Broken Frontier

After thinking about the DC comics I purchased on my iPad last week, it came to my attention that the books downloaded were Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, and Red Hood and the Outlaws. While watching them download, I noticed each book had at least one female character prominently displayed.

Maybe it caught my eye because they all came out last week, but it made me think if there ever was another time I was not only buying and reading, but also really enjoying so many books that featured female characters. I couldn't think of one... and it wasn't from lack of trying.

I wondered why I could never tell people of a signature Wonder Woman story before, or why no one ever asked me about one. It occurred to me that maybe I was symptomatic of a group of readers that never found the stories of female heroes worthy of following. It's not that I have problems with female superheroes, far from it, but their books never interested me all that much. Thanks to The New 52, I don't have that problem anymore.

When people ask me what books I'm enjoying most out of the reboot, Catwoman is the first book I name. Really, I was the only one on staff here to vote for the book in the Best Debut Book and Best Ongoing Series categories for our 2011 BF Awards.  I think very highly of the title, and the other 3 comics I bought aren't far behind.

I'll spare you my thoughts on how Selina, Diana, Starfire etc. are portrayed -- there's about five articles' worth of material to explore (Why are all of these books written by men? Is the hypersexualized content of some issues an... er, issue? And why are people having their young kids read books intended for a more mature audience for social experiments?) -- for now, let's leave it at the fact that The New 52 has been a success for turning me on to something I wasn't exactly keen on before.