We Who Are About to Die, Nikita Reboot, Asteroids

This guy at We Who Are About to Die talks about female comic book superheroes and poetry. It doesn't happen all that often, so I thought I'd link to it!

The Nikita reboot on the CW a few days ago seemed okay, the kind of thing we've seen before, but worth watching for maybe another episode or two.

Did you know this last week two asteroids came close to hitting the earth? No? Well, it's all over now - the earth is safe!

In case I haven't mentioned it here...

I loved the movie Kick-Ass. I thought it was much better than the last Terminator, the last Batman, and every other action movie I've seen in the last year put together. I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats, etc.
One thing critics complained about was the violence and cursing from the young actress that played HitGirl. I wondered if they would have complained if it had been a ten or eleven-year-old boy instead of a girl. Frankly, as an eleven-year-old girl, it would have been nice to see an empowered girl kicking ass instead of being the constant victim (as in many other movies where it's just fine that eleven-year-old girls are terrorized, but not okay when they're the heroines.)And as a thirty-seven-year old, I'd much rather see a little girl kicking ass than various "action heroes" like Bale or Stallone or whatever.
And I'm not just saying this because they gave me a HitGirl t-shirt at WonderCon. Or because the fight scenes were like an awesome combination of moves from Buffy and the Matrix. Another thing critics complained about the huge violence, but I found it less gruesome than, say, The Watchmen, or even the latest episode of House, as the violence shown was very 'cartoony.'

Gossip From Comic-Con

I'm not there, but the gossip is seeping in from Comic-Con, so I thought I'd make a quick report of salient points:

--Joss Whedon is officially directing The Avengers movie. He says this will delay or possibly exclude the possibility of a Dr. Horrible sequel.

--Some of my favorite actors, including Angelina Jolie and Tiny Fey, made appearances.

--J.J. Abrams said he was happy with The Lost ending. Something about his new spy series, The Undercovers (which looks mildly good. As good as Alias? One can hope.)

What else? If you've been, leave a comment and fill me in! What was the awesomest thing there?

New Futurama, Covert Affairs, New Book

Lots of news since last I posted!

--Happy news! Kitsune Books, a speculative literary publisher out of Florida, has agreed to publish my next book, "She Returns to the Floating World," a book about girls who turn into foxes, women who disappear, and heroines in anime.

--Sad news: the new Futurama episodes have been...not so great. Although I saw they had a female writer on one of the episodes. Way to let a girl in the room, Futurama! On the other hand, way too much "fan service" involving Leela and Amy. Maybe those censors were realllly important to the quality of Futurama jokes.

--In between: New spy-girl series "Covert Affairs" is a complete ripoff of Alias, right down to Piper's Sydney Bristow-esque voice inflections and facial expressions. Yet, fun to watch - thanks, USA, for providing an empowered heroine that none of the major networks can manage.

Wonder Woman's New Look

Since I've long been a Wonder Woman champion, I've gotten a lot of e-mails about Wonder Woman's new look, illustrated here:

So, I miss the boots, but otherwise, I think that pants are much more practical for criminal-chasing and such than a high-waisted swimsuit.

Feminism and Superheroes

An interesting article up at BlogHer about teaching daughters about the feminism hidden behind the bustiers of female comic book superheroes:

http://www.blogher.com/girls-who-love-comics-need-feminist-mentors?wrap=topic/mommy-family&crumb=22

Does Daria Count as a Superhero?

Well, Daria: the animated series, is finally out on DVD. This was one of my favorite shows for years, and, although the kickass soundtrack has been removed - due to problems with licensing - the good writing and high school parody is as on pitch today as it was when I used to watch it on MTV.

Daria was about a the title character, a snarky misfit who wanted to be a writer, and her best friend Jane - a more punk-esque, slightly more outgoing girl who wanted to be an artist. For a writer, some of the best episodes are "The Story of D," "Write Where it Hurts," and "Cafe Disaffecto." There are some great bits mocking art schools in one of the two movies on the "Extras" list on the DVD.

Does she count as a superhero? When I watched this show, it eased many of my anxieties - about social problems, school problems, and family problems. Its parody had spunk and heart. One of the best female teenager-based shows ever on television, along with My So-Called Life and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Is anyone excited about the return of Futurama? I hope the writing returns to the original levels, not the somewhat mediocre writing of the one-off movies.