[Editor's Note: Beware some very minor spoilers for the movie.]

Here’s the thing, the first time I saw Marvel’s The Avengers, I [...]]]> Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon, Zak Penn
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johanson, Samuel L. Jackson

[Editor's Note: Beware some very minor spoilers for the movie.]

Here’s the thing, the first time I saw Marvel’s The Avengers, I declared to some skeptical friends that it was the greatest super hero movie I’ve ever seen. They, who did not see the film yet, argued for The Dark Knight, which I still maintain is not a super hero movie but a crime movie that happens to star comic book characters. Said friends saw Marvel’s The Avengers and relented, saying it was extremely good.

After a second and careful viewing, I have to say it is a nearly perfect movie: solid storyline, great pacing, awesome and not overbearing action sequences, fantastic chemistry between the many larger-than-life characters, plenty of Joss Whedon humor and a beloved character’s death. Also, everyone in this movie is gorgeous.

Seriously, this may be the best looking cast I have ever seen and if I can be superficial here for a moment: that is awesome.

A lot has been said about this movie and the female gaze, a concept that has been steadily gaining traction in feminist and gender studies. I have written about the male gaze in comics before, and since this is a concept that was founded in cinema studies, it makes sense to apply it to Marvel’s The Avengers. The male gaze, or the gaze in general, is ultimately about power and dominance. Whoever holds the gaze (typically, heterosexual men) exhibits agency and dominance over the sexualized object (women). In cinema, and as I argue, in life, women are viewed merely by their bodies and as sexual objects for their male counterparts. Think of the common advertisements, posters, magazine covers, music videos, etc. and you can see the male gaze in action.

Now, as I said earlier, this film stars a handful of some terribly good-looking people, most of which are men. Black Widow is the one female Avenger and she is incredibly sexy. She is portrayed that way for the audience from her skin-tight cat suit, to her perfect eye make-up and even to her interrogation scene in the beginning of the film in which she is referred to as a “pretty face.” Nonetheless, I found Black Widow a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing character. She manipulated her sexuality and her femininity for her own gains. In a fabulous face-off sequence with Loki, she uses his assumptions of how a woman feels and reacts to endangered loved ones to get information. She is not just a pretty face and never does the audience feel that she is trying to compensate for her womanhood. She is a world-class assassin; that’s it.

Meanwhile, a lot of comments, often bemusedly and very often sexistly, have been made about the hotness of the male Avengers. The latest issue of People Magazine features this photo-shoot:

Also jokes abound about Captain America and Hawkeye’s tight costumes and of course, Loki’s legions of fangirls. In fact, this is one of the first action movies that I can recall that I’ve noticed this profound attention paid to the fact that women (my God, WOMEN!) want to see and enjoy it. Most of the people I have talked to and discussed Marvel’s The Avengers with have been women and they all love it and want to see it again.

So where does that leave us? Is it equality to switch the gaze around so that women possess it? What does it mean to objectify the male body rather than the female in a big budget popular film? Was that even the film’s intention or are we simply protecting onto it as a society?

Ultimately, I wish more than anything that the mere fact that women would want to see a super hero movie were not considered surprising or alarming. There have been plenty of sexist and demeaning responses to Marvel’s The Avengers and its female audience. It’s as if the kneejerk reaction to seeing women line up to see an action comic book movie and being genuinely excited for it is too much to comprehend. Therefore, they MUST be in it for the eye-candy. What else could explain it? Women don’t read or care about comic books but they sure do love muscles.

I am angered by this sentiment and the fact that so many of these responses try to backpedal by claiming to be tongue-in-cheek. No, that is not a free pass to dismiss women. In fact, by focusing so much on how female audience members are objectifying the male characters only, these women are reduced to one-dimensional sexual beings.

The gaze in general, whether male or female, is troublesome. Furthermore, it is difficult to shed because of how it is shoved down our throats in society. We see here with interviews that part of the marketing of the Marvel’s The Avengers seemed to focus on the gaze and sexual objectification, rather than the strengths of the film itself.

Of course, I am happy to see a film in which it is not only the female characters that are wearing those skin-tight, kind of nonsensical outfits. I also like talking about which Avenger I would most like to date (Coulson, in case you were wondering, though technically he isn’t an Avenger) with friends but that is only a portion of why I love Marvel’s The Avengers.

