Women At DC Comics Watch – October 2012 Solicits

We’ve been looking at DC’s solicits for almost a year now, ever since they promised to include more female creators and characters after the brouhaha at ComicCon last year.  In that time, things have been up and down for DC.  New female creators would come in, but others would leave.  There was the sporadic new female character, but old favourites are still missing.  Frankly, things haven’t been great, and last month kind of sucked.  But we just got the solicits for October 2012, and HOLY WOW it’s the best month yet, and by FAR.  Now, it’s only one month so let’s not get too excited, but it’s a pretty great month nonetheless.  Some excitement is called for.  Let’s go through the solicits… there are so many ladies that this is going to be tricky to present intelligibly:

• Okay, let’s start with writers on DC’s main line, superhero books.  We’ve got: Amanda Conner on Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #4, Ann Nocenti on Green Arrow #13 and her new gig on Catwoman #13, Gail Simone on Batgirl #13 AND Batgirl Annual #1, and Christy Marx on Sword of Sorcery #1.
• Now to the art.  Amanda Conner is doing the art and cover for Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #4 along with the same for Ame-Comi Girls #1: Wonder Woman, Nicola Scott is penciling Earth 2 #5 AND she has a story in Legends of the Dark Knight #1, Adriana Melo is drawing Catwoman #13, Becky Cloonan is drawing Swamp Thing Annual #1, Fiona Staples is doing the cover for National Comics: Madame X #1, and finally Cat Staggs is on art duties for Phantom Lady #3.
• Holy cats, that’s a lot.
• And there’s more!!
• Over at Vertigo, Lauren Beukes writes Fairest #8 with Inaki Miranda on art, and the Ghosts anthology features work by Mary H.K. Choi and Amy Reeder.  And, as always, Yuko Shimizu is doing the cover for The Unwritten #42.
• As for female characters, there’s not a ton new generally, but Wonder Woman stars in Ame-Comi Girls #1: Wonder Woman, Madame X is the subject of National Comics, and Rapunzel takes center stage in Fairest.  Plus Ann Nocenti on Catwoman might make that book WAY less awful.

So that’s a pile of ladies.  Last month there were only 5 female creators on 5 different books.  In October, it’s a whopping 14 women on 15 books!!  That’s HUGE.  It’s far and away the most female creators DC’s had in their solicits in AGES.  I’m a little bit astounded.

Now, of course, 7 of these gigs are one time deals, ie. the annuals and special anthologies and such.  But on the plus side, tons of those are doubles.  Gail Simone may not be writing a Batgirl Annual again next month, but she’ll be writing Batgirl.  Same with Nicola Scott on Legends of the Dark Knight… that’s a one time gig, but she’s still the regular artist on Earth 2.  So yeah, things will likely be down a bit next month, but a) this month is HUGE, and b) so is the new, ongoing status quo.  At least 11 women have steady gigs on a DC comic book for the foreseeable future and should be back next month, and of those Simone and Nocenti are writing 2 books each even!!  I’m not saying DC’s turned a corner yet, because the last few months haven’t been great, but if the numbers hold up like they look like they will then maybe things are changing.  We’ll have to see.

There wasn’t a lot going on with female characters, mostly because there were barely any new books, but of those new books there were a lot of ladies.  Given how few new books there are scheduled, October is actually pretty good for female characters too.

So yeah, go buy some DC comics in October!!  There are women all over the place, for a very nice change.

Women At DC Comics Watch – May 2012 Solicits

After the women in comics outcry at ComicCon last summer, DC promised to include more female creators and characters in their books, and we’ve been checking the solicits every month since to see how they’ve been doing.  May is a big month because it’s the beginning of Phase Two of the relaunch.  A bunch of books have been cancelled, and we’ve got six new titles!!  Let’s see if that changes things much:

