Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 106

Clarion Write-a-thon Week 5 – half dead, got there.

I am sick. Very very sick. Horrible flu thing after a week of nursing my feverish, cranky, exhausted children. Still wrote my words.

The whole point of doing the write-a-thon again this year was to train myself (again) to keep writing steadily, no matter what, like I have to when there’s a publisher deadline looming on the horizon. This week was less hard at the beginning because even if sick children can’t go to daycare or school, they mostly lie wanly on the couch and watch movies, which fits in rather better with me typing than does the usual runaround of afterschool activities.

But I still had 2000 words to go, and the last two days saw me an utter wreck, barely able to keep my eyes open. Much though I would have liked to spend those days lying in bed, coughing faintly and being brought regular cups of tea, I still had to pull my big girl pyjamas on and supervise the feeling-much-better-bouncing-off-the-walls children, so I might as well write at the same time, right?

Gahhhhhhh.

All I can hope is that my old theory that words written while doped up on cold and flu pills are the best words.

I am not posting a sample this week, just in case this is not true. I must preserve my illusions.

Glad to hear that the #raivanswed wedding went so well last night, and trended on Twitter. Because Nick and Amanda are awesome, and they deserved a fabulous night, and a cake that Rickrolled their guests. Terri, who made the cake, is also awesome.

Where the Wonder Women Are: #6 Captain Marvel

It’s pretty rare for a female superhero to inherit a name legacy from a male superhero without that name being feminised or in some way altered. So it was for Ms Marvel (military pilot Carol Danvers), whose origin and powers as a superhero was closely tied to that of the alien warrior Captain Marvel (or Mar-Vell), and whose name was chosen accordingly. I have to say, I kind of love that it was ‘Ms’ and not something involving ‘Miss’ or ‘Girl.’

And then Captain Marvel died. Unlike the majority of dead superheroes, he did not come back.

One of the big buzz worthy comics announcements of this year was that Carol Danvers would be returning to her own title, but giving up the ‘Ms Marvel’ name she has held since 1977 in favour of ‘Captain Marvel.’ If that wasn’t exciting enough, she was also being written by an up and coming female writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Oh, and the costume was being changed so instead of having her usual leotard and flowing blonde locks, she would be fully clothed from wrist to ankle, and her hair would be shorter.

Add to this some amazing, powerful covers doing the rounds which have had no compunction in setting Captain Marvel up as a feminist icon, and… yeah. It was all pretty exciting.

I have been hesitant to write a Where the Wonder Women Are post (yet) on Ms Marvel because I have read so little of her comics, and I kind of want to. So I thought for now I would write an entry on Captain Marvel purely based on her recent appearances since the name change, and catch up on the first 30+ years of Carol Danvers’ career at a later date.

CAPTAIN MARVEL:

EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HERO

DeConnick has written Carol as Captain Marvel in two different titles this month, launching her as a smart, adrenalin-fueled, banterific female superhero for the 21st century. I think I’m in love.

First, we have a team up with Spider-Man in The Avenging Spider-Man #9, a title of one and two-shot stories which team up Spidey with, you guessed it, other Avengers. This one, which has a big fat To Be Continued at the end of it, is a charming and fun adventure which shows us Carol’s love of planes and flight, her cool head in a crisis, her bravery and her general awesomeness. But what I liked best was how funny she was – having a witty female superhero feels a lot more subversive than having one who hits things really well, and with Captain Marvel, we have both.

Teaming her up with Spider-Man was a brilliant move, as he is so associated with banter that it tells us a lot about Carol that she keeps up with him quip for quip, while flying a plane, and arguing with people.

I loved the artwork, too, by Terry and Rachel Dodson – bright colours, beautiful plane illustrations, good action shots and facial expressions with plenty of character in them – something often lacking in female comics characters where ‘pretty’ is often prioritised over ‘has more than two two emotions.’

“The helmet is retractible — Carol’s nearly indestructible so she doesn’t really need a helmet, but she’s not impervious to pain. So, when she’s doing something like, oh, flying face-first into space, she might bring the helmet up to make herself more comfortable. It’s also got symbolic value as the design harkens back to her origin as part-Kree warrior. Emphasis on warrior — by which I mean there’s a display element. Like the Captain Marvel equivalent of warrior paint or a necklace made from the skulls of her enemies.”

[Kelly Sue DeConnick on Captain Marvel’s new look.]

Next we have Captain Marvel #1, also written by DeConnick, with pencils by Dexter Soy.

The writing in this issue is extraordinary. From a banterific fight with Captain America in which he convinces Carol that she deserves to take the “Captain Marvel” name in full, to a touching and powerful internal monologue about heroes, flying and her powers in which Carol convinces herself to take the damn name, we learn everything we need to know about the new Captain Marvel in this issue. Her personality, her drives, her motives, her compassion… and what matters to her.

It’s particularly cool how much DeConnick has taken the idea of Carol being an Air Force pilot, and the kind of personality that is drawn to that kind of career. What would it be like to be a person who lives for risk and adrenalin, if you were so powerful you knew that you couldn’t be hurt?

