Sunday, February 10, 2008

Featuring Females

Three reviews. Three comics. Three strong female leads. Three very different comics.

Anita Black: Guilty Pleasures 8
Back on a monthly schedule, it seems. Which more than ever has me asking an important question: Why am I still reading this? It's essentially crap. But it's addicting crap. Half naked male vampires and male vampire lovers running around. Male eye candy! An oddly appealing female lead even if she's incredibly dense at times, or perhaps she doesn't make the best choices. Guilty pleasures is right. I don't even care anymore who's offing the vamps. At least this addiction, unlike chocolate, isn't fattening.

Wildstorm Revelations 3
In this issue of the mini-series to redo the WS universe, Nemesis, Savant, and Backlash, three strong females of the super power persuasion, visit Tranquility, a place I love. Maximum Man fills in some blanks for them while feeding them, but at the end of this chapter, they trio needs more than they can get on their own. They need someone with "connections to spook agencies," so Backlash has to call her father. Here's hoping she doesn't fall into little girl behavior around him and remains the strong, sassy gal I've come to enjoy. This is one fun trio.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 11
More vamps, but from a whole different perspective than Anita Blake's realm. Buffy faces self-doubts and a slayer in love with her, Xander does the prep talk things, and we readers are left feeling things of importance occur in the story. Emotional issues, not just good vs. evil. Buffy, at its best, has always been about female empowerment and what it means to be human, to deal with confusing and conflicting feelings, to grow up, to find your place in the world. Except in Buffy's world there are demons. We have demons, too, but they're also human. I'm really enjoying this return to Buffy-dom.

Three books with female leads. One is a lot of fluff and eye candy. One is superhero fantasy. And the third, with all its demons and "big bads," is the one closest to reality. Go figure.

6 comments:

  1. I don't know about the non-fattening part, Shelly. Have you seen Anita's thighs?

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  2. "Why am I still reading this?"
    Asked …
    "Half naked male vampires and male vampire lovers running around. Male eye candy!"
    … And answered, as they would say on Law & Order

    Chocolate is fattening?

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  3. Touche, Paul. My hips say chocolate is fattening. As for Anita Blake, I hate thinking of myself being so shallow. ;)

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  4. I can't get to the point of eating enough chocolate, at 53 it still makes my face break out if I eat much! And it's sooo gooood!

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  5. I'm 53, and I think chocolate is the main thing keeping me alive. It's the perfect food. ;)

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