Week of 6/24/09

Every week comic books come out. Hurray.

Some of them have inexcusably offensive covers. Boo.

Here I will display and discuss my choices. Enjoy.

5 most offensive comic book covers for the week of 6/24/2009:

5. Grimm Fairy Tales #39

I know, I know. Why even bother putting a Zenescope comic on the list? Zenescope - for those not familiar with this particular little publisher - puts out mainly softcore books based loosely on fairy tales. I mean, if you're being forthright about the fact that you're publishing erotica, it's not really offensive to have a half-dressed woman on the cover. And I'm giving Zenescope a pass on all their other covers this week. But this one, by David Nakayama, is just going a bit too far. It steps across the line from erotica to exploitation, at least insofar as it is a cover image. This cover doesn't say, "This comic is about sex!", it says, "This comic is about impractically dressed, disempowered women!"

4. Gotham City Sirens #1, alternate cover

This cover almost doesn't bother me that much. You see a bit of Cat Woman's ass (I assume that's Cat Woman, it doesn't look like what I think Cat Woman usually looks like, but I don't know what other 'Gotham City Siren' would be dressed as a cat), but other than that the costumes and poses aren't terribly exploitative. What gets me is (a) the fact that these three presumably dangerous women are depicted as sex objects (and you can't miss the fact that Harley Quinn is making kissy face at the camera) and (b) this is the alternate, variant cover. Presumably the variant cover should be less offensive than the primary cover, when the primary cover is...

3. Gotham City Sirens #1

This doesn't even really require comment. Is Harley Quinn's costume painted on, here?

2. Barack the Barbarian #1, alternate cover

Find it hard to believe that Devil's Due would stoop to this? I dunno, they've released some sexist covers before, but this is the kind of thing that leads to cease-and-desist orders. Seriously, I wouldn't have much of a problem with this if it wasn't specifically designed to demean someone. If the barbarian on the cover wasn't a real person, I would barely even notice it.

Of course, if past behavior is any indication, I might guess that Sarah Palin would be flattered rather than offended.

However... if that isn't bad enough, there's always

1. Barack the Barbarian #1

Holy crap. Are you kidding me? If that isn't bad enough, how about this interior panel:

Ummm... who writes this stuff?

Oh, Larry Hama.

For those who aren't aware, Larry Hama is a very well-known and highly respected writer in the comics industry. In fact, he was just selected to receive the first ever Henry Y. Kiyama award, which will recognize "the contributions of Asians and Asian Americans to US comic book culture."

Nice to see that Larry is also contributing to the depiction of African Americans.

Honorable mention: Jungle Girl Season 2 #4, risque cover

I thought it was actually kind of sweet of the guys at Dynamite to provide Jungle Girl with that lovely CENSORED strip to cover her bare ass. How thoughtful.