Gail Simone's Blog, page 272

It's been a long time, but from what I remember of Emma Frost in Generation X, she really wears that outfit to use her sexuality as a weapon - make people lower their guard, which I guess makes sense for a telepath. I've never been a fan.

That just does not fit my idea of the character, but I haven’t read X-men in ages. It may be true for all I know.

Who did the artwork on the second picture of Emma that you posted?

McKelvie, I believe.

Okay, deadly seriously, no judgments from me at all.Which of...

Okay, deadly seriously, no judgments from me at all.

Which of these do you like better? Which of these outfits do you think fits Emma’s character better?

Can your dogs answer complex questions about the quality of representational characters on ARROW without ever watching it?

They are dogs.

who cares about Arrow, let's talk about Nightwing's perfect ass some more :D

WHY ISN’T NIGHTWING’S COSTUME SKIMPY.

the grey ball is incognito. like a spy. the sunglasses are its mask. that's how it does grey ball superhero stuff in its hometown, the hinterlands, just like on its favourite show arrow.

Grey Ball is my least favorite Avenger.

I really like your Red Sonja, are there any other Dynamite pulp characters you'd like to write? You writing a crime pulp would be interesting.

!!!

I am writing ALL the Dynamite pulp ladies in the epic crossover, SWORDS OF SORROW, right now!  :)

Hey, I was curious about why female heroes such as Red Sonja, Vampirella, Scandal, Supergirl, Emma Frost and others have such skimpy costumes. Why can't they be more practical?

How is Scandal’s costume skimpy? She has her arms and a bit of her midsection exposed. 

Most of the characters who have skimpy outfits have them because they were designed by dudes for dude audiences in a different time (Vampirella, however, had her costumed designed by the most famous feminist in comics, Trina Robbins). 

It’s a long conversation. For one thing, I think ‘practical’ as used in these conversations is mostly bullshit. People are often okay with ridiculous outfits that are completely impractical or unworkable, if there is no skin showing. What they often mean in these cases is ‘less revealing,’ which is fine, but just say it.  I also think some of these outfits are goofy. But some have an iconography of fantasy to them, and I think that’s valid, to some degree.

By which I mean, you can’t just replace something that visually defines a character with something ‘practical’ just because it’s more realistic. If you put Vampirella in armor, sure, you may have made her more ‘realistic (arguably),’ but the question would be then, “Is this still recognizably Vampirella?”

I want these fixes made. “Practicality” is pretty low on my list of priorities. I want a visual pop, and a sensibility that works with today’s audience.  I don’t care if barbarian sword fighters in Hyrkania show skin sometimes, as long as it’s not just the girls. Have Sonja wear other outfits (we do) and armor when called for (we do that, too), and then, if we change her costume for good, I want it to be something that screams RED SONJA. 

It’s rarely as simple as making something ‘practical.’  Amanda Conner did an OUTSTANDING update of Power Girl’s outfit that kept most of the basic concept, but made it look far less dated, and it looked amazing. That’s a great solution, in some cases.

I say, ‘practical’ only works on characters who are ‘practical.’ Which doesn’t really define Vampirella or Emma Frost, does it?

If you could choose to have continued/continue writing anything you ever worked on, what would you choose?

Hmm.

Wow. This is tough.

Birds of Prey, maybe?

PLEASE tell me Jeannette is coming back. She's one of my favourite characters and I would love love love for her to be in the new Secret Six

I can’t give away spoilers like that.

But she is.