Repeat readers of my contributions will know that when we’re dealing with things that could potentially be spoilered, I tend to engage vagaries and nonspecifics to try and save people the pain. This won’t be any different, but just in case, here it is:
THE SPOILER WARNING.
There.
Boobs
Overall, Nolan hasn’t done too badly. Anne Hathaway seems a good choice, and there isn’t any in-yer-face cleavage or suspicious anti-gravity trickery.
Unlike in Arkham City.
+1 to Dark Knight Rises
Though she did have some cool moves, those boobs never seemed affected by the basic laws of physics.
Bums
Catwoman does have a black, skintight suit, but so does Batman – some compensation, I guess? – and there are only a couple of unfortunate shots of her bum as she rides the bat-bike. This is however; a) a big improvement on Arkham City‘s near constant sexy-butt-wiggling right in centre-camera, and b) offset by her being awesome on that bike.
+0.5 to Dark Knight Rises
Backstory
It’s important to remember that the game and the film encounter Selina/Catwoman at different points in her story and her relationship with Bruce/the Bat. Despite this, both mediums do quite well in demonstrating her motivations and character. The film, however, does marginally better as it manages to do this while advancing, generally, a bit more respectful portrayal of her as a woman.
+0.5 to Dark Knight Rises
Bitch
The most disappointing Catwoman scene of the whole thing. “You dumb bitch!” snarls the guy she’s fighting.“No-one’s ever accused me of being dumb before,” says she. Now, Selina ignoring the b-word could either be a) because she’s showing that its intended purpose (as an insult) doesn’t affect her, therefore suck it, or b) it’s such a commonplace piece of vocabulary she doesn’t see why it’s so excruciatingly wrong. I hope, and like to believe (based on Hathaway’s facial expression on-screen), that it’s the former. I was midway through writing this at the time, so I’m extremely disappointed it was there at all. Seeing as we’re comparing the movie to the game, however, having one instance of “bitch” in the whole film is 1000x better than hearing it every other second, like you do in Arkham City.
+0.5 to Dark Knight Rises
Boots
YES THEY’RE TOTALLY PRACTICAL.
Also in that “bitch” scene is the sudden appearance of Selina’s massive metal stilettos. Why?! No one can be that gymnastic in 5″ fucking heels. As you may note, this hacked me off considerably. The film tries to justify these ridiculous boots by having the inside of the heel sharpened like a serrated blade (check out the poster image, right) – but that seems to me like a poor token to try and throw off the fact they’re pure decoration and only there for prettifying Catwoman. She doesn’t need them! They aren’t practical, even if there’s a Swiss Army Knife in those heels, it’s just… no.
The second attempt to validate them comes as a baddie asks her if they hurt (implied: to walk in) to which she responds, “I don’t know, do they?” and kicks him with one. Fun retort, maybe, but they’re still unnecessary, and all the credibility the film gained by not focussing on her boobs is lost as they just use those heels to return her to unrealistic pin-up status. Game-Catwoman has similarly stupid shoes so there’s no betterment to be found here.
+0 to Dark Knight Rises
To sum up…
Nolan & Hathaway’s Catwoman does better than Arkham City‘s, but there remains a lot of space to improve. The age-old issue of practical footwear is the big one for me – after making such an effort to cover up cleavage, making the top half of her outfit much more practical, what exactly was the point in contradicting that by forcing her to don stilettos?
The ‘bitch’ thing also irked me quite a lot, but it was much better than in Arkham City, which was almost unplayable in places for the amount of churning rage brought about by being called a Catbitch so often (I mean, aside from the fact a female cat can be called a ‘molly’, ‘queen’ or ‘dam’ where a bitch is a female canine, of course).
Film Catwoman has the common sense to tuck the boobs away so they don’t lollop around as she beats up baddies
As I said, film-Catwoman’s body isn’t made nearly as much of a focal point as it is in the game. There’s no cleavage to ogle, lots of close-ups on her face, and when her body is in view, it’s often as hidden as Batman’s is by varying descriptions of black attire. Downfall is a bit a of bum-shot while she’s on the batbike, but this is nowhere near as big a negative point as Catwoman’s near-constant sexy wiggling in Arkham City.1
On the whole, film-Catwoman does much better than game-Catwoman for all the above reasons and many more I daren’t go into here for fear of lolspoilers. The film on the whole is pretty awesome, and the female characters are integral to the story: despite what the trailers may suggest, it is not simply Bat vs. Bane with a bit of eye candy on the side. I won’t say more because that’ll give too much away, but go see it and decide for yourselves. I enjoyed it immensely and will probably be seeing it again in the not-too-distant future.
