An Open Letter to Jon Stewart as He Begins His New Life

Dear Jon Stewart,

I write this with the full knowledge that you will most likely never see it. Admittedly, this isn’t a typical fan letter but nonetheless, since I have survived roughly three weeks with you or The Daily Show, I felt I deserved to reach out to you.

First of all, congratulations on a job exceptionally well done and best of wishes on your future plans. I just wanted to take the time to personally thank you for 16 years of incredible work at Comedy Central. I’ve no doubt you’ve heard compliment after compliment (and angry diatribes from your critics, which also count as compliments) over the years and especially in recent months. So I’m sure you realize you've bowed out with a bang.

Still, it would feel wrong for me to not at least attempt to explain how important your time at The Daily Show has been to me and my family.

I’ll try not bog this down with rambling details so long story short, my dad is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s. I’m sure that was a twist you didn’t see coming in this, right? Sadly, we all saw it coming and now that it’s full blown, it’s getting scarily easy to reminisce about the past. I was never one for nostalgia but when the man you know as your father has been replaced with an entirely different, weaker, more vulnerable individual who can no longer communicate, it becomes one of your favorite pastimes.

Happy anniversary, Batman.

I could write about how no fictional character has so quickly and irrevocably changed my life like Batman has. I could write that it's only been about six years since I read my first Batman comic and since then, I've started my own comic book blog, worked in the comic book industry, got paid to go to San Diego Comic-Con, and met my own personal heroes and icons of the industry. I could even write about the fact that it's because of Batman that I truly became a gamer, that I learned to love comic books, animated series, and to find inspiration in characters as varied as Oracle, Huntress, Supergirl, Nightwing, and more.

I could talk about how thoroughly important this man is to me and how his Rogues Gallery is a safe source of excitement and suspense for me. I could even talk about the Joker and how he has fired my creativity and imagination more than any other fictional characters has in ages.

But all of this would take far too long.

Instead, I just want to take a moment to celebrate the character who changed my life, who opened my eyes to an entirely new culture, and who makes me laugh, angry, and inspires me to keep going.

I love Batman.

And today, on his 75th birthday, I want to say thank you to a character who has given me and countless others so much since 1939.

The Gender Trouble and “Homophobic Nightmare” of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Source: Wikipedia

It's been entirely too long that I've neglected my personal blog. Forgive me, little blog. I still love you.

In order to celebrate my return to Fangirling Daily, I wanted to show that yes, you can actually write about comic books, fandom, and Batman in a scholarly setting. Comic books aren't just for recreation but academia, too!

To prove it, I wanted to share a selection of a paper I wrote back when I was a graduate student studying English. The course I was taking was called "Gender Trouble" so of course, being a feminist, I enjoyed researching and writing this paper. Being a Batman fan, I loved it even more.

I don't want to post all of it because a) it's entirely too long b) that would be self-indulgent of me and c) as someone who hopes to be a professor someday, I am always nervous about and against plagiarism. Nonetheless, I felt it was too good to hoard to myself, so enjoy my self-important and critical look at Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

The Gender Trouble and “Homophobic Nightmare” of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Working in Hollywood recently I’ve come to realize how many prohibitions there really are against even touching one group or another, to a point where the villain can’t be female, can’t be gay, can’t be black. …Anyway, yeah, the homophobic nightmare is very much part of the Batman/Joker mythos. It’s always been there, I just spelled it out a little more plainly.

Frank Miller, 1987 (Sharrett 37)

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #1...

Adventure Time - Season Five

It’s New Year’s Eve so I’m going to cheat a little for my final entry in my Top 5 Favorite Episodes of 2013.

For my #1 spot, I’ve chosen Adventure Time as it has spent 2013 consistently improving and becoming one of the best science fiction and animated shows on American television.

It’s nearly impossible to choose one episode as the best of the year since 2013 gave us “Jake the Dad,” “Mystery Dungeon,” “Bad Little Boy,” “The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita,” “Time Sandwich,” “Love Games,” “Dungeon Train,” “The Pit,” “Root Beer Guy,” and the amazing and moving “Simon & Marcy.”