• We’ve got two female writers, Gail Simone on Batgirl #9 and Ann Nocenti on Green Arrow #9.  There are no female writers on the new titles.
• Amy Reeder is doing the art and cover for Batwoman #9, as she has been for a few months, BUT we’ve got two new ladies!!  Jill Thompson has art/cover duties for The Shade #8 while Nicola Scott is the only woman on the new titles, pencilling Earth Two #1.
• As always, Yuko Shimizu is on cover duty on The Unwritten #37.
• Outside of the non-regular comics, Vertigo has an anthology special called Mystery in Space #1 that features three women female creators: Ann Nocenti, Ming Doyle, and Nnedi Okorafor.  I’m especially excited for Okorafor… Vertigo is really branching out!!
• In terms of new female characters, two of the Phase Two titles boast a few.  Huntress and Power Girl are starring in World’s Finest #1, which is very exciting, and The Ravagers #1 features three new characters, one scantily clad, one that’s pretty heavy on the cleavage, and one dressed how a normal person might dress if they were out in the snow.
• Superman #9 also features a new female character, the villainess Masochist, who wears a t-shirt that says “Hurt Me”.  So yeah… woot.

Overall, on regular series there are 6 women on 6 books, which is slightly less than last month (7 women on 6 books), but with the Mystery in Space anthology that’s a decent number of women set to make comics in May.  The totals have been up and down since the summer, but April and May are definitely the best consecutive months we’ve seen yet.

For characters, World’s Finest #1 is super good… two new female leads is great to see.  The cover for The Ravagers #1 does feature some women, but not in the way you’d want it too… plus, I’ll be surprised if that book lasts 6 issues to be honest.  They’re no-name characters, and Howard Mackie and Ian Churchill don’t have a ton of name power.  And don’t even get me started on Masochist.  But yeah, hooray World’s Finest!!

May was decent, and I have no idea what June will hold.  Karen Traviss will be back with Gears of War I suppose, but it’ll be fun to see what new minis and possible creative changes are coming!!  They’re doing a lot of shuffling lately.

Women At DC Comics Watch – April 2012 Solicits

So I wanted to put the cover for Catwoman #8 at the top of this post since there are two female artists on the book this April and that’s exciting, but I just couldn’t.  Guillem March did the cover, and Catwoman’s eyes are doing that thing where her irises are completely surrounded by white and it made me flash back to that early issue where she’s beat up and tied to a chair and her friend is dead on the floor and Catwoman is staring out wide-eyed and shocked and crying and the whole visual was just SO DISTURBING.  So no Catwoman.  I went with Wonder Woman instead, because Wonder Woman makes me happy.

Anyway, it’s time for our regular feature where we go through DC’s solicits and see how they’re doing in terms of lady creators and characters.  DC promised more of both after the ComicCon women in comics hullabaloo, but things have been pretty slow thus far.  April 2012, however, looks like it might not be too bad.  Let’s take a gander:

• The only female creator left from the original DCnU line-up is Gail Simone, who is at her usual gig with Batgirl #8.
• There are two other gals with current steady gigs in the superhero world, though, with Amy Reeder on the cover and interior art for Batwoman #8 and Ann Nocenti writing Green Arrow #8.
• Also, I’m not sure if this is a fill-in gig or a new regular job (I’m leaning towards fill-in, since March is still on the cover), but Adriana Melo and Mariah Benes are doing the art for Catwoman #8.  Two ladies on one book??  That’s just insane.
• Karen Traviss is back for her bi-monthly writing gig on Gears of War #23.
• Over at Vertigo, Yuko Shimizu is on cover duty for The Unwritten #36, and the .5 issues we’ve seen the past few months seem to be over for now.
• There are also a bunch of creators who are men but who have names that made me think they were ladies at first glance.  I mean, Marly Halpern-Graser sounds like a gal’s name, right?  It’s not!!  
• Characterwise, there’s not much new in the DC universe proper.  There’s a few new back up stories in some books, but none that seem to involve ladies.  There’s the Court of Owls in Batman, Two-Face in Detective Comics, and Undersea Agent in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.  Seriously, a back up in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?  You’re going to make a book selling that badly cost a dollar more?
• We’ve got a new comic set in the Batman: Arkham City universe, Batman: Arkham Unhinged #1, that features Catwoman on the cover, that is pretty epicly cleavaged.  She must spend a fortune on double-sided tape.
• There’s also a new kids series, Green Lantern: The Animated Series #1, that so far seems to feature just Hal Jordan and Kilowog, though with the Green Lantern Corps there’s potential for female characters down the road.
• There’s also a free preview of the new The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel adaptation, which is written by Denise Mina, but these posts are mainly concerned with floppies not graphic novels.  Still, worth mentioning!!

