Another revival

The last time I'd tried writing some entries on this blog was at least 6 years ago, and since then, there have been ceertain occurances in the comics world that are significant to note. For example, Dan DiDio was fired as DC's publisher by its owner, Time Warner, and Joe Quesada left any managing role he had with Marvel a few years ago too. Though that alone obviously and regrettably hasn't led to an improved mainstream scenario, it's good they're gone from the jobs they had, because they were a very bad influence in their own way, and "wokeness" had its early effects and influences under their tenureship as well.

For now, let me say there are at least a few more items I have in store that could come in handy for posting even now, in 2025, including a post about one specific scriptwriter of comics and films who's turned out to be an embarrassment to the entertainment industry as a whole. I'll try to write up the latest entries I've thought of as best as possible, if only because I feel they could come in useful here too for consideration.

For now, it's great to revive the use of this particular blog for at least a few more entries, and make a few more points about what went wrong with comicdom when it comes to fictional characters and how they're approached by real life figures. I'll also try to update some of the topics in time, by linking between them, for example, and that too could come in useful.

Another conclusion

It's been a few years since I decided to resume using this blog again, though on a less frequent basis than I had originally, and I think the time has come to call it a day again.

I should note that, as of this writing, Dan DiDio has struck again over at DC (along with figurehead EIC Bob Harras), with another reprehensible miniseries called Heroes in Crisis, where the victim this time was Wally West, turned into an "accidental" murderer of a number of other characters, all for the sake of more drawn out storylines and publicity stunts. And even under current Marvel EIC C.B. Cebulski (and lest we forget, Joe Quesada's still in charge), similar stunts have continued, with the replacement of Valkyrie by Jane Foster one of the most recent examples. And judging from sales receipts, it looks like these PC stunts have finally taken their toll, with pamphlet and trade sales plunging, and stores even closing down.

It's all the fault of these higher echelons who've gone out of their way to spite their fanbases, and for all we know, both of the Big Two may eventually be closing their publishing doors, unless they're licensed out to 3rd parties who could have a better idea how to write stories, and stand continuity erect again while jettisoning the worst stories of the past 20 years or so. Better yet would be if the Big Two were sold off to smaller businesses minus the merchandising rights for films, toys and games, which, IMO, can remain with Disney and Time Warner.

For now, you could reasonably wonder if it's for the best if the Big Two close down. And maybe that'd be a good thing, since it would prevent further pointless abuse of their properties.

Some of the sexism that was prevalent in the 2000s storytelling may have stopped, but there's still more going in other ways, including how uglified the artwork's become in mainstream superhero comics, especially at Marvel during Axel Alonso's tenure as EIC. Carol Danvers was a particularly notable victim of this when she was shoved into the role of Captain Marvel. With that kind of approach, flaccid storytelling and even Mary Sue-ish writing, it's no shock the several different volumes of that solo book would collapse so badly.

And that's why, let me be clear, if the Big Two finally collapse, it'll probably be for the best. The way they're being run now is an utter disaster, and it would actually help if they ceased production of new stories. The people in charge not only refuse to take responsibility, resign and allow somebody not part of nepotism to take over their position, they even openly signal their contempt for core audiences. That's no way to run a business, period. So again, if the Big Two are on the way out, there's no need to feel too sorry about it.

And with that, I once again conclude the use of this blog.

Special notes: letters I wrote to newspaper editors

I've only done it a few times to date (and I've certainly only got a handful available so far), but I've written some letters to editors of a few papers and a magazine or two to complain about articles I found offensive and misleading (and I'd already presented some of those propaganda pieces here), and I decided this could be the perfect time to post them here for everyone to see and ponder. I don't know if any of these letters were published, and that's one of the reasons I thought this could be the best time to offer a look. I'm going to start with a letter I wrote to a conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard, complaining about one of Jonathan V. Last's stealth promotions of Identity Crisis, this one published in 2013:

Dear editors,

Almost every time Jonathan Last brings up a subject like the history of Batman, or any other DC Comics stories for that matter, he seems to have a bizarre obsession with bringing up a very repellent miniseries called Identity Crisis, as seen in his July 24 article ("How to make nerds Rejoice"). And whenever he does, it destroys whatever point he's trying to make. Not everyone may be aware of this, but back in 2004, Identity Crisis was notorious in comics-related circles for bearing a misogynist slant that trivialized rape and had an almost resolutely male chauvinist viewpoint. The most disturbing thing besides the dehumanizing take on women in the book, however, was that the story structure concealed a metaphor for blame-America propaganda of the kind seen following 9-11.

Given how crudely structured Identity Crisis was, almost like a bad fanfiction tale, it's hard to understand why Last has long chosen to embrace the miniseries, even as he's claimed he detests anti-American conspiracy theories (additionally puzzling: I've never seen him actually describing the story in-depth either), and why he's sided with some of the same left-wing journalists who also supported the comic. Speaking as a right-wing "nerd", I've found Last an embarrassment to my belief system. He might want to consider that sooner or later, there are leftists out there who'll exploit his support of the miniseries for claiming there's a right-wing "war on women" the same way Obama waged propaganda on Mitt Romney in the last election.

Avi Green Jerusalem, Israel [July 24, 2013]

Let this serve as an example of how I am capable of taking on a faux-conservative who did his fellow brethren a disfavor. I have no idea if the editors ever published this letter, which I emailed them the very day the original article was posted on their website, but here's what's interesting: after this, Last did not seem to have anything to say in mainstream papers and magazines for at least a year. I only found one article he'd written about comic books - in late 2014 - and it was pretty generic, about his time collecting pamphlets. He certainly didn't seem to mention Identity Crisis again to date. It's my assumption the letter had some effect, and could've embarrassed him with the senior editorial staff at the Weekly Standard, so after several articles where he blatantly tried to recommend the miniseries in stealth format, he finally wised up and quit the dishonesty. So, who knows? Maybe my letter did have some effect.