Some other interesting details include the way that Carol runs hotter than most humans, and how that can be used to achieve some everyday good. And I like the portrayal of her as a tinkerer and engineer – someone who knows how to fix a coffee machine and can’t help doing so.

There’s a historical aspect running through the story, about what it was like for female pilots in previous generations, which gives a sense of Carol belonging to a tradition just as important as that of the superheroes of the Marvel Universe, or the Avengers, or anything else.

I’m going to have to get used to the artwork – I found the darkness of the first several pages (especially the scenes with Captain America and Spider-Man) quite jarring in comparison to the brightness of the Spider-Man issue and the Captain Marvel covers. In particular I was disappointed at the lack of detail in the faces and a couple of alarmingly shiny butt shots. But I was getting more accustomed to it by the end of the issue… so I guess I can live with it? It’s a shame that the internal artwork doesn’t live up to the fabulous covers that are being used to promote the character and her title.

But hell, the art would have to be a whole lot worse than this to turn me off a comic this good, with women (not just Carol) depicted in such complex and interesting ways. I want to see more of this Captain Marvel, and more and more.

Movies, people. I think I found a new female character to complain about not being in the next Avengers movie.

Where the Wonder Women Are:

0: Introduction

1: Black Canary

2: Rogue

3: Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman

4: Black Widow

5: Wonder Girl

Galactic Suburbia 64

The new episode is up! Check it out on our Podbean site, or download it from iTunes!

In which we talk Smurfette, gender bias on Wikipedia, Redshirts, Regency magic and Captain Marvel. Also, Tansy turns the microphone off a lot so you can’t hear her sneezing. You have much to thank her for.

News

Shirley Jacksons! Winners announced.

A new Sleeps With Monsters column by Liz Burke: The Smurfette Principle – We Can Do Better

How Kate Middleton’s wedding gown reveals the gender bias in the Wikipedia system.

Journey Planet Issue 13 – specifically special section on gender parity for con panels including our own Alisa

The ComicCon Batgirl returned to SDCC this year, asking DC Comics about why Stephanie Brown has been removed from the Smallville comics.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Redshirts by John Scalzi (read by Wil Wheaton)

Tansy: The Truth by Terry Pratchett (read by Stephen Briggs), Sherlock Holmes The Final Problem/The Empty House (Big Finish Productions), Captain Marvel & The Avenging Spider-Man #9 by Kelly Sue DeConnick



Alex: The Secret History of Moscow, Ekaterina Sedia; Salvage, Jason Nahrung; Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Friday Links are Slightly Feverish

I have crawled from my sick bed to bring you these links. Well, it’s not a bed, it’s a chair. And frankly not that comfortable. But I am still posting Friday links because I’m not good for much else today. *eyes novel-in-progress sadly*

For a start, I forgot to tell you all that the Doctor Who in Conversation blog series with me, David & Tehani has gone audio – we have done our first podcast, looking at Spearhead from Space (1970) after both David and Tehani watched it for the first time.

I’m kind of loving the Comic-Con coverage this week, and how those of us stuck home get to experience some of the panels, vids and other program items. Such as the Futurama panel, the Community gag reel, the Firefly reunion and so on. Also, adorable child cosplay and Doctor Who revelations!

The Mary Sue updates us on Sarah Robles, US weightlifting Olympian, and which company brought some serious sponsorship to her party.

Genevieve Valentine talks about incidents of harassment and sexism she experienced at Readercon – handled very well by the con committee, but she felt it was important to speak out. If we don’t talk about this stuff, funnily enough, people don’t know that it happens, or assume it is confined to occasional incidents.

N.K. Jemisin on why fandom needs to grow the fuck up.

Nicola Griffith on the new lesbian super PAC to provide financial support for pro-lesbian political candidates, supported by iconic celebrities Billie Jean King and Jane Lynch.

I09 reveals some of the worst ways that DC could possibly make a Justice League movie. People, it’s not that hard! Everyone’s sick of origin stories. Just start with Justice League already assembled, and hurl Starro the Conqueror at them. Starro is the perfect villain for a team movie – humour and angst, all there. With giant starfishes stuck to people’s faces.

Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) has been well and truly launched, which means that Marvel finally have a female-led solo comics title again – have you read your copy yet?

Liz Pfieffer on mother-daughter relationships in comics.

This is how you paint a 150 foot Batman. The idea of these artists painting over their own murals every 6 weeks makes me cry. But omg what an amazing achievement.

This is worthy of a post all on its own, but OMG I didn’t think that Amy Poehler could be any more awesome after seeing Parks and Recreation and her impersonation of Hillary Clinton, but now I find out she has her own YouTube channel/show called Smart Girls At the Party which is about interviewing awesome little girls about what’s important to them, and what cool things they can do, providing role models for other awesome little girls.

SMART GIRLS HAVE MORE FUN. My daughter is totally going to watch all these with me. Starting with episode 1, in which a 7 year old talks about why feminism is important.

Shakespeare and a Seven Year Old

We have a new TV. This is a big deal for us because the previous TV had been with us for 14 years – I bought it with the first cheque I earned as a writer! Also, Raeli hates any change at all and got immediately sad and nostalgic about the old one as soon as the new TV was wheeled in.