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #2...

Elementary 1.12 – “M.”

I’m a huge fan of Elementary and could probably write essays on multiple episodes’ sheer amazingness. From Lucy Liu’s pitch perfect portrayal of Joan Watson and Jonny Lee Miller’s eerily canonically accurate Sherlock Holmes to the awesome diversity of the cast and sets and Sherlock and Joan’s partnership of mutual respect, Elementary has become the best version of the Sherlock Holmes canon in years and one of the best dramas on network television right now.

But it was “M.” that demonstrated the dark side to Elementary and opened up Joan and Sherlock’s universe beyond the brownstone.

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #3...

Bob’s Burgers 4.08 – “Christmas in the Car”

Bob’s Burgers has slowly but surely been usurping Adventure Time as my favorite animated show currently on television. While I still have several episodes to catch up on from previous seasons, the current season has featured consistently strong episodes.

Compared to other shows’ holiday-themed episodes, both the Thanksgiving episode and the recent “Christmas in the Car” were two of the strongest and funniest ones I’ve seen this season.

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #4...

Sleepy Hollow 1.01 – “Pilot”

I started hearing rumblings about Sleepy Hollow in August and I literally decided to tune in to the premiere when I saw a taxi promoting drive past me one day. I liked the look of the two stars.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I tuned in to the premiere with my sister but by the end of the pilot, during which we had laughed, screamed and went aww, we were both hooked.

Sleepy Hollow has had stronger episodes this season than the pilot but it was this episode that caused this potentially gimmicky show to completely captivate me.

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #5...

The end of the year is coming and that means it’s time to take stock of 2013; by which, I mean take stock of all the television I’ve watched in 2013.

To be honest, I’ve always been a very picky television watcher but this year, I found myself expanding my TV horizons. With all the new television I’ve watched, I wanted to narrow down the year with my list of the top five best episodes of 2013.

Beware, obviously, of spoilers.

Please share with me your favorite episodes of 2013 and let’s start with number 5…

Sherlock Holmes Syndrome

I’m sick of Sherlock Holmes.

Let me clarify.

I fell in love with this character several years ago when I began reading the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle canon. Do you ever have those moments when you discover a character or a book and you think: this was created for me? I had that with Sherlock Holmes.

I loved him even with all his flaws, sexism, and drug addiction. I loved the world he inhabited, I loved Watson, and I was madly in love with Irene Adler. Even the stories where Conan Doyle was clearly phoning it in, I enjoyed. And for a while, I loved the fact that pop culture had rediscovered this character and seemed to create new renditions of him every year.

I am now sick of what I call Sherlock Holmes Syndrome. I am sick of eccentric, often neurotic, always brilliant white men who see things that we mere mortals cannot see. I’m sick of the mass media’s apparent belief that mental issues, depression, anxiety, psychopathy and neurodevelopmental disorders are magic. I’m also sick of the blanket use of autism, often incorrectly, as a signifier for Otherness and as a vague superpower.

Loki and the Language of Sexual Violence

[Trigger warning: discussion of sexual violence, consent issues, and rape. NSFW language]

All this talk of Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World (2013) inspired me to break out my Blu-ray edition of Marvel’s Thor (2011) last night. By all accounts, it’s my favorite film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) since it taught me to love Thor and Marvel, which then inspired me to apply for an internship there and the rest is geeky history. So I love this movie. I love Thor. And like most in the Marvel fandom, I love Loki.

But there’s a moment in Thor that I always found troubling and I often try to forget it happens. When it does occur, I find myself incredibly uncomfortable, especially for a movie that I thoroughly enjoy as both a feminist and a geek.

Frigga, Loki, and Magic in Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World

I recently wrote an essay exploring Loki and Frigga’s relationship and the use of magic and the feminine in Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World. Please check it out here at The Discriminating Fangirl! Beware, SPOILERS.  

