What is beauty or attractiveness? Is it what we see on magazine covers, or is it what we feel? Is attraction based on what we see or what we hold on a deeper level? Is it learned or innate? I would say we live in a world of nurture working to override nature. The principle, in heterosexual terms, that dictates the attraction from the male is the capacity for child bearing. The image of the razor thin gal is, in my opinion, one that’s been perpetuated largely by women themselves. It became an element of fashion in the ’60s and has unnecessarily imprisoned and beat down women to the street level ever since. It has even fostered potentially fatal mental disorders which is the writing on the wall. I’ve talked to a myriad of men who will tell you up-front that they love a curvy kinda woman and don’t mind some extra meat. I know lots of women who have that same attraction. With the guys, it’s in their genetic imperative. Culturally we have largely accepted the notion of skinny/thin/buff = beauty, even though a scan of ancient art that’s connected to our unaffected concept for the opposite shows the facade, and that statement prevailed in art for a massive part of our world history. Yet, we live to abolish it still.
In comics, exaggerated beauty has always been the name of the game. Undeniably because that’s what the public largely wants, not relegated to just the male majority of readers. It’s at times a little girl fantasy as well as the other demographics. Men in comics are typically the same, with very rare exception. I only know of two series- Harbinger and Spellbinder- that ever had a woman of size as a seriously done front runner with no joke in the dynamic. I doubt that will ever change, sorry to say. I don’t think an overweight man stands much of a chance either, so it’s not really a misogynist issue expressly. That said, there is still a place for women (and men) of size in sequential art/lit. There is also a double standard in place. No one wants Harvey Bullock, The Kingpin, and The Penguin to ever be sexualized via weight change. Never gonna happen, folks. Conversely, the same cannot be said of the distaff figures.
Amanda Waller burst onto the scene in John Byrne’s Legends mini-series crossover DC title in the late 1980s. Her opening appearance was, to me, stellar. The hard-edged idealistically old-school Col. Rick Flagg walks into her office to meet and is ready for conflict. His facial expression is priceless. This short, overweight BLACK woman comes marching up to him and proceeds to own his machismo-driven ass in a nano-second. From that panel on, she is a big bad chess player, totally unstoppable in the mythos of the whole line. In Suicide Squad under the writing of John Ostrander, she is the grand dame. She is on a mission that runs to her marrow. She wants the metahuman/vigilante scene in check and she is not going to sleep until it’s micromanaged by real, true folk. Several of the criminals under her thumb attempt rebellion, and are met with epic failure. She covers the world and goes all the way to Apokolips itself when innocents are in peril. She even looks down on Batman to his face without a quiver to be had. When the game appears to be rigged, it usually turns out that Waller is the puppet-master. Her intel contains secret identities and deeply guarded facts about all parties concerned. The Secret Six turn out to be nothing but pawns to her to their collective dismay. She makes compromises for the greater good, when faced with larger problems than criminals. Proud, but not overly prideful. This is a heroine. Brave and fighting what she considers to be a good fight.
Now, she’s fundamentally the same type, but looks pretty much like Halle Barry. Am I ok with keeping her persona in line with that one change? Nope. Here’s why: my Amanda had no time, and no interest to look like Halle. She was too busy for a trip to the gym. She was too busy to care what her clothes looked like. She had much more important things to do than date or fall in love. She had buried her husband and was done with such. She was the pit-bull of the whole shebang whose personal needs were not ever part of the equation. The new version has a visual image that defies the whole concept of the character, and trappings that trample all over it. Vanity is an affront to her fictional soul. The badassed hottie is intrinsic at this point in comics, and this piece of the puzzle does NOT fit that board at all. This move on the part of Creative is so wrong on so many levels. This kind of woman exists in reality. Met her more than once. Too devoted and invested to play the games others play. Amanda’s appearance gave her character and was never the butt of any joke. Naturally, we see the shame in the impetus. “Who wants to look at fat chicks?” is smeared all over this move, probably by higher ups who loathe comics, but have been handed a necessary evil. In nearly 30 years with her image on the scene, I NEVER heard anyone say they just wish she’d lose some weight. Not ever. Between her and the ridiculously un-fun and whorish Harley Quinn I was done with the Suicide relaunch before the first arc saw it’s finale.