Now, here's a few more written a least a year and a half later, to a handful of papers syndicating the columns of Andrew A. Smith (Nashua Telegraph, Sacramento Bee, Indiana Gazette, in example), where I brought up some of his own propaganda tactics:

Dear editors,

In the "Captain Comics" column published on December 28, 2014, Andrew Smith uncritically quotes Mike Madrid, author of Vixen, Vamps & Vipers: Lost Villainesses of the Golden Age of Comics, talking about how women in the 1940s could only find autonomy by "becoming evil". I see this as an insulting and downright exaggerated claim, since, while there was still sexism in society at the time, Madrid and Smith's claim does not hold up well in real life logic: if they turned to crime, it'd only figure that sooner or later, they'd be arrested, tried and jailed for criminal activity. What’s so “compelling” about that?

It’s also worth nothing that, while women’s status at the time still wasn’t all that great, there was some progress being made for what roles they could find, including jobs as aviators during WW2, and jobs as actresses, singers and fashion store owners were also pretty prominent.

I also find Mr. Smith's claim "at some level, you have to admire them" (the villainesses) insulting. I do not consider it admirable at all that a woman would turn to crime any more than a man; definitely not if it's a violent form of it. And I don’t like the near whimsical tone Mr. Smith is writing in either.

Avi Green Jerusalem, Israel [January 12, 2015]

Violent crime, whether committed by a man or a woman, is not an admirable act, and to suggest nothing is wrong with women committing crimes to gain "freedom" overlooks logic by galaxies. When crimes are committed, it only figures the culprits could end up in jail and become fugitives. These are but examples of the letters I've tried writing to date. To be sure, they may not be perfect, but what really counts is how sincere and dedicated I can be. I'll try to add more as times goes by, and write still more whenever I'm reading a mainstream paper.

Another try

How long has it been since I last posted anything on this particular blog of mine? About 6 years, I guess. Which is long enough.

Within that time, there have been things happening, and little or none of it was for the better. Like DC and Marvel alike rebooting their universes, pandering to advocates of "diversity" by changing the racial makeup of their cast members - and even their sexual orientation - instead of creating new characters. They've even been pandering to extreme left politics and advocates of censorship (know today as "social justice warriors", for example), all at the expense of everything that ever made the older material work well. And all under the protection of a press that's been backing them to the fullest, without any consideration whether the steps they're taking are making things worse.

As a result, I've been thinking lately that maybe I should try to add a few more entries to this blog, since there are a few more examples, probably even coming from smaller publishers, that will come in as vital information to get an idea what's going wrong with today's comics medium. I'd posted entries for various female characters, and also men, since both sexes have been victims of the political correctness in many ways, and I'll try to add some more. It'll probably take time, since I am busy with other matters and can't always find the time today to write about exactly what I'd want to.

For now, let this be a message that I'm still around to work on this little experiment of mine, and I'm going to keep trying to do more for it. Have a good February 2016.

Conclusion again

It's time again to give it a rest
Well, I guess in my second effort to prove more items that I think could come in helpful, I've done what I could.

It's a shame that, just when I thought there might be light at the end of the tunnel, I and others of my standing were proven wrong. Both DC and Marvel have just kept going with their deaths for the sake of both that and publicity stunts, among other actions that simply register as tasteless. No valid or convincing human drama, no nothing, just more violence, deaths, and other vulgar acts for the sake of desperate publicity is what they're doing.

Worst part is how Geoff Johns and Joe Quesada were promoted to "chief creative officers" for their companies, and neither are any good, as time has told.

Sooner or later, Marvel and DC are going to find that their incompetence and lack of communication with the wider audience will lead to the shutdown of their book publishing divisions, and a large trail of destruction will be left behind.

Is there a way to save these great works of serial fiction? IMO, the best way to do that would be for someone with the money and an interest in the book publishing world to buy the comic book publishing arms of DC and Marvel, meaning that they'd be seperate from the toy and movie divisions (if Atari could split into 2 companies, as they did for nearly a decade, it's possible the same could be done with DC and Marvel). They could also shift to a format other than pamphlets with longer lifespans like trade/prestige format, and that could be the way to go. They could also do away with a lot of the junk this past decade has seen coughed up. Then, maybe they could regain the energy they once had.

But for now, that's just a pipe dream. I do hope that maybe someone who cares, loves superhero comics and has the money it takes can do as I suggest one day. Until then, there's no way we can tell what the future will hold for us.

Now, it's time once again to retire this blog, and only hope that one day, luck will turn the good way again for DC and Marvel.

Special notes: cities and unnamed civilians

In some, if not all, of these nasty cases that have taken place since the early 1990s with established characters being killed off and villified, some of those who've suffered the worst next to them include whole cities and even tons of nameless civilians. DC is a serious offender in this, and Marvel has a few cases of their own too. This will be a special list of all cases I can think of where innocent nameless bystanders were also turned into horrific sacrifices.

