There was a huge upset, over at scans_daily, about a week ago.  I know.  How could that happen?  But some of us like scans_daily, in part, because of the fights.  This fight, however, frustrated me, because I’ve seen it too often.

I’ve seen a few too many arguments like this, lately, where someone does something dumb and offensive and then shouts at everyone who bothers to tell them that it’s offensive.  Here are the arguments that they always, always, without fail, make.

1.  But I didn’t know it was offensive.

2.  But I didn’t mean it to be offensive.

3.  But you should have been nicer to me when you explained what was wrong.

Number two has its variations (it was supposed to be funny, it was supposed to be satire, it’s not really important anyway), but number three?  Number three is the catchall.

People who invoke number three will use any excuse in the book to make it work.  They will use the excuse of politeness (there are certain ways we do things), and morality (don’t ever sink to their level!), and location (this isn’t the place for it), and loyalty (but I’m really on your side), and they love using practicality (You shouldn’t have to explain this but otherwise how will they learn?  However will they learn?).

I hate all of those arguments, because all of them – every single thing I’ve listed above – boil down to this assumption:

You have consider my feelings, and I don’t have to consider yours.

That’s what every single person who ever makes those arguments is saying.  That’s all they’re saying. 

And when the original offender himself comes on in the second page to thank the people who ‘defended’ him, and not the people who acquiesced to the demands of all the idiots, waded thigh-deep into the bog, and educated him? 

Man, I’m glad I can’t comment on that site since they moved to dreamwidth.  Trying to get through to him would have been one hell of a waste of a few days.

I have a friend, who shall remain anonymous for reasons that are going to become clear.

She insists that sometime post-Dinah and pre-death, Green Arrow actually hooked up with Catwoman.  I know and you know that this is a scandalous falsehood.  But could it have actually happened?

I leave it to you, internet.  Have you heard of this issue?  And if so, what are the odds that Ollie turns out to be the father of the Catbaby?  (Yes, I know, in canon it’s Sam Bradley.  Still, imagine the dramatic story that will be the origin of The Green Kitten.)

As always; Spoilers.

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Guess.

Which series.

I’m buying.

My, god.  He’s got a *Bat*buckle.  From io9.

Hunh.

With this little information, I can’t say much, except that I hope it will be more Young Justice and less Justice League.  I loved the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series. 

I just really don’t want to see The Justice League, Only They’re Teenagers.  Young Justicehad its own feel and its own cast  (the fact that Arrowette is on the show is a good sign).  I hope that they’re not going to shove adult heroes into teenage roles.

Okay, enough about what I hope it’s not.  Here’s what I hope it is.  I hope that they have the dorky-as-hell Superboy.  He was fun and shallow, but also very sweet, with a poignant back story.  I hope that they include both Cassie and Cissie, and that they’re friends all the way through.

And I hope that they have the adult superheroes in the show, just as they were in the comic; stepping in and annoying all the kids.  Young Justice wasn’t just a series about a team of kids.  It was a series about a team of kids who were rebelling, and challenging, and clinging to, and thinking about, and testing the grown-ups in their lives.  That was part of what made it fun and poignant.  If it’s just a bunch of kids fighting monsters, it would just be like Teen Titans Go!

Oh, and I hope they have the supercycle.

Spoilers for the latest issue of Red Robin.

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But I love this page with my whole heart.

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I remember when this poster first came out.  It was entitled “The Real Power of the DC Universe.” 

I hated it.  Absolutely hated it.  Oh, the women are the real power in the DCU, are they?  Sure they’re not headlining books or saving the day in stories.  Their emotional arcs don’t form the backbone of continuity, and there are no movies about them, and mostly they seem as decorative and unnecessary in the comics as they do in that poster, but they’re the real power in the DCU.

It reminded me of all the condescending crap that women have been tossed for a long time – that they have all the power because they can be sexy.  They have all the power because they can be feminine.  Just because all that power depends on pleasing other people, and all that power can be taken away in a heartbeat, that doesn’t mean that women aren’t the real power.

When David posted about Benes doing the art for Birds of Prey earlier this month, I felt some flickerings of that old irritation.  Rather than festering, though, as much of my irritation does; it passed away pretty quickly.

Here’s why:

I can go to the shelf and buy Detective Comics, which have a grittiness that, in my opinion, often clashes with the almost surreal artwork of JH Williams.  And there will be a Renee Montoya back-up, with an art style that matches up better, but a more conventional story.

