Nettet raser over cover fra Marvel

De store forlag udsender månedligt lister over deres fremtidige udgivelser – de såkaldte solicitations – så man kan kontakte sin seriepusher og forudbestille. Intet usædvanligt i det, sådan set.

For nylig udsendte Marvel så deres solicitations for august, og naturligvis var der som sædvanligt intet anstødeligt i det – ingen covers som ville kunne findes på et japansk hentai-blad … oh damn …

Heroes for Hire #13 (hentai tentacle demon rape)

Ja, det er Black Cat, Misty Knight og Colleen Wing – tre af de stærkeste og mest uafhængige kvinder i Marvel-universet – der hænger klar til tentakel-voldtægt (linket ikke for børn!) a la Urotsukidoji. Og nej, det er fand’me ikke i orden.

Men det er naturligvis heller ikke gået tegneserieverdenens feminister forbi – der var lige blevet stille ovenpå sagen om Mary Jane-statuen (se kommentarerne eller søg på nettet efter flere indlæg om statuen), men nu er der for alvor skyts til den feministiske kanon.

Tamora Pierce (som også arbejder for Marvel) har følgende at sige:

This cover makes me INSANE. It is nasty. It is degrading. It is everything I fight and write against.

Three supposedly strong, war-like women, strung up by their wrists, in chains, the emblem of the slave […]; dazed and helpless […]; bared practically to their navels (but no nipple showing because nurturing organs would be dirty in this screwed-up pervo-catering censorship universe) as nameless Things with glowing eyes (and probably elongated barbed dicks) slaver in the background–and phallic tentacles reach up to their crotches. Misty’s clothes are ripped; she’s bleeding. Do her eyes and Colleen’s glimmer with tears? Colleen’s mouth hangs open–to receive a tentacle?

It’s not right that we have these powerful women. Let’s humiliate them publicly, on the cover. Let’s strip them of their power, wit, and rage, and show them off to everyone who walks by, to show what powerful women can expect, even when we’ve showed them being powerful. This is what happens when women strut along, kicking butt. This is what they can expect. Savor and learn!

Elin Winkler, hvis forlag Radio Comics udgiver pornografiske tegneserier, har denne kommentar:

Now, as we all know, I publish pornographic comics. Not just tease comics or pinup comics or sexy comics- hardcore pornography. Poles & holes, money shots, manga-style spurting penii, cartoon boobies bouncing, etc. I am not ashamed of the adult comics my company publishes. This is because I try to be a responsible editor and I believe there should be adult comics out there with consensual sex, women enjoying themselves and not being treated as mere objects, couples in love who can’t keep their hands off each other, and the radical idea that sex, in all its forms, should be fun and pleasant and positive. This means it’s often difficult to find artists who understand these concepts, and we often have to reject stuff with very nice art that contains things like rape, snuff, extreme violence, and the like.

I looked at this cover for Heroes For Hire and realized that 1) it looks like it belongs on the cover of a porn comic, like Milk and 2) it’s a cover I wouldn’t even run on Milk, because the women are all obviously in an abused position. That was my initial reaction.

My second reaction was something along the lines of “holy shit, is that Misty Knight?!”

And then I got really mad. Misty Knight was one of those characters that you just sort of encountered in comics when you grew up in the 1970’s. She was a butt-kicking powerful black woman, like Pam Grier in Coffy, and she was really cool. Her friend, Colleen Wing, was also a butt-kicking strong woman, though not as cool as Misty, of course. As I recall, Misty and Colleen don’t really even have any kind of superpowers, they just kick ass.

Selv er jeg ved at være træt – jeg har fundet mig i Michael Turners anorektiske Supergirl i miniskørt og Greg Land, der konsekvent tracer sin pornosamling (den her er åbenlys), men med det her cover har Marvel overskredet grænserne både for god smag og hvor sexistisk man kan tillade sig at være i en verden, hvor kvindelige figurer oftest eksisterer som Cheesecake. Det der er mærkeligt er at coveret er tegnet af en kvinde, nemlig den japanske Sana Takeda, men der er på den anden side masser af kulturforskelle, der kan forklare det.

Misforstå mig ikke – jeg vil til enhver tid forsvare en udskældt figur som Power Girl, men det her er for meget. Man kan ikke fratage disse figurer deres værdighed uden at det går imod ens egen troværdighed som forelægger.

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