Bloodlines
Here is one of the first crossovers where quite a few people ended up in a pool of blood. The idea of this reprehensible story was to introduce at least a few new superhero characters (including Anima, Argus, Gunfire and Hitman), most of whom vanished after barely 2 years. A race of aliens who can do things like what Aliens, The Terminator and Predator already featured, comes to earth to suck the spinal fluid out of humans at random, or even devour them altogether, and shed quite a bit of blood in the process. Challenging question: did they truly need to make this a bloodsoaked story in order to introduce these newcomers to the superhero community? Or couldn't they have done so in their own stand-alone stories, even within a miniseries of their own?

When the editors who mandated this can only resort to crossovers as a means of introducing new characters, or even serving as a lead-in to the same, that's what shows a severe lack of creativity, and an inability to create stories that can stand and be marketed on their own. It all culminated in a finale titled Bloodbath, which caps it with a manhole cover.

Coast City
This was certainly one of the most notable, when Mongul destroyed Hal Jordan's hometown, and later on, Hal went insane in despair. So many people may have gone down courtesy of this, and what was the point? Apparently, to destroy almost everything that made the GL Corp's amazing background, which signals that, despite initial work on nostalgic storytelling in the 90s, they were certainly not going in that direction with GL, if they were going to otherwise make Kyle Rayner the only Green Lantern for at least a few years.

Keystone City
When Geoff Johns took over the Flash, there was alarming violence and destruction on a level probably never seen before in the Scarlet Speedster's title, and the aforementioned Blood Will Run atrocity certainly saw quite a few bodies piled up in the morgue. And, even if the rest of his initial run didn't have as many bodies, it still featured more than enough wanton destruction and violence to sink a ship. (Did I mention issue 195, where the Top used a ludicrous eyesight bending power to cause Wally West quite a vomit-inducing headache? And if Wally could get his head knocked up that bad, we can only wonder if everyone else on the dock...)

Slorenia
This was the name of a fictionalized European country featured in the Ultron Unlimited storyline in the Avengers in 1998 that got wiped out by Ultron and an army of other robots he built. I have more respect for Kurt Busiek than I do for Geoff Johns, but this, to be honest, has me feeling depressed and wondering today if it was a good idea to take Ultron that far as a supervillain. After all, it would be one thing if Ultron had slaughtered a small number of people, but a whole country? Unless we look at this as a section of the former USSR, this can be troubling, and even bothersome as to whether it works or not.

Star City
Happened just recently, and was definitely one of the most disgusting and poorly written storylines, with not just Lian Harper biting the bullet, but also close to 100,000 other unnamed souls in Green Arrow's main home burg. James Robinson and company at DC fell back on the same mistake made with Green Lantern in 1994, coughing out a pointless story nobody asked for, and Robinson threw away his credibility as a writer.

This is what the list will comprise for now. In time, I'll see if there's any more input I can add. For now, I will say that DC is definitely the worse offender in terms of over-the-top violence on a global scale, and has been since as early as 1993. Also the most pointless when it comes to their awful violence-laden stunts.

Resumption

I'm going to write at least a few more items
It's been about 2 years since I'd last written on this little experiment of mine. Due to some new sad circumstances, I've decided I'll have to add at least a few more entries.

I'm coming away from the terrible news that Lian Harper - not to mention thousands of citizens of Star City - were turned into the latest of sacrificial lambs at DC in the abominable miniseries called Cry for Justice. And over at Marvel, I'm aware that Janet VanDyne, the Winsome Wasp, has also apparently bitten the bullet a year and a half ago in Secret Invasion.

That's why I decided I should update the blog a bit more, because there are a few more characters who could use an entry here if that's what is needed to combat the continuing problem with the big two turning their heroes and supporting casts into sacrificial lambs in the most sadistic ways possible.

Besides adding a few more profiles and records, as I've called them, I'll also be trying to come up with at least one entry dedicated to fictionalized cities and their unnamed citizenry who are also turned into sacrifices for the sake of it. Because even that's been getting way out of hand.

The problem can't be ignored. That's why I'm going to add more here.

Conclusion

Time to give it a rest
Well, I’ve put in many entries whenever I could, and now, I think is the time to end. As Shakespeare once said, and Stan Lee may have quoted, “all good things must come to an end.”

So many posts did I write here on various ladies, and even a few men, whom I could find at least one thing done to them that could be or was discriminatory, as well as occasionally give mention to some writers and what they did wrong at their end too. It wasn’t that often, but, I did my best to see what info I could find, and even tried to update some of the entries whenever possible according to what developments had taken place of recent.

In the end, I wonder if maybe it hadn’t turned out to be quite what I had intended for this blog to be. Of course there were a few things where I might’ve done something awkward. But, I won’t worry about it too much. And I am happy that I was able to do as much as I did, entering data on as many different protagonists as I could find, and adding a picture too.

And did it come in helpful in dealing with the ghastly problems of discrimination against women in comics? I do hope it did, or can. The road ahead is still long, and as of this writing, there are still only so many problems that haven’t been fixed yet in DC and Marvel’s scriptwriting that still require it. As of this writing, I’m pleased to tell that I discovered that at least two grave errors so far have been fixed: Stephanie Brown has been returned to the living world, and Leslie Thompkins has thus been exonerated of any supposed crime against her too. And if those can be fixed, so can others.

I’ve seen at times people who think that even if a girl in comics has been killed off in the most offensive and tasteless of manners, or even turned into an evil villainess, that it should be left that way, because “dead is dead.” I fully disagree, because it does not solve anything, and does not counteract the bad taste left behind. Especially as these acts become more and more contrived, forced, and revolting as the years go by and anything of this sort continues to pile up. I tend to think of this mindset as “emperor’s new clothes syndrome,” and what if ten or twenty more ladies, major or minor, get killed off in any notable comic? Will they continue to think that even then? If they do, all that will happen then will be that comics get turned into a farce.