 

The Erasure of Officer Anne Lewis and Women in Action

Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen)

The new trailer for the RoboCop remake was released yesterday, bringing us a vaguely closer look at the origins of OmniCorp’s program to bring robots to the American home front.

Whatever.

As a massive fan of the original 1987 RoboCop, I have yet to see anything in the trailers for the remake that is as fresh and clever as the entire original film. I’m also still angry over the apparent lack of Officer Anne Lewis: a dynamic and engaging secondary character in 1987’s RoboCop and one of my favorite examples of a woman in an action film.

According to the cast list of the 2014 version, there is no Officer Anne Lewis, simply an Officer Jack Lewis, played by the awesome Michael K. Williams. Great, he’s an amazing actor. But the removal of Anne Lewis is highly troubling to me.

Nancy Thompson, Freddy Krueger, and feminism

Tomorrow is Halloween and that means I will be doing several things:

-       Handing out candy

-       Playing spooky music all day

-       Dressing up

-       Watching A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

I’ve written about A Nightmare on Elm Street before and how much I love this film. At the risk of repeating myself, I want to discuss the original Nightmare on Elm Street again if only because of how important this film was to me as a young teenager and now, as an adult feminist.

It may seem strange for a feminist to love a film in which a deformed child murderer stalks and kills teenagers, most famously after sex. When I first saw this film as a fourteen year old, however, I was astonished by the originality of the premise. I had already seen a masked and typically silent killer slash his way through sexually promiscuous teenagers but I had never seen a killer with a personality. And I had never seen any death scenes as unsettling as the disquieting dreamscapes in which Freddy Krueger tormented and killed his victims.

"So why shouldn't I write of monsters?" A feminist considers the horror genre

Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

It’s the week of the Halloween.

It’s my favorite time of year if only for the reason that I love horror. Truly and desperately love horror in all its forms, especially horror films.

This often surprises people because I am a feminist. I have a very clear memory of a college professor being totally aghast that I was a women and gender’s studies student and a horror fan. This annoyed me.

Because for me, horror is freeing. As a quiet, bookish, and all-around weird kid, horror films opened up a world of empowerment for me. It is only in horror that the Other has, if only momentarily, true power.

Birds of Prey #7

Cover by Jesus Saiz, Santiago Arcas

Birds of Prey #7 (March 21, 2012)

Writer: Duane Swierczynski

Penciller: Jesus Saiz

Colorist: June Chung

Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual

I love Birds of Prey. I’ve said that before many times but I don’t care. I love this ragtag group of damaged, dynamic, powerful, and conflicted women. I love that they are not perfect, not totally self-sacrificing, not even all that nice. The women of Birds of Prey are some of the most real characters in comic books.

Fangirling aside, Birds of Prey #7 was honestly not one of the strongest comics I’ve read in a while. While it was definitely entertaining and had one surprisingly grim and violent moment, this issue sort of floundered and I can’t exact pinpoint why. For one thing, it started very abruptly and while I am used to issues opening in the middle of a conflict, I felt that Birds of Prey #7 didn’t handle this very well. There was very little backstory and the little that did exist did not provide any real exposition to the villain or why the Birds of Prey found themselves in the current situation. Unlike Supergirl #7, for example, Birds of Prey #7 didn’t meet the reader halfway in reminding them of the events that lead up to this issue.

Supergirl #7

Cover by Mahmud Asrar, Dave McCaig

Supergirl #7 (March 21, 2012)

Writer: Michael Green, Mike Johnson

Penciller: Mahmud Asrar

Colorist: Dave McCaig

Letterer: Rob Leigh

Supergirl has been a character that I have been vaguely interested in ever since I saw my very first episode of Justice League Unlimited, “Fearful Symmetry.” If you haven’t seen this show or this episode, do yourself a favor and do so now. Aside from being an all-around solid work of animation and writing, it also introduced me to some of my now favorite characters, Green Arrow and the Question. Supergirl, though the focus of this episode, only piqued my interested slightly, sad to say. Therefore, I was terribly happy to read Supergirl #7 and find myself loving it.