But oh my. It’s not a super fancy TV by today’s standards, but it’s big and lovely and clear and we got Apple TV around the same time – so not only can we look at iTunes purchases and DVD rentals (and subscribing to BBC iPlayer OMG), once you combine the whole thing with AirParrot I can mirror my computer on the TV and thus can finally screen my Digital Theatre purchase from December on an actual screen. And oh yes, it’s been a great distraction this week as we sat out our quarantine misery.

Given that Raeli was still lying wanly on the couch from her week of fever and dreadfulness, and that Jem was napping in the midst of her own fever and dreadfulness, it seemed a good time to give in to her occasional request to watch David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing.

It was a surreal if excellent experience. It’s a marvellous production and was lovely to watch it on the big screen in all its splendour. But watching Shakespeare with a seven year old is always going to be a teaching rather than entertaining experience – Raeli was watching with fairly good attention, and even laughing and enjoying the performances (the recognition factor of the Doctor and Donna went a long way towards keeping her interested) but it was clear early on that they might as well have been speaking Swahili. Or Dogberry.

So I translated regularly, providing synopsis of scenes and occasional sentences and words, mostly when she asked, but sometimes ahead of time so that she would be more likely to appreciate the scene. And of course, it being Much Ado About Nothing, there was also some social history to unpack, particularly in the quite violent and angry scenes surrounding Hero’s “disgrace”. She could understand Claudio being cross about Hero appearing to um, kiss another boy, but couldn’t wrap her head around why everyone else was so mean to her, and why Hero’s father in particular should be so angry. I did get to point out how important it is that Benedick is on Hero’s side, and that he turns against his friends to support her (and thus, proves himself to Beatrice).

David Tennant is so good in this performance. They both are, of course, but his shifts from cheeky slapstick comedy to intense angst and drama are quite beautiful. He may be my favourite Benedick now. KENNETH, I’M SORRY.

Then there was the 1980′s aspect of this particular production including explanation of fashions, the Falklands war, Princess Diana, etc. And why they’re all constantly smoking. At least Raeli knew who Miss Piggy was, even if she wasn’t entirely sure why Benedick would choose to dress like her for the masquerade…

It was fun. Raeli was in stitches in the two leads’ main comedy scenes, and I was impressed that she only once asked to skip ahead, in a short talking scene between Leonato and his wife. Once all the kissing started, towards the end, she squirmed uncomfortably, wailed and screamed into pillows. She’s kind of anti-romance.

Which makes it all the funnier that, after enjoying Strictly Ballroom again, she has returned to her ongoing campaign to convince me to let her watch Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet. I have told her that they die at the end, and that the whole production is a bit too violent for me to comfortable with her watching it yet – and, once I explained how Shakespeare’s tragedies tended to end in mass deaths while the comedies tended to end in mass marriages, Raeli insisted that she preferred tragedies.

Heh. I’m still not letting her watch that particular version of R&J until she’s ten. But other Shakespeare… yeah. I think we’re going to do this again. The trick is finding a really good production, preferably with familiar actors and geek cred.

Or we could just watch Much Ado About Nothing again.

Where the Wonder Women Are: #5 Wonder Girl

We tend to assume that most superheroes with ‘girl’ in their names are spin offs from better known male character, but it’s not always true, even in DC Comics. Wonder Girl is probably the most prominent and iconic of the ‘girl’ superheroes who isn’t spun off from a man.

There are several characters who have used this name in DC Comics continuity. The first, most straightforward version of Wonder Girl was found in the junior adventures of Wonder Woman herself, Diana, just as the original Superboy was the junior version of Superman – in the early days of comics, there was a lot of time jumping and indeed universe jumping without anyone worrying too much about continuity issues. Then there was the Wonder Girl of the Wonder Woman TV series: Drusilla, younger sister of Diana, played by Debra Winger. (Carolyn Jones AKA Morticia played their mother Hippolyta – how cool is that?)

Besides Diana herself, though, there are two iconic women in the comics who have been Wonder Girl: Donna Troy, and Cassie Sandsmark.

DONNA TROY

Donna is one of those characters who has been messed around with so many times in comics continuity that we’re not even sure if she exists anymore, and this isn’t the first time.

Her first run as a character was in the Teen Titans of the 60’s (in which it wasn’t explained for many years as to whether Wonder Girl was a young Diana or an original character) and was finally revealed to be Donna Troy, an orphan rescued by Diana and raised by the Amazons. The Teen Titans continued on and off through the 70’s, and were brought back as the incredibly popular New Teen Titans in the 80’s, with Donna playing a significant and often leading role in the team as Wonder Girl.

Her costume is usually far more red than Diana’s classic Wonder Woman outfit (which itself had been discarded for all white emmapeelers in the 70′s) with a gold star pattern, but no blue, which makes Wonder Girl appear far less representative of American patriotism.

