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Remember last month when Catwoman was shot at close range in the head in issue #4 of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, and lay in a pool of her own blood and everyone cried and got upset because comic book character die all the time and it is so, so final?

Well there is a preview of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5 at CBR and in it everyone deals with the horrible aftermath of the death of this beloved iconic character.

And then other things happen.

So yeah

SPOILERS.

ONLY CLICK HERE IF YOU MUST KNOW

Seriously.

What happens will stun and flabbergast you. Nothing like it has ever occurred in a comic book before.

38 COMMENTS

  1. Sure. Blame comics but don’t call out all the blowhards who wanted to make a bigger issue out of this than needed. Just another DC smear – but sure, poke fun at comic cliches and not the cliches of raging drama queens.

  2. The very fact that J’onn is on the team should have made this an obvious possibility from the word Go. However, like Mikael says, segements of fandom erupt in a hue and cry at anything that might even slightly disturb their view of thing with stopping to consider that a) Catwoman has her own book, b) Catwoman was just in a hugely successful film last year, c) there’s a shapeshifter on the team, d) it was s cliffhanger, and cliffhangers are often schwerves, and e) it’s a serial medium, so the end of one chapter may not be the end of the story. Hard to take in all that, I know.

  3. The only question now is whether or not we’ll see any John Stewart-style conspiracy theory stories claiming blogger outrage made DC change a death at the last minute.

  4. Eh, I don’t know that so much of the negative reaction had to do with whether or Catwoman were actually getting killed off so much as a) Who really wanted/needed to see several panels of a bloody head wound to a popular character and b) isn’t “Is this character getting killed off?!” is kind of dull and overdone plot point.

  5. I don’t think objecting to a graphic depiction of male perpetrated violence on a female character (even if it’s revealed to be J’onn) is being a “blowhard.” If it is, though, I guess I’ll be the best blowhard I can be.

  6. I don’t think objecting to a graphic depiction of male perpetrated violence on a female character (even if it’s revealed to be J’onn) is being a “blowhard.” If it is, though, I guess I’ll be the best blowhard I can be.

    Either female characters are equal to male characters like you say you want and are thus equally susceptible to violence in a comic book, or they have special privileges and are untouchable so as to avoid accusations of sexism.

    You guys will have to decide how you really want it at some point. One cannot serve both God and Mammon.

  7. Johnny, am I allowed to be annoyed if I was equally annoyed by Blue Beetle getting shot in the head on camera?

  8. Well, if I read JUSTICE LEAGUE or cared about Catwoman as a character, I’d have thought the development was sensational. But I don’t do either thing, so, “Oh.”

    SRS

  9. Why is this on The Beat?
    Isn’t this something you would find out if you bought the comic book?
    Will this be a new feature on The Beat?
    I don’t understand what’s happening to comix news anymore.
    Why buy comic books [or watch movies and TV] if we live in a culture of spoilers?
    Why craft a story?
    Everybody dies and then doesn’t die.
    The End.

  10. I don’t understand what’s happening to comix news anymore.
    Why buy comic books [or watch movies and TV] if we live in a culture of spoilers?
    Why craft a story?

    Well, Marvel and DC routinely treat deaths as B.F.D.s and expect their readers to do the same. Some do; some don’t. If readers generally began treating deaths as mere gimmicks, unless they were handled well, and refused to buy the comics in which they happened, Marvel and DC might collapse. Seriously.

    SRS

  11. Either female characters are equal to male characters like you say you want and are thus equally susceptible to violence in a comic book…

    Except that hasn’t happened yet. The number of women in superhero comics, in this case DC comics, is a very unrealistic minority. So when violence happens to them it is far more amplified than when it happens to a male character. In addition, violence against women is still glorified in the media at large and stigmatised within society to a frightening degree, so you’ll have to forgive women for being sensitive to it in their escapist entertainment.

    So yeah, roll on when they actually are equal to male characters and then sure, they can be equally susceptible to violence. Can’t wait!

  12. Special privleges and untouchability it is then.

    Oh yeah, the special privilege of living in a world where in American alone, a woman is battered every 15 seconds (UN Study On The Status of Women, Year 2000) and where in Superhero comics the men vastly outnumber the women so that violence against the latter is in effect concentrated. How dare several panels focusing on violence against a woman make women readers uncomfortable.

    Come on now.

  13. Actually, in Kosher meals you can serve both God and Mammon. They just can’t be on the same plates!
    I agree with the people who say this is a complete non-item, driven by the local politics of this website. BUUUUUT, folks, this IS a pro-fem website. There are plenty of non-pro-fem websites dealing with comic culture too. Room on the web for every voice. Read here, read at other sites, and take what you want from it. Sometimes a viewpoint divergent from yours will get under your skin, but we can all move on…

  14. “Either female characters are equal to male characters like you say you want and are thus equally susceptible to violence in a comic book, or they have special privileges and are untouchable so as to avoid accusations of sexism.”

    Or DC could make comics that don’t feature gruesome, bloody, on-panel violence against anyone, regardless of gender, on a basically constant basis.

  15. Interesting. Shouldn’t the real outrage be specism (speciesism?) rather than sexism?

    The situation is that a green-skinned (there’s also red-skinned ones, remember) Martian entity who occasionally self-identifies as Earth-male caucasian got shot in the head and lived. I mean there’s been some pretty wild depictions of DC-type Martian sex relative to J’onn, and I’m not sure traditional Earth male/female biology means much to shape shifters anyhow. And then there’s the whole shape shifting issue along with the Martian’s superhuman invulnerability that the presumed violence (“killed by shot to head”) actually didn’t occur (note this is through no action by the perpetrator).

