It's just been brought to my attention...
Sep. 28th, 2011 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerin...that Scott Lobdell, the writer credited on Red Hood & The Outlaws, also wrote Teen Titans, which I liked just fine. The writing was decent and I thought it was pretty well put-together.
I suggested in both my reviews of RH&TO and Voodoo that bad writing flows directly from the decision to pornify these comics, and here's some evidence of that phenomenon. Give Lobdell a book that requires a story to carry us from the first page to the last and bring us back next month and he delivers a story. Give him a book that relies on the promise of SEXY SEXUAL SEX to keep things moving and that's what he delivers.
The thing about Starfire's portrayal is we deserve better. And when I say "we", I don't mean sexless humorless feminists. I don't even just mean women. I mean anybody who wanted to read a fun and engaging superhero book. Even people for whom the appeal is "I want to imagine I'm a globetrotting/weapon-slinging badass who gets to have sex with Starfire." deserves better than they got. A good book could be written where Starfire has little concern for human modesty and is implicitly sexually active with both the male protagonists. But DC's not bothering to turn out a good book because as far as they're concerned they have you ("you" here meaning "the kind of person we expect to read comics) at sex.
We know Lobdell can turn out a decent story. We know that he can turn in a decent book. This means that he, too, ultimately deserves better than what he's done for himself.
I suggested in both my reviews of RH&TO and Voodoo that bad writing flows directly from the decision to pornify these comics, and here's some evidence of that phenomenon. Give Lobdell a book that requires a story to carry us from the first page to the last and bring us back next month and he delivers a story. Give him a book that relies on the promise of SEXY SEXUAL SEX to keep things moving and that's what he delivers.
The thing about Starfire's portrayal is we deserve better. And when I say "we", I don't mean sexless humorless feminists. I don't even just mean women. I mean anybody who wanted to read a fun and engaging superhero book. Even people for whom the appeal is "I want to imagine I'm a globetrotting/weapon-slinging badass who gets to have sex with Starfire." deserves better than they got. A good book could be written where Starfire has little concern for human modesty and is implicitly sexually active with both the male protagonists. But DC's not bothering to turn out a good book because as far as they're concerned they have you ("you" here meaning "the kind of person we expect to read comics) at sex.
We know Lobdell can turn out a decent story. We know that he can turn in a decent book. This means that he, too, ultimately deserves better than what he's done for himself.