The New Teen Titans 80’s Donna is the one I know best, a capable young woman who identifies as an Amazon thanks to her upbringing (and as Diana’s “sister” in the Amazonian sense), close friend to Starfire, Wally West (Kid Flash, later the Flash) and Nightwing, a young fiancee and then wife to older college professor Terry Long (he of the curly beard). She was brilliant – brave, strong, clever and loyal. She also had less crazy 80′s hair than everyone else, though she was rocking a red jumpsuit.

Even before Crisis of Infinite Earths, and the First Great Reworking of DC Continuity, Donna was characterised by her search for identity. At first this was because she was an orphan, searching out her birth family, but then it became far more confusing and problematic. After Crisis, Donna’s Amazonian heritage was removed from her backstory as part of the a campaign to make Wonder Woman young again and newly arrived from Themiscyra. Instead, she discovered that she was an alien Ancient Greek goddess Titan seed (um, yes) and took on a new superhero name: Troia, as well as new costumes: first an amazonian ensemble with armoured skirt, then a reflection of her original jumpsuit in all black with a constellation of stars across it.

Through the 90’s, Donna flipped back and forth between having powers, not having powers, having a baby, her marriage breaking up, etc. I missed most of this at the time. She was also associated with intergalactic police team the Darkstars, helped out sometimes with the Teen Titans in a mentor capacity, and had a romance with the 90’s new Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, which meant she sometimes turned up in Green Lantern comics too. The Zero Hour reboot made things even messier, and both ex-husband Terry and Donna’s son were killed off in a car accident.

In the late 90’s, Donna’s backstory was rebooted/updated yet again, and she finally got to be tied to the Amazons again, now as a magical clone sister created to be Diana’s playmate and friend on Paradise Island. (No, it doesn’t get any better) Rather than try to convince readers that yet another character reboot made sense, Donna’s storylines continued to be about the fact that her identity was confusing, and no one knew what was really going on with her. Her life and character history was literally rewritten, over and over in many variations, as part of the ongoing narrative.

But it got better in other ways. Donna’s associations with Paradise Island and Queen Hippolyta were strengthened, as was her friendship and relationship with Diana. She was often portrayed as a good friend and important mentor to the New New Teen Titans of the era, including the next Wonder Girl, Cassie. Donna was also portrayed as mighty: super strong, super fast and incredibly well trained.

She got killed off, but brought back, with greater powers.

Donna ultimately became the repository of knowledge about the multiverses and their fractured histories. After so many decades searching for her own identity, she became the only person who knew everything about who everyone was. She’s an Amazon and a Titan and a warrior and Troia, Troy, Wonder Girl, Donna. She’s mighty. She even briefly took on the mantle of Wonder Woman when Diana walked away to find herself – and when that ended, she decided to ditch the whole concept of superhero names. Donna Troy was enough for her.

Except she doesn’t exist any more, as far as we know. There have been many casualties of the recent New 52 reboot – and the characters who have disappeared from continuity are largely those like Donna and Wally West and several of the Batgirls: legacy characters whose complex history has been erased or deliberately ignored so that their mentors can be rebooted as youthful and free of baggage.

Donna’s Wonder Girl continues to be remembered, though – she’s there in Tiny Titans, as a miniature version of herself, complete with invisible tricycle and all her old friends. She didn’t make it into the Teen Titans animated series, but she features in the recent Super Best Friends Forever DC Shorts, representing the Wonder corner of the trinity along with Supergirl and Batgirl. This Wonder Girl, who speaks with an oddly Mexican/Spanish accent, wears Donna’s old red catsuit, and refers to Wonder Woman as her “sister”.

As far as the DC universe goes, though – well, it’s up to the creators. The current Wonder Woman storyline is all about Diana rescuing a young, troubled pregnant teen, and dealing with Amazon politics. Maybe there will be a little (or big) Donna along, one of these days. Until then… well, there’s always old New Teen Titans comics to reread. The hair is massive, and the costumes are eye-watering, but the stories hold up!

CASSANDRA “CASSIE” SANDSMARK

I entirely missed out on Cassie, the second (blonde) Wonder Girl. She appeared round about the time I stopped reading comics, in 1996, and I didn’t come across her at all until my daughter discovered Tiny Titans a couple of years ago. Tiny Titans is basically like the Peanuts version of the DC universe – and it includes every younger character you can imagine, as if they’re a bunch of kindergarten students. All the Batgirls. All the Robins. And all the Wonder Girls…

But in fact Tiny Titans only has one Wonder Girl (Donna, AKA the brunette one as she is never named) and one Cassie. There’s a running joke early on in the comics about Cassie’s costume, which is basically blue jeans with a slightly Amazonish tank top. She’s blonde, she’s sassy, she’s not going to wear a stupid skirt, and she punctures the whole problematic history of female superhero costumes with a couple of zingers. I liked her a lot.

So I started investigating, and discovered fifteen years of history. An epic romance with Superboy, and a slightly more awkward not-really-romance with Tim Drake (Boy Robin #3). A strained relationship with Wonder Woman. Mother problems. Team problems. A friendship and close attachment to her mentor and “sister” Donna Troy. An attachment to fighting crime in blue jeans. And, oh yes, she’s the daughter of Zeus.