Etta Candy is another victim of the slight, and it’s been death by inches. If you don’t know, her story is rooted in the 1940s. She was Wonder Woman and Diana Prince’s gal pal. Like Waller, she was diminutive in stature but large in personality; very Balsak-Napolean, but female. She was a loud-mouthed Texan who loved getting in the fray with her heroine chum and never exhibited fear. Cartoonish, no doubt with her “Woo-woo-woo” trademark line and such, but all of the characters were exaggerated archetypes to some degree given the times. She was often comic relief, but not really insultingly so. She was a great complimentary foil to the central figure. Di worried about her friend, but Etta didn’t care a lick. She was going to eat her candy (yes, kinda hokey with her name and all, but all characters are depending on your level of scrutiny), and do as she damn well pleased. Etta was fundamentally asexual, but she was not at all above having a good time. In fact, life was pretty much an adventurous buffet to her sensibilities. In the decades that followed, every image of Candy was a bit taller and a bit thinner. By the ’80s she had slimmed down substantially by choice and was dating a fellow named Howard. In the Perez reboot, she was a tad chubby and wound up being the wife of an advanced age Steve Trevor. Later still, she slims way down and William Messner-Loebs sucks every trace of fun out of her by making her a victim of anorexia, driven by an internal competition with Diana. She was a goner. Alan Heinberg attempted to bring back some of her roots in his brief tenure as Di’s pistol packing, secrets-keeping compatriot at the Department of Extranormal Affairs. After his exit, she pretty much vanishes with the glaring exception of Grant Morrison’s revamp in Seven Soldiers, where we re-meet her as a morbidly obese therapy group leader for those adversely affected by the Meta-human community. Mixed feelings were elicited by me. I liked the fact that her skinnier image was shelved, but I didn’t care for her as a victim. She, in root essence, was the opposite of such. It could be argued that she had an addiction, I suppose, but if you’re going to suck out the silliness of the character germ, I’d say just abandon the candy and lose the silly connection to her surname. In the generally well-done WW Animated Movie, Etta is a sexy blonde who’s tooling for Steve Trevor’s lust. Along comes (you guessed it) the New 52, with a thin, black Etta, pretty much a secretary to Steve Trevor. OK, you know my feelings about her weight, but here’s where some may think I’m socially regressive. I assure you that’s not the case. I don’t like the changing of ethnicities in comic characters, not at all. I’m fine with new people assuming the costumed IDs of established characters, but not the people themselves. I want NEW minority characters, period. This is just lazy tokenism. This move was actually an obvious attempt to make her an adaptation of the TV version from David Kelly’s failed WW pilot, played by Tracie Thoms, an actress I actually like. I didn’t care for the switch there either. If someone wanted a black character, why not just invent one? There were new characters in play that did not require being caucasian. That’s all about that angle. My foremost ire is the body image and it’s implication that we only desire svelte characters.
How do you adapt a classic character like Etta, and ditch the anachronism? Writer-artist Ben Caldwell tackled it succinctly in his Wednesday Comics WW strip. He made her a modern girl with a punk-rock bend which suited her masterfully and gave her back her fun. She’s not hanging out with Di as an acolyte- she’s catching the fall-out with zest. In her best scene, to my mind, ever, he has her beating the crap out of a zombie horde with an infectious smiling glee. She’s us doing what we wish we could do. This is a rejoinder to her early image- Etta ever took a stab at whooping up on The Cheetah, even, and this time her moxie is met with a hip, modern bend. I see Etta as a perfect fit for a Roller Derby girl. They tend to be formidable, fun/adventure loving young women who embrace the sensibilities of Punk. Her posse of Holiday Girls would fare well as a Derby team, and foot-soldiers to Diana, being what the classic Newsboy Legion were to their local hero, The Guardian. Again, forward thinking doesn’t have to corrupt the seed of the character, and can even embellish it if done right.
What rankles me the hardest is the denial of desirability by readers and observers. I know quite a few guys (and gals) who would trip over themselves over real-world women like both of these. Strong, opinionated, even bossy women are sought after by certain types of guys. Powerful women are seductive to the unafraid. Besides, who wants a world of people who look like models, anyway?? Comics are escapist, and sometimes the escape is not just from what we see on the mean streets, but what we are barraged with in our trash-addicted and sad pop scene. A lot of comic readers are quite intellectual and come there for creativity and art, so absent from what’s thrown in their faces. Reality TV, flaccid magazine covers, over the top action films where people in battle wear hair gel and lipstick are not what a lot of consumers want to see. Further, the people who want that tripe are likely to never actually buy a comic, as it involves READING. Look at the success of Melissa McCarthy, one of the freshest and most sought-after performers in the country, or Adele even. Major successes and both are beautiful, potent female figures who are raking in awards and accolades. McCarthy is a strong analogy to Etta and her verbose and unstoppable nature. This same kind of conceit has even started to bleed over to men. Lobo, who was introduced as a joke directed at psychopathic ‘heroes’ was a gruff, rough and tumble statement about all things macho. This very week, he was unveiled as a svelte, visually metrosexual hit-man from space. Who wanted THAT? A lot of people (points at self) find guys who aren’t swimmer-like in physique to be sexy and lacking in vanity, an attribute that many find to be a turn-off. I’ve yet to see a single endorsement of the change by fans or critics.
I want flavor in my books, not far-sighted visions of social standards of attraction. I don’t think this is what anyone’s clamoring for except, again, artless number crunchers. This is another issue where voting counts. Make sure you at least TRY to make your voice heard. Don’t just hold out on buying titles or ranting on social media. Look up contacts. There are some at the bottom of this post. There is also a new one at the bottom of what you’re reading. Step to it. Save Etta! Save Amanda! SAVE LOBO!!
New Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/180614538660662/ “The Reboot ? Wtf !! DC Relaunch Group
I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE THICK OR THIN, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. LEAVE COMMENTS/FEEDBACK/ARGUMENTS AND I PROMISE NOT TO GO ALL WALLER ON YOUR ASS.
Saving Wonder Woman 