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It's hardly breaking news that there have been complaints over the years about both the ample assets of DC superheroine Power Girl and her costume -- specifically the oval cutout that sits directly over her cleavage. Some female readers have taken issue with the high cheesecake factor, some writers have tried to explain the costume in a way that makes it more than eye candy, but overall it pretty much is what it is (boobs). Now Esther Inglis-Arkell at 4th Letter has pointed out something a bit new: A scene in the recent "JSA 80-Page Giant" #1 (scripted by female author Jen Van Meter) where Power Girl actually appears to lecture female readers for complaining about her costume.
Let me say right up front that I don't have anything against metafiction (or boobs, really?). Grant Morrison has pretty much made a career out of doing it right (metafiction, not boobs), and while there are love/hate camps about the whole new level of meta that Geoff Johns has been exploring with Superboy Prime, I am firmly ensconced on the side of love.
But it's better if you think about it as an advanced maneuver -- a narrative triple axel, of sorts, that should only be attempted when you really know what you're doing, lest you end up looking horribly clumsy and falling on your butt.
Because this -- this is not good.
As Inglis-Arkell explains, the third panel is where things really get interesting, and by interesting I mean supremely irritating:
I've never read about many female characters giving her a hard time in the comics . . . oh. Oh. That was meta. The 'most women' comment. The character looking out at us from the panel. This is a little speech given to the women who, for some crazy reason, criticize Peej's uniform.
You know what, Jen Van Meter? Go write an op-ed. I'm not even being sarcastic. You're entitled to your opinion about Power Girl's costume, and if you'd like to explain to the female readership about how they're totally misunderstanding the personal empowerment and meaningful symbolism offered by the cleavage window, then I would be very interested in reading about that.
But quite sincerely: Do not lecture me when I'm in the middle of reading a superhero comic about why you think I'm reading it wrong. Or at the very least, write a scene well enough so I don't feel like you're lecturing me, because there are few things more disruptive to a narrative experience than watching the writer peek around the curtain and set up a teleprompter for the characters.
I already suspend my disbelief to ridiculous proportions for superhero comics, so watching someone manipulate Power Girl like a highly articulated action figure specifically to give me the stink eye pretty much destroys any sense of authenticity that exists for the story, the character, or the world. It makes me feel like I'm watching a Very Special Episode about why I should shut up, and for reasons that I think are obvious, that's not very fun.
It also comes off as incredibly defensive and contrived to try so very hard to explain away something that something that quite frankly doesn't need any explanation, except for boobs.
If anyone is seriously unclear about the explanation for Power Girl's costume, allow me to help you out:
Boobs.
Comments:
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Monday 23 November
By Pete
That is sad to me, especially since I'm loving the Palmiotti/Gray/Conner run so much.
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Monday 23 November
By Laura.Hudson
Yeah, they're doing a great job.
I think at a certain point in a shared universe, despite however "shared" it may be, you have to start seeing the titles and creative teams you really enjoy as somewhat separate from the ones you don't.
Well, you don't have to, but it's less frustrating.
At least until the next mega-crossover.
Monday 23 November
By Ken Lowery
OK, basically in agreement with you here, but it's weird to grab a 2006 post from Ragnell's blog in protest of the costume when she posted this not two days ago: http://ragnell.blogspot.com/2009/11/on-power-girl-cut-out-costume.html
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Monday 23 November
By Laura Hudson
Why is that weird? I think that post illustrates complaints from female bloggers across a broader time frame, as well as the "Superheroine doth explain too much" rationalization at the heart of all this. There are plenty of other bloggers who responded to the original post whose coverage is not linked. I guess I could have not linked to her at all.
Monday 23 November
By Ken Lowery
Because citing her in that way suggests she still has that other POV, and she does not; in fact she's in complete agreement with you about this very instance. It's just slightly misleading, is all.
Monday 23 November
By Ken Lowery
Nevermind; I misread. Disregard, with apologies.
Tuesday 24 November
By Ragnell
I'm kinda glad she picked the 2006 one, because I'd forgotten I wrote that and it's much better structured than the more recent one.
Monday 23 November
By Ray Cornwall
While I agree that being lectured to by any comics writer mid-read is incredibly annoying, I didn't get that feeling from this panel. PG has always had problems getting along with other women (see her aborted run in Birds of Prey, for example). She's the ultimate outsider, born in a universe long gone. She's emotionally isolated from just about everyone else in the universe. She's also smarter and more driven than most other people, running her own biotech company.
With all that in mind, and with the fact that she's proud of that costume (and has taken a lot of flack from other characters in the DCU over it), is it really that surprising that PG feels that most women don't like the costume? That most women in the DCU look down on her because of her boobtacular image?
I don't think this is a case of the writer lecturing to us. I think this is a case of a writer with a firm grasp of the character, and the character expressing her strong opinion about herself.
But I could be wrong. I haven't read the issue in question yet, and to be honest, I didn't like her JSA Classified issues, so I'm not in a rush to defend her work overall. (It's not that they were bad comics, more that I just didn't enjoy them. Just a matter of taste more than anything else.)
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Wednesday 25 November
By zingoch
That most women in the DCU look down on her because of her boobtacular image?
I didn't think of that at all, and I don't buy it. Just think of the way most women in the DCU cape-scene look. I can't imagine they'd take offence at the boob window. No, I believe that was directed at the reader.
Monday 23 November
By Alice Parker
The main point, if I'm reading this correctly, is that there isn't necessarily anything wrong with the costume or using boobs to entice readers in a male-dominated market. (It's supremely shallow, but that's a topic for another time.)
Sex sells, and there's no reason to completely avoid it if the material also displays artistic quality and is used in the proper context.
The problem is that this issues tries to tell us as readers, and more directly us as women, that we should feel a) bad for questioning the reveling costume, b) sorry for Power Girl, and c) that using sex is a commendable trait when battling evil.
Sort of like when Top Cow tried to convince people that it doesn't publish T&A comics.
If you're selling me Debbie Does Dallas, that's fine, but don't try and tell me it's The Bell Jar.
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