The more this sits in my mind, the more I’m really not okay with it. Maybe it’s just poor timing that DC’s May solicitations got released the day after Chris Brown played the Grammy Awards, which not only reignited the way most people feel about his “comeback,” but also opened everyone’s eyes at the amount of “I’d let Chris Brown beat me up” support he received. Either way, I have to wonder how many editors this went past and none of them thought, “hey, maybe we shouldn’t have a female character on the cover of a Superman book wearing a shirt that says ‘HURT ME’”…? True, her name is The Masochist (no, really, it is), but come on.
DC already faced a huge shitstorm at the start of “The New 52” last year because of what seemed like a lack of female creators, and for bringing back what looked like the ’90s sense of T&A books. Dan DiDio only seemed to fuel the fires even more at Comic-Con by saying, “who should we have hired?” after being pressured during the audience Q&A about female creators, titles and characters. Along with Jim Lee, DiDio even released a statement shortly after Comic-Con that “we hear you and take your concerns very seriously.”
It’s true that more female creators were working on titles that had yet to come out (and still haven’t come out), and it seemed as of DC was trying to build a bridge with female readers, but then their Nielsen survey came out and that bridge soon became a Comics Bridge to Nowhere when it became clear that DC was only really targeting the 18-34 male demographic and not even attempting to bring in female readers.
Which brings me back to the image above. If DC Comics is targeting the coveted 18-34 male demographic, they need to show responsibility and know that the above image is not okay. Maybe it makes more sense in the context of the story, but I’m not going to be finding out because I will not be buying and supporting this issue and title.
Wait so in a universe where they are constantly fighting against anything and everything, There cant be fights against girls?
Didn’t say or suggest that. I take issue with them featuring a female wearing the words “HURT ME” across her body, and on a book where they are purposefully targeting a male readership.
