Wonder Woman’s Foreign Successors

I’ve been reading Mike Madrid’s The Supergirls, a really fantastic look at  the history of superheroines in mainstream American comics. I just reached the 1970s, and the karate-chopping, white-pantsuit-wearing, depowered Wonder Woman era that came with […]

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The Case for Fashion in Comics

I love comics. Frequently, it doesn’t feel like they love me back–but I, like most fans, can take it. I can weather the bloated crossover events, the gimmicky romances, the deaths that you know won’t […]

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Save Our Stereotypes

I don’t want to destroy the damsel in distress. I don’t want to destroy the sleeping beauty. Or the femme fatale. Or the pollyanna. Or the ditz. Or the girl next door. I watch attempts […]

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Pretty Soldiers: Hotaru Tomoe

Hotaru Tomoe is abused by her father. She suffers from an illness that leaves her breathless, weak and wracked with pain. She is picked on by her classmates. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are planning […]

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Superheroine Movie

Imagine the teaser trailer. Peeks at the iconic costume, a villain’s growled one-liner, the title looming suddenly out of the darkness with THIS CHRISTMAS or SUMMER 2014 beneath it. Imagine the interviews in Entertainment Weekly: […]

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On Sansa Stark

(Note: This is from the perspective of someone who has watched the Game of Thrones TV show but is only 120 pages into the first book.) I’ve spent a serious chunk of my first week […]

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On Fatherhood

When I was around six or seven, I discovered my father’s old comic books. He’s an archivist and his closet reflects this–it is a meticulously organized trove of his interests, packed away in folders, binders […]

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Pretty Soldiers: Minako Aino

Minako Aino revels in frivolity. She loves pop music and cake, she trades shoujo manga with her friends, she wants to be an idol singer someday. She loves fame and glamour and if she existed […]

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Pretty Soldiers: Makoto Kino

The strength of characterization in Sailor Moon is, in my opinion, what has made it such an enduring series. When we were children, we chose our favorite and used her to represent who we were […]

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Sex and the Senshi

(Author’s Note: This article deals with issues regarding sex and sexuality in a non-explicit manner. Regardless, it might not be safe for work.) Usagi, the titular character of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, is a great […]

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Let Us Now Praise Betty and Veronica

I became a comics fan at six years old. Something about the medium exhilarated me–something I still have trouble articulating. Something that made me leaf reverently through my father’s old Marvel back issues, the characters […]

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