Holy crap! Thanks to King William for recommending this video. It is... slo mo dove-tastic!
Batgirl's New Uniform
I really like this design! I love the yellow insignia, and the purple details. It gives me a nice Huntress from Earth 2 feeling. It's a nice change from the all black Cassandra version that I never really liked (despite owning the First Appearances toy). This Batgirl inspires hope (I hope)! What I could do without is that stupid garter. It ruins the sleekness of the design.
Jennifer's Body
On the surface, Jennifer's Body sounds deceptively simple. It is a well written black comedy, not a horror movie. It's an offshoot of movies like Ginger Snaps, where the "curse" of being a werewolf is a metaphor for the mood swings of puberty and change. Or Teeth where the attitudes of modern society towards vaginas are ridiculed (vagina dentata).
In Jennifer's Body, an indie rock band travel to this small town, and sacrifice Jennifer to Satan in order to gain fame. Jennifer is not a virgin like they thought so she gets possessed and they get famous.
What's important about Jennifer's Body is that it focuses on the friendship of the two leads, Jennifer and Needy, and how Jennifer's possession affects their relationship and their lives. [Spoiler Alert]
Needy
It is ironic that everyone calls her Needy because she seems like an independent teenager. She has a boyfriend, Chip, and she interacts with other students. Yet she puts Jennifer before everyone else. In contrast, Jennifer has no other friends, she's not even that popular anymore. Jennifer is way needier that Needy.
Needy and Jennifer have a deep connection, almost as if they were twins. Loyal to a fault, it is Needy who dooms Jennifer. The band thought Jen looked like a slut, and Needy steps in to defend her and says that Jen is a virgin. When the band is playing and Jennifer takes Needy's hand in the excitement and smiles, you see Needy literally glow. But then she takes her hand away. Needy probably feels that Jennifer doesn't love her as much. I think she's wrong, it's just that Jennifer doesn't let herself feel.
Jennifer
She's a pretty girl in small town with apparently nothing else to offer but her body. She's not a virgin in any sense of the word. All her conversations lead to sexual innuendos. She thinks about herself first, and clearly loves herself a lot.
Or does she? Jennifer celebrates her demonic possession, Her body is invulnerable. She's beautiful. "I'm a God" she tells Needy, and she means it. And still, something is missing. Something Needy has and Jennifer doesn't. Heart. Needy feels, and Jennifer, once again, doesn't want to admit she feels.
When Jennifer goes to Needy to come clean about eveything her instinct is to connect with Needy physically. Everyone wants Jennifer's body but not Jennifer herself, except Needy who seems to want or has had both. Jennifer alludes to them playing "boyfriend / girlfriend" before, and Needy stops the makeout session it seems more because she had seen Jen drenched in blood on top of her mom's Kia and not because it was strange to be making out with Jennifer. This makeout session was not to imply that the girls were gay, but rather how intense their friendship was.
Jennifer knows this and hates and loves Needy for it. Jennifer feels Needy's love but won't let herself feel anything. So, this makes Jen feel like Needy is much better than her. "Say I'm better than Needy" she tells Chip.
We first meet Jennifer at her most shallow, and move quickly to her self-centered demonic phase. It was easy to reduce Jennifer into a stereotype and to hate her for killing people and being so cold and shallow about it. Then the movie slaps us back by presenting the sacrifice. It is clear she didn't go willingly with the band. During their song she acts mesmerized. As the bar begins to burn down, clearly something the band was expecting, Needy is alert but Jennifer is numb. It's in the van, much later that Jennifer realizes that she's in big trouble. She asks if they're going to rape her, and when they ask if she's a virgin, she dooms herself by saying yes. Jennifer finally acts human in the face of self preservation. So we have evidence that she is a feeling human being. The band penetrate her with a huge knife, and leave her. Possessed and weak, Jennifer stumbles towards Needy's house. The only person she's connected to. Another human aspect of Jennifer comes when she must feed again. Judging by her deterioration she seems to hold off feeding till the last possible moment. Maybe Jennifer doesn't particularly like killing people, but she must do it or she dies. Again, self preservation. When Needy stabs her, she moans "my tit" and Needy responds "No, your heart". Even in death Jennifer denies her heart.
Virginity and Sexuality
Jennifer's Body revolves around Jen's virginity. Virginity, we are told from birth it seems, is IMPORTANT. You should be pure and save yourself for marriage. All you have to offer as a woman is your virginity. Jennifer is not a virgin, and she's very proud of it. She uses her body to get what she wants and she clearly likes to have sex. Yet, she is only valuable to the band if she's a virgin. Having sex devalues you.
Usually in a horror film the hero/girl has to be a virgin, since one of the rules in movies is that you shouldn't have sex, ever! (Thanks Randy). Needy likes to have sex with her boyfriend, so she's not a virgin and yet she survives. It is in the act of sex that Needy again connects to Jennifer, having visions and nightmares while Chip is blissfully unaware. Sex is Jennifer's thing (like tits) and Needy is invading Jen's territory.
