In this week's adventures climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, more photos are released for the upcoming Man of Steel movie, I discover the Baker Street Babes exist, and provide some romance gateway drugs, including an erotica comic.
But, first, the movies!
While the Justice League movie seems to be spinning wheels, all signs indicate the new Superman film, Man of Steel is going to be good. And by good, I mean a story that also does right by Lois Lane. Because if Lois isn't right, then Superman isn't right. (I'm looking at you, Superman Returns.)
Positive Sign #1. The cover photo features Lois looking heroic in her own right, rather than in a T&A shot like those Black Widow poses for The Avengers.
Positive Sign #2: She's wearing clothes. Like those you'd expect from a reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper. Shocking.
Positive Sign #3: In other promo photos, more Lois and Clark Kent, looking fabulous together. These photos also include Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Ma and Pa Kent, who are looking fine as well. (My first reaction was that Diane Lane was too young to be Clark Kent's mom. But she's 47. My age. Ack. How did I get old enough to be Ma Kent? Well, at least Ma Kent is consistently awesome.)
I want women in superhero movies not to be props, as that's not always the case, so I'm excited about this Lois.
The recent Marvel movies have done a decent job with their women, though there was the unfortunate posing of Widow for The Avengers promotion and that Joss Whedon had to add in Maria Hill to make sure more than one woman had a role in it.
On the DC side, Christopher Nolan's Batman movies have been far more interested in the men, to the point where Rachel is a symbol, not a character. Not to mention that while Thomas Wayne's legacy to his son is emphasized, poor Martha Wayne does nothing but die. Nolan's movies were all about the menz, generally, until Selina Kyle and Talia in Batman:Dark Knight Rises. (I like all these movies, by the way. But they have flaws.)
Why is this so? It's the same reason no one seems to be able to make a Wonder Woman movie and the reason why Scarlett Johansson has said she'd have to wear pasties to get a Black Widow movie made.
We're back to the notion that viewers aren't interested in female-led action movies. (Katniss, you go sit back down. We're going to give Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook instead.) I guess no one told female-led movies are bad risks to the people who have provided over $3 million in less than two days to pay for a movie about amateur detective Veronica Mars. #hollywoodcognitivedissonance
If only Warner Bros. would give over the rights to Wonder Woman to filmmakers who want to run a kickstarter to fund it. Granted, a superhero movie would be far more expensive than a mystery/thriller but that's a campaign I would love to see.
The HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS Find of the Week:
Speaking of women doing traditionally male stuff, like geeking out over Sherlock Holmes, I discovered the Baker Street Babes this week via a New York Times article about the Canon being in the public domain. Much of Holmes fandom over the years have shared Sherlock Holmes' disdainful attitude to women. So it was thrilling to find such an active, fun group of Holmes fans, with a Tumblr, a Twitter, and an awesome podcast.
Journeys end in lover's meetings, as Holmes' paraphrased from Shakespeare. Finding this group was like finding home. And now I'm inspired to go back and re-read my Baring-Gould Annotated Holmes. And, no, the babes are not always looking to hook Holmes up with someone. Not even Mrs. Hudson, who Manly Wade Wellman hooked up in Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds.
However, if you're looking for romance....
Romance Gateway Drugs
Last week, I wrote how it's more difficult to convince geek girls to like romance than it is to convince romance readers to like geeky stuff. I'll close the column this week by providing some recommendations for gateway drugs, er, books, for geeks who want to read good romance.
I mentioned the In Death series by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts last week. But among people who don't read the series, I've noticed some believe that since it is a romance, so it can't be gritty. Not so. This series begins with a prostitute being murdered by one of her clients and gets more intense from there. It's very noir, save the protagonist gets to stay with the person they love. To use a comic example, this series is like Gotham Noir with Police Detective Renee Montoya solving the worst crimes imaginable. And the love interest is a Tony Stark-type who's usually busy buying his way into being master of the universe.
But police procedurals, even ones with romance, are not to everyone's taste. So I asked around for romance gateway drugs in many genres. For contemporary romance, there is no better place to start than Jennifer Crusie and if you're worried that even Jenny Crusie might be too mushy, try her books with Bob Mayer, especially Don't Look Down, which has a running Wonder Woman theme.
Here's a sample of the recommendations I obtained from Crusie's readers:
Courtney Milan and Amanda Quick, who is one of those writers who absolutely forces you to turn the page, for historicals; Jessica Anderson's Nightkeepers, a series which focused on the Mayan prophecy that could end the world, for contemporary thrillers, Linnea Sinclair (who I've gushed about before) and much of Lois McMaster Bujold's books for science fiction, Meljean Brooks for Steampunk and Robin LaFevers' Grave Mercy for Young Adult.
Or you could start with a romance-type comic.
Yes, it's a bit of self-promotion to point you in the direction of the Erotica issue from Greyhaven Comics, as I have a six-page story inside, but this comic was edited by the talented Erica Heflin, and it takes "erotica" seriously, meaning the sex is there to tell the story. My story is "Booty Call," and I suspect my female lead listens to a lot of Pink.