    And somehow, the gut reaction outrage is “violence against women?”

    Where are we actually?

    It’s, “okay, so Catwoman isn’t actually Catwoman, a woman, or even dead… but IF she WERE, then…”

    Aren’t there more direct examples to use than this situation?

    At the very least, there may be some ire to be had towards the fictional villain pulling the trigger. But I also propose that had J’onn been impersonating a JLAing CatMAN, the trigger would’ve been pulled just the same.
    So, I think the worst offense wasn’t (fictionally) a result of sexism as it was expediency and availability (they wpuld have tried to murder anyone in “Catwoman’s” shoes).

    But I digress. I think the ire is not toward the fictional world, but the real one.

    Note, J’onn has already been killed in sensationalistic fashion, the day evil won. Shouldn’t we have a preclearance test on violence against characters like him?

    Those screaming about the sexism here are better off wondering why J’onn’s the constant target.

    Maybe it’s not truly a conspiracy of the old-boy club, but rather a loathing of Martians. Or more racially insidious, green-skinned Martians. Or characters who usher in a new comic industry epoch?

    I mean, the moment we turn this rather typical superhero comic situation into outrage about a woman getting shot in the head, the door’s open to being outraged about, well, a lot of things.

    Silly but True

  16. Fair enough.
    I just don’t see it, or anything involving any comic book death, as news. It’s just more lame hype. Outcry? How sad. Nobody dies in comic books anymore. Even a 9-year old kid who has never read a comic book, knows that.

  17. Nobody dies in comic books anymore. Even a 9-year old kid who has never read a comic book, knows that.

    Well, that brings up a point: the difference between a character in a story, and a symbol/property. A person should be able to write a story in which a superhero blows it–lets a world die through a gross error, gets caught in a sex scandal, just burns out, quits, and decides the rest of the world can take care of themselves. Those stories don’t happen–unless someone is trying to quickly finish off a failed series–because most superheroes aren’t characters. They’re corporate properties, which exist to generate profits; because serial comics readers become hooked on characters and worry about them when there’s no reason to; and because another group of readers sees value in writing about symbols being symbols, because somebody, somewhere, might be inspired by the sight of Superman being heroic and vow to be better. Handling the symbol badly desecrates the symbol.

    If superheroes were only characters in close-ended stories, and could die from their mistakes, or throw away their lives, or, like a mystery-solver, become involved in situations that were interesting because they were unique and suspenseful, superhero comics wouldn’t exist. They exist only because the readers’ emotional responses generally override their judgment.

    SRS

  18. Not that you’re wrong, but I wouldn’t place everything at the feet of corporatism. Rather I think much of what you highlight is simply the result of the collaborative storytelling process.

    All of the examples you cite do happen, and quite frequently, IF you take things in small bites.

    Cosmic Odyssey is such a perfect example, because it’s as if you described John Stewart’s experience in precise detail. If you’d have stopped reading there, you’d be satisfied. But, it’s hardly Mike Mignola’s fault that John’s later found redemption, had to kill another planet, and now that planet’s even back alive. And this same thing happens across characters, series, creators, and publishers.

    I wouldn’t even say it’s DC’s fault either, because at the same time their undoing one of your examples in one corner, they’re redoing them elsewhere.

    I’d say that’s just the nature of the business.

  19. I also think there’s a bit of divine irony at play here. The hands-down epitome that encompasses of all your examples is the one character/story that the entire comics industry can’t seem to be able to tell: Miracleman.

    But, even there it’s not been for lack of will.

  20. While I was not surprised to see that it was J’onn Jon’zz in a Catwoman disguise, I was more greatly surprised to see Signalman there.

    Wow.

    Signalman…

    I am gobsmacked, you hear! Gobsmacked!!

  21. Thing is DC’s track record for crass character kill offs is such that it’s no wonder people took that cliffhanger totally at face value and not even in a “oh no Catwoman is dead!” way but in a “Oh, great this shit again.” way.

  22. Now, now Heidi did EVERYONE really get upset that Catwoman was dead, Heidi? I remember quite a few people including myself calling this a fakeout. I did say that images were just another example of the over the top grim and grittiness of the DCU, however, and I still think that stands.
    @Johnny Memeonic Oh you with your silly “Sexism is OVER”. When female characters hold the same visibility and roles as male characters do in the superhero comics (oh and in the world, coughtexascough, then you can wear THAT t-shit.

  23. After read long the issue yesterday, I’m even more of a mind that the “sexism” outrage is misguided and pointless. Tired and recycled, sure. But no sexism.

    There’s better metaphorical hills for the raving feminist crowd that jumped to claim sexism here to climb — and get your head shot up over — than an invulnerable J’onn J’onzz impersonating Catwoman and acting like a shot in the head to him was anything more than a gnat sneezing on you or I.

    And if you say your ire was in good faith but you were mislead by a story taking a 180 degree turn, do you think any moderation while waiting for a multi-issue serialized storyline may be in order?

    For all those outraged who clai.med sexism was at play, is there ever any “whoops, I was wrong.” I know the answer. I won’t hold my breath waiting for those admissions.

  24. Dean Haspiel said: “I just don’t see it, or anything involving any comic book death, as news. It’s just more lame hype. Outcry? How sad. Nobody dies in comic books anymore. Even a 9-year old kid who has never read a comic book, knows that.”

    Well put. I don’t think it’s possible to recreate the shock and outrage that followed the deaths of Gwen Stacy, Jean Grey and Elektra (hmm, all women). Jean and Elektra returned, and while Gwen may not be back in the comic books — I stopped reading Spider-Man years ago, so I wouldn’t know — she is in the movies.

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