I love it simply because it’s a great film. I love it because I love comic books and this did justice to some of my favorite characters. Like the millions of others who have also seen and enjoyed Marvel’s The Avengers, I love it because it was everything I could want in a super hero movie. The attractiveness of the actors is merely an afterthought.

Seriously, writer? Instead of writing an intelligent guide to the movies for people who aren’t [...]]]> If there’s anything that’ll spur me to get back to my blogging, it’s fangirl feminist rage. And in today’s edition, we have an absolutely boneheaded, sexist piece of crap in the form of Moviefone’s “Girl’s Guide to the Avengers”.

Seriously, writer? Instead of writing an intelligent guide to the movies for people who aren’t already fans, you write this? Using idiotic, sexist stereotypes? Sorry. Even as a humorous piece, it fails horribly.

A quick note: Moviefone has now added a disclaimer at the top of the article in an attempt to address criticism. I still think the whole thing is a hot sexist mess.

Let’s do a quick rundown of the most egregious bullshit:

As your boyfriend probably told you, “The Avengers” is hitting theaters this Friday. And you, dutiful girlfriend, are attending. But you hate action movies and you’ve never even read a comic book. (Of course, that’s not a slight against the girls who actually do read comic books — i.e. real fans, actual people with varied interests — but for this, let’s just go with the stock view of ladies, ladies!)

That little “Oops, I didn’t mean to offend girls who like superheroes!” line really isn’t helping, since you’re still writing an article entirely based around the idea that women don’t like icky boy things, so here’s how you can please your boyfriend (which is obviously a woman’s only goal in life). Psh.

Including cocktail introductions a la “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and boyfriend impressing tidbits, below is everything you need to know about “The Avengers.”

…Seriously?

What NOT to say:
“Do you think Scarlett Johansson is pretty?”
“Oh, so it’s like the ‘New Years Eve’ of superhero movies?”
“Who could concentrate on the story with all those biceps?”
“Boys are so weird.”

Yes, because every girl going to see The Avengers is a giggling twit who’s obsessed with being pretty, watching inane rom coms, and who never got over high school. That’s insulting both to fangirls AND to girls who dig rom coms, because it’s a nasty, idiotic sterotype that downplays womens’ intelligence and their taste in films. If girls like it, it must be fluff. Bullshit.

I’m not going to touch the biceps comment because I have plans to see the movie twice thanks to said biceps (as well as Ms. Johansson’s ass-kicking AND attractiveness, so there). Criticizing that would be hypocritical of me. ;)

What to say:
“Thank GOD someone did the Hulk correctly.”
“I can’t wait for ‘Thor 2.’”
“Joss Whedon is the man.”
“Yeah, you’re definitely Iron Man. If he were buffer.”

See, these are logical suggestions (except for the last one. seriously.), and you know what, Moviefone? There will be many a woman coming out of The Avengers saying exactly these things.

But you know what else? They’ll be saying them because they used their brains and their enjoyment of superhero action movies to come to those conclusions. They’re not saying them because they want to impress a boyfriend.

You would think at some point that people who write about entertainment would clue into the fact that girls do, in fact, enjoy genres that they seem to think are boys-only. I mean, we fangirls rant about this shit all the time. Could someone pick up a clue?

Here, I’ll put it in big letters so anyone still holding onto that dumbass, outdated, sexist notion will understand it better:

WOMEN LIKE ALL KINDS OF THINGS.

There’s not a contract that we sign at birth stating that we can only like stuff with glitter and princesses and romance. Guess what? We DO like stuff with glitter and princesses and romance, and we also like stuff with badass superheroes, aliens, and ass-kicking. So stop writing about genre films as if women haven’t the faintest clue that superheroes exist, and they need a cutesy little nudge in the right direction so they can please their boyfriends. Stop perpetuating the misogynistic stereotype, okay?

Actually, you know what? After all that ranting, I think I can let Black Widow best express my disdain for that article:

Edited to Add: GirlFridayK on twitter encouraged me to add this, and I think it makes sense.

If you haven’t been reading TDF, you might not know that I’m a big fan of both superhero genre stuff AND romance genre stuff. Those two interests are not mutually exclusive, as you probably already know if you’re reading this post. So really, I found that article doubly offensive. I don’t like being talked down to. It makes me angry, and this makes me angry on many levels: as a comic book fan, as someone who likes “girly” things, and as a woman who is sick and tired of being talked down to as a woman. So, yeah.