There’s been too much death and villification in comics in the past 5 years, most definitely in DC Comics. And because it’s been so close together, coming virtually every year now that someone dies an increasingly pointless death, that’s what makes it all the more unacceptable. And I think it’s time, not just to put a stop to it, but also to reverse any and all deaths that were really pointless and tasteless, and even threw away worthy potential (like, say, when Jade was killed in the Infinite Crisis-based Rann-Thanagar special), because the editors are too lazy to hire writers who can think up more positive ideas of what to do with their stable of protagonists, or, because they’ve got no idea where they’re even going.

And that’s probably why I maintained this blog, to give some mention to as many characters as I could think of who can and do have story potential that not enough are willing to give a chance to.

I’m sure there’s a few more female protagonists I could’ve added as well. Dani Moonstar, for example. But I felt that I had to stop, as it was getting harder to think of what could really be said.

And so, I will now be ceasing updates of this blog, as I feel the time has come to take a rest. I’d like to thank all who paid a visit here for taking a look around, as you may continue to do so with what entries have already been posted here in the 2 years I’ve put this together. I’m quite happy with what I’ve made an effort to write up here, and enjoyed it.

So now, I guess it’s time to say goodbye here, and thanks for visiting The Comic Book Discrimination Dossiers.

Record: The MSM Hall of Shame

“MSM” is an acronym for the Main-Stream Media that can be found as a reference to it in many places across the blogosphere today. Like, say, to the New York Times, Boston Globe, CNN, Washington Post, Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, and other assorted bastions of dishonesty in reporting the news. That dishonesty in news reporting, let me tell you, can and does extend to comic books as well. I’ve seen more than enough dumbed-down, sleazy, sensationalized, double-talking and extremely dishonest newspaper and TV articles on comics over the years, and this, a topic that can be expanded if and whenever I find something worth filing here, is where I’ll be posting some of the worst quotes I can find or that I know of from the loathsome MSM, with boldfaced linings included to emphasize the propaganda. Now, let us take a look at some of the biggest stinkers we have in store here, all courtesy of our real life versions of J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle.

First, there’s this treacly stuff:

A few weeks ago, I recommended DC's "Identity Crisis," a seven-issue miniseries by best-selling novelist Brad Meltzer ("The Zero Game," "The Millionaires"). Meltzer has 6 million books in print, two movies in production and a WB pilot that just finished shooting _ and his "Identity Crisis" has already drawn glowing commentary from The New York Times, New York Post and Spin magazine.

For a change, the Captain agrees with all the hype. "Identity Crisis" No. 1 is now on the stands, and it actually brought tears to my eyes.

As advertised, the miniseries begins with the death of a Justice Leaguer and plays into a larger mystery involving some early recruits of the JLA _ but not big guns like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Instead, the story focuses on "B-list" players like The Atom, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Black Canary and Zatanna. But before we get into that, we have to pay respects to the victim. I'm not easily moved by a comic book, but this death was poignant, chilling and touching. Meltzer captures the characterization of DC's major and minor players flawlessly, while at the same time weaving an intricate tale of intrigue and profound grief. And the art is by Rags Morales ("Hawkman"), whose subtle and richly textured work wrings surprising emotion from chiseled faces and sculpted physiques.

No, I won't tell you who the victim is. Besides, most people _ even many comics fans _ wouldn't recognize the name of this character, who is actually pretty minor as these things are judged. But I will say it's a character who's been around since 1961, one I've always liked and one I'm chagrined to see take a dirt nap.

Which, despite the Revolving Door of Death in comics, I think is pretty permanent. Sure, a lot of characters come back from the dead in fantasy fiction; it's hard to name a superhero who hasn't been dead at least once. But some characters do join the choir invisible and remain there forever _ the population of the planet Krypton, for example, as well as Batman's parents, Spider-Man's Uncle Ben and Captain America's wartime partner, Bucky Barnes. And I'm pretty convinced that this character, in the parlance of comic-book fans, is "Bucky dead."

Which alone is pretty significant, and it's just the beginning. At the end of the first issue some Leaguers meet secretly to chase down the villain they're certain did the deed. And why they're so positive is part of the mystery ... because they keep alluding to something that happened in the League's early days, something unspeakable, something this group has been keeping secret (somehow) from the likes of Batman, Superman and J'onn J'onzz. That something, whatever it is, is the mystery behind the murder _and this ancient fanboy, who was around for the League's early days, can't wait to see the clues come together. - Andrew Smith, June 15, 2004, Scripps Howard News Service

Well, that’s strike one. He seems to think that the media attention alone is unique in and of itself, and his position isn't really clear either. Then, there’s this disgusting dud:

This seven-issue miniseries kicked off with the brutal murder of the wife of a Justice League member, a beloved character that’s been around for more than 40 years -- followed by a flashback revealing that she had once been raped by a supervillain. Add to that the revelation that some Justice Leaguers have used brainwashing in the past to alter the memories and personalities of certain villains. How can I possibly be enjoying this?

Well, possibly because it’s a riveting murder mystery by novelist Brad Meltzer, who’s also the creator of Jack & Bobby on The WB. And because it’s a challenging examination of the moral issues confronting those who fancy themselves heroes. And because it’s a crackling tale wherein the horrific events service the story, instead of being offered up as shock value.

Yeah, I’m still pretty appalled by the death of Sue Dibny, wife of The Elongated Man (seen recently on Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited). And I’m distressed by the near-murder of Jean Loring, ex-wife of The Atom. And I’m flummoxed by the news that some of our heroes haven’t always acted altogether heroically.

