more on catwoman and red hood: the precice reasons they tick me (and a bunch of other people) off

Since I talked about Laura Hudson's excellent article about the problems with "sexual liberation" as understood by comic book writers, this Shortpacked comic has been making the inter-rounds. (And thanks to edgyauthor for sending me the link.) Also, io9 has a review of Red Hood and the Outlaws by Michele Lee's seven-year-old daughter. Her opinion tracks pretty close to the hypothetical Lucy's: Starfire's costume makes her uncomfortable and she's annoyed that, "She's not fighting anyone. And not talking to anyone really. She's just almost naked and posing."

What I like about the Shortpacked strip is that it points out the complaints aren't (just) bleeding heart cries for political correctness for the sake of political correctness. This is about the comics industry clinging to its continually shrinking core audience and seemingly incapable of reaching new readers. If the industry on a whole was doing well, I don't think people would be as annoyed with Red Hood or Catwoman. (While they aren't the only examples of sexism in comics, I don't think they represent the norm, either. More on that below.) But the whole point of DC's huge, universe-wide reboot was to reach new readers. And like I said yesterday, they desperately need to. Since the speculation bubble burst in the mid-90s, comic book readership has continued to drop steadily. Fewer readers mean individual issues have to be priced higher to turn a profit. Since 1994, the price of an average comic book has more than doubled, which means the hobby even less attractive to new readers. Which means prices climb even higher. You see how the entire industry is trapped in a slow death spiral?

The DC reboot was supposed to be the bold gambit that would let them escape this vicious circle. Story lines were going to be streamlined and updated, making them more accessible to new readers. Also, digital comics were getting a big push, hopefully making the internet the drugstore spinner rack of the 21st century, where casual readers could sample an issuer here and an issue there. All-in-all, some good ideas.

But while out promoting the reboot, DC editors stated, "The target audience are men age 18 to 34 though they do realize that they have readers in other demographics." Now, I am a man age 18 to 34, so on one level, I'm glad there are stories written with me in mind.* I suspect that target demographic was handed down to DC from its corporate owner, Warner Brothers. 18 to 34 year old males are a prime target for movies, TV, and video games, genres Warner is much more familiar with. But the way I see it, there's two huge problems with this strategy:

First, I don't know many people who got interested in comics after they turned 18. As the blog DC Women Kicking Ass reacted to this news, "[Does DC] know that by the time most males are 18 anyone who is inclined to be reading comics is long past the on-ramp and is pumping cash into video games and other leisure activities?" Having comics aimed at older readers is great*, but as Don Thompson once said, "The golden age of comic books is twelve." Sorry, DC. If kids' early experiences with comics them feel confused, embarrassed, or plain unimpressed, they aren't going to suddenly pick the hobby up again once they reach their flush-with-disposable-income 20s and 30s.

And second, comic books aren't movies or video games. They're books. Books--even comic books--have different strengths and weaknesses than video games or movies. Books have less spectacle, less kinetic action, but they're good at character development, at complex plots, and creating worlds you want to revisit again and again. And you know who seems to really like those strengths books have to offer? Women. How much do they like them? In the U.S., Canada, and Britain, women buy 80% of fiction.**

Women also own the majority of e-readers and are quickly catching up with young males on buying the digital tablets that are so important to DC's big digital comics push.

Comics are slowly dying. DC knows it; it's the reason for the relaunch in the first place. But instead of reaching out to the next generation of readers or women--who make up four-fifths of the audience for other kinds of fiction, DC just tries to squeeze more blood from the same 18-to-34-year-old male stone.

That's why they tick me off.

However, to end of a high note, the DC reboot has included some good titles featuring women. Supergirl and Batgirl show a lot of promise, and seem like good picks for younger readers. (Batgirl has not been without it's own controversies, but I think they made a good choice giving the title to Gail Simone, the writer who made Oracle such a big part of the DC universe in the first place.) Wonder Woman #1, like Catwoman #1, features some pointless underwear shots, but Brian Azzarello is incorporating the strangeness and violence of Greek myth into this first story arc, which seems like a good way to set that title apart from the pack.

For all the industry's problems, I sincerely hope people turned off by its most puerile elements will find good books, not just give up on comics altogether.

* However, I don't think these particular books were written with a mature reader in mind. They were written with a sweaty, skeezy, easily-impressed teenage boy in mind. I intended to address this to, but this post is already too long, so I'm going to save it for another day.

** I've looked for accurate stats on how many current comic book readers are female. Two estimates I found online say 8% to 25%, but I don't know how much to trust either of those sources. From my personal experience, I'd put the number somewhere in-between, probably closer to the low end for Western comics.