Also, my husband wouldn’t have even noticed The Avengers coming out if it weren’t for me. So stick that in your stereotyping pipe and smoke it.

In the final pre-Avengers podcast series, Pamela and Amanda talk about their unexpected Bruce Banner feels and how he could make an excellent baker if he put all of his anger into cupcake making. Pamela also brings up the awesomeness of Miss Marvel and the hope that Marvel doesn’t throw in [...]]]>

Episode 6

In the final pre-Avengers podcast series, Pamela and Amanda talk about their unexpected Bruce Banner feels and how he could make an excellent baker if he put all of his anger into cupcake making. Pamela also brings up the awesomeness of Miss Marvel and the hope that Marvel doesn’t throw in every Avengers-related character from the comics in the movie sequel(s). This episode is something of a two-fer as the fangirls also talk about Captain America at length. Amanda is glad that the writers made Cap a little less cheesy and a little more feely in this adaptation while Pamela flails over the retro-futurism aspects of the film. Consider yourselves warned for spoilers for both films. Next week, Pamela and Amanda will be meeting up in Seattle to see the movie and attempt to record their flail for your listening pleasure.
Date: 27 April 2012
Length: 00:34:14
Download: Episode 6 (mp3; 31 mb) Please right-click and save!

Mentioned Linkage:
Miss Marvel (Carol Danvers)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
The Rocketeer
Flash Gordon

Intro Music:
“Heroes Under Pressure (Queen & David Bowie VS David Bowie)” Mashup by Rillen Rudi

Continuing with the Avengers-themed podcasts, Pamela and Amanda talk about Thor. They speculate about Thor’s weave in the Avengers movie and discuss the issues they have with the plot of the original film. They also continue their fandom-related feminist rants concerning badass female characters and fandumb opinions about them. Other tangential [...]]]>

Episode 5

Continuing with the Avengers-themed podcasts, Pamela and Amanda talk about Thor. They speculate about Thor’s weave in the Avengers movie and discuss the issues they have with the plot of the original film. They also continue their fandom-related feminist rants concerning badass female characters and fandumb opinions about them. Other tangential discussions include: Tony Stark’s Daddy Issues Part 2, why colorful spandex costumes don’t work in live-action superhero movies, and Black Widow and Hawkeye’s 80s hair metal band – Hawk Widow.

Date: 25 April 2012
Length: 00:33:56
Download: Episode 5 (mp3; 31 mb) Please right-click and save!

Mentioned Linkage:
Hyuuman’s “Odin’s A+ Parenting Guide” – Convenient Odinsleep: [1] [2] [3]
Charlie Bartlett (in which Kat Dennings plays RDJ’s daughter)
Thor: AKA, That Movie Where Loki is a Little Shit
Gingerhaze’s Loki art (and related posts)
Ironfries’ art

Intro Music:
“I Tamper With The Evidence At the Murder Site of Odin” Dethklok

I’ve been avoiding Daken: Dark Wolverine for very vague and ridiculous reasons:

1) I had no idea who he was
2) I don’t much [...]]]>

Cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Frank Martin

I’ve been avoiding Daken: Dark Wolverine for very vague and ridiculous reasons:

1) I had no idea who he was
2) I don’t much like Wolverine

I know these are completely nonsensical reasons for not picking up a single issue of a unfamiliar character so finally, I took a chance on Daken: Dark Wolverine #21 (right after a quick trip to Wikipedia to see just who this guy is).

Daken (who has worse daddy issues than Loki) has set his sights on destroying his father, Wolverine, after being informed by Reed Richards that the Heat drug he’s been taking has nullified his healing factor. Daken obviously figures that he has nothing to lose now, especially after being betrayed multiple times over, so he might as well go out with a bang, literally.

The first portion of the issue follows Daken as he slithers around New York, waxing poetically on the tense and frankly imbalanced relationship between super heroes and the adoring public. Daken, like many villains, steps precariously close to breaking the fourth wall in that he expresses an almost meta-understanding of his role as a bad guy in contrast to all the good super heroes in the world. Furthermore, he’s frankly disgusted with this black-and-white narrative, especially since he so hates one of the most popular good guys, Wolverine. This is apparent in a subtly creepy scene in which Daken looks over a collection of plush super heroes at a toy store and picks up a Wolverine, only to be told by a child that he’s “one of the best good guys.” Daken’s quiet agreement is unsettling.