So that was a lot of things!!  Let’s do a quick tally.  In terms of creators, we’ve got 7 women on 6 different comics, which is a definite step up from last month when it was 4 ladies on 5 books.  This is the most different women we’ve had on DC books since this monthly check-in started, so that’s fun!!  Things seem to be slowly getting better, though its been up and down for months.  But still, 7 ladies!!  New DCnU record!!

Characterwise, there’s not much going on apart from a chesty Catwoman on the Batman: Arkham Unhinged #1 cover.  Catwoman is the big character all around this month, what with Melo and Benes on Catwoman #8 too.  If that book wasn’t so awful, and the cleavage on the Arkham cover wasn’t so plunging, I’d be a lot more excited.

The May solicits should be better for female chracters, though, what with World’s Finest pairing up Huntress and Power Girl.  Plus Nicola Scott is back!!  May might be decent.

Women At DC Comics Watch – March 2012 Solicits

DC’s solicits for March 2012 were released today, so it’s time for our monthly round up of ladies at DC Comics.  After DC Comics promised more female creators and characters after ComicCon this summer, we’ve been checking in each month to see how they’re doing.  It hasn’t been great, but February was their best month so far with 6 women on 8 books, and two new lead female characters.  Let’s see how March is shaping up:

• Well, we’re down a couple of our regulars, unfortunately.  Gail Simone is no longer co-writing Firestorm and Jenny Frison isn’t solicited to do the cover for I, Vampire #7.  Bummer… they’ve been 2 of the only 3 regular female gigs in the DCnU since the get-go!!
• Also, Nicola Scott is nowhere to be seen after drawing Superman for February, because a new creative team is set to take over the title.
• However, Simone is still writing Batgirl #7, and Amy Reeder is doing the cover and interior art for Batwoman #7, plus Ann Nocenti starts her new writing gig with Green Arrow #7.
• The bi-monthly Gear of War is on an off month, so no Karen Traviss in March.
• Yuko Shimizu is on covers for The Unwritten #35 and The Unwritten #35.5, holding down the fort for ladies at Vertigo.
• The only new DCnU title is Marv Wolfman and Tom Mandrake’s Night Force #1, which doesn’t seem to feature a female protagonist.  Also, what the hell DC?  NO ONE is going to buy that book.
• But at Vertigo, there are three new series with female leads!!  Saucer Country #1, Fables spinoff Fairest #1, and Dominique Laveau – Voodoo Child #1 all appear to feature women in prominent roles!!

So the tally for March isn’t looking great for female creators… we’ve got 4 women on 5 books.  That’s the lowest combined total since we started this tally back a few months ago with the November solicits.  That’s really not good at all.  It’s great that Ann Nocenti will be on a DC book, but her coming in the same month that Gail Simone goes off one of her books is just terrible timing… they’re no further ahead.  So far, this whole “more women” promise has been quite a failure for DC.  Is someone doing some fundraising to send Kyrax2 to the next big convention?  Because things aren’t getting better.

However, Vertigo provided a bit of a silver lining with their three new female-led titles, all of which look pretty good.  I’m particularly jazzed for Saucer Country!!  And, in some positive news for the future, the solicit for Fairest #1 promises stories by Lauren Beukes and Inaki Miranda down the road, which will be fun.

Nonetheless, DC’s main line is no further ahead in terms of female creators than they were five months ago.  The rumour is that some books are scheduled to get cancelled with their eighth issue, with new books to follow, so that might bring us more female creators in a couple months at least.  But for right now, it’s not looking good.

Women At DC Comics Watch – February 2012 Solicits

Ever since DC Comics promised to include more female creators and characters in their books last summer, we’ve been checking the solicits each month to see how they’re doing.  The past few months have seen little to no change, but finally, six months into the relaunch, some ladies are finally showing up.  Let’s see what’s happening for February 2012:

• Gail Simone is writing Batgirl #6 and co-writing The Fury of Firestorm #6, while Jenny Frison is doing the cover for I, Vampire #6.  No change there, but the rumour is that Simone will be off Firestorm next month.
• Amanda Conner’s cover gig on My Greatest Adventure seems to have been a one shot deal, but there are TWO new ladies in the DC main line!!  Nicola Scott is pencilling Superman #6 and Amy Reeder is doing the art and cover for Batwoman #6.
• In terms of licensed properties, Karen Traviss is back with her bi-monthly book, writing Gears of War #22.
• Over at Vertigo, Yuko Shimizu is on covers for The Unwritten #34 and The Unwritten #34.5, as always.
• There’s one new book at DC in February, and there are some ladies on the cover!!  Batman Beyond Unlimited #1 will collect digitally released Batman Beyond and Justice League Beyond stories, and 2 of the 7 members of this Justice League are Big Barda and Aquagirl.