She started out as a tomboy geek girl, daughter of a single mum archaeologist, who talked Wonder Woman into letting her be Wonder Girl. This version of Cassie was utterly goofy and adorable, a fangirl who assembles her own disguise (a black wig and glasses to fight crime in!) and after a few false starts and stuff ups, earns her place at Diana’s side. She fangirls Donna too, and while Donna gives her a version of her old costume, Cassie won’t wear it because she’s worried it will get damaged – her utterly practical attitude towards superhero clothes is awesome!

The revelation about her parenthood leads her to find her place among the Amazons too, and eventually Cassie glammed up her image somewhat (which is to say, she was drawn in a much more glamorous way rather than the scruffy kid we first saw in her introduction) and became an Amazonian superhero, a member of Young Justice and later a Teen Titan in her own right.

I did notice that there was an unfortunate tendency with Cassie in these later comics for the writers to make Diana absolutely appalling, in order to give Cassie something to rebel against. Which drove me a bit bonkers – you can create character conflict without character assassination!

But I really liked the Wonder Girl trade in which Cassie teamed up with her brother Hercules and had to deal with Greek God Stuff (taking on the name ‘Drusilla,’ a reference to the 70’s TV Show Wonder Girl) and the fallout after the Amazon Attacks storyline, helping to clean up the mess left behind. I also liked her in the story about the Death and Life Again of Donna Troy, and I even liked her being a bit of a snarky bitch in a Ravager trade.

She’s often surrounded by women, and has many female friends. Cassie has been a leader as well as a team member in the various youth super teams, and she’s not always the smartest or nicest person in the room, but she’s tough and uncompromising and I really like that she (mostly) doesn’t wear a stupid skirt. Except when it’s an armoured skirt.

And then, you guessed it, along came the latest DC reboot, the New 52. Which… yeah. I read the latest (New New NEW) Teen Titans for quite a few issues and liked quite a bit about it, but apart from the fact that they were willing to depict Cassie as incredibly physically strong (something we don’t always get with female characters), the rest of her made little sense. She is now a thief, but a thief who dives around in a sports car and wears a shiny red hood and frankly bizarre outfit. She was so much more awesome when she wore jeans and a tank top and had actual character connections and history rather than coming out of nowhere…

this art seems angry to me

I have yet to spot to any reference to Cassie’s Greek mythological origins, apart from a few people referring to her as being Wonder Girl (she’s blatantly wearing Amazon signifiers) and her getting cranky about the name. Oh, and worth noting that the ‘daughter of Zeus’ schtick has now been imposed upon Wonder Woman, so presumably is no longer the case for Cassie… I haven’t seen Wonder Girl interact with Wonder Woman either, which is hardly surprising as the current Wonder Woman title seems to exist in a different universe to everything else, and of course Donna isn’t around to connect Cassie to the Amazons either. I don’t know where they’re going with her, or what her deal is, but she is drawn appallingly (hipbones regularly pointing in the opposite direction to her breasts) and I’ve yet to see any hint of the Cassie I knew and liked, beyond an all-red outfit, blonde hair and a temper.

Oh, and they cancelled Tiny Titans too. Boooooo! There’s not always a happy ending.

Where the Wonder Women Are:

0: Introduction

1: Black Canary

2: Rogue

3: Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman

4: Black Widow

Jellybean Sick Day

Home for the second day in a row with a flu-sick seven year old. It’s not fun. Poor thing has high temperatures and even higher misery levels. At least yesterday, Jem was at daycare, but today she’s home, she’s cranky and bored because her sister is a whole lot of no fun, and she feels ripped off because she was expecting a fun day of Glammer adventures today (I told my mum to stay away from the quarantine zone).

All this, and Raeli missed school pictures today too! We’re all pretty blah.

So the house is on full sick day mode – the freezer is full of homemade icy poles, the larder is overflowing with croissants and jelly beans (essential supplies, along with lemon squash and butter menthols) and I’ve cracked out the new Young Justice DVD I picked up from Big W the other day. It’s pretty good so far, though… gender issues ahoy! I look forward to when their lineup gets a bit more balance in it. One girl is not enough, especially when she isn’t introduced until after ALL the boys.

I find it interesting what Raeli chooses to watch as her nostalgic TV therapy while sick. It’s been movie after movie – The Lion King and Strictly Ballroom yesterday, Mary Poppins and Enchanted today.

When not fetching and carrying for the glum girls, I’ve been mainlining Parks and Recreation, which I have been resisting for far too long. This sitcom, based in local government and featuring (and starring) Amy Poehler, is cynical, subversive and brilliant. The first season was okay, but I didn’t love it yet. By the second, I was well and truly hooked. Leslie Knope is a great example of a feminist character – she’s flawed and complex and fun and sweet, but totally capable of being a bitch, a hard-ass and a clown. I love that her overwhelming optimism is portrayed as something of a character flaw, but one her friends are willing to tolerate in her. Great characters, great dialogue. I am sad I’m almost caught up.

I managed to write yesterday, quite a lot, despite sick child and exhaustion from being woken up way too early by said sick child. Not so much today.

