate more than rereading one of my posts a week later and thinking, “Gee, that was stupid.” And as I began reading other responses to the book I realized my decision was a smart one. Here’s five that made me think:

5) Randy’s review over at 2 Guys Buying Comics was among the first I read. My initial response was similar to his in that I thought this was the most accessable of the Seven Soldiers premiers and while I noticed the “Cleavage 101”  -- particularly  the cover -- I didn’t think it really added much to the story.

4) Brian Cronin aptly points out that our heroine’s brick s**thouse appearance is part and parcel of Morrison’s greater commentary on the depiction of female superheroes as well as his exploration of the seamier side of the crime fighting business. He also throws out the "Cousin Larry" analogy, which you'll just have to follow the links to understand.

First pass through the book I really didn’t pick up on the greater sexual exploitation theme. Maybe it’s a sad statement on how females are depicted that I more or less glossed over all the imagery - noted, appreciated, next...Thematically I was looking at things from the narrower viewpoint of Alix’s relationship with her husband, but Brian and a few others got me to thinking in broader terms.

3) & 2) Mark Fossen and Jog explored Morrison’s themes in even greater depth. Both did a great job of laying out how Yanick Paquette’s posing of Alix in varying degrees of undress and suggestive body positions serve to actually reinforce the sexual exploitation/fetish theme.

Like Jog, I really liked the metacommentary about people who would do nearly anything to gain superpowers. In a world with superheroes, there's little doubt this would happen. 

1) Apparently there must have been a bit of an uproar somewhere about Alix’s depiction. I’m guessing it was on the messageboards since the comic blogosphere gave the book a universal pass from what I could tell. (It’s times like this when I really miss Fanboy Rampage.) But Johanna Draper Carlson, so often the voice of reason, comes to the rescue and at the same time lends some credence to the "Cousin Larry" analogy Brian had made:   

“Now, he may not have anything new or unusual to say about it (I have a hard time believing that there IS anything new or unusual to say about it), or he may not follow through on the expectations he's created, but to get upset here because Morrison is supposedly better than that, well, he's part of the corporate comic sausage factory. He wouldn't be the only one foregrounding the subject as a way to have his cheesecake and eat it (benefit from it) too.”

One thought that occurred to me after reading the thoughts of Brian, Mark, Jog and others is that of all the revamps introduced by Morrison this one seems the most ready made to enter the DCU. It doesn’t seem likely that every appearance she makes is going include a little background check explaining just why she’s depicted as she is. The look will simply become part of her package and Morrison and Paquette will be able to more or less wash their hands of it.

Of course there’s also this little tidbit in Johanna comments, courtesy of Paul O’Neil:

“I've heard it said that Morrison's script for BULLETEER didn't actually request that level of cheesecake, and certainly didn't ask for the lead character to spend most of the issue in her underwear. It seems to be more of an artist's decision.”

Hmmm….

Comments

[rsteans]

I kind of thought that Alix's depiction wasn't so much a "have your cheesecake and eat it, too" as much as a plot device and an interesting dig at comic readers. We're all Lance. We're all looking at comic porn of young girls in tights who never get older. Married comic readers do it in the same house as our beautiful wives.

He's trying to get her to let him work outhis pygmalion fantasy with his own wife and turn her into the thing he desires. He's ignoring what he's got, whih there's no small suggestion isn't bad, in favor of the fantasy. Of course, the fantasy kills him.

There's your morality play right there.

Bulleteer could have been a 320 pound woman with no teeth who undergoes a magical transformation, but she didn't. She's a thing of beauty already.

Notice how at the beginning she sees herself in the mirror as a freak and at the end she's in the mirror again.

I guess we have three more issues to find out.

[rsteans]

That was supposed to read:

I'm not sure what it means, I'm usually wrong.

I guess we have three more issues to find out.

[Kurt]

I think the interplay between Alix and her husband can be read on a lot of levels. And it was a pretty interesting way to relaunch a character, no matter what Morrison’s intentions were regarding how she’s depicted. I’m real curious to see if any of the sociology explored in this issue is expanded on in the remaining three. But I suspect not, since it appears (from the back of the issue promo) that we’ll finally be revisiting the events of the SSOV kickoff book.

[rsteans]

the toughest thing about SSoV is that it's so spread out and that the series arrived during the Infinite Crisis hoopla (I mean hoopla in the best way possible here). These books have, no doubt, been lost in the shuffle. More to the point, I don't think I've ever had more to keep track of at once across so many comics.

The SSoV books beg to be reread once you've gotten a little further into the series, but with all the other stuff I'm picking up, I'm not necessarily finding the time.