Robin’s cashing in on the rise of the gay geeks. A full rebrand is perfectly fine for the gay sidekick.

[By Dan Piraro]

If you haven’t seen them already, artist Michael Lee has been getting some attention for his redesigns of iconic female superheroes. The focus of these new designs is on retaining the iconic nature of the costumes while making them practical – and modest (a sort of opposite tactic to The Hawkeye Initiative). The full set is up on DC Women Kicking Ass, along with some pithy aesthetic commentary, or check out Lee’s blog here.

Here is Lee’s explanation for the redesigns.

The best thing about this series is that it really shows the way that these costumes can still be iconic without being hideously impractical and revealing (see the reboot of Captain Marvel – link in the DC Women Kicking Ass post). A couple of them miss the aesthetic mark a little, but there are some excellent ideas in there which still remain totally faithful to the original design elements. It’s really made me want to have a go at redesigning some iconic characters!

What do you think about the new designs? Whose costume would you redesign if you could?

[Image credit via DCWomenKickingAss]

I recently found this on my Tumblr:

At first my reaction was the same. How could a company with such a huge following (especially from gay geeks – I mean muscley men in spandex? This girl ain’t clueless) hire a guy so blatant in his vocalisations against homosexuality? My gut reaction was for DC to fire him. But then I had another thought. Should your personal beliefs be questioned at the work place?

What you do in your own time should not influence your job. That is the party line for employees and their employers. I can go drinking the night before and have a one night stand but in the morning I will have to go to my hypothetical job and perform as normal. My hypothetical super-conservative boss cannot complain about how I live my life outside the hypothetical job. She certainly cannot fire me for having a different lifestyle to her and doing things she does not approve of. Unless of course, I have been seen doing illegal activities/in possession of something illegal, but she will still need proof!

This seems so clear when one puts it like that.

I think that the problem comes in two folds. One: is people who discriminate and the law and Two: is that a company’s employees are seen as representatives.

Gay men or women cannot be fired/not hired based on their sexuality and their beliefs. That is extremely clear. However, as long as Orson Scott Card does not discriminate against another coworker or use his position in the company to spread his personal beliefs he isn’t doing anything illegal. In America they are very protective of their freedom of speech laws and unfortunatley, as long as Mr. Card isn’t discriminating in the work place then to fire him would be unfair dismissal. This petition isn’t going to amount to much, because as much as I truly, truly hate to say it, he isn’t doing anything illegal and the law would be in his favour.

The real reason why this is such a huge issue is because DC is a huge company. Many fans believe they are held ‘accountable’ for their employees, as the tumblr post suggests. With something so well known as DC and Superman, it is important what image they send to the world. It is important for its readers and the company itself to stay alive, because they will lose readership and money. The message they are sending is that they are ‘okay’ with Orson Scott Card as a person, and even though they have said that his views are not those of the company, it does put you at unease.

In summary, what Card is doing is certainly wrong but he has done nothing illegal. Petitioning will not get you anywhere. His position in the company is placing DC in a very bad light but it is a lose-lose situation for them: fire him and they will have their asses handed to them in court or keep him and lose readership and money.

That is a very depressing note to end on, but remember that DC have their gay characters and there is nothing ‘token’ about them. Both Eddie and Willo can wax lyrical about Bat Woman (shown right as fan art) and Green Lantern has such a mass following it’d be hard to argue that it is the token gay comic book character. This suggests DC is receptive and progressive, don’t let one man get you down! Or just head on over to Marvel

{Image Source: The Doodlewall}

You know when you have superhero first world problems when you get to complain about this:

I love Spidey’s reaction to this.

It reminds me so much of Archer in tragical history (season 2 episode 6).

Archer: Take the suits to my tailor and the shoes to my shoemaker.
Cyril: You have a shoemaker?
Archer: Do you not?

Someone quick get me a pair of these socks.

I thought I was over my socks phase and I’m trying to be super stylish (meaning no crazy socks)… but, you know, winter is coming… and it gets cold in Melbourne… it doesn’t have to be worn outside… I can release my inner Wonder Woman at home, no biggie!

Gah, it must be bought! Sometimes I wonder if our merchandise category should be renamed ‘Just take my money’, seriously that’s all what I feel like when I do these sorts of posts.

I’m thinking Wonder Woman or the Captain America ones with wings. What do you think? For more styles check out SuperHeroStuff. Browse through and tell me your favourites.

{Source: Superherostuff.com}