The Anarcho-Geek Review

Ms. Marvel

Written by G. Willow Wilson

2014, Marvel

Recommended? Definitely add to your pull list

When it comes to pushing the boundaries of the media representation of socially marginalized groups, DC and Marvel Comics aren’t the first two companies that spring to mind. Recent controversies out of DC have certainly not helped, such as DC’s call for sexualized suicide images of Harley Quinn, or how Batwoman’s creative team quit after DC refused to let Batwoman marry her partner Maggie Sawyer.

These incidents, in addition to years of absurd outfits (I mean really, what’s up with Power Girl’s boob window, or damn near anything Emma Frost has ever worn? Those outfits deny all laws of nature and certainly aren’t made for super-powered fights.) and “Liefeldian” body-proportions that no skeleton could possibly support have resigned many comic fans to the belief that Marvel and DC just can’t, or aren’t willing to, give us heroes from marginalized groups that are written or drawn as well as their white male counterparts.
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Legenderry #1

by Bill Willingham

2103, Dynamite Entertainment

Should I read? Nope

Steampunk is situated in an interesting place for radicals: it can, as the Catastrophone Orchestra put it, offer a “non-Luddite critique of technology,” and sites like Beyond Victoriana use steampunk as a platform to combat racism and orientalism. This, plus its ability to explore colonialism, class, and gender while looking oh-so-very-cool in the process has attracted more than a few radical authors to the genre, from those that are explicitly anarchist like Alan Moore to socialists of various stripes like China Miéville.

The genre has also seen a large recent growth in popularity, its aesthetic making appearances in mainstream television shows like Castle and that terribly embarrassing Bieber Christmas music video. One of the most well known steampunk novels, Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, is currently being adapted for a major motion picture.
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