If you’re looking for a comic book filled with action and awesome fight sequences, then you should probably pick this one up if you haven’t already. Supergirl #7 opens right in the middle of an intense fight between Supergirl and a group of genetically modified aliens, the Worldkillers. Created in a lab by Kryptonian scientists, these Worldkillers are hungry to destroy, discover their true heritages and seek revenge on the Kryptonians who stole them from their home worlds. They now set their sights on Earth as it houses the last Kryptonians.

Deadpool #55

Cover by Dave Johnson

Deadpool #55 (May 23, 2012)

Writer: Daniel Way

Penciller: Shawn Crystal

Colorist: John Rauch

Letterer: Joe Sabino

As a huge Deadpool fan, I was confused and anxious about the recent changes that the Merc with a Mouth had undergone. The majority of what makes Deadpool Deadpool had essentially disappeared. I was worried.

Deadpool #55, however, did alleviate some of my fears; Deadpool is still crazy, he still has the fun yellow boxes, and he still has a profound love for murder and being really, really good at it.

Batgirl #7

Cover by Ardian Syaf, Vicente Cifuentes, Ulises Arreola

Batgirl #7 (March 13, 2012)

Writer: Gail Simone

Penciller: Ardian Syaf, Alitha Martinez

Inker: Vicente Cifuentes

Colorists: Ulises Arreola

Letterer: Dave Sharpe

While I believe that Animal Man and Swamp Thing are the strongest books of the New 52, I still adore Batgirl. It’s well written, exciting and character-driven. Also, I will always love Barbara Gordon. ALWAYS.

Batgirl #7 has been one of my favorite issues of this series, not merely because it has an awesome fight sequence, a genuinely creepy and intriguing villain, and a perfect balancing between the personal and professional life of Barbara Gordon BUT because there’s a cameo by one of my other top favorite female super heroes: Black Canary.

I know we have Birds of Prey, which I also adore, but I sort of wish Black Canary and Batgirl had a duo book: fighting crime and trading quips and just generally being awesome and dynamic female characters. A girl can dream.

Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself #626

Cover by Stephanie Hans

Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself #626(August 17, 2011)

Writer: Kieron Gillen

Penciller: Doug Braithwaite

Colorist: Ulises Arreola, Andy Troy

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

So if I can just fangirl here for a minute (and based on my blog’s title I obviously have every right to), I just want to say that Kid Loki is one of my absolute favorite things about comic books right now.

What could have been an over-the-top gimmick turned into one of the best and freshest characters in the Marvel Universe and managed to breathe new life into an old villain. Kid Loki is a funny, clever, occasionally dangerous, in over his head, desperate to please and manipulative smartass. And I love him. In fact, I have yet to meet any Marvel fan that also didn’t love Kid Loki.

Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt

Cover by Travel Foreman, Lovern Kindzierski

Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt (2012)

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Penciller: Travel Foreman

Inker: Jeffrey Huet, Daniel Green

Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski

Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher

I’ve been excited to see the release of the New 52 trade paperbacks recently. I’m probably just lazy but I find reading trade paperbacks so much easier. In my quest to read as many comic book as possible, issues often get lost in the shuffle or neglected so for certain series, I purposely wait for the trade paperback releases (I’m doing that now with AvX so shh, don’t spoil me). I ended up doing this with Animal Man, though I have read the first issue and enjoyed it.

Animal Man, along with Swamp Thing, has probably been the most popular and acclaimed of the New 52 by my fellow comic book friends. It’s quite easy to see why: they are both refreshing, dark, mythic, and often terrifying books. The stakes are incredibly high and our heroes are terribly vulnerable. Both Animal Man and Swamp Thing make the reader feel as if the negative circumstances could actually happen in real life and then we would be totally boned.