Meanwhile, Daken’s apathy to his upcoming death unnerves Reed Richards, who offers to analyze Wolverine’s blood to find a cure, and Johnny Storm, who considered Daken a friend. We then conclude the issue with Daken slipping his father a Heat pill in an attempt to make him lose his healing factor just in time for Daken’s bombing of New York City.

Overall, I enjoyed this issue. Granted, I have never read any Daken before this and therefore, don’t have a great deal invested into this issue. Perhaps if I were a longtime fan, my feelings would be different but right now, I’m curious to see where this is going. Sadly, the last panel featured one of the silliest ending lines I’ve read in a long time and definitely one of the weakest arguments made by a villain ever. Daken wants to blow up New York simply “because super heroes are stupid.” Oh, Daken, let what you just said sink in for a moment and you’ll realize how juvenile you sounded.

Beyond this cringe-worthy moment, Daken is an interesting character though not exactly anything new. He’s a charming sociopath that you can’t help but be intrigued with – like most popular villains. What differentiates Daken is his relationship to Wolverine and his hinted at bisexuality, which is, if Wikipedia and fandom are to be believed, more like a nudge nudge in-joke than reality.

A bisexual character in a mainstream comic book series would be awesome and if Daken is, then cool. My main concern lies in the fact that the bad guy is sexually ambiguous, building upon a tradition of scary, creepy queer characters (Norman Bates, Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill, and Carmilla are popular examples). Indeed, Daken perfectly fits the Depraved Bisexual trope, which is not the best step forward for queer visibility.

Furthermore, Daken could very well not be bisexual at all but merely using his sexuality as a means to get information or assistance in his dastardly plans. If this is the case, then other issues are being raised, such as the fear of having an openly bisexual male character in a mainstream comic book. Of course, it would be interesting to have a male character use his sexuality in this manner, as this is a traditionally female device (Huntress, for example, used to be portrayed in this way quite often). This isn’t empowering but it definitely blurs gender roles, which I’m always for.

Anyway, Daken’s bisexuality notwithstanding, Daken: Dark Wolverine #21 was a fun read. I was lukewarm about the art, however. The characters looked sort of slapdash and squashy to me, as if the pencillers really just wanted to throw wrinkles into everything. The coloring was nicely done, however: very bright and clean, which juxtaposed Daken’s grim outlook on life.

Apparently, Daken: Dark Wolverine has been cancelled, too, which is unfortunate. Does anyone have any Daken suggestions? I would love to see how other writers have portrayed this character.

The podcast is back! With the new Avengers movie coming out next month, TDF Pamela and Amanda have decided to discuss the Marvel movies leading up the new film. Each week will feature a new podcast in which the ladies talk about Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America. [...]]]>

Episode 4

The podcast is back! With the new Avengers movie coming out next month, TDF Pamela and Amanda have decided to discuss the Marvel movies leading up the new film. Each week will feature a new podcast in which the ladies talk about Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America. As always, some rambling and fangirling will happen – but isn’t that why you’re listening? Consider this a spoiler warning for both Iron Man films and the Avengers trailers and any clips they have posted online.
Date: 7 April 2012
Length: 00:48:09
Download: Episode 4 (mp3; 44 mb) Please right-click and save!

Mentioned Linkage:
Fury’s Big Week
Collider: Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson The Avengers Interview
Coulson Short: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer
Black Widow clip from The Avengers (possible spoilers)

Intro Music:
Black Sabbath vs Beastie Boys – Iron Man (Rock dubstep mashup)

Otherwise, HOLY CRAP GUYS.

Made by the Paris-based Quantic Dream, developers of the groundbreaking Heavy Rain game, the “Kara” concept video is [...]]]> And Roger Ebert says video games aren’t art. Quantic Dream, the developers of the popular game Heavy Rain, released this demo video at the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco. From All Things D:

Made by the Paris-based Quantic Dream, developers of the groundbreaking Heavy Rain game, the “Kara” concept video is a look at the future of gaming, using full-body motion capture and a new computer-graphics engine. It is running in real time on Sony’s PlayStation 3 platform.

Mostly, it is just heartbreaking, as a robot comes to life and is quickly scared by the idea of how precious that can be.

My reaction to this video can best be expressed through this pic: