Sajan Saini

I wouldn’t say the problem of violence against women is all but gone in the comics… More pervasive is the lack of agency women are given in comics. Granted, we’re in a disruptive moment right now for female superheroes, with the new Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and a re-energized Batgirl; but this trend is still very new. Television, with its proliferation of professional women leads in the last 25 years, can teach comics many lessons on giving women narrative authority, without objectifying their bodies.

Hear, hear. Still the greatest!

That alternate X3 sounds like a fitting ending to the X-mythos on the big screen. I’ve always thought the Phoenix storyline was too melodramatic to come off as believable on the big screen, but introducing Jean as a threat that Xavier (and perhaps Magneto) might temporarily ally to oppose (you know Mags would betray our heroes at the 11th hour), well that might have been quite something.

Feh. At least we got Ellen Page as a brainy Kitty Pryde. Too bad Singer didn’t have the nerve to stick with her as the central protagonist in the upcoming DoFP flick…

Indeed, tough to beat!

I also strongly recommend checking out Robb Pratt’s retro “Superman Classic” series on YouTube (he’s done two very short episodes). Robb’s a hardcore fan of the Saturday matinee Superman serials (starring Kirk Allen), but his cartoons smack of the sort of energy in these Fleischer/Famous cartoons. Remarkably, Robb does all the animating by himself. Impressive effort!

Glad you liked the article, thanks so much. That’s a great story about the Fleischers purposely overestimating their production cost, but Paramount was so intent on setting up this gravy-train, they agreed without argument. Sure enough, the high animation quality that resulted has really stood the test of time!

Great list, Taylor, thanks for these suggestions. I’ve been curious to check out the Lightning Saga and Stracynski’s take on Superman for a long time. I did find Johns’ Secret Origins a bit over the top, particularly with its depiction of Luthor. Gary Frank drew the villain as such a contemptible psycho, I found myself wishing for a little of that Michael Rosenbaum seductive charm from the Smallville TV series. (The Legion issue was good fun, it would’ve been even more awesome if they went all out and had Super”boy” fight a Starro or Suneater in the 30th century.)

Well. As someone who’s considerably older than 12 (cough, cough), I can say that I’m still surprise at learning new things when I re-read Watchmen and TDKR. No pressure for anyone to understand them “perfectly” in one reading, whatever your age…!