January had 4 ladies on 6 books and no new female characters, but for February we’ve got 6 ladies on 8 books AND 2 new female characters.  This is a definite step up.  Plus, Ann Nocenti is set to start on Green Arrow in March, though with Nicola Scott just filling in on Superman, Gail Simone possibly leaving Firestorm, and Gears of War on an off month, March may go down barring additional female creators.  But that’s down the road… today, February is looking pretty good!!  We’ve known that Amy Reeder on Batwoman was on the way, and it’s exciting it’ll be coming out soon.  Nicola Scott’s pencilling gigs for Superman make me wonder what’s up with her Justice Society book, because she’s not the fastest artist… they’ve either got a BIG lead time, or the book won’t be out for a while.  It’s cool to have her on Superman, though… that’s a high-profile gig.  February might not have been a dramatic improvement, but it was an improvement nonetheless… hopefully things continue to pick up!!

Amy Reeder Wasn’t At NYCC’s Bat-Panel OR Seriously, DC?

There’s been a lot of stuff at DC lately that I’m not super enthused about, like Catwoman and Starfire and such, but it’s been covered like crazy elsewhere and I didn’t feel the need to add to it.  But I read this over at DC Women Kicking Ass tonight and it really bugged me: Amy Reeder was dropped from the Bat-Panel at New York Comic-Con today because apparently there wasn’t enough room for her.  She’d been scheduled to be on the panel, and had posted it on her website days before, but shortly before the panel was supposed to be begin she tweeted this:

Now, DC’s had a rough go of it lately with people calling them out for being bad with women, fictional and real.  It’s been ALL over the place… it seems like every week they do something that pisses off those of us who think comics can be something more than adolescent power fantasies and masturbatory fodder for men 18 to 35 years of age.  So what genius at scheduling thought “Hey, the panel has too many people.  Let’s drop Amy Reeder”??  I mean, REALLY??  How completely unaware of the current environment do you have to be to think that’s a decent idea? 

Some people might say “She’s not on a book right now”, which is true, but a) she was scheduled, so just jam an extra chair in there, and b) neither is Chris Burnham, and he was here.  That’s no knock on Burnham, but he’s got no books out now either.  In fact, Reeder is set to do the second arc of Batwoman, a book that is coming out NOW on a month-to-month basis.  Burnham is on Batman Inc., and god knows when that’ll be out… December, apparently, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. 

Here’s the problem at DC right now: No one cares.  They’re not misogynists or sexists or purposefully trying to keep ladies out.  The problem is that they’re not even thinking about ladies… they seem entirely ignorant of what everyone is saying, and aren’t at all concerned about ladies as creators, characters, or readers.  It’s just not on their radar.  After the debacle at the San Diego panels, that someone thought getting rid of Amy Reeder was the best call is astoundingly stupid.  But they don’t care about that.  It’s not at all on their minds.  And that’s really sad, because they’re going to run themselves into the ground putting out the same books by the same people to the same audience.  I know September was great, saleswise, but give it a couple months. 

Yes, I know Ann Nocenti is going to be on Green Arrow, and that’s great, but one new lady doesn’t mean DC actually gives a hoot.  Plus, if the rumours about Gail Simone leaving Firestorm are true, then they’re no further ahead. 

Anyway, Amy Reeder is awesome.  You should go to her websites and check her out, and then go buy her Madame Xanadu books because they’re gorgeous.  Her Batwoman arc should start sometime around spring 2012, so keep your eye out for that… it’s going to be fantastic!!  Pick up a copy of Batwoman #0 for a peek at her take on Batwoman.

And DC, dudes… get your shit together.