Revenge
Because Jennifer kills Chip, Needy must kill her. The fight is dramatic, but one gets the sense that Jennifer, despite being weak, could have won. That once Jennifer realised that her friendship with Needy was destroyed, she quit fighting. Needy wins and loses, both her boyfriend and her best friend. If the movie had ended there, then it would be a classic tale of two girls fighting over a boy in the end. Yet the movie continues, and we see the true ending. Needy has some of the demon's powers because Jennifer bit her! She escapes the prison, and kills the band that started all this mess. In the name of Jennifer, of course.
Titans and Secret Six!
Photoshop Disaster alert!
Look at her neck! It's all twisted and her choker is actually chocking her. It's obvious the reference is a woman looking to her right! At the person she's taunting! Maybe the higher ups demanded that Donna look at the reader and not at some thug she just beat up. By the way, who does that? Dress up for a date and then look so smug that she clobbered everyone? At best this was a generic image and they added on Donna's head.
Look at her legs! She has a shattered pelvis, but she's so calm! Maybe she's dead and frozen. Legs don't bend that way! Maybe Black Alice is using magic? Or maybe she's a zombie! Of course this must be the Blackest Night tie in! No it all makes sense.
Wonder Woman and Maxwell Lord
Finally, Blackest Night bleeds into all other comics interrupting and stalling stories for months to come!
On December Wonder Woman and Black Lantern Maxwell Lord will fight as evidenced by the rather porn-y cover above.
This strikes me as odd, because the whole premise of the Black Lanterns is to hit emotionally as well as physically. You are meant to be horrified by the reanimated corpse of your loved one demanding flesh and your heart.
In the case of Wonder Woman I think there must have been better characters to be a Black Lantern for Wonder Woman.
Apparently Etta Candy is in a coma, but she would have made an excellent Black Lantern for Diana. Seeing her best friend's body desecrated would have destroyed Diana. But not as much as...
Vanessa Kapatelis! A victim of multiple abductions and operations, Vanessa was turned into the Silver Swan. Supposedly, she had her implants removed and was recovering in Themyscira and everyone just forgot about her. What if she had died? Then the young woman could suffer one more mindfuck, and Diana would have to confront the abandonment issues Vanessa has felt since the 80s. You have to admit that Diana has not done right by Vanessa. This could be a guilt trip made incarnate into a Black Lantern.
Also of note, Steve (where the hell is he?), Circe (Where in hell is she?), Circe's daughter (Wha-huh?), and the God who got his heart ripped out by Zeus to make Achilles. Any of those would be more emotional than Maxwell Lord! Again! Yeah so she killed him so what? Nobody cared that much then except for good old Superman, and year later nobody REALLY cared. I bet Diana has forgotten the whole thing, since she never regretted killing him anyway,
"I require flesh, Wonder Woman!"
-"Who are you again?"
"I'm Black Lantern Maxwell Lord! What do you mean? You killed me!"
-"Oh yeah...so I guess I'll kill you again!"
"D'Oh!"
World's Finest!
On the one hand, you could say that both these covers feature boobs. You'd be right, but that's not all. What they are also selling is confidence and legacy, and I am buying it.
In the nineties, when I saw the Supergirl #1 cover I was in love. The grunge look, and the skateboard said "current and cool" and once I saw the Gary Frank art and plunged deep into the Peter David story I was hooked. I still am, like millions other Linda Danvers will always be my Supergirl. Upon inspection the cover looks simple but it really isn't. Linda's life is suddenly interrupted by the fact that she can now change into Supergirl (then a shape shifting blob impersonating Supergirl because she sacrificed herself in Crisis on Infinite Earths-whew!) It's not easy balancing the ideal of Supergirl with the reality of less than perfect and almost evil Linda. So the cover first presents Linda and her tomboy trappings, the shirt and the skateboard. Then the big "S" that stads for goodness and heroic values, and Supergirl of course. But it also represents the goodness inside Linda, otherwise she and Supergirl could never co-exist. She doesn't smile since Linda was not a happy person and the reason for her being Supergirl at all is very tragic. Plus! Even though we don't see her body you can infer her stance is confident and strong. A powerful image that is remembered long after her comic fizzled and Linda was swallowed by continuity.
Most recently the cover for Batgirl #1 gave me the same vibe and not just because of the composition, and the fact that in both cases we weren't supposed to know who these girls were. There's something about the Batgirl's smile that says confidence and pride, but in a good way. It's not too cheerful, just enough and tinged with sadness. Again, the stance is powerful, she's not unbalanced she's strong. Her hands on her hips and the tilt of her chin really sell the new attitude of the new Batgirl. The color scheme betrays the girl behind the mask Spoiler purples broken with black much like Steph's none too happy life. It's too bad that the cover art couldn't follow to the inside of the book, where the art was forgettable.
These covers perfect examples of art that is more than a pinup. They make you want to look closer at these girls who have evolved beyond the legacy they carry across their chests. More importantly they make you want to buy the comic.
