Watching your youth and childhood fictional favorites make the transition into adulthood can be jarring sometimes. I don’t think I made it all the way to the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because yaaawn… so bored. I didn’t like the Harry Potter epilogue. Or when Shawn-Douglas Brady got ugly in the fall of 2006. Or when the Saddle Club girls took that trip to Thailand.
It’s even worse, though, when you’re dealing with an industry that is hard enough on its characters anyway–particularly the female ones. DC Comics has stepped in it again with its relaunch of its “New 52,” now with, among other sins, all new degrading super-sexy nekkid action.
Fantasy author Michele Lee has written an open letter to DC Comics regarding the new, nakeder, booblier, no-longer-Teen Titan Starfire. But for the real commentary, she let her (super adorable) seven-year-old daughter take the reins. Mini Lee is a fan of the early-2000s Teen Titans cartoon Starfire, and this new one leaves her… underwhelmed.
On why she loves the Starfire of the original Teen Titans cartoon and comic book:
“She’s like me. She’s an alien new to the planet and maybe she doesn’t always say the right thing, or know the right thing to do. But she’s a good friend, and she helps people. She’s strong enough to fight the bad guys, even when they hurt her. Even her sister tried to kill her, but Starfire still fights for the good side. And she helps the other heroes, like Superboy and Robin and Raven.
“She’s smart too. And sometimes she gets mad, but that’s okay because it’s okay to get mad when people are being mean. And she’s pretty.”
Lee and Mini Lee discussed the rebooted Starfire, now an adult and wearing a costume that’s basically Borat’s bathing suit reinterpreted in purple PVC with thigh boots, and then hit on a series of pictures of Starfire at the beach in a minuscule purple bikini–“Well, she’s not fighting anyone. And not talking to anyone really. She’s just almost naked and posing.”
And then the question of role models:
“I want her to be a hero, fighting things and be strong and helping people.”
[Mom asks] “Why’s that?”
“Because she’s what inspires me to be good.”
Obviously, in real life, people change as they grow up, and sometimes they grow up and put on duct-tape leotards and stand around trying to show their boobs and butts at the same time. But sprouting tits and making poor fashion choices doesn’t necessitate an entire character change. If your goal is to reboot storylines and draw lapsed readers back into the fold, a detached, amnesiac, sexbottish reinterpretation of a beloved superheroine isn’t likely to do the job. At that point, you’re only striking out into a market already oversaturated with statuesque aliens wearing duct-tape leotards and showing their boobs and butts at the same time, and much of that target audience has already settled on favorite bedtime reading companions. (If your goal is to make classic characters more accessible to new readers, the new Starfire does seem to have “accessibility” written all over her.)
DC’s response was basically, “Well, that’s what you get for giving a comic book to a seven-year-old.” Missing the point. Teen Titan Starfire? Costuming and sexual proclivities aside, she wasn’t actually all that different from the more nekkid one of yore. The Starfire Mini Lee describes–who had, like, emotional connections and stuff–is, to an extent, the character core of the classic comic character. The problem isn’t dragging Starfire into and out of minimal costumes–it’s dragging her out of any characterization or personality entirely. Listen to the seven-year-old: If you’re a grownup, you can wear what you want. But if you’re a superheroine, you’re expected to fight evil and help people.
(h/t Skepchick)