- NB: Yes, I know about the portrayal of Catwoman in many of the comics and blah blah fidelity, but this is the 21st century, not 1940… so, surely, we can update her just a little to move with the times after 70+ years? And I don’t mean revealing more skin.
Mostly.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy were the issues. I don’t want to sound like a broken record but boobs on display in a high risk profession such as being a Gotham City criminal is not exactly clever – is it? Harley was very nice to see as a significant part of the story that is out to scupper your plans, but her being called some less-than-charming things by the Joker’s own thugs was tedious to say the least, and when you actually fight Harley herself she is defeated ridiculously easily – in a cutscene no less. Disappointing.
“Please don’t punch me in the chest, Batman. It’d be terribly inconvenient and I might have to reconsider my outfit!”
Ivy, when you first meet her, is lounging about in her cell – apparently the only female inmate – not wearing prison issues but her own clothes displaying her sizeable bust. Later, in her boss fight, for some reason she decides to float about attacking you in what – as our ed described to me in an email – “appears to be a giant laughing vulva-plant which flaps open periodically to reveal she still isn’t wearing a great deal…”. Super.
I’m pretty sure she gets referred to as some less-than-charming things too by henchmen.
Fast forward to Arkham City, which I got in another sale (but it still cost me £20), and now you can play as Catwoman too! However, she appears to have fallen foul of Rule 1 of Sensible Female Armour: her suit is only ever zipped up to just below her breasts, allowing for ample cleavage. When you fight thugs as Catwoman, you get called a ‘bitch’ but for some reason, if you’re Batman, you don’t get called a prick, a wanker, a bastard or even a knobend. Really, people?
The assassins of Rā’s al Ghūl’s order are all for some reason scantily clad sex icons – as is his daughter – and the concept art is mainly essentially the sort of softcore you might find in lads’ mags. In fact the vast majority of the concept art involving any female character is pretty oversexualised and repugnant. We get to meet Ivy again, too, but it seems she still hasn’t bothered to find any clothes since the laughing vulva-plant incident. And Harley is wearing even more revealing kit than last time.
Great graphics, but do we really need to see that much breast?
Now, even if we leave aside all of this sexist nonsense, Arkham City is somewhat disappointing anyway. I finished the storyline in less than a day; the ending snuck up on me and was rubbish. I won’t say what happens, but… just… what?! That’s even before I get to the complaint I have with the huge continuity hole left at the end. I was so disheartened by it that I did a Ragequit of Disappoints and haven’t gone back on it since. Even though I still have lots of side quests and puzzles to solve, I just haven’t found the heart to go back to it.
Arkham Asylum was worth the £5 but City was definitely not worth the £20 – let alone the standard retail price in the range of up to £39.99! The first game offered something new and interesting with a gorgeous noir feel much akin to Nolan’s reimagining of Gotham on film, if not grittier. The second game whizzed past all too quickly, with no real indication that one should slow down, do side quests, do the puzzles and so on, lest you face the atrocious storyline ending.
Benefits of the second game, however, do exist; the world is larger, you get more gadgets and there are no area transitions between outdoor locations. Plus you do get to play as Catwoman, even if she is just eye candy to be abused by burly henchmen. (Are there really no female crims in Gotham?)
Both games do fall down woefully at the Treating Female Characters with Respect hurdle. Would it truly be so hard to think logically about the design of these people? Does Batman walk around without his Kevlar body armour, flexing his pectorals, with a big “SHOOT HERE” target on his chest? No. No, he does not. So why should Catwoman, or Ivy, or Harley? Basic boob-sense would say maybe a comfy sports bra would be better than leather basques and flimsy shirts with only one button done up. At least then the breast tissue wouldn’t detach during all this acrobatic criminality.
Also, Catwoman has anti-gravity boobs.
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Super Girls in Sweaters
Have you ever looked at superheroines today and thought “Hmmm… they could be a bit more comfy.” All that spandex and those costumes with holes cut out, don’t they ever get cold? Don’t they ever just want to put their slippers on and relax?
Well, artist Hanie Mohd must have thought the same thing, because she’s got a whole series of prints on Etsy featuring super girls in sweaters, and they’re super cute, too! She’s got Power Girl, Catwoman, Oracle, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Rogue from the X-Men and Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl. I wonder who she’ll draw next?
I’ve bought the Catwoman print, and after all the hullabaloo about how much Catwoman was or wasn’t wearing in the DC52, there’s something that’s quite comforting about seeing Selina in a kitty sweater. Doesn’t she just look so happy to be wearing it?