I want to clean the house. A sure sign of something, I’m not sure what. Either that winter is crawling towards its end (the wattle is out, that means the worst is over, right?), or just that I’ve been too slack lately and need to do something about it.

It’s not too early for spring cleaning, right?

Where The Wonder Women Are: #4 Black Widow

So she was awesome in The Avengers movie, yes? But who is Natasha Romanoff/Natalia Romanova? I’ll admit that I knew next to nothing about her before seeing the movie. I had come across her character in The Ultimates, as a SHIELD agent in a relationship with Tony Stark who… well, I don’t want to spoil it, but let’s just say that her character doesn’t have much of a positive arc in those books.

Neither did I pay much attention to her in her first appearance in Iron Man 2 (in which Natasha wasn’t even named as Black Widow). But I loved her fiercely in The Avengers, as the character of greatest interest to me in an overly strong ensemble. I enjoyed the fact that she built strong and different friendships/relationships with her male comrades, even if the lack of a Bechdel-passing script meant she never got to interact with the other women in the film – I really want to see a SHIELD movie now in which Black Widow and Hawkeye get to have many, many scenes with Maria Hill and Abigail Brand. I reckon Katee Sackoff’s hair would dye up into a nice green colour…

But I digress. I recently inhaled a bunch of different Black Widow trade paperbacks, based on the ones I was able to find in print that looked most interesting, in the hopes of finding out a bit more about what makes this character tick.

The titles I got hold of were:

Black Widow & the Marvel Girls, by Paul Tobin etc.

Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, by Marjorie Liu

Black Widow: Deadly Origin, by Paul Cornell

The impression I’d got about Natasha from The Ultimates (and from The Avengers movie) was that she was a non-super powered SHIELD agent/assassin/hero/occasional Russian double agent – which is sort of mostly true, but only skimming the surface of her story. Thanks to the extra content in each of these books (the Marvel Girls includes a reprint of an old Spider-Man story in which Black Widow first debuted her black catsuit instead of more traditional super villainess costume, the Liu & Cornell books both include detailed timelines/essays explaining her character’s backstory going back to the early 20th century) I was able to get a much better idea of what is going on.

I’m not going to explain it all here, as I’d be sure to get a bunch of the details wrong, but suffice to say, Natasha is a lot older than she looks (like Captain America old, but she took the long path), thanks to having her metabolism messed with a certain Super Soldier serum, she’s been brainwashed by some of the best in the business, and has at least two versions of her own history held in her head, one in which she had a career as a ballerina rather than being trained as the world’s best spy.

Designed to be a femme fatale, the kind of spy who seduces and kills men, she has risen beyond her origins to be a tough, uncompromising secret agent as well as one of the Avengers.

Despite the silly title, I think that the Black Widow and the Marvel Girls is probably the best all-around book to introduce the character, because it consists of a collection of short pieces, each covering a different period of her life, one dealing with the ‘Red Room’ where she was brainwashed, one when she had just joined the Avengers and hadn’t earned their trust yet (specifically Wasp’s trust) and so on. It’s also aimed at an all-ages audience (though my 7 year old found it a bit mature for her) and so isn’t quite as gritty and violent as many of the Black Widow stories tend to be.

The Name of the Rose, for instance, I loved – I thought it was a fantastic, dark action story, which really showcased Black Widow as a character, and used her history to great effect (especially the role of Wolverine in her childhood) – but it was so grim and so violent in places, that I did find it a bit of a gruelling read.

Deadly Origin was the book released as a tie-in when Natasha debuted on the big screen in Iron Man II (though as I mentioned before, she wasn’t name-checked as Black Widow, which meant the comic was probably not going to attract as many readers coming from the film as they all hoped) and I liked the way that it used Natasha’s past and present colliding to tell an epic, fun story. She is portrayed throughout as a highly competent, empowered character, who is cool under pressure and capable of mighty, mighty things – exactly what I saw in the character as depicted by Scarlett Johanssen in The Avengers movie. I was less keen on the jokes about her sexual past and the number of current superheroes she’s had relationships with – sure, it’s true, but it’s sure for Tony Stark and a bunch of the men, too.

yes, she used to be brunette!

Having read several versions of Black Widow, while I appreciate the use of her complex history and backstory to inform her current character, it’s often this history which makes me roll my eyes about the treatment of women in comics. This is the the big trouble with characters who have been around a long time – especially in the Marvel Universe, which never reboots and thus keeps almost every element of past stories – is that they take on legacies of earlier eras. So even characters that are being written brilliantly now have problematic aspects in their history, or issues that come out of that history being compressed. I do think it’s a bit rich for the Marvel Universe to be openly joking about the sexual histories of Black Widow when Tony Stark is around (or, let’s face it, Peter Parker, who has probably got as many notches on his bedpost as Black Widow over the last 30 years). And I’d much prefer Natasha to be facing foes who are motivated by more than being cranky that she never got around to sleeping with them.

I tend to prefer the stories that focus on Natasha’s practical abilities as a spy, agent and/or assassin rather than those which feel the need to emphasise her feminine wiles, and the seduction-and-death aspect of her backstory.