But there are only three issues to go, and I still have no idea who the murderer is, or what his ultimate plan is. Or what the ramifications of the League’s dirty tricks will be. Or, for that matter, who will survive until the end. I may shocked, but I’m also fascinated. - Andrew Smith, October 3, 2004, Scripps-Howard News Service

Strike two. Sensationalizing Sue Dibny's death and violation, telling us all that it's "a riveting murder mystery" without even giving any points or details from within the book to strengthen his stance or explain more clearly why he thinks it's a wonderful book, and even implying that the League is actually the one to blame for this mess. Then, there’s this megabomb:

The most controversial series of 2004 was "Identity Crisis," a seven-issue miniseries by mystery novelist Brad Meltzer and artist Rags Morales starring DC's Justice League of America. In the first issue, the pregnant wife of second-tier superhero was murdered in a brutal way. While the murder mystery (one that was truly a challenge) was the "A" plot, the investigation by the superheroes set off a domino effect, revealing that the victim had been raped by a supervillain years ago _ and in retaliation (and self-defense), a small cabal of Leaguers used their superpowers to, effectively, render the villain mentally incompetent. This also had negative repercussions, which were revealed slowly like the layers of an onion.

The whodunnit was wrapped up with "Identity Crisis" No. 7, but the many unresolved red herrings and the ramifications of the League's moral lapse are just beginning to be addressed, and will spread throughout all of DC's books in 2005. Love it or loathe it, "Identity Crisis" was truly an event, a slow-motion car wreck that generated more than 100 pages of comments on my message board alone. - Andrew Smith, December 21, 2004, Scripps-Howard News Service

Three strikes and you’re out. It sounds more as though he's pre-determined his position, and whatever descriptions he does provide here are as superficial as ever.

In March 2005, he followed up with this junk, in dealing with Countdown:

Skip ahead to 2004, to another summer blockbuster called Identity Crisis. This story, by mystery novelist Brad Meltzer, killed off a long-running, semi-beloved, B-level character (the wife of The Elongated Man, for the record), but more importantly, established that the Justice League had a dark secret: Once, when a villain named Dr. Light (seen on Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans) threatened the Leaguers’ families, some of the second-tier members used magic to alter the man’s mind – and made him, essentially, a nincompoop. Worse, Batman caught them – and they used magic on him, too, to make him forget.

Oops. It may be bad form to tug on Superman’s cape, but one guy you really don’t want to keep a secret from is The World’s Greatest Detective. Oh yeah, Batman found out that his “friends” messed with his mind – his mind! – and he ain’t happy about it.

So we come to Countdown. And yes, Batman’s up to something. Something really ugly, it’s hinted darkly.

Yeah, but does Mr. Smith actually say whether that's a good or a bad thing from an artistic viewpoint? Not really. In fact, he doesn't even seem say much in the ways of an actual opinion at all. IMO, that rates as little more than just servicing the industry in pure knee-jerk style.

And Batman caught them? What's that supposed to mean, that he was opposed to their actions, when here, he himself had also approved of mindwipes in the Silver Age?

To make things even more insulting besides the injury, he even has the sheer gall to refer unclearly to Sue as "semi-beloved" and a "B-level character", as though that literally makes TPTB's actions legitimate. Why do I doubt that he's a comics fan? Then, there’s this little sopster:

Death was everywhere in the best comics of 2004

The dead had a very good year in comic books.

[…]

X-Men's Jean Grey died. Again.

A few of Marvel's Avengers died in a scenario that "dissembled" the legendary group.
Spider-Man thought his late girlfriend Gwen Stacey had returned from the grave, only to find a greater mystery involved.

There was death everywhere, the ramifications of which will be played out for months and maybe even years to come.

[…]

2. "The Avengers/ Dissembled Storyline" (Marvel). To shake up the series, Marvel is taking huge risks, alienating some longtime fans in the process. Favorite characters were killed off, and another went criminally insane, making for a fascinating tale of epic and often ugly proportions.

3. "Identity Crisis" (DC). Writer Brad Meltzer spun a murder-mystery nailbiter in which the Justice League had to confess a few of its own sins, proving superheroes can sometimes do the wrong thing for the right reasons. - Terry Morrow, Scripps-Howard News-Service, December 29, 2004

Don't be fooled by that last line, because despite that, the heroes' actions are portrayed in a negative light. As for the article, what's really dreadful is that it worships what you might call the golden calf of death.

From the ultra-establishment shoe-polisher, The Comic Fanatic:

"The killer wasn’t a superhero! In fact, the killer wasn’t even super-powered…just a craftier than usual, “normal” person with close ties to one of the Justice League!"

And it wasn't even challenging a discovery either. (And contrary to what this sugary article says, the "killer" didn't have all that close a tie to the League. What misleading propaganda.) If you've read the file, you'll notice how it doesn't even mention that the culprit was a woman, let alone poor Jean Loring. And you'll also notice just how sensationalistic the whole article is too.

My my, with comics coverage like this, is it any wonder comic books aren't taken seriously?

Then, what's this:

The past also gets a makeover in "Identity Crisis," a riveting seven-part series from DC Comics ending in December.

The series reveals that members of the Justice League of America tampered with the minds and memories of some supervillains in the past to keep loved ones safe.

That discovery leaves other heroes to question whether the end truly justifies the means.

Among those means: performing a sort of magical lobotomy on the villainous Dr. Light after he raped Sue Dibny, the wife of a long- time superhero, Elongated Man.