Or I can buy that confection of a comic book, Power Girl, and laugh at the stories and try to find the cat in every issue.

Or I can buy Wonder Woman, although I can only read it when I’m not feeling depressed because, come on, can’t Wondy chalk up *one* in the win column?  She and everyone else in the comic have been kicked down and down and down since the third issue.

Or I can buy Batgirl, because it has two characters I love in a relatively by-the-numbers coming-of-age superhero story, and one character I despise making things interesting.

Or I can buy Supergirl, although its embroiled in a massive crossover continuity nightmare.  I liked the kids mini-series of it much better.

Pretty soon I’ll be able to buy Birds of Prey, the funny, soapy, wildly varied team book.

I could even buy that abomination, Gotham City Sirens, although I never will.  Ever.

And of course, if I have a few extra dollars I’m willing to throw away, I can buy the Streets of Gotham series, rip out the first 22 pages, and find Kate Spencer in a kind of Law & Order: Superheroes Unit comic.

I can find funny books starring women, and sexy books starring women, and dark books starring women, and kid’s books starring women.  I can like some of the books for the story, and some for the tone, and some for the characters, and some for the writer.

There are a bunch of books about women out there.  If I’m reading DC I can choose, out of that bunch of books, the ones the ones that suit my taste at the moment.  It was not always so.  I like, very much, that it has changed.

Which is not to say that there can’t be improvements.  There are a lot of books that are lead by female characters, but the percentage isn’t half.  Yet.  Almost all the characters are white, straight, young, and are drawn so that they are exceptionally easy on the eyes first, and characters second.  And if there is never again a story that mentions, contains, threatens, or even alludes to a rape, it will be too soon.  However, being able to pick and choose, not having to search the shelves for female characters, not feeling like I have to support that one book that has a female lead, having a selection presented to me and comparing, contrasting, and finally choosing what I like; I enjoy this feeling.   It feels like real power.

I was interested in Graeme McMillan’s review of Human Target.  He comes to the conclusion that pretty much everyone else I’ve talked to did; it’s an okay show, but it’s nothing even remotely like the comic book.  Although the commenters on io9 seemed to take it pretty well, I’m wondering how fans who are more invested in the comic would take it.

I wonder this for two reasons:

1.  It’s really not an okay show.  It’s a drinking game kind of show.  One drink for every time Chance pauses in the middle of an action sequence to make a big production of being the coolest guy on earth.  One drink for every time Chance’s boss is humiliated.  One drink for every time Guerrero looks at someone with his steely eyes and they back down for no reason because he is just.  That.  Dangerous.  It’s only a show you watch if nothing, nothing at all, else is on and you’re too tired to focus on anything else.

2.  Most of the time I am the one who gets angry when this kind of thing happens, and now someone else will be angry instead.  Once such a large amount of you gets invested in comics, it’s nice to sit on the sidelines with popcorn and watch the drama unfold.

Does anyone remember a certain Bat story that came out a while ago?

Batman is out at a strangely casual event with the Justice League.  It’s something between a company party and a training retreat.  They make their way through various scenarios in an out-of-the-way place, and everythings going fine at first.

Then things start getting strange.  Even though an event should have ended, it keeps going on and on, the conclusion retreating farther and farther the closer he gets.  A town that should be in one place is in another, and is completely deserted.  One moment it’s day, the next it’s night.

At first Batman thinks that it’s the work of a supervillain.  The rest of the Justice League doesn’t agree, however, and insists that everything is normal.  Batman begins to suspect his friends are either deliberately testing him, or under some sinister, greater power.

Then it all becomes clear.  None of it is real.  He’s dreaming, trapped in his own paranoid mind, and he has to wake up.

Then I wake up.  (Bam!  Did you see that twist ending?  I sure didn’t.)  Yes, I twisted it all up on you (though the above story probably was published sometime back in the sixties), meta-style.  I know, there isn’t anything interesting about listening to someone else’s dreams.

There is, however, something interesting about listening to someone’s inadequacies.  The reason the setting kept changing randomly was my brain being unable to hold onto the narrative.  Everything that happened was obviously a dream.  It’s just that I didn’t know it was a dream.  Batman did.

Apparently, there is a Batman inside my brain.  And he’s smarter than I am. 

My only hope now is to eat, drink, and laze myself flabby so that he decides I’m inadequate and doesn’t try to take over my mind and force me to fight crime in my sleep.