And while I enjoy her deadpan, professional relationships with various male superheroes including her various exes, I’d love to see more of her partnered with other women, as she is in the Marvel Girls book. I enjoyed her appearance in the first volume of Matt Fraction Invincible Iron Man, alongside Rescue and Maria Hill, and am hoping for more along those lines.

As far as art is concerned, Both The Name of the Rose and the Deadly Origin single issues have some of the best female-centred covers I’ve seen in recent years (my favourite being the astronaut suit). Since the 60’s, Black Widow has been wearing pretty much the same all black catsuit, with various degrees of practicality (sometimes edging towards a combat suit). I’d prefer it if they zipped Natasha’s catsuit up all the way, as I’m not convinced that having boobs spilling out isn’t likely to get in the way of your gun, and there are times when the artists depict her ridiculous high heels, but at least it’s a costume that can be drawn sensibly.

I have opinions about her hair. There are times when it is far too long, bouncy and frivolous-looking, as indeed it was in Iron Man II – too much to hope a trained spy and assassin would tie it back during combat conditions? But there is something undeniably iconic about the sight of Natasha as Black Widow, all in black with her hair an artistic red splash against the page, holding a gun. I love how often cover artists make a thing of that particular red-black colour combination, often with white to provide contrast. She walks grimly in the snow a *lot*. Sure, a more restrained shade of hair would make Black Widow less of a target for snipers, and less memorable to other spies, but this is comics, and it’s all about being noticed, not about being practical.

There’s a second Black Widow, a blonde one: Yelena Belova, whom I haven’t read anything of, though from what I can make out she’s an antagonist character who has been through the same Soviet training regime as Black Widow, and given the same code name, which means of course that they have to fight “for the title.” Also, she’s referred to as ‘pale little spider’ in one comic which is kind of insulting – it’s not her fault that her hair isn’t as awesome as Natasha’s!

Thanks to the Avengers movie, Black Widow is shooting rapidly up the table of iconic, recognisable female superheroes. She’s even a Lego minifigure – the first of the Marvel superheroes to be female! (Lego Black Widow flies the Quinjet) But it all depends what they do with her next… she’s not always going to be scripted and directed by Joss Whedon.

So… SHIELD movie? Hill, Romanov and Brand? Someone call Katee Sackoff’s agent. I’ll wait.

Where the Wonder Women Are:

0: Introduction

1: Black Canary

2: Rogue

3: Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman

4: Black Widow

Fantasy Mistressworks Meme

I haven’t done one of these reading memes in forever! Looking over it, I was intrigued to see not only how many I had read (more than I thought at first), but how many I had read long enough ago that I barely remember their contents and thus had to double check my memory as to whether I really *had* read them. Is this what we call getting old?

Also I’ve read a lot of these authors, but not necessarily their specific books on the list. Some of the books I haven’t even heard of, which is very exciting! It seems to be leaning towards older than newer works (no Susanna Clarke, for instance, no Australian authors, no modern YA or urban fantasy, quite an old-fashioned definition of “fantasy” fiction, very few of the last decade at all) but I am glad to see so many authors represented who should not be forgotten. The list contains many of the books and authors that often get left out when epic or high fantasy is discussed, so of course they should be here, talked about, discussed.

Of course there are a whole bunch of fantasy novels by women that spring to mind that could or should be on a list like this. That’s the best thing about this sort of meme – it reminds you of how much great, important fantasy literature by women writers is out there. Where the definition of ‘important’ is – people feel strongly that it matters.

Fantasy Mistressworks Meme

As is usual, take the list, bold all those you have read and italicise those you own.

1. Songspinners – Sarah Ash

2. The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter

3. Rats and Gargoyles – Mary Gentle

4. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon (this was published as Cross Stitch in the UK)