Sue is murdered by an unknown killer in the first issue; the rape, told mainly off-panel, is revealed in flashbacks.

Comic-book readers are used to villains plotting to take over the world. But rape?

"That is a little bit rougher," acknowledges Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor of DC Comics.

"But we tried to tell that in the most responsible way possible."

The story has generated a great deal of controversy -- and DiDio couldn't be happier.

"The last thing I want to do is ever tell a story that is met with general apathy," he says.

"Identity Crisis" is part of an effort to give more emotional weight to the heroes of the DC Universe, home to Superman, Batman, the Flash and countless others.

"There's always been certain perceptions about DC characters being a little bit softer," DiDio says. "The DC characters have always been very proactive and very heroic and very set in their ways in how they do business, and we wanted to look at them in a different way."

The series will have longterm effects, DiDio promises.

"It's a tonal shift in how our characters act and behave in the DC Universe." - Bill Radford, Colorado Springs Gazette, November 7, 2004

It would seem that the writer was paying lip service to a lie. Tsk tsk tsk. 'Cause by now, just about anyone and everyone is aware of how "responsible" that all turned out to be. Longterm effects though? Sadly, yes, and in the worst ways possible.

A year later, the same writer wrote this following item:

DC's editors approached Meltzer after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. With those attacks giving Americans a new appreciation for firefighters and other everyday heroes, DC wanted a story that explored the risks its heroes faced when they donned masks and capes.

To give the story emotional weight, DC gave Meltzer a list of characters he could target for death.

But Meltzer, a best-selling novelist whose only comicbook work before "Identity Crisis" was a six-issue arc of DC's "Green Arrow," wasn't interested at first.

"I had no desire to kill a character for no good reason, not just shock value or sales," Meltzer says.

But in more talks with editors, an idea clicked.

"I said, 'You know what, I got it. Let me go.' In my head, it all made sense to me."

A few days later, he returned with the pitch for what would become "Identity Crisis" -- a murder-mystery that at its heart is a story of loss and families and heroism.

[...]

To protect their loved ones, DC's greatest heroes had voted to perform "mindwipes" on some villains, erasing key memories. The JLA went a step further with Dr. Light, performing a sort of magical lobotomy on him.

When one of their own, Batman, objected, a mindwipe was performed on him.

[...]

"I wanted to put a human face on both sides of this equation, hero and villain," Meltzer says.

What Meltzer didn't know was that executive editor Dan DiDio would seize the threads from "Identity Crisis" and pull them together in plotting the future of the DC universe.

The mindwipes have been a key element in various titles as relationships between DC's heroes have soured -- most notably the ties between the big three: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Similarly, the newly reinvigorated villains from "Identity Crisis" have proved critical to DC's current direction.

"The beauty here is that Dan saw what he had," Meltzer says. "I thought I made a sweater and he realized he was building a bigger quilt."

Meltzer has the inside scoop on what's ahead for DC's beleaguered heroes -- though he, of course, isn't telling. Geoff Johns, one of his closest friends, is writing the "Infinite Crisis" miniseries.

A longtime comics fan, Meltzer is thrilled to see so many stories spinning out of "Identity Crisis.

"To see this level built on something that we started, there's no greater kind of geek moment than that." - Bill Radford, Colorado Springs Gazette, September 12, 2005

There are a lot of things that remain unclear in the above, or that don't get told, or that are meant as excuses to plead innocence. But most dishonest of all is that, in contrast to the previous column by the same writer, the rape of Sue is not even mentioned in the piece. Incredible how dishonest the people working in comics today have become. Worst of all is that the newspaper that published the column printed it on the very week of the 9-11 memorial, which makes it all the more offensive.

Also, I noticed these reviews on the ultra-knee-jerk Newsarama. Contributor Troy Brownfield, whom I have a low opinion of, once again turned down credibility by saying that Jean Loring has been played repeatedly as a villianess over the years when reviewing the Day of Vengeance miniseries. Pure Wizard-worthy propaganda.

"Things kick off with arrival of the new Eclipso. If you don’t know already (and why shouldn’t you, if you’re interested? The preview pages have been on the DC site for weeks), that would be Jean Loring, ex-wife of the Atom and (IDENTITY CRISIS SPOILER!) killer of Sue Dibny. Frankly, I’m good with this. Regardless of what some people think, Loring has been played as a villain repeatedly in the past, so someone positioning her to receive the black diamond isn’t a crazy idea."

Excuse me? What's that you say, Mr. Brownfield? "Repeatedly"? Let's get some facts straight here, shall we?

The only times Jean Loring was portrayed as "bad" were in such stories as The Atom and Hawkman #45 in 1969 (and was cured of her insanity soon afterwards in Justice League of America #80-81), when she was brainwashed by a sub-atomic race called the Jimberin, who wanted to turn her into their puppet queen, and in Super-Team Family #11 in 1977, where she was brainwashed by another gang of bad aliens.

And if Brownfield in any ways thinks that The Atom #11 from 1964 is anything to back up his propaganda, well then, let's take a look at this synopsis right here, from Darkmark's Comics Indexing Domain:

Synopsis: Ray Palmer, on an ocean voyage, is forced to walk the plank by a woman who appears to be his fiancee, Jean Loring. As the Atom, he discovers that Jean and the rest of the crew and passengers have been replaced and imitated by invaders from another dimension.

So a villainess she was? Oh yeah, right, that's the best one I've heard all day.

What Mr. Brownfield's done here is little more than to trash talk the way Wizard magazine can and does, and to voice such an argument without confirming his facts only sinks it even further. Comics readers old and new deserve much better.

