Lisa over at Sequentially Speaking has a blog post about this page on Thunder-bolts, and takes it as either a) a slap in the face to feminist bloggers, or b) a sign that all the uproar over the MJ statue was exactly the sort of publicity that they want. I have to say, without even reading the rest of the book, that I respectfully disagree.
As much as I believe that Joe and the gang over at Marvel probably do get a good laugh over the majority of the internet posts on their work, this page looks a hell of a lot more like the writer getting the opportunity to make fun of Marvel itself, within one of their own books.
Think about it, Moonstone here, not the nicest character, is being exploited by the big bad government with a tasteless statue, and Songbird, the book's sole moral core, is getting the chance to laugh at the whole thing. In fact, Songbird is even being told in the first panel that she has the more selective fanbase, and won't be exploited as crassly.
Get it? Harry Osborne is taking the place of Marvel, Marvel that OK'd the MJ statue. Rather than a slap at feminists, I think that this is an acknowledgment that occasionally Marvel does do rather crass stuff, knowing that they have the fans to sell it. Or, at least, the subset of fans.
I'd be the first to call them on this, if it really was a stick in the eye to all the very reasonably worded objections to the original MJ statue, but I think it is anything but.
2 comments:
Wait, people read this as anything but a dig at the statue and the customer base behind it?
I think you've hit it right on the head.
That's how I took it, certainly!
OTOH, as someone who discovered that there's always SOMEBODY who will misread an author's intentions (also that Marvel apparently never reads their own comics unless there's a public outcry - and then censors it in the trade paperback), it's very possible that Christos Gage slipped the shiv into that issue figuring everybody would see it one way - and is probably VERY surprised that so many people saw it the other. :o
Best,
Tim Liebe
Dreaded Spouse-Creature of Tamora Pierce
- and co-writer of Marvel's White Tiger comic - TBP out Now :)
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