5. The Riddle-Master of Hed – Patricia McKillip

6. The Blue Sword – Robin McKinley

7. Lud-in-the-Mist – Hope Mirrlees

8. The Curse of the Mistwraith – Janny Wurts

9. Shadow Magic – Patricia C Wrede

10. Assassin’s Apprentice – Robin Hobb

11. A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula K Le Guin

12. Familiar Spirit – Lisa Tuttle

13. Beauty – Sheri S Tepper

14. Diadem from the Stars – Jo Clayton

15. The Crystal Cave – Mary Stewart

16. Black Horses for the King – Anne McCaffrey

17. The Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean M Auel

18. Fortress in the Eye of Time – C J Cherryh

19. Red Moon and Black Mountain – Joy Chant

20. The Birthgrave – Tanith Lee

21. Briefing for a Descent into Hell – Doris Lessing

22. Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice

23. The Wood Wife – Terri Windling

24. Briar Rose – Jane Yolen

25. The Porcelain Dove – Delia Sherman

26. The Winter Prince – Elizabeth Wein

27. The Time of the Dark – Barbara Hambly

28. Sword of Rhiannon – Leigh Brackett

29. Tam Lin – Pamela Dean

30. Fire in the Mist – Holly Lisle

31. The Sacrifice – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

32. The Beleagured City – Margaret Oliphant

33. The Soul of Lilith – Marie Corelli

34. The Citadel of Fear – Francis Stevens

35. Jirel of Joiry – C L Moore

36. Sheepfarmer’s Daughter – Elizabeth Moon

37. Dragon Prince – Melanie Rawn

38. Black Trillium – Julian May, Andre Norton & Marion Zimmer Bradley

39. The Thief’s Gamble – Juliet E McKenna

40. Daggerspell – Katharine Kerr

41. The Blue Manor – Jenny Jones

42. The Barbed Coil – J V Jones

43. In the Red Lord’s Reach – Phyllis Eisenstein

44. The Spirit Ring – Lois McMaster Bujold

45. The Last of the Renshai – Mickey Zucher Reichert

46. Archangel – Sharon Shinn

47. The Hall of the Mountain King – Judith Tarr

48. A Blackbird in Silver – Freda Warrington

49. Kindred – Octavia Butler

50. The Red Magician – Lisa Goldstein

Clarion Write-A-Thon – the fourth 5000 – Intermediate MacGuffin Hunting

So, I set myself a challenge within a challenge this week: I not only had to write 5000 words, but they all had to be on the Steampunk Victoriana Fairies and Robots novel. Every single one of them.

When I’m tracking wordcount, it’s usually about making sure I make some kind of measurable progress, and I usually discount any other writing when I’m working on a novel. That’s why I so rarely get short stories written! By the time the weekend comes around, I’m done.

So this year my plan, since it’s the first year in a while with no specific deadlines, was to write a bunch of words (my crazy goal was 200K) and to count everything I wrote, as long as it was fiction. It’s been pretty great because I have been able to keep up work momentum by jumping from project to project – it’s a lot easier to write 1000 words each of 5 different projects than 5000 words on the same thing. Sort of. Mostly. Except I haven’t been doing that, I’ve been doing 300-500 words on 10-15 different projects. Per week.

Scattered, me?

The benefit has been that I have been able to write and complete a bunch of stories, and work in response to opportunities. Like when that Blake’s 7 writers opportunity came along, but they only gave us a week or so to produce what they needed: I dropped everything and wrote my words for the week on just that, and turned it in on time. I wouldn’t have found that as possible if I had been in the midst of a novel deadline, or indeed if I hadn’t been writing at all that month (warming up is important!).

But, yeah. On the other hand, finishing things has been an issue for me this year. I’ve started way more stories than I’ve completed, and most of those I have got finished has been because of a theme or contest deadline. So, um. External deadlines are important to me, apparently. The novel I’m writing at the moment isn’t going to be that long, and yet I’ve been pecking away at it for months with very slow results because of all the other things I have been starting, and not finishing.

I wanted to write words this year: marketable, publishable, excellent words. But the thing about words is, they’re a whole lot less publishable and saleable if they’re not part of something that is finished.

So it was harder going than it should have been, to write this week, but I slogged at it, and I can definitely see the benefits of concentrating one’s attention on the same thing. I need to research more, and I kept running into plot problems and having to make decisions on how to solve them instead of flitting off to write a short story about angels instead. Like, I knew my Extraordinary Device Brothers needed a MacGuffin of some kind, a reason to go to the house, a reason to be kidnapped, and that it would have to be an object that in some way would fix their problems with the queen. But I didn’t know what it was. Now I do. And it’s awesome. I’ve also sorted out all manner of other speedbumps in the road, and at least three character motivations that were a bit whimsical before.

So this is good for me. Like vegetables, and Latin.

And now, instead of being at 20,000 words, my novel is at 25,000 words. Almost like magic, because of course the effort it took to produce those words is fading from memory.

In other news, this is the week that it became obvious that my nearly-3-year-old doesn’t nap any more. Sometimes she does, but only under sufferance, and more often than not the only way she gets an hour’s sleep in the afternoon is if she’s sprawled out on the left side of my body. So um. There’s at least 5 hours or so in the week that I used to have for rapid typing that is no longer available to me. Wednesdays have taken a particularly bad hit, but Tuesdays aren’t faring so well either.

I would not have written 5000 words this week if it wasn’t for the Clarion Write-a-thon, and the fact that I’ve got into the habit of writing about my week’s writing on Saturdays. I might not even have written 1000 words. I might well have thrown in the towel and decided to do nothing but wash socks and vacuum floors for the next year and a half, until kindergarten starts. Or I might have read a book.

So there’s that.

—

“There was no school room in the London house, and so Flavia mostly conducted lessons in the small library, which was full of the kind of books that matched prettily on the shelves, rather than containing any particular content of note.

She was attempting to interest young Dashmond in mathematics, which was roughly like trying to teach table manners to a monkey. Indeed, it was almost exactly like that for at least two hours of the morning, in which he had refused to be in any shape but that of a small gibbon. Oddly, he was better at counting when he had a tail.

Queenie, meanwhile, practiced her handwriting by copying out a treatise on the science of love philtres, and why they were so commonly concealed in sugary rather than savoury foods.”

—

If you want to encourage my Clarion Write-a-thon campaign, please consider donating a little something in my name over here. Thanks so much to those who have already donated, I really appreciate it. All funds go towards the Clarion West writers workshops, a great cause!