“When the actions of her feudal lord begin to lay the seeds of doubt within her, a samurai with exceptional swordplay and even far greater courage, must make a bold decision that forever changes her fate-along with the history of Japan itself!“
So, speaking of exotification, how far removed form reality must a western creator be to make some sort claim that these covers are reflective of the samurai? Are they not aware that pants were actually a noteable thing for samurai due to their frequent status as cavalry?
Do they not understand the idea of doing a cool fantasy world full of basically East Asian people (in the same way most are full of basically Anglo-Saxons) would be sufficiently novel and exciting without dragging a real world culture that’s already largely misunderstood into it?
Oniba: Swords of the Demon is yet another title that poses a lot of questions… and none of them good.
– wincenworks
@spiraldrawsstuff submitted:
I saw this on twitter and thought it relevant to your blog.
There’s so much in this casting call that we’ve talked about indirectly before:
- Casting so that women are, at most, as big as the smallest men
- The strange belief that fictional characters and actresses cast by executives get to decide the costuming (also here)
- The assumption that sexy men are in a movie means everything is automatically fine and equal (also here)
- The generic female character production line and how it carries on into merchandise and costumes.
And this was a movie where I was kind of kind of excited about because it had Gamora in it!
– wincenworks
It’s one of those cases that disappoints, but doesn’t surprise me. Especially since with the first movie, not unlike with Avengers, they reduced female team member count to one, despite there being more women in the comics.
For all the praise Marvel Cinematic Univese gets, it still has a really hard time letting go of tired tropes and conventions, like the Smurfette Principle and Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty.
And we should be always pointing that out, for as long as it remains the status quo.
~Ozzie
NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite
NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite
I feel that the most critical step to really re-inventing those characters would be to get them away from Dynamite Entertainment.
I enjoy Gail Simone’s re-invention of Red Sonja and understand there’s a balancing act with the branding and appearance. But an ongoing thing with Dynamite Entertainment is that they stockpile old characters to use them in spinoffs, mash-ups, etc.
So far, at Dynamite, we’ve had:
- Steampunk Red Sonja in a skimpy scalemail bikini
- Red Sonja being stripped against her will covers
- Steampunk Red Sonja now with covers by sexy pinup artists
- The Black Tower – which is actually worse than it looks
- Swords of Sorrow – where every female lead was in bikini armor
I mean – these are the most recent spinoffs (one working with Dark Horse):
Furthermore, while these designs might be bold for Dynamite, they’re not really that bold when you step back and look.
Red Sonja is basically back to a sexier version of the outfit she in her very first appearance, Vampirella appeared in a space suit in March (and I remember seeing concept ideas to re-invent her wearing full body gear in the 90s) – and okay, the movie bombed but nobody thinks it’s because of what Lynn Carter wore as Dejah Thoris.
What would really be bold – is actually re-inventing these characters without anchoring them to bad branding and design decision made in 70s (or earlier). Red Sonja has changed far more than her costume has, and not updating her appearance to reflect that hampers the comic.
At the end of the day – the reason these properties got sold to Dynamite Entertainment and the reason this is the second time Red Sonja’s been re-invented since then is because the old branding isn’t speaking to audiences today.
– wincenworks
NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite
NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite
I feel that the most critical step to really re-inventing those characters would be to get them away from Dynamite Entertainment.
I enjoy Gail Simone’s re-invention of Red Sonja and understand there’s a balancing act with the branding and appearance. But an ongoing thing with Dynamite Entertainment is that they stockpile old characters to use them in spinoffs, mash-ups, etc.
So far, at Dynamite, we’ve had:
- Steampunk Red Sonja in a skimpy scalemail bikini
- Red Sonja being stripped against her will covers
- Steampunk Red Sonja now with covers by sexy pinup artists
- The Black Tower – which is actually worse than it looks
- Swords of Sorrow – where every female lead was in bikini armor
I mean – these are the most recent spinoffs (one working with Dark Horse):
Furthermore, while these designs might be bold for Dynamite, they’re not really that bold when you step back and look.
Red Sonja is basically back to a sexier version of the outfit she in her very first appearance, Vampirella appeared in a space suit in March (and I remember seeing concept ideas to re-invent her wearing full body gear in the 90s) – and okay, the movie bombed but nobody thinks it’s because of what Lynn Carter wore as Dejah Thoris.
What would really be bold – is actually re-inventing these characters without anchoring them to bad branding and design decision made in 70s (or earlier). Red Sonja has changed far more than her costume has, and not updating her appearance to reflect that hampers the comic.
At the end of the day – the reason these properties got sold to Dynamite Entertainment and the reason this is the second time Red Sonja’s been re-invented since then is because the old branding isn’t speaking to audiences today.
– wincenworks