The SFX Weekender
The SFX Weekender is an annual sci-fi convention run by SFX Magazine; it took place in Rye in the south of England in 2010 and 2011, and this year it’s based in Wales at Prestatyn Sands, from the 2nd to the 5th of February. There are events for those who love comics, gaming, SF movies and books, and unlike what might be thought of as a ‘typical’ sci-fi convention there are always loads of women there enjoying the show.
I’ve been before, and I’m going again, this year they’ve got stellar guests such as Alex Kingston, who plays River Song in Doctor Who, and Eve Myles who plays Gwen in Torchwood. There’s also Hattie Hayridge, the standup comedienne who plays Holly in Red Dwarf and Sophie Aldred, who used to play the Doctor’s companion, Ace, in Doctor Who in the 1980s. There’ll be some great scifi and fantasy authors there too, from fantasy authors Juliet McKenna (who wrote this great post for us on the representation of women in fantasy last year) and Mark Charan Newton, comics authors such as Paul Cornell and Dan Abnett, to sci-fi authors Jaine Fenn, Michael Cobley and China Miéville.
There are always great booths and an equally great programme of panel discussions, writing workshops, quizzes, and cosplay competitions, awards ceremonies such as the SFX Awards and the Kitschies, and a ‘Maskerade’ party on the final night (DJed by Red Dwarf‘s Craig Charles). All best enjoyed with some cold beer and some good geeky friends, of course.
Sci-Fi Stage Adaptations
Did you know The Ballad of Halo Jones had been adapted into a play? No, neither did I, but the Alan Moore story that’s been named as one of feminist website The F Word’s recommended comics and graphic novels was perfomed by Manchester-based production company Scytheplays in early January.
We heard about this production via this glowing review from Ed Fortune.
Halo and her friends live on the Hoop – a repository for the unemployed in the 50th century, but she won’t be beaten. She dreams of getting out and becomes a legend in the process.
The current run is over now, but maybe they can be persuaded to go on tour? Comics writer Maura McHugh mentions her love of Halo Jones in an interview with BadRep here.
We also found out recently that Cory Doctorow’s revolutionary YA novel Little Brother has been adapted for the stage by The Custom Made Theatre Co., though sadly this theatre happens to be in San Francisco, America, so I don’t think we’ve much chance of seeing that one…
Do you know of any other SF stage adaptations going on at the moment? Share them in the comments or send them to the usual BadRep editors address!
Also filed under ‘Awesome’…
This story on Tumblr, about a little boy who wanted to buy a purple controller and a ‘game for girls’. Dear Customer who stuck up for his little brother…
Awesomewatch: Have YOU seen an awesome thing? Tell our Jenni all about it.
]]>- It’s our birthday party next week! You have to come! Bring your friends! (The ones that will dig this sort of thing, anyway. If you have friends in the EDL, that could get awkward. NICE FRIENDS. Yes.) Here’s the facebook event!
- The (Tattooed) Beauty Myth – an interesting blogpost on women, getting inked, and the tattoo press.
- Is Sex Positive Ever Negative? – the Good Men Project considers the term.
- The Six Chix – “innovative weekly comic strip devoted entirely to the work of female cartoonists.”
- The Guardian‘s Rebecca Nicholson revisits The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
- That DC Reboot Business: the best links are, we think, this, this (and indeed, the whole No More Mutants column series is ace), and this.
- Men-Ups! – men take traditionally ‘female’ vintage cheesecake pinup poses ]]>
Ah, comics. Or graphic novels, if they are trying to seduce me across a pseudy coffee bar in Edinburgh, which they did – more on that later.
Dear reader, this is a tale of a long, passionate, but fractious love affair.
It started early. I noticed them, but they never seemed to be the right one for me, stocked as they were in the “boys’ section” of the magazine racks. I kept myself busy with the garish colours of the (probably) gender neutral Dandy and the Beano. Whilst being amused but ultimately concerned by the levels of naughtiness from Minnie the Minx (I was a very conscientious child), I found myself captured by a few sections from the pages of hand-me-down copies of the now-defunct “girls’ own” annual Bunty. Looking back on it, the artwork was poor and the storylines were hammy with a sprinkling of schmaltz, but some stood out: tales of mystery, adventure, aliens and heroines were hidden amidst the pages of dreary “girl stuff”. Now we’re talking!