And here's something from Capt. Comics where he goes the wrong route with Scarlet Witch:

"But in a larger sense, "House of M" is the logical culmination of the Scarlet Witch's long, troubled and convoluted history." - Andrew Smith, April 17, 2005, Scripps Howard News Service.

What? Is he justifying Bendis's atrocity? Shameful.

Then, what’s this here:

What a year to be a comics reader.

It was like the two big comics companies, DC (publishers of Superman) and Marvel (publishers of Spider-Man), figured out exactly what fans wanted and gave it to them.

DC proved itself to be the biggest kid on the block with month after month of stories that led into "The Infinite Crisis," a story line so beautifully complex that it will take another year to play out.

The writers, led by Geoff Johns, looked at the human part of the superheroes, the man in Superman, and showed that they are just as susceptible to fear, love, hate, jealousy and every other human emotion. Batman devised a fail-safe anti-superpowers system that backfired, which ultimately led to Wonder Woman murdering a villain to save Superman's life.

By stooping to the level of the bad guys, the heroes caused the one thing to happen that they always feared -- the organizing of the villains into an army. Then the writers did something that many fans yearned for but never thought they would see: They brought back the original Superman. He's the one who started his career in 1938, aged, married Lois Lane and was last seen in 1986 flying off to the other end of the universe, never to be seen again.

Well, he's back, and he's not happy at what's happened while he was away.

Marvel, not to be outdone, changed reality by taking a third-rate character -- the Scarlet Witch -- and making her the shaper of worlds. The world that emerged when she was through is different and certainly more interesting.

The impressive thing about Marvel's project is that the writers, led by former Clevelander Brian Bendis, built on what had gone before. All the clues were there, especially with the Scarlet Witch. How could we not have noticed that her powers seemed to change to be whatever they needed to be?

What might have been sloppy writing two and three decades ago was turned into proof that there was a lot more to her powers than silly hex bolts. "Made you trip," whoopee.

After all, this was a woman who brought the original Human Torch back to life (the second or third time) and likewise Wonder Man, with just an errant thought. She also gave "birth" to two boys from her imagination. Is there anything she can't do?

In fact, would it surprise anyone to learn that the Scarlet Witch was responsible for a lot of the inexplicable things that have gone on in the Marvel Universe?

It's been a long time since things were this good.

Sure, both companies still put out some junk, but that's best left ignored. Look at the great stuff. - Michael Sangiacomo, Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 2006.

As far as I know, Wanda Maximoff's Hex power alters probabilities, not reality. Where does he get off implying otherwise? He even kept on with this a year and a half later:

Marvel Comics underwent not one, but two, such world-changing events in two years. The first occurred when the Scarlet Witch, a character long believed to be a B-level heroine with the unpredictable power to "hex" things, proved to be one of the most powerful people on Earth.

No one ever thought much about how her hex power worked, but it turns out that it affects the world on a fundamental level. She had been using her power subconsciously for years, but recently she went a little bit nuts. - Michael Sangiacomo, Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 2, 2007

Bleah. It only gets worse with this:

At Marvel, a superheroine called the Scarlet Witch went koo-koo last year and pretty much destroyed the Avengers. Not content with that, she used her reality-altering powers earlier this year to transform the world into an alternate one in which mutants were in charge, under supervillain Magneto - the "House of M."� So in recent months, familiar characters like Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have been doing some very unfamiliar things in an unfamiliar world. - Andrew Smith, Scripps-Howard News Service, October 4, 2005

From which this article must've come, I presume. The way he uses that word "koo-koo" is really insulting, as is the way he uses the boolean of "a" instead of "the" when referencing Wanda, as if she were literally some obscure character. The same tactic was also featured in this column too.

Next, there's this dismal take on Infinite Crisis:

Since the death of the Elongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny, in the spring of 2004, DC Comics has put its fans into an emotional and multilayered story crossing over most of its best titles (around 78 comic books, to be more exact), which has led up to the current, universe-shattering developments in this monumental seven-part miniseries. - Joseph Szadkowski, The Washington Times, January 28, 2006

GAH! Somebody please gag me with a spoon! And it only gets worse with this one:

Best-selling thriller author and architect of DC Comics' popular miniseries Identity Crisis, Brad Meltzer, begins the construction of a new era for the Justice League of America.

[...]

Overall, I am not sure how many times readers can deal with the shenanigans of comic-book publishers who feel they need to reinvent a series to boost sales. However, fans should give this new Justice League a chance, if only based on how Mr. Meltzer handled his Identity Crisis. - Joseph Szadkowski, The Washington Times, August 26, 2006

I usually find this newspaper better than some of the others, but "Mr. Zad" is decidedly a rhinestone in a bundle of gems. For by now, those more in touch with reality than Szadkowski is know just how exactly Mr. Meltzer handled his so-called miniseries.

Next up is something from a writer for the Weekly Standard and Philadelphia Inquirer who's lost my respect as a conservative:

Last year Brad Meltzer, the guy who got me back into comic books with his outrageously good Identity Crisis, rebooted DC's Justice League of America series. Like Identity Crisis, it was jaw-droppingly good. The stories were interesting and the characters were written more intelligently than you have any right to expect in a comic book. - Jonathan V. Last, on the Galley Slaves blog, September 17, 2007

I once thought Mr. Last was a great op-ed writer. But then I discovered what his taste in pop culture was like, as this could indicate, and my respect for him plummeted tremendously. What's really bizarre about this is how Last, a man who said once that he found DC's special called 9-11 September 11th 2001: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories to Remember, offensive because of moonbat storytelling angles that were injected into the book, completely fails to recognize that Identity Crisis may have very possibly contained similar left-wing storytelling approaches. But even without the political creepings, that he would legitimize a story with violence and misogyny as horrific as what IC contained is still disgusting enough.

