One of the
most interesting things to note in all of the reboots that have taken place in
that few years is the re-bachelorization of pretty much every superhero. Lois
Lane is no longer Superman’s girlfriend, The Flash is no longer married, and
Spider-man no longer loves Mary Jane. All of this, of course, is done with the
idea that marriage ages a character and makes him or her less relatable.
Now, while
this does have a decent point, I don’t think it’s actually an accurate
statement. It also says something fairly disturbing about how the (mostly male)
writers view marriage and women, as well as their audience.
In a recent
issue of Superman, he quits the Daily
Planet pretty much because he uses his X-Ray vision to read a text message
from Lois Lane’s new man about them moving in together. Now, this version of
Supes has been crazy for Lois forever but never done anything about it, and
then gets mad that she’s with someone else. Now, I’ve been on the internet/in
high school enough to get the concept of “The Friend Zone”, but as someone who
is no longer fourteen I don’t want Superman acting like he is.
Yes, you
might make a character more relatable to one group of people, but what about
the rest of us? As more and more superhero comics are made to be relatable to
fourteen year-old boys and people with the mentality of same, people who aren’t
are just going to stop reading them.
I’ve had a
really hard time trying to get back into the New 52 because of a lot of those choices. I hate that the Flash is
unmarried and that there isn’t a “Flash Family” anymore because that dynamic
made the character. Superman is kind of a prat without Lois Lane, and whenever
he shacks up with Wonder Woman (as he’s done recently), he gets all moody.
I talk a
lot about how comics should be for everybody, and no comic should be more
inclusive than Superman simply based on what he represents. Seeing him being
your friend from high school who pined after a girl but never did anything and
then got mad when she started seeing someone else is just shameful. Nobody
wants to watch the world’s greatest hero act like he’s fourteen. We have enough
culture already geared towards teenage boys and man-children.
So, the
solution? Honestly, we need more female writers and creators who will target a
different audience. We need new voices to characters, not just new backstories.
Having actual women writing will hopefully thin out the creepy stuff as well as
some of the frankly misogynistic mentalities that comics have been coming out
with.
One final
note: Eventually all these heroes will get remarried so what is the point of
all this? Seriously. Heed my prophecies, kids.
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