Cover Art for GloomCookie Issue 7
Flash forward, and I’m at university in Edinburgh with actual money in my pocket. I’ve caught flickers of images in such hallowed sanctuaries as Forbidden Planet, which is exciting but mostly full of plastic models. Deadhead, lurking on the crooked medieval road across from the pub where I’ve just earned my actual money, is poky and rammed with paper; pleasingly reminiscment in layout and smell of old bookshops.
On the shelves I spot a beautifully painted (thank you Duncan Fegredo) issue of Mike Carey’s Lucifer, where a winged schoolgirl escapes the giant maw of a fiery demon; the first of the new Catwoman where Selina Kyle is resplendent and powerful in a jumpsuit and combat boots; and the gothic lusciousness of Serena Valentino’s GloomCookie. And that was just the covers!
Ed Brubaker's 2001 Emma Peel inspired Catwoman
The stories, oh, oh, oh the stories. Magical, fantastical, intricate and complex tales of all kinds with interesting and varied female characters being just as magical, just as fantastically intricate and complex as their male counterparts.
I am doing my level best to just not list all of them because that would be a little tedious – check the Wiki articles or better yet come round and read them – my point is that they were there, and they were so far removed from any other female heroes (or anti-heroes, or villains) that I had ever seen before, and there were just SO MANY of them.
Over the next many years I spent a lot of time and money on comics. I was in love. Besotted. I compulsively collected every issue of the jaw-dropping Fables and Y: The Last Man (a must for any comic collection). As I tend to be when in love, I was somewhat obsessed. I wrote my dissertation on postmodernist structuralism in Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles (I know better now, it should have been postmodern superhero archetypes in Doom Patrol).
I found the most perfect fairy tale ever told in the form of Jeff Smith’s independent offering Bone. This is an epic adventure of derring do, lost princesses who need to save the kingdom, war, friendship, quiche and dragons. I cannot recommend it enough.
Grandma Ben in action against the famously stupid, stupid rat creatures
The character of Grandma Ben blasts away so many female stereotypes. She is mysterious, strong, forthright, takes no nonsense and just plain funny. She also races cows. As in, races against them. I aim to also do this when I am her age (which she refuses to tell anyone, of course).
But as I read my way through everything that caught my eye, I was spotting a change.
Filthy Assistant number two Yelena Rossini romped her way through Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan and stole my heart somewhat with her hard smoking, futuristic gumshoe gonzo journalism and attack womb. Zee Hernandez from Brian Wood’s spectacular DMZ played Beatrice to the lost photographer and guided both him and the reader through a ghastly vision of New York as the Gaza Strip.
Yelena Rossini from Transmetropolitan
These women were still good, still interesting, but they were second fiddle, playing traditional (albeit revamped and turbo-boosted) support roles such as healers and helpmeets whilst also filling the “minority quota”, especially in the case of Zee who is both non-white and non-male. Naturally all of them end up sleeping with or as love interests for the male protagonists, although at least the storylines of those titles made up for the stereotypes.
Somewhere along the way, it started to go wrong. Bit by bit by bit, even these characters faded away. The series that I loved ended (I cried at the end of Lucifer) and were replaced with weaker, less interesting versions. Costumes became smaller, boobs bigger. I started my “never buy a comic where the cover art has a woman with breasts bigger than her head” campaign, and found myself wealthier but with a lot less comics.
Female characters and their stories became less widely available. There were still some bright sparks but these were increasingly ghettoised in the narrow “independent” section of the store or as part of autobiographical works such as the excellent Persepolis. The lack of new work meant that shops began pushing long-standing books like Strangers in Paradise or reprints of classics obviously aimed at women such as Dykes to Watch Out For.
There were still good stories in comic book world, with great artwork, but the women I had come to love had gone missing from the mainstream. Titles such as Wonder Woman or Lady Death looked like bad pornography, and the artwork for some of my favourite writers became downright ridiculous to the point of offensive. My relationship with comics was getting rocky.
I can pinpoint the exact moment that caused us to break up. It was Ignition City by Warren Ellis, specifically the way that almost every page had a massive pair of tits or tight (female) bottom in it, regardless of whether that was particularly appropriate or relevant. The male characters, of course, could be as fat, wrinkly, gross, old, multicultural and multidimensional as actual people. The female characters only existed to ensure that there were toned body parts for the consumption of the reader (who obviously wasn’t meant to be me).
What happened to my love? What changed? I don’t know. I have moved to pastures new – online comics such as Freak Angels, Girl Genius, Sinfest and XKCD fulfill my panel-related addiction, but every now and then I look longingly at my groaning bookshelf with all those beautiful trade paperbacks, wondering when, if ever, there might be a return to form.
Come back, baby. I miss you.
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