As a conservative myself, I want to make perfectly clear that Mr. Last does not speak for me on the issues surrounding IC and should be absolutely ashamed of himself for his hypocrisy. He has lost my respect for him by upholding the perverted storytelling method employed in IC. And he did no better when he wrote the following in the Weekly Standard during 2013:

(You can see Miller’s brush strokes in what might be my favorite Batman moment. In Brad Meltzer’s series Identity Crisis, Batman attempts to explain his existence, saying, “People think it’s an obsession. A compulsion. As if there were an irresistible impulse to act. It’s never been like that. I chose this life. I know what I’m doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however, isn’t that day. And tomorrow won’t be either.” There are a number of deep truths wrapped in this bit of self-justification, but the overarching conceit, of course, is a lie.) - Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard, July 24, 2013

Almost every time he talked about comics between 2007-13, he'd make at least one reference to IC, which told practically nothing about the story's premise. Nor does he consider how the line he brought up obscures Bruce Wayne's motivations for becoming a masked crimefighter - the murder of his parents at the hands of a criminal. The line he's quoting only makes Batman sound idiotic to boot, as though he really IS obsessed. It reminds me of a time when I discovered Last apologizing for Steven Spielberg's Munich and the moral equivalence it's built on. Truly awful. Besides, isn't it Meltzer who's trying to "explain" Batman's existence?

Then, what's this cliched comment we have here on Mary Marvel:

Mary Marvel couldn't buy face time in the past 10 years, but now that she's turned evil, she's hot. - Michael Sangiacomo, Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 5, 2008

Uh uh. No. she. is. not. And I'm sick of hearing that aggravating notion that only by turning the heroes evil will they be interesting.

Then, we have a case of another sugarcoater who says that Rags Morales:

...rose to the limelight with the groundbreaking mini-series "Identity Crisis" and some of DC's top books such as "Hawkman," "JSA," and "Wonder Woman." - John Hardick, Pennsylvania Express-Times, March 2, 2008

For crying out loud, put a lid on it already! And if articles about history books bear some importance, here's something insulting to the intellect:

Speaking of early comic books, another historian named Mike Madrid has done some yeoman work for all mankind - and all womankind, as well.

Madrid is author of "The Supergirls" and "Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of the Golden Age," so you can guess he knows his beans when it comes to the good girls of comics. With his new book, "Vixens, Vamps & Vipers: Lost Villainesses of the Golden Age of Comics" ($16.95, Exterminating Angel Press), he shows he knows the bad girls, too.

Madrid confines himself to the "Golden Age of Comics," roughly 1938-1951, but even with those restrictions, he finds an assortment of femmes fatale whose variety is really quite amazing. Unlike 1940s good girls - invariably white, well-to-do and demure in their civilian roles - villainesses are free of the gender roles and expectations of genteel society. Once they declare themselves evil, they can be who or what they want to be. They were even free to not be white - several were women of color, otherwise hard to find in the Golden Age.

In fact, Madrid makes a compelling case that the only way a woman could escape a dull life as a devoted wife and homemaker in the 1940s and '50s was to be evil. "By abandoning any connection to society and living as outlaws, these women gain autonomy," Madrid says. "They give up any semblance of a normal life in order to control their own lives. The irony is that they have to steal, cheat and kill in order to have their freedom." - Andrew A. Smith, Bellingham Herald, December 25, 2014

It's not often I read something so stunningly illogical and offensive to the cortex. If they turned to a life of crime, especially murder, then they're not people to admire. As expected, he doesn't even bother to acknowledge the pioneering businesswomen of early times, nor the ladies who served in the Air Force during WW2. He's even done an awful disservice to Black and Asian women, IMO.

And there we have it, everybody. Explanations why I am fed up to the chin with the MSM, and why you should be too. If you’re a newspaper reporter/editor, or even an employee at some internet website who’s going the knee-jerk route and sensationalizing awful nightmares like Identity Crisis and Avengers: Disassembled, bear in mind that you will not escape scrutiny here, and for your insult to the public’s intellect, thou shalt have your disgraceful propaganda engraven here in stone. Some people may be afraid to take issue with you propagandists. I am not, and for your sins, you will face your punishment by my judge’s gavel.

Introduction

Why The Comic Book Discrimination Dossiers?
Well, if this is to be considered satirical, then to put it in the words of a webmaster of another website who wrote me a nasty e-mail when I expressed my anger at an unfair attack he launched against Gail Simone, it’s because “you simply don’t put up a website implicating a trend that isn’t there and claiming there is some sexist plot behind it.” Well in that case, despoiler of the First Amendment, how about a blog instead then?

And that’s what I’d been thinking of doing for some time already, to put together a blog with a purpose similar to that of the website humorist and comics writer Gail Simone launched in 1998, where I could write profilings of various characters, ladies, and even some gents, who’d been misused in bad ways in comic books both past and present. Because maybe, just maybe, it could help in eventually solving the problem.

How often will this blog be updated? Probably not that often, but I most certainly will be doing my best to work out the best possible profilings and explanations (probably IMO, but you get the idea) of what wrongs were/are being done with them.

So now, here goes with the project. For the sake of good storytelling sans gruesome discrimination, let’s hope this can help make a difference.