Something Feral

Digging up the flower-beds.


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Bruce, we hardly knew ye


Does art imitate life, or vice versa?
Holy sexuality, Batman! Two months after his untimely death, the creators of Gotham City's crime-fighting superhero, Bruce Wayne, have finally unveiled his politically-correct replacement: a ginger-haired, lesbian socialite called Batwoman.

The publisher of Detective Comics, the iconic title which for 60 years has revolved around the recently-deceased Wayne, revealed this week that future editions of the comic book will star his long-standing female counterpart, whose real name is Kathy Kane.

Described as "a lesbian socialite by night and a crime-fighter by later in the night", Batwoman will be the subject of at least 12 issues. It will be the most high-profile appearance by a gay superhero in any book published by the legendary DC Comics.
I suppose it was only a matter of time; Bruce Wayne alias Batman, the Dark Knight, the fantastically wealthy corporate mogul, confirmed bachelor, dread defender of Gotham City, and a superhero by virtue of sheer will-power, intellect and his own financial backing, has been replaced with Grrl Pow-wah™, Hypersensitive Agitator of the Multicultural Matriarchy.

Now, this isn't a new change, but the permanency of the replacement is a rather recent development. Sadly, Batman has fallen victim to a foe he cannot fight within the confines of the comic-book panels:
Now, DC Comics has brought back the female caped crusader and given her a makeover in an attempt to diversify its cast of characters and perhaps appeal to a broader audience. Other previous white heroes in D.C. such as Blue Beetle, Firestorm and The Atom have been reinvented in recent years as Mexican, African-American and Asian characters, respectively.
Unsurprisingly, DC Comics was confronted with the intractable reality of the situation:
But these characters — as well as Black Panther and The Falcon — have not been nearly as successful as Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and The Hulk.

No black superhero -- or any hero of color or outwardly gay superhero -- has had the kind of sustained run enjoyed by Batman, Spider-Man and Superman in their own comic books. None has a hit TV show or blockbuster movie. The Panther had three different solo series that ran in the late 1970s, 1980s and late '90s before its revival in 2005. Cage's books ran between 1972 and 1986 before being revived for two other volumes in 1992 and in 2002.

Milestone Media -- which had a licensing agreement with DC Comics and published comics featuring a set of heroes who happened to be black, Asian and Hispanic -- launched in 1993 and folded after only four years because of poor sales, despite the popularity of characters such as Icon and Static.

"You have to wonder why some characters have been so popular and why some have not," said Inge. "In many ways, we have made a lot of progress, but there are things that suggest that perhaps we have not."
Some of us wonder, but not all of us, Inge. Note the popularity of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, then give Coca-Cola a call and mention "New Coke".

More pointedly, the objective test of developing a set of superheroes with multicultural "virtue" failed when it was used as a replacement for content. Instead of attempting to supplement the deficiencies, a foundation-block for the genre came under fire and was summarily replaced with an avatar of the politically-correct movement.

In this case, art does imitate life: Western Civilization commits itself daily to an auto de fé to appease its parasites, enslaving and exiling those that built its foundations in the name of equality and social justice. And yet, we fail, and we will continue to fail until we remember to look to the foundations of our respective houses.

4 comments:

Wonder Woman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wonder Woman said...

I prefer Wonder Woman to handle matters such as these...

Awaaaaaaaay!

PS. I'm still dopey this morning and screwed up my first comment ;-)

Tee hee hee, OOPS!

Something Feral said...

Perhaps we can petition Wonder Woman to convince the military to purchase some Invisible Jets, and sell off some of the obsolete surplus to creditor nations? Or better yet, use the Magic Lasso to compel the Congress to 'fess up about spending?

I do dream.

Wonder Woman said...

As do I....

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

WV: prosses